1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,000 Welcome to the Omni Sports Podcast featuring your host, Bobby Labida. 2 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:20,000 Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another week here at the Omni Sports NBA Podcast. 3 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:22,000 We're going to recap week 14. 4 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:26,000 And if you are in a situation where I don't know, work kicked your butt this whole last week 5 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,000 and you have no idea what's going on in the NBA world, 6 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,000 don't worry, I got your back. 7 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,000 But before we jump into a recap for everything, 8 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,000 I just want to talk about something that's really cool. 9 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:42,000 Today, for the very first time on the podcast, it doesn't just have to be a podcast. 10 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:44,000 That's right. You could be watching. 11 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:48,000 We actually have video footage you can see on our YouTube or in the Spotify app. 12 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:54,000 And so if you're like, hmm, it'd be nice to see some of these statistics that are talked about or hmm, 13 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:01,000 I would love to see Bobby's deep, deep, bright blue eyes and his lava lamp. 14 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:06,000 That's a Rams lava lamp that's broken and he's still using in his background for some reason. 15 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:08,000 You want to be able to do that unless you watch the video. 16 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:11,000 And if you're like, oh, I do not want to watch the video. 17 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,000 Don't worry. My mom always told me I had a face for podcasts. 18 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,000 So you still have your options. You can listen podcasts anywhere you want. 19 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,000 But before we hop into it, we need to hop into our sponsor for this week. 20 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:28,000 If you're unfamiliar with this podcast, every week we have a fake sponsor until one day we have a real sponsor. 21 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,000 But if you're looking to support the show, you can subscribe on Spotify 22 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:38,000 and you will get early access to some of our special upcoming episodes that have nothing to do with basketball, 23 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:40,000 but have to do with other sports. 24 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,000 But our sponsor this week is doing big things because that's what's happening in the NBA. 25 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:50,000 As we're going to talk about, we had some crazy, crazy stat lines this week. 26 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:56,000 And you know what? This pod, this YouTube channel, we're doing big things this year in 2024. 27 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,000 And if you haven't done a big thing recently, I hope you do a big thing soon. 28 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,000 But let's get into those storylines of the week. 29 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,000 Storylines of the week. 30 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:10,000 One. 31 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,000 And they got to get rid of the bat. 32 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:16,000 They got to get rid of the bat. 33 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,000 I mean, the bat almost hit Ant. 34 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,000 I've never seen Ant flinch in my life. 35 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,000 And the coyote is Johnny on the spot. 36 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,000 This is not new for the coyote. 37 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,000 Oh, he's getting sauced by the bat. 38 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:33,000 The fact that they have the net ready. 39 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,000 Just trying to... 40 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:48,000 This would be one of the more incredible feats if in a costume the mascot is able to catch the bat. 41 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:50,000 Did they do this on purpose? 42 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,000 Come on, they had the coyote ready in the Batman costume. 43 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,000 That is a great point. Wait a minute. 44 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,000 That was the best thing. 45 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,000 They got the music ready. 46 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,000 The coyote is in costume. 47 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:04,000 Oh my goodness. 48 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,000 Got him. 49 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,000 All right. This first storyline really doesn't have a lot to do with basketball, 50 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:18,000 but I would be remiss as a sports content creator if I did not tell you about this one in a million story. 