Loading summary
Transcript106 lines
- [00:00]
Mint Mobile Advertiser
Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless. And if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should. One, it's $15 a month. Two, seriously, it's $15 a month. Three, no big contracts. Four, I use it. Five, my mom uses it.
- [00:16]
LinkedIn Jobs Advertiser
Are you.
- [00:17]
Mint Mobile Advertiser
Are you playing me off? That's what's happening, right? Okay, give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 per three month plan.
- [00:24]
Earnin Advertiser
$15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only. Then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra.
- [00:29]
Grainger Advertiser
See mintmobile.com if you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering, so you never run out.
- [00:50]
Earnin Advertiser
Of what you need.
- [00:51]
Grainger Advertiser
Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.
- [01:01]
T-Mobile Advertiser
Introducing Family freedom from T Mobile. We'll pay off four phones up to $3200 and give you four free phones all on America's largest 5G network. Visit t mobile.com familyfreedom up to 800 per line via virtual prepaid card. Typically takes 15 days. Free phone via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement. Example Apple iPhone 16128 gigs $829.99 eligible. Trade in example iPhone 11 Pro for well qualified credits end and balance due. If you pay off early or cancel contact us.
- [01:40]
Dave DeFore
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for November 7th, 2025. I'm Dave DeFore here with EsperaHenny and Law Murray. Coming up, power rankings. Law Murray does power rankings at the Athletic. We're going to debate them. We're going to hold them to the fire a little bit. Then we're going to talk all things clippers and why they're struggling out of the gate.
- [02:00]
LinkedIn Jobs Advertiser
Foreign.
- [02:04]
Dave DeFore
Everybody. What's up, guys? Law Murray joining me in S live from Phoenix. Only one game on the schedule on Thursday night is kind of weird. It is weird. Yeah. Not sure how that happened.
- [02:23]
T-Mobile Advertiser
You know, they wanted a.
- [02:24]
EsperaHenny
A blank slate for the Bradley Beal revenge game, right?
- [02:27]
Law Murray
That's what it was.
- [02:28]
EsperaHenny
That's what they wanted.
- [02:30]
Law Murray
Okay, so here's why you get weird scheduling like this. Number one, it's Thursday during NFL season. So the NFL has I Don't even know who's playing Thursday night. I'm pretty sure the Denver Broncos are shout out to them. They're playing. Well the NBA likes to duck the NFL so that's one reason. Number two, you have the NBA cup. They want to avoid teams playing second night of back to backs. And I'm pretty sure the Suns and the Clippers are not playing a Friday, an NBA cup. And there's an 11 game slate because they want to make sure you get all of those colors and that prime attention. So that, that, that's a, that that's two big reasons right there. And then these teams are also next to each other. You know they're going to play again on Saturday add into it dome. So it's like, you know, if y' all really want to watch hoops, here we, here you go. Here's.
- [03:24]
Dave DeFore
Here's your one game for the night. Instead of taking the night off, I want to, I want to talk about power. Ra You've been doing power rankings over at the Athletic for a while now and I want to give you the tip of the cap because when I was looking at your power rankings before the show today, you know, it's hard for these things the last two nights, much less a whole week. And you know, as we look at them on a Friday, they're looking pretty good. I mean obviously sitting at number one. You get the Oklahoma City Thunder. We, we just saw them lose their first game of the season but you know, they were missing a bunch of guys. I mean second night of a back to back and they almost still almost won against a, a pretty scrappy trailblazers team. And I actually am going to start with the Blazers because you actually, you have them 10th coming into the week and I would have argued on Monday. Oh, that's a little bit premature. But now that we're looking back on the week, Blazers definitely look like a top 10 team right now.
- [04:24]
Law Murray
Yeah, I got to see the teams that I get to see in person. I'm going to have stronger thoughts on. Okay. Which means if you play well, I'm probably going to be really introspective into why things are working. And if you play poorly, then it's going to be a stain and you don't want me doing that when I'm writing this all at once on a Sunday or on a Saturday. Whenever your last game of the weekend is, shout out to my editors at the Athletic because when, when Zach was doing this at the end and then I had to take over this whole thing last Year we were putting this up on a Tuesday. And I personally don't like that the NBA calendar starts on a Monday, ends up. They're trying to make us actually respect the week of the NBA. Right. They give us all the awards on Monday. And last year, you don't know how much of a trip that was. It's like, I'm writing this thing, finishing it up, and the week technically started, but I gotta trick my mind to say, hey, your spirits on a Tuesday. So shout out to my editors for letting me focus on this on weekends properly. And then second, it's like, use.
