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Prime. One day delivery is fast. How fast are we talking? We're talking game night. Delivered by tomorrow night fast so we can win fast. Cards fast.
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Puzzles fast.
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Team games at your door. And a day fast. Doesn't matter what the game is. We will dominate fast. We're talking game over. You win fast.
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Fast.
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One day delivery for the win. It's on Prime. Okay, I have to tell you, I was just looking on ebay where I go for all kinds of things I love.
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And there it was, that hologram trading card. One of the rarest, the last one I needed for my set.
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Shiny like the designer handbag of my dreams.
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One of a kind.
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Ebay had it.
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And now everyone's asking, ooh, where'd you.
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Get your windshield wipers?
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Ebay has all the parts that fit my car.
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No more annoying, just beautiful. Millions of finds, each with a story.
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Ebay. Things people love.
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This podcast is sponsored by Royal Kingdom, an amazing mobile game that's super fun, free to play, and has no annoying ads. This time of year there is a lot of travel and family time and Royal Kingdom is the perfect escape because it doesn't need any wifi, making it perfect for planes, trains and just a quiet break in the other room. Royal Kingdom is a story driven match three puzzle with stunning graphics. It's relaxing but has challenging levels. Royal Kingdom is part of an expanding universe filled with high quality animations and memorable characters. I personally love to play a few levels during a timeout in whatever NBA game I'm watching or even while I'm listening to my favorite podcasts. So what are you waiting for? Join the fun and download Royal Kingdom on the App Store or Google Play today. Welcome to the Saturday Slammin Jam here on the Athletic NBA Daily. On today's show, we're going to do the good, the bad, and the what. We're back. We're going to have Jared Weiss on to talk up about the San Antonio spurs, who are a very good team and we're going to do some trivia. But before we get to all that, Al, tell me what happened in the NBA this week.
- [02:07]
C
Well, Andrew, our top story this week was the first trade of the NBA season. After months of listening to NBA fans wonder whether the Hawks would be better off without face of the franchise Trey Young, Atlanta decided they were also kind of wondering the same thing. In a move that involved zero draft assets on either side, the Hawks sent Trae Young to the Washington Wizards for C.J. mcCollum, who was on expiring contract and Corey Kispert now There were reports that the Hawks tried to get the Wizards to include beat writer Josh Robbins in the deal, but Washington refused, telling the Hawks, hands off America's sweetheart. Now. Robbins tweeted after the deal that he would be surprised if Trey plays much, if at all the remainder of the season for the Wizards, the highlight of Trae Young's time in Atlanta was of course the Eastern Conference finals run in 2021, which included the second round series with Philadelphia and Ben Simmons. The Hawks were never able to capitalize on that run, however, never winning more than 43 games in the subsequent seasons. The Hawks are currently 18 and 21, but Sean Sharana reports that the Hawks see this as the first domino, intending to pursue a trade for a large salary player with Anthony Davis as the prime target. As one high level league source told the Athletic Quote, every team in the east believes they're an Anthony Davis away from making the Finals of note. Anthony Davis left the Mavericks Thursday night game against the Jazz in the fourth quarter with a left hand injury While the East does seem quite wide open right now, the Detroit Pistons keep trying to tell us that they're very good. After a stretch where they lost three of four, the Pistons got back on track this week, winning three in a row, including one of their biggest statement wins of the season, a 12190 win over the New York Knicks. This was the first time these two teams had played played each other since that first round series last season and the Pistons were ready. Cade had 29 and 13 assists. Jayden Ivey put up his highest scoring game of the season, scoring 16 off the bench. The Pistons are 289 first in the east and four games up on the Knicks. Now for The Knicks, those 90 points they scored against the Pistons fewest they've had in a regular season game since March 2024 when they lost a game to the Sixers by the score of 79 to 73. That was in March 2024. That is the lowest scoring NBA game in the last decade. Now the loss to the Pistons was also the Knicks fourth straight loss, though they did finally get back on track by beating the Clippers on Wednesday night. And while beating the Clippers would not have been that impressive the last time we did an episode of slam and Jam three weeks later. That's a quality win because the Clippers have started to figure things out. The Clips are seven and two in their last nine, a stretch that included a six game winning streak with quality wins over Detroit, Houston, the Lakers. Kawhi has been on an absolute tear putting up 34, 8 and 4 over that nine game stretch he's shooting 50, 38 94. He's taking over nine threes per game and getting to the line almost nine times per game. 2.6 steals, 1.3 blocks, generally one of the best runs by any player this season and it included the first 50 point game of his career, a 55 point masterpiece against those same Detroit Pistons that held the entire knicks team to 90 points. Now despite this run, the Clips still face an uphill battle due to their early season woes and another injury to Jerick Jones Jr. That's going to keep him out at least six weeks. They are closing in on that final play in spot only two and a half games back of the Grizzlies in 10th. The Clippers recent success isn't just great news for the Clippers, it's also great news for 28 other teams who are hoping the Clippers don't stumb into giving the Thunder a top pick in next year's draft. But honestly Andrew, maybe the Thunder need that top pick. Do they need that? What happened to this team? The last time we did an episode of slam and jam the Thunder had just lost their second game of the season, a two point loss to the spurs in the NBA cup semifinals. Starting with that first loss to the spurs, the Thunder have gone 7 and 6 over their next 13 games after starting 24. 1. They narrowly avoided a three game losing streak this week after going all the way to overtime with the Utah Jazz. The two losses this week included a pretty fun game with the Suns that was won on a Devin Booker three pointer with 0.7 seconds left, but also a 27 point loss to the Charlotte Hornets at home. Even with some blowout wins during the stretch, the Thunders offense has plummeted to 18th overall per clean of the Glass. Their overall record remains A very impressive 317 as of Friday morning, but things are clearly off and there's two marquee matchups coming up against the spurs and Rockets next week. Now if you look across the standings, there's only one team who is eight and two or better in their last 10 and that is the Boston Celtics. Now admittedly hasn't been the toughest schedule as of late, but if you push it back a little further, this team has been on a tear winning 13 of their last 17. Jalen Brown, who had a 50 point game against the Clippers this week. He's been playing so well we're starting to debate whether he's in the MVP conversation or whether he's just been invited to the table as good as Boston has been. The real reason I brought them up was actually to talk about the Denver Nuggets, who beat those Boston Celtics on Thursday night behind a 30 point game from Peyton Watson, who went 6 of 7 from 3 and is suddenly shooting 40% from 3 on 3.2 attempts this season. Now it was assumed that the Nuggets would take a huge fall once Nikola Jokic went down, but so far they're keeping their heads above water going three and two since Jokic went down, including an overtime win against Philly this week where the Nuggets started Payton Watson, Spencer Jones, Bruce Brown, Duron Holmes and Jalen Pickett. While the Nuggets have a lot of games this month, they only face two teams in January that are currently top eight in their respective conference. Finally, a few points of history this week. Anthony Edwards, third youngest player in NBA history to score 10,000 points. Rick Carlisle, only the 11th coach in NBA history to notch 1,000 wins. And right before we started recording. Sham Strani reported that the Grizzlies are entertaining offers for Ja Morant and those were the top stories this week.
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We might be talking about John Morant trades later and I promise you it's not entertaining at all. There's nothing entertaining about it.
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C
The craziest thing about that tweet because obviously I've been seeing a lot of tweets about Trey Young and they all lead off with four time All Star Trey Young. And then I see the tweet about John Moran and it's two time All Star John Moran. It just sounds wrong. He only made the All Star game twice.
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He has that possibly. It is so weird. It is so weird. Let's not talk about, let's not talk about our whats yet, Al. Let's not do that.
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C
We're talking once we we got to talk about our good and bad first on a segment we call Good Bad. What where we share something we like this week. Something we we didn't like this week and then something that just left us confused. Andrew, what is your good this week?
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B
I wanted to talk more about the Celtics. Jaylen Brown has obviously been the talk of the town, but what about Derrick White? Derrick White has been awesome this year. He's he's 10th in total blocks so far this season. Yeah, more than guys like Triple J Clingan. Where more than those guys. He's 26 in steals over the last 15 games. He's been 21 points, five boards, five assists, a steal and nearly two blocks per game and has just kind of glued this entire team together. I wondered, like, there are a lot of changes that happened. It wasn't just Jayson Tatum going down. There are a lot of changes that happen to this Boston team. And some of it's been like, Derek White is as good as advertised. He hasn't shot the ball as well as you would hope, but he's still like, the volume is like, insane. I think he's. During that stretch, he's taken over 10 threes per game, which is awesome just to get the attempts up. It's been his emergence as like a legitimate, like, probably all star candidate. Plus, Namias Keda has been so good with Keita and Derrick White on the court and Jalen Brown off the court, according to Cleaning the glass and it's in limited possessions, but they're a plus 23.4. Like, having a perimeter guy who is super good, having Keita, who's been awesome for them, manning the middle, they've really kind of figured some stuff out. I was so dubious. I did not think they were going to be a good team before the season started. And a lot of it was like, they don't have a big man. Like, they don't have any big man. But he's. Keita has been really good and Derrick White has stepped up because, like, losing Drew Holiday and like, his leadership, like, I don't know, hadn't really mattered all that much to them. Like, they've been really, really good. And a lot of it is like, you have the scoring and the guy at the top, and none of that happens without Jalen Brown. But sincerely, none of this, like, success happens without Derrick White and what. Keda has been in the middle. So those guys deserve just as much credit in my book.
