- 12 hours ago
Kevin Sheehan reacts to the Washington Wizards' electric season-opening victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, breaking down Anthony Davis' dominant 34-point, 12-rebound debut, Trae Young's 13-assist playmaking masterclass, Kyshawn George's emerging star trajectory, and John Wall's guest appearance in the broadcast booth.
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00:00I'm not going to lie to you, I'm a little bit giddy about the Wizards.
00:04That was, without question, a fun opening night.
00:10I do want to remind everybody that the Bucs are not supposed to be a good basketball team.
00:16They're supposed to stink this year.
00:19They traded Giannis.
00:21This is not going to be a good team.
00:24It's going to be a team that probably wins fewer than 25 games this year.
00:30But, man, I have three pages of notes from the game last night, Max.
00:35Oh, my God.
00:36I'm treating this like it's a Monday following a football game.
00:41I did not watch the game live because I had to make an airport pickup run last night.
00:50And so I came back, and I basically was an hour behind and watched it that way, fast-forwarding through
00:59commercials,
01:00and basically caught up as kind of the game was into the fourth quarter, but did not miss the essence
01:07of it because I didn't check my phone.
01:09I didn't look at my phone.
01:10I didn't want to see anybody texting me anything about the game, didn't look at social media, so had no
01:17idea what had happened.
01:20And this was really encouraging.
01:23It's one game.
01:24It's the opener.
01:26The opponent apparently stinks.
01:28And whatever I say, I understand it has a chance to look really dumb and really silly even two or
01:37three weeks from now.
01:38But they have players if the players remain available.
01:45Last night, Anthony Davis, in a year that I think is important for him, he has to play well.
01:52Remember, the Wizards traded next to nothing to get him.
01:56Why?
01:57Because he's a player that hasn't been available recently.
02:00We haven't seen the real Anthony Davis in recent years, the top 75 player of all time.
02:07One of the best to really ever do it at his position.
02:12And both ends, one of the great two-way players of his era.
02:18And it's so clear even after one game that if he stays healthy, and that is a big if,
02:27and the probability of him staying healthy long enough to play enough games for him to have the kind of
02:33impact on a playoff or no playoff kind of a season,
02:37it's probably less than 50-50.
02:40But if he does play the significant majority of games, they've got a lot of players that can really do
02:50it.
02:51Their young core that they've been building here for a few years, they've found some players.
02:58I'm going to go through my notes here, and I'm going to focus on one of those players perhaps more
03:04than any other.
03:05But Anthony Davis last night was terrific.
03:09Like, he went for 34-12, but he was just an absolute force.
03:15I think he had seven or eight rebounds in the first quarter alone.
03:19He was 11-20 from the floor.
03:22The truth is, the misses were shots that he's going to make more often than not.
03:27They were shots that barely hit the front rim or went in and out or barely off the back rim.
03:33He was there.
03:33He was an absolute force last night, like he can be.
03:37You know, he's only 33.
03:39He's not 43.
03:41There are a few really elite-level years potentially left in his career.
03:48And to me, he's different.
03:51He's the difference between, what was their over-under number?
03:54It was 34-1⁄2, right, for the season?
03:56Yeah, right, 34-1⁄2, 35 in that range.
03:59He's the difference between an under or a significant over.
04:06Like, I think they are a 34-win team if he doesn't play a lot of games.
04:11But perhaps a 44-win team if he does.
04:16And even if it's 42 and 40, it's going to be more wins than losses if he plays 65, 70
04:24games.
04:25I think it is.
04:26I have to couch my enthusiasm here and my, you know, wish-casting,
04:33because I have wish-casted a lot on this team over the last, you know,
04:3920 years of doing shows in this city, my hometown.
04:45And this is a team, most of you know, that I really, really love.
04:50And I just was eye-hard growing up.
04:54I'm just old enough to remember the championship in the years in the 70s
04:59when they were a legitimate, you know, contender.
