Burning NBA Questions and a “Holy Crap, Charlotte!!!” Deep Dive With Zach Lowe

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So

It's the Bill Simmons podcast. We are live Sunday night on Netflix at low is here on Netflix

tomorrow's at low. There's going to be a library watchables because it's CR month. Chris

Ryan finally got his own month. We're doing Sicario live 6 p.m. ET on Netflix. When you

watch Sicario multiple times in the same weekend, it definitely sets the mood. I don't

know what mood it is, but I was in a really frisky mood for the six or Celtics game. Turn

out to be the Katie game, but I really just want to talk about the lady getting kicked

in the head on the VG edge comp play. It brings in a lot of court side questions. The people

that bring little like six year old kids to sick court side, thinking nothing could ever

happen. This to me is a PSA video now. I mean, it's crazy that someone got injured worse

in this sideline incident than when the schornitz and the pistons had a brawl that almost spilled

into the second row of the stand and everyone was fine. And this poor lady, I think they

said her name was Christine or something. Got I mean, she got booted and she's sitting

up to she's still sitting there that she has she's bleeding. Of course, I say, no, I'm

good. Like I'm going to stay in the game. I you got to admire it, but you got to head

on the swivel at all times. She looked like one of like the Canadian Olympic hockey players.

Just trying to make it to the handshake line. Huge brews on the side of the face. I couldn't

tell if she was looking at the player if she was looking way and didn't see it, but then

the foot ricocheted late, which I don't know how you can predict, but I've been saying

this forever. For some reason, it took forever and baseball games with foul balls for us to

get really concerned about people along the third base side, first base side with the

line drives. Took a couple people just getting nailed to be like, Oh, we should probably put

a net up. I still feel like with courtside, we're just playing with fire because that you

can go to any game and you can see who's sitting there. And there's always one person who's

too old and one person who's too young, sitting those seats. And it's always in that area,

like right three point line extended where people are trying to either like running out

or they're trying to save a loose ball and they just go flying in their full speed.

Yeah, the baseline seats are far enough back. Those are your safest courtside seats. The

sideline seats, you're on the floor and you're right. It's it can happen at any moment.

And you got to be you got to be ready. I've always been a hardliner about baseball in the

cell phone age or even the pre cell phone age. If you get hit because you you're not paying

attention, right? I don't I mean, if you suffer some sort of traumatic brain injury, I'll

feel bad for you, but you're at the game. The tickets right on the back. Yeah, pay attention.

Pay attention. I'm teaching my daughter that now and she's a product of like the TikTok

cell phone age. Like you she doesn't have a phone yet, but you forgot to go to baseball

games. You got you got to be ready at all times. You can see it when you go to baseball

games. Just look around and like the fourth inning and see how many people are like this,

which is basically why they had to put the net. So six or Celtics, I just want to say these

NBC Sunday night games. I think have accomplished their early objective, which is to make it feel

like a bigger game, right? If they show the pre game warmups, they've letting rabbits that the

John Tess song, the studio that the crew is there on the court. And it does feel like a bigger

game. Like I I do like what they've done. And I think it was a good idea. So that's one of the

few nice things I'll say about all the weird network schedule stuff we have because I never

know what channel is on what game at any time. Just when I was getting used to the Fridays,

that flipped. And now it's like ESPN's on Friday. I never know where the games are, but I do

like this. You know, somehow the ratings are our skyrocketing up, even though people say they

can't find where the game is. I don't even know how to measure ratings really anymore. But I

agree with you. The Sunday night NBC stuff is good. The song. It's always good to hear round ball

rock. I like Tess' appearance at the all-star game. He was bouncing, bouncing the fake ball in

tune with the drum line. Yeah, it felt like a big game tonight. Yeah, we didn't get in

bead. No. Tatum, it feels like it's going to be Friday. Dallas. Okay. That's that's what all

signs are pointing to Friday, Dallas. I was wondering if it would be this weekend, but by Friday,

I think it was not going to be this weekend. That's that's an NBC game as well. Is it not?

Might be. I think they were talking about that game at the end. And obviously they have this

Tatum rehab stock you thing they're doing. I have a couple more notes from this game. VJ Max.

I'm just automatic veto. I don't like it. Thank you. I thought I was the only one. It's bad.

I hated it from the beginning and I sabotaged probably any deal we'll ever get from TJ Max

because I hate it because I hate going into TJ Max. It's if you I say this all the time.

If you want to buy a lamp, a fake gold plated lamp in the shape of a cat, TJ Max has you covered.

If you want to buy something useful, TJ Max is not for you. I did a whole thing.

Colorman was on my pot Thursday and I had a mail back question about about nicknames,

which really peaked in the 70s, 80s and maybe even early 90s. And now we're just flailing.

And we we use initials and acronyms for the most part. And then occasionally when people try to

push something, it's something just hacky like VJ Max. I just think it's going to go back to the

drum board. This is making me feel so much better because the NBC people say, I like VJ Max. That's

too good. I'm like, it's it is. So I guess I'm the only one. No, I'm not. I'm not the only one.

You're never alone. Usually the group player kind of nickname things. TMC with the words.

That's really nice. That word, but it was also the first initial of each guy's name. And it was

kind of organic. And I liked it. The J's I think, even though it's not technically a nickname,

but Jalen and Jason calling the J's. I'm not calling VJ Max VJ Max ever.

No, I feel stupid saying it. I'll take. Can I just give you my favorite nickname of all time

in the history of sports team or player? It trumps all categories. What is it? This is going to be

right up your alley. Five slamma jamma. So that's the it's number one on the nickname skill.

Yeah. And think about that. That was like 43 years ago. We really picked. We were just better at

nickdames way back when, which is what I was talking to Max about when we had the Clyde the Glide

and those kind of names. Like we were just just had it all figured out. I don't know what happened.

This was the Keta game. I know. I run it because my dad took my daughter and my daughter has been

the biggest Keta fan for his entire Celtic career. Because those enough about basketball to follow

what's going on, but not enough about basketball to understand the league and how the players and

who's worth what. And she's been asking for three years. Why don't they play Keta?

Isn't that doesn't he have everything that a center would have? So when he kind of took off

this year for the Celtics, she was like, I was telling you, it was like her one. She sounds like

me taking credit. What a win for Zoe Simmons. Um, so it's there today with the hat on thinking

there might be a dark chance Tatum comes out of the tunnel because that's her favorite player.

But then our other favorite part, Keta became the Keta game. And this was the 39th pick in the 2001

draft by your, your favorite, the Sacramento Kings. They did it again. She said a prototypical center

who is really good with this hands up, who's coordinated, who plays hard, who rebounds, um,

who gets better, basically every month. And they just like, we're good. Take a hug.

Well, they found them again in Dylan Cardwell. We're doing Dylan Cardwell deep cuts it already

at the clock. Okay. So hang on to Dylan Cardwell. Try Sacramento. I just, just free advice.

If you have a good player, try to keep the player on your team. It's just, it's a free tip.

Just try it. Try it out in this next year of Kings basketball.

Well, that's so Keta as a playoff guy, um, which I don't, I just don't think they

countered out him like they do now. Uh, and you think about some of the teams that the Celtics

are going to play in the playoffs, potentially bigger teams, guys like Durin, the guys that

Nick's have Jared down and Moby on the calves. Like they're actually going to really, really need him.

And you have this combined with the Tatum come back, which I, I have like a stealth conspiracy

that they're using Shireman as a Tatum proxy. Shireman's minutes are way up the last six weeks.

I feel like, and he's playing well and he's doing well on defense. And they're using him

a little like how they would use Tatum if his, if his legs were back. And some of the stuff

they're running offensively and some of the ways they're using Shireman, I feel like is

what they're going to end up with Tatum specifically. They like having them in that left corner

when Jalen and White are doing like the little at the top stuff. Keta sets a pick. Somebody

else comes. There's a little action. And Shireman's always open that left corner. And I feel like

that's going to be a Tatum spot. I think they're going to be very careful with how they use him.

Probably stagger the minutes with Jalen. But when you think about it, because we're close now,

what does a Tatum come back look like for you? What it like? Give me your ceiling basement

outcomes for this ceiling is he comes back gets 10 to 12 games under his belt in a regular season.

So the playoffs are not zero to a hundred right away minutes wise. I don't know. Let's just say

20 to 25 minutes. Let's be conservative and say he's not going to start playing 35 minutes of

game. Even if he plays a decreased role compared to what he used to play. Let's say 20, 25 minutes

not quite role player, but not Jason Tatum. And then you said it when Jalen sits, they've been

awesome. By the way, when Jalen is on the bench, this whole season, they were awesome.

Again, today when Jalen Brown is on the bench, but they do lose, they become like almost a

completely system team. And the system has worked really well. The high screens, all the different

screen role combinations, the shooting all around it. But they do lose the bully ball. If

everything comes to a halt with five seconds left in the shot clock, can we miss match on?

Can we do something? And he's just tall enough that even if he can't power his way to the rim,

the way he peaked Jason Tatum does or blow by everybody the way he does, he can still be

Jason Tatum and shoot over the six four guard that switched on to him at the end of the shot clock.

So and that just makes your team better. It's just another guy slicing into that. I mean,

it's hard to say like taking some of the Gonzalez minutes in the house or minutes in the

wash minutes because all those guys are playing really well. But just Jason Tatum taking a piece

of each of those guys minutes in all the non jalen minutes. I just see no downside to it at all

for them. We feel the same. I feel like it's going to be Shireman, the minutes that he takes.

Yeah, either just throw it in the same bucket. Just say and he's not going to be worse than Shireman.

I would say 18 to 24 minutes probably. Maybe you're looking at nine minutes stretches in each half

or like six and five in each half or something like that. Shireman, his minutes per game

in February was 24.3, which I thought was interesting because that's right around where I think

Tatum's going to be. There's going to be, you know, Simon's they Simon's was out. So some minutes

got shared. And then they have to figure out this Vousavitch thing because, you know, he looked

really awful and a couple of those road trip games and then Friday against Brooklyn who usually

plays the Celtics well just for the record. And the Celtics had one of the great offensive performances

in the history of the sport. That was interesting. But Vousavitch looked good in that game. Didn't

look as good today. I just think at age 35, you're a long time Vousavitch watcher age 35. He's

just going to be hit or miss. You're going to know probably in the second quarter each game. Oh,

we getting him tonight. Oh, we're not. Okay. We'll do this instead. Well, I think I think the

Keta discussion is really also about Vuchavitch and that this is an overdue and transition for him

into a backup center role, which he is fine for because there are just going to be some matchups

where the A team offense on the other team is just too fast and too dynamic for him. But can you

spot him 14 to 18 bench minutes when the best offense player and other teams on the floor,

and he can just bang on the glass and get rebounds and box out. And tonight was like 11 points,

12 rebounds like didn't kill you on defense, not the most dynamic offensive team outside of

Maxi and Edgecomb, which is a problem for him. But I think this is like, he was just overmatched

as a starting center in his mid to late 30s. And this is a totally fine role for him. And they

need it. You mentioned all the giants that they're going to go through. I really think those

Detroit games, and particularly the one in Detroit, where the pistons kind of beat them up,

but maybe it was in Boston. I can't remember. I think they've lost both in both places.

