Speaker 1: A luxury.
Speaker 2: You can't live without a luxury. I can't live without coffee.
Speaker 2: I really like it.
Speaker 3: A luxury.
Speaker 4: You can get it anywhere.
Speaker 3: I guess yeah, I like good coffee.
Speaker 5: I love coffee.
Speaker 2: I like my socks.
Speaker 4: Socks. Your socks would you put in your shoes?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I really love them.
Speaker 2: I like kind of like, you know, cozy feet.
Speaker 4: You're attracting to yourself.
Speaker 2: I'm attracted to really nice running socks, like I'm always
Speaker 2: looking for good running. That's not a luxury, though. Coffee
Speaker 2: and socks not a luxury. Give me a luxury. What
Speaker 2: luxury should I have? Private plane? Larry, I'm on Ducktails.
Speaker 2: Good Mornings, superld the Welcome to the Now Dunks podcast
Speaker 2: on the Athletic Network. It's Monday, January twenty fifth. E
Speaker 2: Skeets rolling this morning with mister what you need to Know,
Speaker 2: tast Mellie. Hey everybody, Hey Tassy, we got the bass
Speaker 2: Master ripping them lips. Trey Kirby, Hey, hey yo, the
Speaker 2: international Man of Mystery taking it to the max, giggling
Speaker 2: from that cold open Lee Ellis.
Speaker 6: That was hilarious, wasn't it?
Speaker 2: At last, but not least making the magic happen is JD. Hello,
Speaker 2: there is and here we are before we get into it.
Speaker 2: Sorry about the bills, they are tassy. It looked good
Speaker 2: for I don't know, five minutes.
Speaker 5: It's a better storyline Mahomes versus Brady, isn't it? The
Speaker 5: next one versus the one that's supposed to be gone.
Speaker 5: It's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2: It's unreal. You saw the stat I'm sure going around
Speaker 2: last night. No, No, Tom is in well now being
Speaker 2: a have appeared in eighteen percent of all Super Bowls
Speaker 2: because he's going to his stupid, stupid, ridiculous Bucks Cheese super.
Speaker 5: Hope the Raptors get some tickets because it's down there
Speaker 5: in Tampa where they're playing. That's all I care.
Speaker 2: But well, I hadn't thought of it that. I think
Speaker 2: they're doing a big thing with the healthcare workers if
Speaker 2: I'm not mistaking, which is good, Which is good. They're
Speaker 2: gonna allow them into the stadium. Anyway. Congrats to the
Speaker 2: chiefs in the Bucks going to the Super Bowl. Are
Speaker 2: they still doing the whole week off in between things? Trade?
Speaker 5: You bet you? Oh man, I saw that, Sorry Trey
Speaker 5: to take your thunder? What were you going to say?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: I had some hot takes ready about the Pro Bowl.
Speaker 4: Tassie can't wait to see him stream it and simulate
Speaker 4: it and Madden or whatever they're going to do. I
Speaker 4: can't imagine they're flying to Hawaii and playing a game.
Speaker 4: But uh, I don't know who's your third best cornerback
Speaker 4: in the league this year? Is it Dontonio Wingfield Pro?
Speaker 5: If I could name two, then I'd give you a
Speaker 5: I can't.
Speaker 2: All right, shout out to the stream team joining us
Speaker 2: live right now on YouTube. Make sure you guys like
Speaker 2: and your comment and you subscribe. Email us your questions
Speaker 2: and comments for this week's new beach step in podcasts
Speaker 2: No Dunks at the Athletic dot com. You can always
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Speaker 2: Hit us up on Twitter at no dunks Think immaculate
Speaker 2: items always available for sale at no dunks dot com.
Speaker 2: Go get your T shirts and your hoodies and your
Speaker 2: shorts and your mugs and all that. And finally, if
Speaker 2: you haven't already grab an athletic subscription, go to the
Speaker 2: Athletic dot com slash no dunks, but you can sign
Speaker 2: up for just three ninety nine a month. Ley, I
Speaker 2: know you like everything free in your life. But even
Speaker 2: you would have to admit three ninety nine a month
Speaker 2: for the best dance sports right in the world. It's
Speaker 2: the hell of a deal.
Speaker 3: How can you afford not to have a subscription at
Speaker 3: three ninety nine a month. I mean, they're basically giving
Speaker 3: it away, so go and get yourself one. They're great, great,
Speaker 3: I will say. I will say this as well. What's
Speaker 3: great about the Athletic is some of the writing if
Speaker 3: you're into other sports like soccer or whatever, is great.
Speaker 3: And there's a really really good couple of articles up
Speaker 3: recently from our our friends on the other side of
Speaker 3: the pond, as they'd like to say here about the
Speaker 3: soccer world. Because I used to be a big soccer guy,
Speaker 3: kind of left it for a while and now I'm
Speaker 3: getting back into it. So that's what the Athletic does.
Speaker 3: It gives you a little taste of everything.
Speaker 2: Awesome. How's the cricket coverage on the Athletic.
Speaker 3: Scars, I would say, Scars write some articles or.
Speaker 5: Something like that.
Speaker 3: I may have to do that. Yes, yes, so.
Speaker 2: The Athletic it's awesome unless you're a cricket fan. For now.
Speaker 2: For now, did you get.
Speaker 3: In the graft that was going around the other day
Speaker 3: about the most you know, sports with the biggest audience.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't.
Speaker 3: Soccer was obviously number one. Guess what was number two?
Speaker 3: Tom Brady.
Speaker 2: Cricket.
Speaker 3: Cricket, Yeah, cricket. There's a market there. Maybe I should
Speaker 3: get back into the cricket guy.
Speaker 4: Get that music ready?
Speaker 2: Oh you could, uh yeah, you could start like a
Speaker 2: cricket show or article called hand Ice Lee Ellis cricket
Speaker 2: cut the cricket story from Lee a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 2: probably who knows. Yeah, Okay, so Monday having some fun
Speaker 2: already here we do NBA weekend winners and losers. Let's
Speaker 2: start with the winners here on Monday task. Why do
Speaker 2: you get it started? Who's your big NBA winner of
Speaker 2: the weekend?
Speaker 5: Well, it's Steph Curry because he almost has a record
Speaker 5: that definitely belongs to him. Only Ray Allen now has
Speaker 5: more threes made than Steph. Because it was a very
Speaker 5: nice moment on Saturday night when he tied Reggie Miller
Speaker 5: with his four to three and he threw up the
Speaker 5: thirty one for Reg. Respect to Reg because he loved
Speaker 5: him as a kid going up against Dell Hiss Dad
Speaker 5: and it's fitting. The next one that he hit was
Speaker 5: a very Reggie like three moving off the ball. It's
Speaker 5: just trademark Steph. When he passed Reggie Miller, gave up
Speaker 5: the ball to Draymond and then flew to the corner
Speaker 5: and hit it and now has you know, just a
Speaker 5: few more hundred to go, which which sounds like a
Speaker 5: lot to catch up to Ray Allen, but for him,
Speaker 5: it's absolutely nothing. And not only is he going to
Speaker 5: catch ray Allen next season, but after he gets to
Speaker 5: twenty nine to seventy three, he's only going to be
Speaker 5: thirty three or he's going to be thirty four years
Speaker 5: of age. So he can pad that number because that
Speaker 5: record belongs to him and he should have to have
Speaker 5: it by hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, and so this
Speaker 5: is it's a nice time to celebrate Steph because you know,
Speaker 5: he's just kind of he's kind of battered around the
Speaker 5: Twitter sphere at times, right because he you know, he's
Speaker 5: thrown into the hay. He didn't win, you know, only
Speaker 5: one without KD and all that. So I just want
Speaker 5: him to have this title that is most definitely his.
Speaker 5: And I love this chart from Kirk Goldsberry that was
Speaker 5: going around. That shows that Steph Curry, among all guys
Speaker 5: who have hit one thousand three pointers, Steph Curry the
Speaker 5: most efficient of all of them. So he's number two
Speaker 5: in mad threes, but he's number one in efficiency, and
Speaker 5: that's what makes him so special. He's going to be
Speaker 5: the guy who gets you the most points per possession
Speaker 5: in the history of the league at some point. So
Speaker 5: you know, you see iverson way at the bottom, the
Speaker 5: least efficient, and Stuff's going to be at the absolute
Speaker 5: opposite end, which is crazy that he shoots a percentage
Speaker 5: like Kyle but even better than Kyle Korver. So it's
Speaker 5: you know, that's that's the numbers part of the game.
Speaker 5: And that's why I think he isn't celebrated as much
Speaker 5: as some of the dominant players in NBA history is
Speaker 5: just because you know, it's it is a little bit
Speaker 5: more about analytics and so it's a little less sexy.
Speaker 5: But it was a nice moment to see him celebrate
Speaker 5: reg And then after the game, Reggie joined the Zoom
Speaker 5: call with his son Riker talked to staff a little
Speaker 5: bit and uh, yeah, I learned a new name. I
Speaker 5: didn't know that kids could be named Riker or I've
Speaker 5: never I've just never heard the name. So that was
Speaker 5: cool for me. That was great, and it was a
Speaker 5: great moment.
Speaker 7: Lee.
Speaker 2: One of your like famous predictions, I would say, over
Speaker 2: the course of this show, back when we were the starters,
Speaker 2: grab me if I'm wrong, but you predicted that Curry
Speaker 2: would be a guy to hit four hundred threes once
Speaker 2: in a season. I remember we were like, there's no
Speaker 2: way because it was talk like three hundred and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. You're like, I think you do four hundred.
Speaker 3: I was like, no, that's wrong. I actually predicted three
Speaker 3: hundred because no one had even done three hundred.
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, okay, And then he went and did.
Speaker 3: Four hundred and he smashed that. He smashed it because
Speaker 3: I think on the show I predicted three hundred and
Speaker 3: fifteen and I think his record prior to that was
Speaker 3: around two hundred and eighty five or something, and I
Speaker 3: was like, he's going to break three hundred, He's going
Speaker 3: to go three fifteen. And then after about five games
Speaker 3: into the season, he was on track for about three
Speaker 3: hundred and ninety or four hundred, and I thought, oh
Speaker 3: my god, he's going to like blitz this. But you
Speaker 3: just sort of felt he's going to come back to
Speaker 3: Worth at some point. No one can smash a record
Speaker 3: that no one's even made three hundred, no one's going
Speaker 3: to make four hundred and one season, and he went
Speaker 3: out and did that and did that pretty easily. He
Speaker 3: also missed a couple of games to that season, but
Speaker 3: he needed I believe he needed six on the last
Speaker 3: night of the season against the Grizzlies, and he ended
Speaker 3: up hitting eight. I think he had five in the
Speaker 3: first half as well. So once he got to that point.
Speaker 3: Of course, that was the seventy three and nine season.