05:02And, you know, it's been, I mean, we're coming up on near a half century
05:07since they last won an NBA title or were legitimate NBA championship, you know, contenders
05:14because they lost in 79 after winning in 78.
05:17That's just an amazing run of horrendousness.
05:22Is that a word?
05:24They've just been one of the worst franchises over the last half century
05:29in all of professional sports.
05:31And there have been glimpses, you know, the Gilliers.
05:35I mean, if we want to go back to the Beef Brothers with Ruland and Mahorn
05:39and Gus Williams and Dan Roundfield and some of those teams, Jeff Malone,
05:43some of those teams, you know, obviously for a brief moment,
05:47the Weber-Howard experience.
05:49And then, you know, the Gill, Antoine, Caron years.
05:53I think the best teams that they've had, you know, over the last 50 years
05:58were the Randy Whitman and then the Scott Brooks teams with John and Bradley Beal
06:03in the backcourt and with Ariza and then Pierce after Ariza left and Nene and Gortat.
06:09And they had their best chance to make it to an Eastern Conference Finals.
06:14They were not legitimate NBA Finals contenders because LeBron was in the East
06:19and his team was going to make the NBA Finals those years.
06:23But we just haven't had anything.
06:25And then on top of that, it's been, you know, we're coming up on close to 10 years
06:29since the last time they were legitimately good, which was 2017,
06:34when they got to a seventh and deciding game against the Celtics in the Conference
06:38and the semifinals, and this has – it's definitely one of these situations
06:46where I could personally wish cast myself ahead of my skis on this.
06:53But what I watched last night, and it's one game and it's the first game,
06:58and early season NBA is not necessarily reflective of what we're going to see
07:03down the stretch when we get to March, April, and May.
07:06But they've got players.
07:09They have players.
07:11And they have a superstar player who, if he plays the majority of the games,
07:18it is almost impossible with what they have around them talent-wise
07:22for me to believe that they wouldn't be at least a 42-win team.
07:27That would be the least amount to win more games than you lose, 42 and 40.
07:32Like, I think they're better than 500 if he plays the majority of games.
07:37And if it was just him, I wouldn't believe it.
07:41But without him, they don't have a chance at that, in my view.
07:44Now, the game last night.
07:46Understood.
07:47First game, Milwaukee stinks.
07:50I will just say this.
07:51I've always been a massive Jaime Jaquez fan going back to UCLA.
07:56He is such a good NBA player.
07:58He was a part of the Giannis trade to Miami.
08:02But they're going to be terrible this year.
08:05The Bucs are.
08:07So Anthony Davis went for 34-12, and the MVP chants were out in the first half.
08:13MVP chants at Capital One last night.
08:16That place seemed juiced last night.
08:20It's got to be that way, guys, on more nights than not.
08:23Because to make guys like Anthony Davis believe that D.C. actually can be a good NBA city, a good
08:32NBA town, it's got to be like that.
08:35A lot of nights.
08:37You know, last night was opening night.
08:38And it was great.
08:40MVP chants for Anthony Davis when he was at the free throw line in the first quarter.
08:45I loved that.
08:48He was really good.
08:50Trey Young last night was not very good shooting the basketball.
08:56In fact, I mean, some of his misses were horrendous misses.
09:00But he had 13 assists and one turnover.
09:05That would be one hell of an assist to turnover ratio if it continued.
09:11He really is a playmaker that has such great feel for the game, great feel for spacing, great feel for
09:18where to go with it, setting up defenders, setting up other players' defenders.
09:23He was really good as a distributor last night.
09:28You know, was in foul trouble a little bit.
09:31And Bub Carrington did a great job off the bench when Trey Young wasn't in there.
09:37But he got to the free throw line consistently, hit his floaters.
09:40He's really good with the quick flick floater.
09:44It's not the long extension floater with him.
09:47It's more of a flick floater, if you know what I'm talking about.
