Ten BIG NBA questions with Big Wos and KOC | The Kevin O'Connor Show

Kevin O'Connor (0:00)

Coming up, I got 10 big questions for Big Wos, my old friend, Big Wosny Lambre, talking about the NBA coming up right now. All right, now joining me, my old friend, Wosny Lambre, what's up, Wos?

Wosny Lambre (0:17)

I'm good, man. Always happy to be on with the king of all content, Kevin O'Content. My brother was going on, brother.

Kevin O'Connor (0:25)

What's going on, Wos? We got 10 big questions for Big Wos today. That's how we're framing today's podcast. So starting out, the number one was, all right, we got three 10 plus win teams in the NBA, the Lakers, 11 and two, the Celtics, 10 and two, the Spurs, 10 and two.

Whose strong start do you buy the least?

Wosny Lambre (0:47)

Oh, I'm going to go to Lakers.

And I think it's because the Celtics is just in a weaker conference. And so to me, realistically, they got to worry about the Knicks, kind of the Sixers. And if healthy, maybe possibly Pacers and Raptors.

Whereas the Lakers, I just don't buy their defense in terms of long-term viability as a real, and by long-term, I mean this season. I think they're going to be a regular season juggernaut because they have an elite unit. Their offense is incredible. They're going to score against everybody. I just think in terms of title contention, if the Lakers made it to the finals, I'd be shocked. I really would. Because you generally just have to be more well-balanced on both ends of the floor, right? Like you can't be the opposite side of the spectrum. Detroit.

Getting to elite offenses been historically harder than elite defense, but I look at it as two sides of the same coin. Like Detroit, they can ratchet their defense up to be pretty damn good, if not outright elite, but they are too limited on offense to be a serious threat. I think they're going to ever... Any series against a credible playoff team is going to be able to stop these guys. I don't care who they are, they're going to stop Detroit. And I think the Lakers are the opposite side of that. Any credible playoff team is going to find enough weaknesses in their defense to score efficiently, consistently. And so that's why I have a bigger issue with the Lakers as like, yo, this is a real championship level team.

Kevin O'Connor (2:44)

I think the first thing you said was, you're leading Lakers in part because of the fact that the Celtics are on an easier conference.

The West has more juggernauts. And so that's why you're choosing Lakers here. I think if we're stacking them up in a vacuum, I would go, I believe in Spurs the most, Lakers second, Celtics third. And I would favor the Lakers in part because of just what Luka and Reeves can do taking over games offensively. They can win you a game down the stretch. Boston, we'll see how that offense translates to the playoffs. There's real questions there still even after their win in Philly, which we'll talk about a little bit later. But ultimately, with the Lakers, I think that's spot on regarding their defense. They do need more balance. Boston and San Antonio both have top five defensive ratings so far this season. San Antonio, I'm sorry, LA is 17th in defensive ratings so far this year. And I don't think that's going to get any better.

Wosny Lambre (3:32)

It's better than I would have anticipated though, KOC.

That's a little bit better than I would have thought. Average.

Kevin O'Connor (3:37)

You thought they'd be near the bottom of the league.

Wosny Lambre (3:40)

I thought they'd be bottom 10 for sure.

Closer to 22 than 16 Definitely. I thought that.

Kevin O'Connor (3:49)

Well, I think partially, you know, Kessler, they're obviously better defensively with Kessler on the floor, but Lucas putting in better effort than he ever has. Like Matisse Thiebaud, he's able to survive as a shooter now. He's shooting better than ever. So you get him defensively on the wings. Zaire Williams has been good. So they have good wing defense. Mamu coming off the bench. I think he's been really good on both ends of the floor. Yes. So I think they're getting more contributions from guys that Thiebaud, especially he's somebody that people are, oh, he might not even play because he can't shoot while he is shooting this year. And so he's able to play actually very important minutes for the Lakers. So I think they're getting contributions from guys that have helped elevate them. And that's why I think it's a tough question. I mean, I think, like I said, in a vacuum, I'd say Boston, I'd believe in the least as a championship team. But the Lakers, they're in the tougher conference. It's definitely not San Antonio, though. Like San Antonio, 10 straight leaders at this point so far this season. They are juggernauts. They are the favorites in the league right now. Wemby through 12 games this year, 30.3 points, 11.7 boards, 4.4 blocks, and only 30 minutes per game. And the on-off splits was, I don't know if you saw this this year with Wemby. One point 38 point difference is almost up to 50, almost up to 50