Speaker 3: That was Kobe's last regular season game, as well as
Speaker 3: so much going on. But Steph went out there and
Speaker 3: set a record that hasn't been broken yet, but it
Speaker 3: will be broken one day. I think four hundred threes
Speaker 3: in a season, it's just a matter of time before
Speaker 3: someone comes along and does that. And you know, it
Speaker 3: seems it seems like at the time that record is like, wow,
Speaker 3: that's out of reach. But the way guys shoot threes
Speaker 3: these days, I can see someone maybe hitting five or
Speaker 3: six hundred in the season at some point down the track.
Speaker 3: Made not for a few years, but guys just come
Speaker 3: into league these days, just firing away. So that's what's
Speaker 3: going to happen.
Speaker 2: Well, the reason I brought it up is I wanted
Speaker 2: you to tell us how many three is Steph Cree
Speaker 2: will end his basketball career with.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad you asked that's Steve as kids, because
Speaker 3: I actually I've actually been I've actually done well, I've
Speaker 3: done the projected how many threes I think he's going
Speaker 3: to make from this point on? Roughly? Okay, I think
Speaker 3: he's got seven seasons left in him where he's going
Speaker 3: to be about thirty nine. I've roughed it, averaged it
Speaker 3: out to be about seventy five games per seven seasons
Speaker 3: at three and a half threes per game. So I
Speaker 3: think he's got another eighteen hundred threese left in him. Wow,
Speaker 3: starting now, eighteen hundred regular season threes. Yes, yes, So
Speaker 3: I don't have the record here, but yeah, So he
Speaker 3: just passed Ray Allen. He's just passed Reggie Miller. He's
Speaker 3: got four hundred to get Ray Allen. So I think
Speaker 3: he's going to be around fifteen hundred ahead of rayl
Speaker 3: and about four and a half thousand threes when his
Speaker 3: career is done.
Speaker 2: Okay, calling it four thousand, five hundred and made threes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so, because I mean he's going to
Speaker 3: become you know, guys like him become a better shooter
Speaker 3: as they get older. But of course he's not going
Speaker 3: to play as heavy minutes, but he's still going to
Speaker 3: be able to hit those threes. So I think that's
Speaker 3: a reasonable sort of target. He can make eighteen hundred,
Speaker 3: you know, seventy five games a season for seven seasons.
Speaker 3: I think that's him play.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and then the question will be can anyone
Speaker 2: catch him? Tray like, you know, can a Trey Young
Speaker 2: moving forward, like, you know, fifteen years down the line,
Speaker 2: you know, flirt with something like over four thousand mad
Speaker 2: threes or something like that wherever Curry ends up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the question to me is not can somebody catch him?
Speaker 4: How soon will somebody catch him? Because, like lie saying,
Speaker 4: people come in chucking nowadays, it took Steph Curry a
Speaker 4: few seasons before he was the fire thrower we know,
Speaker 4: and who's ready to just pull up from half court.
Speaker 4: You know, it took a while till anybody had the
Speaker 4: confidence to do that. But now you see Trey Young
Speaker 4: come in doing it. His rookie year. So yeah, I
Speaker 4: think it'll happen eventually. It'll be basically ten years after
Speaker 4: Ray or wait, I guess that seven years after Ray
Speaker 4: Allen retired. He retired, like nine years after Reggie Miller retired.
Speaker 4: In the next decade, will somebody pass Steph Curry? Will
Speaker 4: we have to wait until his son makes it to
Speaker 4: the NBA. And he's the greatest three point shooter of
Speaker 4: all time. That's how it seems to go. Dell Curry
Speaker 4: was one of the best of all time. Now Steph
Speaker 4: Curry is the best of all time. What's the third
Speaker 4: generation gonna be the third three point shooter? We're talking
Speaker 4: about eight nine a game, like Li saying maybe five
Speaker 4: hundred and six hundred a season.
Speaker 2: Incredible, So congrats to Curry. Yeah, eclipsing Reggie Miller. That
Speaker 2: was a cool moment. By the way, we should slip
Speaker 2: in there. The Jazz won that game, right, Tassie and
Speaker 2: continue to get their win streak up to eight. I know,
Speaker 2: Jazz fans, come on, why we won the game? We
Speaker 2: won the game? Yep, you won the game. You Tod
Speaker 2: Jess continuing to play great basketball. We talked about them
Speaker 2: at the end of last week and they were you know,
Speaker 2: a little many of the mini winner of the weekend
Speaker 2: for sure, them continuing to keep the streak going them
Speaker 2: and the Clippers are on a nice winning streak right now. Okay,
Speaker 2: so Curry, he gets one lee. Where are you going man?
Speaker 3: Well skeeze, I'm going with your Raptors yesterday? Can one
Speaker 3: single game make you a winner of the weekend? What
Speaker 3: an incredible performance because the Raptors went into this one
Speaker 3: shorthanded two of their starters not playing here, Pascal and
Speaker 3: Kyle Lowry. So this was actually sort of in Nick
Speaker 3: Nurse's playbook. Here he had to call on some of
Speaker 3: the guys who don't play as many minutes to go
Speaker 3: out there and play heavy minutes, and they pretty much
Speaker 3: all delivered. I thought og Ananobi maybe had his best
Speaker 3: game ever as a Raptor. He was fantastic on both
Speaker 3: ends of floor, hitting three's, playing great defense, super efficient,
Speaker 3: but when the game had to be won, it came
Speaker 3: down to free throws and defense. Fred van Vliet especially,
Speaker 3: his defense is stoped on Malcolm Brogden at the end there.
Speaker 3: I've watched this over and over and over again, and
Speaker 3: it looks like he gets his hand all over Brogden's
Speaker 3: sort of arm hand wrist area, but nothing was called
Speaker 3: and no one from the Pacers complained, so it's like
Speaker 3: they were like, he didn't found me. That was just
Speaker 3: incredible defense. And then on the next possession, the Raptors
Speaker 3: defense inside Stanley Johnson and boucheting de Monte Sabonis at
Speaker 3: the rim like he could not even get a shot off,
Speaker 3: which was incredible. Well he got the shot off, of course,
Speaker 3: but they contested it. Just incredible stuff. And the Raptors,
Speaker 3: who have started to play a lot better basketball too
Speaker 3: after their very slow start, got it together. But what
Speaker 3: a great performance. Norm Power was very good yesterday fred
Speaker 3: as I mentioned. I mean, he's been great for most
Speaker 3: of this season, but OG's stepping up there and just
Speaker 3: giving the Raptors a very very important win. They can
Speaker 3: face the Paces again here tonight, but you know, when
Speaker 3: you lose two starters and for a team that's desperate
Speaker 3: for wins to go out and get that sort of
Speaker 3: a victory against a team that's just very hard to
Speaker 3: play against in the Indiana Paces, I thought was excellent,
Speaker 3: and I just thought that was I think I think
Speaker 3: a lot of the result for this was from Nick
Speaker 3: Nurse's coaching record there with the Raptors isn't that he
Speaker 3: does trust those guys even if they don't play heavy minutes.
Speaker 3: DeAndre Bembery played the most minutes he's ever played as
Speaker 3: a rapt yesterday, and he came out and delivered. You know,
Speaker 3: he's not out there scoring and shooting the ball out
Speaker 3: that much, but playing the right way and the offense
Speaker 3: and setting up guys. And I think that just shows
Speaker 3: that Nick Nurse, when you're on his team, it's like
Speaker 3: you will get an opportunity. I don't know when, I
Speaker 3: don't know how, but when you get that opportunity, I'm
Speaker 3: going to put trust in you to go out there
Speaker 3: and perform. And I thought that's what they did. So
Speaker 3: I think this is a very good sign for the
Speaker 3: Raptors that they are starting to get it together and
Speaker 3: toughing out these wins. Earlier in the season, these were
Speaker 3: the sort of games that they would lose, but instead
Speaker 3: they're on the right side of the victory. Here. Great
Speaker 3: great game, great performance, and really they closed down to
Speaker 3: Mantess Bonus in that second half as well. I mean,
Speaker 3: he had one of his worst offensive games of the season.
Speaker 3: Just thought it was a great all round performance from
Speaker 3: the Raptors.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Raps now five and one since starting two and
Speaker 2: eight and tass you know on football Sunday there. This
Speaker 2: was the rare like one o'clock start, so there was
Speaker 2: nothing happening yet, none of the football games had started.
Speaker 2: So maybe if some my balls were on this one
Speaker 2: between two pretty good teams obviously, and like lisaid, Raps,
Speaker 2: Raps pulled it out. How are you feeling as a
Speaker 2: Raps fan, you know, with this team rebounding after a
Speaker 2: brutal start as we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 5: Well, I feel good to have Nick Nurse in my
Speaker 5: corner because what he did to my Sabonis there, just
Speaker 5: taking him out of the game was the key to
Speaker 5: this one. That's that's Nick Nurse's m o. You see
Speaker 5: a star on the other side, make everybody else beat you.
Speaker 5: And oj Anonobi he was the one and one a
Speaker 5: defender on him, but they kept doubling Sabonis and Sabonis
Speaker 5: just wasn't ready for all that. And so when he
Speaker 5: was blocked twice at the end of the game, you
Speaker 5: could see him shaking those beautiful locks, like what how
Speaker 5: how did this happen. He was just he was, he
Speaker 5: was He just couldn't believe the forty eight minutes that
Speaker 5: preceded that. So Nurse really threw him off. They took
Speaker 5: away Brogden's right hand, and they're just ready, Nick, Nurse
Speaker 5: is ready. Yeah, and how he has everybody up and
Speaker 5: down that roster. Yeah, they're feeling, they're feeling like they
Speaker 5: can get to five hundred one day. And that's in
Speaker 5: the Eastern Conference. There's a billion teams, you know, six
Speaker 5: through thirteen. Well, I guess there's not a billion, but
Speaker 5: you know there's there's there's eight teams right there, six
Speaker 5: through thirteen that if anybody wants to make a move,
Speaker 5: it's six and seven are right there for them. And
Speaker 5: when the Heat get their guys back, you assume they're
Speaker 5: going to make a move in the raps as well.
Speaker 5: But og An andob uh It was a boss man.
Speaker 5: He was a boss in that game. And it's it
Speaker 5: was cool to see him take that number one roll
Speaker 5: and roll with it for one night. And the rematch
Speaker 5: tonight should be a blast between Nurse and protege Nate Bjorkrin.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The Iowa Bowl, as some people were calling it,
Speaker 2: is that where they last saw each other, I think,
Speaker 2: or last coached against each other when they were me
Speaker 2: and Iowa. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The question for me with
Speaker 2: the Raps is, like you said it there tasks and
Speaker 2: I'll throw it at you, Trey, like, can the Raps
Speaker 2: sort of like you know, that was a victory that
Speaker 2: they won last night or yesterday I should say afternoon.
