Speaker 1: Come on, come.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check. We've got a big, humongous,
Speaker 2: monumentous updates, enormous, gargantuan update on Zion Williamson, and let
Speaker 2: me tell you, it is going to get spicy. Did
Speaker 2: someone say spicy? I love spicy chicken sandwiches myself, extra pickles,
Speaker 2: maybe some mayonnaise anyway down in the Bayou. Did someone say,
Speaker 2: by you, I love gumbo? My god, I love some gumbo.
Speaker 2: No one seems to be going on and knowing what
Speaker 2: the hell is going on with Zion's injury or his
Speaker 2: future plans, and things are getting tense, tense. We check
Speaker 2: in on the Phoenix Suns, who got some bad news
Speaker 2: this past week and finally, very sad end of an
Speaker 2: era at Madison Square Garden. I hate talking about them,
Speaker 2: but more news just keeps coming out, Brock, So drop
Speaker 2: that beat, right, it's update, they update. Just a little
Speaker 2: news around the league as we wrap things up. No
Speaker 2: big stories, Well, one big story. Let's talk about the
Speaker 2: elephant in the room or the elephant hiding in Beaverton,
Speaker 2: Oregon at the Nike campus away from his entirety. I'm
Speaker 2: pushing pee, pushing pee, folks, I'm sorry, I kid, I kids.
Speaker 2: Sometimes the jokes just right themselves, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Just I'm pushing pie, he says, I'm pushing pie. Somebody's
Speaker 2: pushing pie on tie stop. Since is how bad things
Speaker 2: have gotten in New Orleans. Zion Williamson, nowhere to be found,
Speaker 2: has dominated post All Star break, which is ironic because
Speaker 2: last year he was dominating in the post during the
Speaker 2: All Star Game. How far we've come? Things have gone
Speaker 2: off the rails. What an absolute force he was last
Speaker 2: year and now he is just crickets nowhere. No one
Speaker 2: sees him, no one knows what's going on. Definitely not
Speaker 2: on the floor. But not good for the Pelicans, not
Speaker 2: good for the NBA, and damn sure not good for
Speaker 2: Zion because he is dominating the news in the worst
Speaker 2: possible way. So let's give a quick timeline, quickly update
Speaker 2: on what happened? Shall we? Randomly? After the last game
Speaker 2: before the All Star breaks. CJ McCollum, former Portland Trailblazer
Speaker 2: New New Orleans Pelicans, was answering questions about his new
Speaker 2: team when someone asked him, Hey, so, like, however, your
Speaker 2: conversation's been with Zion? And uh He's like, oh, uh,
Speaker 2: I haven't talked to Zion yet. Nope, not a peep
Speaker 2: nothing from Zion. And he goes, They go, do you know,
Speaker 2: uh when he's gonna come back? And CJ goes, Nope,
Speaker 2: I know about as much as you do. Right now,
Speaker 2: we have not connected. But I am going to get
Speaker 2: to the bottom of it. Pause pause, hold on, let
Speaker 2: me take a drink and get my popcorn out. Because,
Speaker 2: first of all, CJ. McCollum is not your normal, everyday teammate.
Speaker 2: Besides the fact that he gets paid thirty months million dollars. CJ. McCollum.
Speaker 2: For folks who don't remember this, because these aren't things
Speaker 2: that just come up to the top of the forefront
Speaker 2: of your Sarahbellam. He is the head of the NBA
Speaker 2: Players Association.
Speaker 1: CJ. McCollum is the.
Speaker 2: New Chris Paul excuse me, And you haven't spoken to
Speaker 2: the NBPA president yet. And your new teammate who they
Speaker 2: forced the trade, are not forced to trade, but they
Speaker 2: made a trade in a way that people are a
Speaker 2: little suss on. Just to pair you with someone who's
Speaker 2: a dominant scorer. You haven't spoken out to him. No, Literally,
Speaker 2: the most important teammates Ion might ever have indication how
Speaker 2: fractured Boom since he's fractured his metatarsal, how fractured his
Speaker 2: relationship is with the Pels that he wouldn't even reach
Speaker 2: out and say, Yo, what's up, Welcome to New Orleans.
Speaker 2: Let me show you my favorite creole spots, Smoothie King Arena,
Speaker 2: let me show you are all the smoothies. And that's
Speaker 2: just the beginning. Because JJ Reddick, who has an active
Speaker 2: grind with the Pelicans, went on ESPN and then was like,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna throw some gasoline on this. This is what
Speaker 2: he said.
Speaker 3: I want to get across is how abnormal it is
Speaker 3: for a player to not text or reach out to
Speaker 3: an incoming player, And not just because it was CJ. McCollum,
Speaker 3: who is a great player. You do that for any teammate.
Speaker 3: You do that when you sign a two way player,
Speaker 3: you just do that. I said this earlier on First Take,
Speaker 3: and this is this is the point I really want
Speaker 3: to hammer home here. When you're a professional athlete that
Speaker 3: is playing a team sport, you have to be fully invested.
Speaker 3: You have to be fully invested in your body, your work,
Speaker 3: and most importantly your teammates.
Speaker 4: That's part of the job description.
Speaker 3: When I saw this over the weekend, to me, this
Speaker 3: was like the most cringey thing all weekend.
Speaker 4: I thought the dunk contest was going to be it.