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C
Yeah, Derek White, one of my favorite stat lines of the season, that game where he had seven blocks, just, yeah. Insane.
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And then it was like, it. It tied a record for like the most blocks by a guard.
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C
Wasn't it him, though? Didn't he tie his own record?
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Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
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And the Katie thing is huge because one of the things I was so suspicious of was everyone was referring this to a. As a gap year and it's like, okay, yeah, sure, you're going to get Tatum back, but, like, where you're still not going to have a center. Like, how are you still have to fill this, like, major role on the team. And I'm assuming they'll still try to add another big man to this roster going into next season, but at least knowing that you have Keda, like that's a real rotation piece now whether he ends up being their starting center of the future or just ends up being a big off the bench, like they at least have something there which is more than I thought going into this season.
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B
Yeah and he's only 26 too. Like he's a guy that can continue to get better. It's been pretty impressive.
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C
My good this week is RJ Barrett and it starts with me watching the Raptors Hornets game. Now admittedly I was watching this game because it was the Hornets first game since beating my favorite team by 27 and I was kind of hoping it would turn out oh the Hornets are just good now. It's not a big deal that OKC lost by 27 to them. The Hornets have now lost two in a row to the Raptors and league worst Pacers. Anywho, the way they lost to Toronto was pretty memorable. Manual quickly hit that game winning three pointers, time expired. But it was RJ Barrett that stuck out in this game, specifically in the fourth quarter. He scored 16 of his 28 points in that fourth quarter and it's you know, usual RJ stuff getting downhill, using his strength to beat up whatever Hornet was guarding him hit a three. He also hit a couple floaters which I'm going to come back to now. I've been hearing about how important RJ Barrett has been for this Raptors team. If you haven't heard the stat, The Raptors are 16 and 6 when RJ Barrett plays basically a 60 win pace and they're 7 and 9 when he doesn't play and it's because of his effect on the offense. According to pbpstats.com when RG's on the court the Raptors have a 119.5 offensive rating and for context that'd be around a top five offense if they always played like that. When he's off the court it drops to a 112.3 which would be around the sixth worst offense of the league.
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B
Wow.
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C
On cleaning the glass you can break it down by half court offense and transition offense. When RJ's on the court. The Raptors half court offense is 11 points per 100 possessions better than when he's off and that differential is in the 96th percentile across the entire NBA. So I was looking through his individual stats, I was trying to get a better idea of like what has changed so much about his offensive game because a lot of it looks the same. But the thing that Jumps out is how efficient he has been in that floater range. That area 3 to 10ft away from the basket. It's always been part of his game. He's pretty consistently taken around 25% of his shots in that area. But this season he is wildly more efficient. Here are his shooting percentages in floater range by year over his entire career. 27%, 32%, 31%, 40%, 42%, 39% last season, and then 50% so far this year. And as if by divine intervention, while I was looking all this up last night, I briefly got on Instagram and saw a clip from a post game presser where our guy s asked RJ about his floater game and specifically this move where he drives like he's going to the hoop. He stops, does a half spin, and then shoots a floater. And RJ talked about how this was something he developed in New York when he was working with Knicks assistant coach Johnny Bryant. It was just very wild that all of a sudden it was s talking to me about the one thing I was looking up. You know, RJ's been a really good rim attacker since being in Toronto. It's a big strength of his game. But now with this floater game, it's made his offensive game within the arc so much stronger because he has a real counter, making him that much harder to guard. And when thinking about this team in the preseason, I was so focused on Brandon Ingram, Scotty Barnes, as far as figuring out who would decide the Raptors ceiling. But so far this season, it's clear that RJ Barrett is going to have a massive influence on this team's success. And for that, Andrew, he's my good this week.
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D
He's.
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He's been great.
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He's.
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I. It's interesting the Raptors approach to team building and that they are looking for players that are kind of distressed assets to like some point or maybe they're like not performing as well as you would have hoped and they're just trying to kind of rehabilitate their value to either trade or to build the team. I don't know what they're doing, but RJ and BI have both been like pretty big success stories that I was questioning when they traded for both of them.
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C
Yeah. Yeah. All right, Andrew, flip it on its head. What's your bad this week?
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B
Okay, so this is a good that turns into just a bad. Or maybe I'm just more annoyed than I am. This is like bad feeling annoyed. Denny. Abdia Lee's the league and drives this season, so far this. This season, he has 782 drives and 38 games. For context, for, like, what does that mean? Last year, in 72 games, he had 764 drives. He has already surpassed the number of drives that he had last year in 38 games. And last year, like, Scoot Henderson had more drives than him per game, like, which is just kind of wild. And with that, Denny shoots a lot of free throws. And the discourse around free throws online has just gotten insane. This is not bad for Denny. I think it's actually really good for Denny. I just think all the discourse is the bad thing. I just can't. I just can't wrap my head around, like, how people think about this game. As if, like, basketball is like, some game that can be, like, perfected somehow, and that this is never a part of the game to begin with. This has always been a part of the game. And in fact, it's like elite players that want to, like, get downhill, get to the hoop, get fouled, and it's because teams can't do anything with them. And that has just been the case. I went back all the way to 98, 99 and just look to see, like, how many players are shooting nine or more free throws per game. Since 98 99. And since. Since 98, 99, one player, at least one player has shot nine or more free throws. And as many as seven in a season have shot nine or more free throws per game. There was only four of those seasons where it was just one guy. And then back in 04.05, there were seven players that shot nine or more free throws per game. It was Allen Iverson, Shaq, Kobe, Corey Magetty, Amari Stoudemire, Wade, and Dirk. And I just don't remember. I mean, we were big fans of the NBA back then. Was the free throw stuff a big conversation back then?
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C
It only became a conversation. The 06 finals, like that. That was definitely a big topic.
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B
And that was a. And that. And that's a moment where, like, yes, that should be part of the discourse. Not a part of the daily discourse.
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C
Right.
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Online.
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C
No, but it's because. It's because back then you couldn't watch every game, and you certainly couldn't watch highlights of every game.
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D
And.
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C
And there wasn't anyone out there who had enough time to clip just free throws, like, to just clip the fouls that lead to free throws. It's because people are being. Or watching it more. They're watching more. They're watching more highlights of fouls than they've ever watched in the history of the game. That's just a true fact. NBA fans are watching more fouls than at any other time in the history of this game. So they're being constantly reminded of it every single day. And of course, that's the thing they're talking about, because it's the thing they're being shown nonstop on every social media platform.
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B
And maybe, maybe it's the fault of. Of the people that are complaining about it that have big platforms more than anything. I mean, I cannot tweet anything about Shay without people talking about the free.
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C
Throws that he takes getting on your ass.
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B
I mean, it's, it is just. It is just insane. But, like, I don't think anybody would. Like, was anybody wanting to call Alan Iverson a free throw merchant? The guy shot way more free throws than, than Shay did. Like, the guy. And he's on this list so many times. Shaq is on this list. We're talking about LeBron, Wade.
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C
It was also a slower pace. I mean, people 100% hate so many of the older players. I mean, Iverson's the classic example because his game in the modern NBA would have just been despised.
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B
Yeah.
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C
And meanwhile, for a lot of people, including myself, like, he is why I watch the NBA. That is why I watch.
- [20:25]
B
Totally, totally that. But that's the thing about basketball and the thing that drives me crazy about the discourse over it. It's as if there's something like they're always looking for ways to talk about, like, what's wrong with the game or what's missing. The game is imperfect. It always has been. And like, this is just players that are so much better than everybody else that they're able to make moves and get an advantage to the point where teams don't know what to do with them. So they get fouled. They get fouled and they get more points. It used to be like a sell. It used to be a celebrated thing. More so that you could get to the line 10 times and earn that many more points for your team. Like, that's. We're talking about like superstar level players. Like the. There's a few exceptions on this list of players. I like, listed out every player too. Like Kevin Martin's on this list a couple times. Corey McGetty's on this list a couple of times. Both those guys were on bad teams at the time and just got to shoot as many times as they wanted. But for the most part, it's like T, Mac Iverson, Shaq, Dwight Howard's, on this list a bunch. James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins back when he was in his prime, Russell Westbrook, Embiid, Giannis, Luca, Jimmy. I mean it's just like the best of the best. And Denny has joined this list. Now, is Denny more of a Kevin Martin guy or a Corey McGetty guy or is he going to be like one of the better players in the league? I don't know the answer to that question, but like just the discourse itself, I just feel like needs to die because it is like I feel like every time that I get online I just get a little bit dumber having to read it. Yeah.