Speaker 2: That was reminiscent of last year, right, that was sort
Speaker 2: of like how the Raps won a lot of games
Speaker 2: last year, I think, especially down their their star players
Speaker 2: in Lowry and Siakam. But can they barge their way
Speaker 2: into like the top of the east conversation, you know,
Speaker 2: like the Sixers and the Bucks and the Celtics I
Speaker 2: think are all there, the Nets are in the mix.
Speaker 2: And then and then it's like the next tier of
Speaker 2: your Pacers, Heat and Raptors. Can one of those three?
Speaker 2: Can all of them who or none get into that
Speaker 2: sort of upper etchelong conversation?
Speaker 4: Well, unfortunately, I do think the Raptors are going to
Speaker 4: make it into the top six, into the guaranteed playoff spots.
Speaker 4: This seems to me to be the long con from
Speaker 4: the Raptors, come out, struggle, make it look like you're
Speaker 4: not the same championship team you used to be, and
Speaker 4: then you got everybody sit in fat, feeling good, and
Speaker 4: you're able to pull off victories like you'd were last
Speaker 4: season when you were the can't say die Raptors. But
Speaker 4: it's too bad they're going to get into the top
Speaker 4: six because right now seven through ten goes Hawks, Nicks,
Speaker 4: Bowls Raptors. That would be absolutely perfect for us in
Speaker 4: the Eastern Conference play and tournament. The Raptors are just
Speaker 4: too good. They had a bad couple of weeks to
Speaker 4: start the season, and it happened to come at the
Speaker 4: start of the season, which is when everybody's eyes are
Speaker 4: going to be on them. If you have a bad
Speaker 4: couple of weeks in the middle of March, it probably
Speaker 4: slides under the radar. But the Raptors seem to have
Speaker 4: found their footing down there in Florida and they're playing
Speaker 4: some good basketball. Now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, og Man, like he is a he's not going
Speaker 2: to be in any sort of most improved conversation. I
Speaker 2: don't think. I think, guys, we've talked about some of
Speaker 2: the candidates or just sort of leaps and bounds ahead
Speaker 2: of some of the other guys trailing them, but he'd
Speaker 2: better be a Dan lock Lely for an all defensive nod,
Speaker 2: Like he has to be on one of those two
Speaker 2: teams because like he is given the best guy on
Speaker 2: the other team. He's given that you know role, and
Speaker 2: he's more times than nut shuts them down or at
Speaker 2: least contains them. And then for him what he was
Speaker 2: doing offensively, he does not have the tightest handle, I
Speaker 2: would say Og, but man, it's getting a little better.
Speaker 2: He's getting a little more confident and he's just barging
Speaker 2: through guys like attacking, and then he's also hitting the
Speaker 2: three pointer, which we know he can do for stretches.
Speaker 2: So it's like, you know, you know, you hear Raps
Speaker 2: fans going, hold on, is Og already the Raptor's best player?
Speaker 2: Like is he going to eclipse here very shortly? Like
Speaker 2: a siakam If you still believe that, you know, Lowry
Speaker 2: is Lowryly he's the groat, the greatest Raptor of all time,
Speaker 2: but you know he's obviously lost a little bit of
Speaker 2: a step. I think you could start convincing me that
Speaker 2: it wouldn't be long for Og to be the best
Speaker 2: player on this team. Because what he does both ends.
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, well, he got the big contract just
Speaker 3: coming into the season, so certainly massage Jerry believes that
Speaker 3: he has a big future here. But can we please
Speaker 3: not talk all defense. I don't want to get into that.
Speaker 2: After for you and your plus and all that, ye
Speaker 2: forget of that debacle. I think you can play them
Speaker 2: on one of these two teams.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, yeah, I mean the second team. There are
Speaker 3: sometimes players who bob up on that who no one
Speaker 3: really expects. But look, he's out there and he's playing tough.
Speaker 3: That's what I like about it is he plays tough
Speaker 3: and then he hits those shots. And he has been
Speaker 3: someone who rapped his fans have turned on from time
Speaker 3: to time. So you know, he's playing great right now.
Speaker 3: Everyone's in love with him. But we'll see what happens
Speaker 3: if he hits another bit of a rough patch at
Speaker 3: some point during the season, because he's someone who people
Speaker 3: like to like to jump on pretty quickly when he
Speaker 3: has a couple of bad games.
Speaker 5: He's not a number one offensive player though, like that's key.
Speaker 5: I think the worst part about the worst thing for
Speaker 5: him is that Pascal Siakam plays beside him and they
Speaker 5: just say whoa he can turn into Pascal Siakam offensively. Defensively,
Speaker 5: obviously he's a bus But the a four year, seventy
Speaker 5: two million dollar contract is his pennies on the dollar
Speaker 5: because of what he does defensively and how he can
Speaker 5: contribute offensively. And somebody would probably given him even more
Speaker 5: than that this offseason, considering the free agency class and
Speaker 5: how weak it is. But just because you see one game,
Speaker 5: you can't just throw him into Hey, he's a number
Speaker 5: one guy and he's gonna all start. I mean, he
Speaker 5: hasn't even.
Speaker 4: No, no, I'm not even scratched that maybe he's one
Speaker 4: B A, two A.
Speaker 2: He's I have way more confidence in an OG shot
Speaker 2: though than I do a Sam shot from outside Buchan
Speaker 2: and everything like. It's just, yeah, way more faith in
Speaker 2: him being a little more consistent with that. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it was his best game probably as a Raptors. As
Speaker 2: Lee said, I'd probably agree with that on both ends.
Speaker 2: Let's keep it going here.
Speaker 4: What do you got, Trey, Well, the Fixers still look
Speaker 4: like the best team in the Eastern Conference. They had
Speaker 4: a great wakeound on Friday, they beat the Celtics. Embiid
Speaker 4: had thirty eight and eleven, looking like an MVP again,
Speaker 4: eleven points in the fourth quarter. But the big news
Speaker 4: I thought from this one was the best Simmons had
Speaker 4: a huge fourth quarter. He had eleven points and he
Speaker 4: basically just took down, took over down the stretch against
Speaker 4: the Celtics. You know, it's gonna be very interesting. I
Speaker 4: think we should see these couple of teams in the
Speaker 4: playoffs because they love beefing with each other. We got
Speaker 4: Embiid versus Marcus Smart. Marcus Smart was flopping like crazy
Speaker 4: in this game. Embiid versus Tys Tye was flopping like crazy.
Speaker 4: Obviously they had the beef last week about who flops
Speaker 4: the most. But that was a fun one. And then
Speaker 4: on Saturday the Sixers kept it rolling. They beat the
Speaker 4: Pistons thirty three and fourteen. For Embiid, he was making
Speaker 4: big defensive plays. He had some huge rebounds. But again,
Speaker 4: the story to me is that Ben Simmons had his
Speaker 4: first twenty point game of the year twenty nine and seven.
Speaker 4: For Ben Simmons, they just need him to be aggressive,
Speaker 4: play downhill and get in the lane, because I mean,
Speaker 4: he's scoring like twelve points a game. Everybody wants Ben
Speaker 4: Simmons to be a shooter. That doesn't seem to be
Speaker 4: the case right now, but he can still score more
Speaker 4: than twelve points a game. He just needs to take shots.
Speaker 4: He needs to be aggressive looking to score because if
Speaker 4: he's collapsing the defense, if he's in the lane, he's
Speaker 4: so tall that he's still got the kickout passes there.
Speaker 4: But they need to go to the hoop and actually
Speaker 4: try and get some layups here. He had a huge
Speaker 4: drive to the hoop to get to get free throws
Speaker 4: down the stretch against the Pistons. He's a special defensive
Speaker 4: player already. It feels like Doc Rivers is getting everything
Speaker 4: out of Embiid and Harris to start the season. Now,
Speaker 4: if Ben Simmons is running rounding into form, the Sixers
Speaker 4: are gonna look even scarier. It's tough to always believe
Speaker 4: in the Sixers because they have these high highs, They
Speaker 4: have these huge peaks, and it seems that most of
Speaker 4: these are coming at home right now, which is also
Speaker 4: a classics fixers thing to do. But it feels like
Speaker 4: the vibes are better in Philadelphia. It feels like they're
Speaker 4: confident and they're playing the right style of ball without
Speaker 4: the constant question of should we break these guys up
Speaker 4: over the top of their heads.
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially like the timing of it all coming off
Speaker 2: the heels of the Harden trade and them not getting hardened,
Speaker 2: but Simmons' name being thrown around and like you kept
Speaker 2: bringing it up, Lee, like ooh, that could be bad,
Speaker 2: Like it'll be interesting to see how Simmons bounces back
Speaker 2: from that, how the team deals with that, and like
Speaker 2: they just continue to, you know, get these wins under
Speaker 2: their belt. So that's that's fantastic, even if it means,
Speaker 2: you know, you need Simmons to score twenty five and eight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And he's gotten to the free throw line double
Speaker 3: digits times two of the last three games, which I
Speaker 3: think is important. He's making those free throws two, seven
Speaker 3: to ten and then ten for twelve, So I think
Speaker 3: that is Doc Rivers saying to him, like, yeah, don't worry,
Speaker 3: we don't care if you're not shooting, but you have
Speaker 3: to still be aggressive and get inside. Because once he
Speaker 3: gets inside at six, nine, sixty ten, whatever he is,
Speaker 3: there's not many guards who can really get up there
Speaker 3: and can test the shot. So he just has to
Speaker 3: take the ball strong and he's going to get the
Speaker 3: free throw calls, and he's going to get to the line.
Speaker 3: So I think that's what it is.
Speaker 2: But overall, I.
Speaker 3: Think his response to that trade has been good. I
Speaker 3: think his attitude has been in the right place because
Speaker 3: on the night where it looked like he was being traded,
Speaker 3: apparently his agent was told he was being traded, he
Speaker 3: had a bad game and it looked like it. But
Speaker 3: then the trade happened and he wasn't included, and he
Speaker 3: seemed to be able to get over that pretty quickly.
Speaker 3: So I think that's very important for him, because again,
Speaker 3: if he and Embiid reach their potential with all their
Speaker 3: sort of surrounding players, their role players, the sky for
Speaker 3: the Sixers really is I think conference finals. I think
Speaker 3: that's in play. But when they can't play together, and
Speaker 3: when they play at their worst, it's like first round
Speaker 3: fodder like they were last season in the Bubble. I
Speaker 3: know Simmons didn't play in that series, but they do
Speaker 3: have quite a variance between their absolute best and their
Speaker 3: absolute worst, and so much of it just comes down
Speaker 3: to their two star players, which which is often the
Speaker 3: case in the NBA. If you get the burst out
Speaker 3: of those guys, then you can be great. But if
Speaker 3: if one guy is not functioning or they can't work together,
Speaker 3: then they don't really intimidate or scare any of those
Speaker 3: other teams.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so good weekend for the Sixers. I'll keep it
Speaker 2: rolling here. A winner of the weekend the Nuggets for
Speaker 2: going back to back wins over the Suns. It was
Speaker 2: the all beat ball series, both of them in overtime,
Speaker 2: but they got it done. So on Friday, the Nuggets
Speaker 2: rallied to force overtime before getting the one thirty to
Speaker 2: one to twenty six win. Now, Yolkisch was a monster
Speaker 2: again in this. You know, he is of course at
Speaker 2: the top with embiid and a couple other guys of
Speaker 2: the MVP leader board thirty one points, ten boards. Eat
Speaker 2: assess Jamal Murray, though he hit a big shot like
Speaker 2: thirteen foot jumper to put Denver up three ice the game,
Speaker 2: there was like thirty seconds left and he had a
Speaker 2: good game, you know, a decent game eighteen ninety seven,
Speaker 2: you know, not a ton of points, not a ton
Speaker 2: of scoring, but helping across the board there in the system.