Speaker 4: This was it. When you say this, which part of it?
Speaker 2: So much to unpacked? There? When you've got JJ Reddick,
Speaker 2: who shares an agent with Zion Williamson, Zion's been on
Speaker 2: his podcast at least once sharing personal details of his
Speaker 2: vulnerability in his life. They're friends, they're friendly. This is
Speaker 2: not someone who has an extra grind with Zion. And
Speaker 2: when JJ Reddick, one of the nicest dudes in the
Speaker 2: league who was Zion's teammate, says, I can personally describe
Speaker 2: Zion as a detached teammate. You have to say alert, alert,
Speaker 2: red alert. This is not a test sealing the alarms,
Speaker 2: break the glass. Something is wrong. He then says, Zion's
Speaker 2: not even on the season ticket pamphlet email What excuse me?
Speaker 2: All right? Then he goes on later on first take
Speaker 2: and says this.
Speaker 3: When I was watching Sunday Night and they announced the
Speaker 3: starters Joe El Embiid fifth straight All Star Game, start
Speaker 3: think about the rear view. Now, how long ago it
Speaker 3: seems that there was all these injury concerns and now
Speaker 3: he's just been a complete dominant force for five seasons.
Speaker 3: Zion can get to that, But like I said, you
Speaker 3: have to be fully invested in.
Speaker 4: All those areas and body starts.
Speaker 3: That's where's Lebron famously spends a million dollars a year
Speaker 3: on his body.
Speaker 4: Kobe is flying all over the world to prolong his career.
Speaker 4: Right you think Zion quickly has played his last game
Speaker 4: in New Orleans. No, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't, and I'm even more optimistic.
Speaker 2: There's a responsibility that you have as an athlete when
Speaker 2: you play a sport to be fully invested, fully invested
Speaker 2: in your body. You'd notice he said that first, the
Speaker 2: body part. He did say that the body part first.
Speaker 2: He said that for a reason fully invested in your body,
Speaker 2: fully invested in your work, and fully invested in your teammate.
Speaker 2: That is your responsibility. And we have not seen that
Speaker 2: from Zion. You can damn well know that that is
Speaker 2: a shot at Zion's lack of conditioning, his locker room demeanor,
Speaker 2: and he admitted he had to call out Zion in
Speaker 2: front of the entire team his rookie year. Yes, he's
Speaker 2: been amazing when he's been on the court, one hundred percent,
Speaker 2: He's amazing to watch. There's no one that can do
Speaker 2: what he does on a basketball court. But as a teammate,
Speaker 2: there's a pattern of behavior, as a fully invested individual
Speaker 2: in New Orleans, there's a pattern of behavior. This is worrisome.
Speaker 2: I'm worried. I'm worried. Are you worried? I've been worried, folks.
Speaker 2: I've been worried since August. I've been worried since whenever
Speaker 2: they're a little media availability, when they slid in that
Speaker 2: Zion had a random surgery that they didn't know about,
Speaker 2: like ever since then, I'm like yours preaking up, brouh Scooby,
Speaker 2: Does anybody else see this?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: And here we are. He hasn't played a goddamn game yet.
Speaker 2: And then that's when shit literally hit the fan. Everybody
Speaker 2: began to weigh in boom on the Zion drama, many
Speaker 2: of them seemingly shocked about the incredible, incredible disconnect between
Speaker 2: Zion and the Pels front office and his teammates. Of course,
Speaker 2: I could point out I've been talking about this since
Speaker 2: the beginning of the season, but that would be unseemly.
Speaker 2: That would be that would be rude. I could even
Speaker 2: say that I predicted he wouldn't play a single game season,
Speaker 2: but that would be uncouth. That would be very uncouth.
Speaker 2: It would also be what's that word, the truth? It
Speaker 2: would also be the truth. But you know, we're not
Speaker 2: here to talk about all the things that I predicted
Speaker 2: that nobody agreed with me on, and now here we
Speaker 2: are in the brink of disaster. But it's okay. It's fine.
Speaker 2: Like it's just me yelling at clouds all by myself
Speaker 2: until the world falls down around me. It's okay. No worries.
Speaker 2: Peace after peace now breaking on the piciun Tribune paywall
Speaker 2: that I took a lot of time getting passed without
Speaker 2: paying the NOLA took a lot of time getting past
Speaker 2: that article's paywall as well. Today for you listeners, for you,
Speaker 2: I'm not paying a dollar for these guys. I just
Speaker 2: will not headlines like report Zion Williamson's detachment from Pelicans
Speaker 2: stems from lack of trust quote unquote lack of trust.
Speaker 2: We can't even trust Zion on on the off season
Speaker 2: to be by himself alone with a plate of doughnuts,
Speaker 2: Like the lack of trust goes both ways. Here, it
Speaker 2: goes both ways. Listen, like, I promise you that's be
Speaker 2: I didn't say that, but that is what sources tell me.
Speaker 2: Things are saying being said that right now trust we
Speaker 2: can't trust. The trust is wait. Listen, he had a
Speaker 2: surgery without telling the team. The trust issues go both ways.