51 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:24,000 And I encourage you to watch the video in the link below or in the show notes because it is wild. 52 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:29,000 In the San Antonio Spurs game against the Timberwolves, only a couple of minutes into the game, 53 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:36,000 a bat flew into the stadium or was in the stadium probably and started flying around the court, 54 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:41,000 which led to the players, of course, leaving the court, which led to the Spurs mascot, 55 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:49,000 who somehow had access to a Batman costume, went up with a giant net. 56 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:53,000 And so you got this coyote in a Batman costume swinging around. 57 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:58,000 And it looks like this surreal, like you're having a fever dream, like the drugs said a little too hard. 58 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,000 Your eyes can't believe what you're seeing. 59 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:07,000 But then this mascot kind of catches the bat by by killing it with the net. 60 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:11,000 And all of the Spurs players started high fiving this guy. 61 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:17,000 So if you're if you're OK with just just slight, slight animal cruelty, 62 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:22,000 I encourage you to watch that video because it is wild and I can't believe this happened at a sporting event. 63 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:26,000 And one of my favorite themes in sports is when animals interrupt. 64 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:31,000 Whether it's a squirrel running onto a baseball field or RIP to the bird that Randy Johnson 65 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:35,000 absolutely murdered with a fastball in preseason one season. 66 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,000 All right. And what is actually the biggest storyline of the week? 67 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,000 We didn't have one 60 point game. We didn't have two. We didn't have three. 68 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:47,000 We had four 60 point games. And before I get into each of these games, 69 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,000 I'm just going to read these stats because they're ridiculous. 70 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:55,000 On Monday, Carl Anthony Townshead, 62 points and eight rebounds. 71 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:57,000 He had 10 three pointers while doing so. 72 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:02,000 But the same night he was stopped by Joe Embiid, who had 70 points. 73 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:08,000 And he was super efficient and had 18 rebounds and five assists to go with the 70 points, 74 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:12,000 which is crazy that those two games would happen on the same day. 75 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:17,000 This day happened to be the anniversary of Kobe's 81 point game, 76 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,000 which is the second highest total in NBA history. 77 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Though some of these players are starting to flirt with that. 78 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:26,000 Maybe make that make that a little spicy, but not to be outdone on Friday. 79 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:32,000 Devin Booker scored 62 points and then Luca Donchans also on Friday. 80 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:37,000 And it's extra funny because Devin and Luca have some, you know, have some beef, have some drama. 81 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:42,000 But Lucas scored 73 points, which is tied for the third. 82 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:48,000 Like is the third highest point total by someone not named Kobe or Wilt Chamberlain, which is ridiculous. 83 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:54,000 But I'm going to get into each of these games and talk about them a little bit and what they look like. 84 00:05:54,000 --> 00:06:00,000 What's funny is you hear these crazy stat lines and what normally you hear these crazy stat lines, you'd expect a 4-0 record. 85 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,000 But no, the teams only went two and two. 86 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:07,000 Carl Anthony Towns lost. His team lost. The Wolves lost. 87 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:13,000 And it was very clear when they said at halftime that when they saw how good Joel Embiid was doing 88 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:20,000 in the other game that they were trying to force feed the ball to Carl Anthony Towns, which was not the right decision. 89 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:23,000 And had barely any points or any shots in that game. 90 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:28,000 And Anthony Edwards is just so good. And I don't care how hot Carl Anthony Towns is. 91 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:32,000 You shouldn't just rely on him. And he got very tired towards the end of the game. 92 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:36,000 And this is kind of what I think will be my main takeaway from this week. 93 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:44,000 I was thrilled by these games, but I don't know if they're necessarily good for the NBA or good, a good NBA product. 94 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:47,000 Right. Because Carl Anthony Towns team lost. 95 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:53,000 And then we also saw on Friday that Devin Booker with his 62 points, his team also lost. 96 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:59,000 And it kind of ended up with Devin Booker taking a terrible last shot to win the game. 97 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:05,000 And it just looked like him. Carl Anthony Towns were just totally beat at the end of the game. 98 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,000 Joel Embiid's team was still able to win. 99 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:13,000 But Joel Embiid, which we'll talk about a little bit later, did not play the next play as many games this week. 100 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:19,000 You may wonder if injury, the injury that he had had to do with playing so many minutes. 