09:51Some of you know what I'm talking about.
09:52But he's got great feel around the basket with that.
09:56And he did not shoot it well last night.
09:59There are going to be nights where he shoots it well.
10:00And by the way, there are going to be nights where he has more than one turnover and less assists.
10:04But he was excellent as a distributor.
10:07It was encouraging to see that he wasn't hunting his shot consistently.
10:12I think he knows that he doesn't need to do that with what they have, especially with AD.
10:19So I'll start there with Anthony Davis and Trey Young.
10:23But to me, the most encouraging short-term and long-term part of last night's game was the player that
10:33I have actually liked more than any of their young players for a while now.
10:38And that's Keyshawn George.
10:40He's going to be an NBA All-Star at some point.
10:44He's, what, 22 years old?
10:45He's 22, right?
10:47In his now third season.
10:50Yeah, because he came in at 19.
10:51So he's 22.
10:53Yeah, he's 22.
10:53He turns 23 on December 12th.
10:56He's 6'9 now.
10:58He looks bigger and stronger than he ever has.
11:02And he looks so much more confident.
11:04Look, part of it is we get to evaluate and we get to watch a team that is playing differently
11:11and the opponents are playing differently.
11:15Because when you are tanking, and that's what they did for the last few years, you don't get opponents to
11:21take you as seriously.
11:22And it makes the evaluation hard.
11:25I think one of the reasons they traded for Trey Young and for Anthony Davis, and Will Dawkins has said
11:30this,
11:31it was time to start playing real basketball games, meaningful basketball games, because that's really the only way to truly
11:39evaluate your young players.
11:41You can identify talent.
11:43You can see it playing in NBA games.
11:46But when you're not legitimately trying to win, and the opponent knows you're not legitimately trying to win, it makes
11:52for a harder evaluation.
11:55You could see that Keyshawn George had a lot of skill and a lot of talent.
11:59Last night in a game in which they're trying to win, the opponent's trying to win, he was a force,
12:06man.
12:07He is also a guy that absolutely seeks out the basketball, and he wants to be a closer.
12:15They've got another.
12:16Anthony Davis and Trey Young will be closers on this team late in games, but Keyshawn George will be as
12:23well.
12:24He is strong.
12:26He's able to get his own shot.
12:28He's able to get to the rim.
12:30He's a good shooter.
12:31I know he went one for six from three last night, but they all looked good, you know, on the
12:36release.
12:36I know that he had a really good preseason.
12:38I didn't watch any of the preseason games, but I heard Chris Miller last night saying he had an excellent
12:43preseason shooting the basketball.
12:46He is legit.
12:49Keyshawn George, who they selected, you know, in the first round of the 24 draft, late in the first round,
12:56out of Miami.
12:58Nobody knew what they were getting.
13:00There were so many first round picks and so many players and so many players coming and going.
13:05Keyshawn George always looked to me.
13:07I'll tell you, the other one that looked the part to me last year was Will Riley.
13:11He's not even in the rotation.
13:15Keyshawn George, I think, is a future NBA all-star.
13:21Bilal Koulibaly got the start last night for A.J. DeBonsa.
13:26He was representative of what I was thrilled to see.
13:31Now, you should get this on opening night.
13:33You should be high energy.
13:35You should, you know, have a desire to defend on opening night.
13:40You know, it's not the second of your third, you know, in the month back-to-back.
13:46Bilal Koulibaly is just an excellent defender.
13:50And I think he's got a good stroke.
13:52I think he can shoot.
13:54I think he can get to the rim.
13:56But he is a high energy, you know, long, really, really gritty defender.
14:04So athletic, so long.
14:07The energy, the relentlessness, the actual technique.
14:12He's an excellent defender.
14:14And then, you know, you've got Anthony Davis and Alex Saar behind.
14:17And I'll get to DeAndre Ayton in a moment.