Speaker 2: Here they go both ways. Even Pelicans podcast hosts can't
Speaker 2: even confidently say that they think Zion will be in
Speaker 2: a Pelicans jersey next year. He's not on an expiring
Speaker 2: deal right now. And you can't tell me whether by
Speaker 2: you know, October of twenty twenty two, whether Zion's gonna
Speaker 2: be rocking Apelicans Jersey or naw, you think maybe or
Speaker 2: not that's how bad it is, or no Lean's or
Speaker 2: no Lens. And everybody is calling him out, being like, no, hey, Zion,
Speaker 2: we need you to pledge your allegiance to the New
Speaker 2: Orleans Flag. We need that. Their speculation is Zion looking
Speaker 2: for real estate in New York City. Maybe he already
Speaker 2: has an apartment on the Upper West Side. So what's
Speaker 2: actually happening? That's the question one. Zion's injury has made
Speaker 2: his future very, very stressful for as a subject matter
Speaker 2: for the Pelicans organization, but also stressful in general. If
Speaker 2: Zion's out for the year, which it certainly seems like
Speaker 2: he will be, he will have played Just here we
Speaker 2: go stick with me here because it's gonna get kind
Speaker 2: of ugly when we do this math Zion will have
Speaker 2: played eighty five games total in his first three seasons.
Speaker 2: Do you know who else was drafted number one overall
Speaker 2: and played eighty two games in his first three years?
Speaker 2: Greg Odin? Yep, it is guess who else went number
Speaker 2: one overall and played one hundred and nineteen games in
Speaker 2: his first three years? Sam Bowie? Yeah, yeah, him. So
Speaker 2: it's not outrageous to make those kind of comparisons, you know,
Speaker 2: those bust comparisons that people like me have made possibly
Speaker 2: in the past and got ripped up by Richard Jefferson.
Speaker 2: It's no problem. But like those comparisons are in fact
Speaker 2: valid because both Blowe and Booie and Odin, had they
Speaker 2: remained healthy, almost certainly would have been All star guys.
Speaker 2: There was nobody who's debating or questioning their skill level,
Speaker 2: athleticism or their potential. But the reason that they went down,
Speaker 2: the reason that they were bused was mostly because of genetics,
Speaker 2: micro fractures for odin strength and power, and torque on
Speaker 2: his body and his knees because of his size really
Speaker 2: and issues in the case of Sambuie that went for
Speaker 2: a long long time timespan. The difference with Zion, though,
Speaker 2: is that Zion is in control. A lot of these
Speaker 2: issues are self inflicted, especially those that revolve around his weight.
Speaker 2: He's showing up way too heavy and that is on him.
Speaker 2: As Christian Clark at the NOLA behind that paywall I
Speaker 2: told you about noted Williamson frequently showed up late to
Speaker 2: rehab work during his rookie season pause red flag. His
Speaker 2: unique body type makes it imperative for him to diet
Speaker 2: and train rigorously, which he has failed to do since
Speaker 2: being drafted by the organization. He showed up to training
Speaker 2: camp in September well above three hundred pounds sources to
Speaker 2: say ideally. One team source says Williamson should or would
Speaker 2: play games at two a n than sixty five pounds.
Speaker 2: That's that's not good. Some reports stay that Williamson weighed
Speaker 2: as much as three hundred and thirty pounds during his
Speaker 2: rehab mascol Mascol mascool. So two sixty five carry the
Speaker 2: one three hundred and thirty. That's fifty five pounds overweight here.
Speaker 2: And we're not talking just muscle, right. I don't think
Speaker 2: it's just muscle, right, we know that. And I'm not
Speaker 2: fat shaming. We do not, we do not. We do
Speaker 2: not fat shame or muscle shame on the heat check,
Speaker 2: I will not. But Zion is a big guy, huge,
Speaker 2: powerful human being when he's completely healthy. And as Skip
Speaker 2: Bayliss was told, this is a guy who loves nothing
Speaker 2: more Zions. I mean, this is obvious logic, but I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna give you the quote anyway. Zion is a
Speaker 2: guy who loves nothing more than quote eating whole pizzas
Speaker 2: washed down with high sugar soft drinks. This is a
Speaker 2: guy who would be is like if Embiid was unhinged, right,
Speaker 2: if unb Embiid decided, you know what, goodbye cruel world.
