Welcome to Basketball Home.

We are diving headfirst into well, what's already a wild November in the basketball world.

It really is.

We're seeing some huge stories rattling the NBA and the college ranks, and there's a theme here.

The minutes are getting dangerously high for some guys.

The league is handing out fines and.

The injury reports.

I mean, they're already dominating the headlines for some of the biggest names in the sport.

It genuinely feels like late March intensity right now, which is a little unsettling.

It is, so today our mission is to unpack all of it for you.

We're going to talk about Tyrese Maxi's incredible but maybe worrisome workload.

In Philly and those load management finds the league is trying to crack down, but teams are just paying them exactly.

We've got crucial injury updates on Giannis and one Banyama, and then we're going to get into the chaos at the top of the college rankings.

Yeah, let's start with what you called the minutes monster, because what Nick Dorris is asking Tyree'se Maxi to do is well, it's not just leading the league it's on another level.

Okay, let's unpack this, because Maxi is making a legitimate early MVP case, but the numbers behind his court time are frankly a little terrify.

They really are.

They define why the Sixers are having success, but they're also probably their biggest long term risk.

Maxi's playing at an elite, undeniable star level.

It's a huge leap from last.

Year, a massive leap.

His stat line is just astronomical.

He's averaging what thirty two and a half points in almost eight assists.

A game, and the efficiency is the key part.

That's it shooting nearly forty six percent of the field and over forty one percent from three.

He is, on many nights, the best and most impactful player on the floor period.

That's the kind of efficiency you expect from a Steph Curry or Kevin Durant.

But then you look at the actual minutes he's playing, how much rubbery he's putting on the road, and the conversation shifts from celebration to concern.

Exactly right, Maxi is clocking in at forty point four minutes per game.

He's leading the.

Entire NBA, and it's not close.

It's not.

And that's what makes it so concerning.

It's the margin.

He is playing a full three minutes more per game than the next guy on the list, and the next guy is his own teammate, his own teammate, the rookie VJ.

Edgecomb.

So that tells you it's a systemic thing in Philly right now.

They are relying on two guys to play almost the entire game.

When we talk about coaches pushing minutes this high, there's one name that always comes up, the Thibodoian approach.

Can you explain why that's being applied to Nick Nurse?

Now?

Yeah, absolutely so.

Thibodoian refers to coach Tom Thibodeaux.

Right, his history, especially with the Bulls in the early Knicks, was defined by just running his starters.

Into the ground forty forty five minutes.

A night, even in blowouts.

And yeah, you usually got him strong regular season records, but the history shows that led to burnout, soft tissue injuries, and it hampered his teams in the playoffs.

Nurses basically mirroring that intensity, maybe even turning it up a notch.

So why is he doing it?

I mean, the Sixers roster on paper, at least it looks like it has decent depth.

The main reason, and it's not a great one, is the inconsistent availability of Joel Embiid.

Embiid's been dueling with little minor setbacks again, and whenever he's not one hundred percent, the entire burden offense and defense just shifts right onto Maxi's shoulders.

So nurse isn't a tough spot or really tough spot.

He wants to win games.

Now, build that chemistry, But every extra minute he plays Maxi's just it's loading risk into the back half of the season.

It's that classic short term gain for long term pain dilemma.

We know that playing forty plus minutes a night, especially this early, it just rarely works out well.

It's a domino effect.

High minutes lead to fatigue, both physical and mental, and when you're tired, your defensive rotations get sloppy or you don't land correctly on a jump.

Shot, and that's when you see those soft tissue injuries exactly.

The hamstring strains, the calf issues, the groin pulls.

They always seem to spike around February March, right when you need your stars the most.

The Sixers have other guys who can play, but Nurse just hasn't shown he trusts those lineups yet.

Yeah, they have to find a way to shave four or five minutes off his time or max he's going to hit a wall just as the playoffs are starting.

And that's the perfect transition to the league's official stance here.

