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A show about basketball
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Welcome to Gucci Row on the Rebel HD 2. I'm your host Kevin Kelly with co-host Will Despar. Thanks for tuning in to our court side conversations covering all things NBA.
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Gucci Ro, welcome back to episode 2.
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I'm your host Kevin Kelly. I'm your co-host Will Despart. And today we have a good episode.
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We're going to get into a few topics, one being a player spotlight that we have, where we'd like to shed some light on, you know, just an individual who is stepping up and deserves some attention. And then we're going to get into a bit of talk about the US Men's National Team and FIBA coming up before we get into playoff awards which are like all the regular season awards with you know MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and all that. Except we're going to treat it as if it's just for the playoffs and assign it as that. And then if we get to it, we have a draft of the best NBA player rappers and also some talk about Dynasty, which will be next episode if we don't. Will, how are you feeling today?
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Pretty good, man.
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How are you? Good, good, good. It's, uh, it's feeling good. The finals are on, you know, we, uh, we've got a lot going on in basketball, so it feels good.
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Hopefully, I'll be feeling a lot better in the morning after a heat W to me
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Yeah, so good after the last one. So I hope to keep it rolling Speaking of the heat, I guess we'll get into the career spotlight on this episode, we're gonna really focus on Gabe Vincent and just you know spend a few minutes talking about his career path and How he got here and how he's been so influential to this team. His name is Gabriel Namdi Vincent. It's funny, after Game 2, Spoh went to the presser and they asked him a question about Gabe. And his immediate response was, we love Namdi. He basically said to the national media to go do their research because this guy has an incredible story.
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is become a different person and that's on embracing the differences between the name Nnamdi and his NBA name or his given name in the US, Gabe. Yeah, I think that's awesome.
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I love when players embrace their background and really take pride in that. I think that's awesome. So, a bit of background on him. He was born in June 1996 in Modesto, California to his Nigerian father, Dr. Franklin Vincent, and his mother, Dr. Cynthia Vincent, who's from Connecticut. And both of them have doctorates in psychology from University of Cal. Gabe played high school at St. Mary's in Stockton, California, which is actually the same as Aces champion Chelsea Gray, who we both saw this year when they win the WNBA finals, but Absolute beast. Yep Yeah, she was huge in the finals. But uh after st. Mary's Gabe went on and played four years at UC Santa Barbara and graduated with a BA and a Bachelor's of Arts in religion studies and a minor in history He was academic all Big West team as a junior at UC Santa Barbara during his 2016 and 17 season. And I thought this I read this fact that I thought was awesome. His parents attended every single one of his 113 college games both home and away. That that's awesome. I love that kind of support for sure. And he ended he ended his career number one all-time at UC Santa Barbara for three-point field goals, a record that still stands. He's seventh in steals, ninth in points, and he was second team all-Big West his senior year before getting undrafted and joining the league. In 2018 was when he left college. He, like I said, went undrafted and signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Kings on October 3rd, 2018, who waived him the very next day to allow them to sign him to a contract with their G League affiliate Stockton Kings where he got to stay home and play his first two seasons in the NBA or G League. I guess
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After after those two
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Sorry after the first year he made a significant leap Playing for Stockton he He went from 18 minutes per game to 31, from 8 points a game to 23, and increased his field goal percentage from 38 to 47 with his 3 point efficiency going up from 29 to an elite 42%, making him the G League 2020 Most Improved Player. So obviously that's going to catch attention. of Heat Culture, who signed him to a two-way, which he said he was adamant on his agent to get right on signing that deal, and he said he grew up a Heat fan too, which I found interesting. So then he signed the two-way with the Heat and their G League Sioux Falls Sky Force, and his first year he only had 9 appearances, where he struggled and averaged 2 points on 21% shooting before the next year appearing in 50 games as a full-time heat player Doubling his points per game at a far more efficient 38% from the field Before they got swept by the eventual champions the Bucs in the first round of the 2021 series And then that summer he he joined the Nigerian team in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics if you want to speak to that a bit.