- [05:35]
Dave DeFore
Wait, did you just thank someone for allowing you to work on the weekend? Well, we have a conversation either way. Exactly.
- [05:44]
Law Murray
The games will be. Y' all don't want to know what time I file this. So we are continuing to progress towards balance, especially considering I cover, like, you know, a bunch of NBA teams right now. But.
- [05:59]
Dave DeFore
But how did the Blazers get in the top 10, man?
- [06:01]
Law Murray
Like, the Blazers got.
- [06:02]
Dave DeFore
How'd you get them there?
- [06:03]
Law Murray
The Blazers got in the top 10 because I saw them play twice. I saw how they were playing. They make sense. You know, forget the scandal. I know I let off with that in my blurb for the Blazers. My analysis of, of.
- [06:17]
LinkedIn Jobs Advertiser
Of port.
- [06:18]
Law Murray
Hey, you know, just so you know, the guy who is running their training camp, like, is not there, so there's that. But they are. They're a team that makes a lot of sense as far as how they want to defend and who they're playing through offensively. You know, I think we've. I've shared that I'm a fan of how Denny Abdia played last year, and I was like, your offense should be built around him. I'm shocked that not only is Denny doing as well as he is, but Jrue Holiday is having a revelation of the season as a, As a. As a true point guard in tandem with Denny Abdia. So it's like you have a big team, young, energetic, outside of, you know, Holiday. But Holiday is re. Energized and I was just like, out of all these teams, and I don't like a lot of teams at the top anyway. They. They look pretty good, and I'm going to note that. And if they drop, they drop. We'll. We'll. We'll note that, too.
- [07:11]
Dave DeFore
Yeah, they.
- [07:12]
EsperaHenny
They look like they are such a defensive juggernaut, and I wonder how long this lasts just because that pressure is hard to play for 82 games. Like, the style that they're trying to have for this entire season is Going to be strenuous. But at the same time, if you have the bodies to do it, if you have the depth to do it, that's, that's a team to look at, another team that's trying to figure out their identity but successful and also another young team. You threw in the top 10, the Chicago Bulls.
- [07:39]
Law Murray
Yeah.
- [07:40]
EsperaHenny
Josh Giddy playing well, the depth is, you know, actually performing to a level honestly exceeded my expectations. Do you think the Bulls can stay in your top 10 for a little.
- [07:53]
Law Murray
You know what? Coming back from down 24 to a team that I ranked above them is certainly going to help, I'll tell you that much. So shout out to our guys. Andrew Schlegged, Alex Spears. We did that little pod where we look at what the over under the win win tools were for the teams that were really bad and we were like, hey, who do we think will be your surprise team?
- [08:15]
EsperaHenny
All the bulls were like 37 or something, right?
- [08:18]
Law Murray
Yeah. And you know, that's reasonable because, I mean, just look at the Chicago Bulls over the last few years. You know, it's not offensive at all, but I, I wanted to make the point that their post all star break team was good. Made a lot of sense. Josh Giddey, that's when he transcended. Josh Giddey did not look very good when Zach Levine was on the team.
- [08:37]
Dave DeFore
Right.
- [08:37]
Law Murray
But now after they moved on from him, they this dude is a damn near walking triple double on damn near 50% shooting from the field. How does that happen? Josh Giddey's a good player and he was good in okc, but he got lapped. It wasn't about Shane and Josh Giddey. It was about JDub's ascension. J Dub is what put Josh Giddey in a poor spot because the loss of touches took too much away from his game. That's a guy who, he needs the ball in his hands to be the best version of himself. And you can't trick him into thinking, hey, you can be a three and D guy. Yeah, you don't really want Josh Giddy to do that. You're seeing what the best surgeon of Giddy is, and I'm interested to see what happens. And I noted this because I have a theme. Every power ranking, some of the themes are better than others. But this is a theme I look forward to because you guys know I look at rotations heavy when teams are building during the offseason and especially in the preseason and coming out to start the regular season. Kobe White's not there. If Kobe White can integrate himself with how this team is playing on both ends of the court. Because the Bulls, it's not just that they're playing fast and they're scoring while having Josh Giddey run the. It's that they're defending at a respectable level while they're doing it. That's how you win games. That's how you have 24 point comebacks. If Kobe can fit into that, that's going to be where you really say, okay, the Bulls are going to stick around here.
