Speaker 1: Here I go again. Girls. What's my weakness? Man d
Speaker 1: NBA No men?
Speaker 2: Oh okay, well, what do you know?
Speaker 1: We're bad?
Speaker 3: The Cats still h O double t hot with it okay,
Speaker 3: and the Nuggets Thunder Clippers they're each tied, and the
Speaker 3: lost column behind the Timberwolves, and.
Speaker 4: Huge displays of scoring aptitude continue around the league, and
Speaker 4: we'll get into some defensive Player of the Year candidates
Speaker 4: and the state of the Clippers and more with NBA
Speaker 4: analysts and writer Mode.
Speaker 1: Dek Heel on today's episode.
Speaker 5: I am Miles.
Speaker 2: Gray and I'm Jack O'Brien and this is dot Srey.
Speaker 2: Got it looka do hits ta Okay, there you go
Speaker 2: and be driving spinning.
Speaker 5: From botch.
Speaker 1: Got it with five?
Speaker 5: Is gonna try another three? Mister, look on James, be
Speaker 5: honest with.
Speaker 2: The look on you.
Speaker 4: Modek Ghil, thank you so much for joining us on
Speaker 4: this wonderful, legendary podcast. Oh yeah, obviously gotta give you
Speaker 4: get a breakdown of Modork Hill's CV. Here form a
Speaker 4: video coordinator for the Clippers, the Spurs, and Assie men's
Speaker 4: basketball team. UH currently writer for Bleacher Report and podcast
Speaker 4: for the Athletic Modoric Hill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5: Miles. That is impressive.
Speaker 4: The thing is I'm doing an American accent when I
Speaker 4: podcast this is this.
Speaker 5: Is like whenever I watched those shows and then I
Speaker 5: hear the guy in real life, I'm like, oh he's British.
Speaker 1: This guy is Ozzy. He was Ozzy whole. Yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: don't get it twisted.
Speaker 2: Wait, so I from successions from Iowa?
Speaker 1: No way? Yeah exactly or even what's her face ship? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Like shit, no really.
Speaker 4: But anyway, your career is very interesting, like what's how
Speaker 4: did it could help us plot the course here?
Speaker 1: To how you go from all these teams and then
Speaker 1: writing and all that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's to really start out, was like I never
Speaker 5: thought I'd be in any of this, you know when
Speaker 5: I went in college, Like I went to junior college,
Speaker 5: I thought I was just gonna be like whatever, steady,
Speaker 5: computer science or business or something, trying to find find
Speaker 5: who I am. I always loved basketball, but never thought
Speaker 5: career ended up as a hobby. Being a student manager
Speaker 5: from there, got bit by the bug in terms of coaching,
Speaker 5: ended up transferring to UC Irvine and to USC working
Speaker 5: for basketball those basketball teams all the way through, then
Speaker 5: eventually getting lucky and getting an internship with the Clippers.
Speaker 5: From the Clippers, I end up an opportunity to go
Speaker 5: to San Antonio for a couple of years, go back
Speaker 5: to the Clippers again right after the lockout. Uh then
Speaker 5: Doc fires me, and he should have. I wasn't very
Speaker 5: good my last year his first year with the Clippers,
Speaker 5: I was pretty bad, and you know, he let me
Speaker 5: go and I was kind of burnt out. So I
Speaker 5: joined regular job life, you know, with nine to five.
Speaker 5: Hated every second of it. And then I have all
Speaker 5: this basketball knowledge, like, surely somebody can use it. So
Speaker 5: slowly but surely, began uh writing very poorly on my
Speaker 5: own website, and you know, shout out to all my editors.
Speaker 5: I know they they make me look smarter than I am.
Speaker 1: Yet out all the editors.
Speaker 5: Yeah yes, and then yeah, and that's how I ended
Speaker 5: up in sports media.
Speaker 1: Amazing. Oh man, I wish she had. I should have
Speaker 1: followed my dreams and I could have. I guess I.
Speaker 5: Dream right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's happening right now. And I get to do
Speaker 4: Australian accents on a podcast.
Speaker 1: That's all I want to.
Speaker 2: Still think I might get drafted, Well we'll see.
Speaker 1: But I.
Speaker 5: Draft every year. I just keep submitting my name. It
Speaker 5: just never did way to do that.
Speaker 2: I declare my draft eligibility for the next NBA draft.
Speaker 2: I hear it's a down draft, and I have been
Speaker 2: working on my left handed layups.
Speaker 1: Yeah for so long.
Speaker 5: I mean backs it in right like it was like
Speaker 5: letter of intent. I mean, I don't know what the
Speaker 5: process is now.
Speaker 1: But yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to be like that Mark Wahlberg movie where
Speaker 4: he became the quarterback of the Eagles.
Speaker 1: Was it the Eagles?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 5: Eagles was a receiver, it was Vince Papoli.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly exactly. But the NBA anyway, that's a story
Speaker 4: we're going to work on.
Speaker 2: NBA. Calves beat the Clippers. So matchup of two of
Speaker 2: the hottest teams in the league. Calves clips Calves one,
Speaker 2: which I was not not thrilled with because they are surging.
