7 NBA thoughts + college draft prospects to watch with Sam Vecenie | The Kevin O'Connor Show

Kevin O'Connor (0:00)

Coming up, I've got seven thoughts on everything that happened last night in the NBA. And then Sam Vecenie from Game Theory joins me to talk about Yaxel Lendeborg, the Kristaps Porzingis situation, the idea of Adam Silver potentially changing from 48 to 40-minute games. And then we look ahead to the 2027 NBA Draft class with college basketball starting this week.

Welcome back to the Kevin O'Connor Show. We get Sam Vecenie on the show later. But I want to start off first with seven thoughts from Wednesday night's NBA game. Starting off with number one, six have beat the Pistons 112-106. And Philadelphia is very legit. What did we say on Monday's show? Tyrese Maxey playing like an MVP, looking better than he ever has. And then what happens against the Pistons? Maxey has 19 points on 16 shots against Detroit. Instead, who isn't from Philly? It's Joel Embiid, 26 and 15 Celebrating with the people on the bench, doing his hands behind the head celebration. Jaylen Brown, 30 points, seven boards and a clutch block down the stretch on Cade Cunningham. With this Philly team, the idea of them entering the season was about how it can be a different guy every single night, as long as there is a level of sacrifice and collective buy-in. And I thought this game against Detroit was emblematic of that, the best case scenario of Philadelphia, where it's been Maxey a bunch this year. It wasn't Maxey last night, and it wasn't his best night. Embiid looked like Joel Embiid. Jaylen Brown is the best version of himself right now. And honestly, like Jaylen Brown, I'd say, is playing the best basketball of his career, even more so than last year. Last year was volume. It was every night he's the guy.

This year with Philadelphia, he's hitting his threes off the catch. He's cutting off ball. He's doing the little things on the offensive end that you want to see from him when he needs to share. And then defensively, dude, the block on Cade last night is just one play, the best play that he had during the game. But Cade was two of eight when defended by Jaylen Brown. I think all year long, the opening night, Jaylen Brown against the Knicks, I thought was sensational on defense. And he's really carried that focus and intensity throughout this entire early season for the Philadelphia 76ers. And so Jaylen traded from Boston to Philadelphia, playing out of his mind. And you gotta commend him for somebody, the questions about, is he willing to sacrifice? Does he want to be the number one? Is he gonna be the problem? Jaylen Brown, we're only two weeks in change into the season, but he gets an A plus so far this year and the Philadelphia 76ers look, man, they look like the best case scenario of what we could have imagined with LeBron James going there and the level of sacrifice this team is playing with. I'm beyond impressed by Philadelphia. Number two, it's panic time in Charlotte. It's panic time. What did I say on Monday? I'm gonna be patient.

I am gonna be patient, kind of. Kobe White comes back on Monday. He plays on Wednesday. He doesn't look like the Kobe White I was hoping for.

There's been two losses since I said to be patient on Monday. And Kobe White hasn't looked like himself. Conk Nipple comes back on Wednesday night.

He plays six minutes before re-injuring himself. The same leg, probably the same problem. We haven't gotten word exactly on what's gonna happen here. But what's the whole story about the league this year? The teams that stay healthy, the teams that don't miss their key players and the teams that are gonna rise up the rankings, considering how deep the league is this year. And so Charlotte has already missed Kobe White until Monday and he hasn't looked like himself. Conk and Nipples played six minutes this season. He might miss another two, three weeks now. And who knows, maybe it's just gonna be one of those years with lower leg injuries with him and he just can't stay on the floor. Maybe it's gonna be that type of year. That's the reason to panic. The factor without two of your three best players, one of them hasn't looked good since he got back. The other one could be out for another month.

And then the other one, Brandon Miller, man.

Two of 15 last night against the Brooklyn Nets.

Oh man, I'm a Brandon Miller guy. If you've been following my work for years now, you know that in the Wemby Draft, I was one of the people that thought Brandon Miller should go ahead of Scoot-Hederson. There was a lot of disagreement in the draft community about that. I'd say so far, that was the correct decision by me to rank Miller ahead of Scoot-Hederson, you know, ahead of the Thompson Twins as well. You can argue there, but Scoot vs. Miller, I think Miller's been the better guy, but it's not a luck that he hands up the better choice in the long term here. Other than that three game stretch where he scored 30 plus points and looked like, you know, a Tatum-esque player, he's stunk. He's been horrible. Other than that stretch this year and last time against Brooklyn, couldn't hit a shot, couldn't generate space with any consistency off the dribble. It's Hornets offenses last in the NBA and offensive rating last.