101 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:26,000 And then Luka Doncic also looked exhausted at the end of his game, but he had 73 points and was very efficient. 102 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,000 And we're going to talk about Lucas game a little bit more in the moment. 103 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:33,000 But what we're seeing here is sort of a trend of these high scoring games. 104 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:35,000 And they've all happened within this week. 105 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:44,000 My guess and hunch, if I had to, you know, if I were a sleuth, if I were a scientist, I'd put this up for a couple of reasons for why this is happening. 106 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:49,000 First, it being the week that all stars were selected, the starters were announced. 107 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:52,000 I feel like there's a little more. 108 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:57,000 I don't know if ego is the right word, but there's a more pizzazz in the air of who's the best. 109 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,000 There's more of these conversations up until this point in the season. 110 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:06,000 We're all just kind of feeling it in and out. And now all these players are like, oh, I'm I'm a starter or I'm not a starter. 111 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:12,000 Maybe I try to up it. Also seems like they were trying to play off of each other, which is interesting. 112 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:19,000 I think you also see that teams are more OK with a single player taking over a game if that means that everyone else sucks. 113 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:24,000 Because I saw in all of these games, the star players get really tired at the end. 114 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:27,000 And if you were able to pull it out. But all these games were close. 115 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:31,000 And when you're scoring 60 to 70 points, you would hope it's not in a close game. 116 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:35,000 And last and of course, is that offenses are better than they ever been. 117 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:41,000 The four four of the top 10 highest offensive ratings are happening this season right now. 118 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:46,000 And so defenses are a little hamstrung by the rules and offenses are playing faster and better. 119 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,000 And so when they're playing faster and better, you have a little bit of ego involved. 120 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:56,000 You have players just being really hot because all these players can get really hot in their own right in terms of how they play. 121 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:05,000 I think all of this leads to kind of a perfect collection to have what is basically like what would be like a decade for some decades 122 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:11,000 you had in a week in terms of 60 point games, which is absolutely crazy and insane. 123 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:15,000 But I still stand. I don't know if this is good basketball. I don't know if it's good for the NBA. 124 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:19,000 Lucas team lost the game after on a back to back. Right. 125 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:23,000 And he probably had to spend so much energy. He's not a good game in the back to back. 126 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:34,000 But you wonder how much it really devastates and destroy these players to do something like this in a regular season game, because they all looked very exhausted after. 127 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:46,000 And I was exhausted just watching them. But regardless of how I feel, whether this is good or bad, it's still historic and absolutely was crazy to watch what happened this week. 128 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:54,000 And my third storyline this week is actually taking a deep dive in one of those set lines we just heard. 129 00:09:54,000 --> 00:10:06,000 While Joel Embiid's game was impressive, I wanted to take a moment to talk about Luca Donchich's game because Luca had the most efficient, not just 60 point game, 130 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:19,000 but no game was as efficient as Luca was until you got to 56. He scored 73 points and he had a true shooting of 92.5 percent, which is ridiculous. 131 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:25,000 If you don't know what true shooting is, it takes in percentage account with how much each of the shots are worth. 132 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:30,000 So a three pointer is worth a little war troop shooting. Two is worth a little less. 133 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:40,000 And of course, a free throw is worth the least. And prior to the game, apparently the Atlanta Hawks fans were shouting at Luca that he should get on a treadmill. 134 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:46,000 Now, for a bit of context, the Hawks selected Trey Young before Luca Donchich in the same draft. 135 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:52,000 And that was kind of very famous in that moment because Luca had been coming off a European MVP. 136 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:56,000 And so some people thought he should have been the first or second pick. 137 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:00,000 And he ended up being the third pick to the Mavericks and Trey Young was picked beforehand. 