Speaker 2: It's just me and my Shirley Temples. You know that's
Speaker 2: Zion right now. And to make matters worse, one of
Speaker 2: the reasons cited for the rift between the Pel's front
Speaker 2: office and the Zion camp is really how cautious the
Speaker 2: Pelican's front office and training staff has been with his
Speaker 2: rehab from the bubble to last year to the most
Speaker 2: recent foot issues. Apparently a lot of trust has broken
Speaker 2: down between them because of that thing. Can you fucking
Speaker 2: blame them? Excuse me? You're always heavy, overweight, You're always
Speaker 2: getting hurt and then you never slim down and get
Speaker 2: healthy again. So why wouldn't we be cautiously pessimistic? I
Speaker 2: don't know, Like honestly, it's like, listen, this is a
Speaker 2: problem here. Zion's distrust of David Griffin is also apparently
Speaker 2: playing a role, with Nola reporting that Williamson in his
Speaker 2: camp don't trust Griffin to be truthful. From throwing Alvin
Speaker 2: I mean he's not He's not, but that's I mean,
Speaker 2: neither are you. From throwing Alvin Gentry under the bus,
Speaker 2: to hiring stan Van Gundy, a coach so unpopular in
Speaker 2: New Orleans, Josh Hart said that playing for him destroyed
Speaker 2: his love for basketball. Yes to screwing over JJ Reddick
Speaker 2: and saying he was going to send him to either
Speaker 2: Brooklyn or New York or Philly so that he could
Speaker 2: be closer to his family, and then he sent him
Speaker 2: to Dallas who shares a night agent with Zion, as
Speaker 2: I earlier mentioned, and there are all of those things,
Speaker 2: a lot of reasons not to trust Griffin and the
Speaker 2: Pels if you're Zion. Plus the fact that routine ly
Speaker 2: this front office, this ownership group doesn't like to pay
Speaker 2: into Wow. I mean, they've never paid the luxury tax,
Speaker 2: so we don't really know what their level of commitment
Speaker 2: is to winning. Just when the Zion news was reaching
Speaker 2: a boiling point, Zion speaks Zion finally speaks out. Yes, folks,
Speaker 2: but it was on an Instagram group chat with random
Speaker 2: strangers that then ended up getting posted on the internet
Speaker 2: to protect and defend Zion. That's completely irrelevant. Just keep
Speaker 2: that in mind. Though he said this quote, I don't
Speaker 2: know why everyone thinks that I'm leaving. Everyone that knows
Speaker 2: me knows I love the city of New Orleans. I'll
Speaker 2: be back soon in due time. Blackfast Devil Emoji mentioned it.
Speaker 2: Noticed that he did not mention the actual New Orleans Pelicans.
Speaker 2: He did not whatsoever, which is probably a shot at
Speaker 2: the team for sending out I don't know those season
Speaker 2: ticket renewal emails featuring Brandon ingram Yonis Valanciuna is CJ
Speaker 2: McCollum and chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, No Zion, no Zion,
Speaker 2: not even a mention of Zion. Imagine the Portland Trailblazers
Speaker 2: putting out season ticket emails. Hey, twenty three season tickets
Speaker 2: are here. It's time down in the Row City. It's
Speaker 2: Yusef Nurkic and Anthronice Simon's nasre little and no one
Speaker 2: And there's like no mention of Dame. That would be
Speaker 2: absolutely bonkers. They took this man number one overall? Uh yeah,
Speaker 2: do we mention Nurkic and Rik? Yeah? Also Cody Zeller here,
Speaker 2: We've got Cody Zeller. Anybody wants season tickets? So how
Speaker 2: does it work out? That's the question, Like what do
Speaker 2: we make of all of this? When Pelicans insiders can't
Speaker 2: decipher whether Zion is going to be there in a
Speaker 2: Pella's uniform next year. We've got four big questions on
Speaker 2: our hands. One, what's the status of Zion's health? We
Speaker 2: don't know. We gotta figure that out. That needs to
Speaker 2: be seen, that needs to be deciphered, that needs to
Speaker 2: happen now. Is the relationship between the Pelicans and Zion fixable?
Speaker 2: Is it actually fractured. All things we need to find out.
Speaker 2: The most important question that we don't even know yet
Speaker 2: is do the Pelicans actually want to re sign on
Speaker 2: an extension? A guy who's three hundred and twenty pounds,
Speaker 2: who won't communicate with the front office, who will not
Speaker 2: get in shape, who will not take his rehab seriously,
Speaker 2: who won't play defense, is standoff ise to new teammates
Speaker 2: and has been this way since his rookie season. I
Speaker 2: don't know if that's a risk I'm willing to take.
Speaker 2: If I'm a very cheap ownership group who's never overspent
Speaker 2: in the history of the history, like you're talking about
Speaker 2: a group that treated Chris Paul fowl, and Chris Paul
Speaker 2: was a consummate pro I get this, Zion Ding, I
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't know. And then four, if New
Speaker 2: Orleans won't do it, or if Zion doesn't want to
Speaker 2: be there, because that's also a big question mark. Does
Speaker 2: Zion actually want to be in New Orleans? If it's
Speaker 2: not New Orleans, who's going to roll the dice for Zion?
Speaker 2: I've got a final word to anyone living in New
Speaker 2: York City who might be thinking about pushing play on
Speaker 2: that world wide West. From the top of your Dracoff tower,
Speaker 2: word to the wise, to worldwide West.
Speaker 5: Proceed sir, to spoil you come against Sun.
Speaker 2: We turn Suns a big news, tough news, terrible news.
Speaker 2: Chris Paul is going to be out for the remainder
Speaker 2: of the season with a right thumb evulsion fracture on
Speaker 2: his shooting hand. That that is what we call crushing, tough,
Speaker 2: awful stuff. But do not panic. We have good news.
Speaker 2: The Suns have a six and a half game cushion
Speaker 2: over Golden State and an eight game lead over Memphis
Speaker 2: with twenty four games left, so probably not enough space
Speaker 2: for anybody to catch up. Folks. This is it. They
Speaker 2: have locked up the one seed based around how dominant
Speaker 2: they've been all year. They're backups and really just time.
Speaker 2: Even if let's just go into it like if you
Speaker 2: want to go doomsday situation. So say Phoenix goes five
Speaker 2: hundred in the next twenty four games in CP three's absence,
Speaker 2: which they won't. We know that they will not go
Speaker 2: five hundred in these last twenty four games, but say
Speaker 2: that they do. Golden State has to finish the rest
Speaker 2: of the year with five losses or less without Draymond Green.