I think those games really freak the Celtics out a little bit like, oh my god, this

this team is a for real and be just massive and strong compared to us in a way that we are not

quite built to play against. I agree. But so funny that you can't really survive in the playoffs

anymore unless you can have size. You need everything, man. You have no chance. You have

OKC, you have Denver, you have Minnesota, you have all those teams in the East. We mentioned,

you're not getting away with like the 2015 Warriors type of let's go small. We'll play like

those days are over. This Tatum come back. One thing that I haven't heard anyone talk about

that I realized today, the rarity of somebody coming back this late in the season that's also

being counted on on a team that has a chance to make the finals. I went through all a history

trying to figure out how many times this has happened. I really could only find Jordan with the

baseball come back in 95. Magic Johnson got hurt in 1981. He heard his knee. He missed like 40 games.

He missed over over half the season, his second season. They came back. They lost around one.

And then Wilk Chamberlain only played 12 games in the regular season in the 6970.

Came back for the playoffs in the Willis Reed playoffs. There might have been a couple others,

but I really racked my brain. I couldn't. This is really unusual. Like normally how it goes is

Jamal Murray getting hurt. Missing the rest of the season coming back and just kind of not being

ready in time for the playoffs and the team kind of punting on it. We've never really seen this.

And I don't. It's one of the rare things in sports where I have no idea how it plays out.

Any set of alternatives for it. And I just don't know.

I mean, there is. It could. It could not go well. And they could decide midway through like

we're actually going to cut your minutes. I don't suspect that's going to happen just because he's

so good. And he appears to be ready. Yeah, but anything could happen. There was the Jordan

broken foot season two, but they weren't a contender that year. Yeah. They were fairly playoff.

Most of the time, like I think back to KG in 2009, when there was this will, he won't he think

from that weird injury. Even like to remember Jamir Nelson that same year got hurt in the playoffs

and Ray Frost and started and it was like, will he won't he? That's usually what it is. And it is

a trickier like reintegration process for those kinds of players. So yeah, this is a weird one.

Well, Stada. I can't remember. Stada, my 20 years ago in the oh six sons. I can't remember if he

was lingering for a comeback or not. I just too long. But yeah, he did not come back. I don't

believe in the playoffs. He didn't come back. And I didn't know if it was like they had their

fingers crossed. Well, we'll see what happens. It could be a very interesting Celtics week because

they Milwaukee tomorrow night. And I think they're going to rest everybody and hope Milwaukee has one

of those just terrible Milwaukee games like they had today. Charlotte on Wednesday, who we're going

to talk about later. We're doing a Charlotte the deep dive. We did quite last week. We're doing a deep

dive on Charlotte this week. Friday, Dallas, Cooper flag homecoming, the entire state of Maine is

going to be there. Hopefully plays. And then I think they play against Sunday. I want to talk about

Maxie quick because I was thinking about him today. The best picks after pick 20 is the 21st

pick in 2020. How rare it is to get somebody that you've drafted for yourself who has the chance

to be an OMB guy, which I think we both thank. He's probably at least second team.

Desmond Bayon in that same draft was 30. Brunson was 33 for Dallas, but ended up on the next

four. He became a guy in a nobby on Toronto 23. D. White was 29. Siacum 27. Then of course,

Yoke and 41. Go bear 27. Dream on 35. Middleton 39 and Butler 30. Those are all the guys from the

last 15 years that after pick 20 became guys. And he has a chance to be a second team on B.A.

The sixers have loved this whole time. But I just think what he's doing is really special

this year. He's going to he's going to play the most minutes and the most games at the guard

position in 10 years is what he's on pace. The last guy was James Harden 82 games 38.1 a game in 2016.

Like guards don't do this anymore. Play this many minutes. How does this much of a burden?

And they kind of rise and follow them. He wasn't very good tonight, but he kind of also kept the

minute. And I just did. Did you ever think he would be this guy? No, no. I mean, I think he is

going to make an all NBA team this year. I had him on 13 when I just did my my blink test.

Look at the team. It's it's a crowded field, even with the health issues. But I think he should

make an all NBA team. I don't think anyone thought he would be an all NBA player. That's why he

was picked 21st. Remember they only got him because Mike Muscala hit a bunch of shots in an

Oklahoma City game that like for the pick to fill it off his way. No, I'm saying like after we

knew he was good. Oh, I mean, do you think he was going to be this good? Because there became a point

especially when Hardham was so there was like, wow, they really hit this maxi pick. He's good.

Did you think he was going to be this good? Yeah, I can't say that I expected like 30 a game

on good efficiency. Me neither. Like I and I think what what proves that that was probably the

consensus is he's been in the most improved player conversation for like the last four years.

Like every year people are like again, like I guess we got to put him up for this award again.

Yeah. Yeah, he's got some of the stuff he does is just so unique to him. Like he's got a floater

basically from the foul line that he shoots running straight like a shot put. I don't know

anybody else who has that shot. The changes speed stuff he has. The teams are so terrified of him

now. They get a defensive rebound and he has to ball in the back court. You can see it's almost

like football like when Tyree kills in motion. You can see everybody kind of screaming around,

but he's a really special player. And I you know, they have this and bead and bead now has this

oblique injury too. And Maxi's talked about his frustration with how they're basically these

two separate teams. I think people are wondering is this kind of like a playoff team you don't want

to see in the playoffs when they get Paul George back and then bead. I think the style thing's

going to kill them ultimately in a series because I don't think they know who they are.

But long term as a combo this this we don't call them VJ max edge comb and maxi.

It's about as good as it gets for a young combo I think like they're in great shape.

Question for me is, will there more of you around to see it?

We'll be around to see it through. Who knows?

I mean, you'd have to have a were only 60 games in and they are clinging to the 60. The

race for six in the east has gotten pretty spicy and like the the whole seven to 10 thing is a mess.

But 60 games in you'd have to count this season as a success for Philadelphia. I think given

and beads been in and out of the lineup in this PG thing. I mean, I don't know how you evaluate

who's at fault for all of the mishaps that continue to do the fall of this franchise. But

this is better than I thought there would be after 60 games given and they haven't had

like great health luck by any stretch. No, what was it? 42 was the overrunner?

It was something like it was the one that really flamix you mean house.

You could have said 20 wins either way. Yeah, you're right. With Paul George

basically missing when you include the injuries that start the air and the suspension. He's

going to miss over half the season and beads had three separate injuries. They've gotten more

from edge comb than they I really liked the rogas. I think that bonus legitimate rotation guy who

I could see in a playoff series. Yeah, I don't like if that's the two seven matchup they match up

pretty like they're very comfortable against Boston. Even today all of a sudden that game was six

and they just had these little runs against Boston. I think they like going against Jalen.

They have guys to throw at him. They like going against the Boston guards that a good job on

picture today. But I just think without the size it's not going to happen. Nick Spurs was the other

really interesting one today which we both watched was the first time the Spurs looked like crap

in a while their win streak then. It was also the first time the Knicks really you could see the

full whatever the blueprint was as they were heading in the trade deadline. Not going to over

react because the Knicks had some bad losses over the last couple of weeks. But did you learn anything

from that game? I thought it was first of all I guess I learned that Mohamed Dior is going to

shoot like 23s in a game at some point to season. I actually think he's pretty good and he's earned

himself a look in their postseason rotation. To me that game I mean a lot of Knicks played well in that

game. That was a Josh Hart game and you know they're they're going to see the strategy over and

over again where teams put their centers their rim protectors on Josh Hart and just ignore him

and put wing players on cat and my god Stefan Castle goes from guarding cat to guarding Brunson when

cat goes out the game is like this guy is in his second year and this is what he's doing on

defense let alone the offense that's crazy. But Josh Hart it gives a little funky to start with

and I think that Knicks kind of leaned into if you're going to ignore Josh Hart we're actually

going to bring him up into the action even though Webby's on him and that means we're bringing

Webby into the action and he's this terrifying alien with a million foot wingspan and they made

the most out of it like he scored on the pick and roll he got open shots for Brunson he did the

dream on thing which I think they're going to need to do more of team street him like this which is

if you're ignoring me swing the ball back to me all all run a handoff for Mikhail Bridges who

hit a three out of this Landry Sham I got a good three out of it and I looked it up on the

tracking data it was the most ball screens Josh Hart has set in any game this season was in

this game and I remember I remember talking to a head coach maybe two months ago whose team was

in New York to play the next we sat down we were having coffee and we were I was like so you're

going to put your center on blah blah you're going to do the hard thing probably right like that's

what the matchups make sense for you we're going to put your center on heart he's like I don't know

Josh Hart feels like he's solved that one and like he's heard a lot of teams I make an open

threes in doing Josh Hart things and crashing the glass and I'm kind of afraid to do it

and he didn't do it and I think the next one the game but if that that conversation stuck in my

head is like this is how a team think about game planning for the nix it really starts with

towns and heart and and the nix felt like today they hit a gear with that that they had not

hit this season hmm also helps San Antonio 26.5% from three jerk to get this about just about

any team but yeah the the San Antonio clonker is a little unsustainable it's also the way to be

it okay see hey could you guys miss 75% of your threes that would really help us on the nix

okay Larry David was there they kept showing them during the game I I'm reasonably sure that was

his first or second time back but I think it was his first time back since the game where he went

to the haliburton oh he was there the comeback game and the three that went all the way up and down

and he was supposed to for two games and flew back after that game he was so traumatized so I think

it was an emotional return for LD wow I didn't realize that yeah it was I mean the nix fans still

talk about that haliburton game like I I was talking about the 86 world series the

buckner game like it was that traumatic I mean I you you're not kidding because I think it's

faded recently because we're just in the dog days of the season but early in the season when I

would go to msg and they would be up like 14 in the fourth quarter and another team would go on

like a five oh run you could hear these murmurings in the crowd like what it's this is like the eighth

game of the season what do you also word oh it's that game it's within their heads a little bit

one of the most traumatizing losses of since we've been alive for the NBA it's easily in the top five

and in them we've we've both watched the game since it's an absolutely incredible rewatch all right

I'm gonna zip through a couple random dork NBA things can I just say before you do I'm just so