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C
I mean it, it's, it's just what I said, like people are going to talk about what they're shown. And if we were all looking at cool dunks and cool plays all the time, like there's this great account on YouTube that I've been watching lately that just posts these five minute videos of just. They call them like nerd plays or something. I, I apologize, I forget the name of the account, but it's great. And if like people watch those clips and listen, listen to the guy explain like why these are so interesting plays. You know, looking at little head fakes that players do to get a guy looking somewhere else. I think it would be a lot more fun to talk about the NBA online. But as it is like, honestly, like half of the highlights that you see now are fouls and breaking them down like it's the zer film.
- [22:47]
B
It, it is, it is the lowest hanging fruit of NBA dorkery. It is like you are, it is, it is driving me absolutely bananas.
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C
And listen this there. The league always is in periods of transition as the game changes, as they change rules. And like I talked about with that thinking basketball video, like the league is clearly in a period of transition where they have allowed offensive players to get a level of power that they maybe haven't had in a really long time. And so I think like it's worth talking about that in a big picture way. But it's when you get down to like individual plays over and over again, that is where it gets exhausting.
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B
Yeah. Even so though, like the years where there are guys that weren't taking that many free throws, it's like dwight Howard and 11:12. Somebody like, man, I just long for the days of 1112 basketball.
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C
You know why?
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B
No.
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C
You know why people didn't care back then? Because he wasn't making them.
- [23:48]
B
Yeah, that's true.
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C
If you don't make your free throws Then it's. Then it's cool. Actually.
- [23:54]
B
Denny, Denny, why don't you try missing your free throws and everybody will be totally fine with it.
- [23:58]
C
Yeah, that would help. Okay, my bad this week. Obviously we haven't recorded in three weeks. A lot of things happen since we last.
- [24:05]
B
Did a lot of things happen. Yeah.
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C
One of them is that the Washington Wizards no longer have the worst point differential in the league. Now that's something because last year's Wizards team had one of the worst point differentials of all time. At minus 12.4. They're still terrible. To be clear, it's like minus 10 or something. But they're not last. Now, they did just trade CJ McCollum. When CJ was on the court, Wizards were around 4 points per 100 possessions better than when he was off. So I don't know how long this is going to last, but for the time being, as of January 9, the Sacramento Kings have the worst point differential in the league at a minus 11.7. To put that into context, when you search through NBA history on stat head, there have only been five teams who finished a season with a worse point differential than the Kings currently have. Last year's Wizards team, the infamous seven win Charlotte Bobcats 97 98, Nuggets, 92, 93 Mavs, and the 7273 Sixers, a team that my dad had season tickets for.
- [25:08]
B
So is that true?
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C
Yeah. Tanking is in my blood. Andrew. Dang for the Kings. This is pretty incredible considering going into the season we were not thinking of them as an obvious tank team like they they put together a roster that most of us hated. But there were still so many names we recognized, it was hard to view their roster construction as a deliberate tank. But now that we've seen how it's played out, did Scott Perry, Jedi Mind trick us into putting together the greatest secret tank in NBA history? This ultimately though, is great news for the Kings because they currently have the third worst record. They're already two and a half games up on the Wizards in the reverse standings. Everyone knows that the Kings didn't make the playoffs for 16 straight seasons. Andrew. How many times during that 16 year stretch did they finish with a bottom three record?
- [25:56]
B
Oh, man.
- [25:57]
C
What would you guess?
- [26:01]
B
Twice.
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C
That's right. Andrew.
- [26:03]
B
Oh, is that right?
- [26:03]
C
Yeah. 2009 and 2010. Now the bad news is they actually dropped in the lottery both of those years, dropping to 4. In 2009 when they took Tyreek Evans, that was when they had the best overall odds. A 25 chance of the number one pick and they dropped all the way to four. And then they dropped a five in 2010 when they took Boogie. But let's ignore that part of the story. Focus on the fact that not only have the Kings positioned themselves for a top pick this season, they have control of all their first round picks through 2030. And I have to say through 2030 because they did send a swap to San Antonio in 2031 if you get a chance. Friend of the pot, Anthony Slater wrote an article for ESPN this week about the Kings and detailed how Vivek nudged his front office to sweeten the deal to the spurs to get DeMar DeRozan, which led to them giving up that swap in 2013. 31 Listen, this is definitely a bad because the Kings feel light years away from playoff contention at this point, but at the very least, they are not the irrelevant, meandering, low 30s win team that so many of us projected in the preseason. And for that, this bad's looking pretty good. Andrew. I'd say they're doing what they should be doing.
- [27:13]
B
This bad's looking pretty good.
- [27:16]
C
All right, Andrew, what is your what this week?
- [27:21]
B
My what is Jamarant? And these reports that there are teams interested in Ja Morant, they're flocking to him. Andrew I, I can only think of one in the Sacramento Kings. If you like, want to like really stretch it. Like another one that I can think of is maybe the Raptors would be willing to trade Emmanuel Quickley for John Morant, who has like an additional year on his deal and they, maybe they would include a Baji who I know they probably like to trade as well. I don't know. I don't, I don't know who would do this. I also wonder like if the Kings weren't interested in Trey Young, why would they be interested in John Morant, who is just kind of not a very good player anymore? Like, can we say that he's shooting 40% from the field this season, 20% from three. He is getting to the free throw line less than he has since basically his rookie year. He, I don't know what he does to elevate a team. He turns the ball over like crazy. 3.6 turnovers per game. I, I don't know what John Rand does well anymore. He hasn't made the All Star team. You mentioned like two time All Star. He hasn't made the all star team since 22, 23. He's been a headache on and off the court. I, I just don't know who would sign up for this. And the biggest problem that you have is that he's got three years left on his contract.
- [29:03]
C
I know. That's why comparing him and Trey Young, like one Trey Young is, outside of this season, has been relatively healthy.
- [29:11]
B
Yeah.
- [29:12]
C
Like, he has several seasons playing more than 70 games recently. He was an all Star last year. Trey Young was.
- [29:21]
B
Yeah.
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C
Last year.
- [29:22]
B
Yeah. Last year. John Morantz never played 70 games, by the way. Not once.
- [29:26]
C
So then why would the return for Jaw. And you're committing a lot to him.
- [29:33]
B
A lot.
- [29:34]
C
Committing three years. I mean, the Trey Young thing, it's like for the Wizards, like, maybe it works out next season and that would be cool if he ends up picking up.
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B
Yeah. Would it surprise anybody if Trae Young was good again?
- [29:44]
C
But even if it doesn't, it's like, well, you can still get out of it at the end of next year.
- [29:48]
B
Yeah.
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C
With this Jaw thing, like, you're committed. You don't just bring in a player making that much money and not completely alter your plans going forward like that. That becomes your new plan going forward.
- [30:01]
B
Yep.
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C
And I just don't understand, especially comparing him to Trey Young, looking at what Trey Young got or what that that trade package was, why is it going to be better for John Morant?
- [30:11]
B
It can't be. That's why I like mentioned like the Emmanuel Quickley contract, which is pretty brutal and he's not been very good for the Raptors this year. But also like Manual Quickly is not bringing a bunch of problems to the Raptors either.
- [30:26]
C
Also, like the. I know that Emmanuel Quickley has struggled. Okay. But like, he has shot 35% from three on seven attempts. And that's not amazing. That's not great or anything, but it is so much better than what you will be getting with John morant.
- [30:43]
B
Better than 20% and also a career 31% from 3. John Morant, by the way.
- [30:48]
C
Yeah. Like, Quickley has never shot. This is quickly. It's his second worst shooting season, but he's never shot below 34.6% from three. Yeah, I, I, I would not do that at all. I wouldn't even think about that as.
- [31:04]
B
And so then you, you and I talked about this on the phone. Is it DeMar DeRozan and Dennis Schroeder for him?
- [31:12]
C
And if the Kings are doing that, I mean, I just said some, like, mildly nice things about the Kings. Like, at least they're in a. Not that, not that bringing in John Morant's going to affect their tanking ability.
- [31:24]
B
Yeah.
- [31:24]
C
Like what?
- [31:25]
A
Why?
- [31:26]
B
Yeah. Why? Yeah, I don't, I don't know why. Because if you got, let's say that you did get lucky in the lottery, like do you really, I mean I would be asking myself the question, do I really want my lottery pick? Unless, what if they got the number one pick? Who is likely to be a point guard? Is that who you want to be? Like bringing Darren Peterson into the NBA, like, hey, come learn from Ja Morant says nobody.
