11/16/23-11/23/23 - The Pulse of the NBA: Rookies, Weekly Recap, and Trade Speculations

Welcome to the latest episode of the Call Your Shot Podcast Lastly, the guys give shoutouts to Ausar Thompson, Tyrese Maxey, and Alperen Sengun. The conversation covers various topics in the NBA, including team standings, injuries, the impact of the in-season tournament, high-scoring games, benefits of the playing tournament, Zach LaVine trade rumors, and strong starts to the season. They also discuss load management, Deandre Ayton's performance, Keyonte George's impact on the Utah Jazz', and the inconsistent performance of Collin Sexton.  So, if you're a sucker for all things NBA, buckle up. We're unpacking the start of the season and the potential for seismic changes in the league. Don't miss it!

Book Recommendations:
The Everything Guide to Sports Betting
by Josh Appelbaum
The Logic of Sports Betting
by Ed Miller, Matthew Davidow
Statistical Sports Models in Excel Vol. 1 & 2
by Andrew Mack
Sharp Sports Betting
by Stanford Wong

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the ColourShop Podcast, your weekly sports recap podcast, where we break down the hottest headlines, dissect the latest injuries and serve up our own hard hitting analysis of the past weekend sports. But that's not all. We're not just here to talk about the past, we're here to predict the future as well. On the ColourShop Podcast, we boldly predict the outcomes of the upcoming weeks games.

Speaker 2: 0:22

Hopping into the NBA not exactly too much to get into. A few things have changed. The Boston Celtics still remain as an elite team number one in the Eastern Conference. The Orlando Magic have been a surprise lately. They are currently on a five game win streak seven and three over the past 10 games and are sitting firmly in tied for second place in the division with the Bucks, miami and Philadelphia. So very top heavy as of right now when it comes to the Eastern Conference.

Speaker 1: 0:48

If you wanted to touch on anything from the East I mean not really much to get into, but I guess the main thing would be just my boy still out there ballin' as Tomson well, him too. But as Tomson, still hooping like no one else out there but still not getting any of the love. But today, Dream on.

Speaker 2: 1:16

Green did a game.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Well, okay, you know you can't.

Speaker 2: 1:19

Two and thirteen, you can't be Michael Jordan, right? Okay, I understand that.

Speaker 1: 1:23

But like he's doing what he can okay.

Speaker 2: 1:28

Okay, third and rookie of the year, buddy right now.

Speaker 1: 1:31

Yeah, but yeah, I mean Dream on Green gave him a shout out today, basically saying like what he's doing is is unprecedented compared to the other rookies out here and and he should be getting more attention and because not enough people are talking about his performances, especially averaging what 10, 10 boards at six, like that's that's ridiculous. It's basically like the round mound of rebound.

Speaker 2: 1:55

I'm a six big Exactly.

Speaker 1: 2:00

But yeah, I mean also my boy, tyrese Maxie. We called it the like the first day that we did the NBA. Like I don't want to say just lock up the award to give a most improved player, but I mean like definitely nice.

Speaker 2: 2:21

When it comes to like picks, whether it be, you know, rookie of the year, it's going to be back and forth between Chet and Wim Binyama. It seems like at this point and you know, mvp could go anywhere Luca Yoke, whatever but like when it comes to like awards, I feel like that would probably be the heavy favorite as of right now. I think they were doing like a mic'd up with the Cleveland Cavaliers and who Darius Garland was like let me get some of that and you give me some of that juice, because he's like you're playing too crazy right now. So Tyrese Maxie has been playing great in the Western Conference. The Minnesota Timberwolves still are number one right now at 11 and three. So they've been playing great basketball behind at the Edwards and their defense They've really locked in there.

