What made the NY come out in Nata?

So, I'm trying to remember how long ago it was, probably six weeks ago, we had my friend Kenada Edwards at Nada the Scribe on this program, and we were talking about the then hapless Brooklyn Nets. And I asked him, could they make the play, maybe make the play. Then a couple weeks ago we talked to Nada again, and he was ready, it's like, oh no, they're good but I don't think they can beat blah, blah, blah, blah.

All right, well, let's bring in my friend Kenada Edwards at Nada the Scribe on Twitter. Where do we stand today on the Brooklyn Nets who seemingly can't lose? I trust them to, how to put this, I trust them to beat Milwaukee.

I want to see what Boston does, even though Boston just gave up 150 to Oklahoma City without SGA. So I understand where you're going with this. And I knew that we will have this conversation the minute, I was like, we're going to talk about the Nets first because I know my friend Adam Gold. I know my friend.

I know my friend very well. He was going, we were going to bring this up. I knew I was going to face the consequences of my actions. So I am here to throw myself at the mercy of you, my friend, Adam. And you know what?

I am sorry. I, I, here's the thing I expected space cadets like Kyrie Irving to be space cadets. What I did not factor was that Kevin Durant was probably still the best player in the NBA. And you know what we're not doing? We're not doing enough talking about him. And I'm, I'm guilty of this as, as anyone else, but for right now, he's the best player in the, in the league right now.

And he should be, even though I think it's a little too early to talk about NBA MVP stuff, he should be the front runner for MVP right now, because he's doing work on both ends right now. First of all, I generally agree with you about Brooklyn. Every team go eat. And there's no question that when you have, and I don't think I am using hyperbole here when you have two of the 15 most talented players that have ever played in Durant and Kyrie, a hot streak is there.

I do. I do think that this is as much about a hot streak as it is about Brooklyn being legitimately this good. And I agree with you also that when we get, when push comes to shove, I think Milwaukee is better and I think Boston is better, although we're going to get into the, the minds of Boston here in a bit. But I do think that if Kyrie and Durant stay on the court together for the balance of the year and they build some chemistry with some really good other players, if they can keep Seth Curry upright, uh, Patty Mills, Nick Claxton, they've got bodies. They've got good players. They, they will definitely be better than I thought. And you thought, I believe.

Yeah. Well we also, and while we're giving all this credit out, I think we also have to give credit to Jacques Vaughn because this is where we say Steve Nash was woefully undeserving of that job. We knew that, that, that we knew that we just didn't know how much it's amazing what happens when you have a guy that has an idea of what he's doing and starts implementing structure and guys start flourishing under that structure.

Guys like Nick Claxton who have developed and been one of those bigs that you know what, you can't necessarily play them off the floor. And if that means Kevin Durant doesn't have to do a whole bunch of minutes at the five, it's a brilliant strategy. There's a lot of structure to this Kyrie. Irving's been one of the best players in the fourth quarter this year.

That's all structure. That's jock long knowing his team, knowing what he can do. And more importantly, at this point, they're also, they're also doing this thing where everyone's attacking like the three point line. They're not, they're saying we have two of the best players in the world that can hit mid range at a 40% clip, 50% clip. So why not play to their strengths? It's amazing what happens when you coach to the talent that you actually have.

And it's a very brilliant job and I, and I'm saying this somewhat hyperbole, somewhat sarcastically that jock Vaughn is just coaching this team up and doing it right. And it just shows you where, if they hired the proper coach before now, who knows where they are right now, maybe James Harden even stays and think about how crazy that sounds. This team might actually have been fully actualized and they may have been to an Eastern conference final, much less an NBA final by now, if they put the proper coach in place. Well, they might've been doing the Eastern conference final or an NBA final if Kevin Durant had smaller feet, because that was the only thing that separated them a couple of years ago from advancing in the playoffs. When is the, the rubber of the, of the sole of his shoe was on the three point line, which made it, I guess they put them in either in overtime. I don't even remember the exact situation, but it was the one point definitely mattered.

