The Bill Simmons Podcast
Curry vs. Klay, the Embiid Situation, Atlanta’s New Look and Cleveland’s Ascent With Dave Jacoby and Kirk Goldsberry
Wed, 13 Nov 2024
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by David Jacoby and Kirk Goldsberry after the NBA Cup games to discuss Klay Thompson’s return to Golden State in the Warriors’ close win over the Mavericks (2:30), the Hawks upsetting the Celtics while not playing Trae Young, Timberwolves–Trail Blazers, whether it’s time to worry about Minnesota (25:50), 76ers-Knicks, rusty Joel Embiid, a Victor Wembanyama check-in, predictions for when the Cavaliers will lose their first game, and more (53:00)! Host: Bill Simmons Guests: David Jacoby and Kirk Goldsberry Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened in the Warriors vs. Mavericks game?
No, the Grady Dick thing looks real to me because it seems like he can create shots for him and other players even in fourth quarters. It doesn't seem fluky to me at all. The RJ thing... You know, he would have these little runs, even on the Knicks, where he would have these little like four or five week where it's like, oh, RJ Barrett. Oh, did you see these numbers the last 11 games?
And then he would dip down. So I don't know if I totally trust him. I think somebody at The Ringer wrote about it this week. I think it was Michael Pina about, I think Castle's really interesting. And I know he's not a leap guy because he's a rookie. But, you know, I thought that was somebody, if I had to gun to my head who's going to win Rookie of the Year, I probably would have picked him.
I didn't feel good about any of the choices. But it feels like there's a lot of room on the ceiling for him. So I feel like he's going to take a leap during the season, potentially. There's a couple Portland guys that I think are in this combo, too. I don't know if you saw tonight. There was some scoot stuff tonight. There was some Scoot stuff.
There was some Scoot beating guys off the dribble, banging off big bodies in traffic moments. There was some defense from Scoot. There was some chemistry. It seems like the whole bench is rooting for him. Anytime he does anything, there's guys jumping off the bench and
Um, that's not, that's not a good sign. My break team does that for me too. Like every time I hit a jump shot, they over celebrate because I'm so bad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's one of those. My confidence. Yeah. It's really annoying.
You know, we, we should talk about the Portland, Minnesota. Cause the, uh, Portland's the weirdest team in the league. They have three legitimate centers. Tonight, Robert Williams was awesome. Aiton didn't play. Klingin comes in. He's really good, too. They have all these swings and guards, and it just seems like it would be a really hard team to coach.
But I think they're a little bit better and a little bit friskier than maybe I expected. And what really happened is they beat Minnesota, who's now 6-5. Have we veered into the, is it time to start worrying about Minnesota stage of the season, Kirk?
Again, I'm going to say no. I think they deserve time to sort of implement their new pieces with Randall and Dante. This is a bad loss, though. You can't lose to that team in the Emirates NBA Cup of all times to lose to a bad team. So I think I would have expected them to win this game. I still think the West is loaded. Again, these aren't the kinds of records.
If they were playing in the East, they would have a much better record. So they're just playing tougher games.
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Chapter 2: What does Klay Thompson's return mean for the Warriors?
And it was there that I found that I'm not good at Golden Tee. I'm just better than the people that happen to be in my proximity. And I watched these men and women play Golden Tee to a level that I was just not ready to be around. And I felt like that's how Joel Embiid was this evening. Because I had much higher expectations for this. Because he played in the Olympics.
There was no reported surgery or injury or anything that serious. He had the suspension, which delayed his comeback even further. And I actually saw him in pregame and his arms were kind of skinny. And I was like, oh, look, he's in shape. But he was me playing professional golden tears tonight. He was not ready for the speed and just the physicality of NBA basketball. I remember one rebound.
bounce off the rim and you watch enough NBA basketball as we do, you're just kind of used to the rhythm of how things work. And it was his rebound. It was a rebound for Joel Embiid. And as a Knicks fan, I'm assuming that we're going the other way. And Kat just kind of circled around it, but grabbed it and put it back. And I was like, what was that? It was like he wasn't even trying.
So this was more of a me problem that I expected so much more from Joel Embiid because he looked like someone who hadn't played for two years and was just kind of like coming back and should have come off the bench.
Yeah, so this was something that became a real problem for them in the playoffs. Him protecting the boards from offensive rebounders, people crashing, people out-hustling him, basically. It was a big reason why the Knicks won that series. Then you go to the Olympics. It was a big reason why Kerr had trouble playing him, even when he was able to score, even when they played Jokic.
