Roundtable Time!!! with Brian Geisinger & Brenden Whitted

By this time, we have already executed the roundtable today, but not today. Today, a later start. I don't know, maybe it's special. Maybe it's like playoffs.

Somewhere at the end of the summer. Yeah, we just change it up. But, we got the band back together.

I could not be more excited for this. It is time to talk to Brennan Whitted and Brian Geisinger. Back in the day, we called these guys the league pass lair. Nowadays, we just call them friends. Brendan Whitted at hucocel on Twitter. I don't know if you're on threads yet or not.

If you are, I'm sure it's the same. And, bgeiss underscore bird for Brian. Gentlemen, I appreciate both your times. We got NBA basketball and maybe a little college to work with.

Oh, I didn't even think about playing the teams. Gosh, I'm so good at this. It's like the first day of the show. That's Brendan. I assume Brian is there as well. Alright, let's get to it. I'll start with you, Brendan, since I can see your face.

Brian's too pretty to be on TV. Brandon Miller, summer league, eh. Not playing anymore summer league, fine.

Got no problem with it. Let's talk about what you have seen so far. It's been a mixed bag as you get with the younger players. You mentioned he's not playing. Scoop's not playing either.

Well, Scoop got hurt. Well, yeah, but he played a couple games. If this were a regular season, I do wonder if he'd be playing. Like them shutting him down pretty early. I don't know if you caught him on the sidelines, but he was pretty animated as he was watching that game.

So I was wondering if this was a case where, you know, it's somebody that you know who's going to be on your roster. You know, he was able to play really, really well and limited. And three quarters of his last game, he had, I think, a 15-5-6 stat line. But Miller, I mean, Miller has shown the ability to hit the outside shot. He's shown the ability to take some guys off of the dribble. I try not to get too caught up into summer league, trying to extrapolate what that means for players moving forward. There are some guys that I take more of a harder look at, and those are usually the guys that aren't rookies, but are maybe the undrafted guys that maybe I had an eye on. But like James Booknight for the Hornets went for 28, I think, the other night. And that's the kind of stuff that I look for for a guy that's really kind of teetering on the edge of whether or not he's going to be with the Hornets long term. He's shown flashes of stuff, has struggled defensively. But I always try to temper whatever my expectations are. You know, when Wimby goes for two for nine or three or whatever that poor shooting stat line was, I try not to take too much of that into it either. Because like, hey, I know he's the best prospect since whatever. But like, summer league, you know, you're in the desert, it can give you some delusions a little bit.

And it's important to kind of measure all of that stuff. Not to mention, you're not playing with the same players you're going to play with. There have to be some nerves involved. Let me go to Brian. There's no incentive for winning. Yeah, oh gosh, the games are the worst.

The games are terrible. Anyway, let me ask Brian this. First of all, because I'm curious. When you said you compared it, when Brendan compared it to Scoot, I understand fans are going to be doing that. I'm not sure I care. To me, it's all about, I hope both guys are great. But I don't know that it matters to me if Scoot is great. I think Miller was the right pick for Charlotte. Brian, what did you see from him? Is the comparison to Scoot okay? I mean, I'm not saying you're wrong. I just hadn't processed it that way.

What do you think, Brian? Well, first off, as I've said numerous times, I think Scoot should have definitely been the pick. I think he was the far superior prospect. I like Miller, but I think the Hornets really swung and missed without drafting Scoot. But as far as Miller goes, prior to the game, the last game he played at Summer League against Portland, he looks pretty bad. I think he really struggled in the games in Sacramento, in the first couple of games out in Vegas.

I think some people thought maybe he was fatigued, and that's something to take into consideration. He certainly had good moments, but he really struggled with the outside shot. He has not been routinely able to take guys off the dribble when a post guy just switched out onto him. And when he faced dropped coverage in the pick and roll, he leaned really, really heavily on the runner, and the touch just hasn't been there for him. A big part of Miller's finishing package at Alabama, when he struggled finishing in the paint and at the rim and the half court especially, was he had to use his length to finish over guys, because he's not a separation guy. We've talked about this before with someone like Chris Middleton.

They don't get buckets by just creating space. They get it by shooting over the top of guys. For Miller, that's the case both in the mid-range and from deep in at the rim. I think he was bothered some trying to finish over the top of guys in the paint. That advantage is not quite the same as it was at Alabama, versus even playing sort of like quasi-NBA basketball.