Speaker 2: They're about to catch the sixers of left three in
Speaker 2: a row. As Joel Embiid has been hurt, the Calves
Speaker 2: are Mobiley finally came back in this game, contributed a
Speaker 2: near double double in twenty one minutes. So anyway, I
Speaker 2: don't know, like so and Garland's not back yet no,
Speaker 2: I was trying to google around to be like, is
Speaker 2: anybody saying maybe they shouldn't take a look at what
Speaker 2: they could get for Garland because they're playing so well
Speaker 2: without him. I feel like that would be deemed like
Speaker 2: a bad, shortsighted move. But at the same time, like
Speaker 2: sometimes I don't know, the obvious move like the one
Speaker 2: that like a dumb fan would make might like make sense,
Speaker 2: Like I guess it would be selling low right now,
Speaker 2: that would be the argument against it. But when you
Speaker 2: have somebody who has a lot of value and you're
Speaker 2: better without him, I don't know. I don't know why
Speaker 2: you wouldn't be like we we could use like a
Speaker 2: wing you know.
Speaker 5: Well, I think I think the first starting point of
Speaker 5: that is you have to know what Donovan Mitchell is
Speaker 5: going to do after this, you know, when his contract
Speaker 5: and that's the that's the whole, Like they can't make
Speaker 5: a single traite till they get clarity on that situation. Yeah,
Speaker 5: what do you think that for them? Because you okay,
Speaker 5: you trade Garland and then Mitchell walks for nothing. You know,
Speaker 5: you're like, yeah, we kind of played ourselves. And I
Speaker 5: think that's one of those things there and I think,
Speaker 5: you know, look, I mean, they got to find a
Speaker 5: way to make it work between Mitchell and Garland the
Speaker 5: next year and a half, and I think that's that's,
Speaker 5: you know, figure and then figure it out from there.
Speaker 5: But I think that's the most important thing for the
Speaker 5: Calves and the organization in terms of moving forward. So
Speaker 5: I'd be shocked if there were anybody any whispers of
Speaker 5: Darius Garland trade.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I just said it out loud. I
Speaker 2: didn't even whisper it. But that's because I'm a dumb person.
Speaker 1: So should they trade Darius Garland?
Speaker 2: People are saying, notably me, just now I screamed it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The Heat have lost seven straight, so they're kind of
Speaker 2: falling in the Eastern standings.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 2: I feel like the big story of this week was
Speaker 2: that Lakers Warriors double ot game.
Speaker 5: Game was absurd, just unbelieve.
Speaker 2: It's rare for an NBA game involving two teams that
Speaker 2: are like not currently uh situated to be tenders.
Speaker 5: It's too much.
Speaker 2: But like you know what I mean, Like this is
Speaker 2: the this is the most attention I've seen a game
Speaker 2: get where like the none of the teams were in
Speaker 2: the top eight and.
Speaker 1: There nothing matters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. These teams are struggling.
Speaker 5: It was more partly it was fun as hell, the
Speaker 5: more challenging old rivals. Think of that. Uh, I have
Speaker 5: a lot of like bad old movie references. But the
Speaker 5: movie The Grudge, it was like the Nero. It was
Speaker 5: was getting into fighting shape to fight another old guy.
Speaker 5: I can't remember who.
Speaker 2: Uh, old movies like The Grudge and Space Cowboys, that's
Speaker 2: your probably references.
Speaker 5: So it's not so I have a long.
Speaker 1: Grudge match that Yeah. Yeah, I was like, wait, the
Speaker 1: Japanese Ghost movie.
Speaker 5: No, the Nero was in that one, right, No, But like, yeah,
Speaker 5: that's what that was. That was too old. You know,
Speaker 5: Kurry and Lebron, the old heads in the NBA dueling
Speaker 5: on prime time like it was amazing basketball. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Reminds me of a quote from Bad Grandpa, which.
Speaker 1: The Universal Motion Pictures Classic Bad Grandpa.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like when I saw this, we're gonna tell you
Speaker 1: about the dog.
Speaker 4: Marky was like, just move on with it, Okay, there's
Speaker 4: nothing to say about that. I mean that match, I
Speaker 4: mean the whole match. The matchups were great, the game
Speaker 4: was highly entertaining. I was very I was on the
Speaker 4: edge of my seat. But in the end, I was like, gosh.
Speaker 1: Can we can we just get a little more consistency.
Speaker 4: I can't just hold on to being like, well, we
Speaker 4: did have the most exciting game during the regular season,
Speaker 4: and I put that feather in my cap.
Speaker 1: Because I kind of need something a little bit more. Yeah.
Speaker 2: One of the things listening to Doc Rivers talk on
Speaker 2: like other podcasts this year, that was like hearing him
Speaker 2: talk about what it's like to be a player who's
Speaker 2: aging in the NBA. He talked about that, like you'll
Speaker 2: have really good nights, you just can't do it every night. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and like that that just feels like what we're seeing
Speaker 2: from Steph and Lebron. It's like their highs are still
Speaker 2: as high. Like that was Lebron's career high in rebounds,
Speaker 2: Like he brought up thirty six twenty rebounds, twelve assists,
Speaker 2: which is the first thirty twenty ten games since Kareem
Speaker 2: did it back in seventy six for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I gotta say, also, a vintage Draymond game, like
Speaker 2: really like had had a record plus minus, but like
Speaker 2: you could you know, I'm not like the most advanced
Speaker 2: like basketball mind, but so like I don't always notice defense,
Speaker 2: but like he was making hid himself known all over
Speaker 2: the defensive end, and then you know, offensively, like his
Speaker 2: plus minus was wild.