Speaker 2: Just to be clear, us to tie, just to tie.
Speaker 2: That's where we're at. No one's catching up. It's done.
Speaker 2: The race is over. That's not going to happen. So
Speaker 2: Phoenix is gonna be the one seed heading into the playoffs,
Speaker 2: and I'll have a little cushion of time to watch
Speaker 2: the play in tournament, get guys healthy, rest up before
Speaker 2: facing a team like I don't know, the Pelicans with
Speaker 2: no Zion of course, or a very hobbled Lakers team
Speaker 2: with Anthony Davis, a Disney what they call them bones
Speaker 2: of glass, skin of steel or paper or something, mister glass,
Speaker 2: and that would be a buzzsaw. That would be an
Speaker 2: absolute buzzsaw. Lakers Night Night sleep mask. Bad news. Is
Speaker 2: this slightly concerning if you're a Suns fan to have
Speaker 2: the engine behind your offense out for two months, because
Speaker 2: not only does he aspect he impacts every aspect of
Speaker 2: the team in these major ways, from team defense to
Speaker 2: the structure of the offensive flow. He also has to
Speaker 2: get back to that place two months and then he's
Speaker 2: able to get back into the game flow. I mean,
Speaker 2: Chris Paul is the Captain America of the Suns. The
Speaker 2: lynchpin upon the rest of the team is built. Here's
Speaker 2: an example of how crucial Chris Paul is to the
Speaker 2: team's success. When CP three is on the floor, Phoenix
Speaker 2: averages one hundred and fifteen point nine points per one
Speaker 2: hundred possessions. When he's off the floor, the number drops
Speaker 2: to one hundred and four point nine. Yikes. CP three's
Speaker 2: net rating is plus ten and a half, which is
Speaker 2: good for third in the entire league among players averaging
Speaker 2: thirty minutes per game. Or more so, consider this also
Speaker 2: in clutch time. At thirty six years old, Chris Paul
Speaker 2: is the best in the entire league. I'll say it again,
Speaker 2: Chris Paul is the most dominant player in crunch time
Speaker 2: clutch time in the league period. For those who don't
Speaker 2: know what that is, clutch time is any time during
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter or overtime when the scores within five.
Speaker 2: CP three leaves the NBA and clutch plus minus at
Speaker 2: plus ninety nine. He's shooting fifty six percent during clutch time,
Speaker 2: and more importantly, the Suns are an NBA best twenty
Speaker 2: four and three in clutch time this season thanks to
Speaker 2: Chris Paul. Sheesh, that is bonkers. So of course, losing
Speaker 2: CP three and having him to get back fully conditioned.
Speaker 2: He can't shoot the ball like this. He won't be
Speaker 2: able to have his feel back. It's almost like a
Speaker 2: golfer who has to get back into putting and chipping.
Speaker 2: It's a feel thing as a shooter that's gonna take time.
Speaker 2: He's not going to be able to use his hand
Speaker 2: on a ball for the next probably six to eight weeks.
Speaker 2: Scary considering that this is a team that absolutely needs
Speaker 2: Chris Paul to win a championship. They cannot do it
Speaker 2: any other way. We saw how it was when he
Speaker 2: was gone in the in the playoffs last year and
Speaker 2: into the finals, when he looked like absolute trash because
Speaker 2: he was injured, not because of anything else, but when
Speaker 2: he's not playing at his best and he's not fully healthy,
Speaker 2: this team is atrocious. Atrocious, so pretty lucky that the
Speaker 2: Suns ended up with Aaron Holiday for cash for cool
Speaker 2: rand shurritos. Aaron Holliday is now the backup point guard
Speaker 2: of this team. He was just on the Wizards like
Speaker 2: two days ago. Wizards considered him Bradley Beal considered him
Speaker 2: to be the number one defender on the team and
Speaker 2: now this guy is going to a backup campaign who's coming
Speaker 2: back from injury. As well, the question how the fuck
Speaker 2: did the NBA allow Aaron Holliday, who is twenty two
Speaker 2: eight and six per forty minutes, like he's averaging twenty
Speaker 2: two to eight and six per forty How did they
Speaker 2: allow him to end up in Phoenix for cash? Considering
Speaker 2: it's beyond me considering he's a good locker room guy
Speaker 2: in a winning culture, of course, not in a trash
Speaker 2: culture like the Wizards. He's a tough defensive presence and
Speaker 2: he can and still score. Bradley Beale, like I said,
Speaker 2: said he was the best defender on the team. He's
Speaker 2: a holiday. It's in his DNA. He is locking up
Speaker 2: Drew when he's a young kid. That's the kind of
Speaker 2: like one on one games they did in the backyard.
Speaker 2: It's wild he ended up in Phoenix when teams like Boston,
Speaker 2: New York, Philly would kill for a twenty minutes or
Speaker 2: more point guard who can do all those things, Like
Speaker 2: could you imagine New York right now with Aaron Holliday.
Speaker 2: I mean he's I would say he's probably better than
Speaker 2: Alec Burks. So I don't know So will Chris Paul
Speaker 2: be gone? Being gone hurt the Suns for sure? They
Speaker 2: are absolutely worse when he's not on the floor. Did
Speaker 2: the Sun see this coming? I mean they had to have.