Speaker 2: 3:03

And the OKC Thunder have been really surprising and it was a team that I had like in the playing and a team that I thought that could make the playoffs. But I still thought that there was probably be like a year away just because of Chet home grand not being able to play last year with the injury and all those things, and I didn't know how it was going to work with the lineup, with Shay and everybody, but it's honestly looked great and currently as a team right now they are shooting 50, 40, 90, which is ridiculous. You got Chet swapping it from deep, you got Isaiah Joe, you got the Shay, gilgers, alexander still playing well, williams, giddy, and they are a great team, very fun and entertaining team to watch, probably my favorite team to watch right now and, as I mentioned, chet currently is number one in rookie of the year voting and rankings. So any thoughts on the thunder so far?

Speaker 1: 3:51

Well, in terms of, in terms of Chet being the front runner, I like, I get it, but I'm still like he's on a working team.

Speaker 1: 4:03

Yeah, which helps, for sure there's there's a lot that goes behind the narrative and stuff too. So, yeah, he has a lot of hype coming behind him and he has been playing well. But I mean the way that people were talking about when by young women, yama like I, it's hard to to see a world where the the voters just don't fall in love with him and Just like, oh my god, did you see that three that he just did?

Speaker 2: 4:34

Oh, did you see that that dunk, that he had cool free throw line, but yeah exactly.

Speaker 1: 4:38

So I mean it's hard to see anybody else outside of Outside of him winning this award. There's always my boy, you know, scoot, coming out there, you know he's currently in the G. League right now. Hey, he's coming back from injury today.

Speaker 2: 4:56

I'm playing tonight.

Speaker 1: 5:00

Side note real quick fun fact Scoot Henderson currently has the lowest PER of all qualified qualified players.

Speaker 2: 5:08

Right now, yep, he's been in conversation with him in like Killian Hayes on the Detroit Pistons, and that's not great company you want to be with right now.

Speaker 2: 5:17

So yeah, I agree with you rookie at the year, voting though with chat and in Victor and be on, and that's what I was saying. Like I think, victor, when Beniyama is gonna win with you the year, but Just and along with the fact that the media is gonna fall in love with him. But, like you know, he is the guy obviously of the cell on on the spurs, but like he's going to be the guy, he's gonna get tons of touches each and every night. Meanwhile, chet is probably like the third option on the OKC team and he's super efficient and he has similar stats to Victor when Beniyama and his team is winning. So I mean, and like you know, he has some decent hype from himself as well.

Speaker 1: 5:51

So hmm, one other player to To shout out is actually a player that was drafted by the Thunder Singoon.

Speaker 2: 6:03

My boy. I was doing.

Speaker 1: 6:04

Yep. So he's currently averaging 20.9 points a game, 8.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and shooting 58.8 percent like, and he's currently ranked 16th per the Hollinger ratings so, which are essentially like the Ken Palm of the NBA or like the Basically the the end all be all, when it comes to ratings for player efficiencies and stuff like that. And he's ranked sixth, sixteenth right now in the league and, uh, I mean, and it looks every bit of of that too, if not more Um, especially how he was just Given the business to the, to the uh, to the Lakers the other night. Amen, well, there he was. You tell me. Yes, that's right Him.

Speaker 2: 6:55

And him and Tillon bricks out here hitting all these three. Like Dillon bricks you shoot like 50 from three this season. I'm like bro, what is what is happening? But yeah, I do love Alfred shingoon. He's been playing great and is probably the one of my favorite, if not the best like young big man in the league right now. They were doing a graphic on him and his stats compared to because this is his third season. His stats compared to Yoko just 30s and they're basically identical. He has a slightly lower rebounds, mainly just because they kind of play him outside a little bit. He can shoot the three or he plays some high pick and roll action, um and but his points are higher, his assists are about the same and he has better Um fuel percentage right now. So I think he's a great piece for the Rockets and probably one of the core pieces that they're going to have, Along with, obviously, the veteran pieces that they brought in with Fred Van Flee and Dillon Brooks, um, and last time we spoke last week you know the Rockets were on a Wind streak.

