 What's the word y'all? I know I'm speaking for everybody when I say I cannot wait for the NBA season to start so much so I'm looking forward to the pre-season. Nobody cares about pre-season. I'm looking forward to that. It kind of happens the same way every year for me. We hit the off-season and I'm like, man I can't wait for the summer league. And then I watch one day of summer league and I'm like, I'll see y'all when the pre-season come around. Then the pre-season come around. I watch one day of pre-season and I'm like, it don't really count. So let's wait to the regular season. I just need to see basketball. I need to see NBA level basketball. And I guess the pre-season around the corner, October 5th, the Bulls go against the, who was it? The Cavaliers and I'm trying to be in the tennis as a day after my birthday, my birthday gift. So maybe I'll be there, maybe I won't. But it got me thinking about players that have a lot to prove. It's basically just an avenue for me to talk about some players that's been on my mind. Take it with a grain of salt. Like one of these players, the first player we're gonna talk about is a player that has cemented himself as a Hall of Famer. He's one of the greatest point guards of all time. He doesn't have anything to prove, but I just want to talk about Russell Westbrook. Whenever I talk to an older player in the NBA, I asked him the question about legacy because I'm very curious how people view the word legacy or their own personal legacy. And a lot of the old NBA players give me a similar response when they say, I really don't care. I feel like Russell Westbrook feels the same way. He does not care about his legacy. He knows where he stands. He is a Hall of Famer. He has won an MVP award, all of those things. But he's never won that championship. And this is probably the best shot he's gonna get since the KD days when they were actually in the finals. And when I say Russell Westbrook has a lot to prove, you see I keep doing this because it's just, again, it's just an avenue for me to talk. This year is gonna be different than any year of Russell Westbrook's career. Think about, okay, see, when they started off, he was second fiddle to Kevin Durant. Then Kevin Durant goes to the goal to say words and now Russell Westbrook has his own team. He leads them to the playoffs on a crazy, do you remember the Russell Westbrook MVP season? The race between him and James Harden? Oh my God. Anyway, he wins MVP. All of that washes up. He ends up in his next destination. And now he's been the guy for his team for what, two years now? Three years since Kevin Durant has left. And now he goes to Houston and now I'm back to second fiddle for the first time in a couple years. Didn't really work out. Then he ends up in Washington. He's second fiddle to Bradley Beale. Didn't really work out. And now with the Lakers, he's the third guy. Now on a lot of nights, he will be the one guy. He will be the two guy. But when it matters the most, and I'm talking playoff action, Russell Westbrook will probably be the third guy. And we haven't seen that. Now in the regular season, Russell LeBron is going to coast his way because he's 37 years old. He don't need to play 80-something games at a higher intensity. And that's one of the reasons why you trade for Russell Westbrook. Anthony Davis can be wishy-washy as much as I hate to say that the man be injured every other game. So you're going to get a lot of Russell Westbrook being the guy-type nights. But when we come to the playoffs and hopefully they're healthy with a healthy AD and a healthy LeBron James, Russell Westbrook is going to have to play a role where he hasn't played before. Now Russell Westbrook is a ball dominant player. That's not a knock, but it's just the way he is. But even with that being said, he has played very well as second fiddle. You gotta think about it. Kevin Leret let the league of scoring and won an MVP with Russell Westbrook on the side. He goes to Houston, James Harden practically averages 35 points per game. Then he ends up in Washington and Bradley Beale leads the league of scoring too. So even though Russell Westbrook is a ball dominant player, he still finds a way to let whatever the star of the team is be him, be them. And now it's just a little bit different with them being the third. He have him being the third. This is his best chance to win an NBA championship since, again, the OKC year where they were in there. And at that age, I think he was like 22 years old and now he's older and mature. I don't have much doubted by mind that Russell Westbrook will be able to adapt to certain situations. But I need a coach, Frank Vogel, to really step up his coaching. I'm saying something, you know, telling a championship coach to step it up. But one of the things that I believe that Russell Westbrook needs to do to be highly effective, especially in the playoffs, is be active off the ball. Russell Westbrook has been an off the ball player in very, very, under a very, very long time. He kind of like, you gotta think about what the system was in Houston. It was like, watch James Harden work and I'm gonna be in the dunk response sometimes because I'm a 6-4 center because we try to click a pellet away or Bradley Beal gonna work and I'm kind of gonna sit here. I believe that Russell Westbrook has the potential to be one of the greatest cutters in the NBA if Frank Vogel made him do that more often. So this is a year where he has something to prove because it's just different. And a lot of people see them as the shoe in to win the Western Conference. And you can't win the Western Conference if Russell Westbrook doesn't end up being the Russell Westbrook you need him to be. Today's video is inspired by CBS Sports article that I saw that I didn't really agree with. So that's why I'm doing my own little list. These are off the top of the dome, by the way. They're not really off the top of the dome with some names that came to mind immediately. Number two, again, is a player that has been an All-Star. But now his circumstances are different than any time in his career. And that is Zach Levine. He is my star player here in Chicago. And I've never been a person that has subscribed to the empty stats narrative around any player, whether it be Devin Booker, whether it be Zach Levine, whether it be Corinth, any towns, any of that. I've never really believed that. I just believe that some players are in a situation that doesn't work well. I mean, I just think about it like this. If you can hoop, you can hoop. Zach Levine can hoop. It just so happened that there's never been a team that he's been on that has been good