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00:00Coach James Young is my boy. He's the basketball guru of choice and our lead hoop analyst on
00:10SportsGrid and on Coast to Coast and Betting Above the Rim and the Betting Above the Rim
00:15podcast. Setting the bar very high. He also is a undercover Ponies player. Loves showing
00:24up at the track and at the taverns near the track. He's well known everywhere from Saratoga
00:32to Gulfstream. Coach, I want to start with this. Opening night, Knicks and T-Wolves and
00:41then that's on Tuesday, October 22nd. How about this opening week and then the next
00:47night, Wednesday night, Bucs and Suns and then let me get this straight. No, I'm wrong.
00:56Knicks, Celtics and the T-Wolves, Lakers are the Tuesday night games. The Wednesday night
01:00games are Bucs and Sixers, Suns and I guess that's the Wizards.
01:07Clippers. Suns, Clippers.
01:08Oh, that's the Clippers.
01:09Clippers, new logo.
01:11Yep, the new logo. Shout out to the Clippers. Pharrell, $2 billion arena. So, listen, the
01:18NBA gave us cinema. We're off the jump, right? The Knicks who literally just went and re-signed
01:25OG, traded for Bridges. You know it because they're looking at Boston with Tatum and Brown
01:30and saying, we are hunting you guys. So, what better way to start the NBA season with them?
01:35And then obviously, you've got to give LeBron, obviously 39 years old, MVP of the Olympics
01:40versus the upstart team. And obviously, Minnesota, let's see what they do for an encore. But
01:45that second night game, Phoenix and the Clippers, those are two teams, Pharrell, that I really
01:50think could be stuck in the mud right here. Older teams with veteran guys. Do they have
01:56one last run in them? It'll be interesting that opening night game between Phoenix and
02:00the Clippers.
02:01The Thursday night doubleheader, Spurs and Wembley against Luka and the Mavs. Oak City
02:08against Denver. How about that one? That'll be delicious.
02:12That whole division between Oklahoma City and Denver and Minnesota is going to be absolute
02:19cinema. Pharrell, those could be the three best teams in the Western Conference, all
02:23in the same division. So, you've got to look at those odds there to win the divisional
02:27matchups. And then obviously, you know, San Antonio, Pharrell, I'm going to say this.
02:32I watched a lot of the Olympics. And I know Wembley had a tough game in the semis. This
02:38guy's a top-ten guy in the league right now.
02:40All right.
02:41Top-ten league in the league right now. Listen, defense player of the year, book it now.
02:46Most-approved player in the NBA, book it now. He's 18-1 on FanDuel to be the MVP. Pharrell,
02:54if Pop just plays the kid 35 minutes a night, book it. 24 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists,
03:044 blocks. If he does that, and that team just sniffs the playing tournament, and they do
03:12that huge jump from being one of the worst teams in the league to a team that maybe makes
03:16the playoffs, Stephen Castle should help them with the guards by defending and getting them
03:20in the ball. You've got to think that Wembley's going to be in the conversation. Pharrell,
03:24he's top-ten in the NBA right now. Maybe at the end of the year, we could be talking top-six,
03:30top-seven.
03:31I mean, listen, I'd be willing to say he is right in the same cul-de-sac now as, frankly,
03:41in my opinion, the Greek freak, Embiid, and Joker. He is in that cul-de-sac already, watching
03:52him in the Olympics dominate, watching that final. He had more points than anybody in
03:57the game. He's unstoppable. He's already in that cul-de-sac. On Friday night, the 25th
04:04of October, you got the Pacers and Knicks at the Garden. Lakers hosting the Suns, Saturday
04:10night, primetime. Clippers and Nuggets, how about this, a triple-header. Orlando and Memphis
04:17and Ja, and then the Kings at the Lakers, a little triple-header.
04:24I mean, listen, the NBA does it right. It's like the WNBA. They're giving us matchups
04:30the first four or five days of the season where you're looking at, and of course, with
04:37TNT and the double-header, and obviously Friday night with India and New York, that's
04:41a rivalry game right off the bat. Phoenix and Lakers, that's a rivalry game there.