Kanata Edwards at not of the scribe on Twitter is joining us here. Let me move to, you mentioned Boston who gave up 150 points to the Oklahoma city thunder. And they did not have Shay Gilgus Alexander, who has been just an absolute machine this year. Did Boston just not give a damn? And is that why they lost back-to-back games against the sorry Orlando magic?

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See additional terms at one Peloton.com. It's a problem only because this team, this Boston team is always going to be a five again, a three game losing streak, four game losing streak, losing, I don't know, five at a game, six out of 10 away from being at bringing up, should we bring back? I'm a Eudocca, which is the dumbest conversation ever because you can't ever bring it back, but that's the problem. They, and this is part of their issue of not firing.

I'm a Eudocca and basically burning the bridge to that because that's always going to be hanging over them. Part of this is that Boston doesn't like it's an 82 game season. You're going to have these swoons, you're going to have these issues and it's very clear that partially they do not care. The Orlando thing is funny because I think Orlando just has their number. When Ben Caro plays a Celtics, he just does damage and he's done it basically against them for all three games that they've played.

There's that it's just a very weird situation. I am not pushing the panic button on the Boston Celtics just yet because right around this time last year, we were all worried about them. And then what did they do? They ended up becoming the best defensive team in the league. They added a whole bunch of talent in the trade deadline and they ended up going to the finals and pushing Steph Curry to Steph Curry in the six games. I'm not worried about them yet. I want to see what they do. And I think they do need another big, I like Robert Williams, but if Robert Williams is going to be in and out of the lineup and Al Horford being Al Horford being like literally just 80 and not necessarily NBA years or dog years.

However, whatever metric you want to use, he's old. I want to, like I said, I do worry about them. I'm just not going to push the panic button yet. Let me get to March. Let's see what this defense looks like. Let's see if they put all this together and let's see if they add somebody else and they add somebody else. I still think they're the favorite in the East.

All right. I do want to talk about individuals here in a minute, but well, I guess this is about an individual Zion Williamson three weeks before they will reevaluate his hamstring. I mean, what could New Orleans be if Zion could actually play the entire season?

They would be the second favorite in the West. And it's not just Zion Williamson that's got these injury issues. Think about how many games him and Brandon Ingram have played together.

I think it's in the single digits this year. And I believe it may be, you might be able to count them on one hand if I'm not mistaken, but you're talking about two guys that can't stay healthy, but when they are on the floor are dynamic and will make everybody in the West sweat. Yes. Including John Moran and the Memphis Grizzlies who claimed to have not again, who claimed not to worry about anybody in the West and they got smoked by the golden state warriors on Christmas, which, which I still found hilarious. Yes.

All of that is funny. So, but this team should be up there with Memphis in terms of the young teams we talk a lot about. Unfortunately, injuries are going to be the reason, but like they might be the single deepest team in the league.

Like Darien Seabron, who I know everybody knows can't get minutes for this squad and he's constantly shipped back and forth on the bus, but he's doing work in the G league and he can't even get minutes. This is the deepest team in the league in terms of depth talent. And it's just, they just need their stars. And if they get their stars right around April and take it into the playoffs, I think they can beat just about anybody in the West. And again, not the East, not yet. They haven't done enough for that yet, but I think they'd be easily a solid favorite. Second favorite to being in the Western conference finals of sure.

Kanata Edwards at none of the scribe on Twitter is joining us here on the Adam gold show, CBS sports.com podcast Maven. Let me, uh, I know, I know you said that Kevin Duran's best player in the league and he might be Nicola Jokic is the two time defending most valuable player in the league. Isn't he better now than he was then?

Like my son reads me box scores every day on the way to school. And every day we laugh at Jokic is 31, 16 and 11 every day. He's basically averaging a triple double as a center in this league. How does, how is that guy? Not the best player in the league, honestly, because he plays in the mountain time zone and I miss a bunch of like that, that like a bunch of us miss those games in the mountain time zone, like Pacific time zone.

It's easy. You understand you're going to get your, you get your espresso, you're gonna have your latte about nine o'clock at night just to make sure that you get through that last little slate of games. But the mountain time zone, if that's the latest game, then you know what, you know, you're going to call it an early night. And fortunately for a guy like Nicola Jokic who plays in Denver, plays in the mountain time zone, those are the things that end up tripping him up.