- [31:57]
C
You just have to, you have to imagine such an incredible future based on like no recent evidence with John Rant. Like, you really have to ignore the three seasons of basketball.
- [32:11]
B
Yeah, I was going to say three full years.
- [32:13]
C
If this was coming off the season where he played nine games. Like I get it now. You're talking about just two years ago. He was a back to back all star. He was a top 10 player in the league. Yeah, I would get it in that scenario. But we now are three seasons out from that. I do not understand why. And like you said, the reports are that there are teams interested.
- [32:32]
B
Yeah, I mean, maybe I don't get it. I mean in the 21, 22 season, he was seventh in MVP voting. He won most player. He was an all star. He made the all NBA second team.
- [32:44]
C
He was amazing. I've, I've, I talked about it on Slam Jam before. Like in terms of highlights, like there was a period of time where weekly we were getting an insane jaw highlight. Like things that I've never seen a guard do before. He was incredible. That player has not existed for three years now.
- [33:02]
B
No, I just.
- [33:03]
C
Yeah, I mean, I guess now I'm looking at his, his contract again. So it's, it's through this year and then two additional years. Yeah, so it's not quite as long as I thought. It's 42 and 44, but still, I mean, I'm sure if I went through it, there are teams where nothing's probably going on the next two years in terms of them being super relevant. And so maybe it would make sense.
- [33:29]
B
One has already been marked off the list in the Washington Wizards because I do agree with the fact that like the way that the CVA is now, like you have to spend the money, like you just have to. And so if you're a team like the Wizards that are going to have a ton of cap space, what are you going to do with it? I think it's fine. I think it's fine for them to try it with Trey Young. Totally cool. Who, who else is going to want to use $40 million in cap space, 42 million, basically to try to see if John Morant can help you.
- [34:01]
C
Yeah, I mean, the other team you could have made the case for would be Brooklyn, but then they drafted all these point guards. It just wouldn't make any sense.
- [34:08]
B
No way. I would rather be a dumping ground for bad contracts and draft picks than do this. And again, maybe that's. Maybe that's the scenario is that you have to attach a bunch of draft picks to him to trade him, and then maybe, yeah, teams may actually line up for that.
- [34:26]
C
Okay, what about. To be clear, I don't. I wouldn't do this any team. I'm not interested. But what about the Phoenix Suns?
- [34:36]
B
No.
- [34:36]
C
Why involving a package?
- [34:40]
B
Okay, keep. Okay, I'll let you talk.
- [34:43]
C
We know Ishbia. I mean, when he came in, he just wanted to get stars in as quick as possible.
- [34:48]
B
Yeah.
- [34:49]
C
They are now in this position where, like, things are going pretty well. Better than expected. They could trade someone who hasn't helped them in Jalen Green and, you know, matching contract and bring in John Morant as, like, a star name. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but could you imagine them talking themselves into it?
- [35:11]
B
Yeah, I mean, maybe. I don't know. I mean, how much? I mean, Jalen Green wouldn't get it done on his own, so it's like. No, then you'd have to. I don't know. I know. I would not do that. I would not do that. There's just no way. I mean, Jalen Green has a player option for 36 million and this. They basically have the same length of contract. Jalen Greens is. Less money. He's got. I mean, Jalen Green's got more potential right now than. Than jaw, and I'm not a Jalen Green guy, but I'd. I'd rather try to figure it out with Jalen Green as a guy can play more off ball and can shoot the ball to a career 34%. That's not great. Still better than what John Morant is.
- [36:01]
C
Okay, what about the Milwaukee Bucks?
- [36:06]
B
I mean, is. Is there a worse point guard for Giannis?
- [36:14]
C
Not only that, but, like, outside of Giannis, is all of their other talent tied up in guards currently? Okay, yeah, sure.
- [36:22]
B
But yeah, how do you match salary even?
- [36:25]
C
It would be. It'd be like Kuzma and Porce. How close does that get you?
- [36:29]
B
Dude, I'm telling you.
- [36:30]
C
I know. Okay, okay, okay, okay.
- [36:32]
B
I'm sorry.
- [36:33]
C
I'm sorry, Andrew. I'm sorry.
- [36:34]
B
Those two.
- [36:35]
C
I didn't mean to bring it up.
- [36:35]
B
Are way more helpful on the court than what Jaw is right now.
- [36:39]
C
What about. Okay, I'm just trying again. Wouldn't trade for him. I'm trying.
- [36:43]
B
Yeah, no, I like this because, like, we're trying to imagine actual teams that would be flocking to. To make trade.
- [36:50]
C
Someone's flocking around.
- [36:52]
B
Who is.
- [36:53]
C
Someone is. Who's flocking Miami Heat.
- [36:59]
B
I mean, this would be like the ultimate, like, cocky move by the Miami.
- [37:03]
C
Heat or like, especially because they took the offense that Jaw hated. Like that. That's the part that really you just can't get past. You can't figure out how you would have to change everything.
- [37:16]
B
It would be so funny. It would be so funny. But it would be like the ultimate move of like, okay, like, we trust our culture. We know that Ja has been in a bad spot. We are like, nobody. Nobody gets to decide everything for a team any. You know, in Miami. So, like, we're. Yeah, we'll. We'll bring him in. We'll rehabilitate his value. We'll try again. And then. But then, like, who. Who's the matching salary?
- [37:44]
C
Can you trade Terry Rogier?
- [37:47]
B
I mean, that's the biggest thing included in it. That's the biggest.
- [37:50]
C
This is. I mean, I would have. Not really. I mean, when we were talking earlier, I was like, I just don't think this matters. Like, who cares? Like, this is. Nothing's happening.
- [37:59]
B
Like, who.
- [37:59]
C
Who is going after Job. But then there was that tweet saying that there were multiple teams already contacting and honestly, just trying to come up with a couple teams that could be on that list is fun.
- [38:11]
B
The only. Maybe teams are calling and saying, like, hey, we know you're desperate. How many draft picks are you giving to for us to take on John Morant? Like, maybe those are the flocking teams.
- [38:24]
C
Like, what are you including with John to make this contract?
- [38:28]
B
What else do we get if we trade for him? Because it's. We're not trading for him, but we'll be willing to eat his contract because we have cap space or whatever. Like, but we're going to need you to give us a draft pick or give us Jalen Wells or Cam Spencer or something to sweeten the deal. I don't know. Like, it's. It's. They're in a. They're in a bad spot and John Morant has put them there with his on and off the court antics. It's just not. He's not somebody that you'd want leading. He's not somebody you want leading. Your franchise, certainly. And then can. Can he be in a role in a. As the third guy, which is. It's just hard to imagine him being like, hey, John Morant is the third guy on the Miami Heat now.
- [39:20]
C
Honestly, him staying in Memphis, though, like, that sounds weird to me, too, because it almost reminds me of, like, what if OKC hadn't traded Russia and still try to, like, move into a new era while still having Russ on the team? It's just hard to do when you. When you revolve everything around a player for so many years.
- [39:40]
B
Yeah.
- [39:40]
C
And then try to do something different. I mean, we saw it last year with Memphis when they tried to do their new offense and John didn't like it, and they eventually reverted back a little.
- [39:48]
B
Yeah.
- [39:49]
C
So I don't know.
- [39:51]
B
Yeah.
- [39:51]
C
I'm fascinated, though. I'm fascinated.
- [39:53]
B
What's crazy, though, is that John Rant's 26 years old and we're talking. We're talking about it this way. Like, that's. That's the crazy thing is like. Like, maybe the thing you can talk yourself into is, like, he's still, like, pretty young. He's been young.
- [40:08]
C
Yeah.
- [40:09]
B
Maybe, like, a change of scenery could actually help him, but he should. I don't know.
- [40:13]
C
During his prime.
- [40:15]
B
Yeah. I mean, this is. This would be the. I can't. I can't even imagine. I have to think of, like, past regimes like this. This seems like a move that, like, the Knicks of the early 2000s would have made, you know? Like, I don't. I don't know who's making those moves today.
- [40:31]
C
Andrew. My What? First of all, I remember the YouTube channel. I wanted to give them a shout out. Jordan Dyer, NBA. J.D.
- [40:39]
B
All right, check out his videos. Check out J.D.