The NBA clearly sees the risk of burnout, or maybe they just see the risk of fans not getting to see the stars they paid for.

Well, yeah, because they are cracking down on teams resting healthy players, and the Cleveland Cavaliters just became a very expensive example.

They did, and it shows the league is, at least on paper, taking this new player participation policy seriously.

The Calves were fined one hundred thousand dollars for a violation back on November.

Twelfth, and what was a specific violation.

They rested both Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley, two perfectly healthy players, just for rest purposes during the first game of a back to back in Miami.

And the policy is very specific about who qualifies as a star player.

You can't rest right, it's not just any player.

That's the key.

The league defines the stuff are as anyone who's made an All Star or All NBA team in the last three seasons.

Both Mitchell and Mobley checked that box.

The policy triggers an automatic investigation if you rest more than one healthy star in the same game, especially on the road, especially on the road.

If Cleveland had just been a little more strategic, you know, rest Mitchell and Miami and then mobilely the next night in Orlando, they probably would have been fine.

No pun intended.

So the Calves basically made a calculated business decision.

They looked at the policy, looked at one hundred thousand dollars fine, and said, yep, worth it.

That is the only logical conclusion you can draw for an NBA franchise, especially one like Cleveland that's all in on a deep playoff run this year.

One hundred thousand dollars is nothing.

It's a rounding era.

It's less than a rounding error.

They're prioritizing having their guys healthy in April over avoiding a minor fine in November.

They got hit hard by injuries last year right around the playoffs.

This is them sending message that health is the number one priority and the fine is just the cost of doing business.

It brings up a huge question for the league, doesn't it.

If one hundred thousand dollars doesn't stop a team from doing this, what number would.

That's the tension right there.

The league is trying to enforce a standard for the fans who buy tickets, but the teams are focused on the massive payoff of winning a championship.

One hundred thousand is less than a third of a veteran's minimum salary.

So to really stop it, the fine would have to be what in the millions.

I think it would have to be in the seven figure range, or you'd have to start talking about taking away draft picks, something that actually impacts their ability to compete long term.

As it is now, this policy is just a minor revenue stream for the league, not a real deterrent.

And as we're talking about all this tension between playing time and policy, we get two massive injury updates this week that really underscore why teams are so paranoid about this stuff.

Starting with Gianni's Antitokumpo.

Yeah, this is potentially devastating news from Milwaukee, especially and how they've kind of stumbled out of the gate.

Giannis had to leave.

The Bucks lost to the Cavaliers, the same team we were just talking about, with a left groin injury.

He's scheduled for an MRI immediately.

And the most troubling part of this was the timeline that Doc Rivers laid out after the game.

Correct coach Rivers said that Giannis was visibly grabbing at his groin as early as the first quarter.

He didn't actually go to the locker room until late in the second, but that suggests it's an issue that started small and got worse fast under game intensity.

And groin injuries are notoriously tricky for explicive athletes like him.

They impact everything, your lateral movement, your ability to drive to the basket, everything.

The Bucks are already struggling.

They're what eight to seven?

Now, what does this mean?

If Giannis misses significant time?

It's really concerning.

They've dropped three of their last four.

They're still trying to figure things out with a new coach, and Giannis is the foundation of everything they do.

I mean over thirty two points, eleven boards, seven assists.

If he's out for even a couple of weeks, that puts enormous stress on Damian Lillard in that new look frontcourt.

The other huge injury involves the player that everyone expects to define the next decade of the league.

Victor Wembanyama.

Yeah, Wemby suffered a left calf strain against the Warriors.

The timeline is two to three weeks.

But the key phrase you're hearing from the Spurs and from analysts is extra care.

And there's a very specific reason for that caution.

Right.

A calf strain for him is not like a calf strain for a normal sized human.

It's basic physics, really leverage and force.

Wee Banyama is seven foot four, maybe taller, and still has a relatively slight frame.

For a player that tall, those calf muscles have to absorb and transfer an incredible amount of force every time he runs or jumps.