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Yeah, I was actually at the game where they beat Team USA, I believe it was at Mandalay Bay, the arena there. And yeah, they were just like, it was a very shocking game to watch that day because it started early and started, USA obviously started slow and it breathed life into the Nigerian team and then as the game continued you're like, okay, when is USA going to pull away, when is it going to happen? And then obviously Gabe Vincent was a huge reason that it didn't happen because he was making timely shots I believe he had what 21 points in that game and they were all timely buckets that cut the USA rallies and really stopped them from getting on a run to stretch the lead and
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make it so the Nigerians couldn't overcome it. Yeah I mean then we'll get into a bit of the US team later but for sure I think that that summer was pretty huge for Nigeria. They had a bunch of NBA players on the team, mostly role players, but still guys that were able to be really successful for the Nigeria team. And their coach was the 2023 coach of the year for the Kings, Mike Brown. So yeah, and then which is funny there was actually three players on the heat on that Nigeria team at the time including precious Chua and Casey Aqpala who's now on the Kings but Two years later now, he's the only player still on the heat from that team and has stepped into a much larger role Especially this season. Yeah, he started 34 of the 68 games He appeared in this year and he's just been a really really big connective piece uh... adding continuity on offense in a much needed role where he defends the uh... point of attack and he's really really done well at applying pressure on ball handlers disrupting offenses getting in passing lanes just causing turnovers uh... throughout which is something that probably doesn't get a lot or enough attention in the media but is a role that is so incredibly important to winning basketball. In the playoffs he's been even better. He stepped into a starting point guard role at points throughout the season including every game but one in the playoffs because he was hurt. He's added a real nice catch and shoot movement threat to the offense and he's been able to create space for himself as well as shoot on the move and it's something we lacked in a big way.
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He's definitely like a great textbook blue guy
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for a team like that. Yeah, yep, and we needed it, especially Kyle Lowry was down and hasn't played as well in general so he's stepped up pretty big. In that sense, while that's not naturally who he is, after Game 2, which Gabe led the heat with 23 points and 4 of 6 from 3 in a team high plus 22, it can't be stated how important he was to that Game 2 win. But yeah, after the game, Spoh in his press conference, Eric Schvulstra said, quote, He took on, I think, the toughest role change for a young player. He was a gunslinger to guard. We wanted to develop him into a combo guard, somebody that could organize us, be an irritant defensively, tough, learn to facilitate and run a team. And he just went on to talk about how much he embraced that role and how most guys would complain about wanting to be themselves in that situation and he did none of that and just took on the role head-on. Regardless of how the finals goes, he's going to get a big bag and unrestricted free agency. And I guess I hope that growing up a Heat fan helps him want to stay. Certainly. So I guess next we'll flow right into the, a bit about the U.S. national team as they prepare for FIBA, if you want to open that up. Yeah, Grant Hill took over for Jerry Colangelo after the 2020 Olympic Games. They've also revamped their coaching staff after Popovich stepped away from the team, hiring Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who was the assistant previously. They've also added Ty Lue, Eric Spolstra, and Mark Few to the coaching staff. I believe they all have experience coaching with Team USA previously and other assistant roles. I think it'll just as far as the coaching staff, I think there'll be a pretty decent continuity as Kerr is basically a Popovich disciple and runs a very Popovich style of basketball. So, yeah, I think you bring up some good points and that just that list of coaches is ridiculous. It's like a dream team. Yeah, and especially because they, like you said, Curry is a pop disciple but has such a high understanding and efficiency of offense and the way he allows his guys to function on that end. Whereas like Spoh has a ton of defensive prowess and his ability to change looks and throw zones at guys. Ty Lue is also one of the most skilled game plan and adjustment coaches of all time. That's as ridiculous as a coaching room as I think you can get.
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Yeah, any time you have four minds like that in one room, it's going to be hard to find
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any holes in anything that you can exploit. Yeah, and it's gonna be important because They're coming off the worst showing in US men's national history in 2019 the FIBA World Cup They came in seventh, which is just pretty unfathomable when you look at the history of how the men's teams has done It's unfathomable when you consider what the past was And like you said, the teams definitely are getting a whole lot better around the world as the game becomes more international. Like in that 2019 year, they lost to France, you know, with Gobert and Fournier went off that game. And then the day after, they lose to Serbia with obviously Jokic, who had seven assists and Bogdan, who led them in scoring. But it just goes to the point, like you said, these teams, these countries had teams that probably wouldn't even have been able to compete 10 years ago.
