 What's the word y'all? Now I know I'm breaking my own rule by upload on a Sunday, but I gotta test the wads and see how many basketball fans are still out there. I know it's a day for football, but I got a lot to talk about. Be sure to leave a like, subscribe if you're new. Before we talk about the bulk of this video, about the two teams that nobody's talking about that's really good, I wanna do rapid fire about stuff that I saw today. And I say rapid fire, but y'all know I'm long winded. So it'll probably not really be rapid fire. But anyway, let's get to it. If you haven't already, be sure to leave a like. It helps the channel grow a lot and we're almost at 500,000s. Crazy. So the first game we wanna talk about is the New York Knicks beating the Pelicans. Eli Kenny, the Pelicans are missing Brandon Ingram tonight. No Zion, even though we saw him warm enough for the first time of the season, shout out to him. The reason we're talking about this is because RJ had a career night. Ladies and gentlemen, 35 points, eight rebounds, six assists, only one turnover, six threes, and overall it was 12 from 18 from the field, got to the free throw line. It was his best game of his NBA career, like statistically speaking. I picked the over for Julius Brandon rebounds at 9.5 and he decided today, I know I don't really wanna go for rebounds. And that was the only thing that didn't hit, the only thing that didn't hit. But I do wanna sign a lot of light on RJ because just watching a game like this or even a game against the Bulls the other night, he has progressed so much as an NBA player. And I know statistically his counting stats are down but he is so much better. And when I was watching this game he made me go back to NBADraft.net and think about or reread his Scouting Report. So quickly I wanna read you some of the things on his Scouting Report. Just so many ads. Get your money NBADraft.net but no, no. Now this is not for us to say that NBADraft.net was wrong here because remember we're talking about the progression of RJ. All of these things might have been true coming out of college but remember we're in year number three. He's got two years under his belt and now he's in year number three. So let me read you some of this stuff. May have peaked into some degree in high school as he was clearly the top kid in his class. Outside shot lacks great form and confidence, seemed to waver. Last year RJ Barrett shot 40% from three. I don't know what he's shooting right now but he shot six for eight tonight. Obviously his jump shot has progressed a lot since this was written. Nice to improve his ball handling to become a more efficient half court player. I want you to go watch RJ Barrett dribble the ball his Ricky season and compare it to now. The handle is a lot tighter than it's ever been. It's an aggressive off the ball defensively doesn't rotate hard. Could look to take advantage of his physical tools more defensively and create more turnovers. Now he still doesn't create a ton of turnovers but I don't think I would be crazy to say a week and a half into the NBA season almost two weeks to the NBA season. RJ Barrett should be on the ballad for all defensive team. He has been legitimately clamping people up every single night. I mean he clamped up to Martin Rosen at the end of the Bulls game and that's kind of sad to me. Shout out to RJ. And these last couple things talk about the hero ball, fearless approach can lead to overconfidence and he seems like an alpha personality but needs to adjust to defer at the next level. Sort of a jack of all trades and master of none. Now the last one might still be true. Jack of all trades and master of none but I think a lot of this season he's starting to master the defensive side of the ball. And when it comes to him deferring, whoa, he's the second option, sometimes third option on his team. We just saw a player have a breakout year alongside him in Julia's Randall. So he's definitely got so much better throughout his NBA career already. And I just want to set some light on it. Shout out to RJ Barrett. Next game, the Chicago Bulls ended up beating the last undefeated team. The Utah Jazz were missing my colleague. They were missing Rudy Gay. But either way, this was a big game for us man. Again, we lost to the Knicks on a buzzer beater miss and I was afraid of this one. The heart was pounding the whole time. Like I did not live tweet this game because I just felt like any moment the Utah Jazz going to run because they were the best offense of the league coming into the game this game and the second best defense of the league coming into this game. So I just felt in my mind that maybe we weren't up for the challenge. I need to stop, stop underestimating my boys because the defense is real y'all. Now I don't think the Bulls are going to be a top five defense all season. I think that's unrealistic considering we don't really have that much rim protection. But so far a couple games to the season this team projects to be in the top half defensively. And as the offense starts to come around I think we can be a danger scene. We should be a playoff team. And that's all I really want at this moment. Tony Bradley big time minutes because we don't have Patrick Williams anymore. So we need more big bodies. And Dara Jones Jr. hadn't played the entire season and he finally get put into the lineup. Really good tonight. Really good tonight. So Utah is going to bounce back. Obviously they're one of the best teams in the league if not the best team in the league right now. But the Bulls getting this win was huge. DeMar DeRosen they said he was overpaid. They say he couldn't fit a long sale. Lonzo Ball and Zach Levine they were wrong. At least they have been wrong. W. And even though Vucovic was terrible for like three quarters