I'm really happy that I got to share the kid a game with you that's what I was thinking the entire

second half there's one one day I'm going to get to see the sad bill meme can't have been doing

these after after Celtic seems that I really want to see the sad bill meme like in person

around zoom this I'm just the whole thing I was like no one in the world is going to be happier

that kada had a career game and we had to spend nine minutes watching a woman get kicked in the

face by vj edge comb because of our review and make us reconsider who should be sitting side

blind do we need a protective net unprepared for every dumb conversation possible about this

that lady was a hero sitting stayed in the seat too no complaints i thought tariko did a great

job of being like look at her tough it out she's gonna she's gonna stay the last four minutes

even to go to the medical tent even she was sitting there like is this is so what is the

cock is doing is nobody there did they all go get a coffee break why is this taking eight

fucking minutes to resolve this can we get on with it I'm bleeding can we get out with the game

right i need a nice pack uh 45 seconds max for a review just tell me that rule doesn't work

i'm gonna build 45 seconds keep the call it stands let's move on all right

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random dorky ambi and stuff let's go have the thunder officially become villains

did this happen oh are we here i'll give you some of the case and then you tell me um all the

picks that they have just that's fact that they're successful but then have this war chest to

see him presti how everybody else in the league now is mad at s am presti for a variety of reasons

including that he's now anti-tanking when he used to be pro-tanking and all whatever

all the phone ringing yet or is it do you have it on mute it's off okay all the foul baiting

especially from sga that's became a thing this year the boring commercials just bad commercials

start in the okay see people i don't think people like that they still stole the team from

Seattle has to be mentioned and then you were going all in and then the kuda grad ludor the dirtiest

guy in the league just hands down if we're handing that out and if we if that's in the awards

the 30s per year ludor wins that was the dirtiest thing anyone did this year was inexcusable i

can't believe you did it it was it was a play to try to hurt another player it wasn't in the flow of

a game where somebody's up in the air and they make a mistake this was like a deliberate i'm going

to try to fuck with the collio kitch and maybe hurt him is my interpretation of that play there's

no other interpretation i feel like i feel like you're taking it personally almost because it was

the okay i feel like you felt it was a personal attack on you listen Liam beer there's been guys

over the years they crossed the line of are you actually trying to hurt somebody else is in this

game and i thought that crossed the line and i couldn't believe the okay see coach was like

surprised after maybe he didn't see the clip i did enjoy marked agnos reaction after the game

like i just want to know is that a flagrant two now we're doing that every time it's a flagrant

two because we're doing every time i just want to know it's a flagrant two and then that's as far

as you go you wouldn't say anything else about it but i mean look it looks it doesn't look like a

hard hit when you see it on replay but that's because we're not taking it from like a 260

pound cinder block in real time it was you know it was a decent hit i wasn't surprised i upgraded it

to a flagrant two and it was clearly i'm going out of my way to hit you this is not a natural running

motion this is not a direction anybody would take similar to like you know that we've seen a lot of

other plays like that were just guys just decide i'm going to hit you and need yeah decided

i'm going to hit you okay are they villains i mean i think villains are great for the NBA

i would love to see them lean in that's why i brought this up they kind of need an identity right

remember last year we're like how do we talk about these guys they just play hard they'll like

each other they're leaning into their inner villain now which i like i i mean like we'll never see

yokeage that mad again and this is a guy who got who got cheap shot at bite one of the more

as brothers and then nailed him in the back and nobody is mess with the yokeage sense for like what five

years i was worried anybody done anything Tim since then i was worried his brothers were going to be

at the game and something like who knows what's going to happen if the yokeage brothers are at the

game but the eyes those eyes will live on forever i mean that is an all time meme whatever like those

eyes i don't look at i don't look at the first beer after trade deadline with the intensity

that the holy yokeage stared at luddart with like we did big jail well i mean that was that was

a lusty aggressive stare yeah there's three problems for dork one is that

he he saw yokeage sized him up and then pretending to see him then he stepped back into him and

then he swung his right right foot around to make sure that he got him and there was there was

history from the before earlier in the game with them and in general it was a chippy game

and i think one of the lessons from this week there's really animosity in some of these games now

oh that was that was like that that was an intense game from the beginning pistons spurs was just like

how about pistons everybody pistons cabs was also because that i thought Friday night was awesome

but piston calves was was also really chippy and and kind of angry and not a lot of not a lot where

we've we've kind of moved out of the banana boat era with the with the leak i feel like there's a

lot of animosity now in these games again i i love it i think i think we all agree we would like to

more of that on the thunder villain thing i i will say some of it is envy right like teams are

just envious about how well the thunder have built their team um i will also say when chris finch

now what are we two months into this gave his they're very frustrated to play against because they

get to the line a lot and you can't touch shame remember that press conference prince chris finch

gave it like there was before and after stats about chase free throws i heard from so many people

around the league being like chris finch is a hero finally somebody said it somebody said it

like said there's something there's something to this it was like the uh to still water drummer

and almost famous when they when they start going off our russell him and he's like finally the truth

in the bus or the plane whatever was uh i like it i think that thunder have an identity again

their fans are going to eat this up i'm sure this segment will get caught out and put somewhere

and i'll be i'll be a villain like poor justin terminate who's

enemy number one in the city before all their players got hurt

part of being a villain is knowing how god damn good you are and wanting to crush everybody

in front of you and before all their players got hurt they played like a team who was like

bringing on we're going to destroy your soul in this basketball game and i love to that that's

exactly how you want to champion to approach its potential repeat season well you talked with

legs about uh this little case and Wallace mini leap in february which has been noticeable

i don't know how much is there big picture but i've increased the ceiling in the building by

a couple stories like because it's clear to me now they're going to have some tax that that's

a figure i have to figure out how to pay him dorks got the team option next year and i wonder like

is dorked and cruz on Wallace on this team a year from now my bet would be no they'll try to patch

you know the picks that they have and they'll try to save money that and then give the money back to

Wallace but Wallace like what give me the best statistical season of his career give me a guess

18 and five maybe something like that do you think that's the best 22 and five i don't know

i mean it just depends where he goes right like it depends what team he's on

i see i was ready to get to like 22 seven and five you might be right you're you're better at

projecting you're more adventurous and therefore i just wonder how much is there could he be

obviously if he's on this team he's never going to be the lead guard but could he be like a real

sidekick somebody who's 37 38 minutes a game you're right he's a game i don't know i don't know

maybe it's 20 maybe it's closer to you it's somewhere between 18 and 22 but i i wouldn't have said

this three months ago i don't think but to your point i think people just like recency bias and

just people got a lot going on their lives i think people have kind of forgotten how good the

thunder can really be and there's going to be a week when they get everybody back and yeah it's

going to be like oh god oh yeah that's right that guy too and that guy is coming off the bench and

that guy is a luxury item and like Jared McCain who they swipe from the sixers is suddenly like

the thirteenth man on the team but he's playing great too and and honestly not not the worst thing

in the world to not put all these miles on these guys when you're gonna have a five or six year run

which i've been thinking about a lot like he talking about uh that five year warriors run i forget

what podcast we talked about it on here but um you know those years are like seven years crammed

into five years when you had those playoff games and you look back at the history of the league

and all these teams that had these four or five year intense runs like that and the guys wouldn't

have the time break down at the end of them and certainly happened with the Celtics in the

in the 80s and it happened to the pistons by the time they got to 91 it was just off a cliff

um the bulls kind of avoided it because Jordan went and played baseball for that year and a half

kind of kind of pushed it off i was thinking about the other day because Robert Hory was saying how

he thought the 94 and 95 he said on some podcast the 94 and 95 brackets would have beaten the bulls

which in a vacuum is is a relatively insane statement but when you think about the bulls coming

off three straight titles and losing Hora's grant i do think the rockets would have beaten them

one of those years is he's saying like if jordan if jordan never left he's like a jordan was

there we would have beaten them both times i don't know about both times i don't think that since

both times is is probably crazy but i mean you eight titles in a row like that was not that was

probably not going to happen i think even sustainable even people with the bulls like Steve

Kerr has said they don't he doesn't think that they would have won all those titles um speaking of

the nuggets it's just a quick one okay cam johnson concern scale i was defcon two and then the

over for today and i might now be a defcon one it's been bad friday night i was on a couple different

texts during that okay see Denver game in three minutes left i texted this game is going to come

down to a wide open cam johnson three no way because yeah i have it i have the text wow the reason i

said that was because he's been shaky enough in these games that they were he clearly going to

help off him in the biggest possession of the game and take their chances with him in the corner

and it's exactly what happened and missed it it was a tag game was seven seconds left this is why

you go and trade him a trade that both of us loved and hold on hold on don't lump me in with you i

thought i thought i thought Michael Porter junior was swept away like he was like i just lumped you in

what are you going to do about it i said what i said i lumped you in easy i don't care if you

didn't want to be lumped in i need a company with me in house so you didn't like it you like

Porter i i i i liked it because i it also allowed them to get balance units and fill out their

bench a little bit and it was clear some sort of financial relief was going to come i just thought

people were like wildly underestimating how good Michael Porter junior was in in the trade and how

important his shooting was for Denver right i also didn't think cam cam johnson's moving so

tentatively in some ways that i almost you just have to wonder if he's still not healthy all the way

back from the various elements that have heard him this season because he just stuck beyond the

shooting numbers which are actually for the season all right he just is not adding any like

to their ball movement to their offense it just isn't there i looked up his crunch time stats and

he's one for eight crunch time small sample size small sample but turns 30 this week

but i just think they need him they need him at the end of these games they've had so many

winnable games it's so weird to see a nuggets team but they're still like five we did this

last week we were saying how there are 500 there's still 500 over like 35 games now and they've

blown so many games at the end of games which i just didn't think was possible now they have

Gordon's going to come back that's going to change things Watson i'm not freaking out no

can't judge the cam johnson thing is significant though because he's somebody that if he

he's not going to be out there in that spot when we're in the playoffs who is it going to be

hard away who's it going to be who's who's it going to be in that corner that is going to make a

break like a game for on the road somewhere because i don't i don't he's lost my trust unfortunately

well Gordon and Watson answer a lot of those questions but i mean yokech had more some more goofy

turnovers by his by his standards today i think he had five turnovers and he's had a few turnovers

in all these games where it's like the defense is is on his wavelength like they they i don't

want to say they outthink him but he doesn't outthink them they see the past coming and pick it off

which is unusual uh for him and right now they just have no they have no size like they're so small

they have no one they have like christian rounds trying to guard and he's all right at it and

cam johnson tried to guard Julius Randall who didn't have a great game but they just don't have

any size outside of their centers right now it it is beginning again you can't panic

can't overreact because all these guys are coming back and we'll see if Aaron Gordon can stay healthy

but this last month with yokech and the team not winning as much as you'd expect with yokech

still playing sensationally but it does have a feel of like sometimes it's just like it doesn't

come together sometimes it's just not yet we're not there yet but it's it's on my like radar of

like it might just be the year it doesn't happen and i expected it to happen like because i do

think there's a legitimate great team in here but yeah sometimes you run out of time to find it

i mean sadly i'm deep down feeling the same way the problem here is that yokech is still having

in all time season and Murray is having the best season of his life and we shouldn't have

this many questions also when Gordon comes back what level of Gordon are we getting and also

is he coming back we yet we now have they played so basically 20 we're at the

and they are entering the last quarter of the season so he's going to come back and just be thrown

into a four five matchup against Minnesota where they're going to need him for like 35 minutes of

game and with a hammy what it's a hammy thing that just feels like it just keeps happening that's the

worry is that his combination of size power on both ends defense of versatility and he's now

approving 40 plus percent three point shooter they don't have anyone who combines all those things

that's why he's such a unique player they have pieces of them and other players who have weaknesses

they get exploited elsewhere and to get through the west you it's you need to be pretty damn close

to 100% to get through all of these teams i mean these are five legit really good teams i'd be

