Episode 16: When You Have a Wemby
And we’re live, I think.
Live and direct.
Welcome to a new episode of the Red Black Combat Podcast, a podcast that is ostensibly about the rebuilding efforts of the Toronto Raptors and the Portland Trail Blazers, but also about a lot of other things, NBA, WNBA, Portland Fire, Toronto Tempo, global warming, Pacific Northwest, Toronto, Ontario, Portland, Oregon, Portland, Maine.
Never Portland, Maine.
We’re never going to talk about Portland, Maine, unless we talk about Cooper Flag.
My name is Dave.
I’m one of the co-hosts.
I’m usually in Toronto, but right now I’m in Vancouver, BC.
My co-host is named Jonathan.
He is in Portland, Oregon.
How are you doing, John?
I am wet as can be, Dave.
It is so wet.
Okay, this podcast is over, and I don’t think we have the rating for this.
Yes.
No, we’re in the 18 above category already, just because you have to go through audits.
No, we’re good.
Everyone can hear that.
It is so wet.
It is so rainy.
We’ve had storms.
We’re having more storms.
You’re in the Pacific Northwest right now.
Is it wet and rainy where you are?
It’s very wet.
It’s very wet.
It’s funny because last time around, and for our listeners who did not…
If you have an overarching interest in weather patterns and precipitation, listen to our last episode in which John educated me on what an atmospheric river was.
I still don’t really know.
However, in the week between when we recorded last and me being in Vancouver, I heard the term atmospheric river no less than a billion times.
Yes, it’s very wet.
Good.
That means we are both in the same time zone and the same weather pattern.
We have never been closer.
You and I have never been physically closer ever.
This is true.
Do you feel warm in your warm parts?
I do.
I am tingly all over.
Oh, boy.
I’m glad we’re in the 18 and above, otherwise known as the non-Epstein tier of whatever.
NBA.
This is a podcast about the NBA, in case you didn’t know, among other things.
How are you doing, NBA?
How are we doing in the NBA?
What’s going on in the NBA?
What do you want to talk about, John?
Yeah, so one thing that I did not realize the last couple of years, and I don’t know if the NBA changed the schedule around this, but the Commissioner’s Cup, also known as the Emirates Cup, also known as the Khashoggi Cup, this year, I feel like it took over the schedule more than it has in past years.
On the nights when there are cup games…
Past years.
How many…
You said in past years.
Yeah, so this is the third year.
The previous two years, I don’t remember just demolishing the NBA schedule when there were cup games, because this year, I’ve actually felt like there hasn’t been very much basketball the last couple of weeks because the cup games have been going on.
Anyway, I did watch them.
They were actually pretty good games.
They were very competitive games.
Did you get a chance to watch any, Dave?
I watched a lot of them.
I didn’t get to watch the finals between the Knicks and the Spurs because I was on a plane having a four-hour-long panic attack, and that sounds like a joke, but it wasn’t.
I’m not a very good flyer, but I usually am fine, but for whatever reason, the turbulence between Toronto and Vancouver was such that I did not have a good time.
And also, I tried to watch the game.
I have a League Pass subscription, and I tried to watch it on the airplane because we got free Wi-Fi.
Shout out to Porter Airlines.
We got free Wi-Fi, and the previous time we were coming back from the West Coast, I watched a game on League Pass.
I don’t know if I was allowed to do it, stream that game, but I used the Internet that was provided for me, but this time it didn’t work because the game was actually broadcast in Canada, so it was blacked out to NBA League Pass subscribers on a plane or otherwise, and then the streaming platform that I could have watched it on, I used to share with a buddy of mine, and then he switched to a different streaming platform, and now I couldn’t get it.
So I was following along the box score.
My understanding was it was a pretty good game, and the Knicks roared back at the end, and my understanding was that Victor played with a heavy heart because his grandmother died earlier that day, but I’m a huge fan of the NBA Cup.
Do you like the NBA Cup?
Did you watch any?