Speaker 2: They got Aaron Holliday for cash. There's only one reason
Speaker 2: you do that. You know that this is necessary. Either
Speaker 2: you think Chris Paul might get injured because he always does,
Speaker 2: or he already he was injured and then you just
Speaker 2: admitted that he was. But fortunately, I think he'll be
Speaker 2: back in time for the playoffs. Getting that number one
Speaker 2: seed is huge because it gives them time to get
Speaker 2: his groove back. He could probably not even play the
Speaker 2: first round of the playoffs, depending on who they play,
Speaker 2: so that's gonna be really interesting. He won't have any
Speaker 2: other bumps and bruises too, because the injury will allow
Speaker 2: him to stay in shape without the grind of this
Speaker 2: stretch run to wear him down. It's actually kind of chess,
Speaker 2: not checkers, you know what I mean. Like, you're basically
Speaker 2: load managing Chris Paul for the last twenty four games
Speaker 2: of the season, plus the play in time, plus the
Speaker 2: first round. You might get him healthy for like three
Speaker 2: months almost. That's wild. Also, you're gonna need to think
Speaker 2: about it as a team, how you want to move
Speaker 2: on and how you want to function now that Chris
Speaker 2: Paul's not there, How the offense will change in his absence,
Speaker 2: how you exploit the things you already do well to
Speaker 2: do that. Let's look at what the Suns do best.
Speaker 2: This is something that I just saw today that was
Speaker 2: blowing me away, something that I think will kill other
Speaker 2: teams in the playoffs, something that the Suns will absolutely
Speaker 2: need to continue to expand on. If I asked you
Speaker 2: who the number three pick and roll man is in
Speaker 2: the NBA in terms of the roller, who would you
Speaker 2: guess that is? DeAndre Ayton? DeAndre Ayton third best roller
Speaker 2: in the NBA. And of course, like you would think
Speaker 2: that might be might be a son considered when we're
Speaker 2: talking about the Suns, not a shock since they use
Speaker 2: the pick and roll a ton in Phoenix, like Ayton
Speaker 2: is very effective in the high pick and roll. How
Speaker 2: effective seventy three percent of his shots are from the
Speaker 2: high pick. Wow. Given how good Chris Paul and Devin
Speaker 2: Book are in the mid range, it makes it almost
Speaker 2: impossible to slack off of them and roll with DA
Speaker 2: like DA's just getting an easy shot after easy shot period.
Speaker 2: Seventy five percent his pick and roll plays come through
Speaker 2: Chris Paul. So that's gonna need to get filled. That
Speaker 2: gap is gonna need to get filled. But here's something
Speaker 2: that I am reasonably sure you probably don't know. Do
Speaker 2: you know who the number one pick and roller is
Speaker 2: in the NBA? The number one roller I'm not even
Speaker 2: gonna make a guess is Javeail McGee. Are are we serious?
Speaker 2: That is an embarrassment of riches. Javail McGee left to
Speaker 2: die out in the streets of Denver, just sitting on
Speaker 2: couches going from place to place. Number one roller in
Speaker 2: the NBA. This year the Sons have two of the
Speaker 2: best three rollers in the league. What a damn pickup
Speaker 2: getting Javail McGee was. Anybody could had him, anybody. And
Speaker 2: the thing is that the pick and roll works because
Speaker 2: Chris Paul and Devin Booker are so incredible, but mostly
Speaker 2: Chris Paul. In this particular example, seventy five percent of
Speaker 2: all pick and roll plays, like I said, come through
Speaker 2: Chris Paul, but sixty five percent come with JaVale McGee.
Speaker 2: The athletic Zach Harper wrote this where McGee truly excels
Speaker 2: is in the fundamentals of what you want a big
Speaker 2: man to do. Here, set a good pick, time your
Speaker 2: roll out of the pick, move in rhythm with the guard,
Speaker 2: catch the ball, keep it high, finish at the rim.
Speaker 2: Most guys don't keep it high. Most guys bring it
Speaker 2: down where they can get stripped or foul. And McGee
Speaker 2: does that better than anybody in the NBA this season.
Speaker 2: And that is why he's shooting an absurd almost seventy
Speaker 2: seven percent from the field. That is crazy. You got
Speaker 2: a big man who is left out on the street
Speaker 2: to die shooting seventy seven percent from the field. And then, okay, okay,
Speaker 2: he's a seven footer. You can just dunk, well, stop him,
Speaker 2: then stop him from dunking. Okay, And thirty seven percent
Speaker 2: of those plays have been run through Chris Paul. And
Speaker 2: on those thirty seven percent, McGee has scored seventy points
Speaker 2: on forty three plays. Third, okay, let me break that down.
Speaker 2: Thirty five of forty three times they've ran that play,
Speaker 2: McGee has scored Wow, thirty five of forty three. That
Speaker 2: is unbelievable. And that means to me, more responsibility falls
Speaker 2: on the shoulders of Devin Booker and campaign and probably
Speaker 2: now Aaron Holliday. But all you know is this, you
Speaker 2: got two big men that can roll and roll a lot.