- [40:43]
C
My loss or my. What is about OKC's loss to the Hornets? 27 points at home. I'm not sure if anything this season left me more in a state of what? Okay. Than that game. And I get it. Weird games happen in the NBA that happen all the time. There's always a seemingly bad team that surprises a good team on any given night in the NBA. It's a long season. The Sacramento Kings we've been talking about. They. Once upon a time this season, they beat the Nuggets and Wolves in two straight games. Okay, that happened. It happens. But what happened this week in OKC actually doesn't really happen. And let me explain. So let's start by focusing just on okc. When was the last time OKC lost to a team on a 33 win? Pace or worse by 20 plus points. And I chose 33 wins because it's around a 40% winning percentage. Teams that win 33 or fewer games aren't good. They don't make the playoffs. They are definite lottery teams. The last time OKC got blown out by a team like that was February 2022 in a game against the Kings. You have to go all the way back to their last tanking season when they themselves won like 22 games or whatever. But of course they weren't a good team so it's not all that surprising. What about the last time this happened when OKC was actually good? You have to go back to 2017, the very end of Russ's MVP season. They lost by 21 to Phoenix. Personally I was shocked that the Russ PG mellow team never had a loss like this because in my memory all of their losses were that Charlotte game. But the point is that this sort of game, exceedingly rare in OKC's franchise history. Only happening two other times in OKC history when they were actually a playoff caliber team. But it still doesn't totally capture how big of a what this game was because this version of OKC is better than all those previous versions. So let's go league wide this time. I searched through the last 20 years to find examples of a team on a 60 win pace who lost to a team on a 33 win pace or worse by at least 20 points. The last time it happened before this game against Charlotte, April 2022, the Suns lost to a Tanking Thunder team by 21 points. But I checked the box score. Phoenix sat all their guys. It was at the end of the season. So it doesn't really count.
- [42:56]
B
Doesn't count.
- [42:56]
C
The next example was early in that season. That same Suns team lost by 29 to the Blazers. This one like sort of counts, but it doesn't really because it's the third game of the season and that was that Blazers team that went into the season not tanking with Dame. And then Dame ends up getting hurt and they tank the rest of the season. So sort of, but not really you to find one that's like close, you have to go back to November 2016. The Katy warriors lost a game to the Lakers by 20. Listen to the starting lineup for the Lakers. Julius Randle, Nick Young, d' Angelo Russell, Luol Deng and Timothy Mozgov. Never forget that that team beat a fully healthy Katy Warriors.
- [43:41]
B
Wow.
- [43:42]
C
Finally, the only other game that qualifies in the past 20 years, 20 years was a 2-20-2007 Steve Nash Suns game in which Steve Nash didn't even Play. They lost by 24 to a Nick Collison led Supersonics team.
- [43:56]
B
Wow.
- [43:57]
C
My point is that what happened this week in OKC does not happen to great teams. They do not get blown out by bad teams. And by the way, we're talking about four other games, most of which aren't comparable because they happen super late in the season, super early in the season. All of those other four games were road losses. This Hornets win is legitimately one of the most shocking results in recent NBA history, and for that it's deserving of a hearty what?
- [44:25]
B
Yeah, it was very, very much a hearty, hearty what? You know what I say every time that I watch Victor Women Yama say what? And we're gonna talk about him with Jared Weiss right after this Quick break. Prime One day delivery is fast.
- [44:52]
A
How fast we talking?
- [44:53]
D
We're talking tissues and hot tea fast.
- [44:54]
C
Feel better meds fast.
- [44:55]
D
Relief at your door fast so you.
- [44:56]
B
Can so you can actually breathe out.
- [44:58]
C
Of both moods nostrils fast like I just ordered it and it's already here.
- [45:02]
B
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- [45:38]
A
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- [46:32]
C
All right, Andrew, it is time for the Wheel of Fandom, the weekly segment where we spin a wheel. It lands on a team and we become fans of that team for the next week. Three weeks ago, the Wheel landed on the San Antonio spurs, who had a pretty eventful couple of weeks. Over those three weeks, the spurs went 7. 4, which doesn't make this stretch sound as good as it should considering those seven wins included two beatdowns of Oklahoma City, of the Oklahoma City Thunder bringing the season series to3.0, a two point win over the New York Knicks where Julian Champagne scored 36 and a dominant win over the Lakers on Wednesday night. Victor Wembanyama missed another two games this week due to a bone bruise, but returned for their last two on a minutes restriction which prevented him from going back into what became a one point loss to the Grizzlies. Per Cleaning the glass, the 26 and 11 spurs had the 8th ranked offense and 7th ranked defense. Andrew, if the spurs are our favorite team, who is our guest?
- [47:24]
B
It's my dude, Jared Weiss from the Athletic. Jared, welcome back to the show.
- [47:30]
D
This is amazing. I get to see you twice in like a long weekend, essentially. I'm excited for this.
- [47:35]
B
It's amazing.
- [47:35]
D
The spurs are in Oklahoma soon.
- [47:37]
B
I know it's, I want to talk about that first right off the bat here.
- [47:43]
D
Then I'll talk about it if that's what you want.
- [47:45]
B
Listen, these games against the Thunder, they should count as like double or triple wins for the spurs. And with that, like, it kind of vaulted them into this contender conversation where they beat the Thunder. And even they, even after they beat them the first two times was okay, cool this, that's really impressive. But then they beat them again on Christmas where everyone's well rested. The Thunder should have been ready for them. They weren't ready for them. But what stood out to you about those games in particular during this like recent stretch?
- [48:20]
D
Probably that Victor's importance to each of those games, I think, you know, changed a lot whether he was even in the game or not. And it didn't seem like he was the core of the reason why the spurs are winning. It was more like he was kind of the, he was the icing on the cake rather than the sponginess of the cake. Is the cake part of the cake that we're talking about there? And it's, it's a sponge cake in this scenario. Of course, that's why it's a sponge. And so this isn't like a mousse cake. Like let's, let's not be ridiculous here. And so I, I think I'm excited for this upcoming game because we've now seen three iterations of what the spurs can present to the Thunder. And now this is a game where they're going to have like, you know, most of the guys are going to be available in that game. There's just so much tape. Like we don't get to see teams go at each other that are both in like kind of the same state that they were the last time they met each other and have like a ton of tape to go through on it. Like usually teams see each other a bit in the beginning. Then like, you know, the season goes on, things change and then they see a different version of each other. Like this is kind of the same version of each other for the most part, except that the Thunder are just like going through that skid and they're climbing their way out of it. But so this is like, I think this is going to be a very definitive statement here. Like either the spurs just have some sort of voodoo hex over the Thunder or the Thunder are going to turn things around and kind of remind everybody they're the champs and they're going to be a 70 win team and blah, blah, blah. And we'll get to probably a rematch in the conference finals if it gets to that point. And we'll see at that point, like, what's the story.
- [49:56]
C
So those wins over okc, they were so dominant that seeing the spurs then go three and four in their next seven was a little surprising for fans who may have only watched them destroy OKC and look unbeatable. What are some of the weaknesses of this team, especially when they're fully healthy, that have cropped up in some of these losses?
- [50:14]
D
Yeah, well, you know, like they were on top of the world in those games against Oklahoma. Oklahoma went through a rut. They're going to probably win 20 out of 25 at some point or that would be bad for them, right? They're going to win like 24 out of 25 at some point in the near future. Like, they'll be fine. I'm not too worried about them. The spurs, when they're not winning, they have. It started with in that stretch, really bad shooting nights. They had some like sub 30%, three point shooting nights where they just missed everything and they were missing tons of wide open shots. And I remember the players and the analysts were all like, yep, that's what happens after a month on the road essentially. And so huge wins, you just get tired, you let go of the rope. This is inherent to the regular season. This is just what happens. Not a huge deal. Just like I don't think the Thunder going through a rut is that huge of a deal either. Then it started to be how did they deal with Wembanyama not being able to play 33 minutes a night because he's just been dealing with a bunch of little things and they're really, really cautious with his minutes restriction. Then it kind of came to how do they fit Wemby or how does Wemby fit offensively into how they play? Because Wemby, he's so focused on his versatility that he doesn't really kind of like command. They run offense through him that often and he doesn't have a lot of go to signature things, you know, and any Thunder fan will know like there's just segments of the game or SGA is going to go ISO from like the left slot and or get some pick and rolls. If you know down. That's one. One of those two slots he's going to snake his way around. He's going to fall around some guy's arm and get a foul or hit an insane falling shot. Like that's what he does. You know it's coming and you kind of know the moves that he's going to go to. There's just not that level of certainty with Victor and so you don't really know like how does he clearly get 30 points every single night? And like kind of it's part of a star's role is like you got to just have a few stretches of the game where you know exactly how you want to get 10 points and you have a few of those and it kind of piles up and that's how you win in the aggregate. So the spurs are trying to find that like those kind of like here's a reliable thing that one of our best players can do. We can ride that out for a little while.
- [52:24]
B
One of the questions coming into the season was how the backcourt was going to work with Fox, Castle and Harper. What are your early thoughts on how the spurs have used these guys this season and how you think that they'll be gelling?