- [09:57]
Dave DeFore
I'm calling it by the way. Bulls are a playoff team. They're out of the play in Thomas playoffs. They're going to make the playoffs. Feels like, you know, and they're not doing anything that's not sustainable. They play hard every night and they hit some shots here and there right like this. Just like any other decent NBA try hard every night.
- [10:17]
EsperaHenny
I'm curious to. I, I bounced this take around with Joelle a couple days ago, but a little bit of like Pacers light with the way the Bulls play. How do you, how do you feel about that?
- [10:28]
Law Murray
Take you, you. You know, I, I did see that clip shout out to. Shout out to Joel. I know he's shocked about all what he's saying right now. My man. Look, no knowing Joel he gonna be covering the championship Bulls in like three years.
- [10:43]
Adam Grant
Sc.
- [10:45]
Law Murray
Y.
- [10:48]
Dave DeFore
Okay, so go ahead.
- [10:51]
Law Murray
So. So the thing with, with the Bulls is, you know, they're good at taking care of the ball. They're not great. And that's a, and that's a quality that the Pacers even now with the Pacers being really unfortunate. Let's just use that politically correct term. Yeah, yeah. The Bulls are not really a good ball control team. What the, what, what the Bulls have though is they do have a guy who is running their whole. That identity is, is, is. Is huge. And so I, I can see a little bit of it. But I think the Pacers have influenced a whole lot of teams. You know, even we were just talking about the Blazers. Like everyone saw people get fired and people get upset as one seeds in the playoffs. That stuff makes you really look and be like if it works for them, it can work for us. You know, the Thunder. Same thing. When it comes to how all these teams are pressing 94ft, forcing turnovers, beating the hell out of each other and daring you to throw the flag on the legion of Boom. You know what I mean? Like that's really what has happened in this league as a copycat league. And you either build your team to try and do those things or you build your team so that you could resist those things happening to you.
- [12:06]
Dave DeFore
Yeah, you had the, the Lakers as third in your power rankings to start the week and they've won a couple games since then. They haven't even really been healthy. You know, we just, we're just finding out LeBron is going to be reevaluated in a couple weeks. He might be back maybe, you know, Thanksgiving or something like that. I'm not sure how that's gonna work when he comes back. What have you thought about the Lakers outside of, you know, Luca and Austin Reeves Both averaging like 40 a game? You know what is working for them because they, they won games without those guys.
- [12:39]
Law Murray
Yeah, I think what's working is everyone knows their roles right now and that fact that you brought up with LeBron is not an insignificant one. Like Luka runs the team when Luka's off the floor, not in the lineup. Austin has done that. Austin is the kind of player because of how he came into the league. He is fine being off the ball. He has off ball utility, but he clearly has grown another level as an on ball guy. You saw it in the preseason again, a lot of y' all like to skip preseason. When Luca was doing that whole men's health load management thing in the preseason, we saw Austin drop 20 point halves and whatnot. You don't think that stuff matters. When you play unideal stuff in the preseason and you wind up having to roll some of those same lineups out in the regular season, all of a sudden you're beating Portland on their home floor in the second night of back to back without Luca or Austin or LeBron, those things matter. I think JJ's done a great job of putting guys in position to do what they do best. They're still shooting the three ball terribly. This is a, this is a bad three point shooting team, yet they're leading the league in field goal percentage. Because when they're in their spots, they're in spots that you don't want to, want to be in. If you're an analytics guy, like the paint outside the restriction.
- [13:56]
Dave DeFore
Got a lot of range, right?
- [13:58]
Law Murray
Exactly.
- [13:58]
Dave DeFore
Ayton has boosted that too, and he's been really good, really good for them.