But I think for the most part he'd be also passed pretty well. He showed some of the vision. He showed some of the pick and roll ability. He showed some of the team defensive flashes. I'm pretty optimistic about Miller as an NBA player, but I think it's a little tough of a start when the three guys drafted after him. Iman Thompson, Sara Thompson, Jude Henderson, Jaris Walker, all of those guys looked better than he did in summer leagues. So it's a little tough, but I think Miller is a good player going forward for the Hornets. My thought would also be once he gets to play with LaMelo Ball and Gordon Hayward and P.J. Washington, assuming the Hornets do the wise thing and bring him back, that's going to help Miller out a lot as a secondary creator for the Hornets.

Alright, Brian Geisinger and Brendan Whitted joining us here on the Adam Gold Tour. That was as close to a disagreement as I think you guys have had in terms of players. Let me just follow that up, Brian, about Scoot versus Miller.

Look, I advocated for Miller mostly because I just don't see how Scoot, who needs the ball, and LaMelo Ball, who needs the ball, can both have the ball. They can't share it. That's illegal. So can't both have it and go down the court.

I'm pretty sure that's a violation. So how would it have worked out? Because I think, Brendan, you and I definitely talked about it. I am not a LaMelo Ball. I am not a the future is LaMelo Ball guy. I think the future is somebody else. I'm not saying LaMelo Ball is not a good player.

I just don't see him as a guy that is going to win titles with you. And I would have been willing to. But Gold, if that's the case, then you should have drafted Scoot Henderson. Right. No, no, I agree.

I agree. But we knew they were going to give LaMelo that deal. 260 million over five years. Well, it's really ultimately it's going to it's probably going to end up being like 200 million. Like, he's only going to hit the 260 if he qualify it like he wins MVP. Like, well, one of the all NBA teams, that's what triggers the 30 percent.

You said not only I just want on the record that Brian said only 200 million. He's a 22 year old all star in the way those those guys would have fit in. Look, like I know it's like it's. It's impossible to take egos out of this and it's impossible to just say, like, just treat players as like mechanized items.

Like these are people with personality and and and confidence issues and like all the in sort of visions for what their career is supposed to look like. But what I would say is this one. LaMelo is an incredible spot up shooter. Forty one percent for his career on catch and shoot three. The monster number on a ton of volume. You would have just said, hey, take ten of those a game.

You would have staggered their minutes. And both guys are good off ballplayer. Sue Henderson's a really good cutter.

He doesn't shoot it well from deep now, but he will eventually. And ultimately, like if you're going to win a title, you need multiple ball handlers. You need multiple creators.

And that's still, I suppose, like I shouldn't just say title. I should say, like, to be like a contender, a good playoff. You need those. You need that kind of like set up and perhaps like Brandon Miller is like a, you know, six nine jumbo wing pick and roll creator. Maybe maybe the Hornets do have that.

I have my doubts. But the other thing with LaMelo, too, is as good as he is, he's awesome. Like he's an incredible shooter. He is a visionary in terms of his open floor passing. It just is in general, his playmaking and his feel for the game and his anticipation is all incredible. He really struggled to be guys consistently off the dribble and finished the contact in the paint in the half court. And that's something that's to Henderson, even though he has it's maybe not like a strength of his just yet. He has the ability to touch the paint every time he wants. And like he's getting better as a finisher. And so I think those two guys would have fit really, really nicely, because right now, if LaMelo is your best player, I think your your half court offense is going to be limited in a playoff setting.

You still build a top 10 offense around LaMelo. The Hornets did that two seasons ago when they were number six in the NBA in offensive efficiency. But my thought would just be ultimately you're going to need a guy that can consistently get into the paint, beat his guy off the dribble, create fouls and finish in the paint.

And like Scoot Henderson projects to be that. And so I think ultimately there's a way you could have found a way for those two guys to bounce off one another. But, you know, that's not here nor there at this point. Gosh, it sounds so logical. And you said it and now I'm mad that I didn't think about it.

Brandon, you and I have to we have to talk about something else now because I feel I feel inferior. Brendan Whitted and Brian Geisinger here as part of our roundtable. Where's James Harden's best landing spot, Brendan? I mean, for a long time, I thought it was going to be I thought that we've been hearing the rockiest rumors for a really long time. And I just really kind of never believe it because it just I don't know. It's kind of that's not usually how a player's career goes.

Usually it's, hey, I've done a lot of individual stuff. I want to win more. He got a little bit of a taste of winning with Philadelphia.

You know, they had to look. Neither he nor MB play well in that game seven. Right.

I mean, that it is what it is. But he also did lead the league in assists and and he won them two games. Right.

He had two monster games. I honestly thought that playing alongside MB made the most sense. Now, I really don't know. Seems like he really wants out. So he wants to go somewhere else. Man, I mean, yeah, like I just I really it just it makes so much more sense to play with them, be to have that sort of a pick and roll player. If I if you take away all the things that we've seen the last couple of years, that's where I would have picked for him. I mean, if he wants to go play with the right view, that's the other thing.