138 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:06,000 Now, I don't think these two directly have any beef or issue with each other. I could be wrong. 139 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:11,000 But the media has definitely pinned them together. And as a result, I think the fans kind of internalize that. 140 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:16,000 And maybe we're a little more aggressive to Luca. And I've noticed this trend. I've seen it with Zion. 141 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:20,000 I see it with Luca that we're sort of weight shaming players. 142 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:29,000 And if you're a fan who's weight shaming players, unless you are actually genuinely athletic, please, I think you should maybe shut the heck up. 143 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:37,000 Luca Donchich has played more professional in minutes in basketball at age 24 than many players have played in their whole career. 144 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:43,000 And here's the thing with Luca that a lot of people forget. He plays basketball often in the offseason. 145 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:46,000 When he came into the league, he had just been playing in Europe. 146 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:52,000 He played in the NBA Cup for his home country. And so he's playing a lot of minutes. 147 00:11:52,000 --> 00:12:00,000 And I think as a result, you see this leads to he doesn't have the chance to maybe take his weight training seriously in the offseason. 148 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:06,000 And also, if you're paying attention, he really does look leaner and a little bit more agile this year compared to last year. 149 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:12,000 And we've seen that with Luca, where his weight sometimes goes up and down. And I think there could be an intentionality to it. 150 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:17,000 More muscle allows you to be more physical. But, you know, to his credit, he's gone a little leaner. 151 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:25,000 And in that game where he played 73 minutes, he played 44 of the 48 minutes and he was super necessary in that game. 152 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:30,000 What's funny is if you watch the game, this will sound like a weird thing to say about a 73 point game. 153 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:37,000 It was the most unselfish 73 point game of all time. I know there's not a lot to compare to it, but he was still passing the ball. 154 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:42,000 He was still getting good looks for his teammates and his teammates could actually make a basket. 155 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:50,000 Then we would be talking about how many assists he had on top of the fact that he had 73 points, but he scored that many points because he kind of had to. 156 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:55,000 I look back to a possession in the fourth quarter with only a minute left in the game, still very close. 157 00:12:55,000 --> 00:13:01,000 And Luca has a pretty decently open shot for three and still chooses to pass it to his teammate. 158 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:05,000 And I know Luca gets a bad rap for all these reasons. People again make fun of his weight. 159 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:10,000 They don't think he necessarily eats the best because he's been known to not have the healthiest diet. 160 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:18,000 And sometimes he on court, he can be a little bit of a whiner to some. Some people view him as a bit of a crybaby, but he really hasn't been that this year. 161 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:27,000 And this year he's been excellent. And if you actually watch Luca, even though he puts up these stat lines, which seems like a player who's totally selfish, most of the time he's not. 162 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:30,000 I genuinely think most of the time he's doing what's right by his team. 163 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:37,000 And keep in mind as a 21 or 22 year old, he carried the Mavericks to the Western Conference Championship. 164 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:43,000 Yes, they lost, but Luca shouldn't be slept on just because we find reasons to dislike him. 165 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,000 News and notes. 166 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:52,000 All right, we have three news and notes that we're going to look at this week. The first big news and note is a trade. 167 00:13:52,000 --> 00:14:01,000 Yes, we're having another trade and expect probably every week for there to be a new trade for me to update you with until the NBA trade deadline. 168 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:05,000 So this trade this week involved the Charlotte Hornets in the Miami Heat. 169 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:13,000 The Charlotte Hornets acquired a 2027 first round draft pick and Kyle Lowry from Miami in exchange for Terry Rosier. 170 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:22,000 So you see Terry, who's been really good for the Charlotte Hornets and throughout his career has been a pretty decent playmaker when it comes to scoring. 171 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:27,000 You traded for Kyle Lowry. Now, Kyle Lowry, I think, has had an amazing career. 172 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:32,000 He was on the great, you know, he was on good Raptors teams. He's been a good player on the Heat. 173 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:36,000 But, you know, I think he's starting to age a little bit. He's not playing as many minutes. 174 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:42,000 And I think the Heat, we're looking for that extra piece just because, you know, Jimmy's been a little hurt. 175 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:46,000 The Heat are not playing up to snuff for their own expectations. 