- [14:03]
Law Murray
Aiden's. Aiden has a real simple job and he's realized that all he needs to do is just be where he's supposed to be and he's going to eat like that's, that's, that's it. He's not, he hasn't taken a Single three. He's shooting free throw server. He never gets to the free throw line but again get him in his spots and it's not even the mid range he does. Not taking that many jumpers at all. But that little pull up if he's got beat in the paint, that's outside the restricted area. He's money with that. And he's got multiple guys averaging nine assists a game getting him the Rock in those spots. That's all it is. Like Ryu Hachimura is damn near 60% and that dude takes a three every quarter. You know, like that. They're simplifying the game, make it, make it easy. And it's easier when you're playing with dudes like Luca and Austin and when you're not trying to integrate LeBron James into that. I'm fascinated to see what happens when Bron comes back because Lucas touches aren't going to go away, but Austin's are going to crater and you got to still defend with those guys. The Lakers, not a great defensive team. They've scrapped out wins, but they've had the benefit of not having to have a bunch of minutes with Luka Austin Braun on the floor at the same time. I'm very interested to see how it works. It's a good problem to have, but it's still going to be a complication sometime this month.
- [15:21]
Dave DeFore
All right guys, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be back with more power Rankings.
- [15:32]
Law Murray
As a small.
- [15:33]
LinkedIn Jobs Advertiser
Business owner, you don't have the luxury.
- [15:34]
Law Murray
Of clocking out early.
- [15:36]
LinkedIn Jobs Advertiser
Your business is on your mind 24 7. So when you're hiring, you need a partner partner that works just as hard as you do. That hiring partner is LinkedIn Jobs. When you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in. LinkedIn makes it easy to post your job for free, share it with your network, and get qualified candidates that can manage all in one place. I've been in a position where I need to hire many times and I never had the luxury of having LinkedIn jobs help me. As a user of LinkedIn jobs now I find it incredibly easy to find the most qualified candidates. Here's how LinkedIn Jobs works. Number one, post your job. LinkedIn's new feature can help you write job descriptions and then quickly get your job in front of the right people with deep candidate insights. You can post your job for free or you can pay to promote promoted jobs. Get three times more qualified applicants. Number two, get qualified candidates. And at the end of the day, the most important thing to your small Business is the quality of candidates. And with LinkedIn you can feel confident that you're getting the best. Based on LinkedIn data, 72% of small businesses using LinkedIn say that LinkedIn helps them find high quality candidates. And finally share it with your network. You can let your network know that you're hiring. You can even add the hashtag hiringframe to your personal profile and get two times more qualified candidates. Find out why more than two and a half million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring today. Find your next great hire on LinkedIn. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com athleticmba that's LinkedIn.com athleticmba to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply.
- [17:16]
Earnin Advertiser
You know what's faster than your paycheck? Literally everything. It's time to get your pay up to speed with Earn in. You can access your pay as you work instead of waiting days and weeks for a paycheck. Get up to $150 a day with max of $750 between paydays. No interest, no credit checks and no mandatory fees because hey, it's your money. Download the earn now to get it and join millions of people making any day payday. That's E A R N I N ernin is not a bank. Access limits are based on your earnings and risk factors. Available in select states. Expedited transfers available for a fee. Terms and restrictions apply. Visit earn in.com for full details.
- [17:47]
T-Mobile Advertiser
Introducing family freedom from T Mobile. We'll pay off four phones up to 3, 200 and give you four free phones all on America's largest 5G network. Visit t mobile.com familyfreedom up to 800 per line via virtual prepaid card. Typically takes 15 days. Free phone via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement. Example Apple iPhone 16128 gigs $829.99 eligible. Trade in example iPhone 11 Pro for well qualified credits end and balance due. If you pay off early or cancel contact us.
- [18:30]
Dave DeFore
All right, we're back with Law Murray talking power rankings. My camera started working again. If you're watching on YouTube law look the again the power rankings. I like how it gives us this timestamp week, week to week. The NBA is so night to night. And this is where I think like if you cover the NFL you have this whole I have a week I can look at and I can put that into a little folder and then I move on to the next week.
- [18:55]
EsperaHenny
Right.
- [18:55]
Dave DeFore
And and so you actually helped me do that so that when I can go back in My notes, I can say, oh, yeah, that's right.
- [19:01]
Law Murray
Well, Law.
- [19:02]
Dave DeFore
Law said this that week. And so. So what's like, what's the take that you're maybe proudest of this week in the power rankings? Like, what's the thing that you saw coming that nobody else did?