And in terms of recognition on top of the fact that it's Denver and unfortunately they haven't been gangbusters until recently. Like those are the things, but he's putting up absurd numbers. He's not going to get this MVP because we all know about voter fatigue.

Unless you do something truly special. And I mean like 60, 65 when maybe even flirting with the record of 72, 73 wins that third MVP income. So unfortunately he's got the mountain time zone and voter fatigue working against him. But as in terms of being recognized as one of the best players in the league, it's really just mountain time zone voter fatigue. And probably the fact that teams will go hunt him on defense. Russell Westbrook won the MVP when he averaged a triple double.

Fair. If Nicola Jokic averages a triple double. I don't, excuse me, it was Nicola Jokic's page on ESPN screaming at me just now. If he averages triple double, I don't see how he doesn't get the MVP. His game on Christmas Day against Phoenix 41, 15 and 15. I mean, he makes me laugh.

Just like Luka Doncic box scores make me laugh when he goes for 60, 21, whatever the other number was. And then he said, I need a recovery beer. It was one of the greatest things I've ever heard in a post-game interview. Are the Golden State Warriors kind of, I'm not saying back because they won the NBA title. No Steph Curry now going on what, three weeks, four weeks that they'd been without stuff into.

So we'll be back in about two weeks. Are the warriors worth paying attention again? They were always worth paying attention to is just what you were paying attention to them for. Like if you wanted to pay attention to Draymond's antics, you always had reason to pay attention to Golden State.

That's one of the big things that was always the, one of the fun things about watching them. But if you were talking about title hopes, it was always going to be based on Steph and whether the kids grew up in time just to supplement what they have because they went full youth movement in terms of the supporting cast and they've had justifiable struggles. They don't necessarily play Jonathan Camingo. They don't play Moses Moody. James Wiseman might as well be in Pelican Bay because he's that badly, right?

Yeah. I think we're going to end up paying attention to this team a lot more when we get to the trade deadline because I don't think, I think the warriors understand they can't keep all this youth. They tried to play two different timelines and the two timelines thing rarely ever works. The only time we've ever really seen it work was that Spurs team with Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan.

It's the only time we've ever really seen it work like that. I think we're going to see a couple of veterans get added to the squad, whether it's through the post again, post deadline wave signings or trading one of those young guys and they're going to get another guy. They're going to be deeper. They're going to have veteran experience and we're going to wonder why we slept on them again.

They're always dangerous. They're still going to be at least my favorite in the West. Wow. Memphis. I like Memphis, but that game against that Christmas game told me a lot about their need to grow up. And I like Memphis less now based on that than I did before then.

Yeah. There is, I think they believe they are better than they actually are. That's my view of the Memphis Grizzlies. They haven't gone, they've gone through phase one of what it takes to become a title contender. We saw it last year when golden state humbled them to toss them out. And then we saw the back and forth. We're going, we're heading to phase two where Memphis is going to understand what they do and don't have when they lose the warriors again, and then they're going to tweak it. And then phase three is when they overtake them. That's how this is. I feel like this is how this always goes. But Memphis feels like they're an adult away from really taking off and being something for the next five to seven years. No question.

They have tons, absolutely tons of weapons. Not a not a describe cannot Edwards. I appreciate your time as always, my friend. Happy New Year. I do appreciate also as you were clapping back at me a little bit, which is fair. I a New York accent was coming through.

You're welcome. It only comes out when you bring you had to bring this out of me. It's almost like you I only get like this now when the ground gets hurt. And it won't happen now. You won't care now.

The ground gets hurt. You'll chuckle. Yeah, but at the same point, like I got to worry about Scherzer. Yeah. And Verlander. Yeah. Well, I'm worried less about Verlander.

Really? I'm worried less about Verlander than I'm sure is all right. We just need like produce in the clubhouse at Citi Field. That's what they need.

Well, yeah, for them and Buck. I'll bet you bucks more regular. All right. We shouldn't be talking about this. I'll talk to you soon, my friend. Talk to you later.

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