176 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:57,000 But I'm never worried about the Heat because as long as they make it into the playoffs, as we saw last year, they can be an A seed and still make an incredibly deep and incredibly long run in the playoffs. 177 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:05,000 And this week, we also had a first or a new high stat total for LeBron James. 178 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:19,000 That's right. In his 21st season of basketball, LeBron had his first 20 rebound game, which is just absolutely crazy that at 39 years old, he is able to still put up these crazy stat lines. 179 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:34,000 He went for 36 and 20, which is just like that's a stat line you rarely see. And then let alone to see it from age 39, LeBron, his longevity is something that I think your kids will talk about, your grandkids. 180 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,000 And if that's not your thing, your puppies and your grand puppies. 181 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:43,000 And if that's not your thing, then just play this podcast over and over again and we'll still be talking about in 50 years. 182 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:47,000 But that is absolutely insane what is LeBron is able to do. 183 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:59,000 But our last storyline of the week, not storyline, but our last big news and notes of the week is that we had our All-Star starters selected. 184 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:10,000 Now, if you're unfamiliar in the middle of February, we're going to have All-Star Weekend where many players who selected for the All-Star game will get to be able to participate in the All-Star game and some other competition. 185 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:21,000 Since there's the three point contest, the slam dunk contest, you don't have to be on an All-Star team to be in those skills challenges, but it's a big fun All-Star weekend. 186 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:36,000 And the top five starters for each conference are announced with a team captain. So in the East, we have Janis Antuka Nkumpo, we have Joellen Bede, Jason Tatum, Tyrese Halliburton, and Damian Lillard. 187 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:47,000 And your captain is Janis. And in the West, we have LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, and Shay Gilgis Alexander. 188 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:55,000 And LeBron is your team captain. So looking at these starters, overall, I think these starters make a lot of sense. 189 00:16:55,000 --> 00:17:03,000 The way that this is determined is through both a fan vote, coach vote, and player vote. And as a result, everyone feels like it's wrong. 190 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:11,000 The players feel like it's wrong because there's input from the coaches and from the fans. The fans feel it's wrong because there's input from the players and the coaches. 191 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:17,000 And the coaches feel it's wrong because there's input from the players and the fans. It's just a great, wide old mess where no one is happy. 192 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:28,000 But I think generally these teams make sense. The only considerations I would make is while I think Dame is an amazing player and his talent is that worthy of an All-Star starter, 193 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:40,000 I don't know if it makes sense, A, to have two bucks who are not even the first seed in the East and not even this, I think they're the second seed now, to have two teams, two players on the starters. 194 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:55,000 And Dame has had some clutch and amazing moments, but I would probably put another player in over him. Right now, if I had to put one, I would kind of lean with Chuck Barkley, Charles, who says that he thinks that Jalen Brunson should have been a starter. 195 00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:04,000 And I agree. I think he is really taking the nicks to the four seed that they're currently in. Julius Randall's been okay this season, but it's really Brunson's team. 196 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:12,000 And I feel like Brunson's really carrying the load and he's just playing great every day and he's efficient. And so that would be my only change in the East. 197 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:19,000 When you look at the West, you have Kevin Durant, which makes a lot of sense. He's playing great from he's playing great from three. 198 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:28,000 You know, I could see if you wouldn't pick him just because the Suns aren't doing as well. Jokic, how do you not pick him? Doncic and Shea. Again, how do you not pick them? 199 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:40,000 And then when we look at LeBron, I love LeBron. I don't know if his season necessarily necessitates to be a a team starter, let alone the team captain. 200 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:49,000 But when you're LeBron and your 21st season and still putting up amazing stats and doing so well, I think it makes sense, especially with a fan vote, why LeBron would be the team captain. 201 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:59,000 But I think if we're being honest and realistic with play, he's definitely an all star and definitely up there. But I don't know if he's in the top five and maybe that's considered a spicy take to some. 202 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:09,000 But, you know, I think it's hard sometimes when you look at these sorts of things as how much does the depth or how good the team around them factor? 