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And I always like to point out, if Yugoslavia was still a thing and didn't disband in the 90s, their basketball team right now would probably be rivaling the United States. They'd have Jokic, they'd have Doncic, they'd have a whole list of NBA guys that have made roles for themselves in the league to go around that. Yeah, that's definitely the most fun
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what if in international play. That team would be really, really hard to stop. But I guess that kind of just makes me wonder, with the other teams getting so much better, is this something that you see this fall will be different for FIBA Cup? Will we have more success? What
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might be the issues? Yeah. I think we'll probably do a little better because we'll be more dialed in considering what happened last time out, but also we're not at the point anymore where USA basketball is just going to go out there and waltz to gold medals and waltz to championships and trophies because the rest of the world, like we've said, is caught up and it's not at a point where it's the USA and then 10 miles and then the next best team. It's the USA, and then there's a pretty decent gap, but not that sizable that it can't be overcome. And then there's about five or six teams that can really compete with them now.
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And like you said, a lot of the guys, it's not a redeemed team anymore with five guys who are probably top 30 all time, or at least three. Whereas more so, like you said, just all-stars and very good NBA players. Those who have already committed for this year is Mikael Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Halliburton, Brandon Ingram, Jaron Jackson Jr., Bobby Portis, and Austin Reeves. All very, very good, mostly all-star level players, but none of which are in MVP discussions.
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Yeah, see that's like the type of team that you put it together and they'll go there and they'll win games, they'll probably be the best team on paper, but when you put them against national teams with the continuity of 5-10 years with NBA players to boot, I don't see how they'd go in there and get a gold medal unless they add a star or two.
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Yeah, we'll see. Adding a star is definitely something that's still in the picture. Because, like, I know we had mentioned to each other recently just something about the ups and downs, even slightly, and success that we've seen from them throughout our lifetime, and how, like, every decade or two it seems to be a bit of, like, I hear a lot of young guys that are around my age that are in the league and talk about how they came up on watching the redeem team and all the vibes with the banana boat and all that. And yeah, I think it could really inspire like another wave of more MVP candidates and top players join.
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Yeah, like you said, like every decade or so there does seem to be a rejuvenation amongst NBA players of like the international game and trying to get international accomplishments because one thing people don't also consider usually is that the basketball Hall of Fame considers your entire career. They consider college, they consider international play, they consider your NBA career, they consider it all. So it's not like these accomplishments don't mean anything. If you have a stacked international resume, like say Carmelo Anthony, it's going to make your Hall of Fame case go over the edge when you might have been having trouble making your case.
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Yeah, no, it's a good point. And you know, I think there's probably so many factors that play into why there's rises and falls of whether guys want to play and, you know, everything that comes along with that. But yeah, I think, I don't know, I think that that coaching staff and the way that last one went, I think it could go up for us. But like you said, it's going to be a lot harder than it used to be because of international competition. It's definitely going to require more effort. Yeah. So next, I will go into the our playoff awards, uh, kind of just all the regular season awards that you know, but we're going to just judge them for, um, the playoffs. Uh, yeah. So I guess we should begin with MVP as, um, is probably the biggest award. Um, the regular season MVP was Joel Embiid. and um... although we don't know yellow this uh... isn't settled yet so it could i guess change i have uh... yoke it says my uh... playoff mvp
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yeah i have your purchase well i i consider jimmy but the did the numbers yoke which is putting up in the efficiency is been putting up is just absolutely insane i think tomorrow mary deserves and outside mentioned for that as well, but Jokic has Cemented himself as the best basketball player in the world this postseason and you can't tell the story of these playoffs without saying that so
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100% and it's it's I agree. It's down to at this point him or Jimmy I think Despite how successful the heat have been I think Jimmy's Claim to that might not be as strong as it was at the beginning of the playoffs just because he was carrying so much with like the 53 point game against the Bucks and um just his uh domination in the Knicks series it was uh he definitely didn't fall off since then but he um has had a lot more help in winning for sure um so next we got rookie of the year which isn't really rookie it's just rookie in terms of playoffs. So someone who hasn't been in the playoffs yet.
0:19:20
I mean I thought this was pretty set in stone obviously with De'Aaron Fox.