Speaker 2: Rebounds lost in the shuffle of that game too a
Speaker 2: little bit. Michael Porter Junior returned for the first time
Speaker 2: since late December after he missed ten games in the
Speaker 2: league's COVID nineteen health and safety protocols. And you know,
Speaker 2: he had seven points six boards in twenty minutes coming
Speaker 2: off the bench in his first one. Nuggets followed that
Speaker 2: up on Saturday against the Suns. Again, like I said,
Speaker 2: in another overtime game. This one went to double overtime.
Speaker 2: Jokich once again awesome, twenty nine points. He ate some
Speaker 2: roast beef which we'll get to in a second, but
Speaker 2: they got the eight point victory one twenty to one.
Speaker 2: Twelve Sons were without Booker got hamstring issues, So I
Speaker 2: could we could very easily just sort of give the
Speaker 2: Suns a loser the weekend for losing back to back
Speaker 2: against the Nuggets and then this injury to Booker. But
Speaker 2: we'll keep it positive here with the Nuggets. Murray though
Speaker 2: in this one, in this second game, I'm sure you
Speaker 2: guys saw this, that difficult off balance three at the
Speaker 2: end of regulation to force overtime. He ended with twenty
Speaker 2: six points. Yeah, Trey is dropping the traveling call out there,
Speaker 2: definitely probably got away with a walk, probably a foul
Speaker 2: on the play. Though too, if we're being honest, So
Speaker 2: maybe cancel each other out. But a very big shot,
Speaker 2: moving the feet a little bit on the side, and
Speaker 2: they got the victory in the end.
Speaker 5: They roll.
Speaker 2: I mean again, it's Jokic, it's Murray having a decent game,
Speaker 2: hitting the huge shot, and Porter in this one fourteen points,
Speaker 2: eleven boards. So here come the Nuggets, maybe tass you know,
Speaker 2: they started slow, just like the Raptors, but getting the victories.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 2: I think they're nine and seven overall, and Jokic has
Speaker 2: been a rock the entire season. Murray's getting it going,
Speaker 2: and they're just getting some of these other bodies back
Speaker 2: where their bench is starting to look like, oh, that's
Speaker 2: the Nuggets bench of old.
Speaker 5: What a doubleheader this was that this weekend, those two
Speaker 5: teams going back and forth. Unlike the Sixers and Celtics,
Speaker 5: which was a lot of floppy beef, just flop after
Speaker 5: flop after flop, these two teams it was just good
Speaker 5: basketball going back and forth, and Jokic versus eight and
Speaker 5: eight and was doing such a great job of taking
Speaker 5: away Jokic's spots. Even though Yokic had a real good game,
Speaker 5: because he's a friggin superstar. He's an MVP candidate. I
Speaker 5: was really impressed with DeAndre Ayton and how they fought
Speaker 5: on a second night without Devin Booker. That was that
Speaker 5: was a blest And if that's any sort of indication
Speaker 5: of what we're going to get in the postseason, I
Speaker 5: can't wait because I would love to see the Suns.
Speaker 5: I'm not so sure if I want to see Celtics
Speaker 5: and Sixers. In terms of flop, oh, man, it's too
Speaker 5: many flops. That's like flop per minute rate. That's a lot, man,
Speaker 5: Like it's lower. It lowers, for sure, you know, but
Speaker 5: you'd be on board.
Speaker 2: You'd be on board with the Sun's Nuggets series like
Speaker 2: a four five or three six or something like that.
Speaker 5: Great stories, great stories throughout throughout the both those rosters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5: It was good.
Speaker 2: Anything to add, I mean, you thought it was a
Speaker 2: travel trey. I actually think you're right there with Murray.
Speaker 4: So did the last two minute report they said it
Speaker 4: was a travel He did that. He did the smart
Speaker 4: move though he took a shot from right underneath the
Speaker 4: score bug. You couldn't really see what his feet were doing,
Speaker 4: but he called the ball there. But if they don't
Speaker 4: call it, it counts. That was a crazy shot with
Speaker 4: zero reaction because there was nobody there, But I was like,
Speaker 4: oh wow, that went in. Incredible stuff. But the Nuggets
Speaker 4: are looking good, and I think that Yokic would be
Speaker 4: even higher in the MVP conversation if we were seeing
Speaker 4: these kind of performances from Jamal Murray all season, because
Speaker 4: the Nuggets have been very close in winning the games
Speaker 4: that they lost. They're nine and seven. The defense has
Speaker 4: not been very good at all, but Jokic has been
Speaker 4: straight up ball, and if he had the secondary guy
Speaker 4: there every single night, they're probably a little bit better
Speaker 4: than nine and seven. Good to see Murray get going.
Speaker 4: He looked like he was in total control of this game.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I'm with Tassi. Sign me up for Nuggets
Speaker 4: Versuns because I think their first game was the one
Speaker 4: where Chris Paul hit that really big baseline jumper and
Speaker 4: then one of his teammates stepped on his shoe, So
Speaker 4: they've played three classics already. Would be fun in the playoffs,
Speaker 4: no doubt about it. But of course, for me, the
Speaker 4: biggest news out of this one twenty two rebounds from
Speaker 4: Nikolea Jokic, So you know, we got to.
Speaker 1: Do it to him, skeets.
Speaker 7: Nikola Jokic grabbed twenty two rebounds. That's a lot of
Speaker 7: roast beef. He's on Denver. That's mile hide, no duks.
Speaker 7: We love roast beef, which is rebounds.
Speaker 2: When you see it cut together like that, you really
Speaker 2: realize that Jokic never grabs a rebound with two hands.
Speaker 4: Oh my good, this is hilarious to watch this guy rebounding,
Speaker 4: never grabs a rebound with two hands. Barely he jumps
Speaker 4: off the court. Look at how many of those are
Speaker 4: just him worming his way around DeAndre Ayton wearing an
Speaker 4: ironic number twenty two. Just a little tiny tip that
Speaker 4: one rebound right off the top where he grabs it
Speaker 4: with one hand. It just chucks it down the court.
Speaker 4: They didn't score on it, but he's throwing the outlet pass. Anyways,
Speaker 4: This was a lot different than watching Clint Capella's sloppy
Speaker 4: beef was. This was an interesting beef to watch, but
Speaker 4: the beef watch continues. That's our fifth twenty rebound game
Speaker 4: so far the season. Two for Drummond, one now for
Speaker 4: sabonas Clint Cappella and Nicola Jokic. Cappella he got pretty
Speaker 4: close over the weekend. Nineteen rebounds is looking like back
Speaker 4: to back beef. But this is how you inspire people.
Speaker 4: Big Beef exists for one week and now we got
Speaker 4: five twenty rebound games. You don't need to go out
Speaker 4: there and trash people. You gotta lift them up. Say
Speaker 4: we want to see those rebounds.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I saw someone on Twitter saying that what's going
Speaker 2: on with all these twenty rebound games? Is it because
Speaker 2: of the Big Beef? I think so everybody wants that
Speaker 2: roast beef.
Speaker 3: What would you call it if Cappella gets the triple
Speaker 3: double with the roast beef because he had the ten
Speaker 3: blocks too, and he had it.
Speaker 2: Oh you're saying, what happens with the triple double and
Speaker 2: roast beef? Exactly?
Speaker 4: Yeah, beef in Swiss. I don't know.
Speaker 5: Triple decker, I think, yeah, yeah, why not? I think
Speaker 5: that's when Nicole Joki is doing with that other hand.
Speaker 5: When he's rebounding with one hand, he's got a roast
Speaker 5: beef sandwich in the other that he's killing.
Speaker 2: It's incredible watching those, though. It really is like you
Speaker 2: don't notice as much when you just see one at
Speaker 2: a time. For some reason, you cut them all together.
Speaker 2: It's like he never ever grabs it with two hands.
Speaker 2: It's always one.
Speaker 5: And that music just guessed me. Hype was that the
Speaker 5: whittler on the ones and twos dropping those beats. That
Speaker 5: was nice.
Speaker 2: Well, let's stick with the nuggets because a couple other
Speaker 2: things here, Jamal Murray back to him. You know, he
Speaker 2: had all those big shots the ice the first game,
Speaker 2: and then he hit the game tying three, which you
Speaker 2: got away with the travel, but he hit the shot anyway.
Speaker 2: He also gave us one of three new wedgies from
Speaker 2: the weekend guys. So on Friday it was Jamal Murray
Speaker 2: Kitchener's finess. Of course, I should have said that earlier.
Speaker 2: Stuck it from the wing a spot, classic spot for
Speaker 2: a ggie, really deep weggie. I'd say that one's really
Speaker 2: in there, so that's nice. Then on Sunday, Lonnie Walker
Speaker 2: the fourth from the exact same spot, basically another leggie.
Speaker 2: Weg you number twelve if you're keeping track here, Marie
Speaker 2: was eleven Walker twelve, and then we weren't done because
Speaker 2: the Blazers, guys, my goodness, I think the Blazers are
Speaker 2: gonna win the championship solely because of how they've contributed
Speaker 2: to the hashtag we are Edgie because we got wedgie
Speaker 2: number thirteen on the season once again in a Blazers game,
Speaker 2: and once again Lamar heard on the.
Speaker 8: Call, Robinson denied by Kempy tenn and what do we
Speaker 8: have portally have a weggie? We've gotten more of those
Speaker 8: over the last three or four gas. We really have
Speaker 8: make that pass, good job and they go up and
Speaker 8: get that in.
Speaker 4: It was that our fourth one fourth. That's the rare
Speaker 4: block wedg.
Speaker 2: You can see those in the wild patients.
Speaker 8: Then I'm join those guys pretty so we're going to
Speaker 8: talk about Yeah.
Speaker 2: Look at that, Lamar heard teasing his appearance coming up
Speaker 2: here on No Dunks incredible and it's like, yeah, what
Speaker 2: is that our fourth Blazer's wedgie? Is that right? That's
Speaker 2: unbelievable this early in the season. Lamar heard, though, Blazer's
Speaker 2: broadcaster is coming on our show later this week. We
Speaker 2: got them penciled in for Wednesday. Got to talk to
Speaker 2: him about weggies. And that's of course his Blazers team
Speaker 2: got a whole lot more incredible.
