NBA Friday Focus: Hawks vs. Pistons & Timberwolves vs. Warriors

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00:00Let's get the latest of the NBA as we head to another weekend with, by the way, less football

00:05than we've had in quite some time because college football is, of course, now waiting on the college

00:09football playoff and bowl season. So a lot of focus on the NBA and some college hoops who better

00:12to talk to than that than our very own Coach Young joins us here on the show. JY, it was great to see

00:17you earlier this week. Feels like a while ago, but it was just a few days ago at our holiday soiree.

00:23Great to catch up. Okay, so where do we start here? I guess we start with the Denver Nuggets

00:28blowing out the Kings, but everybody is doing that, Coach. So I guess we could start there.

00:33How are you? It was good to see you on Monday night, Craig. And listen, at the end of the

00:39day, you have two teams that literally pass each other like ships in the night. You have

00:44a Denver Nuggets team that's playing fantastic basketball with David Adelman. That's Rick

00:50Adelman's son as the head coach, really just going into Sacramento and doing what everyone

00:55does, which is take the beam and throw it out the window because it ain't been lit since

01:01they fired Mike Brown. And they have an interesting dilemma that they have in Sacramento, right?

01:07I really feel like this is the point where you have to blow it up and start over. You

01:12have guys, Sabonis without one injury, you have DeRozan, you have Zach Levine, you have

01:18Malik Monk. You have guys that are that are tradable assets, Craig. You cannot look at this

01:24team and tell me, OK, we could ticker the roster with the same core and make a run at

01:33this point with these guys mostly with two years left on their deal. The best thing for

01:37Sacramento to do is to make trades, move guys out of there and start over.

01:44I think right now, the way that it looks like the Kings are headed, I think that that's a

01:48great piece of advice. I don't know that they're listening, though, with all of this losing

01:51that they've had over the last decade or two or three. Speaking of losing the L.A. Clippers.

01:57All right. So they covered a spread here, coach. That's the good news. The bad news is that they

02:01lose again this time to the Houston Rockets. The Rockets, of course, way better than the

02:05Los Angeles Clippers. But it feels like, coach, to me, and maybe you could correct me if I'm

02:09wrong, that every time the Clippers play and they lose, it becomes more about them than the

02:16team that beats them. And I feel like we're here again today just sort of wondering, is

02:20this a lost season for the Clippers? We know where Houston's going to be. They're going to

02:24be in the playoffs.

02:26I'll take everyone back to a point in the game. I think there were up, down three, no

02:34timeouts with a veteran roster with Nicholas Patu taking the ball out of bounds and James

02:39Harden have to catch it. They have no timeouts. They could call for a five-second call.

02:46Craig, that doesn't happen in the NBA. They are a mess. And now that Chris Paul is gone,

02:54you can't blame it on Chris Paul. You have to look at the entire organization as a failure.

03:01I thought they were going to be extremely good because I think Ty Lue's one of the best

03:04coaches in the league. Well, obviously, it's not happening this year. So this is another team

03:08with Steve Ballman that's invested so much as they went to the stadium that they have to

03:15look at. What are they going to do with this roster? They have no tradable assets. To be

03:22honest with you, maybe Ivanka Zubac gets you something, but you have to start over. It's

03:27really a sad situation. And you want to talk about people that should be on the firing block?

03:32Let's talk about Lawrence Frank. How about the fact that their pick in the first round goes

03:38to the Thunder, who got SGA, Jalen Williams, and this pick, along with two other players,

03:45all involved in that SGA for Paul George trade? They need to blow it up as well. And Lawrence

03:52Frank, respectfully, good coach for the Nets, needs to be shown the door.

03:56I think it's going to happen after the season, but teams are hesitant to do the GM stuff in the season

04:02for the most part. Okay, Celtics and Bucs, the biggest upset of the season for Milwaukee,

04:09and unfortunately, the toughest loss of the season, I would say, for the Celtics. I mean,

04:13JY, anytime you have a team that's like double-digit favorites, this isn't supposed to happen. But

04:17Kevin Porter had a triple-double, 18 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists. Milwaukee picks up the win

04:23without Giannis. We haven't seen that this often, but if Milwaukee wants to sort of stay in the hunt,

04:30they're going to need to pick up some of these wins, right?

04:33Well, it's absolutely the ability to score. Listen, their defense was outstanding. It's

04:37something I thought they would struggle with. But when you look at Milwaukee, you have to realize,

04:41number one, they lead the NBA in three-point shooting percentage, and they shot 45% from three.

04:46So right then and there, you give yourselves a chance if you're able to win the game at the three-point

04:52line. They didn't win in regards to makes, but they made it in percentage. And then you have to

04:56look at that guy, Bobby Portis, as a veteran, giving you 27 points and 10 rebounds as well,

05:01along with Kyle Kuzma with 31 points. So it was really a three-headed monster. And when you have

05:07Giannis out, it's got to be scoring by committee. Kuzma, KPJ, Bobby Portis, pick up the slack.

05:15Milwaukee, I'm still not expecting much. It'll be interesting to see what Giannis may be asking out.

05:21Do you do a full-scale rebounds as well? Because as veterans, Bobby Portis, Kyle Kuzma will both be

05:28players that can get you something at the deadline, young assets, maybe draft capital for a team looking

05:34for scoring off the bench. Coach, let's get a preview or two if we can tonight in the NBA. We'll

05:39talk about one of the best teams in the league, Detroit, especially in the East, seven and a half

05:42point favorites, taking on the Atlanta Hawks, total of 233 and a half. I'm seeing some strange rest days

05:49for teams. Maybe it has to do with the NBA Cup, but the Hawks haven't played in six days. That seems

05:54like a long time in the NBA. So maybe that helps them tonight in Detroit. What do you think?

05:59Well, it's going to be an interesting matchup because you look at a team like Atlanta's playing

06:03really, really well. And you got to look at the fact of, you know, Jalen Johnson really establishing

06:09himself to me as someone that could make a run towards the all-star game. But Detroit winners of

06:16four of the last five, there's too many injuries besides Trey Young being out. Christoph Porzingis,

06:21that means Jalen Dorn is having a borderline, I think, 20 and 10, 20, 11 season. That's going to

06:27be a bad matchup for them. Give me Detroit minus a point, but they'll pull away late in the game.

06:32Finally, quick one. We'll see Steph back tonight for the first time in almost two weeks. Timberwolves,

06:37Warriors, Warriors, two and a half point favorites, total 230 and a half. Should be a great matchup.

06:42Minnesota's playing well as well. Yeah. Yeah. You know, got to realize that obviously

06:46Ant-Man is a game time decision. We'll see if he will suit up tonight. But to me, you know,

06:52I look at Minnesota as a team that's the top four or five team in the West. It may take a little bit

06:57of time for Steph to work his way back. So I would look at taking a point with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

07:02I wouldn't be surprised they went to the Chase Center and got the win. Coach, have a great weekend.

07:07Thanks again for coming on. Appreciate it. Thanks, Craig.

07:10We'll see you next time.

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