Saturday Slam N JamAndrew Schlecht and Alex Speers hand out their quarterly Slammie Awards including: League Pass Team of the 1st Quarter, Say What? Stat of the 1st Quarter, They did what now? Award, "Now THIS is gonna be fun" award, and many more. Then in Part 2 John Hollinger of the Athletic joins the show to discuss some of his observations a quarter way through the season and discuss his new book the Basketball 100. Then the guys play a fun edition of Andrew vs. The Beat.Host: Andrew Schlecht and Alex SpeersWith: John HollingerExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Jake KleinbergSubmit your questions to The Athletic NBA Daily mailbag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5939460/2024/11/25/nba-podcast-mailbag-athletic-daily/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What are the top NBA stories of the week?
welcome to the saturday slam and jam here on the athletic nba daily on today's show we're talking top stories of the week our quarterly slamy awards and john hollinger stops by to talk about his new book the basketball 100 by everybody here at the athletic it's a great great book suggest that you go pick it up now but to start with al tell me what the top stories in the nba were this week
Well, Andrew, the top story this week was the conclusion of group play in the NBA Cup. We have our Elite Eight, who will now move on to the elimination round. In the East, we've got Orlando going to Milwaukee and Atlanta going to New York. In the West, it's Dallas OKC and Golden State Houston. BetMGM has the Thunder and Knicks tied for the best odds at plus 300, but don't...
Don't overlook my Atlanta Hawks.
Is that our bet MGM line of the week?
Is that our bet MGM line of the week right there, Al? Yeah, and I'm going to give you my pick right now, Andrew, because the Atlanta Hawks have the worst odds at plus 1,800, but are exactly the type of weird team that could do this.
Just to get this far, the Hawks had to get out of a group that featured Boston and Cleveland, two teams who have seven losses combined, three of which came at the hands of the mighty Hawks. So crazy. Speaking of Celtics and Cavs, now they might be out of the race for the NBA Cup, but they can still win the second most prestigious trophy this season, the Larry O'Brien.
And this week, we got round two of Celtics-Cavs, this time in Cleveland. Down by 12 entering the fourth quarter, the Cavs would outscore the Celtics 43-27, including 20 from Donovan Mitchell in the quarter to win 115-111. Now, it should be noted that Boston played without two starters, Jalen Brown and Derek White, but
they did have Chris Stapps Porzingis back who scored 21 in the loss and played a season high 32 minutes the Cavs are now 20 and 3 which is incredible on its own even more incredible that they could be 22 and 1 if they could just beat those damn Atlanta Hawks
Those Atlanta Hawks have won five in a row, including a win over the Milwaukee Bucks, who had previously been on a seven game winning streak. The Bucks season has finally normalized as they've clawed their way back to 11 and 10 fifth spot in East. Giannis is leading the league in scoring.
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Chapter 2: Who is the League Pass Team of the 1st Quarter?
He's almost double his previous high. That is, I don't know what to do with that number. I mean, it's incredible. It is going to be a major talking point as we start getting to award season. And we're talking about him winning his potential fourth MVP. Because what he's doing right now with arguably his worst bench ever is just killing it every time he is on the court.
Yeah, the fix is in right now. Calvin Booth, you know what? Everybody's like, what's Calvin Booth doing? How can he do this? You know what? He made the bench so bad to make Jokic look so good that he's going to win his fourth MVP. The fix is in. Way to go, Calvin. So, Andrew, what is your say what stat of the first quarter? Okay, this stat made me say what?
And it's about the thunder and how disruptive they are on defense. And now, like, everybody knows, like, this is a team that thrives off transition. They get a lot of steals. They're second in charges. They're first in defensive loose balls recovered. There are a couple stats that made me say what? I said, what?
They're at 21.4 deflections per game, which is the highest number since they started tracking this stat. The highest last season. Remember, they're 21.4. The highest last season for deflections was 16.3 per game. The current record, which is held by the 1617 Warriors, is 18.7. The Thunder are currently at 21.4. They are just demolishing that record.
And then, like, if you just go to steals, just not an advanced stat, just how many steals they're getting per game. Per game. 12 steals per game for the Thunder right now, which seems super sustainable. Whenever you watch them play with the players that they've got, you add Alex Caruso to this mix who hasn't even played that much. Like, absolutely.