The longer the limb, the greater the stress.

So a minor strain can easily become something much, much worse.

Exactly an analysts are making a very specific and kind of chilling comparison to another young star's injury, Tyrese Haliburton.

The Tyrese Haliburton situation, his catastrophic torn acl which costs him half of last season, reportedly started as what he thought was just a minor calf issue that he tried to play through.

That's the nightmare scenario the Spurs are desperate to avoid with their generational cornerstone.

So sidelining him now for what might be a minor injury.

It's not about this week's standings.

It's about asset management for the next fifteen years.

Absolutely one hundred percent.

They're prioritizing his entire career over a few games in November.

He'll miss the Blazers game and probably a handful more after that.

When you have a player with legitimate gooch potential, you treat every little tweak with the utmost caution.

It's just a sobering string of events.

It really highlights the central conflict of this NBA season so far.

You have the financial pressure to play guys, the league trying to enforce rules with fines that don't really matter, and then the inevitable physical breakdown that happens under all that pressure.

The tension is just it's palpable.

The league is effectively put a priced tagg on star health, but that price is just way too low to make a difference.

Okay, let's pivot now from teams that are struggling with this to some teams that are not just surviving, but are absolutely thriving.

Starting with a team I don't think we've said that about in a very long time, the Detroit Pistons.

You can check your calendar.

It is indeed twenty twenty five.

The Detroit Pistons are rolling.

They've stormed out to an eleven to two record, and they're riding a ten game win streak right now.

Wow.

And the engine behind all of this, without a doubt, is Cape Cunningham.

Last year was his breakout, but the big question was could he sustain it?

Was it a one hit wonder?

Well, he hasn't just sustained it, He's actually elevated his game.

He's averaging twenty seven point five points, almost ten assists, and over five rebounds.

He has completely silenced any of that one hit wonder talk.

And his performance is now being reflected in his off court value, which is really the confirmation of superstar status.

That's right.

He just signed a six year signature shoe deal with Nike.

And this is the part that's truly fascinating.

This deal makes him only the sixth active player in the entire league.

They have a Nike signature.

Shoe that is rarefied air.

Who else is in that club?

It's Kevin Durant, Giannie Devin Booker, Lebron James, and John Morant.

So basically a collection of future Hall of famers.

Best list.

For Kaid to get that level of commitment from Nike this early in his career, it just shows what the brand thinks his long term potential is.

It's a huge deal that goes way beyond their current win streak.

Staying in the East, the Atlanta Hawks are also playing incredibly well, and what's surprising is not that they have the talent, but that they're doing it without their centerpiece.

Yeah, the Hawks are nine to five, tied for the third best record in the East.

They've won eight of their last ten, five straight wins, and like you said, the most stunning part is that most of this has happened without Trey Young.

So does this winning run without him suggest that the depth everyone thought they had is finally showing up.

It suggests a couple of things.

One, yes, their role players are stepping up, and two, maybe the offense just runs better when the ball isn't so trade dominant.

The ball movement looks cleaner and guys like to John Day Murray are thriving as the main guy.

It does raise some interesting long term questions about Trey's.

Fit, for sure, it really does.

Okay, let's go from unexpected success to potential chaos in the West, The Dallas Mavericks are really struggling at four to eleven, and the trade rumors around their front court are a massive red flag.

Dallas is just facing a perfect storm of bad right now.

They're losing, They've got front office turmoil, and their front court is just perpetually injured.

And the rumor that just won't go away is that Daniel gaffer is the center they're most likely to.

Trade, which is confusing to say the least.

Why is treading Gafford right now is such a potential disaster for.

Them because ironically he's the most stable and reliable piece in their completely broken center rotation.

Their three main bigs, Gafford, Anthony Davis, and Derek Wively the second have barely played together.

Lively just got back from a knee now Ad is out with a calf strain.

Gafford has the best injury history of the three, so.

If they trade their most reliable big, they are forcing themselves to depend entirely on the health of Anthony Davis and a sophomore who already has knee concerns.