04:46So, I do think the NBA did a really good job of getting a lot of the top teams. There are
04:53some other sneaky good matchups, Pharrell, that you haven't talked about. How about
04:58Orlando at Miami opening night for those two teams? That should be interesting. Obviously,
05:03you talked about Milwaukee, Philadelphia on that same night. You go to Thursday night,
05:09you talked about Tony Downs, Oklahoma City, Denver. How about Minnesota-Sacramento?
05:14Sacramento's a team that's been good the last two years. Obviously, lost Malik Monk,
05:19you know, the injury before the play-in. Obviously, they lost Kevin Whiter. You know,
05:23Mike Brown's done a good job. He got the extension. They bring DeMar DeRozan in.
05:27So, they are a great matchup. That's what the NBA does really well. I don't know if
05:32it does this right. The first couple of days, even before we get into the NBA Cup, it's
05:37not the NCAA Tournament, folks. It's the NBA Cup this year. They give us cinema to
05:43start the season.
05:44How about this? The Lakers are on primetime 39 national television, 39 times. And then
05:53Boston, the champs, 34. The Knicks, 34. How are the Lakers on 39 times with as bad as
06:00they were?
06:02Kaitlin Clark's playing for the Lakers? I mean, Kaitlin Clark's playing for the Lakers.
06:08She's been on it 82 times. Listen, simply put, Pharrell, this is all about LeBron.
06:14This is about LeBron. We don't know how many years we have left of it. Is it this year?
06:18Is it next year? Is it three years? I don't know. But they're going to put them on national
06:22TV. The big thing is a Knicks team, Pharrell, that hasn't been to the NBA Finals since
06:281999. Oh, my goodness, 25 years. And they have the sign for the second most national
06:34appearances. That speaks to the fact that at the end of the day, the NBA needs teams
06:41like in New York, in L.A., in Chicago, Dallas, these huge, Philadelphia, these huge media
06:52markets. The NBA, I hate to say this, they do better when these teams are doing well.
06:59So they're banking on this Knicks team that I think is the second best team in the East.
07:04And we'll see. Tips has depth now. I still think they need a backup center. Let's see
07:09what happens. I look for maybe like Jonas Valanciunas at the trade deadline if it doesn't
07:13work. We know Mitchell Robinson gets hurt a lot. But that team, with that storyline
07:18of Brunson, Bridges, O.G., Randall, Mitch Robinson, with DiVincenzo and Josh Hart,
07:25Preston Chua, Miles McBride coming off the bench. Camping is a myth. And don't sleep
07:31on Tyler Koelig, Pharrell. I think Tyler Koelig was going to be one of the steals of this
07:36draft. Of course, coach, completely homerized on the Knicks. Thank God we got him all
07:42figured out. Also, while I've been balling every day and every night and every morning,
07:47he's been off at the horse track, betting on horses and drinking. So let's get his plays
07:53for the WNBA tonight as it resumes after their break for the Olympics.
07:58Yeah, listen, first off, I'm going to go with the Chicago Sky plus the points here.
08:03Listen, you have teams that are just coming back from Paris since on Monday. There's jet
08:08lag. So I'm going to take the points, the two and a half points, and I'm going to take
08:13the Chicago Sky. I think they're going to get off to a good start. Next, Washington,
08:18Minnesota. Remember, folks, Washington was 0-12 and they started to turn it around.
08:25We're going to do this. I'm going to take Minnesota in the third quarter minus a point.
08:30I think it's two and a half. They make it off to a slow start. Cheryl Reeves adjusts
08:34at halftime. Next, New York, LA. Minus ten and a half, eleven. I think it's too many
08:40points. Very simply put, double J. Jonquil Jones, over 27 and a half points, rebounds
08:47and assists. Hit it the other two games versus the LA Sparks. She will score. Maybe Inescu
08:52and Stewie are a little bit rough coming off the Olympic break, but she'll rebound, she'll
08:56get assists, and she scores. Double J over 27 and a half.
08:59Yeah, I don't believe that. I don't believe that those two can't beat this crappy Los
09:04Angeles team's ass tonight. They've been balling, they've been filling it up, and they're
09:09going to continue to do so tonight.