enough to make the playoffs. He's never had the situation to showcase to the world that he's more than an empty stats guy. And this is the year. I have no doubt in my mind that he's going to change that narrative around. But I know some people out there that still see Zach Levine in that way. The same way they saw Devin Booker in that way last year then he went to the bubble and ate no and helped the team, led a team, second fiddle, whatever you want to call it, to a team that went to the NBA finals ain't nobody ever going to say the word empty stats and Devin Booker in the same sentence anymore. And what changed? Yes, Devin Booker has got better. But what changed was the people around him. His front office built a team that was competent. And guess what? He's starting to win games. But whoa, who would have thought that his teammates being good means that he's going to win more games. And Zach Levine is in a similar opportunity right now with having the best roster he has ever been on. Ever been on. Now what I would like from Zach Levine the season, I don't need him to average 25, 26, 27 points per game. I don't. If he keeps that same amount of efficiency, I'm happy. If the team is winning more games, I'm happy. I want to see Zach Levine beat some people back door. Zach Levine had been holding the ball more than anybody because nobody else in the team, we had no point guards that you trust. We had no playmakers. Now we have multiple. So now the usage rate of Zach Levine should go down and that'll allow him to work off the ball which I think he can be one of the best in the entire league at. Next player on my list is Pascal Siakam. I know he probably won't be there for the season opener because he had some shoulder surgery, but the narrative around Pascal Siakam has dramatically changed in just one year's time. He went from a guy to most improved player, all star, all NBA type player, to a guy that people laughed at and he was the butt of a lot of jokes. And I would be lying to you if I didn't make jokes too, like told you I didn't make jokes too, I definitely have. You know what I'm saying? It's part of the thing. I mean, listen, you know how extremely unlucky that man Pascal was this season. You know how many shots rimmed out? And it just so happened he was spinning to shoot the shot. So yeah, I've made some jokes, but I've never been off spicy P Island. I still have the shirt from three years ago. You know what I'm saying? And this year when he becomes healthy in his shoulders, okay, this is his opportunity to change the narrative around again. I don't know if he's gonna be an all NBA player. I actually doubt he'd be an all NBA player again, but it's possible. But I think that a lot of people are turned off by the way last year happened for Pascal Siakam. There are a lot of variables that you can attribute to him playing as bad as he did. If you really think about it, he didn't have a terrible season. He just wasn't as good as he was two years ago. So people were just comparing him to himself and he didn't live up to that expectation. This is a year where the expectation is like, eh. So he got nothing to do but to jump up. And the last guy on my list feels weird to be here, but this is a guy I wanna talk about, Jaren Jackson Jr. This off season for the Memphis Grizzlies was definitely an interesting one. They made a lot of different moves. And I think on paper, a lot of people will agree that their team might be worse this year than it was last year. I'm not gonna underestimate them cause I've done that two years in a row. I didn't think that their rosters were good enough to make playoff pushes and they did every year. So I'm not saying that it's impossible for them, but they made changes to say that, hey, Jaren, we need you to play more than 11 games. We traded away Jonas Valenchunis who some people might argue was the best, most impactful player on our team other than John Moran. It is your time to shine. Here are the keys, go drive. And if he can't stay healthy, and I know a lot of that is not due to himself. He can't control what type of injuries he comes down with. He needs to be good at the minimum. He has to be good for them to continue this. We gonna be good enough to compete every single night. We gonna be good enough to maybe get in a play in and potentially still a playoff spot and then still a playoff game. He needs to be that second option for John Moran. And he hasn't been that for an entirety of his career just yet because he cannot stay healthy. There's no Jonas Valenchunis there no more. You got Steven Adams, who's still an OKMBA player, but it's like you, Jaren. It's you, it's Desmond, it's Dylan, it's Kyle. But a lot of it is you this year. So like I said, CBS Sports put together an article and that was the inspiration behind this. Let me find this article because I thought a lot of the stuff they said in this article was just like eh. I actually hate CBS, by the way, because they do this thing where they play a video once you go to their page. Don't do that. If you're a web designer, don't do this. This is the worst that you could possibly do because I don't even wanna be here right now because this started playing. I legit wanna cut this part of the video out but I already told you I was gonna show you. So Ben Simmons, among 10 players, this feels like beating a dead horse. That's why I didn't say the name Ben Simmons in this video. Obviously that makes sense, whatever. Ben Simmons, number one. Dennis Schroeder, I guess so. He just sat on Instagram. He ain't worried about that 84 million that he turned down. So shout out to him. Victor Oledipo, sure. Now what you're gonna see is that there are a lot of players coming off injuries. Well, yes, if you're gonna come off an injury, yes, you have a lot to prove, but it feels like a cop-out answer. Yes, Victor Oledipo has a lot to prove. Porizengas is a really good name but I knew it was gonna be on this list so I didn't say it. Spencer Denwitte, he's coming off an injury. He's got a lot to prove. Andre Drummond, I mean, sure. I just don't see Andre Drummond as a player that's gonna be getting big money ever again just because his style of player is kinda aged out of the league. Marquel Foltz, coming off an injury. Kay Cunningham, Kay Cunningham. Oh, they're like, was he worth the tank? Okay, so sure. Robert Williams got an extension. Clay Thompson coming off an injury. That was their list, but like I said, I just want to talk about four NBA players and I did exactly that. Let me know in the description or in the comment section who you believe has the most to prove and I'll be down there reading your comments.