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
Speaker 5: It's what he does. It's what Draymond does. But to
Speaker 5: kind of go back to the Dock point about guys,
Speaker 5: you know, not being able to do it every game,
Speaker 5: I don't even know if Lebron can do it for
Speaker 5: all the entire games all the time. It's like you
Speaker 5: can get like a quarter burst from him where he's
Speaker 5: just absolutely phenomenal, and then you see him the rest
Speaker 5: of the game and he just looks gassed. And I
Speaker 5: think that's part of the the aging stuff that Doc's
Speaker 5: talking about, Like I don't even know if you can
Speaker 5: count on him for entire games. Like you almost be like,
Speaker 5: hey man, I just need to keep it close till
Speaker 5: Lebron goes off in the second half, right, And I
Speaker 5: think that's the hope for the Lakers unfortunately. Yeah, and
Speaker 5: I think that's the tough one for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Just for some background, are you a fan or are
Speaker 4: you one of these people who has transcended fandom because
Speaker 4: of your proximity to the game.
Speaker 5: Oh, transcended fandom. I grew up a Laker fan, but
Speaker 5: the once you start working for the Clippers, you're not
Speaker 5: allowed to root for the Lakers, that right, And then
Speaker 5: when you go to the Spurs, it's even more less
Speaker 5: of a fan. And then you know, most of the
Speaker 5: time when I was working in the NBA, it was
Speaker 5: whoever's cutting my checks. Yeah, the more we won, the
Speaker 5: more the bigger the check's got. So yeah, yeah, the
Speaker 5: fun stuff with that. So then once I got out,
Speaker 5: I was like, ah, I'm not going to go back
Speaker 5: through and for the Lakers just right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get that. I get that. Yeah, Well I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 4: I mean, where do I from your perspective, how do
Speaker 4: you see what's the best US.
Speaker 1: Laker fans can can hope for?
Speaker 4: Just based on what you're saying now, Because I'm as
Speaker 4: much as I like to say, my head's in the
Speaker 4: sky sometimes it's so high.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I don't.
Speaker 4: Know where I am and if what I'm seeing is
Speaker 4: real or if anything's possible.
Speaker 1: But do you have any optimism?
Speaker 5: I mean I just in the sense of like, they're
Speaker 5: in a better position than they were last year this
Speaker 5: time and they went to the conference finals. I just
Speaker 5: think the West is a little better.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: You know, look, I think I think they're playing team,
Speaker 5: you know, at the very bottom. You know, maybe they
Speaker 5: get lucky and they sneak into six or five seed,
Speaker 5: but I don't see that happening, right. But you know,
Speaker 5: they're listen as long as Lebron and ad are healthy,
Speaker 5: and those two guys have been phenomenal this season. It's,
Speaker 5: you know, like you're gonna have a chance. You know.
Speaker 5: Do I think you're a championship team. No, I think
Speaker 5: you're a conference finals team.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 5: But I think you can scare the hell out of
Speaker 5: some teams in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Can you beat the Rockets?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 5: Just yesterday with Dylan Brooks flapping people in the face.
Speaker 1: Dude, that's I couldn't.
Speaker 4: I was like, this guy was eaten yesterday and I
Speaker 4: was like staring this anyway.
Speaker 2: As a fan of the game, who are you most
Speaker 2: excited about right now? Is it the Calves, the Clippers?
Speaker 2: Who's who of the hot teams are you excited about?
Speaker 5: I mean it's it's the Clippers, It's the Thunder Like
Speaker 5: those are the two teams that I'm most intrigued by.
Speaker 5: You know, we know what Denver is. We know what
Speaker 5: Boston is. But like it's just fun watching Shay, you know,
Speaker 5: just go nuts and and and do all his uh wizardry.
Speaker 5: And then the Clippers just because like hey man, they
Speaker 5: care about the regular season again, and look what happens.
Speaker 5: You know, like Kawhi's playing at an MVP level, Like
Speaker 5: we're talking about him in that way, but we should be.
Speaker 5: You know, I've seen Knicks fans trying to pump up
Speaker 5: Jalen Brunson. I'm like, Yo, Kawhi is a bigger MVP
Speaker 5: than Brunson. I don't even think that's a contest. And
Speaker 5: I think that's been a big part of it. And
Speaker 5: you just saw the difference, Like he didn't play in
Speaker 5: the game against Boston when they came to LA they
Speaker 5: got smoked. He played in the game when they went
Speaker 5: to Boston and they smoked him. Like he's a big
Speaker 5: difference maker in that sense. So I think, you know,
Speaker 5: the Clippers are just really a fun group to watch
Speaker 5: now that they finally kind of figured out how to
Speaker 5: play with James.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was such a weird thing when last year
Speaker 2: in the playoffs, I think there was so much disappointment
Speaker 2: that he got hurt. But before he got hurt, he
Speaker 2: was I think the best player in the playoffs. It
Speaker 2: was only two games, but he played the best at
Speaker 2: like he was unbelievable. Then he got hurt and everyone
Speaker 2: was like, this guy's cooked, and it was just everybody
Speaker 2: just stopped paying attention to him or the giving him
Speaker 2: a fair shake. Yeah he's he's still so freaking good.
Speaker 4: Unbelievable, and he was even great and that the loss
Speaker 4: to the Cavs like everything else, I was like, man,
Speaker 4: he's man is perpolation, he's simmering.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a freak. No, He's unbelievable in that sense.
Speaker 5: And I think this is I actually think all the
Speaker 5: load management that they tried to do with him, or
Speaker 5: whether his team or whether it was the Clippers, I
Speaker 5: think actually hurt him. I think now he's conditioning his
Speaker 5: body to play on a regular basis, on a night
Speaker 5: to night basis, and you're seeing it kind of play
Speaker 5: out like this is the healthiest he's been since. I mean,
Speaker 5: he wasn't even that healthy in the Toronto year. You know,
Speaker 5: he barely made it through the finish line at the finals.