and 10 minutes him scoring those last couple buckets. Thank you. Oh my God. So far this season he's had some big shots. Now don't get me wrong. But he has not been good. And it's a little bit scary because an aging center offensively minded, aging center typically doesn't end well once you get to the later half of his career. Now I'm not saying it's over for Vucovic by any means but he's going against the defensive player of the year and then in the last couple of possessions. He stepped it up. I appreciate that. Anyway, any who let's talk about those two teams on the thumbnail. Let's talk about the two teams that I believe a lot of people aren't really talking about and they're sitting towards the top of the conference. Let's start off with the five in one Washington Wizards. I think a lot of people expected the Wizards to be solid this season. I don't think many of them expected them to start off a five in one. I mean, you saw the trade Russ Westbrook and the team just got so deep at that point. KCP, Montrez, Harold, Kalkuz, my all quality players. They were still going to have Daniel Gaffer, Bradley Biel. They signed Spencer Demity or Trader Farm. I don't know how the off season works but Spencer Demity is on the team. And I think a lot of people saw that depth helps win in the regular season. But I don't think many people saw it to this extent, right? Because as of right now, there's still Mr. Rui Hachimura. We don't know what's going on with Rui. I hope he is doing okay. I heard it was some mental health things and you know, we take those things very seriously on this channel. So I hope eventually he gets to the point where he can rejoin the team and get things going because he obviously is a really good player, one of the better players on the team. There's still Mr. Thomas Bryant who tore his ACL, if I'm not mistaken, last season. They recently lost Daniel Gaffer to a quad injury because Spencer Demity hadn't played in two seasons. He was resting up. Bradley Biel started off the season kind of buns and still they are five in one. Now Bradley Biel has come around in the last two games. Bradley Biel has been stellar. But before that, the first four games of the season, Bradley Biel seemed like 30% from the field and they were still finding a way to win games. It could go a long way. A good coaching change could go a long way. And getting veterans that understand how to win regular season games helped too. Kentavius, Montrez, the Cal Coulsmen, say what you want about them. They have been in situations to be a part of elite regular season teams one way or another. Whether it be Montrez Harrow, when he was with the Clippers, Cal Coulson with his time with LeBron. These are players that know what it takes to win games. And luckily they have that depth because Rui is out and Thomas Bryan is out. There is a time today. Now today's game was crazy, double overtime. It felt like nobody wanted to win. The refs didn't want the game to end. There was a lot of stuff going on, but they pulled it out. I think they were down by six in the first overtime or like a minute and a half to go. And the Celtics, I don't got nothing to say. They just continued to disappoint. And they continue to put it together. I put the over on Montrez rebounds and I was so hurt. Cause Cal Coulsmen decided he wanted to turn it to West Unsell Jr. And still every board away from Montrez, but he did end up getting it. Now advanced stats can be very wonky, especially the first week or two or even month of the NBA season. But one thing that is true about the Washington Wizards team that helps their defense is the fact that they don't give up many three-pointed tips. Now I'm not even going to look at percentages because today the way the Boston Celtics shot, I know that the Washington Wizards percentage defense is all the way through the roof. They might be number one in the league because the Boston Celtics couldn't hit a shot from three. But they don't allow teams to shoot many threes. And I just think that's an interesting way to play things. It seems like right now in the NBA, a lot of the elite level defenses are allowing teams to shoot and decided to protect the paint. And they are kind of doing the exact opposite of that, which is interesting. I mean, I know they don't have elite level rep protectors. Daniel Gafford, I would say is a plus shot blocker. But right now you got like Montrez Harrow who's a 6'8", 6'9", center that's not known for his defense. But they've been putting it together defensively, which is super interesting. And I guess I kind of thought that because SpicerDVD had missed so much time, they will take a little bit for him to get his legs under him to get back in the swing of things. Nope. I think Bradley Bill missed one game and SpicerDVD took over here like a 30 piece. Him and Bradley Bill kind of fit together perfectly. Montrez Harrow came into the season, he was talking about how last year he wasn't able to play his brand of basketball. And that makes a lot of sense, man. I mean, say what you want about LeBron, he's such a great player, but you have to kind of play a role and you have to be in a mode to be on a LeBron team and for that LeBron team to be elite. And Montrez Harrow just didn't fit that. He was getting DMPs, coaches, assistants, and things like that. And a lot of people thought he might not have been over for Montrez, but people didn't think that he could maybe make a big impact like he was making when he was six men in a year a few years ago. Where throughout the beginning of the season, they have allowed Montrez Harrow to play his game. Let's get up and down the court, we're gonna throw you some lobs, we're gonna let you talk, we're gonna let you be you, Montrez. And he's one of those players that you need him to be