Houston who were kind of both down on and i think everybody is is now in third in the west and

whatever you think of them they're going to make you feel some pain over a seven game series no

matter who you are the scary thing for Denver is four five could be them in Minnesota team that

loves playing Denver is very comfortable against them doesn't mean they're going to beat them and

the Lakers now have the same number of losses is Denver and it's been this Lakers season that

a team we've written off 700 times and it somehow has the exact same record as uh

as Denver okay next topic oh speaking of the west the seven eight nine ten in the west

is just officially bizarre where we have Phoenix at 34 and 26 book are still out

Brooks is out i guess for the season golden states 31 and 29 and it's going to be 31 and 32

in three games i don't think they said for the season with Brooks but time wise it gets i think

it was time wise it's a very far like to the last week yeah i just wanted to be glad i was like

did i miss something i don't think i did golden state could be under five hundred and three games

portland's at 29 and 32 the quippers are at 27 and 31 but relying on kawaiian guard and uh

there is garland who are an exactly lugaric um clippers are about to win right now by the way

all right so let me 28 31 and um portland lost so they're 29 and 33 they lost to the

Jonathan kominga led it lay in a hawks by 34 points crowd chaining thank you warriors

during the kominga game as he had another one uh portland has a weird obvi a back injury thing that's

gonna knock him out of any possible NBA stuff not that he was gonna make it anyway golden state

just say curry needs at least 10 more days that's starting to look a little get a little whiff of

little little tanky whiff oh i would i wouldn't that that i don't know if curry like do you rush him back

to play him hurt or do you be like you know what let's get the 10th pick in the draft

okay i mean that's that's uh i mean so you got to lose in the play and then you got to like

because there there's there's zero chance at any of these or just say fuck out we're gonna play

yeah fuck it we'll wait step come back that week if you're healthy um give me two teams you think

are in the play half seven eight nine ten Phoenix gold state portland equipers pick two i got

picked two two have to make it um two have to make it well again i'll tell you what no one below them

is even trying to win so congratulations to the four play in teams unless one of you passes the

leakers or not get you are in the play and with 20 games yes we can celebrate you can hang a banner

i will go all go suns clippers how about that suns clippers

there is garland coming back tomorrow kawaii's kawaii you know i don't feel great about it but i'll

go suns clippers i don't love that i don't love this step injury and the team just feels like

there's just a lot of like dianthini melton and gees santos and quit and post going on and all

those guys are actually playing okay but it just feels a little like a like a rickety mishmash

of whatever the box score is alarming the one yesterday they got killed by the lakers the box

score is like oh my god this is like a Brooklyn net lineup i would also say suns clippers

i really tried to talk myself into portland i watched the entire portland and share the game

my hornets were playing at ten o'clock pacific time i had to had to test drive that one portland

really wanted the game and came in with a really hardcore defensive plan against and i don't

want to waste our charlotte stuff because we're doing deep dive later but really like

it's the first time i've seen a team like be like here's our strategy to take out caniple

and they were doing all this stuff to try to take them out true how it was playing really hard

i like clinging they have good wings scoot henterson there's a lot of signs that he's don't sell

your scoot stock yet don't shake your head no i did a whole scoot branded Miller segment

last two weeks ago and talked about scoot i just didn't think that was a particularly good

scoot game well just there's some signs they're getting more comfortable the giving them the ball

and letting him do stuff it would be nice if more of the signs went into the basket but you know

i'm just trying to be class half full of scoot i've i've admitting defeat on the brand

of Miller scoot thing i've officially admitting defeat there's not there's no other move

do you i mean you do there's not there's no other move for your brand of Miller than that one

brand of Miller it's tremendous it's really good i love brand of Miller like hey he's really

looking Paul George jaylin brown ish offensively like that could be i like i think he could be

26 a game if he could stay healthy at some point absolutely it's career all right so we both say

phoenix and the clippers and yet the clippers could coi could be gone tomorrow

okay well i mean i yes but if you're so weird i'm picking them it's just it's a little bit of a

it's i don't i don't say anything everything about it is weird including that there is no

eleventh place team you can just erase the last part of the standings and unless you're doing

the reverse standings you don't even need to look at them well new Orleans might make a

late search here they're only 20 back they're one of the hottest there are the last three games

behind the clippers in the last home can they make that up i don't know the learns played really well

just killing the hawks pick zion got hurt again though i'm not again he deployed i zion got hurt

just as we got used to zion playing he's now heard again hopefully it's it's minor but this is

just the story of some of these guys careers i hope we learned a lesson from this pelicans pick

with the hawks because we've seen this situation before the Celtics were in it one year with

the cleveland pick we've seen these teams have these seemingly super choice picks and the time

to trade them is november december when they have maximum look how good this picks going to be

because the truth is the team whose pick you have has no incentive to stop trying

in the last 30 games of the season and they start playing some of these other tanking teams

and they're like fuck it well what do we care and they'll start winning and all of a sudden you're

in the ninth pick instead of the fourth pick and i i think i land a probably should have

sent that pick back in a while ago if you want to be the ninth pick if you watch the pelicans if

a person who had never who knows nothing about the NBA watch the pelicans play any of the other

seven to eight teams who are tanking right now they'd be like well that's got to be the best team

in the league right like this team's got to be by far the best team so much better this other team

some of the tanking steps great and then go sacrameno's taken in a step further there was

some weird internet rumor about uh that they want to sign westbrook for next year that he's become

a leader of the team sacrameno bolts very sent us that and my response was that i think him being

the gm is the natural outcome for all this but back i'm putting him in charge of the team

he he i guess he's now i mean he's a king player you have to be a king's player to really be in

consideration to replace an established gm a former king player you have to put your time in um

it's like prison it's like you have to be in the yard for a couple of years for the late work in

the out in the library i didn't even have the heart to respond to the text i just it's just let me

ask you that is it would you say it's completely inconceivable that russell westbrook could some

they be the sacrameno king's gm but no way i think that like i don't if i'm surprised there are

not odds on it already like it's like maybe we could do it with those weird prediction markets

how she put that bed down yeah like calcium just put some calcium on his tweets out by the way

look at calcium today for a new a new line on russell westbrook being the gm dropped to 51

unfandless fandals one fando predictions okay next goofy question

what happens if you honest comes back this week it's i can't i'm so excited you brought this up

my aim is the uh so right now we have six seven eight nine

philly 31 and 27 Orlando's 31 and 28 my aim is 32 and 29 so they're all grouped together as six

seven eight america's team the charlotte hornets is 30 and 31 can't wait to do the deep

dive with them they're the nine seed right now at lana is 31 and 31 actually they're the nine

seed right now charlotte's 10 and then Milwaukee's 26 and 33 so they are a couple losses behind

basically everybody Milwaukee was eight and three in their last 11 till they lost the stupid game

they lost today yannis is looming he could play the last 20 games so if they go i don't know

could they get to 40 wins it's possible they go 14 and six

what happens could they could they make uh all they'd have to do is jump one team and get to

the ten seed and then it's just playing playoff games that like to me yannis is not dead yet no that

little this is this that i think people wrote off the books and kind of forgot about the books

and the the eastern conference let the bucks stay alive because that stretch they had before all

was absolutely massive because it gave them the margard frayer to come back to earth and this

was a comeback to earth weekend for the bucks two horrible losses including a blowout to the

bulls who had not won in literally a month and yet they're just still two games back in the

lost column behind charlotte and two games back behind it lana four games back at the heat but all

of these teams like just look at their records in the last 10 games or lando six and four my ambi five

hawks six and four none of them have run away from the bucks and and like with yannis the team

makes sense it makes it no sense to make up two games on it elana hawks team who only like kind of

makes sense as a basketball team or lando is is that's that's or lano and my ambi are taller hills

to climb but not on not teams without problem norm powell just got hurt he's going to miss a little

bit of time um the sooner he comes back the more interesting this gets because

if they get into the play and and they're going full throttle with yannis even if they're coming

from the nine ten seed they got a hell of a chance to get in and then then it gets real interesting

and it turns into ambi at copards just like you have to be honest tonight are you going home

and that's it and yannis really cares and and actually wants to be in the playoffs

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us in the lead learn how at america cures dot com pay for by pharma so philly or land on my

Amy Charlotte at land in Milwaukee pick three that get into the playoffs yeah just pick three

right now for six seven eight i'm not even going to look at schedules i will do philly or land oh

no i'm no no oh this is actually hard yeah i know this is hard i'll go

fuck it i'm going to go philly Miami Charlotte or land those out

which should just be the most wildly disappointing outcome for almost any any team

so i would have had orlando in the Miami spot there i think philly and charlotte i have them in

and charlotte i can't wait to do the deep stuff i mean my let me just my amy's their way in it's

just it's just that's the thing did you see the heathen any of the heathen thing i did

i saw the whole game i until that game i was like they're gonna you know this is not

going to be the year for them whatever um i don't know they showed they had a little

feistyness in that game and we always see around now there's one team that kind of gets hot or

does whatever and i don't know if they're that good but that i don't know you watch them and the

team kind of makes sense now that when they have everybody and if they can get hero going a little

bit so i would probably say philly Miami Charlotte or land oh more likely they make the playoffs or

they change coaches for the end of the season i will go make i will go make the playoffs because i

think i i i just the history of this front office is that they accidentally and i think they will

they will now give especially given how much time fronds in particular is missed i think they give

this thing till the end of the season i was an awful loss today they're up seven and a half time

they're lose by 14 bad um at liana doesn't have their pick so no real reason for them to throw it

in that's why i like a Milwaukee if they were 28 and 31 instead of 26 and 33 i'd be more excited

i think they've they're probably a little bit too far back but i was thinking with the trade

this is such a strange situation for them to be in right it's like they're gonna get the one seat

they might have the best record in the whole league and the prize for getting the one seat could be

their philadelphia with them beat and george back my am at the fucking heat culture weird voodoo