- [19:15]
Law Murray
Well, first of all, you know, I appreciate being, you know, I ain't the stepfather. It is, but I'm the father that stepped up. You know what I'm saying?
- [19:22]
LinkedIn Jobs Advertiser
Yeah.
- [19:24]
Dave DeFore
Subscribe to the Bounce. By the way, Zach Harper writes the funniest basketball newsletter on the Internet.
- [19:31]
Law Murray
So I will say this. I don't like to clip, like, my blurbs in the power rankings because I feel like, you know, shout out to the real subscribers that actually do the work for us. You know, click in, read, leave some hate, and then bounce out of there. So the Dallas Mavericks, we all saw the schedule come out in August, and they're in opening week and they're on Christmas, and they got all these playoff or all these national TV dates, as if, you know, they made the 20, 25 NBA Finals, right, And still had the dude they drafted seven summers ago, Morgan Wallenstop. They don't have that guy. And Cooper Flag is not that guy yet. And so I actually put a line in there. I was like, klay Thompson looking like he needs to be benched more than he already has been. I didn't, you know, I'm not Christian Clark, you know what I'm saying? Christian's on that. On that beat, you know what I'm saying? And doing a great job down there also, you know, God bless him, because he about to see some things this year. But, I mean, what did they do? They. They bench Clay Thompson and. Wow, New Orleans Pelicans.
- [20:41]
Dave DeFore
Yeah.
- [20:41]
Law Murray
And. And so it's like, Dallas is bad. They were bad last year, but they had the PR from somebody, excitement, you know, to suggest that they were going to be good this year. They're relevant, but they're not good. And I try to be like, look, I don't believe in them just because they have a bunch of dudes that you recognize. You know, I cover a team with, quote, unquote, a bunch of dudes as well, on a more regular basis. So I recognize when you got a bunch of dudes that as a team, might not add up and make sense. And right now, Dallas, you look at their offense, it's terrible. And Cooper Flag is like, yeah, let's just give him the ball. That might benefit in the long term.
- [21:21]
Dave DeFore
But teams are, you know, Jason Kidd's kind of doing the Giannis plan of.
- [21:26]
Law Murray
Hey, we did it before.
- [21:28]
Dave DeFore
Yeah, exactly.
- [21:29]
Law Murray
Identity, right? That's the identity.
- [21:32]
Dave DeFore
I will say this. We thought maybe they could be okay because they were going to have great interior defense. They were huge. But they don't. It just isn't there. And they have no one who can dribble. They, their point of attack defense is awful. And, and Cooper Flag has been fine. Like he looks like a rookie. It's all of those things. But man, the expectation that they were somehow going to be like a playoff team or something, I mean, that was.
- [22:00]
EsperaHenny
I will say, the difference between Cooper's numbers when he's playing with DLO versus when he isn't efficiency wise and everything look pretty staggering. It, it's one of those things. And law, maybe you have a take on this but like developmentally what's better for Cooper Flag to be put in a position to succeed immediately or trial by fire? Go figure it out.
- [22:20]
Law Murray
Yeah, well, rookies get you beat and you're putting Cooper Flag in the position, and I use the word position with bold talents where you're. Did you saw him play at Duke? You know what I'm saying? It's like even though he had a lot of playmaking responsibilities, he was still playing with two guys who could also help him with that and you know, two guys who got drafted in the second round, Proctor and Seon James, you know, so like, I just feel like you have to put guys in if you're trying to be a good team, then you put Cooper Flag in a position where he can do the best version of himself as a scorer and worry about getting buckets and, you know, worry about making the right play consistently not making the right play because he's trying to run your offense. That doesn't make any damn sense. You know, he's already not in the best position to do that because you have Anthony Davis wanting to play the four next to these paint bound centers. You know, we already know that Cooper Flags would probably be the 4 next to 1 of those centers long term. So you're already at a, you know, disadvantage there. But to put him at point guard with all these dudes who are, you know, either washed or also not in the best position for offensive success. It's, it's, it's, it's a mess. And you know, Jason Kidd's got a lot to figure out and we'll see if how willing he is to figure that out.
