Quick good news: the Love Your Dubs Summit schedule is ready to go!
It is, indeed, Gargantua, as I mentioned in the previous article. Sneak peek:
So, yeah, forty-one speakers! Over 22 hours of content! Happening starting this Wednesday and lasting a whole week, October 15th-21st:
🎟️ Sign up here for FREE 🎟️
As for the third preseason game, for some reason, NBC Sports Bay Area didn’t cover the game; it was only available on League Pass. Someone said preseason games are on there for free, but I didn’t see that. I was led to a pay site by the NBA and the only option that wasn’t triple-digits for the entire season was a monthly option at $16.99.
I paid that and did the play-by-here:
Tuesday’s game in Portland will be the same problem, so be sure to join me by clicking on the livestream playlist link and you’ll be good to go with my real-time commentary.
Brandin Podziemski, at 23-5-8 on 10-for-16 field, 3-for-7 on threes and only 2 turnovers, was incredible. And in a head-to-head matchup with his Rigorer buddy, Austin Reaves (21 points on 7-for-10 shooting, 2-for-4 downtown), no less.
Funny how just days before, the local radio station decided to push the “outrage” button for clicks on not one, but two separate shows, giving Podz the Nelson Muntz and saying he’s “not that dude” when literally without one Wardell Stephen Curry available, or Jimmy Butler or Al Horford or Moses Moody for that matter and Draymond Green, with four turnovers in 22 minutes, jogging around for the most part — read: Brandin actually did have the keys to the franchise this game — on a lazy Sunday evening as Bay Area fans sulked about the loss of Fred Warner to a season-ending injury, BP literally was that dude.
The Podz approach, full transcript below:
Just be aggressive, push the pace off makes, off misses, see if we can get a couple easy buckets and not have to run a set every play. How can I steal four to six points? As a point guard out there, especially if I’m handling without Steph out there, how do we steal points? And I think we got a couple of those in the third quarter, which is, like I said, led to the run.
Another guy who racked up the assists was Jonathan Kuminga.
“He’s had a really good passing camp,” said Steve Kerr, postgame [full transcript below]. “He’s done that in scrimmages. He’s seen the floor. He’s making some really nice reads and that’s a part of his game that he’s improved, for sure.”
Here are some Kuminga scouting report detail:
The Buddy Hield-to-JK screen action was used only once, at the top of the second half right out of the break. It produced two free throws for Kuminga. If I ever get a chance to ask Kerr before me to a question, I’ll be sure to ask why they don’t just run that over and over especially when Curry is out. I’m not sure why we didn’t against Minnesota in the WCS. It works. For preseason, I think we can again conclude it works and put that back in the cupboard until needed, as it only involves two of the five players on the floor, therefore goes against the grain of a Steph movement ecosystem.
Kuminga had too many turnovers, again. This time, teammates took the blame, as Podz said, “We did a poor job of giving JK a space when you had to in the post, whether it was off of iso or a set play.”
“When we get the guys that need to get the ball, then we need to figure out to make life easier for them, space around them,” added Quinten Post. “As a team, we just didn’t do a good job of that in the first half, clogging up the paint. So that’s something we will look at the film and we’ll get better at that.”
JK’s defense was pretty good, with multiple helps and not over-fouling.
He was having BBQ chicken in the post. A couple times it was spin, bye-bye! Nobody on the Lakers, especially without LeBron James, can guard JK in the post.
The “jet pack” dunk. It was like he jumped and then, mid-air, jumped again!
And, yeah, this is easily worth $25 million-plus in the NBA. There are owners in the NBA that want to pay him for the ability to do this, it’s just really that plain and simple — so, stop hating:
Detailed notes from the live call:
10m53 q1 jk good help on reaves vs podz
8m45 q1 jk lefty post bank over knecht early o
8m27 q1 jk to buddy 94 steal
28:15 6m53 q1 jk tov to dray corner but causes ar to dribble off foot (sort of)
31:45 6m28 q1 ato jk strong lefty lay
11m14 q2 jk good help for tjd
49:45 9m44 q2 jk tov after fade
51:45 8m30 q2 JK corner 3
52:00 8m22 q2 jk step on line on catch buddy showed some exasperation
53:45 7m33 q2 JK catch travel (kerr had just talked about that on the bench with podz)
57:30 7m05 q2 good hustle jk oreb out on da
58:00 6m52 q2 jk another tov (5) late shot elbow (what was he gonna do with it?)
59:00 6m08 q2 jk jetpack dunk!!!!***
1:00:00 5m45 q2 jk laser roll pass pat
1:08:20 4m40 q2 jk talking to steve during flagrant assess
1:36:00 11m25 q3 JK via buddy screen fouled
1:38:15 10m30 q3 qp bad butt screen looks awkward, same on split with jk
1:39:15 9m41 q3 jk kick spray qp 3 57-69
1:39:30 9m15 q3 dray td to jk to buddy after made bucket 59-69
1:42:15 7m24 q3 jk miss corner 3 catch should’ve taken ar
1:43:30 remember jk came over at age 13, six years behind, hopefully time compresses soon
1:50:00 5m47 q3 ***jk post spin bye bye jake (and da)
1:52:15 4m57 q3 good d podz and jk***
Transcript below will be released from the pay wall at next post…