203 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:14,000 Do you really want a player that's truly carrying a team, but they have to carry a team because it's so bad? 204 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:22,000 Or do you really care about how well the team is doing in terms of seeding? There's lots of different approaches and how you can and how you can look at this. 205 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:27,000 And I think a lot of voters will have their different perspectives. But those are mine. 206 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:32,000 But as you can, you can expect next week's episode, we're going to talk about the All-Star Reserve players. 207 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:41,000 And those are the players that are picked to also play in the game. And you will get seven more from each conference for a total of 12 NBA. 208 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:48,000 I still think we should have 15 to match the all NBA honors because there's three NBA all NBA teams. 209 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:54,000 We should have the equivalent of three All-Star teams or 15 players is what you have on a full roster anyway. 210 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,000 So NBA, we should get on it. 211 00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:02,000 We're going streaky! 212 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,000 And this week's trend segment, we're going to be looking at two things. 213 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:15,000 First, where do players stand when it comes to the end season words in terms of their games? And does Joelle and Bede keep avoiding the Denver Nuggets? 214 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:22,000 But first, let's look at the games played. So if you're unfamiliar in previous years, you could win any award in the NBA. 215 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:30,000 And there was no threshold for how many games you had to play. You just had to play a certain amount of games that the voters felt was appropriate. 216 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:41,000 But now, as of last year, you have to get at least 65 games in in order to be considered for these awards, such as Defensive Player of the Year, MVP, All NBA, etc. 217 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:48,000 And this is significant to a lot of players due to the fact that many of their contracts are dependent on some of these things happening. 218 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:55,000 You can't have a full supermax contract without getting some of these honors, such as All NBA and things of that nature. 219 00:20:55,000 --> 00:21:04,000 So we're looking at some players, some that are maybe trending towards the right direction or wrong direction, and some players that may surprise you have been very consistent in their play. 220 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:12,000 Keep in mind, we're about halfway through the season and you're only allowed to miss a total of 17 games. So once you hit 18 games, you are done. 221 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,000 So I'm just going to kind of list these players. But this is what it looks like. 222 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:28,000 You have Kyrie Irving, no longer eligible because he's missed 18 games. Jimmy Butler's missed 15 games. Jamal Murray's missed 14. Halliburton's missed 12. Porzingis has missed 12. 223 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:33,000 And I think all of those are in danger of really being close. They don't have a lot of leeway. 224 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:42,000 You have Joel Embiid, who's missed 10 games. Bam Adebayo, Laurie Markkinen, who have also missed 10 games. So they're kind of on that cusp, on that threshold. 225 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:49,000 And then you have Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell and Zion Willison, all at nine games. So they're halfway there. 226 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,000 So they need to miss one less game in the second half than they did in the first. 227 00:21:53,000 --> 00:22:01,000 I mean, Kevin Durant was seven, which seems like it should be fine. But Kevin Durant could, you know, he's unfortunately has a history of sometimes getting hurt. 228 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:07,000 I think back to last year when he tweaked his ankle right before a game, just doing a normal layup. 229 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:13,000 And then you have players, you know, like Draymond Green, who's been suspended and has already missed that threshold. 230 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:22,000 But you also have a couple of players who are normally not considered durable, proving themselves to be durable. 231 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:29,000 First is AD. Now, all of you who called him street clothes these last few years, you are wrong this year. 232 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:33,000 He's played 44 out of 46 games, which is amazing. 233 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:43,000 Then you have Kauai Leonard, who has been known for his sitting and for his, you know, just I can't play rest, you know, sorts of things on my knee. 234 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:48,000 You know, Mr. Load Management himself, he's played 39 of 43 games. 235 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:57,000 And Steph Curry, who hasn't played more than 65 games since 2018, has played 39 of 42 games. 236 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:06,000 And so it'll be interesting for me to see at the end of this season if this new rule really makes it so players play more games and they do less resting over the last few years. 237 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:13,000 And what led to this rule is that players have been resting more in games because they want to rest a little more. 238 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:21,000 Be coaching staffs are a little more worried when you invest a lot of money into a player, you know, should they necessarily play every game in a back to back, right? 