14:19But we didn't even see A.J. DeBonsa last night.
14:22But the team that I saw last night, like if Koulibaly was in the starting lineup for weeks on end.
14:28Look, I haven't seen A.J. DeBonsa play an NBA game yet.
14:31Those of you that are going to take the preseason and say, oh, they got it right.
14:35You can't say that.
14:36We'll say that and start to talk about that midseason.
14:39Can't wait to see.
14:40And if he is all that, my God.
14:44But Koulibaly can flat out guard.
14:47He is good on the ball.
14:49He is really good off the ball.
14:52How many steals did he have last night?
14:54He had to have three or four steals.
14:58He had four steals last night.
15:00Two block shots.
15:01So active.
15:05What else is in my notes?
15:07So early on, there was the first half in particular.
15:11The only thing that bothered me is they were high energy.
15:14They were relentless.
15:15But, man, they had a difficult time getting back on defense in transition.
15:19You have to.
15:20You know, the NBA game, like anybody that wants to play with pace, you have to get back on defense.
15:27And the Bucs were getting way too many easy shots.
15:30And they led at halftime.
15:32And they led at halftime 56-51, I think.
15:34They led by five.
15:36And they led by five late into the third quarter.
15:39And that was a bit of a problem.
15:41You know, consistent defensive productivity is still going to be a problem.
15:45But I loved the effort last night.
15:49All right.
15:49Off the bench.
15:51Bub Carrington was outstanding off the bench.
15:54Ten points.
15:56Had four assists.
15:57Two steals.
15:58He's also a relentless high-energy player.
16:01And he can shoot it.
16:02And he is looking for his shots.
16:05They've got some guys.
16:06They did not shoot it well overall from behind the arc.
16:10They were 6 of 28.
16:11I think at one point they were like 2 of 17 in the game.
16:15But, you know, Trey Johnson shooting threes.
16:19Koulibaly even.
16:20Sar even.
16:21Carrington.
16:23They looked good.
16:24They just didn't go down.
16:26And most of them were the right looks.
16:28Off of, you know, a Trey Young play.
16:31You know, making a play.
16:33And drawing the defense to him.
16:36And they made the right plays.
16:37And they took the right shots.
16:38They just didn't go down.
16:41I thought Carrington was great.
16:43The shocker for me last night was DeAndre Ayton.
16:47The stretch in which they took the lead in the fourth quarter, DeAndre Ayton was on the floor.
16:52Anthony Davis wasn't.
16:54And he was an absolute force.
16:57Defensively and offensively.
16:59He had two blocked shots in the game.
17:00He was 5 of 6.
17:01Right at the rim, there were a lot of lobs.
17:04A lot of lobs.
17:05A lot of.
17:05That was a really good combination.
17:08Trey Young was in the game when they made their run to take the lead with Ayton.
17:12And Ayton was outstanding off the bench.
17:14I think Chase Hughes said that yesterday.
17:16He said he thought that Ayton was going to be a real factor, you know, in terms of players, you
17:22know, off the bench.
17:23And he was.
17:2415 minutes, 11 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocked shots.
17:28I mean, DeAndre Ayton has been in the league now for a while.
17:32You know, he was the number one, number one overall out of Arizona back in 2017, 2018.
17:42And 2018.
17:45Played in an NBA finals, remember, against the Bucs with the Suns.
17:52But that is a nice piece as a big man coming off the bench.
17:59Also love Justin Champagny.
18:01Like, he just plays with incredible energy.
18:03And he can really shoot it.
18:05What was really interesting just about last night is it's going to take a while for them to figure out
18:11everything and to play well together.
18:13But they didn't put one player on the floor that wasn't capable of, at least in their own mind, getting
18:22their own shot and shooting it when it was there and giving effort on the defensive end of the floor.
18:29Even though maybe the results, especially getting back on defense for the first half, weren't great.
18:35What else did I have here?
18:39That's a lot of it.
