Kevin O'Connor
@KevinOConnor • 427,255 subscribers
Yahoo Sports podcaster and writer. Host of The Kevin O’Connor Show, available everywhere you get your pods.
Shorts
Videos
Anthony Edwards’ pitch to Jonathan Kuminga to join the Timberwolves, according to Aaron Turner: “I want you to come here and I want you to do everything you do and do it loudly. I feel where you’re coming from. I can understand what you’ve dealt with through these parts of your career and I want you to come in here and be Jonathan Kuminga.” Full quote by NBA agent Aaron Turner on the latest episode of The KOC Show: “Ant was a massive part of this whole thing because he said, ‘Listen, we’re gonna guard. Everybody’s going to guard.” Offensively, one of the biggest things Ant and Chris Finch said to him: ‘This whole thing of JK is a role player’ and all this stuff that’s been talked about, that was not the pitch. The pitch was, ‘Hey JK, we want you to come here and be the guy that we had to play against in the playoffs. Like, we want that dude. Like, we’re not asking you to go be something else. We’re asking you to be yourself. Now, are we going to have to all sacrifice and blend together our games? For sure.’” “But this whole thing of like, oh, he has to adapt. No. Ant, who is as unselfish of a star as you could imagine and super secure with who he is. His whole thing was, look, ‘I want you to come here and I want you to do everything you do and do it loudly. I feel where you’re coming from. I can understand what you’ve dealt with through these parts of your career and I want you to come in here and be Jonathan Kuminga.’” “And that was the pitch from Chris Finch as well of like, look, ‘we’re all going to guard, and you know, again, everybody here on this team will have to sacrifice. Everybody’s going to have to make sure that they’re making the right play and not necessarily getting caught up in my turn, your turn.’ And I’m sure Chris Finch will figure that out. When you have a great team, people have to sacrifice. But the pitch was not come here and oh, you got to be this quote unquote, whatever you want to call it, role player. The thing was, hey, come here, be you. We’re all going to have to sacrifice. But if it’s about winning, and it’s always going to be about winning, and that’s the most important thing, this thing has a chance to really work. And you know, Ant having reached out like that, Chris Finch following up, Tim Connelly following up, Alex Rodriguez following up, it was very aligned in the pitch and it made a lot of sense and it resonated with him and me.”
Kevin O'Connor151,612 次观看 • 1 天前
Aaron Turner on Jonathan Kuminga’s role with the Minnesota Timberwolves: “The role is whatever's needed to win. That's the role. It's not this box or that box. Some nights it might be this. Some nights it might be that. Depending on the matchup, depending on the team. Give your heart and soul to this team. Be in this moment. Enjoy it. And then everything else will follow how it's supposed to. And everybody who says whatever they want to say, we'll see where that lands. But I have a pretty good feeling if JK is able to stay healthy and embrace this moment, which I know he's excited for, let’s see what happens.“
Kevin O'Connor55,214 次观看 • 1 天前
Saquon Barkley's Yahoo Fantasy Sports ADP is 12.4 and he's ranked higher than 10th by only one of our analysts: Josh Norris. So I asked him to make the case for Barkley to have a bounce back year in Philadelphia. "Maybe this is my onion hanger this year. I mean, I have Saquon Barkley ranked so high. I can’t believe people are taking Ashton Jeanty ahead of him, but that’s another conversation. I mean, we just saw Saquon Barkley two years ago be like the player that you needed in fantasy football. Look, so much of the conversation around the Eagles this year is what is Sean Mannion going to do with this passing attack? Like, what is he going to pluck from Jalen Hurts? What is DeVonta Smith going to look like stepping in for AJ Brown as the wide receiver one? What about Makai Lemon, the rookie first-round pick? None of that matters, and I mean none of it matters, unless they can run the football effectively like they did two seasons ago. And from my eye test, Saquon Barkley did not drop in terms of his individual talent last year. There’s a whole bunch of numbers to back that up. It was an environmental issue for him. He was 16th in yards before contact per attempt last year. He was second in 2024, seventh in explosive runs this past season. He was second, as we know, back in 2024. And then that included TD runs of like 70, 60, 50, all these types of things."