Precisely, it's an incredibly risky bet.

It means you're immediately one injury away from giving major minutes to two way guys like Musa Sissi or Dwight Powell, and you just you can't climb out of a four to eleven hole with that kind of instability down low.

Meanwhile, the opposite problem is brewing in Sacramento.

A terrible three to eleven start for the Kings has other teams circling one of their star bigs, Demantas Sabonis.

Yeah, the Kings are getting close to a breaking point.

That trio of Sabonis, Demarta Rosen and zach Lavine just isn't working on either end of the floor, and insiders believe a major shakeup is coming.

Sabonis is getting a lot of attention, and the two teams you hear the most are the Cavaliers and the Hawks.

Let's break down the Calves scenario.

We know they're contenders, but how does Sibonis, who isn't exactly a defensive stopper, fit with that small back.

It's a complicated fit.

That's the big question mark.

Cleveland already has a small backcourt with Mitchell and Garland.

Sibonis's defensive liability, especially protecting the rim, would put a ton of.

Strain on them, but there has to be an upside for them to even consider it.

Oh, the upside is massive.

Offensively, the thinking is that Evan Mobley's elite defensive versatility could cover for Sabonis's weaknesses.

Mobley could be the rim protector and switch on the perimeter, letting Sabonis focus on rebounding and scoring Offensively, a mobile Sabona's front court would be maybe the best passing big man duo in the entire league.

Okay, and what about Atlanta?

How would they make it work?

Atlanta is an interesting dark horse here, but it all depends on if they're finally willing to make a decision on Trey Young's future.

The appeal for them is pairing Sabonis with Kristaps porteses.

Ports Us as that stretch five who can also protect the rim exactly.

He's the kind of player who could insulate Sabonis from some of his defensive issues.

But then it creates another problem.

What do you do with Jalen Johnson when he gets healthy.

He's been fantastic, So yeah, no deals are close, but the second Sacramento decides to pull the trigger, those two teams will be first in line.

We also have to talk about the Knicks, who are eight to four sitting second in the East, but now injuries are starting to expose some real issues with their bench depth.

The injuries to Jalen Brunson and og and Nunabee are really putting a spotlight on their reserves.

And what you see is a little concerning.

Right now, Miles McBride is the only regular bench player with a positive.

Knit differential, And for the listener, what does that mean when he's on the court, they're winning.

It means when McBride is on the court, the Knicks are outscoring their opponents for every other regular guy coming off the bench.

The opposite is true.

When you lose your main creator in Brunson, you suddenly need guys who can just hold down the fort and right now it looks like only one guy can do that.

Which naturally leads them to look at the trade market.

Absolutely, they're probably going to be actively looking for a reliable backup guard someone like Jerome who becomes trade eligible in a few weeks.

They just need a steady hand to run that second unit while their stars get healthy.

Okay, let's move west, where the schedule makers are really testing one young team while the defending champs just had a stunning loss that exposed some old weaknesses.

Let's start with the Portland Trailblazers.

They're six to seven, just got back from a really brutal one to four road trip, and they've got the Suns tonight, and analysts are saying this game is mission critical for them.

Why is one game in November so important for Portland?

Because of what comes next?

There are schedules about to become well treacherous after tonight.

They've got the Bulls Warriors, and then a really grueling stretch Oka see the Bucks though maybe without Galis, the Spurs also without Wemby.

Then OKC again, Raptors, Calves, Pistons.

Wow.

Yeah, they absolutely have to get a win tonight to build some positive momentum or they risk getting buried before January even hits.

And for their opponent, the Suns, their path to getting better seems to come down to one very specific thing.

On offense all about getting to the free throw line.

The Suns are an elite free throw hoting team.

They're hitting almost eighty two percent, which is top ten in the league.

The problem is they almost never get there.

That's a huge disconnect.

It's a massive opportunity cost.

They only take about twenty two free throws a game, which is near the bottom of the league.