- [23:44]
Dave DeFore
I have a development take on, on putting the ball in Cooper Flag's Hand because. And it goes counter to what people think about with the NBA. Cooper Flag probably has more experience with the ball in his hand than he does being a glue guy. Right. Figuring out how to come and how do. How do you get some. When it's not your play, which is super important in the NBA. This is actually when Zion came to the NBA. Do you remember how many plays they called for him? Not many. He would just let me get this offensive rebound. Let me attack here, you know? And I think that finding your way that way is way better for this guy who's been the best player on his team his entire life.
- [24:23]
Law Murray
Yeah.
- [24:23]
EsperaHenny
He said the other day, he's like, this is the first. This is the most I've lost ever. You know, like, he. He has not dealt with losing.
- [24:30]
Dave DeFore
Yeah.
- [24:30]
EsperaHenny
But also being put out of position.
- [24:32]
Dave DeFore
Yeah. The. The way American players are developed, they don't. They learn with the ball in their hands. They don't learn work in the dunker spot and cutting and. And when to crack. Like that stuff that, like now they're having to pick up in college in the NBA. Because it gets you there to have the ball in your hands.
- [24:50]
LinkedIn Jobs Advertiser
Right?
- [24:51]
Dave DeFore
Yeah, exactly.
- [24:52]
LinkedIn Jobs Advertiser
Yeah.
- [24:52]
Dave DeFore
And that's not to knock aau. That's where the money is. The guy who has the ball in his hands is getting paid. He's the one getting drafted.
- [24:58]
EsperaHenny
Different style.
- [24:59]
Law Murray
Yeah.
- [24:59]
Dave DeFore
Yeah.
- [25:00]
Law Murray
Law.
- [25:00]
EsperaHenny
Okay. I have to ask you about your Clippers.
- [25:02]
LinkedIn Jobs Advertiser
All right.
- [25:02]
EsperaHenny
You had them 14th in your power ranking. They've lost two in a row since. To the Heat and the Thunder. Defensively, transition defense. I know the Clippers coaching staff made those jokes in the preseason with the T shirts. The transition defense has not been good. The offense. The offense is a work in progress, too. What's going on with your Clippers, and are you optimistic or pessimistic moving forward?
- [25:27]
Law Murray
I'm not. I'll start with the optimistic pessimist thing. I think they can get it together. I've just. Again, they always figure something out. They've won, you know, had a winning record for 14 straight seasons. But they. This is a team that looks like it's going to disappoint if the guys that they brought in specifically to address turnover issues can't address those issues. I'm starting with Bradley Beal because he's the guy who is supposed to be the new starter with a bunch of guys who were on last year's playoff team. And Brad's just not at a level physically to help them where they need the most help. They look like they've never seen defenses before. The turnovers are elementary, which, the terms would be inexcusable if this was a tanking team just trying to get through the regular season and get to the lottery. The Clippers, the lottery doesn't exist for this version of franchise anymore. So we know that's not the case. I'm just flabbergasted by not just the turnovers as a whole, but specifically the types of turnovers because those are the things that absolutely cannibalize your defense. Like they commit 11 live ball turnovers a game. The only team worse than that are the Washington Wizards who fit the category of that team trying to just get through the regular season. Okay.
- [26:54]
Dave DeFore
Veteran teams are supposed to do that. Like, the whole thing is that they're supposed to be, they, they know the speed of the game and they're not going to get sped up. And, But I, I don't. This group is, it's, it's weird. It's odd to me, especially the late game turnovers that I'm watching from them. You know, like James Harden, he, it's, it's game by game. Is he, is he going to hit a big shot? Yes. But then he's going to throw the ball away on maybe the next possession and that's a little bit different for him down the stretch.
- [27:27]
Law Murray
Yeah, James's, James's ball security is annually just bizarre. But the bigger issue for the Clippers is that James shouldn't have to be doing this much in the first place for this team. And, and that's the concern you have when James is on the floor. The Clippers are actually, despite all the ridiculous hurdles he has, they're, you know, the Clippers are fine offensively, but bring that dude off the floor and they tank offensively. They're not even averaging 100 points for 100 sessions when James is off the floor. I'm very interested to see what happens Thursday night in Phoenix, which you all will know by the time this pod goes up, I'm told. And because these are the times where it's like, do you show signs of growth without your best players? And so you can't put this on, Jake. You can't even put this on like a ball movement. The Clippers were not a heavy ball movement team last year. They're moving the ball more this year. Maybe they should move the ball less because they can't pass the basketball. They're the worst assistant turnover racer team in the league. I'd rather have a team that doesn't pass the ball and the ball sticks and you still, you just avoid turnovers that way and then have a team pretending to move the ball just to be donating possessions. And when that team gives up live ball turnovers, they're cooked because they don't have this foot speed to get back, to get back. That's the one thing they won't improve.