Speaker 2: All you gotta do is be effective in the mid
Speaker 2: range enough that they cannot over move and roll with
Speaker 2: javail Nda. So yeah, CP three going down, huge deal.
Speaker 2: But also don't sleep on the fact that Money Williams
Speaker 2: knows this as well. Minney Williams knows what he has.
Speaker 2: He knows that he's got the number one and number
Speaker 2: three rollers in the NBA. Are you kidding me? He's
Speaker 2: the best coach period in the NBA right now. He's
Speaker 2: gonna win Coach of the Year if I know it.
Speaker 2: He for sure knows it. And the Suns probably, like
Speaker 2: I said, are not giving up their cushion in the West,
Speaker 2: so they're not gonna have to rush. Hep back. Things
Speaker 2: are gonna be fine. It's gonna be interesting, but things
Speaker 2: are gonna be fine. And that is a luxury, and
Speaker 2: we can use that luxury that makes a disastrous, potential
Speaker 2: seismic injury way way less impactful. The question is how
Speaker 2: impactful would this injury be. I don't know Chris Paul's
Speaker 2: been injured for pretty much every single postseason in his
Speaker 2: entire career since he was like twenty four and up.
Speaker 2: We'll see how this plays out like Hammy's hands, wrists, snacks,
Speaker 2: abdominal's feet. I don't know. It's like everything with Chris.
Speaker 2: So I am really hoping that his secret stuff in
Speaker 2: the bottle and his time to load manage keeps him
Speaker 2: one hundred percent healthy for the playoffs, because a fully
Speaker 2: healthy Chris Paul with the Suns is an absolute nightmare
Speaker 2: for opponents and the league is better off when we
Speaker 2: see Chris Paul and Scott Foster basically bickering and getting
Speaker 2: into the media and making fireworks. So prayers up to
Speaker 2: Chris Paul and uh, I can't wait to see him
Speaker 2: back suit. But I think this might be a blessing.
Speaker 2: Cruising down a street, all white, next Sis, driving so slow,
Speaker 2: but bk is from Texas.
Speaker 4: Me A'm on that bed stop.
Speaker 2: Let's give a little update. It's said, it so said.
Speaker 2: I wanted it to work. You guys wanted it to work.
Speaker 2: We've already talked about this. It's like it's it's it's
Speaker 2: the end for Kemball Walker in New York for sure,
Speaker 2: it's happening. Kemball Walker has shut himself down for the
Speaker 2: duration of this year. The team did not aggressively pursue
Speaker 2: trading him before the deadline, which means they believe that
Speaker 2: they are going to get more for him in the summer,
Speaker 2: and his time in a Knick's uniform is up. Apparently
Speaker 2: it's a mutual decision, which I get, of course, But damn,
Speaker 2: damn sad ending it was supposed to be a fairy tale.
Speaker 2: It was supposed to be you know, this like amazing, beautiful,
Speaker 2: touching moment that we never get in the NBA, like
Speaker 2: hometown kid comes back, makes right, re emerges his career. No,
Speaker 2: but it is not. It is not. I love Kimba,
Speaker 2: but this was a As we've talked about before, this
Speaker 2: was a bad, bad fit from the beginning. We talked
Speaker 2: about this on Monday Show. He's not a TIBs guy.
Speaker 2: We knew this was never gonna work. We knew that
Speaker 2: this was for optics. We knew his defensive rating is
Speaker 2: one hundred and twelve point five on twenty six minutes.
Speaker 2: A game that is I cannot properly express to you
Speaker 2: how bad that is, Like that is really, really, really
Speaker 2: bottom of the barrel stuff. He's that's already one strike.
Speaker 2: That's fully healthy, Kimba. And now the fact like his
Speaker 2: knees swollen at all times, like he's literally having to
Speaker 2: get drainage and he's packing his knee up with ice,
Speaker 2: and apparently he's walking around all like quote unquote uncomfortable
Speaker 2: limping in between games. You add those injuries in ooh,
Speaker 2: he was playing apparently. Ian Begley said he was playing
Speaker 2: through a lot of pain all season long, just completely
Speaker 2: not healthy for the entire stretch. He lied to us,
Speaker 2: they said he was back healthy. That was a lie.
Speaker 2: He was inconsistent offensively all year and consistently getting cooked
Speaker 2: defensively all year as well. Like that, that's why TIBs
Speaker 2: was like, yo, you got the go. You cannot be
Speaker 2: playing any more minutes. And so to me, it was
Speaker 2: only a matter of time. Like if TIBs could have
Speaker 2: shut him down for the entire year, he would have.
Speaker 2: We saw he benched him. It became a thing. And
Speaker 2: then of course, like Cambus shot twenty eight percent from
Speaker 2: the field during his final couple of games, So that's
Speaker 2: that's also not good. And now here's the kicker, which
Speaker 2: is kind of really really sad. This is the really
Speaker 2: sad part. Ken's not even gonna be around the team
Speaker 2: moving forward. He's a big locker room guy. Young guys
Speaker 2: loved him, and Nope, Apparently Ian Begley's like, yeah, he's
Speaker 2: just gonna just gonna maybe take some time away from
Speaker 2: the squad. We might not even see him from here
Speaker 2: on out. That's sad. Apparently, guys like RJ Alec Burks
Speaker 2: that gravitated to Kemba. He's his demeanor, his local presence.