Kevin O'Connor115,946 次观看 • 13 天前
I dug up the videos from Stephen Curry’s stories about Kobe Bryant
Kevin O'Connor9,660,262 次观看 • 3 年前
Darryn Peterson's high school playmaking tells a different story than his year at Kansas. Peterson had 38 assists and 38 turnovers in college, which is not the line you expect from a potential franchise lead guard. Part of it was his off-ball usage. Part of it was a Kansas roster that didn't shoot well. But DP averaged 5.3 assists as a senior at Prolific Prep, and had the ball in his hands the majority of the time. He delivered bounce passes into the paint, whipped cross-court skip passes, and looked the part of a point guard with far more explosiveness off the dribble. If that burst returns in the NBA, he could become an excellent shot-creator. These highlights are a glimpse of it.
Kevin O'Connor538,212 次观看 • 2 个月前
Sacramento is one of the draft’s big winners with Darius Acuff at #7 and Alex Karaban at #29. Gotta respect the Kings front office for staying at 7 despite the 5/6 Acuff rumors then aggressively moving up for 29. Acuff, Karaban, Raynaud, Clifford. I love this young core.
Kevin O'Connor407,030 次观看 • 2 个月前
Meleek Thomas looks extraordinary for the Cavaliers. Scoring from every spot on the floor and looking comfortable in every way. It makes me think about what we saw from Thomas at Arkansas without Darius Acuff. Thomas averaged 19.2 pts/40 on 55% TS with Acuff on the floor versus 26.5 pts/40 on 62% TS without Acuff, per @CBBAnayltics. Higher volume, higher efficiency. Only a 200+ minute sample, but it's natural to wonder if Thomas would've been a lottery pick had he been handed the keys all year at Arkansas. Especially given how incredible he looks this summer for Cleveland.
Kevin O'Connor265,069 次观看 • 1 个月前
![Calvin Booth believes four factors converged to cost him his job with Denver. First, the Nikola Jokic effect: when you have the best player in the world, everything else gets taken for granted. Second, the friction between a tenured champion coach and a first-time GM. Third, ownership. Booth believes the Kroenke family, for all its success across sports, doesn’t place the same value on front-office executives that other organizations do. And fourth: “I think I just made it look too easy.” He elaborated: “Anybody that’s really good at something, when they make it look easy, that was really, really hard to get to. [It took] a lifetime’s worth of playing basketball, coaching basketball, having conversations, scouting, for me to go in there right away, assemble a championship team, win a championship.” My full conversation with Booth goes deeper into his time with the Denver Nuggets, Jokic, his basketball philosophy, the upcoming draft, and many more subjects. Check it out on the latest episode of The Kevin O’Connor Show.](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2026647945269936194/amplify_video_thumb/2026647842438172672/img/TUShflkw1YmscXwg.jpg)
Calvin Booth believes four factors converged to cost him his job with Denver. First, the Nikola Jokic effect: when you have the best player in the world, everything else gets taken for granted. Second, the friction between a tenured champion coach and a first-time GM. Third, ownership. Booth believes the Kroenke family, for all its success across sports, doesn’t place the same value on front-office executives that other organizations do. And fourth: “I think I just made it look too easy.” He elaborated: “Anybody that’s really good at something, when they make it look easy, that was really, really hard to get to. [It took] a lifetime’s worth of playing basketball, coaching basketball, having conversations, scouting, for me to go in there right away, assemble a championship team, win a championship.” My full conversation with Booth goes deeper into his time with the Denver Nuggets, Jokic, his basketball philosophy, the upcoming draft, and many more subjects. Check it out on the latest episode of The Kevin O’Connor Show.
Kevin O'Connor871,584 次观看 • 6 个月前