Jokic had four fouls, and he put a couple shots, but he was still giving up... the boards and it just, it feels like when you watch him bead, when he, he can still get the shots that he wants, whether they go in or not, whether he's in shape or not, it just seems like he can barrel around, whirl around.
He can get positioned near the basket, but what goes are the protecting his own rim when he's on defense and just the speed of just being able to move around where it just seems like he's, doing this as guys are kind of flying around him.
And then there's a clumsiness that seems to ratchet up when the less in shape he is around the basket where he'll get in position and then he'll just come crashing down. I just... I don't see it. I really feel like there might've been too many injuries for him to come back for at the level that he was at two years from now.
So this has now become one of the big stories of the year is, and people are going to go, well, he's hurt. He's got to play himself back in shape. Well, it's mid-November. You know, the Sixers got eliminated from the playoffs at the end of April. He didn't have to play in the Olympics. He did. I don't know how you can't Why you can't stay in shape when you're rehabbing.
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Chapter 4: Is it time to worry about the Minnesota Timberwolves?
And like, I just felt like he's not the type to get wrapped up in this the way other players would. But when you, you could tell that he was wrapped up in it. And, and as was I, as was I, and the game lived up to it. Like I was very skeptical of this whole, I'm sure we'll talk about the, the Emirates NBA cup and then the whole thing.
But I was just... What is Emirates? Is Emirates an airline? What is it?
It's an airline. It's an airline. They'll take you straight to Abu Dhabi. Yeah. Great. Okay. Good. Good to know. Yeah. And I was skeptical of the whole thing. The entire thing. But I walk away from tonight being like... I don't even have anything to complain about. I really don't.
It was a great six hours. It reminded me of, remember we would always tease Jalen about somebody that we knew he wasn't cool with. And he's like, no, no, we're cool. We're cool. No, no, no, we're fine. I wonder if that's Clay talking about the Warriors. I have no idea how much he talks to those guys.
If you read between the lines with all the Warriors stuff, everyone seemed to think it was time for him to move on. Even the Warriors side, it's like, hey, man, the guy was unhappy last year, which... You know, Kirk, like you spent some time with the Spurs. Kawhi, the situation was a little similar, right?
I mean, it was way more acrimonious, but it hit a point where it's like, all right, this isn't working anymore. It's time for this dude to move on. And it seems like everybody's happy.
But at the same time, when they're going against each other in a playoff game and Curry's doing the night night and, you know, grabbing the golden state chairs, it's like, ah, there's a little bit of a fuck you in this.
Fuck you, but they all have captain's hats on while they're saying fuck you to them, I guess. Dude, the CBA is a very cruel device. It's not a very nostalgic device. And I think... This version of it, Bill, is really just so harsh on teams. And it's so punitive for teams that overspend on players that aren't good enough for numbers. And that's what Clay was getting to.
And dude, I think, forget tonight just for a second. They're 9-2. They won in Boston. They got beat in Cleveland. They won at Oklahoma City. Then they just beat a Dallas team. They're on a hell of a run here. They look deep.
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Chapter 5: What is the current situation with Joel Embiid and the 76ers?
Chapter 6: What are the predictions for the Cavaliers' performance this season?
No, just a bang. You know what I mean? Probably a double bang, a 1.5 bang. It's being overused and it's diluting its effectiveness.
It's being overused because he's winning these major games. He beat Oklahoma City on their home court the other night. He beats Clay tonight. He wins the freaking gold medal. He's not out there overusing it. So can I be the tie-breaking vote?
I love it. I think it's great. It's become almost like a wrestling finishing move now. Now I want it. When he went up four at 25 seconds, I was like, do it.
Do the night-night. Do it. It's great. It's also good because it brings out, like, dad vibes. It's like, go to bed, little child. Night, night. It's just very condescending.
Well, and also it brings back memories to the France game, which was, like, a legitimately great American sports moment. And so every time he does it, I think of that. But I just feel like LeBron must be furious that he didn't think of this. Like, he's probably fired his, like, quirk management, whoever the guy is on his team. Quirk addition management. How did you not give me the night night?
I would have been doing that like 2013.
You gave me a book. You gave me the Godfather. That was supposed to be my thing. You guys are supposed to come up with ideas like this for me.
Why don't I have the night night?
I do this weird stomp thing on my chest. It sucks.
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