Speaker 4: That was a crazy wedgie too, That was very soft
Speaker 4: the way it kind of like got just loaded up there.
Speaker 4: It was meant to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very low, I would say too low underneath it
Speaker 2: quite under the rim. So that's fantastic. We're at thirteen
Speaker 2: Wedgies tasks, Okay, we are. I mean, we'd have to
Speaker 2: go back and check, but I'm not sure we've ever
Speaker 2: had a start this hot right thirteen, like, and we're
Speaker 2: month into the season.
Speaker 5: I can confirm no chance we've had such a hot start.
Speaker 5: There's no chance that we're on pace for sixty ish
Speaker 5: to start the season and a seventy two game season.
Speaker 5: Oh and yes, we've taken that into account all those
Speaker 5: asking we include playoffs, but at this rate, layoffs are
Speaker 5: gonna be gravy on the low hanging Weggies. We're gonna
Speaker 5: blow through fifty. It feels like. Yeah, and it the
Speaker 5: man who gives us credit, Lamar Hurd, to have him
Speaker 5: on the call for four of them. This is the
Speaker 5: year of the Wedggie.
Speaker 2: It's truly amazing. And one more Nuggets related thing, Okay,
Speaker 2: to bring it back to the Nuggets, I just wanted
Speaker 2: to bring attention to this Monte Morris nickname on Basketball
Speaker 2: Reference that was making the rounds over the weekend, and
Speaker 2: I pointed out that We had nothing to do with this,
Speaker 2: but I wish we did. One of Monte Morris's nicknames
Speaker 2: is count of Monte assist slash teo. You know for turnover.
Speaker 2: He's got a great assist to turnover ratio Count of
Speaker 2: Monte assist you. I can't believe Task didn't come up
Speaker 2: with this, Orley or me for that matter, because this
Speaker 2: is right in our wheelhouse. But it wasn't us. I
Speaker 2: don't know who did it. Maybe just the people in
Speaker 2: Basketball Reference are having some fun. But what a nickname?
Speaker 4: What a nickname? Honestly though, if Count of Monte Assisto
Speaker 4: can make it, why is Ray Biscuit's dad quest not
Speaker 4: on Basketball Reference?
Speaker 2: Come on for favous bass kids. Yes, that's uh, we
Speaker 2: should get that up there. So what a weekend for
Speaker 2: the Nuggets there? What a weekend overall? I will say
Speaker 2: a mini winner of the weekend Jalen Brown. I mean,
Speaker 2: I know you don't want to watch Celtic Sixers matchup
Speaker 2: in the playoffs, fair enough tests, but Jalen Brown somehow
Speaker 2: scored the most points ever in the shot clock era
Speaker 2: at least, so we're talking since nineteen fifty four to
Speaker 2: fifty five, most points scored in under twenty minutes in
Speaker 2: a game last night yesterday thirty three points, shot thirteen
Speaker 2: to twenty in just nineteen minutes, which is pretty damn
Speaker 2: special there lately.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would have thought someone like staff or Clay
Speaker 3: Thompson would have done better than that at some point.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 3: It just it was weird. I saw that stat as well.
Speaker 3: I'm like, eh, that seems like that's not that many
Speaker 3: points really for the way that the players scored in
Speaker 3: the league these days, you know, or even someone like
Speaker 3: shack back in his day. Maybe in one of those
Speaker 3: blowouts he plays only the first half and he has
Speaker 3: like thirty six points or something. But shit, very very
Speaker 3: weird Mann thinking out all sorts of crazy stats these days.
Speaker 3: It's like the Baseball Baseball they always come up with, oh,
Speaker 3: he's a he's betting six hundred against lefties on a
Speaker 3: Tuesday and the open.
Speaker 4: Roof, you know, and it's like.
Speaker 3: Alright, alright, it cares.
Speaker 4: But maybe that damn I've talking Tampa Tom. I saw
Speaker 4: quite the stat for him over the weekend. He was
Speaker 4: like twenty five and four when games are under twenty
Speaker 4: nine degrees, when you're bringing in the degrees that's a wow.
Speaker 4: But Jaalen, Man, this guy is straight up ball. And
Speaker 4: he had the thirty three and nineteen minutes, like you said,
Speaker 4: also had forty two against the Sixers, and earlier this season, right,
Speaker 4: he had forty two and twenty nine minutes and that
Speaker 4: was like the greatest Celtics performance since Larry Bird at
Speaker 4: the time. So this guy is knocking off legends left and.
Speaker 2: Right here, Oh, Trey, I mean, on Friday's podcast, on
Speaker 2: the Drop podcast, we were doing our one Month in
Speaker 2: awards and like sort of blew my mind when you
Speaker 2: said Jayalen Brown for Most Improved. Man, I mean, I'm
Speaker 2: all on board with this pick. Now. I know there's
Speaker 2: some other great candidates, but he is averaging. Jalen Brown
Speaker 2: is averaging twenty seven point three points per game, six boards,
Speaker 2: three and a half assists. He's shooting fifty three percent
Speaker 2: from the floor, really good numbers across the board. And
Speaker 2: like Tatum's been in the lineup because of COVID nineteen,
Speaker 2: Kemball obviously wasn't there for a good chunk. Celtics still
Speaker 2: of a decent record. I actually was shocked. I went
Speaker 2: to Basketball Reference this morning thinking Jalen Brown may have
Speaker 2: cracked the like their top ten you know NBA MVP
Speaker 2: Award tracker thing. It's all based on numbers and previous
Speaker 2: votes and stuff like that. But he's not in there yet.
Speaker 2: But he's got to be damn close with what he's doing.
Speaker 2: But most improved. He's looking like a looking like a
Speaker 2: great pick. Though I think maybe he'll be too much
Speaker 2: in the MVP conversation if he keeps us up that
Speaker 2: it could hurt him. But crazy stat and a crazy
Speaker 2: new record.
Speaker 4: There, Yeah, that's possible. He looks like the perfect one
Speaker 4: B right now? Am I? Right late? Because he's he's
Speaker 4: fitting along, looking like a number one option playing alongside
Speaker 4: Jason Tatum or playing alongside Kemba Walker. It's the perfect
Speaker 4: one bee? What the one JB?
Speaker 3: If if he was to MVP, surely he would have
Speaker 3: to also in most improved because who would have improved
Speaker 3: more than him to go from a non MVP to
Speaker 3: MVP this season.
Speaker 2: Well, we had that conversation with Steph Curry. I remember
Speaker 2: back in the day people were trying to give it
Speaker 2: to him as well. I just think if you're in
Speaker 2: the MVP conversation or you're winning it for that matter,
Speaker 2: you're you're out of the running.
Speaker 5: For most Improved.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's just a rule that we came up.
Speaker 2: But all right, those are our winners of the weekend.
Speaker 2: Let's get to loser's task at started. What do you got?
Speaker 5: I gotta start with the New Orleans Pelicans because last
Speaker 5: year we went to the bubble thinking the Pelicans were
Speaker 5: put into that situation. They brought in the Pelicans and
Speaker 5: their their record where they were standing. Because everybody wanted
Speaker 5: to see Zion Williamson. They increased the number of teams
Speaker 5: to get Zion there. The hopes were there for them
Speaker 5: to get in. Their defense did not show up for
Speaker 5: Alvin Gentry, so he was acts. After five seasons, stan
Speaker 5: Ban Gundy inserted and after seven games this season it
Speaker 5: looked like the SPG insertion was fantastic. They had the
Speaker 5: fourth rank d but since then they're twenty ninth and
Speaker 5: they now have, you know, the second worst defense. For
Speaker 5: a good stretch of the season, they've lost eight of nine,
Speaker 5: including to the Timberwolves on Saturday, who didn't have Karl
Speaker 5: Anthony Towns it won't for a while, and they didn't
Speaker 5: have Dangel Russell who was resting. Excuse me, d Angel
Speaker 5: Russell resting the fifteenth best team in the Western Conference
Speaker 5: as resting one of their players, Come on, I don't, yeah,
Speaker 5: it absolutely did. Yeah, they played like a team and
Speaker 5: they won. The thing is with the Pels, they've decided
Speaker 5: to play like the Bucks a little bit. Let's shut
Speaker 5: down the lane, not send anybody to free throw line,
Speaker 5: and allow three point shots to happen. The The objective, though,
Speaker 5: is to make the guys who can't shoot all that
Speaker 5: well shoot the three point shots and take away the
Speaker 5: corner threes. And that's just hasn't happened. And Steven Adams
Speaker 5: has been sucking up a lot of those defensive rebounds.
Speaker 5: But Zion Williamson not a great defensive rebounder, and they're
Speaker 5: allowing opponents to shoot seventy percent at the rim. That's
Speaker 5: not good enough. That's you know, one of the worst
Speaker 5: marks in the lead. Stevie Adams that's not his forte
Speaker 5: So they're not playing hard enough. I think that's what
Speaker 5: it comes down to. They're just not a defensive outfit.
Speaker 5: So they have to pick this thing up because they're
Speaker 5: one of those. To me, they're kind of one of
Speaker 5: the interesting teams coming into the season, and the idea was, yeah,
Speaker 5: they're going to be this hard hat team with Stevie
Speaker 5: Adams in the middle. And now people are thinking, well,
Speaker 5: maybe Zion should play the five, and maybe they should
Speaker 5: just throw JJ Reddick in the starting lineup because Eric
Speaker 5: Letso and Lonzo Ball aren't scoring, and so maybe they
Speaker 5: should just go all offense basically because Zion at the
Speaker 5: five is not going to be amazing defensively. Hey, for me,
Speaker 5: that would be fun to watch, but for stan Ban Gundy,
Speaker 5: he'd pull out every single hair he has on his head,
Speaker 5: I think watching that. So Stevie Adams is going to
Speaker 5: stay at the center spot. But they just have to
Speaker 5: get better. And so the Pelicans, although the Western Conference
Speaker 5: is full of good stories, the Pelicans are not one
Speaker 5: of them at this point. They come home and they
Speaker 5: are going to have lots of games at home to
Speaker 5: try and get their defense right. But all those tenets
Speaker 5: that are you know, their defense is based on, is
Speaker 5: just they're just not coming through on them at this point.
Speaker 5: Eight of nine, last eight of nine that they're they're
Speaker 5: too good for that.
Speaker 2: I saw Kendrick Perkins too, tweeting about them over the weekend.
Speaker 2: He said, you all really thought stan Van Gundy was
Speaker 2: the one. Huh, the Pelicans should have hired a young stud.
