Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beecham. We are nearing the end of the year 2025.

And you know, this is the time of year. Well, some people on Twitter saying this is the filler part of the year post, uh, Christmas and pre new years.

I don't look at it as filler, ladies and gentlemen. All of these days are very important to me. I look at these days as times to kind of look at the

the year that just got through and try to figure out how you can be better in 2025 i know some people

don't subscribe to the whole new year's resolution thing and for a moment of time of my life i was one of

those people but i kind of do see the value of turning the page for a new year and say hey i'm gonna do

this hey i'm gonna do that so in today's episode we will be giving new year and say, hey, I'm going to do this. Hey, I'm going to do that.

So on today's episode, we will be giving New Year's resolutions to NBA teams, things that I think that they can improve on or things that I think they should be thinking about going into 2026. Before we get into it, I know we got to talk a little bit of the bears. Now, I'm being very candid with y'all. As I record this episode, the Bears have not played their Sunday night football game, so they could have won by 30 or lost by a million. I don't know. But the one thing I do know is that for the first time in the last eight years, the Bears have won the Division, and I cannot be happy. I don't care. Well, I do care what happens tonight, but I'm not going to let that kill the vibes of saying that the Bears won the vision for the first time.

So shout out to the Bears, Bear Down, you know how it really goes. Now, for this episode, there is no order in the teams that I'm talking about. I'm not getting to all 30 teams. You can imagine, we just don't have the time for that. And honestly, when I was doing my research and I was trying to come up with New Year's resolutions for different, there is a good amount of teams.

So I just couldn't really think of anything of real value. So let's just get into it. Starting off, can I start off with the Washington Wizards? Is that bad for programming to start off your episode by talking about the team that is 6 and 23, somehow, not even the worst team with the league. Shout out to the end paces.

But I do look at them and think about their rebuild, which is, I guess, in year three of this rebuild, but they had a few years before they got rid of Bradley Biel, they weren't very good. So like, it feels like they've been rebuilding for forever. But the thing I gave them for the New Year's resolution is that it's time to take the next step in the rebuild, right?

I don't know exactly who they look at as like their real core young pieces. If you ask me, it is Alex Sar who's looked really good in this season. And we're going to talk with him a little bit later once we get to Ask KB. Gishon George is high on that list. But after that, there's a couple different guys that are interested in, but maybe not part of the super, super core. But I don't know.

I look at this team. Gishon George is high on that list. But after that, there's a couple different guys that are interested in, but maybe not part of the super super core.

But I don't know.

I look at this team and I'm giving them benefit of doubt to say that they're going to end up with a top five pick, right? Let's just let's just say that. So those two guys, top five pick, I think it's time to not shift to say, oh, we're trying to be a super competitive team. But I'm starting to truly dislike the idea of having the teams where your average age is 20 years old. And that's like obviously they do at Chris Middleton and C.J. McCullough, and it's kind of bringing the average age up. But for the most part, this is like a super, super young team. And I want more vets in that locker room. I want more people that can try to help them be more competitive on the day-to-day basis. And I look at a guy like Alex

Star and I look at a guy, that locker room. I want more people that can try to help them be more competitive on the day-to-day basis. And I look at a guy like Alex Star and I look at a guy at George and like, man, they could really benefit from having a dude that can set the table, like just a true point guard. And they don't have to be Trey Young. It don't have to be Luka Donchich level of talent, but just somebody to take them to the next level, because I think that we look at that team, and we just did an episode a few weeks back of ranking the top young cores in basketball, and though their team, the 10 out of their players is 25 or younger, I didn't even really consider them as an amazing young court just yet. And I think that if they just have more pieces around them, exterior pieces that can come in and help those young guys hit the next level so new year's resolution you some of that money that you're going to come into bro this team is going to be so amazingly cheap and i do want to give them credit from like the front office perspective because they were a really cheap team going into the season they say hey we'll take on chris middleton's contract at the deadline. Hey, we'll take on CJ McCullum and trade out Jordan Poole. And I want them to use that cap space not to go out there and go get some superstar players, but maybe do bring on some of the bad contracts in the league, but still players that can contribute to hit the next level. So let's move on for them to go to the San Antonio

Spurs who like for the last month of Smallball, we've been having some conversation about the Spurs.

My New Year's resolution to them is just stay pat. Now for what is worth, it is not the Spurs

way to make a big in-season trade. They just never really have done that, right?

But there has, of course, been rumblings as far as, like, fans go. It was like, oh, should they trade for this guy? Should they trade for this guy? Are they really a contender compared to the Thunder? If they just had one more extra piece, could they be the favorite, if you will? And I'm just saying, this is one of those years that you've got to stand pat. I really do like the OKC model of it all where they did have their first year of being in the playoffs. And that entire year when they were the one seed, there were so many conversations of should they trade for Cam Johnson? Should they trade for this shooter? Should they trade for that shooter? And then they used that year to kind of look at their first postseason and say, hey, these are the we can't get better. And after that, when they lost in the second round, they traded away Josh Gady for Alice Caruso. And Caruso came in and had multiple 20-point games in the next year where they were in the NBA finals. And they used that first year to kind of evaluate the talent they had on the roster and then made the move. And I kind of look at the spurs in that way as well. I mean, it's kind of similar in the way that they do have a top five player, just like that OKC team did and Shay gives Alexander. They do have a core nucleus that is really young, like the dub to castles or the chets to Harper, obviously different positions, but thinking about the overall age of these guys. So I would just tell them, don't make the decision.

I don't think it's one that they would make in the first place, but don't make the decision to go out there and be super biased, man. This team is as good as they can be right now. And it's funny to say that coming off a loss to the Utah Jazz, who just continued to have just good games. we had an episode of small, or numbers on the board.

We were kind of going through the bad teams in basketball and trying to figure out, are we, like, out on watching them live basketball again? And we got to the Utah Jazz. I was like, no, bro, I truly love watching Jazz basketball. They got something over there. And I don't know if it's something that's going to turn into a playoff team eventually, but between George, between marketing, between

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