239 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,000 These are decisions teams and players make. 240 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:32,000 But the problem is, as a fan and I experienced this this week where I went to a the Lakers and Clippers game and LeBron James did not play. 241 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:35,000 This will be the probably the only Lakers game I get to see this year. 242 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:42,000 And I don't get to see the best or one of the best players all time doing it because he had to sit out that game. 243 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:48,000 And fans feel that pain when they spend a lot of money in order to go to these games and the players sit out. 244 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:57,000 I don't fault the players, but I also don't fault the NBA for trying to encourage players to load manage a little less and actually get involved in what's going on, 245 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:03,000 which leads us to another trend of sitting out, but a little more specific of a trend. 246 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:04,000 We'll listen here. 247 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:24,000 Joel Embiid has not played a game in Colorado against the Denver Nuggets since 2019. 248 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:32,000 And it always seems to be the case that whenever the Nuggets and 76ers play that Joel Embiid has a reason to not play. 249 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:37,000 And that led to the boos that you heard and the chance that you heard from that game. 250 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,000 Now, after the game, Nikola Jokic did his normal pretty gracious self and said, 251 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,000 Joel Embiid's one of the best to do it. 252 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:48,000 And he also referenced this 70 point game earlier this week that he's doing things that are historic, 253 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:56,000 though Mike Malone being Mike Malone took the exact opposite approach and said the NBA should investigate why this keeps happening. 254 00:24:56,000 --> 00:25:08,000 And this has been a big storyline, even dating back to last year, because last year in the final stretch of sort of the heated and contentious MVP race between Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid, 255 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:10,000 they kind of traded off not playing against each other. 256 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:18,000 And it kind of felt like no one wanted to like to I'm going to beat you head to head in order to win the MVP. 257 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:25,000 And Joel Embiid famously sat out a couple of games towards the end, which frustrated a lot of Nuggets and Jokic supporters. 258 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:33,000 And for those who don't know, Jokic had won the previous two MVPs and last year seemed pretty poised to do it for a third time in a row. 259 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:37,000 All his underlying metrics were just as good for the most part as his previous seasons. 260 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:42,000 But Joel Embiid sort of won the what we would call the narrative battle. 261 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:47,000 I do think he was an amazing player and I think him getting MVP was not undeserved. 262 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:52,000 But I do think that the media kind of turned against Jokic for some reason. 263 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:59,000 Now we sort of see the flip side when last year Jokic did not get the MVP, but his team won the championship. 264 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:07,000 And so I think Joel might get clowned a little bit more on this until he actually chooses to play against him against Nikola Jokic. 265 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:09,000 I don't know if he's purposely trying to avoid him. 266 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:13,000 I do think he was genuinely hurt this time, but I can't speak to previous times. 267 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,000 And also, I get it. 268 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,000 I myself wouldn't want to face Big Honey either. 269 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,000 Unless it was with lots of honey. 270 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:24,000 What? 271 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:29,000 That's right. We have a new segment this week where I get to toot toot my own horn. 272 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:34,000 Now, if you're unfamiliar with the show, we have a normal segment called Bobby is a Dum Dum. 273 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:36,000 And it's a fan favorite. 274 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:42,000 In fact, when I talk to people and see them on the street who listen to the show, that is usually the segment they talk about the most. 275 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:45,000 And they start singing the song to me. 276 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:48,000 Bobby is a Dum Dum. 277 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:58,000 And while I want to be a person who always admits when he makes mistakes, I also want to be a person who admits when I do something pretty correct. 278 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:06,000 And the thing I did correct was two weeks ago in week 11, I did a West prediction of how the West was doing. 279 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:13,000 And while I'm not perfect with my prediction because my five and six predictions are currently the seventh and eighth seeds. 