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Yeah. Some of these are going to be, I don't want to say obvious, but pretty obvious in terms of who should win. So I definitely agree there. like you said it's his first uh... playoffs series i mean playoff run and um... he won clutch player of the year in the regular season and he has just been phenomenal running that offense and in the fourth quarter
0:19:49
that king's team to me felt like as a warriors fan the like twenty thirteen twenty twelve warriors teams that were like they weren't there yet but you could tell there was something special that was being built there there was something that just needed to there was a piece missing and I think if Sacramento finds that piece They'll be fine and deer and Fox will be a long time star on the league
0:20:08
Yeah, and it seems like a lot of those teams that have ultimate success have those periods where they You know like you said reach they have they're really successful reach a certain level and then you know falter out from there, but I agree I think that they're set up really well not just the year and like you said the Kings as a whole have a really good young roster that has shown a lot this year. I guess to bring other people into the discussion despite it clearly being Fox I also had Josh Hart and Austin Reeves on here I think Josh Hart was one of the best Knicks in that series He just plays such a vital role in playoff basketball in terms of You know switching on many different positions on defense and being able to fill gaps And it's just an incredible rebounder at his size like he Yeah, he was really successful and then Reeves. I don't know if you want to talk a bit about I mean yeah Reeves was obviously very good he filled in a role
0:21:17
for the Lakers that they needed to be filled with Kentavious Codwell Pope not being an air anymore and Caruso being gone he's a much better offensive player than I would have thought coming out of Oklahoma like if you told me that lanky kid with the weird haircut out of Oklahoma two years ago was going to become a legit offensive force and scored 20 points a game in the playoffs it would have been unfathomable.
0:21:37
Hillbilly Kobe.
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But yeah, now it's a good point. I think he's kind of like the anti-Alex Caruso, in the sense that Alex Caruso is really one of the best guard defenders in the whole league and in a Lakers uniform had some struggles on offense, whereas Reeves is quite the opposite and has provided a huge spark for that offense, but sometimes struggled on defense
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Yeah, for sure. It's a good point
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So next is most improved this Can go to you know any age guy just someone who has either had a history of Lack of success in the playoffs or just some recent lack of success and has picked that up So I don't know who you had for that. I chose Caleb Martin.
0:22:25
I mean I think the way he stepped up for the Heat in the playoffs this year changed the course of his career. I don't know how many guys you can say that about in these playoffs, but I think Caleb Martin earned himself a long, hefty payday at this NBA level based on literally just what he's done in the last month or two for this team.
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Yeah, and it's crazy to think that if it wasn't for J. Cole making the call to Kieran Butler to get him a tryout in a literal scrimmage, then he wouldn't be on the heat right now or maybe wouldn't be in the NBA. So yeah, I think that's a very valid pick for most improved. I had Jalen Brunson who went from a second option on the Mavs averaging like 20 in the playoffs to being the driving force of the Knicks offense and averaged like 28 on better efficiency as the number one in these playoff series so I think that I'll at least say for after last year. I didn't know that he would be this capable of Driving an offense this deep into the playoffs Yeah, he definitely he's definitely a playoff riser as well
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He sees that moment even last year with the Mavs and he's not a guy that gets faltered by it. He's gonna come out and play calm. He's gonna play
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collected and gonna do what he does. Yeah, no 100% and I think although they they lost to the Nuggets, I think Booker it would kind of be unfair to not mention him. He was, he scored the ball at an insane clip these playoffs, like really, really efficient. It's just, team success, clearly they didn't have it, but he, it's not because he wasn't scoring the ball, that's for sure.
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He's also a guy that's been pretty certified before this. No, that's true. Maybe not to this extent, but we've known that Devin Booker was capable of doing this
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for a team. That's a good point. I guess the reason I should have qualified it, the reason I put him in is because his numbers compared to last year were way, way better. Especially efficiency wise. And so I guess we don't have to get too deep into him, but the other guys that I had for there were Derek White and Mikael Bridges. Mikael because he took on a way bigger role on offense and Derek White has just been one of the best role players in basketball. So next is sixth man of the year. This obviously is for the best bench player throughout the playoffs. I had, like you had for most improved, I had Caleb Martin.
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I had Bruce Brown on the Nuggets.
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Yep, I had him as my third. I had Caleb winning and then I thought Brogdon deserved some talk about, so did Bruce Brown and Rui Hatchimora.
