Welcome back to Smallball with Kenny Beecham on today's episode.

We had to talk about some of the good teams around hoops.

I was just looking through the film of between this podcast and some of the other

podcasts that I'm associated with.

And I feel like we are more looking at the teams that have been disappointing, the teams that have

been bad.

So I'm going to spend a good chunk of today's episode talking about teams that have been

living up to their preseason expectations, those teams being the New York Knicks and the

OKC Thunder who continued to find ways to win.

I'm excited to be here, man.

I was just talking before we queued up, since we have made this switch over to NBC slash Peacock, these Chicago Bears have not lost the game. We've had game winning drives in every single one of these, so it's probably unsustainable. Man, I just, when JJ McCarthy, we're going to get to basketball, I promise. When he threw that pass to Jordan Addison and the Bears had like 52 seconds left. I look directly at my

wife and said, I'm not tripping at all. Then Duvine gives us a kickoff to the opposing 40. We need one

first down to kick a game when a field goal. It's just like that. The Bears, as of right now,

are the number one team in the division. Oh, man, I can't get my hopes up. I can't get my hopes.

So let's get into NBA basketball, ladies and gentlemen. Because before the season started,

you know, everybody, including myself, looked at the Eastern Conference as a two-team race as far as the contenders, the team who could win the East.

And those two teams were the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks. And so far, you know, I mean, I guess before that, you saw teams like, if you want to go dark horsey, some people like, the Atlanta Hawks made a lot of moves. They're still trying to figure it out. But it has been looking good without Trey Young. I'm keeping my eye on that West Coast road trip. They've been winning games, and the Orlando Magic were another

dark horse scene by a lot of people. They started off struggling. It seems like they're starting

to get back on track, but for the most part, it really was the Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Now, the Cavaliers have not lived up to that expectation just yet. We don't talk about this

a little bit later in the episode, but even though the overall standings say that they're a half a game apart, I think it's more like a vibes thing. You know, I feel like the Cavaliers fans will look at their season so far and say, hey, it's been relatively disappointing. Even Donald Mitchell has mentioned it as like a good thing that they're going through adversity because last year they didn't see any until they got to the postseason. So I would say they are somewhat disappointed, but not too much. I still look at them as a team that can win the Eastern Conference. But for the most part, the Knicks have been really good. After the first couple games at a year where Carinthine and Town said he didn't necessarily know where his role was, everything has been great. Everybody's playing the exact role.

Mike Brown imagined, and that's really, really cool. I got to think about it like this.

...