Speaker 2: 7:47

Now it's kind of a little bit up and down, but there's still seven and three over the last 10 games, so they're still very solidly in the playing right now. Currently they are ranked eighth, just behind the phoenix suns who Are playing much better this season. Um are much better so far on a four game win streak but have been confirmed that they are going to be without bread of the bill for at least the next three weeks to a month as basically he re aggravated his back. So it's basically going to be the kd Um devon booker show whenever when devon booker isn't hurt. So but basically the kd show, kd shooting like 60 percent from three or 50 percent from three when it is ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 8:21

So that's crazy, but it's um one thing that I think has kind of been interesting. One of the narratives at least, is what the, what, the, uh, the tournament has meant to these teams. Yeah because you're, you're getting out exactly what you had hoped. If you're the mba, and that's higher levels of competition, I mean you're, you're, you're also getting um the other end of the spectrum too, with uh, what was it? The, the hawks against the, the pacers last night, the, the. The total in that game, um, it opened up at 251 points.

Speaker 2: 9:00

The highest total since like 1990s or some shit.

Speaker 1: 9:03

Yeah, and it and the game, and that still wasn't high enough. I'm, I'm so glad that I was not tempted by the under. I was like 251, like I had I had to take the over in this game Like there's no way Albert.

Speaker 2: 9:14

And said hold my beer. That's crazy.

Speaker 1: 9:16

Legit. I'm mad because I was thinking about this too. I was like if you're gonna have a total that high, you might as well take the over and just about everybody's props, because like they're at least scoring wise. Because if you're gonna get to that amount of points, then like somebody's got to do something right, yeah, the points are gonna come in somewhere. Um, but yeah, the pacers ended up winning last night 157 to 152. So which is just, you know, just a normal casual game. Yep gotta love the.

Speaker 2: 9:44

NBA man. I think the playing, as you mentioned, I think the playing tournament is very good for the NBA. At least it has been for the first what we 15, 16 games in. Um. You know who's currently has the best record for the playing tournament? They're in season tournament right now. Lake is sitting at 4 or no in the west covers, in case anybody was wondering Um but yeah, no, because they know that they can't win the.

Speaker 1: 10:06

The actual chance yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:07

Hey, hey, hey, you watch it. But no, I think it has been great. And you know, you kind of hear like you know, the prizes, um, in the pre-season stuff like that, they're like, okay, what's 500 000 dollars to these guys that are making millions of dollars, stuff like that. But you think about that, those are like the elite star players and you know there's veteran middlemen. They're you making like 10 to 12 million dollars, but like it's 500 000 dollars to every single player, so that goes 15 players deep. So you know, you kind of have those people 13, 14, 15th man and they're on two-way contracts and things like that, like they're not making millions of dollars there, like just trying to make it in the NBA or floating between the NBA and the G League and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 10:42

So I think it was Dame and Steph Curry that were kind of talking about that. From that perspective, they're like, you know, $500,000 that changes their life, changes their family's lives and, you know, would change most people's life. So, along with that and the coaching staff, you know, I think it is a great thing for the NBA as of right now and, you know, when the Lakers win it, I think that we're going to bring it back next year and along. You know how does that make us back to back champions If we win the end season tournament and the finals? I'm just, I'm just curious.

Speaker 1: 11:09

I mean, I guess you're winning something, Right? So yeah, I mean sure, sure, lakers were strong.

Speaker 2: 11:18

We're playing currently the playing the Dallas Mavericks in a very good matchup game. Currently the Lakers sit fifth. The Dallas Mavericks sit fourth. Lakers on a little three game win streak and they've been playing very well. I don't know what LeBron has been drinking over the past offseason or what, but like he's even better, Like I don't know if he's been on something and it's shooting percentages have been insane.

Speaker 1: 11:40

So and also like him, him and and Durant and all these older players too Curry, were like OK, yeah, like OK. Well, this is like a typical rest game for these players and then they're out here we talked about rest. We'll do that.