280 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:24,000 I just want to say that my predictions for the first, second, third and fourth seed are all currently exactly as I predicted them a few weeks ago when these teams were not in those places. 281 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:34,000 I said that the Nuggets would be in fourth because they're a great team, but they don't necessarily always have to give it their all and don't always have to always do in the regular season. 282 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,000 And they always tend to deal with injuries. 283 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:41,000 I said that the Clippers who are trending up, I think will be my third seed, which they currently are. 284 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:49,000 While the Clippers are going up very fast, they are a couple games behind the first and second teams in the Western Conference. 285 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:53,000 And I also think that, you know, with these players, they've been playing great and gelling great. 286 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:58,000 But when they play against big competition, which so far they've been able to beat. 287 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,000 But I think in the long run, you may see a few more missed games. 288 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:09,000 I could see a world where the Clippers look like they've clinched Kawhi and some of the players have gotten to their 65 game threshold and they relax towards the end. 289 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:14,000 And in second, you have the Timberwolves, which I said were playing great. 290 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:19,000 And I didn't think they would drop down like many players or people sports fans do. 291 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:24,000 A lot of people are worried that they are just all defense and don't have enough offense. 292 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,000 And sometimes people worry about Carl Anthony Towns. 293 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,000 Sometimes people worry about the maturity of Anthony Edwards. 294 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,000 But I think they're both incredibly talented players. 295 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:38,000 A lot of people hate Rudy Gobert, which I think is a bit unfair at times because I think he's a really talented player. 296 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:46,000 And in the first seed, I said because I thought, whoa, this team is doing something pretty crazy is the Oklahoma City Fender. 297 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:52,000 And what stood out to me about them was not only their intensity, but pace of play, but their youth. 298 00:28:52,000 --> 00:29:01,000 And I think their energy really matters a lot in an 82 game season to keep that energy throughout is not necessarily a old man's kind of game. 299 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:05,000 Right. I think that's why you see a lot of teams with more veterans and older players. 300 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:12,000 They tend to try to do their best, but they're OK just kind of getting into the playoffs and doing what they need to. 301 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:18,000 Back in the day, it always felt like teams were playing their darndest and hardest to get to the first and second seed. 302 00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:25,000 But I think teams, especially as evidenced by last year, where an eight seed and a seven seed make it to the respective conference finals, 303 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,000 goes to show that you don't have to try as hard necessarily. 304 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:34,000 And also given you have the play in tournament where the 10th seed and the ninth seed have a chance to make it. 305 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:40,000 I think it makes it that the regular season is kind of watered down, which is a bit unfortunate. 306 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:48,000 However, it played correctly into my hand with these predictions, which is why I wanted to toot toot my own horn. 307 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:57,000 But enough of tooting my own horn. I want to toot your horn consensually, because, you know, if you don't want that, that's fine. 308 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:00,000 No, no, no tooting of horns needs to happen. 309 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,000 But I just want to say thank you to each and every one of you. 310 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:09,000 This is my 14th week doing this podcast, and it's grown in ways I could not imagine. 311 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,000 And people have been supportive in ways I could not imagine. 312 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:17,000 So if you're enjoying this content and want to get more content from me, please check out our YouTube channel. 313 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:22,000 Please check out our Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Feel free to subscribe. 314 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:24,000 Please give us five stars. 315 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:30,000 And as always, you can email us at Omnisports423 at Gmail.com if you have any suggestions. 316 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:41,000 This last week on YouTube, I got my very first bit of fan email and I was ecstatic because I was like, why would a stranger want to talk to me? 317 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:47,000 But they did. Pranay was about Australian football because I pissed off a lot of Australians. 318 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:51,000 In order to see how I did that, you should check out the YouTube. 319 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:56,000 But hopefully I'll see you next week. Thank you and have a great week.