Speaker 5: Like if that goes to game seven, I think Golden
Speaker 5: State beats him because I think Kawhi's leg literally falls off.
Speaker 5: It will be like the Simpsons episode when they try
Speaker 5: to kick the field goal and the guy's leg flies off.
Speaker 2: This.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's I really think that so like this has
Speaker 5: been the healthiest he's been in so long that I
Speaker 5: think it's kind of like it's fun to watch Man Jack.
Speaker 1: What about on that that same night with the double overtime?
Speaker 2: Right, okay, okay, take a break. I don't want to
Speaker 2: talk about that, just I do. Okay, Okay, we'll be
Speaker 2: right after the break and we're back. We're back, and okay, yes,
Speaker 2: the seventy six ers played before the all time classic game.
Speaker 4: That should just be should determine who wins the championship. Yeah,
Speaker 4: if you if you have the most exciting double o
Speaker 4: tea in the regular season, just give us number eighteen.
Speaker 5: I mean, you want to stop the tournament two like
Speaker 5: that stop you stop the count mode.
Speaker 1: That's when I stopped the count.
Speaker 2: You are saying that in the fourth quarter they got
Speaker 2: to lead, stop the stop the count.
Speaker 5: If you want a funny story, like one time I
Speaker 5: was playing DeAndre Jordan was a rookie when I was
Speaker 5: with the Clippers one time and I was like we
Speaker 5: had screwing around on the court or something and playing
Speaker 5: one on one, but he couldn't shoot from the paint.
Speaker 5: As soon as I took the lead, I was like,
Speaker 5: I'm done, I gotta go stop the paint and just
Speaker 5: ran off the court like I would too. That was
Speaker 5: my version to stop the count back that. It's like
Speaker 5: every time he would talking to me, I beat you
Speaker 5: in one on one, yeah, and he's like he'd be
Speaker 5: like running back. I'm like, ah, my knee, though, little
Speaker 5: we should we should have.
Speaker 4: We should have introduced you as somebody who just destroyed
Speaker 4: DeAndre and one on one and he hasn't been the
Speaker 4: same since. But yeah, that night, Jack, I was you know,
Speaker 4: people are.
Speaker 2: Coming against Denver. Joel was a late scratch, uh, and
Speaker 2: the memes were coming for my man. Joel embiid Man
Speaker 2: talking about how he's scared of Jokic. I just want
Speaker 2: to set the records. Okay, he has dominated Jokic in
Speaker 2: the last few matchups. He's not afraid of Jokic. He's
Speaker 2: afraid of the altitude. And have you tried to exercise
Speaker 2: that altitude? It's so hard. Yeah, Like he's just being smart.
Speaker 5: He also has to be played in Utah right in
Speaker 5: a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, it's hard altitude.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because I think Jabari was saying he hasn't played
Speaker 4: in Denver since twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Haven't played in Denver either. I don't want I don't
Speaker 2: want to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, where are you out?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 5: See?
Speaker 4: I was, I was like, I think I'm off this
Speaker 4: embiid guy for the Lakers, you know, because like we
Speaker 4: kind of got to go there to make stuff happen.
Speaker 5: So a couple of times, a couple of times a year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, So people.
Speaker 2: Are looking for an excuse to be out on him
Speaker 2: like that. That was what that whole thing taught me
Speaker 2: is people were just ready to be like, I'm tired
Speaker 2: of this guy.
Speaker 5: He's so many people.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like Bill Simmons especially, He's like, yeah, well you
Speaker 4: know you'll get is always doing it.
Speaker 2: Just may wing you win an NBA title with Larry
Speaker 2: bird on your team. What would what does this have
Speaker 2: to do with Larry bird Man?
Speaker 1: Yeah, roads are back to Bird.
Speaker 2: Bill Simmons is tough to I listened to his show.
Speaker 2: He is both dismissive of the seventy six ers, but
Speaker 2: then like also secretly like fears that he's he's like
Speaker 2: the seventy six ers, Like, don't they stink?
Speaker 1: Like that?
Speaker 2: I'm not worried about them. But then like when he's
Speaker 2: talking about potential trades, he's like, my absolute nightmare is that?
Speaker 2: Like Bruce Brown goes to the seventies and I'm like,
Speaker 2: which one is it?
Speaker 1: Man? Is it one? Mic?
Speaker 5: But yeah, that's it. That's the game though, Like everybody's
Speaker 5: kind of counting out the six until they do it
Speaker 5: in the playoffs. It's not that different than what we
Speaker 5: did with Denver, whether it was fair or not, like
Speaker 5: we counted them out until they went and won the
Speaker 5: finals like it was along those years. So it's just
Speaker 5: along those lines in that sense. So like you you
Speaker 5: understand it from them, and.
Speaker 1: Look, it's a bad look.
Speaker 5: It's a bad look you know that he play Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean he's genuinely hurt, totally get it respected all
Speaker 5: that stuff. He hurt. Don't play it. We know his
Speaker 5: knee injuries and stuff like that. But man, it's kind
Speaker 5: of suspicious, you know. And it sucks because literally the
Speaker 5: week before I had just gone on a podcast defending
Speaker 5: EMBIID and then you know, I'm like, don't worry, He'll
Speaker 5: like he'll play in that game. And then of course
Speaker 5: he scratches, and I'm like, all right, I can't. I
Speaker 5: can't defend him anymore. I'm not going to go out
Speaker 5: on a limb.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's also just one of those things as
Speaker 4: fans you want to see too, you know, like you
Speaker 4: want to see that like MVP race play out on
Speaker 4: the court and just be able to be like, oh great,
Speaker 4: we got to see them go up against each other,
Speaker 4: and now we have a little more data to begin
Speaker 4: you get the take machine going.