Speaker 2: 11:55

Even if you're playing games and these back to back. I like this in the other side of the game. I like what's going on right now.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Yeah. So I mean, I think this is as as great as it as start of the season as it could, as oh my God, I think I'm having a stroke. Yeah, whoa. Ok, it's great, it starts the season as we could have asked for.

Speaker 2: 12:19

Thank, you, jesus yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:21

I mean legit, Did you?

Speaker 2: 12:24

know who are. Oh my God, what the hell it hurt me, you know. I can get you to try this for real.

Speaker 1: 12:31

I got my Apple watch here, so I press it yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:33

I mean but, as I was trying to say, this is as good of a start to the season as I think we get a vote for especially if you're in at the, the front office of an NBA team and stuff to implementing these new rules where you know load management and stuff like that, where you're requiring players to actually play, If not the full game, at least you know some of the game and then have them rest during the game and not just having them take off the whole game.

Speaker 1: 13:03

And I think it's been. It's been great for competition and it's also been great in the sense that you kind of have a general sense of OK, this is a home game that they're, you know, second out of a back to back. You might lean a little bit more towards the player actually not sitting out, but then an interesting thing that LeBron was saying, and Katie had also said too, is that these players, whenever it comes to playing against like their, their friends, or playing against like another elite opponent, those are the games that they even if it might be the second I have a back to back those are the games that they get up for, and even even the other night, Devin Booker, after Deandre Aiton, was played against them. He was like yeah, Aiton played hard last night, Now he should do that every night.

Speaker 2: 13:57

He's a little bit more consistent with that. He only he dropped 18 and 7 to like I mean I don't know much dominating, as they were talking about when he came to Portland and he was going to be free and all this stuff, with Phoenix not locking Monty Williams and all that kind of stuff. I mean I don't know. It kind of seems like he's a very Don't know. He could have been much better, I think that's all yeah and I mean he's. Said it himself. To what that?

Speaker 1: 14:24

to yeah, nirkage said it himself to like he. He chose to to come to To the Sun's not because he he wanted to be a focal point of the offense, but because he wanted to just be a piece in out of the whole pie. So, exactly like because he knew he's not gonna be have like a giant role on on offense and he knows that that's not his, his place on the scene, and so he was okay with taking a backseat and just doing the dirty things. And doing the dirty work is the way he put it, and that's something that that Aten was not down to do. And that's ultimately why I don't think that he's gonna be all that successful in his career In terms of winning any championships or anything like that, if he's not gonna play hard. And I mean you see that now he's on the blazer, so they're not gonna go any time soon.

Speaker 1: 15:16

So, saying that, you know I I'm glad that I made a bet on the on the blazers tonight, because they're currently Molly Wappen, the the jazz right now, and you know my boy scoot out there doing what he does, just Getting buckets as he as he should. Yeah, it's not too late to hop in on the MVP rookie of the year train, if you, if you, so please.

Speaker 2: 15:46

Yeah, if you buy into scoot right now, you probably will be a millionaire if you catch it on that. So you know. You know, if you got some pennies around or in the couch or something like that, you could turn those into millions.

Speaker 1: 15:59

He currently has it's half time All right, and he has two points on one of six shooting. Oh, two from three.

Speaker 2: 16:07

But he has it. He has a rebound. Okay, he has.

Speaker 1: 16:11

Yeah, yeah, but his plus minus is plus six. I mean, what more can you ask for from a guy?

Speaker 2: 16:22

Very early the tread day, tread deadlines, not till February 8th. But you know everybody's always gonna start talking, as you I think you mentioned this early in the when we started with the NBA season. You know the Bulls and Zach Levine, de Marder, rose and stuff like that. So those are kind of some high commodity piece and Alex Caruso some high commodity pieces that are being talked around, floating around when it comes to the trade deadline. Obviously good teams like the even sons have talked about it the Lakers obviously, because you know Everybody gets associated with the Lakers somehow. Some way the Kings have shown interest in Zach Levine, things of that nature. So it is a very high likely possibility that Zach or Alex Caruso do get moved by the tread deadline From the Chicago Bulls. So I was interesting also, kind of I'll go ahead.