- [28:52]
Dave DeFore
They have to pass for that reason. Man, they can't get by anybody. They can't break a man down off the dribble. They can't, they can't get to the basket. They have to pass old man basketball. They've got to do it. You got to play like, you know, like the guys at the Y. Okay, before we get out of here, I want you to preview next week. And I know like, you know there's a bunch of games over the weekend, especially like Friday with the NBA cup and Sunday is such a heavy day, but preview the weekend. Who's going to be the biggest mover up or down for next week as we head into the weekend?
- [29:22]
Law Murray
Well, I'll tell you what, I'm really, I'm really looking forward to seeing the Rockets and the spurs play. The spurs are all of a sudden in need of a bounce back. It's like they got so hyped to be the first five zero team in franchise history and now they're the first five, zero team franchise history that lost back to back games directly after starting 5, 0. So now you know you have a statement to make against the Rockets and the Rockets have a statement to make as well. Like they've won games, but they haven't. They don't have a statement when they don't have anything close to what would be considered a statement when. So that's going to be a big game. The warriors and Nuggets, they face each other again. That was a thrilling game in Week 1 when Aaron Gordon drops 50 in the losing effort. So the warriors, again, a team that I probably ranked too high, you know, they could use a, they could use a win over Nuggets team that, you know, they're pretty good, but it's, it'll be, it'll be very interesting to see what happens. And then the Memphis Grizzlies, they look like a team that's ready to completely free fall and collapse. This is what happens when you have a head coach star situation this early in the year where there's a major disconnect. I don't want to talk about rotations and style of play. No, if you have the relationship to talk these things with guys behind closed doors and say the right things.
- [30:43]
EsperaHenny
Exactly.
- [30:44]
Law Murray
In the locker room and on that podium, then you can minimize the issues. Now you have issues that you didn't build this team to have certain issues like so I wonder what having the defending NBA champions coming into that building. Also the team that embarrassed him in round one and Josh said they had figured out when Cha, you know, was up 25 and then fell out of the air like he usually does in the playoffs. I wonder how their response will be to end the week.
- [31:09]
EsperaHenny
They're fine in the west. Apparently.
- [31:10]
Dave DeFore
They're fine in the West. Hey, are the Clippers going to trade for John?
- [31:14]
Law Murray
You think there's no good reason for that team to do that?
- [31:18]
Dave DeFore
Yeah, we'll see. We'll see Law, Murray guys go and read them at the athletics. Set the alert so you know when the power rankings drop every week, we're going to try to do these more often because Law is the man. Law. Appreciate you hanging out for Law, Murray and esperahenny. I'm Dave DeFore and this has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us.
- [32:02]
Adam Grant
Hey, it's Adam Grant from Ted's podcast Work Life, and this episode is brought to you by ServiceNow AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into. That's why it's no surprise that more than 85% of the Fortune 500 companies use the ServiceNow AI platform. While other platforms duct tape tools together, ServiceNow seamlessly unifies people, data workflows and AI connecting every corner of your business. And with AI agents working together autonomously, anyone in any department can focus on the work that matters Most. Learn how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people@servicenow.com.
- [32:41]
Aeria Advertiser
Feeling the AI anxiety from questions to job security to cybersecurity and everything in between, it's easy to feel overwhelmed with the rate of AI innovation. Enter Aeria, the enterprise AI orchestration and security platform built to boost your confidence. With aria, you don't have to compromise between speed and innovation or security and governance. Quickly deploy AI without cutting corners on compliance. Give your teams the confidence to adopt AI. With Aeria ready to eliminate your AI anxiety, visit aeria.com to get started for free today. That's air I a dot com.
- [33:10]
Grainger Advertiser
If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering, so you never run out.
- [33:30]
Earnin Advertiser
Of what you need.
- [33:31]
Grainger Advertiser
Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.