Speaker 1: And when the.
Speaker 2: People were like, where's Embiid and he was like pointing
Speaker 2: to himself, I was like, this is not good. To
Speaker 2: just go go back to the locker room. Was like,
Speaker 2: this is embarrassing for all of us.
Speaker 1: Hey man.
Speaker 4: But I always I give him respect as a as
Speaker 4: a fellow Arsenal fan.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll be in a corner, Joelle, you know,
Speaker 1: be in your corner.
Speaker 2: So you said that you're no longer interested in signing
Speaker 2: Joel Embiid to the Lake end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you know, like I said, my my
Speaker 4: fantasy is just go wherever the wind blows me.
Speaker 5: So right now.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Maybe Luker, you know, yeah, maybe this Luker Doncic guy,
Speaker 4: he might be he might he might have.
Speaker 5: A case due It might not be a bad deal.
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, I mean, think of seventy three points.
Speaker 2: It's uh yeah, I mean, so the scoring has been
Speaker 2: out of control. Luca dropped seventy three and a win
Speaker 2: versus the Hawks. Some of the wildest shots I've ever
Speaker 2: seen made in an NBA game. I mean, he just
Speaker 2: anytime I watch him, I'm just like that, he like
Speaker 2: has a superpower of just like making some of the
Speaker 2: wildest shots. Also, that same night, Booker put in sixty two.
Speaker 2: So again we have a a night with a seventy
Speaker 2: point scorer and a sixty in a loss. Yeah, this
Speaker 2: is the guy also lost. So you got in the NBA.
Speaker 2: If you get you're gonna lose and be a loser.
Speaker 2: You're a loser. Should have tried harder, should have gotten
Speaker 2: into seventy Yeah exactly. But I don't know. It feels
Speaker 2: like we're gonna see somebody top eighty one in the
Speaker 2: in the coming years. Maybe year, Yeah, I can see
Speaker 2: it in the next year.
Speaker 5: It's no, I think it's on. I think it's on
Speaker 5: its way, might even be this season. I think with
Speaker 5: the way guys are scoring and all of those things there,
Speaker 5: and that's gonna be cool. Like I I know a
Speaker 5: lot of people have gone completely nuts about the scoring
Speaker 5: in the NBA and all this stuff and seem to
Speaker 5: be upset by it. I'm like, Yo, these guys are amazing, right,
Speaker 5: you know, it's not. This isn't like the time when
Speaker 5: Tony Delk got fifty or you're like Tony, They're like CORYO,
Speaker 5: like wow they got fifty, Like what what's happening? You know,
Speaker 5: like these are the stars of the league. And it's
Speaker 5: like all right, man, like I'm gonna go off. And
Speaker 5: you know, Joel's was against Victor Webman Yama, who's averaging
Speaker 5: like three and a half blocks a game, Like it's
Speaker 5: not you know, he ran through them a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and then of course then he destroyed Zach Collins. But like,
Speaker 5: I get it, Like I just think it's funny to
Speaker 5: me where people get so upset about it. I'm like, man, like,
Speaker 5: these dudes are unbelievable. The skillmaking, the shot making we're
Speaker 5: seeing in all these games is absurd, right, So like, yeah,
Speaker 5: we're gonna get eighty pretty soon. We're gonna it's coming.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: If you saw like Luca playing at the time when
Speaker 2: Kobe was playing, you would be like, that guy is
Speaker 2: making like the craziest shots I've ever seen somebody make.
Speaker 2: If you saw it Embiid playing at the time Kobe
Speaker 2: was playing, you'd be like, that is shack, except he
Speaker 2: can make free throws and shoot threes, like that's wild
Speaker 2: like that. Yeah, to your point, it's like these guys
Speaker 2: both look amazing and are amazing and the stats are
Speaker 2: backing it up, and everyone's like, yeah, I'd like to
Speaker 2: see him do it with defense. Like even Paul Pierce
Speaker 2: I think, was like, whoa I missed when they played
Speaker 2: defense in the NBA.
Speaker 5: When did he play defense? Just out of curiosity?
Speaker 1: That was really my.
Speaker 5: You know, even the year they won the championship, it
Speaker 5: was KG on defense. It wasn't him, Yeah, I just
Speaker 5: the other thing, like, you guys hit the nerves. So
Speaker 5: it's like this is the stuff that drives me DUTs.
Speaker 5: But the stuff people are going, man, they don't play
Speaker 5: defense more in the NBA, Like no, it's just impossible
Speaker 5: to play defense. You have to cover as soon as
Speaker 5: the ball crosses half court, you have to defend from
Speaker 5: that line all the way to the baseline. Yeah. Right,
Speaker 5: these guys are too good now at this point, we've
Speaker 5: spent the past fifteen years telling every player coming into
Speaker 5: the NBA, you have to learn how to shoot. So
Speaker 5: when they all learned how to shoot, or pissed off
Speaker 5: that they make shots, that's not there, Like it's just yeah,
Speaker 5: what the hell you should do that?
Speaker 1: You can't do that.
Speaker 5: It's impossible to cover all the ground you have to
Speaker 5: cover defensively. And then the referees don't help because you know,
Speaker 5: they call the lightest fouls on the perimeter. You can
Speaker 5: murder a dude in the paint, like God forbid, Trey
Speaker 5: Young bumps into your chest. It's aoul, like you know,
Speaker 5: as a foul on you like it's it's yeah, it's
Speaker 5: it's the That's that's where I think the real problem
Speaker 5: is is how the officials are reft of the game.