If they can just find a way to get a couple more attempts each night, that's easy points they're leaving on the table.

Devin Booker is doing his part, he's getting to the Ligne a career high number of times, but the rest of the team has to be more aggressive.

Phoenix also showed off a pretty cool strategic advantage they have for developing their young guys.

Yeah, this is a fascinating little logistical thing.

They're trying to develop raw prospects like Common, Mullowak and Rasher Fleming.

What they did was they brought back their G League affiliate and set them up in an arena in Tempe, which is less than a half hour drive from the main NBA arena.

So the close proximity is the key exactly.

It lets these prospects play in G league games, get real experience with it missing a single NBA practice or team meeting.

It's a really smart way to build their future core by giving them consistent coaching and game reps at the same time.

All right, shifting to the reigning Jams, the Denver Nuggets, who had a seven game win streak, snapped in a pretty stunning home loss.

They did.

They lost one, thirty one to twenty seven to the Chicago Bulls at home, and it really exposed two old vulnerabilities that have kind of haunted them in the past, inconsistent defense and a disastrous bench unit.

The bench numbers were just shocking.

Shocking is an understatement.

Chicago's bench outscored Denver second unit sixty six to nine.

Sixty six to nine.

You can't win a game with that kind of collapse, and part of that is because they're missing Christian Braun, who's out with an ankle injury.

How significant is his absence.

He's their starting shooting guard, but he's not a huge scorer.

His absence is enormous because his value is almost entirely on the defensive end.

Braun is arguably their best perimeter defender.

He's the guy they put on the other team's best wing.

While you can replace his scoring, you can't replaced that defense.

So his injury just magnified a need they already knew they had.

It confirmed it.

The front office was already known to be actively looking for a backup two guard who could hit threes and create a little The Bulls game just showed them that without Bron's defense to anchor it, their second unit is in serious trouble.

And before we leave the NBA, a final update on two legends and their future with Team USA, Lebron James and Stephan Curry.

Yet the final word seems to be that both Lebron and Staph are highly unlikely to play in the twenty twenty eight Los Angeles Olympics.

Lebron basically summed it up by saying that they're run in Paris in twenty twenty four, where they won gold just can't be topped.

He said, how are we going to top those last two games?

They want that to be the storybook ending exactly.

And speaking of Lebron, he's still dealing with a return to health this season.

He hasn't played yet for the Lakers because of a recurring sciatica issue.

Missed opening night for the first time in his career.

But even at forty years old, he still expected to give the Lakers a massive boot when he does come back.

Oh absolutely, He's hoping to make his debut soon, maybe even tonight against the Jazz.

He'll give them a huge offensive lift.

He's still confident, recently said I can do everything on the floor.

The team will ease him back in, but they're hoping he can stay healthy for a title run with Luca and Austin Reeves.

Okay, let's pivot hard to the college game now, where the early season rankings are just complete and total chaos.

It is pure, glorious chaos, and it really speaks to the parody and strength of college basketball right now.

You look at the top twenty five and the Big Ten, the Big twelve in the SEC each have six teams in the rankings.

That's incredible depth it is.

And what's really eye opening is that the Big Ten and the Big twelve each have three teams in the top ten.

That concentration of elite talent tells you those conferences are setting the pace early on.

And a very familiar program is back at number one after a huge road win.

Perdue is back on top.

They beat number eight Alabama on the road eighty seven to eighty really tough environment.

It was a classic Matt Painter performance, physical poised, great half court execution.

Who was the difference maker for them in that game?

The return of Trey kaufmin Ren was just huge.

He've been out with an injury, but he came back and dropped nineteen points in fifteen rebounds.

That interior muscle was exactly what they needed to get that win.

Another Big ten team making a big move is Illinois.

Yeah, the fighting Alini jumped up six spots to number eight after a massive win over number eleven Texas Tech.

They just look sharper and tougher this year.

A big part of that has been the play of Andre Stoikovic off the bench.