What's important to him? Right. Is it is it that you want to just go in to have fun and do other things other than win?

Because even with Harden, the Rockies aren't going to aren't making that leap. So if you have other things in mind, if that sort of stuff Brian alluded to earlier, these are people. Right. And so just because basketball is what we know them for and what what we love watching the four doesn't mean that's necessarily the top of mind for them. But where they where they end up going to work, which is what this is them going to work. And so if that's where he wants to be fine. But I'm just I guess I'm just surprised that that this is the career arc that we're getting for a four player that seemed like he was more interested in winning, especially now with the. There have been talks about feelings and stuff before they brought on Bill. I guess I'm just a little surprised that he doesn't want to they wouldn't want to stay there.

I'm just going to declare the the process of failure. We trusted the process is only one player left from from the process and one player brought in from a trade of a player who was part of the process. Now apparently wants out to it's just just Joel Embiid left at the end. Brian, your guy, Chris Paul, I read yesterday that he still thinks that he can start next to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. I mean, I guess he could, but will he? And if he doesn't, how much do we really expect him to play in Golden State? So, I mean, I think over the course of the regular season, he'll end up starting some games just because guys miss time. Yeah, you know, see per will, you know, mix up the lineups here and there. And if they go small, you know, in theory, they could start Chris Paul, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green.

Right. Which, like at times, the career has been reluctant to sort of like outright start Draymond at five when that lineup is his best. And he kind of wants it as just like ace in the hole in lieu of having Kavon Looney at the five. So like my thought is like eventually like Chris will settle into a like a super sub role. It'll be a spot starter for them.

He'll close some games for them, too, because my guess is that they'll go small to close some games and finish with that lineup that I was just mentioning. Yeah, I mean, I could see there I could see parts of the season where Klay Thompson's missing a game or two. Then it's Chris and Steph starting in the backcourt.

Right. And along with Wiggins, Draymond and Kavon Looney. So I think ultimately, like he'll still play a decent amount of minutes.

He'll be able to get more rest than he has in previous seasons. And I don't know, like those comments were definitely like they either just I think given the sort of like prickly nature of the relationship between Paul and the Warriors going back for a decade now, like it does add sort of like some weirdness to the relationship. And I think it would have been able it would maybe would have soothe some of the concerns if he comes out and says like, yeah, I'm cool.

Yeah, no problem. Like I'm the sixth man. Bring me bring me off the bench. But like, I would also just say, like, they would have surprised me if he had done that, too.

Oh, yes. The bride is like this guy's been like one of the best players in the world for the last two decades. He's one of the best, you know, guards in the history of basketball. And he's been a starter since he came into the league in 2005, almost many years ago. So like it would have been a little surprising if he was just like, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, like definitely come off the bench. But I think there's a chance for this to work and to be really, really like like kind of like a weird fit, but one that works out in a lot of ways. And I also can't wait to see Chris and Steph, you know, play together. I think that's going to be a chance to be really, really fun. I can't wait to see both Chris Paul and Draymond Green on the court together.

Just just don't light a match anywhere near that. Brendan, we'll close on this. I want make a list of the the people or the teams or players that Chris Paul doesn't have a prickly relationship. I mean, he seemed to get along really well with LeBron. That's been a really interesting one, right? Like he's a guy that's like, hey, you know, he's done all the winning while Paul has not quite been able to get there and they still have that good quality relationship.

The banana boat crew. Yeah. Like he's he you know, he might be a little draymond. He's he you know, him and him and LeBron have gotten into on the court. But I mean, on the court versus off the court for these guys is getting really, really different to say nothing of, you know, if a guy has a you know, a business or a financial relationship, you know, with somebody. So like, you know, he gets along long pretty well.

I would say with like people outside of the competition. His thing has always been he can be tough on anybody who's playing against or even sometimes people he's playing with. Yes. And we can't necessarily extrapolate that to, oh, this is what he's like off court. Right. I think I think we do a ton of that. This was all about on court, on court prickliness. And I say that and I'm very being very careful here. Shouts to my friend Julius Hodge because you just have to be very careful of how you say that. We have to go.

That's Brendan Whitted and Brian Geisinger. We used to. I was never part of the league pass layer.

I was never allowed in. But that's true. That's true. That's true.

Everybody's several times. I don't know what we're doing. I'm a married man.

I can't go to the layer. That's Brendan Whitted and Brian Geisinger. Gentlemen, I appreciate it. This was fun. Thanks so much.

Absolutely. Anytime. Anytime. You got it. At hucocell at big ice underscore bird.

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