Speaker 5: I don't think we need massive rule changes, just need
Speaker 5: to lighten up on the perimeter in terms of the fouls.
Speaker 5: But like when people say defense isn't being played, I said, no,
Speaker 5: it's just hard, just freally freaking hard.
Speaker 2: Because the guys are so good at making shots from
Speaker 2: long from far away.
Speaker 4: It's just a three point It's just too many threes, man,
Speaker 4: that's what it is.
Speaker 1: But I fix it.
Speaker 5: Let's just take get rid of the three point line. Yeah,
Speaker 5: well everything, don let's.
Speaker 2: Go so fun. It would be so fun to see that.
Speaker 2: And it's like they just invented the three point line.
Speaker 2: It's not like it's been around. Oh wait, it's been around,
Speaker 2: my bad.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, if we had to handicap who is most likely
Speaker 2: to pass eighty one in the next season, I feel
Speaker 2: like Luca. Like, even before Luca did it, I thought
Speaker 2: I think we said Luca would probably be very likely.
Speaker 2: I think Booker like people who are can both you know,
Speaker 2: have incredible mid range games and also get really hot
Speaker 2: from downtown. So those would kind of be my two.
Speaker 5: You have to be a three level scorer and get
Speaker 5: to the free throw line. Yeah, those are the three things.
Speaker 5: You have to be able to score for three mid
Speaker 5: range and get to the cup and make your free throws.
Speaker 5: And I think that's how you end up getting somebody
Speaker 5: that's gonna go over eighty.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So who are you picking? Oh who do you got? Like,
Speaker 1: if you got who you Luca Luca for you to.
Speaker 5: I mean, Luca lucas the easy answer for everybody, right, Like,
Speaker 5: I think that's the most obvious guy in terms of scoring.
Speaker 5: It won't shock me if it's one of these big guys,
Speaker 5: you know, if it's a if it's an embid or
Speaker 5: even I mean, I don't think he'll be cat, but like,
Speaker 5: the ability to step out and shoot threes is a
Speaker 5: big man in terms of like that the other big
Speaker 5: man does not want to rotate to you and whatnot. Like,
Speaker 5: I think that opens up a lot of that possibility.
Speaker 5: So I think, I mean, yeah, I'm picking the dudes
Speaker 5: that just went for seventy going like, yeah, they can
Speaker 5: get eighty if they made a few more shots.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know what team Kat's gonna do
Speaker 2: it on because his coach was not happy. Even though
Speaker 2: I'm sixty.
Speaker 5: That's so bad. It was a bad six.
Speaker 1: It's weird to say it was a bad six, sloppy.
Speaker 5: Just it was all selfish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then I mean, you've got we Binyama if like,
Speaker 2: as his game progresses, like when he's really locked in,
Speaker 2: first of all, he's much better in the fourth quarter
Speaker 2: when it seems like he's trying if if his body
Speaker 2: progresses and his game progresses, Like I could definitely see
Speaker 2: him doing some doing some damage on that front at
Speaker 2: some point. And then to your point, like a cat
Speaker 2: or a Donovan Mitchell, Like I could see people who,
Speaker 2: you know, like a Roger Marris breaking the home run
Speaker 2: record and everyone being like no.
Speaker 5: Not, like you know, we have to celebrate.
Speaker 2: It, right Yeah, Yeah, Like I could.
Speaker 5: See don Mitchell, really Mitchell really end up in that conversation.
Speaker 2: As somebody who people don't I just like the last
Speaker 2: time he didn't he score seventy fairly recently, Yeah, the
Speaker 2: people were just kind of like, Okay, I mean, I
Speaker 2: probably because he's small, you know, but it just feels
Speaker 2: like of the people who've done it, like he's not
Speaker 2: one of the more celebrated.
Speaker 5: One dark horse guy would be Dame Dad drops that
Speaker 5: way already.
Speaker 2: One of the scariest human.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's a dude. When he crosses half court, if
Speaker 5: like he might just pull yeah, like if he feels it,
Speaker 5: and and that's the thing that's like, Okay, now I
Speaker 5: have to cover him the whole length of the court.
Speaker 2: I hope they do in the All Star Game this year,
Speaker 2: there was that one year where him and uh Steph
Speaker 2: were like pulling from half court and like draining it.
Speaker 2: I hope I want to see a little bit of that.
Speaker 2: That's always fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a little more gun slinging, yeah for sure.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because you know, the the All Star Game is
Speaker 5: way too competitive these days.
Speaker 2: All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be
Speaker 2: back for the rapid Fire Round a question.
Speaker 5: And we're back.
Speaker 1: We're back, and and.
Speaker 2: It's time mo. It is oh mo, mo, you really
Speaker 2: stepped in at this time past.
Speaker 5: Oh buddy, ready for all challenges.
Speaker 1: Let's go. Okay, okay, let's that's good. You need confidence
Speaker 1: because this is.
Speaker 2: By his confidence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it happens.
Speaker 5: I literally dropped a movie reference from like I don't
Speaker 5: even know what, like early two thousands. I'm ready to roll.
Speaker 1: Yeah, grug match actually from twenty thirteen. Oh yeah, pretty recent, pretty.
Speaker 2: Recent, but you know, so it's hard to know when
Speaker 2: it's from.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm glad you're confident, because pride does come
Speaker 4: before the fall, and you are in the hot seat
Speaker 4: for the Rapid Fire Round of Questionings as Jack has rebranded.