Speaker 1: 17:05

I was gonna say From what I've been reading is that there's not a lot of interest in Zach Levine, which is kind of interesting to me very entry from.

Speaker 1: 17:14

Well that. But then also, I think it's a lot of lot to do with his contract. He has a massive contract that nobody wants to take on and throughout his history in the NBA, he hasn't really been known to be a winner, but he's. He's definitely a valuable asset to have on the team, especially because he's just a bucket getter, you know, I mean, you like you can always find a spot for somebody that just can't hoop, you know. Yeah, granted, he doesn't play that much defense, but he needs it, isn't he? Okay, he's, he's not like Jordan pool level, so where he just literally is a detriment out there. But yeah, what are you gonna say?

Speaker 2: 17:55

Marjan ended up Marjan Bo champ so and it is my cousin From Yakima plays for the milky box milky bucks. He works with Adidas. He works with Adidas. Him and Adidas ended up sponsoring our local YVC basketball team, so we ended up getting the gear a couple weeks ago. So I just wanted to say thank you and appreciate that from him and Adidas. But, yeah, they decked us out, got the sweats, that the the jackets, home and away travel, got some dame dollar shoes, home and away uniforms, as well as backpacks and things like that for the guys. So they are really excited about that. So that was some great gear. So just want to say appreciate that. It was pretty cool. I don't think I had a chance to tell you about that.

Speaker 1: 18:35

Yeah, no, that's, that's super dope, though Hopefully, you know, if Adidas is listening right now, they can also shoot us a little sponsor sponsor, you know, I mean, even though I'm wearing this, you know, nike shirt, right here.

Speaker 2: 18:47

We can wear. I got some new balance on right now.

Speaker 1: 18:49

I got some night and it's. Hey, you know, I, while I do love Nike, I also work for Adidas and I'm loyal to whoever you know is willing to sponsor me.

Speaker 2: 18:59

So I mean, whether it's new balance, whether it's you, know, Drew's always been known as a team regardless, so you know, okay Sounds about whatever Anything else that you wanted to touch on in the NBA before we hop out of here.

Speaker 1: 19:12

Uh, yeah, actually actually with with the, the jazz. So they've actually been playing pretty well as of late, which is blown out last night, I mean, okay, let me, let me rephrase that They've been playing that flop by 40. Other than that, they've been keeping the games respectable, other than that game, other than that game.

Speaker 2: 19:46

Yeah, they play some stuff in the back to back.

Speaker 1: 19:49

Yep, exactly. So, like both of those games, like I always say, good teams win, great teams cover. So they they've been able to, you know, keep the games close enough to where they're at least covering the spread. God damn it.

Speaker 2: 20:04

I will call on that game to and like the double overtime game, like Laurie marketing had a chance to like, tie it up. And like Katie Fowdom, they reviewed it. They're like, oh, he got a minute part of the ball before he, you know, dislocated his wrist.

Speaker 1: 20:16

Yeah that and then like undercut the hell out of him like salsa Julia style too. Yeah, it was pretty bad, honestly, if you watch the replay, but yeah, okay, one. One other thing too is Keontae George has also been like hooping ever since. Walker or Walker Kessler I hate his name, it's like you have two last names like yeah, walker, texas Ranger, exactly.

Speaker 1: 20:45

You never trust somebody with two last names. More of the story is Keontae George has been, you know, thrust into this, into this role of the point guard position, and I don't know if you watched him play recently, but some of the dimes that he's dropping out here are just like absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 2: 21:02

I think he said he leaves the rookies and assists. He's been playing very well.

Speaker 1: 21:05

Yeah, yeah, he, he currently has. He's tied for first right now amongst rookies, with 5.1 assists right now.