Miami team charlotte who's who's been awesome for 32 games now like a legitimate kind of offensive

juggernaut um and none of those matchups are fun like none of them it's great that's what the playoffs

are supposed to be let's not have any pushovers i mean i think i think orlando would be a pushover

i don't i don't think they'd be a pushover on if they were fully healthy i don't think they'd be a

pushover i think the hawks would be a pushover for Detroit i just think orlando's not going to be

fully healthy and you know they're not going to be fully healthy cross that off unlikely uh well yeah

it's when sugs plays two games in a row it's like a shock it's it really makes you feel good when

you turn on the magic game and sugs explaining i love watching sugs play i'm like all right this

team just became 25% more entertaining to watch yeah um cleveland who won today barely

another dorky combo if you're cleveland do you care if you're just you're the foreseed you play

toronto on round one do you care no i don't i don't think you care about your seed at all if

you're cleveland you just need to get as healthy as possible and like you know what you're being

judged on and i i wouldn't stress about three four one two all you've had your ups and downs

against all the teams currently above you in the standings just you just got to play on fando they

were plus one twenty five for the foreseed and eleven and one for the five seed if i'm them

i just want everyone running full steam second week in april i don't care if i'm playing toronto

and i don't mind playing the trade i don't think i thought i think they would think they can

beat the trade they have more offense more stuff to bring the table shrewter um i had really had a chip

on a shoulder right i thought i was just to bring him off the bench like possessed doing that crazy

shrewter stuff i thought it'd be fun but i think that team you know the the same maryle piece has

defrared the fact that they missed on the andre hunter deenwayed is a i guess just a

exit stage right when he put when he putt first of all he's been starting for them for the most part

since since the team you got fully formed again when he when he plays decently they are

very hard to beat he's he's a minor role player but they they really like him and they keep

giving him chances and they keep seeing him through these like months where it feels he hits

like two threes in a month and then i have a game where it's like he's four of six from three

and that's all he does other than play great defense but yeah but it helps and but they at least

they turn hunter into shrewter and keon ellis like at least they they they they got two guys that

can play for them in that in that deal body language doctor likes their chemistry too i like some

of the stuff i saw in the sidelines from michael and harden looks like michael and harden like

each other honeymoon hard and it's just it's really kicked in i think i did i'll take it

uh next topic i texted this to you so you're actually prepared for this one

don't normally like to sneak attack you with topics perimeter defenders better than the Thompson's

all right let me bring up my list i asked you to make a list who's actually better than these guys

perimeter defenders we're not talking big guys we're not talking uh tiny guards or small

i don't the the answer is i'm not sure anybody is um although i i think they both are

no player is perfect but i i think here so here are the names i wrote down as just like these are

the guys you at least tell me how many names you wrote down before you tell me the names i wrote

like 15 names down because i go big i go big all the time but i i have i wrote down 10 names yeah

cut uh ludor who was the

caruso yeah they were not my first name no i'm just i do i just went down standing's order

okay and i'm gonna omit some ones that i don't think are serious um i think this is the fan

basis won't take that personally it off you forget somebody i'm so i'm just gonna serve like i'm

not gonna mention Hugo Gonzalez after saying i'm not mentioning i'm sorry you go you don't

get into this one the lamma the lamma haircut doesn't get you in i think jayton McDaniels deserves a

word Derek white doesn't have the size but i left him off because i think there are certain

guys that he probably can't guard uh i still think peak koai needs to be on this list uh he can't

bring it every night but when he really really brings it he he might still be the best perimeter

defender in the NBA for a game or a quarter yeah dice and Daniels and you're running your right

i left him off you're running out it got and i don't mind leaving him off like you run out like

i think payton Watson could could get into this conversation uh oj n and obi uh had him i had

kamara kamara is on my list that's a good one uh i had it scottie burns he's on my list too i was

waiting i wanted you to bring up scottie burns um but i i had him on my list here's my descending order

i had mcDaniels first i had the dormant cruisal combo castle in an obi i had kamara kawaii barns and

bridges all next to each other and i had a net words because i think when he really wants to guard

for a possession i think he's as good as anybody i'm not saying he's doing it all game

but 30 seconds left and i need to play defense and i have him and mcDaniels i just saw it i went to

the corporate game the other night and in the reason i'm mcDaniel so high is he snatched

Ben mather and soul from his body for two hours he just he reached inside his heart and pulled it out

and by the fourth quarter i mather and who was like a really confident guy like walks around with

his chest out and it really seems alpha eight was just like during the headlights and uh couldn't

couldn't solve it mcDaniels is terrifying and he's the only one i've seen in person

other than when kawaii gets it to that i will now take the ball when he gets into that mode um

he's the only one i've seen like i'm level with the Thompson's castle even though he guarded

the rant which was one of the great things that great random things of the season i'm not sure if

there's certain guys like could he guard bigger guys like jalen brown bigger physical forwards i'm

not sure he's big enough to guard those guys but mcDaniels is but you cannot say enough i mean

you cannot say enough about how good castle and harbor are as defenders this unit into their career

because the experience factor although the Thompson twins are not super experienced either

is what makes it hard to put them on like this sort of apex level but those guys i mean they guard

up in size so well you put them on they brought Brandon Ingram in a in a recent spurs

uh raptors game Dylan Harper closed the game on Brandon Ingram and kind of clapped them a little bit

and i'd mention how castle guarded cat and brunson in the same game like they are up for the

Durant game i'd forgotten about when he kind of bodied up Durant and like Durant was like what's

happening is this a foul what's what's going on they they are big and rangel and they are

want all the smoke like those guys are so far ahead of the curve defensively it's crazy

jalen brown is in the vicinity for this if it's one of those games or he's really fired up to

play defense and it but it's bigger guys it's like luca type guys it's it's the more physical

type of wings that he's really good at defending and and really has been for the last few years

i would not respectfully not put jalen brown in this game i know i'm just saying certain games

uh the other one and i thought about this the other day at this at this kupa game i was at i.o. is

like first of all three inches taller than i was prepared for our in person i don't know why

the tv made me think he was like six one but i felt like he was the same height as anthony

edwards i could figure it out big big shoulders and just um when they had him

McDaniels and edwards all out there at the same time against a team that really didn't have a

point guard christine was the only sort of point guard in the clippers everyone was terrified to

bring the ball nobody was happy about it um but i thought that was interesting he's a he's a great fit

you know i mean you know who's furious right now who Dylan Brooks is furious Dylan Brooks is

going to pick up the rare podcast technical for our good so he's just off the list he's hurt we

don't even consider i had i had a lot of mentioned his list but he's might not we might not see him

again this season well this leads to the next question pick one as a defender

of houston tomson or detroit tomson houston tomson i think houston tomson is ahead of the i don't

like that i don't like doing the brother's thing it makes me sad to pit the brothers against

each other like this but it makes it hurts my soul but i take the comment tomson i think i think

he scales down positionally a little easier than asardos asard might guard up a little bit better

but i think comments i'm syncing guard anybody and he's just his speed i mean they're both

unbelievable but i'd pick comment so i give him a slight edge as well i think us are is uh the

single scariest guy to bring the ball up against like when he's really and i'm going to try to get

a steal as you bring the ball up mode i'd think he's number one who's scarier than him you know

i was watching a game it was a tank off game and i watched it because i just this is what i do

i watched grizzlies kings oh scottie pipin junior oh he's another good one shit you not

didn't have three stales in a row or something four four consecutive steals while the kings

were bringing the ball up and it was almost like let's just cancel the game if this is what's going

to happen send everybody home refund the tickets it's a great night out for scottie pipin junior

game over see that's another guy like why wasn't why didn't a contender try to get him

he's been injured the whole year i don't care like they've been just the it's like free second round

pick for him right it's been fist turning down a second round pick for scottie pipin i don't think so

and he's been hurt most of the year i don't i wanted to see him in a playoff series um okay next question

so the all mba it feels like we've separated to yoka gestia cade and winby are levitating that top

group now and then we have a next five of ant and michael and jalen and luca and maxi in some

order ant michael jump the brightness down ant michael jalen luca maxi are in the mix

there's a first-team spot open but then the next question is i only listed nine guys who is the

inside track for the tenth spot if i gave you brunson kawaii jimalmurri durin durant barns

umand tomson etc etc who's your tenth who's the tenth best part in the league right now for

an all-in-base standpoint in your opinion assuming eligibility kawaii lantern

okay i agree with you and he's got like and i put brunson next so brunson i when i did this i had

brunson maxi i had maxi 13 um oh so you have maxi out of that group and brunson in the group

i had i had kawaii second team when i did my draft of mba teams so

all right so there's nine plus brunson kawaii muri and durin that's 13

which means there's two spots left for everybody not to mention we might lose some eligibility

guys we've already lost curry bookers at 16 now um not that he was gonna make it anyway but he's

probably getting bounced yoka jeonli has two left when bs four left kawaii i think has four obvious

gonna be out we might not have enough all mba guys as i guess my bigger but you didn't mention durant

i didn't mention durant i mean you got to mention durant

you're not gonna put durant on third team all mba you're gonna put other okay i mean

i mean i didn't say i wouldn't were you on the text thread were you mentioned

wasn't okay i i take stuff like the the whatever the hell happened and i'll start

week at it i think has to count you're all being catered to see well you know what we're the story

of the year 26 i get it 265 and 490 shooting yeah he's i had him i have 13 guys listed

then look i'll even show you bubble durant top guy so he would be on my 13 if the season ended today

you didn't even mention him why he's in my bubbleist with durant barns

Thompson i mentioned him as a bubble guy okay um and i don't know if any the only person that i think

the nerds might take and grab a hold of and grab the flame and start bringing it outside the

the wall i could see a chat momentum just for the defensive impact we need two okay see guys

in the all mba i could see that unfolding i know how you feel about that yeah i mean i i could

certainly see it unfolding because there is always that groundswell of well this team has to

have x amount of people which i don't really believe in i just i been i've been what wanting him to

do a little bit more on offense in some of these games without shea and jalen williams and a

jay Mitchell and on and on chat hasn't scored 20 points in a game since jenuary 27th it's just been

too many like 13 15 17 yes this is like i looked at defenses unimpeachable he's unbelievable the

fact that he could shoot threes is a huge spacing boon for their offense he's amazing i just think

this level of conversation there's only 15 spots i for me i there's 20 games left so we'll see

he's just he's out in the outside looking at but not by much it's not like a huge slight you know

just player 19 or 18 or 17 he's an all star not an omb game you haven't mentioned one guy that i

maybe you mentioned him when you listed him off and i for i missed it but did you mention jalen

johnson i had him in the bubble list okay

shea is minus 260 for mvp jokaj is plus 450 kate is 10 to one inexplicable because the best jay

misses five more games i think kate's going to win the mvp i can't i can't bet on it because i

overwembee when he's at 25 to one and um i think the spurs would have to basically lose two more

games the rest of the year and be the ones they'd have the best record in the league for it to be a

serious combo i'm not even sure some games that fees the best guy in the game for his team

even though i know like the Detroit game monday who what he did defensively was incredible at that

stuff uh luca has dropped to 100 to one after a pretty tough week for luca 100 to one yeah wow

oh that's my next dorky thing i wanted to bring up to you and then we're going to do the charlotteep

death luca's mvp finishes by year this is his eighth year didn't finish first year fourth second year

sixth third year fifth eighth third didn't get any votes last year this is year eight and he's not

going to be in the top four so he's only had one third place finish and one fourth place finish

this would be after eight years if i had told you this during his rookie year as we watched how good he

was would you have ever guessed this no and in fact i i feel like i've picked him as my preseason mvp

at least twice he's been like a preseason odds on favorite to win mvp maybe more times than that

and so yeah and i realized the whole conversation is now shifting into and i there was a whole will

he ever win a championship conversation this year that i feel like it's a little bit premature

but yeah i am surprised part of it is that you know if you look at his game log he's only cracked 70

games a couple times there's some sort in covid related short and seasons in there but

it is surprising i thought he would have won an mvp by now i thought he would have won an mvp for

the Dallas average by now so everything about what's happening is a little bit surprising good point

yeah if we when we're moving into the 2020s and if we had had a who is the most likely got to win one

mvp this decade draft i think he would have been the first pick it's just tailor made like he's

the whole offense is going to revolve around him his passing does make most types of players

better he's had playoff success basically since he came into the league he's been a good playoff

like going back to the bubble etc it just seemed like absolutely no brainry like you'd be shocked

if a guy liked this didn't win an mvp he's 286 and 210 regular season 287 now 26 and 29 in the playoffs

never has won i think 52 games is this highest with Dallas because he's missed a decent amount of

games he's missed the kinds of numbers of games that turn of 55 win team into a 47 win team

all right it's time hornets deep dive we're really doing this i'm going to start us off with some

hornets facts you know all this i'm just gonna sit back and soak it in they haven't made the playoffs