Instead of posing the question to me, let me pose it to you.
Did you watch NBA Cup games?
What did you think of the NBA Cup games?
I was literally at an NBA Cup game last week in Toronto.
That was the Knicks-Raptors quarterfinal game, right?
Or semifinal?
I don’t know, one of them, whatever.
The Knicks beat the Raptors last Tuesday in Toronto to advance the NBA Cup, and I was there.
So I have definitely watched NBA Cup games.
I have my opinions of the NBA Cup.
What about you?
Did you watch?
Have you watched?
What do you think?
Yeah, so I watched quite a few of them.
I actually have come around.
I didn’t like them at first.
Part of it I’m realizing is some of the reporting that they do on it.
They’re always talking about…
One of the theme lines is always the money that’s attached to it, and it’s just this weird…
It just sort of draws more attention to the fact that the NBA does have a large number of haves and have-nots.
Like, you know, Steph Curry doesn’t really care about the Cup money, but Pat Spencer does, right?
Yeah, but here’s the question.
Within your example, does Steph Curry care about Pat Spencer?
And the answer is obviously yes, right?
Because this is a great opportunity for guys who are on two ways, guys who are on vet minimums or on extended tryout-type deals where they’re the 10th or 11th guy on the team to actually make real bank, right?
Right.
No, I don’t have any problem with the incentive, because I think you’re right.
I think the guys that make the big money, they do care about the other guys on the team.
I do get that.
The thing that just sort of always feels weird to me is how much on the broadcast they keep bringing these facts up, talking about, oh, if they win, it’s no small chunk of change for one game or whatever.
And I’m like, okay, I get it.
The incentive is there, but find something better to report.
Anyway, all that to say that…
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I don’t want to speed through this, because I think this is a very interesting discussion.
No, I’m not.
I’m just saying that my point is that put me off originally, because that was a common talking point.
But…
It seems to me that you have a criticism of the way it’s broadcast and reported and not the tournament itself.
Correct.
No, the tournament itself…
And I think…
Yeah.
The tournament itself, I have come around to actually appreciating because it does give a level of competition that isn’t there without the cup, without the money, without the reward, without the incentive.
I did read, however, that the whole title, the cup champion title banner is something that most teams aren’t excited to hang up in their rafters.
The Knicks reportedly said that there’s no way that they’re going to hang that banner, which I get it.
I mean, that’s not the banner they’re going for.
And they’re a Knicks team that could go for the whole thing.
Well, here’s the thing, right?
So I actually have an opinion about this, and it’s this.
So the three winners of the NBA Cup so far have been the Lakers, the Bucs, and the Knicks, right?
These are three relatively storied franchises, right?
I mean, the Knicks haven’t won a championship since 1973, but they’re still the New York Knicks, right?
And so I understand not hanging the banner, but I’m such a…
And maybe this is just a Canadian in me, by which I only mean I’m not American.
And as such, I do not possess an express pass to the American psyche.
But I really think that not wanting to hang a banner or otherwise commemorate victory in a tournament because it’s not the victory in the tournament is the kind of zero-sum thinking that is not, it’s not healthy in my estimation.
It’s not commensurate with the spirit of…
Because, I mean, to me, it’s like, we have these NBA Cup games and we have these different jerseys and these different courts, and we’re going out of our way to make fetch happen in Mean Girls parlance, right?
And we do it, and people show up.
I was at the Raptors game against the Knicks last Tuesday, and we got these really, like, every chair had a rally towel on it, and the towels were actually pretty nice.
You know, I grabbed a couple off seats that were not being occupied for buddies of mine because I thought it was a nice little thing to grab this chair with a friend or send to a buddy.
A buddy of mine in one of my Dynasty Leagues found a Vancouver Grizzlies T-shirt in a thrift store, and he’s mailing it to me, so I’m going to send him one of the towels.
And anyways, the whole thing is like a pageant.
There’s pageantry associated with it, right?