He gave him a huge lift, a huge lift as an understatement, he scored twenty three points as a six man against the Red Raiders.

That's a major luxury.

But their schedule is about to get brutal.

They've got Alabama, Yukon and Tennessee coming up.

We'll find out pretty quickly if they were a real top ten team.

Switching to the women's game, UCLA is looking like a legitimate title contender.

They look incredibly impressive.

They just went through two top fifteen opponents like it was nothing, beat top number six Oklahoma and number eleven North Carolina by double digits.

They have experience, they have depth, They look phenomenal.

Who stood up for them?

John Nipkins, a fifth year transfer, was huge in the Oklahoma win.

She dropped twenty points and for her to integrate that seamlessly into their offense already just shows how deep their talent pool is.

And Louisville made a huge jump up the rankings too.

A massive jump from twelve all the way up to six.

They had a ton of national respect for beating their in state rival Kentucky.

That was a big confidence booster for them.

Tonight we have one of the biggest early season matchups, the Champions Classic, with number twelve Kentucky against number seventeen Michigan State at Madison Square Garden.

This is a fantastic game six point three, zero pm Eastern, and it's a huge moment for a couple of the Kentucky players.

It's a real homecoming for Mama Diobet, who grew up in Queens.

What's it like for a college kid, even one from New York to play at MSG.

It's the mecca data Bates said, he's never actually played there as a college player, called it every kid's dream, the history of that building.

It's just a different kind of energy.

It's a proving ground.

He's an interesting case though, grew up in Queens, but isn't a Knicks fan.

That's right, he's a diehard Lakers fan because he grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant.

Now for Michigan State, they're led by a really powerful front court that could give Kentucky trouble.

Absolutely.

The Spartans are three to zero and their strengths is down low.

Jackson Cohler is averaging a ridiculous fourteen points and thirteen rebounds.

He's one of the best glass cleaners in the country.

They are going to be a tough physical challenge for Kentucky.

And in the other Champions Classic game Kansas face is Duke, but the Jayhawks are going to be shorthanded.

Yeah, Kansas will be without their highly touted freshman Darren Peterson.

He's got amstring injury.

He's a key playmaker for them, so his absence is a big deal against a talented duke team.

Let's zoom in on a few regional teams now, starting with Minnesota.

Who's got Chicago State tonight?

The Gophers are three to one, but they've had some really ugly stretches.

Their big issue.

Their key to winning tonight is one thing, free throw shooting.

They have this weird problem where they get to the line all the time, but they just can't make them.

It's an analytical paradox.

They are top fifteen in the country and getting to the free throw line, they're aggressive, they draw contact, but they're ranked two hundred and ninety fourth nationally in free throw percentage.

It's just dismal.

That's got to be a mental thing more than anything you'd think.

So it's probably a lack of focus or fatigue.

But if they could just fix that, their entire offensive profile changes overnight.

The other key for them is to just keep dominating the glass.

Rebounding has to be their identity.

And for Wisconsin, they're four neo and they seem to have a habit of just shutting teams down in the second half.

The Badgers win games with these devastating second half runs.

In their last win, they went on a sixteen zero run that just ended the game.

It shows they have superior conditioning and coaching and.

Who's leading that charge offensively?

Their guards John Blackwell Nick Boyd had been lights out from three.

They hit a combined nine threes in that last game.

When their guards are shooting like that, they're almost impossible to beat.

How about Ohio State, It seems like Coachdebler has already found the guy he trusts in the clutch.

Yeah, he has unwavering faith in John Mobley Junior to be his late game guy.

And what's fascinating is that it comes even though Mobley is shooting just thirty two percent from the field so far.

So it's not about his shooting, it's about his decision making exactly.

Deebler trusts him to make the right read when to attack, when to pass, when to manage the clock.

He showed it in their tight win against Notre Dame.

He just controlled the final possessions even though his shot wasn't falling.

Finally, a weird win from a zoo that got really sloppy.