10 years last time they made the playoffs was the last year of Barack Obama's second term

since their expansion come back here in 2005 three playoff appearances

as a franchise because for whatever reason we include the 1988 to 2002 whatever they

haven't won a playoff round since 2002 which was also the year they moved

they don't have a single number that they could retire this century unless you want to talk

yourself into a camber walk in a camber walker night just for the emotional night or al jeferson night

camber would be the one they have made the eastern finals once even going back to the morning

lj era just in the last few years they drafted shea gojis alxander 11th and immediately

traded him for miles bridges in two seconds i forgot this happened oh yeah

they drafted jalen derren and immediately traded him for a future first and three seconds and

the future first became nicksmith jr they took saloon one pick before dada been clinging

they spent a lottery pick on james booknight so it's a thing that happened

last year there were nineteen and sixty three they started out four and fourteen this season so

there were twenty three and seventy seven in one hundred games over two seasons and since then

something magical has happened there now thirty and thirty one their last thirty two games acolo

twenty one and eleven their first overall net rating plus nine point eight in the last thirty

two games of any enemy team first and offensive rating one twenty one point four which would be

near in the all time high they have twenty one wins fifteen of twenty one were by double digits

include their last four in a row and they're fourteen and three in their last seventeen games

i have more but let's all start there this has been the most dramatic turnaround in season

of anyone that i can remember any other time this has happened there's been signs

like okay see that the year when okay see became like a five hundred team it's like

yeah i can see this building all year this was like this is like a fun link past team that will never

actually be a plant team this year there's no way and yet they're going to be a plant team in

many of win the division the division i forgot about the division the division east division

they could win the division right now the odds in the division they are other plus four sixty or

orlando's plus one thirty five and my name is plus one fifty five on fendo i still like

charlatte win the division but look there you go so you go well i just go like first of all i can give

you a couple more stats if you want but first of all i just i i implore whatever team wins this

division do not hang a banner even you charlatte do not hang a banner no charlatte if they go

forty four and thirty eight win the division i'm allowing the banner no banner you should be

anything that hangs division banners should be shamed at all times um i'll give i'll give you this um

the ball miller knipple bridges di obate lineup is plus one seventy nine in two hundred and eighty

one minutes that's like that is preposterous that is the number one of death that is the number one

plus minus for any lineup in the NBA number two is the piston starting lineup at plus one thirty

one so forty eight points quote worse than the hornets and they've played almost twice as many

minutes plus one seventy nine in two hundred and eighty one minutes is insane and somebody that

wasn't playing for like what the first six weeks basically it's a perfect storm of

it all the attention on knipple and he's been unbelievable and i don't want to i don't want to

besmirch anything about your illegitimate son but he's been this constant metronome of productivity

the entire season ball up and down but miller has leveled up and stayed there for like a month and a half

to two months now and something about the way di obate fits with this group into starting five

it's a perfect storm of miller di obate lamello kind of chilling a little bit with some of the

crazy stuff and just be playing a simpler game in a lot of ways um it's all clicked together

and i mean we're what you just said thirty thirty five forty games into this being like this is

a real team this is this is i don't quite know where we're heading with it uh but it's a we

it's a real team and as you're going to get into the way this has happened is incredibly unusual

in modern NBA history the crazy thing about lamello because if you weren't really following

or watching the games and or even looking at the stats how much you would think like oh it's

lamello healthy and the team took off he only plays like twenty seven minutes a game he's in a

weird way i don't want to call him a luxury but this is really built around con and miller and

di obate and then lamello when he's good they become almost unstoppable the other have this

Kobe the Kobe white trade which we did the trade deadline thing was that go cool i like Kobe

white more than Colin sexton it's a really important trade for them um for variety reasons one

which i totally forgot until i was watching the game on saturday like he's a north carolina guy

like right right Williams was there to see Kobe white and Kobe white's like loves being in

carolina he's he's like they're going to be able to resign him and they're going to make him like a

part of stuff Kobe white stats last three years he was nineteen five four thirty seven percent from

three made almost three three is a game he's like the perfect guard to just add to this and also

more importantly gives them lamello insurance if lamello ever uh gets gets wacky or gets hurt

or anything right well i mean Colin sexton was playing really well for them and you could probably

find the stats for him are not so dissimilar from what you just said about Kobe white in fact they're

not i know but i'm talking i'm talking styles of player though i just like Kobe white's game more

he's more of a basketball player he's a bigger more dynamic more diverse kind of player than

concepts who could play off the ball on the ball like he can i i just think he fits better for

what they're doing he's a little bigger he's got a little more defensively i think he can help them

and i think that when they play uh that line up a death you mentioned but then you can move

Kobe into the lamello spot it's still a really good team we can't call it the line up of death

because the death lineup is taken and it's the word lineup i'm just trying to give charlotte as many

bones as possible it's sitting there in front of us how about the buzzsaw the buzz saw line up

i like it just the first draft we can workshop it so you mentioned something on one of your pods

the other day i can't but i think you were talking maybe about the trait well it

maybe it was a lego you were talking about the trait only has one guy that can really create a shot

but they have all these guys who know how to cut and do all these things and they can kind of patch it

together but really they only have one guy who can create a shot and you could feel at the game on

Friday night against Cleveland when kade fouled out which for some reason it's happened more than once

the season kade fouled out and it's like oh shit what do we do now and they try to patch it together

by the way you know part of the reason why kade gets some foul trouble here in there because he

tries hard on defense he needs to make plays on defense like that's part that's part of it like

well he doesn't get the respect either from uh i don't think he gets the superstar respect

the hornets have five guys who can create a shot like for real con can do it

brin and mill are obviously lamello can get by anybody koby white could create a shot

miles bridges can create a shot so anytime it's like eight seconds left play screwed up or whatever

wherever the ball is somebody can kind of do something with that or you can set a screen

that's one thing the threes are out of control they they're averaging 17.1 made threes during

this 32 game streak where they're 21 11 17.1 they're shooting 43 a game they're 40% from

three which leads the league but they're also second and rebounds which is nice because

canipo rebounds lamello rebounds bridges every guy in the team goes and grabs rebounds um

and then when you just think about if i know i'm getting 17 threes a game

i can kind of have a bad game and still be in the game you know like i can still hang around

i can still i can be down nine and then all of a sudden i'm down three i don't know and

and they have three 20 point scores i really believe in this team and then we didn't even

mention great whims who came back the shooting stats aren't great but they kind of needed one more

blue guy who kind of knows where to go and how to move on defense so they have lamello and con

and mellum bridges they have white they have uh whims and the abate and calc runner and

and josh green i guess josh green is giving them really nice minutes as a 10th guy as their swing

defender and and he and cian james are kind of the the wing guys that come out of the wild card

but josh green has been the the best version of what josh green is like you know he's not going

to shoot much he's going to play some defense and hit corner threes and move the ball and he's

done all of that for them do you value this nine in a row in the road love road wins i'm a sugar for

road wins all right i'm about to i'm going to about to take this up a level to crazy town but

do you want to say something normal before i do that i do and i want to delight you in saying it

because you mentioned this first first of all i do i think you undersold lamello a little bit

in saying the team is built around knippel and miller and lamello kind of floats in as a bonus

all the lineup data suggests that their offense is awesome when lamello is on the floor

and now this may change with white because they can keep two of these four guys on the floor at all

times was to choose for them but their offense with alamello has not been very good and even like some

i i don't have it all sort of in front but i did a couple weeks ago like even like the miller

and knippel know lamello lineup was just so so at one point but anyway so i think you

undersold him a little bit but i've just like to project in the white being able to do a reasonable

facemoia of a lead guard for them i just think his level of creation is is unbelievable his knack for

floaters he's getting he's trying to get to the rim more but i and you mentioned the shooting like

lamello is it in elite three point shooter it's just masked by the fact that he's took so many

difficult threes that deflated his resendral embodies in a lead three point shooter right and

everyone knows knippel's a great shooter and just said they just sort of just it's like

at the end of the sentence about and they have this knippel is unbelievable shooting

he is this is one of the greatest shooting seasons anyone has ever had in the history of basketball

and i just i did the best while referencing for you um there are

six seasons in the history of the mba six individual player seasons and knippel is on pace to be

seven and he's almost going to do it this week two thousand minutes so you can't be like a role

player who comes in imposteries 43% or better from three he's at 44% right now at least eight

threes per 36 minutes attempted six player seasons total here are the six stef curry stef

curry stef curry clay Thompson Desmond Bane Duncan Robinson and at 1900 plus minutes about to be

con knippel wow and the quay Thompson is the comp because that's how he or he reminds me of

like a like a like a clay Thompson coaching tree kind of player the way i don't he just

reminds me of him with some of the stuff he does but he moves kind of smartly in the paint and stuff

he does stuff clay never did clay was always around the fringes for the most part con also has

like this little john havel check side when he can like muscle in and get like a little 10 foot or 12

footer um but when they set those picks it really reminds me of clay those little like quick flare

picks when all of a sudden he's wide open for a split second he makes them they move there they

move their best offensive players around in such creative ways in all over the floor charlesley

and his staff deserve a lot of credit they've really maximize three guys who you look at them and

think well team she'll be able to switch a lot of actions between these guys and it's just they've

made it really hard to keep track of everybody already ready i i i i'm so excited we're going

to crazy town let's go the 2013 warriors okay 47 and 35 40% from three led the league upset

Denver and round one lost to san antonium round two we were working at uh grandland together

league was not as good that 2013 warriors team with those two guys and david lee basically

was bogan on that team yet he was yeah um just the league just wasn't as good and it that was

probably a 41 41 team now that was a 31 win team no they're 47 and 35 oh 12 13 you're talking 12