Speaker 2: But don't mind me though, carry on, And then I
Speaker 2: saw that. I the only reason I think I saw that.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if I do follow Kendrick Perkins, but
Speaker 2: I saw Baron Davis retweet it basically doubling down agreeing
Speaker 2: with Kendrick Perkins, sort of like, yeah, people, you know,
Speaker 2: young guys, I guess do not really want to buy
Speaker 2: into what SVG is selling. So I don't know some
Speaker 2: former players thinking that, at least I don't know if
Speaker 2: there's any truth to that. But it's not good right now.
Speaker 2: You're gonna make loser of the weekend probably if you
Speaker 2: lose to the Timberwolves without their best guys, because they're
Speaker 2: not a great team either. So yeah, it's rough. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you have anything to add tray about
Speaker 2: the Pelicans.
Speaker 4: Well, A lot of the concern, it feels like, is
Speaker 4: on whether or not Zion plays defense, and there's no
Speaker 4: doubt about it. He could be better better at it.
Speaker 4: He would certainly struggle playing as a small ball five
Speaker 4: on the defensive end, but he's getting buckets on the
Speaker 4: offensive end and I really think the main problem with
Speaker 4: them defensively is their guards guard absolutely nobody, Like Lonzo
Speaker 4: guards nobody. Eric Bledsoe guards nobody, and they're both out
Speaker 4: there for their defensive prowess more than anything. It's a
Speaker 4: walk into the lane before you're encountering either Steven Adams
Speaker 4: or Zion, So I mean they're at a bit of
Speaker 4: a disadvantage here getting head starts. The guards are getting
Speaker 4: head starts to try and attack Zion, who's a short
Speaker 4: guy who can maybe put his hands up at the rim,
Speaker 4: but doesn't exactly know where to be. Or Steven Adams,
Speaker 4: who doesn't have great left isn't a super rim protector,
Speaker 4: or just a big guy who takes up space. It's
Speaker 4: not looking good, especially considering they brought in. It was
Speaker 4: Lonzo and Eric Bledsoe and Steven Adams. You thought this
Speaker 4: is going to be a pretty solid defense. For a
Speaker 4: defensive coach in stan van Gundy. He's got to be sick,
Speaker 4: absolutely sick, watching these guys get completely dusted in the
Speaker 4: pick and role. It's not even close. It's like they
Speaker 4: come aund one thing and maybe it's Josh Hart, maybe
Speaker 4: it's JJ Reddick, whoever it is, it is a bucket
Speaker 4: for whichever guard is out there.
Speaker 2: Is this safe to say they are not forming an
Speaker 2: f and wall for Stammangunny in the post huh no
Speaker 2: chain link fence. You can get through it pretty easily
Speaker 2: there ly, although it is easy to get through a
Speaker 2: chain link fence. Yeah, I guess it sort of is
Speaker 2: if you were a mouse.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 2: Think about that. Anything to add to the Pelicans.
Speaker 3: No, it's I mean there's a lot of expectation and
Speaker 3: hope on Zion Williamson and he's scoring fine, he's doing
Speaker 3: all that, but it takes time to learn how to
Speaker 3: play defense. It looks like he just has never really
Speaker 3: been a big defensive player throughout his career, and now
Speaker 3: he's in the NBA and he missed most of his
Speaker 3: first season and his second season. It's like, you're the
Speaker 3: star player in this team. Fine, is scoring nice, but
Speaker 3: you need to be able to also hold up your
Speaker 3: other end on the defensive side, and he's not able
Speaker 3: to do that. So yeah, it's it's like it's a
Speaker 3: battle between the Pelicans and the Kings or who has
Speaker 3: the weakest defense, and neither of them have a very
Speaker 3: impressed at all to this point.
Speaker 2: Trey who do you have for loser the weekend of
Speaker 2: the weekend.
Speaker 4: I hate to do it. It's the Orlando Magic. They
Speaker 4: had a tough weekend. On Friday, they lost to the Pacers.
Speaker 4: In this game, they led with sixteen seconds left in
Speaker 4: regulation to Monto Sabonis gets a bucket, Aaron Gordon a
Speaker 4: turnover on the other side. Then they're up three with
Speaker 4: forty four seconds left in overtime, and then it's buckets
Speaker 4: for Demanta Sabonis and Malcolm Brogden. Fourty A misses a
Speaker 4: three on the other end. After the game, he said,
Speaker 4: this was painful because I thought we fought really hard,
Speaker 4: and I feel like we had this game twice and
Speaker 4: I feel like they stole it away from us. That's
Speaker 4: exactly what it felt like. It happened again on Sunday
Speaker 4: versus the Hornets, another loss. No Aaron Gordon in this one.
Speaker 4: The ball movement was incredible to start. They were, you know,
Speaker 4: they assisted on like twenty one of twenty five baskets
Speaker 4: through three quarters or something like that. But then at
Speaker 4: the start of the fourth quarter the Magic gave up
Speaker 4: a twenty five to four run. Suddenly they're down three.
Speaker 4: They give up two offensive rebounds, then it somehow gets
Speaker 4: to Biznack Bimbo, they foul him. He misses two free throws,
Speaker 4: having forty eight fans Terrence Ross in the corner for
Speaker 4: a chuck of a three it somehow go But then
Speaker 4: on the other side, Gordon Hayward in the midst of
Speaker 4: a good game, he drives right past Evan fourtyer for
Speaker 4: a layup with basically nobody at the rim than the
Speaker 4: Magic at the ball on offense, a five second violation.
Speaker 4: Two tough losses for the Magic. They've lost seven of eight.
Speaker 4: Are they tanking? Like? Are the Magic tanking? I know
Speaker 4: that they went south once Markel Foltz got hurt, but
Speaker 4: they haven't done anything to replace him. They've been running
Speaker 4: Aaron Gordon as their point guard, which understandable you want
Speaker 4: to get some more out of some of your best players.
Speaker 4: See if he's the guy that you're gonna actually keep around.
Speaker 4: But they could have done something. They could have brought
Speaker 4: somebody in on an exception. They could have made a move.
Speaker 4: Evan fourty eight could be traded. It doesn't feel like
Speaker 4: they're doing anything to actually make their team better right
Speaker 4: now when they're really really struggling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Obviously, the injury bug has nailed them. They're missing
Speaker 2: a lot of their guys. But that's tough. I don't know,
Speaker 2: are they tanking. I hadn't thought about that sort of
Speaker 2: a sneaky tank job if they are, because they're in
Speaker 2: all these games. They could have won half these games,
Speaker 2: but they keep coming up short.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but they're like they're happy to run out there
Speaker 4: with Cole Anthony as the point guard, which is understandable
Speaker 4: as well. You want to get a young guy some reps,
Speaker 4: see what he can do. But he's shooting under forty percent.
Speaker 4: You're not gonna win a lot of games like that.
Speaker 4: When you're an offensive team that already struggles. The problem
Speaker 4: is they can't get stops defensively. This is a team
Speaker 4: that has made their bones on the defensive end, staying
Speaker 4: in every game and coming through in the clutch when
Speaker 4: they need to, but the execution has not been there,
Speaker 4: especially this weekend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for the Magic Team to be like nineteenth or
Speaker 2: twentieth defensive rating is not good because they're never going
Speaker 2: to be a great offensive rating team and they are
Speaker 2: not once again this year. But yeah, you know this
Speaker 2: is just gonna be I hate to say it's just
Speaker 2: gonna be one of these classic magic years where, like
Speaker 2: I don't know, they'll be maybe flirting maybe with the
Speaker 2: play in tournament. I would think i'd picked them. They'll
Speaker 2: be on the outside looking in, just outside. But it's
Speaker 2: not like they're going to be probably the worst team
Speaker 2: in the league either, right lely, like they're just sort
Speaker 2: of stuck in this light little Noman's land.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, guys like forty A and Terrence Rossa
Speaker 3: I would attract some interest on the trademarket, but not much.
Speaker 3: I mean, no one's gonna all of a sudden turn
Speaker 3: around the franchisea So I think they do need to
Speaker 3: tank effect and probably so saught again because you know Vucevich.
Speaker 3: You know, he's one of those guys who he's an
Speaker 3: All Star. He's definitely an Allstar. He was an All
Speaker 3: Star a few years ago. But he just doesn't move
Speaker 3: the needle all that much, even if he's having a
Speaker 3: good season, which he is. But the game last night
Speaker 3: against the Hornets was definitely there. I mean, I know
Speaker 3: you mentioned the Pacers as well, but that was there
Speaker 3: to be won, and in the fourth quarter they got
Speaker 3: the yips and could not finish this game, couldn't score
Speaker 3: down the stretch, whereas Gordon Hayward could. And Gordon Hayward
Speaker 3: I absolutely loved his game winning drive there he went inside,
Speaker 3: he didn't go over the hero ball. Instead, he made
Speaker 3: a solid move, got inside, laid it up, beautiful way
Speaker 3: to finish the game. Had thirty nine points, and this
Speaker 3: was one that was like, You're going to get teams
Speaker 3: like Charlotte who are a little bit up and down themselves,
Speaker 3: and when you're in a position to finish them off,
Speaker 3: you have to do that. And Orlando just couldn't do it.
Speaker 3: And again it's both ends. Couldn't execute defensively and offensively.
Speaker 3: It wasn't any better. So yeah, two and eight in
Speaker 3: their last ten. I think they were probably punching above
Speaker 3: their way at the start of the season, acknowledging they
Speaker 3: have lost some players to injuries. But again, I mean
Speaker 3: Fulks was having a decent season, but not like, oh
Speaker 3: my god, how can they compete now without fults out there?
Speaker 3: So yeah, not sure really what the prospects are for
Speaker 3: the Magic for the rest of the season.
Speaker 5: I loved watching Gordon Hayward's drive, but for a couple
Speaker 5: of different reasons. First, watching Evan Fournier guard him. I
Speaker 5: was shocked, the shock that he was guarding him. I
Speaker 5: thought there must be like sixteen switches that have happened
Speaker 5: to have Evan Fournier gardener because he's not a defensive
Speaker 5: stopp or, he's an offensive guy. And Evan Fournier he
Speaker 5: got cooked. And then at the rim, Yeah, ken Burch
Speaker 5: was super late getting over there to help out, and
Speaker 5: Steve Clifford, Magic's head coach, was leave it and to
Speaker 5: see him get right in ken Birch's face into the
Speaker 5: trees face and get super angry that it was a
Speaker 5: good play. But yeah, Gordon Hayward super pumped for that
Speaker 5: drive to finish it a thirty nine point game. Guy's
Speaker 5: ballin this four to thirty point game of the season.
Speaker 5: The offense is there, and they're one of those Eastern
Speaker 5: Conference teams that are Yeah, they could be good, they
Speaker 5: might not be. It's surprising with him playing so well
Speaker 5: that they're at seven to nine. I believe that that
Speaker 5: popped him up to seven and nine. It should be
Speaker 5: better than that. They should, you know, with with Lonzo Ball,
Speaker 5: not Lonzo the other one, LaMelo Ball playing that well,
Speaker 5: you know that they co'd expect them to be better
Speaker 5: than seven nine, and now they got Cody z back
Speaker 5: as well. But on the other side, yeah, the Magic.
