SPCH 145 Podcast Interview

Childhood friends catch up on the podcast. They discuss the NBA trade deadline, the Pacers' acquisition of Tyrese Halliburton, and their playoff potential. They also talk about the Lakers' potential moves, the contenders in the East and West, and the women's college basketball tournament. Overall, they have a casual conversation about sports and players to watch out for. Special guest today on the podcast here, this is my childhood friend from all the way back we were in kindergarten. Parents go way back. My man Jacob Barsoneau. Man, how's everything going, man? It's good to hear from you. Everything's going well. How are you doing, bro? I'm doing pretty good, man. Can't complain. Got a cup of coffee right next to me. Got my Bulls gear on since we play tonight. Hopefully we'll actually win for once. Yeah, yeah. I was going to go ahead and do it a little bit. Yeah. So we're going to make some decisions at the trade deadline here, which is probably going to be our first, which is going to be our first topic of discussion, especially since this Pascal Siaco trade went down. Any particular thoughts that Tyrese Halliburton has a new running mate? I think this is a really great move for the Pacers. I think overall with what's set on the market and how the market is looking, this is the best player available. He kind of fits what they need with the Pacers being such a transition team with him being on a team that was formerly top five in transition points very well. Great transition player. So it's like, that should really help going to a team like the Pacers, being the fastest paced team in the NBA and NBA history at the time. And it'll really work. I don't know if he's not necessarily the same defender he was a few years ago, he's still a great defender, which the Pacers need quite vastly. And I think even just bringing in someone who's a pretty good defender can help you build up kind of that defensive mindset, which would help the Pacers out a bunch considering that bottom five defense right now. Okay, well, since we're on the Pacers, they're probably going to have to give Siaco Max extension. What do you think their ceiling is now in terms of the playoffs? I think when I look at them right now, I don't think they can, I'm not sure right now if they can make it out of the league. I think they can make the Eastern Conference Finals. Wow. I think that's what their ceiling is right now. I definitely think they did get the Sixers going for their money. Yeah, I think they can make this all very worth it. I think they can get to the ECF, but I think the playoffs this year will tell us a lot about what they need to do looking forward or where they truly are. It's just hard to say now, even harder right now because we just haven't even seen them play together yet, but it'll be very interesting to see. Well, I'll tell you what, I just mentioned the Sixers. Now, you know what would be really interesting? If they get a second round series with the Bucs, that is also a scenario I would love to see. It would be like a second round with the Bucs to get to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. Right. All right, so I was hearing yesterday about a couple of guys that the Lakers are trying to go after. I know we had talked about Marconi and Caruso the last time we talked, but the Jags have been playing great as of late, so I don't know if they're going to trade Marconi now, but I know they were in talks with Collin Sexton, and I want to say I don't remember the other guy they were trying to target, but I know Sexton was one of the names. Maybe DeJounte Murray, I'm not sure, but I definitely know that Sexton was one of the names they were interested in. So, do you think Sexton would be a good move for the Lakers? And any other players you think they should target? I like thinking about Sexton for the Lakers. The biggest thing with the Lakers, whatever they do, I don't want them to go and do what they did last year, which is completely blow everything up. I don't think that's a good idea here. So, I think you can go for a Sexton. Like we talked about last time, you can potentially go for a Caruso or something, but I just want to get some small pieces that complement what you need. You know, three-point shooting, defense, especially defense because there's a defensive identity that has worked in these past four, five years for them, that's worked the best with that defensive identity. So, I'd say make sure you just preferably just search the market for anyone who could be a great defensive player, but not like a net on offense because they have some people on the roster that's problematic at times. In particular, I think it's like Jared Vanderbilt. Okay, we talked about some of the contenders in the East. I was looking at the innings in the West a couple of days ago, and to be honest, aside from Denver, there's a lot of young teams. Phoenix is underperforming, and it's largely because the big three, they haven't played Bill Booker and Durant. They haven't really played a ton of games together, and even when they have, they're still not really performing up to expectations. And the Clippers, as well as the James Harden traitors looked in the regular season, I still don't trust Harden or Westbrook in the playoffs. I trust Kawhi. Paul George, a little fringe, but I still don't trust Harden or Westbrook when it's not cut in time. Go ahead, go ahead. I honestly kind of trust Russell Westbrook more than some other people do. I trust that Russell, because I think the positive about Russell Westbrook is that for him in this playoff role, as a base going in, he won't have to be that number one guy. I think if you need him to be, I think Russ could potentially turn back the clock in a game if you need him to. I don't think that's something you can really rely on over here in the playoffs, but I think he's the person who can definitely turn back the clock when they need it and can help them win a game. Same way I think Harden can, which is something I still have concerns, because that's all that happens. I'll ask for Harden, but one thing he did show us last year is the fact that if he needed a super lucky game, maybe two of you get lucky, Jim Harden can turn back the clock and drop 40 on any team. Yeah, true that. That's huge when you have Jason Suntarn, who's your top two stars, other than these two dudes who can randomly just have one of those games and just win you a game. Now that I think about it, Westbrook was probably the reason they even won a playoff game against Phoenix last year, now that I think about it. Westbrook, they don't need him to do much. I don't want the ball in his hands, but so much. Let's move on to some women's college basketball. As you know, you and I are both at USC, South Carolina, and even with the fact that they had five players drafted in the WNBA draft this past year, they haven't missed a beat. Their offense has gotten, in my opinion, way better. Tahita Pow-Pow, in my opinion, is probably the biggest off-season addition of the year. I think the last time I saw her, she was shooting like 50% from three. The defense is still great. The defense is still playing great. I mean, Celia, she probably will win coach of the year just off of that. What I want to know, who do you think is the biggest threat to Carolina this year? Yeah, the tournament. It's a hard one because when I look at a lot of teams, when I'm looking at some of these teams, it's going to be, sometimes we have problems with some of these really good guards, even though we're playing good defense. A lot of times, if a team has scored a lot of points, it's because their guard ends up making a lot of buckets. I'm really just thinking of some of those crazy high scores this year. We're just going to go crazy all year. I'm thinking of your Kaitlin Clark, your Gigi Watkins. Just watching out for some of those teams with that really high scores who can do a lot of different things, either defensively or offensively. For me, it's probably USC, Iowa, and LSU. Because I think LSU still has some problems despite their wins and their record. But what's scary about them is if we let all of their people get hot, it's a scary sight facing them. So those are probably the big three that concern me the most. Everyone else, I think what people tried to do last year, they can't do. People are looking back to the Final Four last year where they were packing the paint and watching back at that and watching the team that we have now. There's no team that can do that against us. Our entire team can shoot 50% during that game if they try and just pack the paint. Alright, Jacob. It's good to hear from you, man. You have a good one. We'll talk soon. Alright. We'll talk soon. We'll talk soon.