There’s these different courts and these different jerseys and all of this little merch and all of this, you know, oh, this is how much so-and-so makes and so-and-so makes or whatever.
And then you finish it, and then watch a lot of Spurs games.
And so one of the things I was telling him was that I’m a huge fan of Dylan Harper already.
I drafted him in one of my Dynasty leagues.
But he’s Ron Harper’s son and he came to the league at 19, second overall pick after doing one year at Rutgers.
And he already has that sort of like plays like a veteran thing.
And then I was saying, and Ryan was not particularly familiar with Stefan Kass’s game either because again, like, you know, he’s a busy guy.
He really only has time to pay attention to the teams he watches in San Antonio, just as one of those teams.
So it’s fine.
But I was talking about like, watch the way he does this.
Watch the way they do this.
Watch the way whatever.
And, you know, because, you know, Harper and Kassel are just the next version of…
San Antonio always has like a two-guard thing.
For a while, it looked like it was going to be DeJuante Murray and Derek White.
And that was good, but it wasn’t matured yet.
And they basically traded DJ away before it could mature.
And obviously they traded Derek White to Boston, who knew exactly how to use him.
Right?
But essentially, Harper and Kassel are the next coming of White and Murray or Parker and Ginobili.
And I know that that is very high praise, but I assume that this is why you take a guy fourth overall and a guy second overall, right?
Like you want these guys to be franchise cornerstones, and they both happen to be guards.
Anyway, so we’re watching this game and we’re watching the fact that like whenever the game got tough, whenever it looked like Oklahoma City was going to Oklahoma it and be like, oh yeah, we’re like this remorseless killing machine like Nibbler in Futurama or Kirby, who is a remorseless killing machine.
Kirby, by the way, is a remorseless killing machine and I want everybody to know that.
But we were watching Oklahoma try to get into their Oklahoma, we’re better than you, we’re going to eliminate you off the face of the earth with extreme prejudice and targeting and mathematics and subterfuge and witchcraft.
And San Antonio was like, yeah, okay, sure, whatever.
We’re going to punch you in the face when you do that to us.
And they just kept on coming back.
They didn’t hang their heads.
They didn’t get down on themselves.
And that’s how you beat Oklahoma City.
You don’t give in to the idea that this team is infallible.
You just keep playing.
Also, for what it’s worth, Oklahoma City shot 24% from three in that game.
They shot 9-37.
And we watched, because remember, when we didn’t start that game, Cornette started that game at center for San Antonio.
And when we came in and if you watch the Wemby minutes, the way that just his presence on the court changed every shot.
It was like one of those things that it’s just like you got to know what you’re looking at to appreciate it.
But once you appreciate it on that level, you were just going to see so much beauty in basketball and you’re going to see so much detail in every single play when you truly understand how one guy just being on the court changes the way five other guys do stuff on the other team.
The way that they changed everything and couldn’t play their game properly.
And my thing is like, did San Antonio just give the league a blueprint to beating OKC?
Because you say if it’s a seven-game series, OKC wins, sure.
But it wasn’t a seven-game series and they lost.
And I think that the NBA as a whole gains from San Antonio beating them because all of a sudden, psychologically, metaphysically, whatever, the unbeatable team is, in fact, quite beatable.
You just have to play a really, really good, solid 48 minutes of basketball.
No, I disagree on that being a blueprint because, I mean, it’s a blueprint if you have a 7'4", 7'6", however tall he is, guy that can basically cover the entire middle of the court by himself.
Because OKC’s entire offense is they try to score within the first 8 to 10 seconds and they do that by slashing into the lane and then if they get covered, doubled, they immediately kick out to their three-point shooters on the outside.
Boom.
But when you have a Wembe on the court, you don’t have to double as much.
He could go down as one of the all-time best defensive players the league has ever seen.
Obviously, it’s still a little early to give him that crown, but he certainly has the skills and the physique to do it.
So I think blueprint, I mean, blueprint, yes, in terms of just keep at it, don’t give up.