Speaker 5: They would have rather had Mark l Folts on him,
Speaker 5: he's hurt. Rather have Aaron Gordon on him, he's hurt.
Speaker 5: They would rather have Michael Carter Williams on him. Is
Speaker 5: Michael Carter Williams back. I'm not sure they'd rather to
Speaker 5: have Jonathan Isaac on him. Yeah, so, yeah, they are
Speaker 5: banged up.
Speaker 2: Lee. What's your favorite tree?
Speaker 3: Probably the gum tree? Okay, classy gum tree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I asked you that before.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. I think we've talked about trees
Speaker 3: because they were in Athens. Remember that's for the Olympics.
Speaker 3: I remember.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful I love I love a birch tree, though.
Speaker 2: I do like how a birch tree looks. That's why
Speaker 2: I was papery exactly. Do you have a favorite tree?
Speaker 5: Try?
Speaker 4: My favorite Southern tree is the crape myrtle. I like those.
Speaker 4: I like that smooth look you get on the bark there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really nice. Good good tree picks. Test. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'll finish this off. You got a favorite tree?
Speaker 5: We're staying in the South. You know, I have got
Speaker 5: different regions. I like different trees in the South. The
Speaker 5: Spanish moss. It's an amazing tree.
Speaker 2: Remind me what we're talking about. It's like very moss
Speaker 2: like appearance.
Speaker 5: I assume absolutely, it's like it's like a weeping willow.
Speaker 4: Okay, sort of nice.
Speaker 5: It's a unique tree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, beautiful tree. JD. Do you have a favorite tree?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's the maple obviously, so.
Speaker 2: You like this, you'd like to tap that? Eh, tap
Speaker 2: that tree?
Speaker 6: Like to tap that tree?
Speaker 2: Kinky son of a bit? All right, my loser of
Speaker 2: the weekend, I'll go with the Wizards. Let's keep this
Speaker 2: very quickly.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 2: The Wizards are sort of in a weird way a
Speaker 2: winter of the weekend because they're actually back playing basketball.
Speaker 2: Do you guys remember the Wizards. They're one of the
Speaker 2: teams in this league. They hadn't played in like two weeks,
Speaker 2: but they did play on Sunday. Thing Is came back
Speaker 2: and they got their ass handed to them in the
Speaker 2: second half by the Spurs. They lost by twenty. They
Speaker 2: had good start and they were spunky to start, but
Speaker 2: then they just got hammered as the game went on.
Speaker 2: They tired. They're short on guys. I mean, they're it's
Speaker 2: getting desperate there. You know, they're signing Alex lenn and
Speaker 2: Jordan Bell. If you got a short last name, you
Speaker 2: can play for this team. They want to save money
Speaker 2: on the letters on the back of their jerseys, right,
Speaker 2: so they going for short names. I think Jeremy Lynn
Speaker 2: might get a call over or it might be in
Speaker 2: the Wizard's uniforms soon. But anyway, Westbrook was back in the lineup.
Speaker 2: I bring this up for a real loser the weekend.
Speaker 2: Did you guys see Westbrook? I mean it is u
Speaker 2: he probably should not even be playing. He is coming
Speaker 2: off of an injury. I think it's that quad injury, right,
Speaker 2: and then playing in a while rough in this one
Speaker 2: man three of eleven four turnovers, he's a minus twenty
Speaker 2: and twenty five minutes. I know it's one of your
Speaker 2: favorite stats. Lee, So Russ, I mean, I hope, I hope.
Speaker 2: I hope he can get back to a little bit
Speaker 2: more of the rust of holds. But I'm worried that
Speaker 2: we'll see that at all this year, maybe especially if
Speaker 2: he has to try and like continue to play through
Speaker 2: these lingering issues, injury issues. It's bad.
Speaker 3: Well, and also what's he playing for in there in Washington.
Speaker 3: They're probably not going to make the playoffs, you know,
Speaker 3: and I think he could sort of see like maybe
Speaker 3: it was the bit of the layoff there. But watching
Speaker 3: that game, I was like, he's just like I wish
Speaker 3: I wasn't here, you know, I think he'd rather be
Speaker 3: anywhere else at the moment, because it just feels like he's,
Speaker 3: you know, at the stage of his career where he
Speaker 3: wants to be at least close to a championship, and
Speaker 3: it's a battle just to get to the playoffs. So
Speaker 3: the only real hope is for Bradley build is you know,
Speaker 3: the only positive would be if he can lead the
Speaker 3: league in scoring for the entire season. That's something.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's the next time you have hammer On ask him,
Speaker 2: would you rather lead the league in scoring and win
Speaker 2: three games all year or would you rather win sixty
Speaker 2: games and you know, score five points for you Yeah,
Speaker 2: it would be the question.
Speaker 3: But they Yeah, the Wizards have to figure out a
Speaker 3: way to move on and rebuild.
Speaker 2: I mean, how long Scutty Brook's going to have this job.
Speaker 2: Let's be honest here.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's the last Yeah, I think the
Speaker 3: last year of his contented and it's like, well, you
Speaker 3: may as well let him finish this season, I guess,
Speaker 3: because who wants that job?
Speaker 2: I would say, do the opposite. Get someone else in here,
Speaker 2: see if they can shake it up. I get something
Speaker 2: else going.
Speaker 3: They need to. They just need to hit the rebuild button.
Speaker 3: They smash it and see what you can get for Beale,
Speaker 3: and see what you can get for Westbrook. Get some
Speaker 3: picks and start again next season.
Speaker 2: I think that Maple Tree and yeah, yeah, Leally, what
Speaker 2: do you got for loser the weekend? Finish us off here?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So you remember on Friday Show of course, where
Speaker 3: Shack got worst of the week for calling out Donovan Mitchell.
Speaker 3: Well it got worse for Shack over the weekend because
Speaker 3: an Instagram usic named klso Scooped, who does great work. Actually,
Speaker 3: by the way, great artwork, put up a picture of
Speaker 3: Donovan Mitchell dunking on Miami heat Shack like that, and
Speaker 3: I said, Shaq, don't really want the smoke with the spider,
Speaker 3: beautiful job. You know it's a photoshop. Obviously it's a
Speaker 3: photo shop. Well, Shaq didn't appreciate that too much and
Speaker 3: he slid into kalso Scopes DMS there and he said
Speaker 3: shut Joel Dama Domas up and kalso Scope did the
Speaker 3: worst thing by putting it up there, putting it on
Speaker 3: the Instagram and saying, look, he didn't like it. He
Speaker 3: didn't appreciate that. Now, the reason I bring this up
Speaker 3: is because a lot of people who were defending Shack's
Speaker 3: approach or for what he said to Donovan Mitchell Howse
Speaker 3: so we're like, you know, these young guys can't take criticism. Well,
Speaker 3: oh guys apparently can't take a bit of banter either.
Speaker 3: Shack not happy with that. So I think that just
Speaker 3: makes Shack look a little a little petty and not
Speaker 3: being able to handle a jokey sort of critics. Critic, critic,
Speaker 3: critical attack on himself. I don't know what the hell,
Speaker 3: but you can't slide into anyone's DMS these days because
Speaker 3: if you do, people are just going to light you
Speaker 3: up and say, look, man, you look pasthetic. So, you know, Shack,
Speaker 3: it wasn't good what he said to Donovan how he
Speaker 3: said it, and he could have at least manned up
Speaker 3: and have been like, yeah, you know, maybe I shouldn't
Speaker 3: say that.
Speaker 4: What icy heart with, you.
Speaker 3: Know, Lebron. In the general Lebron and Kevin Durant were
Speaker 3: also also made a few comments about you know, Shak's
Speaker 3: approach there, and I think it was right. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I think in the end, Shack did get dunked on
Speaker 3: in the in the social media sense rather than in
Speaker 3: the en court sense.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, we talked about this in Greek detail on
Speaker 2: Friday's podcast, but Lee pointing out that just great art,
Speaker 2: that critical attack of.
Speaker 4: Art boys got me.
Speaker 3: You know, you know, I was thinking about it because
Speaker 3: he because he posted, you know, Miami Heat Shack, who
Speaker 3: was still decent. You know, he won championship there with
Speaker 3: a Heat. Would it have been better to put up
Speaker 3: like Phoenix Suns or Cleveland Cavaliers or even Celtic Shack,
Speaker 3: you know? Or would you or would you go the
Speaker 3: other way and put Laker's shack Orlando Shack where he
Speaker 3: was being indominant and he's still getting dunked on, like
Speaker 3: is it? Is it more?
Speaker 2: I think the Heat's the perfect sweet spot, that's.
Speaker 3: Why, right, Yeah, so he was still good enough, still
Speaker 3: an old stop. Yeah, I guess he was an old
Speaker 3: start in Phoenix as well. It was his last season,
Speaker 3: but yeah, I was thinking, like, you know, if you
Speaker 3: put him up as Shack, like his shack, it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: he's dunking on in a super prime Shack, you know.
Speaker 3: But then you could also just say you put him
Speaker 3: up as the old man Shack getting dunked on.
Speaker 2: Oh, so you got to find the right photo. Come on, man,
Speaker 2: like the photoshop boys, you can't. You got to hope
Speaker 2: there's a good photo from behind of maybe Shack getting
Speaker 2: dunked on previously, then you can photo shop. But in
Speaker 2: that's how this worked.
Speaker 5: One thing I was wondering about. I was wondering, was
Speaker 5: that Shack because what the artist definitely did was accentuate
Speaker 5: hit the role in the back of his head. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you see that that extra little neck role there, making
Speaker 5: Shack look as chunky as possible.
Speaker 2: So you're saying, so you're saying task, maybe this is
Speaker 2: somebody else, and that he's just done a great job
Speaker 2: on the jersey and putting in O'Neil and stuff like that.
Speaker 5: I don't know. I mean, the level said this critical attack,
Speaker 5: it's you know, I don't know, it looks like Shack.
Speaker 5: It definitely, it definitely looks like Shack. Who else could
Speaker 5: it be?
Speaker 3: Art?
Speaker 2: Attack man.
Speaker 5: Wow, Carso Scope with the Critical Attack doing.
Speaker 2: Emergency podcast for any time there's a critical art attack,
Speaker 2: go and check.
Speaker 3: Him out though on Instagram he's got some good nice
Speaker 3: I never.
Speaker 2: Was actually I was gonna say, I've never heard of this,
Speaker 2: this Instagram account. You seem to be a fan. Do
Speaker 2: you follow?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: I don't, but I know well only because I saw it.
Speaker 3: It was it was going making the round, so I
Speaker 3: checked it out and I scrolled through.