They can keep that up out since the ninety nine two thousand season. How many teams have had double digit steals per game? One. It's not one. Five. It is four. Four teams since ninety nine two thousand have had average double digit steals. It's the 1920 Bulls that average 10 per game. It's the 1516 Rockets that averaged 10 per game. It's the 0506 Bobcats who averaged 10 per game.
And it's the 02036ers who averaged 10 per game. Al, none of those got none of those teams even cracked 11 steals per game. And the Thunder are currently at 12. The Thunder are doing something defensively that no team has done really ever. And so I just it made me say what? Because, like, you know, like inherently like watching this team night in night out, though. Yeah.
They're disruptive, all these things like, wow, that's great. They are a historically disruptive team and maybe the most disruptive team on the defensive end in the history of the NBA.
Yeah, and it's not as bad as last season, but they need those steals because their rebounding still isn't great. I'm looking at clean the glass right now. Their offensive rebound rate has improved. They're 22nd in the league, but their defensive rebounding rate is still pretty low. They're 29th, only ahead of Portland.
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Chapter 3: What is the Say What? Stat of the 1st Quarter?
That might be the case. I don't think anyone was saying this is going to be fun.
Well, even people who liked it or whatever the case, people would talk themselves into it. People would really talk themselves into like this team being good. And this is going to be fun. Lakers about 20 games in. We're about 500. And that's where the Timberwolves sit. Not fun at all. Like, it just does not feel fun. You have stuff going on.
on the court, you have Anthony Edwards talking off the court. They've had a couple, you know, nice. They had a really nice win against the Clippers where they completely blew them out. They, they beat the hapless Lakers by a ton as well, but still, it just doesn't quite feel like the season that we thought they'd have.
They, you know, they're coming off a conference finals appearance and it feels like they have fallen back in the pack, you know, and I don't know that's, this is the thing that I just don't know about this Timberwolves team is they, what did they hang their hat on? Like last year, they were the best defensive team by a large margin this season.
They're sixth and they're not far from being outside the top 10. And so like, what, what do they hang their hat on? What are they? They're not a great offensive team and really weren't last season either. And so I, I just don't really know if you are the Minnesota Timberwolves, what is your identity? And I, a lot of this was planning for the future of Anthony Edwards.
Well, I just don't know that the players that they got, you know, specifically Julius Randall is the exact kind of player that kind of clogs the lane. You know, Anthony Edwards has not taken many shots at the rim this season in comparison to last year, years before he's taken way more threes.
And I think some of that is good, certainly because he shot it so well, but also I think that it's, it's really just gumming up their offense and, Because there's nowhere to go. You're playing with two bigs that need to kind of be in the middle. I think it's a problem. And so I just wonder if they're able to get that identity back in some way.
But being 16th in offense is way harder whenever you're just a pretty good defense, which is what they are today. And it's just not fun at all. Like the Timberwolves have not been fun. And they have one of the most fun players in the NBA on their squad. And they have somehow kind of messed this up and taken two steps back.
You know, we have one category coming up later, bold prediction. I almost made... the Timberwolves having an amazing run, one of my bold predictions, I eventually chickened out. But I will say, over their last six games, Perkley and the Glass, they've been the number one defense, and it's been by a wide margin.
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Chapter 4: Which team had the biggest surprise this season?
If they beat them, I'll shut up, okay? I'll shut up. They're good. Great. They can be a contender. But there's a reason why the Grizzlies have the toughest remaining strength of schedule in the league by a wide margin. Their schedule so far has been cake. Basketball reference has their schedule as the easiest schedule in the league so far as a Western Conference team.
So to be clear, Grizzlies are good. I just don't understand how you can say they are a contender based on this schedule. What have they done that has so impressed you? Was it beating the Lakers? Was it beating the Bucs when they couldn't win a game?
Like, what have they done that is so impressive? I actually have something later for you that I'll save it. And I do have a rebuttal to this. And I'll save it. A Grizz rebuttal.
Okay, so Andrew, who's the player team whose hot start you are not buying?
I just talked so glowingly about the Clippers, but it's Norman Powell. He's 50.7% from three, 23, two and two. He's currently 22nd in points per game in the NBA. Tell me this. How many players in the top 100 in scoring this season are shooting 50% or better from three?
One, Norm Powell.