himself for him to be impactful. And he's been really, really good for them. Kyle Kuzma, you know he got a chip on his shoulder from coming from LA. He's doing a little bit of everything every single night. Sometimes he might hit four threes, sometimes he might get 17 rebounds out of nowhere. And KCP has been so consistent. Today he wasn't very good, but he's a consistent 38 to 40% three-point shooter and he's gonna play good defense. So do I think this Washington Wizards team is a contender? Probably not, but they're gonna surprise a lot of people and probably end up making a playoffs and kick somebody out that should be in there. Let's get to the Miami Heat, man. If you remember that video from a few weeks ago, I was talking about how when it comes to the Easter Conference they are my dark horse. I didn't think they'd be able to win a ton of regular season games as far as being the one-two type seed, but I knew once it came to the playoffs that team was going to be elite. Bam, Jimmy, PJ and Kyle Lowry on the court together. They're not giving up many points and so far throughout the season, that has been true. They've been elite defensively and I saw a tweet and this was one of the catalysis for today's video when somebody asked who has been the most underperforming free agent acquisition this season and I saw a lot of Kyle Lowry and what I have to say to those people is you a box score watcher, ain't you? Yeah, it's okay to admit it. It's okay to admit it. You a box score watcher because the box score says that Kyle Lowry is averaging eight points per game, seven assists, four rebounds. The box score says he's shooting 33% from the field and 27% from three. I'm here to tell you right now, oh first of all, this isn't the count today's game so it's a little bit better because he didn't have a bad game tonight, but I'm here to tell you, Kyle Lowry's slow shooting or slow scoring that doesn't make him the worst acquisition considering this team is running like a whale or you're the machine on the defensive side of the ball where Kyle Lowry is very effective and this team is running and that is a Kyle Lowry led thing. I mean, you can just listen to the anecdotes of his teammates right now and even if you're not watching the game, they will tell you everything you need to know about Kyle Lowry adding it to the team. Tyler here a couple of days ago said, I've never played with a point guard that knew the game to the level of Kyle Lowry. He said, no disrespect to my other point guards that I played with like growing Georgia game, you know what I'm saying? But Kyle Lowry is on a whole new level and Tyler Hiro has gave a lot of credit to Kyle Lowry and unlocking him as an NBA player. Jimmy Butler was talking about or is it PJ talk was talking about how crazy the defense is where no matter who's guarding who, we can switch interchangeably because Kyle Lowry is able to guard the bigger players in the league as well. Kyle Lowry's slow scoring slash shooting only shows you a small percentage of the Kyle Lowry impact. And remember these boys, these boys have given up a hundred points just one time this entire season. I'm trying to find these stats that I saw earlier before I started filming this video. So far this season the Miami Heat are sixth in points per possession and transition. And if my app would work, I would tell you what it was last year so we can see the progression of adding a guy like Kyle Lowry. Okay, it's here. Last year, they were 14th. Big jump. Hey, listen, the offense of Kyle Lowry is going to completely come around and they're gonna need it. It's not all sunshine and roses. Their transition offense is what's keeping them in these games and winning them these games because in a half court, when it's a lot of Jimmy Butler, try to do your thing, it's a lot of band pull-ups and so far the offensive rating in the half court hasn't been amazing, but you pair that alongside the transition game and boom, they're winning a bunch of games. So that's the first thing that scares me a little bit about the heat. The second one is the defense is super elite, but they give up a ton of open three-pointed tips a game. And as of right now, they give up the most open threes, but the teams that are shooting it are shooting the worst. Some of that is gonna have to level itself out. You can't give up 40% open threes against team and think that they're gonna shoot 20 something percent all season long. You know, the average is gonna level itself out and once that does, maybe the defense doesn't look as elite and then you're gonna need more of the off or the half court team to do something offensively. But as of right now, the scheme is working, no need to change it, but when the boys start to actually hit their shots, you gotta change it. Cause like tonight, Jaren, and he was like 0 for nine from three, you know what I'm saying? Like they were letting players shoot. We're like, we don't trust that, but eventually you're gonna have to, you're gonna play somebody that you're gonna have to trust. So those are two teams that I think are getting enough love out there, man. Yeah, both of these teams might end up disappointing me in one way or another, but as of right now, six games into the season, both have been stellar. The Eastern Conference is crazy. We got the Heat, the Knicks, the Wiz, and the Bulls at the top of the Conference. What? Come on, man. It's insane. Also saw the 10 Bulls blow a game to the Denver Nuggets. Somebody in the comment section, let me know what the heck is going on with Michael Porter Jr. Because he don't even look like he wanna play basketball right now. Boy got paid and decided I don't wanna score, even though I'm one of the most elite scores, superior scores in the league. What the heck is happening? I don't understand.