Speaker 2: It, and all our fans are just looking for you
Speaker 2: to fall. On your face.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they can't wait. They pray for your downfall.
Speaker 2: MO.
Speaker 4: But guess what, you can prove all the doubters wrong,
Speaker 4: because like we're about to hit you with a question.
Speaker 4: Do not think, Just demonstrate your mass of the topic,
Speaker 4: the subject matter by just reflectively answering.
Speaker 1: Do not think. Just give it to us so we
Speaker 1: can keep the questions coming just.
Speaker 4: So quick that we're setting records, because this is the
Speaker 4: fastest question answering segment in podcasting history.
Speaker 1: So I hope you're ready, Mo, deck heel. Are we ready? Jack?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: How about this?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Man, let's go start the clock.
Speaker 1: This is quick, man, we're going.
Speaker 5: Get ready.
Speaker 2: Man, this is gonna be so unquick.
Speaker 1: Your head's gonna spin. Man. You better put a neck
Speaker 1: brace on. Gonna let's go. You're gonna be in an immobilizer.
Speaker 4: You'll be wearing a halo after this that they give
Speaker 4: you at the doctor's office, because you're gonna be so
Speaker 4: spun around by the speed of these questions that we
Speaker 4: think of on the spot maybe or have pre written MO.
Speaker 2: Rapid fire round of MO questionings.
Speaker 1: Exactly are you who should go first?
Speaker 2: Why don't you go first? Miles?
Speaker 1: Okay, I like this. With All Star Weekend coming up
Speaker 1: in just a few.
Speaker 4: Weeks, give me your all time Fantasy dunk contest lineup
Speaker 4: four dunkers of your choice. Goal.
Speaker 5: Current dunkers are currently in the NBA current Shaden Sharp,
Speaker 5: Anthony Edwards. Uh, who else is a good dunker? Good
Speaker 5: question here? Uh? Who's creative? Donovan Mitchell had some good
Speaker 5: stuff there and Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 2: Bank Skunk Contest performance of all time.
Speaker 5: Vince Carter won? Yeah, right answer?
Speaker 6: All right, the Pro Bowl does dodgeball? I think I
Speaker 6: saw a clip that looked like the Pro Bowl does dodgeball.
Speaker 6: What school yard game do you want to see added
Speaker 6: to the NBA All Star Weekend?
Speaker 5: Knockout?
Speaker 2: Oh, knockout will be fun?
Speaker 4: Is that the one we throw it against the ball
Speaker 4: against the wall? No basketball? The basketball knockout where you
Speaker 4: knock your ball out.
Speaker 2: Sometimes knockout is like the shooters are too good, you know,
Speaker 2: and so but yeah, like when somebody misses.
Speaker 5: But you're allowed to bump the ball, you're alone.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's have some and someone with like NBA athlete
Speaker 4: strength who just sees it come off the heel and they're.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, you messed up so bad? And they're just
Speaker 1: like send it into the like like the Blox seats.
Speaker 5: I mean, Webby would miss and tip dunk his own
Speaker 5: three before the next one gets off, like.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, because he could literally just sort of like
Speaker 4: lightly just from the free throw line just kind of
Speaker 4: be like, oh yeah, I can get off the heel immediately.
Speaker 1: He's just alley looping to himself pretty much the whole time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Not fair to be the top of the key though.
Speaker 2: Right the top of the key. Wow, nobody would ever miss, not.
Speaker 5: The free throw line, top of the three point line.
Speaker 5: Three point yeah, yeah, excuse me, Yeah, I should top
Speaker 5: of the key, and I meant the top.
Speaker 4: Of the should just be half court, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean to at least make it something so then
Speaker 4: even when people make it your oh nod.
Speaker 5: That'd be a good one too.
Speaker 2: Logo. Maybe each round it goes from three point and
Speaker 2: then like a step.
Speaker 4: Back it up and yeah, yeah, Adam, these are free
Speaker 4: ideas from your own show. Please integrate them into All
Speaker 4: Star Weekend. That was a great answer. Now here's the
Speaker 4: next question. If you can have any player's skill set
Speaker 4: for a day and one day only, whose skill set
Speaker 4: is it and what skill I mean, what specific skill
Speaker 4: do you want.
Speaker 5: It'd be Kauhi and just the ability to rip the
Speaker 5: ball out of people's hands. I feel like that's the
Speaker 5: most demoralizing thing that he does. Puts his hand out
Speaker 5: there and it's it's it's mine, right, you know, and
Speaker 5: feel it from like the other guy. You can just
Speaker 5: feel like it's like that character from Mortal Kombat where
Speaker 5: he just takes their soul, Like, yeah, that's what that
Speaker 5: That's what I equate equated all too. Yeah, behind it
Speaker 5: might have been Shakan. I can't remember the names. I
Speaker 5: don't want.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it was Shao Kan, who was like
Speaker 4: the boss towards the end. Yeah you couldn't you, Yeah
Speaker 4: yeah yah yeah with the skull helmet. Yeah yeah yeah
Speaker 4: we all know that anyway. So you want to shouc
Speaker 4: on the ball out of people's I like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, that's valid.
Speaker 2: Hitch me a trade. What's the what's the trade of
Speaker 2: the trade deadline you think makes the most noise, makes
Speaker 2: the biggest difference in terms of adding wins to the
Speaker 2: win column for an NBA team.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna try to make Miles happy here and get
Speaker 5: him to Jonte Murray and Bogdan Bogdanovitch from the Hawks,
Speaker 5: and you gotta throw in de lo Rury and just
Speaker 5: part my piss off and Austin Reeves.