I mean, I will say the only other team to beat OKC this year was Portland and that is one of the things in Portland’s DNA that is nice to see as a fan, bringing this back to Portland, Toronto, but it is nice to see in Portland’s DNA is that every single game they don’t give up.
They’ve only been blown out of two games and part of that is just because even when they’re down 22, they keep playing hard and I think that was something you saw with San Antonio and OKC.
Well, so do you think that that Portland thing is Tiago Splitter?
Do I think it’s Tiago Splitter?
Hard to say.
I mean, at this point, it’s really difficult to say how much the team is in Tiago Splitter’s image and how much the team is in Chauncey Billup’s image.
You know, Chauncey spent three years, four years with this team, you know, crafting what it should look like, how they should play.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
Well, I don’t want you to know.
I want you to…
It’s really tough because we started the year incredibly well.
Obviously, that was all Chauncey’s direction from the beginning.
The first three, four, five games, Tiago was, you know, trying to just keep the boat going the same direction.
Now we’re a third of the way through the season.
We’ve got like 40% of our roster out on the injured reserve.
We have no point guards.
Some nights, we don’t have any centers.
So it’s really difficult to look at the team’s performance and say, well, if Chauncey was here, he’d be doing better.
I don’t think he would be.
I’m not sure any coach realistically could be.
I do think Tiago from the in-game X’s and O’s is a better coach than Chauncey was.
Chauncey was terrible at in-game decisions.
I know that he had a lot of respect in the locker room and I know that a lot of the culture things definitely go back to him, but I spent the last few years just pulling.
I don’t have any hair, but pulling my imaginary hair out, watching him make terrible decisions in-game.
Tiago clearly makes better decisions, but we’ll see.
There’s still room for improvement.
There’s one story I want to tell you real quick, Dave.
So I was at the Golden State game a couple days ago, the Blazers and Golden State.
It was in Portland.
And Steve Kerr, I mean, no duh, yes, he’s an amazing coach, one of the all-time best coaches in the NBA, but I saw something that I’ve never seen before and it clearly was a play that Golden State has run and has practiced.
So the Blazers were up by five and actually were up by four and Shaden Sharper shooting a free throw and there’s only like 18 seconds left.
So obviously Golden State is in the scramble rush score points as quickly as they can foul and or hopefully get a turnover.
And so Sharpe shot the second of two free throws.
It went in and Podzemski, however you say his name.
Podzemski.
Podzemski, as soon as the ball went through the net, he rushed to the baseline and chucked the ball the entire length of the court.
And what had happened is they had run this play.
I went back and watched the video and checked it out.
I didn’t see which player it was, but one of the players for Golden State was basically down by the Golden State bench pretending to be on the bench.
He was still on the court, so it was legal.
So it was like a reverse Grand Theft Alvarado?
Yes, it was a sneak play.
Sorry, John.
I just want to interrupt for a second.
Can you tell me what game this was?
Because I’m going to find this play in my league pass video for you.
Yeah, yeah, sure.
So it was Golden State against Portland.
It was, what, four days ago, five days ago?
All right, I’m in it.
So keep on going.
I’ll find it for you.
And you want to go to about 18 seconds left in the game?
Yeah, you know, I know.
I know.
I was listening to you.
Yeah.
Anyway.
I understood.
So, but what happened again, Sharp made the second free throw.
They inbounded it immediately.
He was chucking the ball from out of bounds while he was still moving out of bounds.
Chucked it the entire way.
The guy that was pretending to be out of bounds, to not be on the court, obviously caught the ball and scored the basket, and it took, I think, maybe half a second or a second off the clock.
And the crazy thing was they did it with such intentionality that it clearly is a play that they had practiced.
And to me, that’s crazy.
Like, I can almost guarantee you nobody, there’s no Blazers play equivalent of that.
Yeah, but there can be.
There could be.
watch them labor in the half court.
It was old school Raptors basketball where you spend 14 seconds getting into your action and then ISO to your best player who clangs one.
Right?