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I thought Bruce Brown sort of filled in. He's sort of like the Nuggets Gary Payton II in terms of like he's that glue guy for them defensively offensively He also plays that like point guard center role Where he's like he's on the low post and he's doing stuff in the low post, but he's still a guard height. Mm-hmm
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yeah, it's insane that they were able to sign him at the then the figure that they were this offseason, which I guess we'll probably get into when we talk about exact but I could agree and I think for all the reasons that you mentioned Caleb Martin deserves that nod for me. So next would be defensive player
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of the year if you want to start with that. I had Anthony Davis for this simply because I mean he was the driving force behind the Lakers we all saw it we can say it's LeBron because we want to be LeBron fans but LeBron was clearly hurt after the first round it's his foot was not the same. That might have even been dated back to the regular season as far as his foot.
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And he struggled on defense.
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The prowess that Anthony Davis showed on defense for that team is what got them past the Warriors, it's what got them past the Grizzlies, and it's what even they didn't have a competitive series against the Nuggets, but if they were going to, that was going to be their one saving
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grace. Yeah, I agree. I think you could argue that if they had a good backup or another option for when he was not on the floor, they would have maybe had a lot more success against the Nuggets. He had, through the playoffs, when his individual defensive rating was a 98.2, which is astonishingly low. So I agree, I agree. And then I had Bam and Aaron Gordon, who I thought also deserves some talking about For coach of the year. I have Eric Spolstra. I have Mike Malone. I
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Think that kind of obviously have gone either way But like I said previously about Devin Booker Spoh is kind of established himself as like a great coach We know Spoh was gonna change series. We know Spoh is gonna win the mental chess match almost every time I think Mike Malone and his adjustments against the Lakers and against the Suns in the previous round are what made it so. I don't think he is like why the Nuggets have won. I think that's obviously because of the team they have, but he gives them another sense of like armor that...
0:27:26
No, it's a good point. You don't just win games by having a bunch of good players. It definitely matters to have the right systems in place and be able, personable, to engage with these guys so I think for all those reasons that's a good choice. Spoh I think it doesn't require that much justification we were in 8th seed, the Heat were in 8th seed and have just looked like a completely different team in the playoffs and a lot of this has to do with schemes and how Spoh has been able to tip the scale for us. So I think that for that he deserves that and then I also had Darvon Hamm and Tom Thibodeau as runners-up. For clutch player of the year I have Jimmy Butler. That one seems kind of obvious to me but whatever you think
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on it. For the purpose of enhancing the discussion I chose Jamal Murray. I think his efficiency in the fourth quarter of these playoffs is it's well at the start of the Lakers series it's why they pulled away in those early games. And who knows how that series ends up if they don't go up to nothing at home. If they drop one of those games in Denver, they could have been in a lot of trouble heading back to LA. So I gave him the nod for that.
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Yeah. And as you mentioned that, I remember the shot he hit over Brown late where they just gave each other a thumbs up because he was just so impressed. I agree. you could talk about the tip-in inbounds that he had as a game winner or the three free throws in game six of the Eastern Conference Finals or just the takeover that he had in game three on Drew Holiday where he was just hitting any three he wanted and dominating. But yeah and lastly I think we'll get into executive of the year if you want to start that out. I probably agree. I chose
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Calvin Booth from the Nuggets. I mean for me it was pretty obvious the team that probably on Jokic scoring 40 and 50 to even have a chance in those games. I think building a team around him that has shooters and people that can rebound with him and get him the ball and that he can get the ball to is been all the difference for
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them. No, I agree. I had Calvin Booth as well. I think I would just mention that he traded Will Barton and Morris for Kentavious Caldwell Pope. He was able to sign Bruce Brown at that contract and he drafted Christian Brown, who has really stepped up in the playoffs as a 19-year-old. And then the other two I think I would mention Rob Polinka from the Lee GM rebuild at the deadline and the way that they reshaped that roster. And then also Leon Rose of the Knicks and how they were able to get Brunson and Josh Hart and Isaiah Hartenstein and I think those changes really helped them win the first series. So yeah I think that covers our awards and that's all we have for time today on Gucci Row. That's a wrap for Gucci Row this week. Thanks for tuning in on The Rebel HD 2 with your hosts Kevin Kelly and Will Despard. You can find us on Instagram at 1kevkelly and willduspark. Despard. You can find us on Instagram at 1kevkelly and willduspark. We'll see you next time on the Rebel HD 2.