Speaker 2: He's a good dude, high character. R J. Barrett even
Speaker 2: was like, he's one of the best humans I've ever met.
Speaker 2: Just sad stuff. But all of that to say, Kemba
Speaker 2: Walker experience in New York is just it's a rap.
Speaker 2: It's a rap, and it might also possibly be a
Speaker 2: rap for TIBs or Guy TIBs, like we talked about
Speaker 2: as everyone is speculating, which we said maybe six weeks ago,
Speaker 2: that the blame the guillotine might fall on someone and
Speaker 2: that's someone it looks like might be him. It was
Speaker 2: reported worldwide Westy was secretly blaming TIBs for his awful,
Speaker 2: horrible season last week to James Dolan, how did a
Speaker 2: reporter get that news. Do you wonder a personal one
Speaker 2: on one conversation getting publicly put out into the headlines.
Speaker 2: How could that even be possible, you wonder. But Tibbs,
Speaker 2: like the man of honor that he is, was crickets
Speaker 2: for a while until he said the following, I talk
Speaker 2: to Wes all the time. I do not respond to
Speaker 2: rumors or any of that stuff. I know the drill here.
Speaker 2: Pause When he says I know the drill here, it
Speaker 2: means I've been publicly sullied and guillotined and scapegoaded many
Speaker 2: times before. I know how it is when a team's
Speaker 2: not performing and they look at me. I know what
Speaker 2: this is. Just watch your mouth. I've been here before,
Speaker 2: so I don't worry about any of that stuff. And
Speaker 2: that's a lie. He one hundred percent is worried that
Speaker 2: Worldwide West is talking smack about him to the owner
Speaker 2: behind his back. If you know, if you're not concerned
Speaker 2: about that report, if you're a human being in a
Speaker 2: job and you hear that the guy who tabbed you
Speaker 2: picked you, he's hands selected you, that you had this
Speaker 2: amazing relationship with and in the headlines it comes out
Speaker 2: that he is not only not trusting you, he has
Speaker 2: completely pulled a one to eighty on you and is
Speaker 2: blaming all of your lack of organizational success on you
Speaker 2: to the person who owns said company. If you're not
Speaker 2: worried about that, man, there's some there's some little screws
Speaker 2: that aren't quite like screwed in there, because that's something
Speaker 2: every single human being should be concerned about, our livelihood,
Speaker 2: our job security. Unless he's like, yo, I got a
Speaker 2: five year deal. I'm not whatever. Fire me. I'm all set.
Speaker 2: I'm seventy years old. How this. Let's look, he's not
Speaker 2: a kid. Sixty four Okay, so there's another three years left,
Speaker 2: sixty seven. I'm good until I'm sixty seven years old.
Speaker 2: I can ride out this paycheck all the way through
Speaker 2: lots of money to sit on the couch. I'm all good.
Speaker 2: I'm all good. When the Knicks hired Thibodeaux, they preached
Speaker 2: that he in the front office, led by his former
Speaker 2: agent president team president Leon Rose, were in lockstep. Doesn't
Speaker 2: feel like they're in lockstep now. I just want to
Speaker 2: say I talked to Leon every day. He said. I
Speaker 2: talked to Wes every day. Thibodeaux said, so that doesn't change.
Speaker 2: This was what he said to Greg Joyce of The
Speaker 2: New York Post. I don't believe that, do you guys
Speaker 2: believe that? All I know is that there's this is
Speaker 2: just more news that leads us to the same conclusion
Speaker 2: with Kemba and with this worldwide West drama and the
Speaker 2: TIBs issues, et cetera, et cetera, or as my mom
Speaker 2: would ask me to pronounce correctly at etc. Etc. She
Speaker 2: won't even hear this because she doesn't listen to the pod.
Speaker 2: But here you go. The wheels. All of that to say,
Speaker 2: the wheels have fallen off in New York and they're
Speaker 2: just driving on rims. It's just driving on rims for
Speaker 2: the rest of the season. Sparks fucking flying everywhere, passers
Speaker 2: by being like, oh shit, stay away from that car.
Speaker 2: That's a dangerous fucker. He could be running me off
Speaker 2: the road at any time. Stay away. Hang on tight, folks,
Speaker 2: I promise you with this Nick shit, there is more
Speaker 2: to come. That's all the time that we have for
Speaker 2: the heat Check. We'll be back Friday with a new episode.
Speaker 2: Do not forget to download, subscribe, tell all your friends.
Speaker 2: Episode might come out late Friday. Tell all your friends.
Speaker 2: Maybe it won't every damn. Actually it's Monday. We'll be
Speaker 2: back Monday. Let me do this again. It's Monday. Today's
Speaker 2: Friday or my Friday. Monday. Today is my Friday. I
Speaker 2: don't work Tomorrow. Tomorrow is the right Friday. This episode
Speaker 2: comes out tomorrow, so this is the episode for this Friday.
Speaker 2: So the next episode is Monday. I'll do it again.
Speaker 2: That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check.
Speaker 2: We'll be back Monday with a new episode. Please do
Speaker 2: not forget to download, subscribe and tell all your friends.
Speaker 2: Follow us on heat Check, at at this heat Check,
Speaker 2: and at Tristan Creek on TikTok.
Speaker 1: Will make you
Speaker 2: Church when you have the