So we live and die based on our point guard play because the complaint in Toronto forever was that we suck in a half court.
We make so much of our we make we hit so many of our shots.
We score so many of our points in transition.
Right?
And that’s a good way to win games sometimes, but it’s not a strategy for winning an NBA championship.
It’s not a strategy for being a 60 win team.
Right?
And we have, you know, like there’s always I talk about this a lot with my friends.
Every professional sports team, there are tropes that exist within professional sports.
New York Yankees are always going to have a bunch of sluggers.
Pittsburgh is always going to have a running.
Pittsburgh is going to be a rushing attack first.
Giants are going to be a rushing attack first.
Atlanta Braves, LA Dodgers are always going to have great pitching.
These are the tropes.
And the trope for the Raptors is always that they’re an overachieving team that plays good defense, is opportunistic and capitalizes on turnovers.
And watching the Raptors turn trope turn from that to, hey, look at how much goddamn skill we have.
Let’s just try to score 140 and play aggressive defense.
I like this much better.
However, if you don’t have your point guard and R.J.
Barrett’s absence is so noticed, at least by me, because he is such a good passer and he is like a tertiary scorer.
Right?
Like our main score is Brandon Ingram.
R.J.
Barrett is probably our second best pure scorer.
But is he the second guy you look to on offense?
Not really.
Is he a great passer?
Yes.
But does he facilitate?
Does he run the offense?
No.
Does he facilitate a lot?
Yes.
I think Brandon Ingram and R.J.
Barrett are perfect bookends to each other in a way.
But I think that once R.J.
comes back and once we’re fully healthy, I think you’ll see us return to that place where we look like we could do some damage because we’re a very good offensive team that is having injury travels.
I think that’s what it is.
I’m still a huge fan of what we’re doing.
I still think we’re on the right track.
I still think the East is wide open for a team to step into that power vacuum that has been filled by tumult and issues in Milwaukee and Philadelphia and strangely enough in Cleveland.
Again, I’m going to go back to this.
The Cavs look terrible.
Yeah.
And I don’t know why, but the vibes are off.
Mobley’s hurt now for a month.
And people, including myself, are sitting there going like, oh, it was Jordan Ott.
Take Jordan Ott away from that team.
All of a sudden they can’t do shit.
Right?
I’m not the only one who’s noticed this because the thing is all of a sudden that team just doesn’t have the fire.
And Kenny Atkinson’s a great coach.
So what’s the problem?
What’s the real difference from last year?
Oh, they traded Okoro for Alonzo Ball.
That’s not a move-the-needle move.
They brought basically everybody back.
Right?
So what’s the problem in Cleveland?
I think that we’re going to see Cleveland make a huge trade in the second half.
By the deadline, I think that there’s something that just doesn’t work.
And my guess is it’s that Garland and the Mitchell backcourt.
Garland is always on the trade block.
I don’t really know why.
I think his game is wonderful.
But I don’t think those two coexist well.
And I also don’t think that – I think that there was an expiry date on the two big frontcourt.
Right?
Because the thing is Allen and Mobley are complementary pieces.
They don’t do the same thing.
So they can occupy the floor at the same time.
Allen’s actually been hurt more this season than anybody could have possibly imagined because he’s pretty sturdy.
And when he’s been hurt, it was his fingers.
So he’s actually looked really bad out there.
He had like 14-7 the other day.
It was the first good game he’s had in a minute because he was out for like a week, week and a half.
But yeah, I think that Toronto – I think that Toronto – I think that every team wins some games that they shouldn’t and loses some games that they should win.
And I think that that’s all we’re really looking at right now.
And I think that these are all learning opportunities.
And I think the vibes are still very strong in Toronto.
I think the team still loves playing with each other.
I think that we’re going to see a couple of moves.
What I don’t love is that we’re in every – oh, are the Raptors going to trade for Anthony Davis?
Oh, are the Raptors going to trade for LaMelo Ball?