They beat Prairie View A and M easily, but after they built a thirty five point lead, they just fell apart for about ten minutes.

They had eight turnovers in that stretch, which is an insane turnover rate.

That's pure complacency, total psychological laps.

They just took their foot off the gas.

The good news for them is that they expect a key player enter Bowtang back soon, which should help stabilize things.

We have to wrap up with a few really important off court stories, starting with some very serious legal allegations against a former NBA player.

Yeah, this is significant and very troubling news involving Patrick Beverley.

He's been charged with assault on a family member by impeding breath or circulation in Texas.

The allegations are that he choked and hit his minor teenage sister.

What are the details from the police report.

According to the documents, the incident happened after his sister, a miner, left the house without permission.

When she came back, he confronted her and allegedly grabbed her by the neck, lifting her off the ground.

The victim claimed she was losing osygen for about twenty or thirty.

Seconds, and the police found evidence of this.

They reported finding marks on her neck and blood spots under the skin around her eye, which led to his arrest, he posted a forty thousand dollars bond.

Has his legal team responded yes.

Beeverly posted a statement from his attorney that disputes the description of events.

It says he was understandably concerned to find his minor sister with an eighteen year old male late at night, but that the events that followed didn't happen the way the police report describes.

And it's also worth noting he still has an unserved NBA suspension looming.

That's correct, He has a four game suspension left from throwing a ball at a fan last season, so that complicates any potential return to the league.

On top of these very serious charges.

Such in a media news a big shake up over at ESPN.

On their main NBA show.

Stephen A.

Smith is stepping back from his regular mandatory appearances on NBA Countdown.

This is part of his new one hundred million dollar contract, which gives a more flexibility to scale back on some duties.

So who's filling those states?

What's the new lineup look like?

Malik Andrews is still hosting.

The new crew will have Kendrick Perkins, former coach, Michael Malone, Brian Windhorst and the insider shams Tirania.

It's a fresh look, a lot more focused on coaching and expert reporting.

Now.

We also had a kind of interesting fan interaction story involving Draymond Green.

Yeah, this was during the Warrior's win over the Pelicans.

Draymond confronted a fan courtside who was taunting him by chanting Angel Reese.

Why that specific name, It.

Was a very specific haunt.

The fan was referencing the Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese, who is known for getting her own rebounds.

Draymond had missed a few shots and rebounded his own miss so the fan started chanting her.

Name, implying he was playing like a woman.

That's how Draymond took it, he said.

The fan just kept calling me a woman, which crossed the line for him, so he walked right up to the fan during a stoppage.

The NBA reviewed it and just gave him a warning, no fine.

And finally, just a fun, weird historical fact about one of college basketball's greatest programs.

It is a genuine jaw dropper.

Even though the UNC basketball program is one of the top three winningest programs of all time, the US Navy holds the largest margin of victory ever recorded over them.

Wow, you would never guess that.

Never great piece of trivia.

What a week when you really put all these stories together, from the NBA policing health to the chaos and the college ranks, just feels like the season is already being defined by relentless pressure.

Relentless is the perfect word I me.

When we started this talking about Tyrese Maxie's workload and the Calves getting a slap on the wrist fine for trying to protect their guys.

Then we see generational talents like Jionis and Wemby facing these serious injury scares.

So as we wrap up, what's the one big question that all of this points to for the NBA right now?

The challenge facing the league is this, as they keep finding teams for what is really essential load management, and as superstars keep facing burnout or serious injury, how long can the league afford to prioritize regular season viewership over the actual health and longevity of its generational talents.

That tension isn't going away.

It's not, and the current fine structure clearly isn't enough to change how teams behave that high stakes.

Conversation about sustainability is going to define the rest of this season and probably the next big labor negotiation.

That is a critical question for everyone involved in the sport to be thinking about.

Thanks for joining us here on Basketball Home.

It was a pleasure.

We'll catch you next time for more of the biggest stories shaking the world of basketball.