- [52:37]
D
I didn't think they would gel as well as they did early on just because they. Their ball movement was so good. After the first few weeks of the season once Victor went out that it kind of answered a lot of the questions cause their ball movement was pretty mediocre and their spacing was pretty mediocre before that and it looked like a problem. One thing that they've done is ever since Victor came back from his longer injury when he had that calf injury is they have continued to play up tempo and they haven't bogged down to slamming him into the low post and having him just like, you know, immediately when they get down to into the half court, he runs into the middle of the lane and he just keeps hammering home trying to get a catch. They were doing that a ton early on and they were doing okay with it, but it was really disrupting their offensive flow. And they became a good offense because they focus on the flow rather than the, you know, getting him in the middle. And so the consequence has been that it's harder for him to make an imprint on the game, but it's allowed all their other players to do it. And that's given room to Fox and Castle, who they kind of take turns being really good every night, but one of them tends to be really good every single night. And, you know, Castle's been getting like seven assists a game or so. He's been really good. Fox has been, like, very streaky with his, his shooting, and he's had a few really bad games where he just like, can't hit any shots. But most of the time he's been kind of the engine for them offensively. And also his, his game winner selection has not been very good this year. Like, it's the first one that he took when he first got healthy, which I think it was against the warriors that he missed. Like, that shot didn't work out. And then he. The other night against. Was it Memphis when they lost in Memphis, Right. He kind of passed up passing the two wide open guys and took a really tough shot from his spot and missed it. And it's like, all right, there's some things they got to work out there, but in generally, those two guys have been pretty good, playing off of each other and taking turns. And then Dylan Harper, he's really kind of made a role for himself by being a defensive pest and being really good in transition. And so he's hit a rut for a while, but that happens with rookies. I think he's going to climb his way out of it. But he was like, really, really good there from that kind of like, November, December stretch.
- [54:41]
C
Speaking of Dylan Harper, he had a really good start to his rookie career. Per Clean the glass, he takes 54% of his shots at the rim, which is the second highest percentage in the league among players at his position. The shooting obviously has a ways to go, but the flash is already crazy. Other than shooting, what would you say are the most obvious areas of development that are needed for him to reach his eventual ceiling?
- [55:03]
D
It's a good Question. I would say just wide open shooting, but also just like his mid range game, like can he establish his mid range game because he's so good at getting to the rim and transition. Like, he's really, really, really good at that. For him to be more of an off half court operator, he has to do what Dear and Fox does so well, which is Dear and Fox is a pretty good pick and roll player and he can, he can just like kind of get to, he'll hit the free throw line, throw shoulder into somebody and pop up for a Turnaround, you know, 15 footer. Like he's really good at that. And Harper's going to need a few of those in his game so he can create buckets for himself when he's not being able to get into the lane, especially, especially in transition. So, you know, his passing has been good, his transition play has been good. He's a pretty good finisher. He just needs to stretch the floor out for himself a little bit more and he's like, he's able to do it. It's not like that's not in his game at all. It's just something he's got to continue to refine. So between that and just like he gets the wide open threes and he, you know, he's not shooting that well. But like, I think eventually he's going to be a passable wide open three shooter and once he can do that, that just kind of opens everything up for everybody.
- [56:08]
B
Jared, your most recent article on the Athletic was about a viral clip of Victor Wembanyama from this past week where he's seen kicking a ball out of the net in pregame warmups. That kick led you down a rabbit hole. Without giving away the full story, can you tell us a little bit about the main character of the story? A man known as the dunk father.
- [56:30]
D
Yeah, this was great. So we, my editor, Mike Prada and I, who he's, he's a phenomenal writer and researcher and editor. He, we were just trying to figure out like, what, what can we make of this? Like, we saw the clip and everyone's like, wow. I'm like, wow. But also I've said that about him a million times. There's got to be something substantive here. And it hit me, I'm like, who in the world can do this? Like, somebody must be able to do this. Like, I remember watching the documentary Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon when I was a kid and I remember them doing it then. So like someone could be, must be able to do this. And, okay, good. It clicks for somebody there. And so I. I was like, all right, this got to be close to our record. Like, if high jumpers are hitting, like, nine feet, like, there's got to be someone kicking in that. In that range. And so, like, the official world record by Guinness is nine foot eight. And there's this guy, the Dunk father, Godorziani, who, you know, was like a famous dunker in France in the late 90s. He went on the best damn sports show with John Sally. And I'm watching this grainy clip on YouTube, and he, like, got his toe to scrape a dusty plank that was at nine foot nine. And so it's like, unofficial. And then, you know, ever since I put out the story, I've had people, like, sending me stories about guys they play pickup with. They used to kick the rim. I'm like, all right. Like, this is like, whatever. That's the unofficial record. And so Victor, I asked him after the game, are you gonna beat this record? He's like, oh, I'm confident I could beat that. Like, and the quote does not convey the nonchalance with which he said. He's like, oh, well, yeah, of course I could beat that. I'm Victor Webanyama. And that was just him, like, doing it for fun because Keldon Johnson was like, do it. I want to see you do it again. And so, like, that wasn't even, like, a serious attempt where, like, you're preparing for this, you're training for whatever, blah, blah, blah. In reality, he could probably kick an eagle out of the sky if he wanted to. And so I reach out to Zianni, and it turns out he helped start the agency that represents Victor now, because Victor's agents, Buna and Die and Jeremy Magiana, they started Compsport, which is the agency that now represents, like, most of the players that have come out of France, but not all of them. They're a very well known agency in Europe. They started Slam Nation, which was the touring dunk contest that the Dunk father was a part of back in 1997. So it all traces back, and it turns out now the Dunk Father, what he has done is he's developed this program called the Seven Postures, which are basically these different postures and calisthenics and stretches that are designed to improve mobility and particularly ankle mobility, feet flexion, all this kind of stuff, like, to really master the body. And it turned out that Wemby and his trainer from France that he brought with him from, like, Metropolitan, where he was Playing all the way to the Spurs. They had been doing this themselves. And I don't think even made the connection that they were literally connected by the same agents and this, like, similar backstory. And so Ziani himself came down to Dallas to work with them before Wemby started his rookie season. And, like, he. He sits down with Wemby and he puts Wemby through all the big tests that he does for, like, he did it with OBJ and, like, other athletes, and it was, like, too easy. And Zianni looks at Wemby. He's like, there's nothing I can teach you. You are an animal like me. And so you can read the rest of the story to see where we go from there. And I went on this whole spiel about how Wemby tells us that we're humanity, still can win the fight against the singularity and AI and all that stuff. And it's a typical Jared Weiss read in that it's absolutely absurd. And I wrote it delirious on an airplane yesterday, but I think it's a fun read.
- [60:05]
C
That must have been so awesome, though, that moment where you realized, like, oh, this rabbit hole is actually worth digging into. Like, there's. There's really, actually something.
- [60:14]
D
There were rabbits in there. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the funny thing is I wanted to do something like, you know, deeper off of the kick. And I was like, like, there's got to be something fun. I can write with this. And so I was sitting courtside at, like, midnight after the spurs game, and I had gotten some funny quotes from Victor and from Keldon Johnson. I'm like, all right, I can make something of this. There's some connection here. And then I got the call from Ziani because he had just woken up in France, and I was like, oh, okay, now we're going to take the story to the next level. Let's see what happens. And he was, like, amazing to talk to. Like, you'll see the quotes in the story there. He talks about how, like, life is pain and existence is reality is a nightmare, I think, is what he said. But at the end of it is lucidity, like, all these amazing quotes. And I'm like, I love talking to people like this because they just. They give life so much spice and zest, and that's what makes them fun.
- [61:07]
C
Well, Jared, thank you for answering all of our spurs related questions, but it is now time to play Andrew versus the Beat, our weekly tribute show. Rand goes head to head against an NBA beat raider this week. Jared Weiss of Us had Antonio SM of the Athletic. Okay, so I've come with eight questions about the Spurs.
- [61:26]
B
We might need to do less than that, Al, because Jared's gotta go, so we might have to do a.
- [61:30]
D
Just hit me. Just hit me. This is my favorite thing in the world. This is every podcast thing is. Just do it. Just do it. I'll be late.
- [61:36]
B
Okay.
- [61:36]
C
All right, well, you know how to play, so just give me A number between 1 and 8.
- [61:40]
D
6.
- [61:41]
C
6. The spurs are eighth in offense per cleaning the glass. The last time they had a top 10 offense was the 1920 season. DeMar DeRozan led the spurs in total points that season. Who was second in total points for the 1920 Spurs?
- [61:59]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [62:01]
D
I was gonna say Kelton Johnson, but I don't think that's right. It was lamarcus Aldridge.
- [62:10]
C
That is correct for two points. Wow.
- [62:13]
D
Wasn't too old. Okay.
- [62:15]
B
All right, Andrew, number one.
- [62:18]
C
Question number one. In terms of points per play, San Antonio is ranked lowest in which of the following Half court offense, transition offense, half court defense, or transition defense.