Oh, are the Raptors going to trade for – it’s like, well, you know, I don’t know why we keep getting attached to things.
The Toronto Raptors have not pulled off like – you know, we got rid of OG and Siakam a year too late.
So I definitely think that there’s something going to happen in the East soon because of exactly – But I don’t think it’s going to be with us.
I would be very surprised if the Raptors traded for Pirtle – sorry, traded Pirtle and Barrett for like Anthony Davis because why?
What’s the point?
We’re not going anywhere soon.
The exact reasons you just listed, like outside of New York, every other team in the East feels like they could make – they’re one or two pieces away from being able to take the East.
And I think it’s happening.
I will make a prediction here that does tie back to the Blazers.
I make a prediction that by February, Jeremy Grant will be on a team in the East.
He has a really high price tag, but I think there’s some teams that are desperate.
Maybe it’s Milwaukee.
Maybe it’s Cleveland.
I don’t know.
They’re willing to go for Jeremy Grant and his price tag because the thing about his price tag is the longer you wait, the lower it actually – the lower it gets.
Yeah, no, because $30 million on a bigger salary cap doesn’t take up as much room of the cap.
I get that part.
But what I want to know is why you think it’s going to go to the East.
Because I think the teams in the East are more willing – I think there’s – because OKC is so dominant, because the Spurs are on the rise, I think the teams in the West are less willing to push all their chips in and see what happens because you’ve got to be careful.
If you push all your chips in too soon and it doesn’t work out, then you’re screwed for years to come.
I think the teams in the East though because it is so wide open are willing to go, well, even if we don’t win the championship, if we win the East, that’s still something.
Yeah, but you don’t hang the banner, right?
You can hang the Eastern banner and you get – That was just a callback.
I know.
I know it is.
OK, but here’s the thing.
So let me go back.
OK, so Jeremy Grant makes like $30 million a year.
I think it was five years, 150, right?
But it’s not just like, OK, well, we want Jeremy Grant.
All right, well, give us a couple of candy bars and a quart of milk.
Where do you think – OK, it won’t be in Milwaukee.
I’ll tell you why it won’t be in Milwaukee because Milwaukee has nothing anybody wants.
Yeah, no.
Right?
My prediction is it’s going to be a multi-team trade and I don’t know where – Sure.
OK, but the thing is like, OK, let’s actually go through your thing.
You think it’s going to be an East contender who sees – or an East team that’s good that wants to go to great territory.
They need that one more piece to make some really like joyful noise in the playoffs.
I mean to me there’s a very obvious team that you have not brought up and I just don’t understand why.
I mean there’s lots of teams.
I mean – No, there’s one team.
There’s one team that you have not brought up even a little bit in this.
You brought up the Knicks.
You brought up the Bucs.
No.
I mean Orlando.
You shouldn’t shake your head at me because that’s a very realistic possibility.
Sure, but who does Orlando send out?
I don’t know.
Suggs and a couple draft picks.
I don’t know.
They’re never going to trade Suggs.
Whatever.
You think that they’re going to send the Gonzaga guy back to the Pacific Northwest?
Is that your narrative in your head?
No, no.
I think it’s a multi-team trade.
I mean I wouldn’t be surprised if Boston tries to get out some bad assets.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Indy sends some stuff out.
I don’t know.
I’m not a trade master, but I can read the wins, which is there is some desperation in the East, and there aren’t very many teams in the West that are willing to give up a player of Grant’s caliber outside the Blazers.
You don’t need a player of Grant’s caliber.
You need a salary cap.
You need a salary match.
No, no.
What I’m saying is there aren’t very many teams in the West that are willing to let go of a player midseason of Grant’s caliber outside the Blazers.
Yeah.
No, I understand that completely, but my assumption would be that if Jeremy Grant got traded to a team in the West, it would not be a straight, well, Jeremy Grant is a 7 out of 10 guy, so I need a 7 out of 10 guy.
Portland will be trading him to get off his salary and to get prospects back, right?
Because Portland