13 yeah i'm talking that first where your season that's the team yeah um curry was 22 game clay

was 17 a game combine there are 6.1 made threes people didn't shoot the threes as much back then

as that season evolved we were like something's like really here this is headed somewhere and then when

they beat denver was what 56 wins that year tie lost the team agudalas on that team George car

I was big upset and then they lost to the spurs in the next round but curry everything about it

felt like something special happened so that summer they make a big move for agudalas

they had draemon on the team as a rookie but he blossomed in the second year they go 51 and 31

they lose the clips in seven curry and clay jump up and then the next season was the season my crazy

town question for you is could this con miller lamello threesome be the same kind of foundation

that curry and clay were for that were your same and could you actually like see a path for this

nucleus with some of the caps some of the picks which i want to go through adding one more guy

could this be like a real playoff team a year from now there's no question could be a real playoff

team a year from now and i do think adding one more guy has to be part of the recipe but um i think

the warriors cop you're now copying them to what becomes an all time incredible team that's why i

said we're going to crazy a nucleus for you have to include draemon in the can this be stephen clay

because i'm saying that that first year draemon's not he's an it's just curry and clay basically with

bogeyden Harrison Barnes is on there at that point but it's not draemon we didn't know who draemon

was as a potential like that's the year that's the year to point to because more than the regular

season and even more than the Denver series because galonari gets hurt right before that series

and it kind of upends their team the spurs loss that was the final proof of concept for me i remember

vividly thinking it at the time writing about it at the time talking to people with the warriors

the next season and beyond about that series and and the remember the first two games in that series

were in san antonio and they were wild games the warriors split the games and then step gets hurt

in the series and kind of limps through it bogey gets hurt in that series and kind of limps through it

they lose in six but just like the gold standard of NBA defense ran in to something that they

didn't know what to do with they just were like we're we don't this guy's pulling up from 30 feet

and we're supposed to defend this like this is not how we were told basketball was that series was

the series where the warriors became the warriors to me and then it just it's just snowball from

there this team is going to be an awesome offensive team they can be a 50 win team next year

i don't think that's out of bounds at all like that kind of leap this is a real thing that kind of

leap is there i do think one more ad is is is key and then the dream on thing i bring up only because

the warriors were in elite defensive team right away when they started to play him and i think that's

the big question for this team is how do they become a top 10 was until the the 67 win season when

league at hurt and then dream odds minutes on way up right that was that that was the year when it

bloomed well that was year three of this the David Lee injury was a big part of their team 13 14

they were third in defense 12 13 they were 12 in defense right the bogate Ellis trade obviously

also changed the trajectory of their team but that's the question for the for and maybe deobata

has answered some but they're up to 17th in defense now and this did not look like a team that could

be an average defense so they're trending the right way well about this in that 32 game streak

the 21 or 11 they're eighth net rating trending the right way and caulkbrenner off the bench is a

real guy defensively like he's a he can he's a problem defensively the perimeter guys will all get

better and they are they know exactly what they want to be defensively so they're their number one

in a point of free throw rate and number one in defense of rebounding which means they do not

beat themselves you have to beat them and they are they allow the second fewest corner three in the

league and I said this way early in the season like all these numbers have been there since the start

of the season and just the other mistakes they were making were were sabotaging their defense but

like the groundwork was laid for a competent defensive team they had a structure they had things

they wanted to accomplish and they were starting to accomplish them and now the other parts of their

defensive caught up and their offense is completely exploded but that's the question to be as can

they become like a top 10 to 11 defense in the NBA and if they can I think I don't see why 50 wins

out of bounds next year why would it be and that would be a huge jump what are they going to win

this year I don't know maybe they could win 44 this year 42 but yeah 50 something next year why not

I've been pretty good over the years at identifying when some team has

like just being a year early on somebody I remember the OKC the year they finished 40 and 42 right

it was the 22 23 season now it didn't take a rocket science to think that a team with a bunch of

draft picks and Shay we knew at that point was going to be special like that they were going to be

really good but I remember I remember talking about the podcast at the time they played LeBron

in the game when LeBron broke the record and watching them and how they handled that whole

experience and they just kind of wanted to keep the game going so they could because they were

trying to beat the Lakers like they they just had a calmness and a competitiveness and I was like

there's something really here I feel that way about the Hornets I thought that way about those

warriors teams that 13 season where I was like there's something actually really here this isn't

just like a fun story like there's there's like something special brewing and I really feel that

way with this Hornets team I don't think this is like I know they're not even 500 yet they're 30 and 31

but I think they have the foundation especially the white trade they have I don't know of bridges

is their long term or not and I assume Lamello is but they have this Dallas pick that's top two

protected in 27 it's a great asset they have a Miami pick that's top 14 protected this year and

unprotected in 27 the Rosier pick what is their igudala move is my question because

golden state came out of that 47 and 35 season dream on wasn't dream on yet they're basically

occurring clay and some barns but their big move is igudala they dumped some contracts they added

to first round picks they went got this amazing fourth banana for them and that made their team go

up a level could it be Janus could it be Bam out of bio could it be Anthony Davis could it be

trade Murphy could it be somebody like Isaiah Hartinstein oh okay so you're just trying to get off

his money it's that there's not as many candidates as you think but I think that's the next step for

this I think it's a playoff warrior guy that can come in and be like a one of your five guys

well and they have time like it's funny how how fast this goes in the NBA because this is a

feel good story right now and and you know they they don't have all three of cannibal and miller

and lamello on max deals until 28 29 and then they will or I'm sorry until 29 30 that's the end

of cannibal's rookie deals so they have time but they got to use these next two or three years

to take advantage of that salary cap space and that cap tax apron flexibility that will go away

if and when all three of those guys are on max deals and get someone in the door who can help them

win now because they're going to be ready to win big and I do think it needs to be somebody who

I don't want to I don't think you need to lean defense I just think you need to be a good defensive

player and fill some gaps on defense because that's and and probably have some size but but they

should absolutely be active trying to find like they were one of my favorite just for total for

fun I didn't think they would do it nor do I think they should do it but like Anthony Davis popped

into my head when Nico Harris and God fired like too expensive too old but bam is a good name I don't

think the heat ever want to trade bam but like a guy a guy like that who who defends but doesn't

gum up your offense which is obviously hard to find but apps they're going to be on the hunt for

somebody because these three guys together there's this is a real thing what they're doing offensively

they have all their own first round picks plus those two other ones the other pieces new owners

which is similar to the Warriors situation right the Warriors brought they make up and those

guys bought that team right around 2011 12 so it was like early on and they've kind of revamped

the back they're actually spending money which is you know the secret problem with Charlotte was

Jordan was one of the worst owners of all time you know we love Michael Jordan he was just

a terrible honor who was cheap and made bad decisions it was too poorly run behind the scenes

the hired Charles Lee who's great who by the way Charles Lee was involved with the box when they

won the title and the Celtics when they won the title and I think is one of the best coaches in the

league they're not that far away when you think like the foundation of those three guys versus like

Curry who turned out to be one of the all-timers just Curry and Clay versus those three together

talent-wise it's like you're at least in the vicinity and then you can patch it around and I

think the Canipple piece the you know all jokes aside but he's 20 and he's putting up stats

that a 27 year old would do and the stuff they're doing with him in games like to have somebody who's

that young who you have on a rookie contract that you can still kind of build around it's a little

reminiscent of when the Warriors had that huge discount for Curry forever right what was he

making like 10 million a year for like years and years I think it was like a four year 44

million dollar extension yeah they were able to just patch shit around that's basically the

Canipple contract Lamella's a Max and they're gonna have to pay Brandon Miller this summer I think

and he's earned the contract now and and speaking of Lamella I it's I am like an all-time like

Lamella defender I never got off the Lamella was good thing and I do think it'd be

interesting to have a conversation with him because winning is this weird feedback loop where

finally the team is winning and I do think he's modulated his game as much as young Lamella

ball can modulate his game like a lot of the crazy early clock threes they're being trimmed down a

little bit that he's trying harder on defense and more consistently on defense there's always

going to be moments where like only Lamella ball could take that shot there's the only player in

the league who would do that but I do think he's playing like a calmer more just clean normal style

of basketball and I wonder I would love to ask him like in these previous years with Charlotte

what was to stop him from doing whatever he wanted he couldn't look around the roster being

well that guy can shoot and that guy should shoot and that guy should shoot and we're losing anyway

they had a couple good play-in years with Barrego and stuff but now he looks around he's like

that guy's fucking awesome that guy's scoring more points than me and we're winning all these games

and all of a sudden we have a lot of hype around us and and and a lot of a lot of buzz no pun intended

but maybe I can take maybe I can just take 12 shots tonight and 15 shots the next game and

11 shots the next game and not take 25 shots and have a usage rate that's gargantuan

and everything's cool and I do think there's I think his game is changing a little bit in that sense

I was completely out I didn't think he was going to get it and usually by year six if there's

no signs of life it's not happening but I'm with you I think I think he's toned back a lot of stuff

what's interesting about him on this team and why he's such a good fit in so many different ways

and again he's playing 27 minutes a game like they're very careful with

remember they brought him up a bunch of bench a few times back to backs they're easing them in

they'll get a rebound and he can do what Max Maxi is a good parallel to this where he's just

off right and he's like full speed they have they're not just like this half court team

or this team of three point shooters they have to have this fast break side and when he's off

these guys split to the sides and they know what to do and it's really hard to defend

at home they're finally starting to get some sellouts like there's some real energy for some

of these games I think talk about a team that fans are dying to love and I mean like I feel so

bad for their fans they're waiting to fall in love with the team like this and it's like

I hope they make the playoffs I would I would love I mean pistons hornets round one would be

unbelievable fear that's a terrifying series if you're the pistons because you're playing a

team that started out form 14 and has basically been a 50 win team since and they're gonna come

out and they're gonna come out like I don't ever see them deviating from how they play because

it's the playoffs they're gonna play fast they're gonna play loose they're gonna shoot tons of

threes and play with tons of bravado that's just who they are it's it's funny so comparing anyone

of the Warriors is insane that's why I said we're going to crazy town but in 2012 13 when we're

working together we never could have predicted anything that happened with that Warriors team right

we just knew they were super fun and it was like I'm glad Steph Curry's gonna gonna turn out to be a

really good pro because there was three years there where we didn't know if he's gonna stay in the

league with his ankles and thank God he's really fun to watch and I'm so glad we've gotten this

point and hey Clay Thompson's really good too and then over the next three years it built into

this way bigger thing they have the foundation to do something pretty special with this team so

here's so I was looking through the last 25 years of teams that sort of like unexpectedly and

organically snapped into something that was this your first chat GBT for a yeah I did a little

chap I did one chappy GBT and then I felt horrible about it and I stopped uh why'd you feel bad