- [62:34]
B
Half court offense?
- [62:36]
C
Jared, you have a chance to steal.
- [62:38]
D
Can you repeat the question, please?
- [62:40]
C
What are they ranked lowest in? This is on Cleaning the Glass. Half court offense, transition offense. Half court defense.
- [62:47]
D
Transition, transition defense.
- [62:49]
C
Also incorrect. Correct answer is half court defense. They're ranked 11th, which means they are top 10 in all of those other ones.
- [62:55]
B
Wow.
- [62:56]
D
Okay, Jared, number eight's like their offense, I think.
- [63:03]
C
Number eight. Dylan Harper, currently averaging 11 points per game. Let's try to name the last 10 spurs rookies who average double digit points per game. And as a cutoff, they had to play in at least half the games as a rookie. So how this works. Jared will give me an answer, then Andrew will give me an answer. We'll go back and forth till one of you stumbles.
- [63:25]
D
Timothy Duncan.
- [63:26]
C
Timothy Duncan is correct.
- [63:29]
B
Andrew Castle.
- [63:32]
C
Steph Castle. That's correct. Jared.
- [63:35]
D
I'm going to guess Victor probably scored at least 10 points per game.
- [63:38]
C
That's a really good guess. Victor.
- [63:40]
D
When I'm an expert.
- [63:43]
C
All right.
- [63:43]
B
Andrew Kawhi.
- [63:48]
C
Kawhi did not do it. Andrew. That means.
- [63:52]
B
Seriously?
- [63:53]
D
Oh, God. David Robinson.
- [63:57]
C
Oh, you want the other names? Of course.
- [63:59]
D
I was actually about to listen.
- [64:00]
C
Why? Because I was like, wait, how did Quine not do that? The other names probably.
- [64:05]
D
Can I. Can I guess the rest of them?
- [64:06]
C
Yeah, sure. Yeah.
- [64:08]
D
David Robinson.
- [64:09]
C
Yes.
- [64:10]
D
Kelton Johnson. Did he.
- [64:12]
C
No.
- [64:13]
D
No. Okay. No.
- [64:19]
B
So I'm Blair on the list.
- [64:21]
D
Tony Parker. Did he average over 10?
- [64:24]
C
No.
- [64:25]
D
No. Okay, well, then I have no idea. If I wanted to try harder, I think I could.
- [64:31]
C
Sohan.
- [64:32]
D
Wow.
- [64:32]
C
Yeah. Nobody was averaged 7.9.
- [64:35]
B
Wow. That's so weird.
- [64:37]
C
Malachi Branham, Sean Elliott, Willie Anderson, Vernon Maxwell and Greg Anderson.
- [64:43]
B
Yo, that's a weird list.
- [64:45]
D
Wow, that's a really weird list. I would have said Sean, but the.
- [64:48]
C
Rest now commanding lead four to zero. Andrew, four is yours. Oh, two, question number two. Steph Castle has 525 career assists. Who's the only player in his draft class with more career assists?
- [65:05]
B
Oh, my goodness.
- [65:08]
C
Only player in his draft class with more assists.
- [65:15]
B
Wow. This class is. Sucks so bad.
- [65:24]
C
Andrew, don't say that just because you don't know the answer.
- [65:28]
B
That's.
- [65:29]
D
Yeah, say it because it's true.
- [65:31]
B
It is so true. Wow. 500 assists. You say 500 assists that you said he has 525. 525.
- [65:41]
C
Does that make.
- [65:42]
D
Well, it's not Rob Dillingham.
- [65:44]
B
No, it's not. Golly. It's got to be just somebody who's played a lot. I do not feel good about any names that are rolling around.
- [65:55]
D
I think I know the answer. I'm probably wrong, but you're gonna have to come up with something here.
- [65:59]
B
What about Collier?
- [66:01]
C
That's it. Isaiah Collier.
- [66:03]
D
Wow. He got it.
- [66:04]
B
I didn't feel good about it, but he's. At least.
- [66:06]
D
I was actually going to say Keonte George. So close but no cigar. So nice. Nicely done. 5.
- [66:11]
C
Question number 5 of the spurs, top 25 most played 2 man lineups. Only one has a negative net rating. Who is in that 2 man lineup? You get one point per correct answer.
- [66:26]
D
It's got to be like Wemby and Fox.
- [66:30]
C
No, Andrew.
- [66:31]
D
Damn. That would have been funny though. Why would anyone know this? Like, why do people know this? Is this doesn't help me do my job, but like why do people know this?
- [66:41]
B
Why would anyone know this? Say it one more. Say the beginning part one more time.
- [66:45]
C
Duan Blair averaged 7.8 points as a. That was still bothering me because I was like, he was good.
- [66:53]
B
He had a good. Yeah, he had a good couple of years.
- [66:56]
C
Okay, top 25 most played, two man lineups. One has a negative net rating. Who is in that two man lineup? One point per correct answer.
- [67:10]
B
Harrison Barnes.
- [67:12]
C
That is correct. Can you get the other name?
- [67:16]
B
Fox?
- [67:17]
C
No, the other name was Keldon Johnson. That's okay, Andrew. You've cut the lead to one and you have control of the board.
- [67:25]
B
Three.
- [67:26]
C
Question number three. How many times has Victor Wembanyama been blocked in his career. Now you get to choose who answers. You can make Jared answer and then you go higher or lower. Or you can answer and then Jared go higher or lower. Now this is a hard one to kind of think about what a number would be. So if you want as a hint, you can choose any other player in the NBA and I'll tell you how many times they've been blocked in their career. Wow.
- [67:52]
B
Yeah, this.
- [67:59]
C
Would you like to take my offer? Are you just going to guess 70?
- [68:02]
D
You should take the offer. Oh, wow.
- [68:04]
C
Oh, wow. Andrew didn't take the offer. He has gone with 70. Jared, would you like to go higher or lower?
- [68:09]
D
Oh, definitely lower.
- [68:12]
C
Andrew didn't need the hint. He got within 7 of the correct answer. The correct answer was 63, which means Jared gets the point.
- [68:24]
D
I deserve like 0.63 at that point.
- [68:27]
C
That was a great guess, Andrew.
- [68:29]
D
Yeah.
- [68:29]
C
Didn't even take my hint. All right, Jared, you're up.
- [68:31]
D
I would have guessed 11.
- [68:33]
C
You could win the game.
- [68:35]
D
Thrilling.
- [68:36]
C
Steph Castle is currently taking 6.1 free throws per game in the last five seasons. So this starts with the 2022 draft and onwards. There have been only two other second year players to average that many free throw attempts per game. Who are they? And you get one point per correcting since which season?
- [68:55]
D
Again, this.
- [68:57]
C
Since guys who were in the 2022 draft. So it's the last five seasons. Yeah, but in their second year, taking at least 6.1 free throws per game.
- [69:06]
D
Okay, I'm gonna guess Alex Sar.
- [69:11]
C
No.
- [69:12]
D
Then I'm not gonna guess anything.
- [69:14]
C
Andrew.
- [69:24]
B
It's in their second season that they do this.
- [69:26]
C
Yes.
- [69:28]
D
I misunderstood the question.
- [69:29]
C
Oh, well, yeah. What question were you answering?
- [69:32]
D
I thought it had to be people from last year's draft class. That's why.
- [69:35]
B
Oh, okay.
- [69:37]
D
If he doesn't get it, I'll come back around and try to guess again.
- [69:41]
B
Paulo.
- [69:43]
C
Paulo is one. One point. You've moved within one point of Jared. Can you get the other name?
- [69:54]
B
Wait, Jared gets to guess the other name?
- [69:56]
C
No.
- [69:57]
D
Well, no, I lost.
- [69:59]
B
Oh, I thought you said Jared. Can you guess the other name? I'm like, wait, what happened?
- [70:04]
C
I said you're one behind Jared.
- [70:09]
B
Just. Just how it sounded. Sorry. Goodness. I don't. I was gonna say Keonte, but I know that he. I don't. He didn't do it in his second year, so I don't know.
- [70:28]
D
I don't know the answer.
- [70:29]
C
Okay. Jared, did you have a guess? Not that you can get.
- [70:32]
D
Yeah, not anymore. Fun. Paula was my only guess.
- [70:35]
C
It Was Jalen Green?
- [70:37]
B
Oh, wow.
- [70:38]
C
I haven't thought about wow in a while.
- [70:40]
B
Huh?
- [70:40]
D
No, I've not.
- [70:41]
C
Okay, Andrew, this is big. It's five to four. You get the final question. Okay, final question is, which of the following is not a basketball reference, official nickname?
- [70:54]
B
Oh, no.
- [70:55]
C
Spurs Player.
- [70:56]
B
Oh, no.
- [70:57]
C
Okay, ready?
- [70:58]
B
Okay.