18:41One of the things I wanted to say about Anthony Davis was just that he, you get reminded when you
18:49haven't seen him in a while, you know, that in addition to being a great two-way player, a great
18:55defender, rebounder, shot blocker, really good offensive player.
18:58By the way, I thought that a lot of times they went a little bit too much to try to
19:03block shots, a little too much of trying to make some highlight plays defensively and even offensively.
19:09But they'll figure that out.
19:10But he has a great feel for the game.
19:13There was a play in the first half where he scored at the rim and then kind of took like
19:19a step like he was going to run back down court and then jumped the inbounds pass, picked it off,
19:26didn't score.
19:26He got fouled and they didn't call it.
19:28But he has a really good feel, always has had incredible feel for the game.
19:33He's not just a great talent, a great defensive, great two-way player, but he's got basketball IQ and has
19:44a real good sense of everything.
19:48Oh, the last thing that I wanted to say about last night, and if you want to, I'll open up
19:55the phone lines right now.
19:56301-230-0980, 301-230-0980.
20:00Any reaction for any of you that are as, look, I'm going to dial it back here.
20:07I understand what last night was, an opener against a bad basketball team, but there is a lot to be
20:13encouraged about.
20:14And this is going to be a fun team to watch.
20:16They play tomorrow night against Toronto, and Toronto opened up with a 43-point win in Kawhi Leonard's first game
20:24against the Bulls in Toronto.
20:27But let me just tell you right now, John Wall was great on the broadcast.
20:32He drew Gooden and Chris Miller.
20:35They were giddy.
20:36I understand it.
20:37After calling games for the last couple of years that had no meaning, it was, I'm sure it was just
20:43a shot of adrenaline for Chris and for Drew in particular to be calling a game in which, okay, they're
20:50playing to win now.
20:51That's a much easier broadcast to do.
20:55And then to be caught up in a crowd that we haven't seen in years.
21:01John Wall, I've said this about him for four or five years.
21:06I've had him on the show many times.
21:08He is just so insightful.
21:12He is a hoops junkie.
21:14He's a point guard.
21:15You know, a point guard's always had a higher basketball understanding.
21:20But because he's so into hoops, I mean, I've had him on the show, and we've done 15 minutes just
21:27talking about the college game.
21:29And teams and players.
21:31But, man, if you are into basketball like I am, John is a great listen, and there are going to
21:39be nuggets every night that are going to just make you think, wow.
21:43He was talking about just how Trey Johnson came in off the bench, and if he were the point guard,
21:49he'd essentially be looking right away to call a play to get Trey Johnson a shot right away.
21:56Because scorers, shooters, you want them to get one off right away so they're not hunting it.
22:03They're not forcing it.
22:06And I thought he said that about Otto Porter.
22:08And he said Otto was never a guy that was going to hunt shots anyway.
22:11But I always wanted to get Otto confident, and I wanted him to get something early.
22:15So I'd call two plays just to get Otto a look.
22:18And he was talking about that with Trey Johnson.
22:20And it makes so much sense.
22:22Like, for a shooter, you know, shooters want to get shots up.
22:28Scorers want to score.
22:29And if you're in the game off the bench and in the first couple of minutes you don't get a
22:34look, you are then searching for that look.
22:38And John said the best way for players like that is you call, you run a pin down for them.
22:44You run something for them right when they come into the game so they can do what they do best,
22:49which is get a shot up immediately.
22:52So they're not feeling sort of that pressure of needing to look for it and hunt it.
23:00But excellent, very excited broadcast last night, very home-based broadcast, which I've never had an issue with.
23:10Buck and Phil were that for years.
23:12But also understandable about how giddy they are.
23:16And I thought it was great.
23:17And I think the combination of John with Gooden was outstanding to listen to.
23:25All right, if you want to weigh in on the Wizards, we don't do this very much.
23:29Maybe we'll be doing it a lot more over the next few months.