Speaker 1: 21:15

And along with that is. The downside of having him on the court is that he's also, you know, shooting about 35.7% field. But other than other than his poor shooting performance, he has been like the main. The main success story in the offense from what I've been reading from their beat reporters, is that when he's on the court you can kind of tell that the offense just flows a lot better because he's a much better playmaker than literally anybody else that they have to offer out there, and especially like Jordan Clarkson, like he's, he's a, he's a score, he's a bucket getter.

Speaker 1: 21:57

Like I said, they're always good to have on your team, but in terms of texting off the bench yeah and he's more of just like a defensive guy, and not even really defensive guy, just kind of a ugly dude to look at and it's kind of he's an energy guy. Yeah, and anytime you got to say that somebody's an energy energy guy means that they're not very good. Okay, am I wrong? Oh, he's a. He's a real hustle guy, he's an energy guy.

Speaker 2: 22:25

He used to be very good. He used to be good on the cast.

Speaker 1: 22:28

He was a.

Speaker 2: 22:29

He was a scorer and all this kind of stuff. But yeah, I hear you.

Speaker 1: 22:32

Yeah, but yeah I know. So with County, george and everything, him actually being a playmaker, has been able to help the team, at least you know, keep the games closer and, you know, be more competitive and have a better offense overall, as opposed to before when they were just kind of doing I don't know, just pass it around the Ark and then hope for somebody to get on the offense. And so it was very stagnant before, but now it's kind of flowing a little bit. Only thing you got to work on is just actually making shots, which is a major fact says a little bit of rondo into him.

Speaker 2: 23:10

Right, we're working on a little scoot Henderson to him. You know just okay, unless you got anything else, I think that's going to wrap it up for today. We ended up going to hour and hour and a half, so anything else that you want to touch on.

Speaker 1: 23:26

Um. No, I think that's pretty much it. Like I said, we're going to, we're going to have a link to our discord channel and that's where we'll be posting some of our plays as well as, um, the updated plays as well, and, assuming again, like there's no crazy broken arms or anything like that, we'll just stay true to those plays and then, uh, kind of go from there and we're we, I am easing back into um, these, uh, these props and everything too.

Speaker 1: 24:01

Yeah, um, also, if Hall of Fame bets would like to sponsor this podcast, that would be greatly appreciated. Um, they are a uh, not necessarily a prop service, but they show a breakdown of each game by game. Um, how many times that player's gone over their props? Um, if they've ever gone over that prop in their in past 10 games, five games, whatever, and they also did the same thing with team totals and also, um, basically just literally everything.

Speaker 1: 24:31

So that is, uh, one thing I'm going to be using going forward, along with the my own model that I used, um as well, and I wish I could remember his name, but the book that I that I've been reading over time is it's Excel Like spores. I, I gotta. I'll add it down below. Yeah, the dude that wrote that book, he, he's basically the end, all be all when it comes to sports betting models and he's basically the main guy that I've learned from and the majority of the models that I have. And if I didn't learn it from him, then I picked it up from Josh Applebaum and his book. So, yeah, so my mentors, absolutely they're my mentors that don't even know they're my mentors.

Speaker 2: 25:26

Well, that's gonna wrap up this episode. Everybody, this has been the college hot podcast. The host, alex Haynes and Jormor. Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving. Safe travels to any of you guys traveling far. Again, we'll on. Or even traveling close walking.

Speaker 2: 25:40

You know, just, you know, just just, stay safe out there around the block, you know as mentioned before, you can find this where you can find your podcast with the podcast ever Spotify. We are also on YouTube. For those of you watching us there, check our links in the bottom of the description to get our links to our social media, as we do have my little dog Come in here to say hi to everybody. So, yeah, if you like this podcast, give it a like, follow, comment, share. Anything else, true?

Speaker 1: 26:06

No, that's pretty much. It Make sure you download as well. That's what helps the channel grow, and if you are wanting to sponsor this podcast, go free, reach out.

Speaker 2: 26:16

Let us know, as long as it's not anything weird. Yeah, happy Thanksgiving everybody. We will see you on Wednesday.