- [70:59]
C
La Pantera, Lunch lady, the Destroyer, Earthworm him or Big Body?
- [71:10]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [71:12]
C
Can you read them again?
- [71:15]
B
Yeah, I would.
- [71:18]
C
La Pantera, Lunch lady, the Destroyer, Earthworm Him. Big Body.
- [71:26]
B
Earthworm Him. Who is Earthworm Him?
- [71:32]
D
There's just no way that you made up Earthworm Him. That would be too.
- [71:35]
B
Yes, there is. Yes, there is, Jared. Yes, there is.
- [71:39]
D
If he did make it up, we are officially assigning it to one of the players because that's un. Believable.
- [71:44]
B
Who would that. I just don't know who Earthworm him is. Golly.
- [71:52]
D
I feel like that would be like a Jeremy Sohan just because he kind of reminds me of Dennis Rodman a little bit. Who was the worm?
- [71:57]
B
Yeah, I know. Olenek is the Lunch lady. I'm gonna say Earthworm him is not a nickname because I, I. Okay, please be wrong, Andrew.
- [72:16]
C
That is correct. I made up Earthworm Him. I felt bad because I had one that was more believable. But then I thought of Earthworm Him. I really just want to say Earthworm Him.
- [72:31]
D
So who are we making Earthworm him now?
- [72:33]
C
I don't know. I mean, is it not feeling me?
- [72:37]
B
Who else would that be?
- [72:38]
D
I don't know. I'm gonna go around the line lock room tomorrow asking everybody who wants to be Earthworm Him.
- [72:43]
C
I do think some. Someone in the league deserves to be Earthworm Him.
- [72:46]
D
Oh, for sure.
- [72:48]
C
I even googled it. It's. It's. It's. No one's. No one's brain has gone here yet, so we have a chance.
- [72:56]
D
What happens to your brain to bring you to there?
- [72:59]
B
Oh, no, I don't know. I don't know why.
- [73:01]
C
I was thinking of Earthworm Jim. And then of course, I go to YouTube and just start watching. Not even video clips. I'm just watching audio clips from the game because the audio in that game is so funny, like, groovy, you know? Remember all that?
- [73:14]
B
Yeah, I do remember all that.
- [73:15]
D
I don't know why, but Chet Holmgren feels like his nickname should be Earthworm Him.
- [73:19]
B
Oh, I like that. I'll run it by him, see. See if he likes the nickname.
- [73:25]
C
I wonder how many players know Earthworm Jim is.
- [73:27]
B
No, Zero.
- [73:29]
D
Not that many at this point.
- [73:30]
B
Zero.
- [73:30]
D
No. There's like eight.
- [73:32]
C
There's gotta be some gamers.
- [73:33]
D
Well, you'd be. No, there has to be. Like, I just did a whole interview with Kelvin Johnson about how A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton's one of his favorite songs. So, like, there. And there is some late 90s, early 2000s, like, Lore out there, for sure.
- [73:46]
B
Okay. I challenge you, Jared, to find a player knows about the game Earthworm gym.
- [73:53]
C
I mean, LeBron has to know.
- [73:56]
B
I don't know. I don't know.
- [73:59]
D
LeBron literally has. He has a Nintendo. No, I guess a Game Boy advance with Earthworm Jim. And he's on. He's on the first level right now, and it's at his locker right now. He's been on that level for all season.
- [74:13]
B
Was that Sega only?
- [74:16]
D
Does Sega have, like, a portable? Like, it was like a portable Sega Genesis or Dreamcast. Also, was Earthworm Jim a cartoon show? Like, I thought of it first as a show. Right. Rather than a game. But I was interesting. Yeah. I was a messed up little kid. Of course, I watched that after school. Read my stories. Do I. Do my story sound like someone who didn't watch Earthworm Jim after school? Like, come on.
- [74:39]
C
I like how at the beginning of this, Andrew, you told me that Jared had to leave, and now he's like, let's talk about Earthworm Jim.
- [74:45]
B
Earthworm Gym, Deep dive because of the nickname Earth. Go read Jared at the Athletic. Jared, thanks for coming on the show.
- [74:54]
D
Big body. Is that Kelden? Is Kelden big body?
- [74:58]
C
Yeah, he's a big body.
- [74:59]
D
Okay. That's what I thought. Who's the destroyer? I feel like that's like bam. Or. I mean, that's Sohan.
- [75:04]
B
I was gonna say. I think that's. That's Jeremy.
- [75:07]
D
Yeah.
- [75:07]
C
Sohan. That he.
- [75:08]
D
He should be Earthram. Him.
- [75:11]
C
It's a good one. All right, Andrew. That was three weeks of the San Antonio Spurs.
- [75:22]
B
Spurs month.
- [75:24]
C
Spurs month. Seriously? Hey, what a month. I mean, it started off best month ever. I would say crazy, but we're gonna spin the wheel again. This is the wheel of Fandom. We spin the wheel, lands on a team, we become fans of that team for the next week. And next week, our Wheel of Fandom team is going to be. The Millwockie Bucks.
- [75:50]
B
Wow. Okay. We just. Bucks reports. We had Sam Amick on NBA Daily yesterday talking about Giannis and just. It's certainly not his deal to request a trade. And so, you know, as we creep closer to the trade deadline, what in the world are the Bucks gonna do? I'm Very interested.
- [76:11]
C
And they are. They've got a very tough schedule. Oh my gosh. Okay. So they're currently on a four game road trip. They played the Kings, beat them. They lost to Golden State. That was on Wednesday night. They play the in LA against the Lakers on Friday. They go to Denver on Sunday, play the Zombie Nuggets who are very good. They can beat anyone.
- [76:34]
B
Yeah.
- [76:34]
C
Next Tuesday they play this Timberwolves at home.
- [76:38]
B
Yeah, they're.
- [76:38]
C
And then Thursday they play at San Antonio. Wow, that's a brutal stretch even with a lot of Denver's guys out.
- [76:47]
B
They need to win some of this. The Lakers aren't that good.
- [76:51]
C
Dude. The Bucks aren't that good.
- [76:53]
B
I know that's true.
- [76:55]
C
The Bucks. Let me tell you who the Bucks have won. They beat Boston. That was great.
- [77:00]
B
That's a great win.
- [77:01]
C
That's a great Indiana, Chicago, Charlotte, Charlotte, Sacramento. Those are the only wins since then.
- [77:08]
B
They need to, they, they need to get one of these games. I would say one. Yeah, get one. Go get one.
- [77:15]
C
There'll be 17 and 25 if they get or 17 and 24 if they get one.
- [77:19]
B
Oh, brutal. Can't wait to talk to Eric Dame about what the world's going on there. Hey, leave us a five star review and we'll read it here on the podcast. This comes from Mashmol. On November 6, 2024, I decided to rethink my politics. Heavy podcast dialect diet and the NBA Daily became a core of my stress free listening. When the worst news that you can get is a guy Worth over $100 million towards Achilles, it can make for some pretty chill vibes. I particularly love the Saturday slam and jam. Hearing the theme music Come on always puts me in a good mood. And Alex's recap of the week frequently has me laughing out loud. Andrew's trivia knowledge blows my mind and a year. And I'm proud to say that I've got a couple answers myself. It is so great that I started listening to no off season. Don't you love it when a character you get to listen you love gets a spin off? Keep up the good work, athletic crew. And to all my friends that keep rolling their eyes when I use basketball anecdotes. Sorry, not sorry. Hey, thank you for that review. Very, very nice. Leave us a review.
- [78:29]
C
I don't like that Andrew versus the Beat has now become a thing to showcase your trivia ability. I don't like that that's how they think of Andrew versus the Beat because it started out as the opposite. But I wasn't thinking like, oh, if I just train him every week in NBA trivia, he's eventually going to become the greatest NBA trivia player ever.
- [78:51]
B
It's, I mean some of it's, some of it's luck, certainly. And then just earthworm him. Mostly, mostly has to do with earthworm him, I would say. Leave us five star reviewer read on the pod. Hope everybody's having a great, great weekend and we will talk to you guys again next week.
- [79:19]
A
Hey, I'm Elise Hu, host of the podcast TED Talks Daily. Did you know Paylocity offers one platform for HR finance and it that means innovative solutions like on demand Payment, which offers employees access to wages prior to payday, flexible time tracking features which enable staff to clock in through their mobile device and numerous other cutting edge integrations are available to all your teams in one single place. Learn more about how Paylocity can help streamline work and bring teams together@paylocity.com 1.
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D
A password manager should be the first security purchase you make for your team. Why? Because compromised passwords are the number one way bad actors attack companies, and small businesses are their favorite targets. But unlike a lot of security challenges, passwords actually have a pretty simple solution. 1Password lets you manage all your business's credentials so you can feel confident that your data stays secure as your company grows. Find out more at 1Password.com specialoffer and start securing every login.
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