I just you know yet to try it I'm old school can we have just like writers and writers going

writing doing the writing just going to the library and researches and encyclopedias hey look we

take I did the low family takes out books from the freaking public library okay you think I'm buying

my daughter all the goddamn babysitters clubs books and all that stuff no you're taking some of

those out of the library the Greenwich public library is one of the great libraries you don't have

to blow up my spot like that well it's a great place yeah it's got itself sometimes um

and it like there really isn't a perfect this is the most interesting so a lot of them are

have one or two one are both of these things one a consensus even as this is happening

and it's early this guy's going to be one of the 15 to 20 best players in the league at worst

like like a true blue like Derek Rose or Damien Lillard or Steph Curry or on and on for your sort

of like organic builds a couple of exceptions or two there's a coaching change that dramatically

changes how the team plays so like the box with boot and holes are the hawks with boot and holes

are that's a good comp like a team that didn't maybe have a top 20 player um and there's a couple more

like the the bulls with tibs the Pacers the Pacers are actually an interesting comparison like

the Paul George the Paul George Hill they have a coaching change but Paul George I think

becomes it all it obviously became an all NBA player and do you look at are you are we like I think

probably they do but they don't do we have like an all-time superstar on this team I think that's

where this falls apart because you would have to say the Knipple Miller combo as how unusual it

is to have two wings that can both shoot and are almost interchangeable in some ways almost as the

superstar because it's a little like what the Celtics had with Jaylen and Jason for a while

there was like these two forwards like what is this nobody has anything like this and maybe that's

the superpower just being able to have all these different lineups but with those two guys as

the centerpiece and you can go bigger or smaller with them I think you got to you're you got to

include Lamello it's the three of them together right because he's the best passer he's also six

seven the same as Brandon Miller in one inch listed tall I just I don't want to put this on the

mello because I'm just I'm I'm so nervous that it's going to fall apart for him at any time well the

hell you're right stuff has been that the health stuff is now the thing that makes me the most nervous

is just the ankle stuff that keeps popping up and making him this time but the three of them being

6667 and having the combined passing shooting ball handling skills that they have is really unusual

well how many teams in the league right now have five guys who if the situation was right could

absolutely easily score 20 points again like think about that yeah it's it's not many

because they say like there's a scenario where it's like hey Miles Bridges we need to

score 25 points a game for three weeks here he could actually do it if they wanted them to so

for the people here listening who were like this is the most fucking insane thing I've ever heard

I don't think anyone who's paying attention could think this is insane well the advanced metrics

or demanding that we have the conversation when they when you're first in that rating for 32 games

you have to have the conversation they played Dallas at home on Tuesday they're going to win that

Dallas is giving up on the season they're at Boston on Wednesday home Miami on Friday to fun one

that's much watch Charlotte Miami Friday that's much that's going on my calendar at depleted

Phoenix on Sunday at Portland at Sacramento and then at San Antonio on March 14th then they have

a little Miami Orlando home game combo after that but they they waxed the spurs by the way they

would do wax them but they they wired wire beat the spurs at home in Charlotte so at Boston home Miami

this is now it's it's midterms for them it's the midterm exams in high school it's like okay you have

our attention now go to Boston you're not going to have Jason Tatum yet this is a team you should

be able to play with you're gonna shoot lot of threes and be super comfortable and then Miami that's

the team you have to get through in near division can you split these can you win both if you lose both

then we were in crazy town and this was stupid but no you can't you you live in we two games can't

take it out a crazy town at Boston's a tough game and Miami's Miami and I know you know but I just

I just brought the 2013 Warriors and the 2023 okay see into this I tried that's where we have

the crazy I tried to temperate by bringing in some teams who became very good and did not perhaps

accomplish the great history that the words accomplished because they were all very good teams but no

we do stay in crazy town you can't be dissuaded by two games especially one against Miami in which

something as historically significant as the 2026 southeast division title can be at stake I mean

the pressure that all the players must feel knowing the division is in the air in that game is

is palpable people better stronger humans have quaked under that kind of pressure before

if we wanted to go to crazy town we would go to the two the 1978 Seattle Supersonics

who started out five and 17 and ended up losing the finals and seven games to wash them

than winning a year later you no one but that that is the craziest start to finish season five and

17 made the finals I think you I think there are like probably less than 50 people who are still alive

who can have who can say one sentence about the 1977 78 NBA finals who can say one coherent

sentence I could probably name nine of the guys on the team I mean I think that I think about

card team I think you guys are going to be like like D day soldiers who like every year there's

like fewer and fewer of you left well that's like my dad with the season tickets for the Celtics

he's like fifth oldest now for having the tickets straight through there's a there's some I

think there's some guy is like 90 but my dad's like moved into the top it's like you know how

they do the season ticket holder the game they bring them out and the waves I honestly can't believe

he has been has been brought to mid court and waves to the crowd what's he gonna do so come

be going since 1974 wow that's that's astonishing I'm actually surprised the 73 74 season broader

material so anyway yeah Charlotte I think this is real okay before we go okay um it's March it's

spring training I have uh I have the Metz over under for the year for you over I don't even know

what it is well you could go uh oh where is it over is I can't find it well 90 plus wins is

minus one 34 you win in 90 games probably not you don't think so I think they guys look I'm I'm

following it from afar it seems like a little bit of a problem that every day there are quotes coming

out of spring training that amount to like it turns out playing this new position is a little trickier

than player X thought it would be and that's like five players on the team and like Brett Beatty now

has gloves for seven different positions like I never again so I hope this is gonna work it seems

I'm a little worried frankly but I'm of course I'm taking the over on whatever the over under is

are you watching survivor 50 no I haven't watched any so I've never watched an episode of survivor

not one do you ever think of going on uh I I would probably not subject myself to it

what would be your strategy if you went on I don't even know how it works we do tasks and then

someone gets voted off and I know everyone forms of alliances and there are people alienate other

people in their back room deals I'm my strategy would just I would yes be in um are there teams

I'm serious I'm sorry I'm not bringing anything to the table I can't go on because I work contact

lenses and I have allergies otherwise I would otherwise I would have gone on yeah there's no work

around for that now I feel excuse being in the outdoors well now I'm too old my wife was my dream

person to go on though because um great at challenges she would have owned the challenges but um

gets crazy if she's not eating and you have to like you know you really hungry on survivor she's just

they're not there's not like a hotel nearby where they're getting catered meals no so she so she'd be

just an absolute maniac but then would win the challenges they wouldn't be able to vote her off

and she would just be yelling at everybody about the rice just like who ate the rice there was more

rice here I'm trying to think what reality show has ever attempted me like that would be fun

rice that's the one that's that's the one we're like I travel around the world and solve problems

and puzzles and like go on chases like that's that seems fun what's the craziest thing you've ever done

the craziest thing I've ever done well like joining a reality show would be the craziest thing

if you told me like one time I applied to be on the real world I'd be like that's the craziest

thing you could have told me I don't think I have anything like anything like you're like I can't

believe I did that I mean I can't I still can't believe I ever got on television to talk about

anything you were there with me the first time I went on TV and I almost had before you almost had

to take me to the emergency room I could even convince you to a podcast no it was two months like it

was I think all of this is crazy I'm trying to think if I did anything I'm going to mention that

I think about that sometimes all of this is crazy I don't think I have any I mean I did crazy

stuff when I was a cops and crime reporter at the Stanford advocate is Stanford Connecticut like

talking to what was the craziest trial you ever covered a craziest trial ever coming to it's sad

it was a home invasion in which an elderly retired teacher was murdered in her own house by I

don't even remember who exactly did it it was someone that they didn't know it was like kind of

a random thing if I remember it correctly it was I covered all sorts of horrible stuff and talked

a lot of scary people and lots of very interesting people and strange places it was crazy I was on

a jury once in the like the late 1990s maybe 2000 when I was living in Boston you're around a jury

no I've always gotten out of jury duty I was on a jury and it was it was this case where

these guys got in a fight in an elevator and somebody got stabbed and he said it was the guy who

did the stabbing said he was defending himself and we had to do this three-day trial and decide on

whether he did it or not I was pretty tense sounds tense yeah it was uh I won't tell you

what the verdict was but it was uh I'm gonna come back with the better answers so I'm sure I've

done something crazy that's just did you ever drive cross country with anybody no trying to think

like you're just a very practical guy I want Shaperone to a high school band trip to Florida from

New Jersey I was one of eight faculty members who did that I wasn't crazy it was just incredibly

unpleasant from start to finish it involved that involved that involved a group I mean we're talking

like 60 children yeah high school children and eight teachers and that involved one of the nights

was a dinner at medieval times in Orlando and what we had it was like night four of a five day trip

and we did have a serious conversation among the faculty members about whether we could sneak

alcohol into medieval times and not and and no one would be able to be tell because the cups were

puter and whether the risk reward equation was worth it because yeah what a way to get fired so sick

of the whole the whole trip medieval times like in the cable guy so yeah still going we look we

actually had to talk about this with some friends there they're still there's like 10 medieval times

around the country if you want to organize a work of like an outing did you follow this whole thing

that people were worried that Jim Kerry had been replaced I did see I saw photos that looked like

you know a different than I remember Jim Kerry but people age and then the Hollywood people have

things happen to them and they don't look I thought it looked like he had fellers in his cheeks I

didn't think he got replaced there's been there had been there's a litany of people who I see them in

movies and I'm like that person looks like that right now that's like doesn't even I wouldn't have

guessed that in a million years I like the word the in general I wonder if anyone's ever been

replaced in our lifetime but you're going down some dangerous roads that you get us into some

well it happened in day but that was a movie well it just it didn't happen it was just did a script

Kevin Klein came in he looked just like Dave did it um have you seen Sikario I have you have you

like Sikario I love Sikario is I haven't seen it I saw it in a hotel by myself in Los Angeles on

some road trip because it's a it's a classic my wife will never watch a movie and I didn't quite

know what I was getting into I knew the gist of it and I remember being like this is so much better

than I even thought it was going to be and I would like to rewatch it I have not seen any of the

sequels I think there are there are multiple sequels multiple sequels the original Sikario is on

Netflix and we're doing a live rewatch almost tomorrow 6 p.m. ET me and fantasy and Chris to kick off

CR month we have two other movies knocked down Fargo is second movie of CR month and then today

just announced to live in die in L.A. I don't know if you know that one I don't think I've seen that movie

yeah I don't think William Peterson it's a classic you can find it I don't know if it's on Netflix

but uh but yeah those are the first two more spots a five movie month for rewatchable so great

there you go uh thanks to mcglow baltra for for uh sponsored in this live stream thanks to

hownardwardo and jack and uh and Kevin and Chris and everybody uh at the ringer as well

zacklow you have a podcast Tuesday morning Tuesday morning Thursday morning that's right Thursday

morning will be the holy shit that horn itself the game was the game of the year and just

items coming back on friday podcast so I'm looking forward to it wow good to see you my friend thank you

always fun thanks everybody

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