It's actually more than that. Okay, well. It's three. It's Nikola Jokic, who's shooting 50%. Wow. It's Aaron Gordon, who doesn't really count because he's only played 10 games, and it's Norm Powell. It's basically Jokic and Norman Powell. That's the list of players in the top 100 of scoring. So it's not even like, hey, the top 10 players or the top 25 players or whatever. No, it's like 100 players
100 players. There's only two guys that are shooting that well. It's going to cool off. It will. I just know it. He's never shot this well. Nobody that scores this much shoots this well. Nobody does it. Nobody does it. Jokic won't do it, and certainly Norman Powell won't do it. That number will be zero by the time we get to the end of the season.
What, you think his three-point percentage is going to be zero?
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Chapter 5: What are the biggest disappointments of the season so far?
OK, now over the Mavs, over the Warriors, over the Rockets.
Yeah. Over all these teams. And I think I look at. So, yes, they haven't beaten anybody. They haven't been that impressive, but they also have missed some of their key guys a ton of minutes. Here's their top five guys in total minutes played this season. Santi Aldama is the number one player in total minutes played at 635. Jaron Jackson Jr.
Jalen Wells, their second round rookie, is third in total minutes played. Scottie Pippen Jr. is fourth. And then Jake LaRavia, a guy that they said, you know what? Not picking up your option. And they kind of have messed up a little bit here just because LaRavia has actually been really good. A shot at well and has played well. Like that's our top five guys in minutes played.
You know, that's not their best players. And so if this team can get healthy. I just think there is a ceiling here for this team that we've seen in the past with a John Morant, Jaron Jackson Jr. team. And I think we haven't really seen what this team looks full strength with Marcus Smart in the lineup.
They found somebody in Jay Huff as well, this older veteran that seems new to everybody, but he's already 26 years old, but is playing really well for them. I just feel like they found enough guys and they have the stars in in John Morant and Jaron Jackson that I think that they could very well be that team.
I mean, it wasn't that long ago that we thought of this team as like one of the best teams in the West. And I think that they will cement themselves as that by season's end.
All right. All right. Well, that's very exciting, Andrew. We're kind of going head to head on the Grizz. Now, to be fair, I just want to see them play some good teams in the West on the road and beat them. I do think they're good. They're obviously very deep. They're an incredibly deep team. I just can we see it, Andrew? Can we see it? That's all I'm asking for.
Yeah.
Yeah. So, Andrew, next up, we're not doing Nuggets. We're extending Nuggets to three weeks, the longest Wheel of Fandom week ever. They haven't even been that good. I kind of felt bad because when we picked them, we were on this incredible run of teams just being terrible on Wheel of Fandom. They haven't been great either.
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Chapter 6: What bold predictions can we make for the rest of the season?
Oh, Keon. Shout out to Keon. Shout out to Keon. Okay, John, you have control of the board. Only down by one. Let's go with Joe Theismann's number seven. Question number seven. Oh, this is a fun one. Through 20 games, rookie Jared McCain has scored 329 points among active players. Only 15 scored as many points through their first 20 games in the league. And we're going to name them all.
So how this works, John, you'll give me a name. Then Andrew will give me a name and we'll go back and forth. Till one of you stumbles. So these are players who in their first 20 games as NBA rookies scored at least 329 points and they're active players. All right. LeBron James. Guess what? LeBron James scored exactly 329 points in his first 20 games. Just made the cut. All right, Andrew.
Over to you. Paolo. Apollo was number two, Andrew. Back to John.
Luka Doncic.
Luka is on the list. Back to Andrew. Let's see. Anthony Davis? Anthony Davis...
Andrew, that is incorrect. He did not score as many points as Jared McCain. Wow. That is wild. John, do you have any other guesses? Any other names you want to throw out there? Zion Williamson. He was number one on the list. Zion scored the most points.
um anyone else you guys want i mean these a lot of easy names i would say all right here's here's one that i think people wouldn't think of but i think he's gonna end up on the list uh deandre ayton deandre ayton on the list on the list more than anthony davis the uh the funniest name on this list is just ahead of lebron kyle kuzma kyle kuzma did it uh I don't even know what to say.
I just don't even know what to say. The other names are all pretty obvious. Kevin Durant, Benedict Matherin, if you remember the start of his rookie season was crazy. Wemby, Damian Lord, John Moran, Ben Simmons, Embiid, Kyrie Irving, and Chet did it. So now John is ahead. Ben Simmons did it. Yes, sir.
Ben Simmons more than Anthony Davis. I'm like, I don't even know.
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