Speaker 1: Honestly like, as.
Speaker 2: Wow, you think that would make them better?
Speaker 5: They would add offense to them massively. I just think
Speaker 5: Bugdanovich coming off the bench would add scoring for them,
Speaker 5: a scoring punch that they don't have. Murray pretty it
Speaker 5: won't hurt their defense. I think he's solid defensively, and
Speaker 5: I think, you know, just another ball handler to kind
Speaker 5: of give Lebron a little little uh less pressure, I
Speaker 5: think would help them a lot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, as a as a as a black and Knees fan,
Speaker 4: I just I can't let Rui go yet.
Speaker 1: I cannot buy another Rui Hachi mergers. They already had
Speaker 1: to buy a wizard's jersey, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I don't know what other I can't keep buying them
Speaker 1: just to hold it down for my man.
Speaker 5: But it's all conspiracy to get you to spend money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5: They know Adam and I spoke. They know.
Speaker 1: There's just like, I don't know, man, we could this
Speaker 1: guy buys them all. He'll buy anything. Ah, Okay, how
Speaker 1: about this you're a so caw so cow guy.
Speaker 4: You can recommend one southern California restaurant to someone who's visiting.
Speaker 4: Tell them, see where are you sending them and what
Speaker 4: are you telling them to order when they go.
Speaker 5: We got a whole bunch of great restaurants and different
Speaker 5: types of cuisine. But my favorite place right now is
Speaker 5: in Echo Park. It's called Donna's. It's a red sauce joint.
Speaker 5: They have the best chicken palm that you can I'll
Speaker 5: be asked for. The garlic bread is unbelievable, and then
Speaker 5: you have, you know, the facili pasta, all that stuff.
Speaker 5: It's amazing.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Donna the silliest of all. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: love it. Amazing. I'm ready that down actually right now.
Speaker 1: I know now where's it? Wait?
Speaker 5: Where's it out on?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: It's on Sunset? Been open?
Speaker 5: How do I see? It's probably been open up almost
Speaker 5: a year now, or probably about eight eight months.
Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense, that makes sense.
Speaker 4: I was like, I know him a lot of things
Speaker 4: on the East Side, But now you got You've piqued
Speaker 4: my interest and for that we are forever grateful. Mo
Speaker 4: dak Heel, thank you so much for joining us got
Speaker 4: mad boostie. Those were all correct answers. They were fantastic answers,
Speaker 4: except for really going anywhere except to hang out with
Speaker 4: me at my house?
Speaker 1: Where can people?
Speaker 2: So just real quick, are you guys out on reads?
Speaker 2: Like would you be okay trading?
Speaker 1: I love no? No, I love I love Austin too.
Speaker 2: I mean he's like, because here you could care less
Speaker 2: about the team struggling?
Speaker 1: You hear that?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that's but see that's where I'm That's where
Speaker 4: I'm ill in my mind, and I go, Okay, y'all
Speaker 4: can have d Loo and Jalen Husha Fino and that
Speaker 4: just make that work for all those players that Moses
Speaker 4: and Luca.
Speaker 5: That's that's you're actually over paid.
Speaker 1: You get a Luker thank you, and Joel they.
Speaker 5: Have to send you a pick too, Like that's too
Speaker 5: much to give up?
Speaker 2: Oh absolute future considerations.
Speaker 1: Yeah see, you should be working in the front office. Man,
Speaker 1: These are these are good ideas you got there we go.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of this kind of moxie we
Speaker 1: need at the Lakers organization. Where do the people find you?
Speaker 1: Follow you read you absorb all of your fantastic work.
Speaker 5: Easiest thing is follow me on Twitter or threads. It's
Speaker 5: Mode the Kiel Underscore NBA. You can find my articles
Speaker 5: on the Athletic and Bleacher Report podcast on the Athletic
Speaker 5: once a week on Wednesdays. Is nerd Or, She wrote
Speaker 5: with Dave do four and Seth part now and then
Speaker 5: I just tweet basketball clips over and over again.
Speaker 1: Love Seth, Love South.
Speaker 2: Nerd Or, she wrote, is that your theme song?
Speaker 5: She no, but that's actually probably like we're not We're
Speaker 5: three dudes that are not clever enough to come up
Speaker 5: with a theme song, and that's probably right up there.
Speaker 5: That's that's probably the best we've come up with, right
Speaker 5: there and stealing it.
Speaker 4: I got a basketball about it with nerds Speak anyway, Thanks,
Speaker 4: thank you so much. Find me at Miles of Gray
Speaker 4: wherever they got at symbols.
Speaker 2: I'm at Jack Underscore Obrian on Twitter.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and follow hashtag mad Boosty's b st I e
Speaker 4: s for show links and updates and holler at us,
Speaker 4: you know, let us know.
Speaker 1: Do you have some better ideas to turn up the
Speaker 1: All Star weekend?
Speaker 4: We would love to hear them and share them with
Speaker 4: the other listeners, So make sure you holler at.
Speaker 1: Us on the social media.
Speaker 4: That's gonna do it for us this week another banger,
Speaker 4: and guess what.
Speaker 1: We're two episodes away from one hundred. Just so y'all know.
Speaker 1: Next one is the Gretzky episode. It's the warrent SAP
Speaker 1: because we keep two nine on us. Okay, yeah, you
Speaker 1: already know. We'll see you next time. Bye bye,