Speaker 2: What else has he done?
Speaker 3: Well, there's a Loonzo and LaVar not LaVar, Lonzo and
Speaker 3: LaMelo sort of going up against each other. There's a
Speaker 3: nice one there.
Speaker 2: Well, so he does a thing where he's merging past
Speaker 2: and the president. Yeah, very nice.
Speaker 3: But does it really well too? It wouldn't be like
Speaker 3: if I did it where you could clearly just see
Speaker 3: like two photos slap together like he actually blends it in.
Speaker 3: It makes it look good.
Speaker 2: Maybe they do one of like a young le Ls
Speaker 2: and old playing each other like you see that MJ
Speaker 2: one every once in a while, right, Like ye'd be awesome.
Speaker 5: Yeah, reach out Ty Winter in the stream team, says
Speaker 5: Joel Anthony. That's who I was thinking. It does look
Speaker 5: Oh the rear the rear head of Canadian Joel Anthony
Speaker 5: in the rear head.
Speaker 2: Okay, amazing. Well those are our winners and losers of
Speaker 2: the weekend. I'm sure we miss some, so you let
Speaker 2: us know in the YouTube comments. Let us know right
Speaker 2: now if you're the stream teamers or tweet us at
Speaker 2: No dunk stake a little bit of news, guys before
Speaker 2: we start wrapping this up. The Brooklyn Nets will have
Speaker 2: some extra cash to use to try and sign or
Speaker 2: trade for an additional player because the league granted their
Speaker 2: application for a five point seven million disabled player exception
Speaker 2: for Spencer Dinwiddie, who is of course out for the
Speaker 2: rest of the season. Tasks, where are they going to go?
Speaker 2: What are they how are they going to put this
Speaker 2: money to use?
Speaker 5: Man, Well, I'll say first and formal. People want to
Speaker 5: play with the Brooklyn Nets when they see those three
Speaker 5: offensive weapons, go at it. I heard Richard Jefferson, analysts
Speaker 5: for the Brooklyn Nets, right now, talking about, well maybe
Speaker 5: I can get out there for eighteen minutes. And you know,
Speaker 5: Richard Jefferson is a joker, but I think deep down
Speaker 5: he's thinking what a lot of veteran NBA players are thinking.
Speaker 5: I could go play with those dudes. And speaking of
Speaker 5: you know former players that kind of look like Shaquille O'Neil,
Speaker 5: kind of look like Joel Anthony from the back, Dwayne
Speaker 5: Deadman is available. I know he I know, maybe he's
Speaker 5: you know, not your rim alter that you desire. You know,
Speaker 5: he is more of a but he's a tough guy.
Speaker 5: He is very tough. He's willing to lay the hammer
Speaker 5: down when need be. That's what the Brooklyn Nets want.
Speaker 5: That's what Kevin Durant is yelling at Reggie Perry every time.
Speaker 5: Come on that. DeAndre Jordans like he just wants a
Speaker 5: you know, a real physical guy in the lane. So
Speaker 5: Dwayne Deadmon could be a guy. And I'm sure anybody
Speaker 5: would want to play with those guys. I'm not. The
Speaker 5: thing is, you got to go get a big and
Speaker 5: you you probably want another wing defender because Kevin Durant
Speaker 5: is having to do so much against the big wing defenders.
Speaker 5: That seems like every team has there. They got a
Speaker 5: couple of needs out there.
Speaker 2: Well, they recently signed free to forward Norvel Pell right,
Speaker 2: the Nets did to help the front court. But you're
Speaker 2: you're right, I mean, Denman, I think is available. Randy
Speaker 2: Hollis Jefferson is available to right, so he could be had,
Speaker 2: but those guys or yeah, in fact check me on that.
Speaker 2: I think he is though, but those guys could be
Speaker 2: sort of had for I would assume the minimum if
Speaker 2: they're not on a roster. So will they wait with
Speaker 2: this dpe to use that, you know, which is obviously
Speaker 2: a much more good chunk of money to use on
Speaker 2: someone that comes out in the buyout candidate market and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, or in a trade, you know, for
Speaker 2: like a McGee. We talked about JaVale McGee as possibility
Speaker 2: or like, I don't know, can Biambo be in play
Speaker 2: there or something like that, Ed Davis, I know his
Speaker 2: name has been thrown around or maybe, like you said,
Speaker 2: task like a wing guy. I love the idea of
Speaker 2: them getting Rondy Hollis Jefferson back on the nets. I
Speaker 2: think that makes a lot of sense. He'd give you
Speaker 2: some defensive presence. No, Tree, you don't think so a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 4: I think they're done with him. I think most troubles
Speaker 4: are done with him. If a team wanted him for defense,
Speaker 4: that should have been the Minnesota Timberwolves who had him,
Speaker 4: and they just said no. The worry I would have
Speaker 4: is it seems like Jabealo McGee would be the perfect candidate.
Speaker 4: But are there enough basketballs to go around? Did you
Speaker 4: see Jamiel handling the ball on the fast break this weekend?
Speaker 4: I don't know if Steve Nash is gonna be able
Speaker 4: to find touches for four elite ball handlers out there tray.
Speaker 2: That was Javal McGee.
Speaker 3: What he did.
Speaker 2: This was Trey Kirby at the pickup runs. It took
Speaker 2: me back, It made me long to play hoops agains
Speaker 2: like oh Man every once every Wednesday night. That would
Speaker 2: be a Trey Kirby Jabal McGee like fast freak where
Speaker 2: he's getting fancy with.
Speaker 4: It, rumbling bumbling, stumbling down the court. If you get
Speaker 4: a rebound, is a big guy at the free throw line,
Speaker 4: it is your obligation to take it the full length
Speaker 4: of the clurk coast to coast and finish with a
Speaker 4: ridiculous shot.
Speaker 3: What are resurgence for Javal McGee's career. A couple of
Speaker 3: years ago out of the league, completely wins a couple
Speaker 3: of championship with the Worries, one of the Lakers, and
Speaker 3: now he's a fun uh impactful vet on the Cats.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just incredible.
Speaker 3: This guy he was he was just a clown there
Speaker 3: for a couple of years, and now it's just like
Speaker 3: he's fun to watch and he plays well and it's
Speaker 3: great for the Nets to have, for the Cats to
Speaker 3: have him on that team.
Speaker 2: And his name comes up on our podcast every second
Speaker 2: day because we keep talking about, like, oh, Juelle McGee
Speaker 2: could be had any I don't wonder who could get him.
Speaker 4: It's like shades of twenty twelve to me. I feel
Speaker 4: like at the trade deadline that year, we talked about
Speaker 4: Ramon Sessions non stop. We're like, oh man, this is
Speaker 4: it for the Lakers, this is what they've needed the
Speaker 4: whole time, somebody to run that second unit. We're talking
Speaker 4: about JaVale McGhee here, the veteran leader, but honestly, he
Speaker 4: would help the Nets the.
Speaker 5: Non Sessions had a twenty assist game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he had a forty point game too. I think
Speaker 3: Sessions he was just the hottest thing in fantasy. The
Speaker 3: following season was like get Ramon Session.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I was like, Nah, twenty boards is roast beef. What
Speaker 5: would twenty assists be?
Speaker 2: That's a good question, great question saved. Think it over,
Speaker 2: think it over for tray, have something tomorrow.
Speaker 4: I'm not a passer task. There's ale to come up
Speaker 4: with something like this.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get to tweet of the night.
Speaker 5: Tweet of the night.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: JD my man coming through always with the Monday tweet
Speaker 2: of the night. Yet all weekend?
Speaker 6: Which got your hat all weekend?
Speaker 5: It can't.
Speaker 6: It comes from yesterday actually, and it was the big
Speaker 6: story on everyone's mind is that the stage has been
Speaker 6: set for an epic showdown and it's one we've all
Speaker 6: been waiting for. We have a literal clash of titans coming.
Speaker 6: People are comparing it to Lebron versus Jordan in the
Speaker 6: NBA finals. I saw this quote on CNN. It's the
Speaker 6: meeting of the goat and his potential successor, and the
Speaker 6: fans are salivating at the prospect.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 6: I'm of course talking of God's Illa versus calm Be.
Speaker 6: The trailer dropped this weekend and uh, you know, I
Speaker 6: mean people are pumped. It's the King of Monsters versus
Speaker 6: the King of Kong's I guess King Kong. And there
Speaker 6: is an NBI a tie in here because Kevin Durant
Speaker 6: already calling it. I can't see Godzilla losing this match.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, but what did Katie think would Gregor
Speaker 2: fight heading in? Oh?
Speaker 6: Oh, that's a good, good question. I don't know, that's
Speaker 6: a bold prediction. I mean, Rebecca Hall, one of the
Speaker 6: actresses in the film, is she says it right in
Speaker 6: the trailer, Kong bows to know what?
Speaker 5: So, I mean that doesn't mean he's gonna win.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess, well, who would you who would you
Speaker 2: favor in this matchup? Oh?
Speaker 6: I know I'm going Kong for sure, going, I'm going Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it makes sense, like not having any
Speaker 2: idea what the actual story is, but like Kong is
Speaker 2: sort of like, oh, like Earth's right, did we make
Speaker 2: cong I don't know, I don't know. Anyway, he feels
Speaker 2: like he's on our side more than Godzilla. This like
Speaker 2: you know, Monster from the Sea.
Speaker 6: I guess you're right right by nuclear weapons, you know.
Speaker 6: But the but Godzilla was sort of a good guy
Speaker 6: in the end, wasn't he in the last film? I
Speaker 6: mean I can't remember. I think he was defending mankind
Speaker 6: and now and now I guess Godzilla is the bad
Speaker 6: guy if you live long enough to be the hero,
Speaker 6: you become the villain.
Speaker 5: Was that?
Speaker 3: How good?
Speaker 7: Something like that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 6: And then a quick addition here, since we were taught
Speaker 6: we were talking nicknames earlier and big dumb movies. The
Speaker 6: Athletics own Chris Kirshner with this hot news yesterday, John
Speaker 6: Collins shared that the Hawks training staff has given D'Angelo
Speaker 6: Hunter the nick megatron DeAndre.
Speaker 2: Sorry, what did I say, D'Angelo?
Speaker 6: Did I say D'Angelo? I'm literally reading it and the
Speaker 6: terrible at this I don't anyway, uh, he quickly corrected.
Speaker 6: It's actually he wants to be called optimists, not Megatron,
Speaker 6: So Megatron's better though, No, I mean.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, but Megatron was the nickname of a wide
Speaker 2: receiver at Calvin Johnson Football, So maybe it's like, has
Speaker 2: there been an Optimist before?
Speaker 6: I don't know there was? There was a Grimes, wasn't
Speaker 6: there optimist? Crime?
Speaker 5: Is that?
Speaker 1: Is that a?
Speaker 6: Is that a basketball player?
Speaker 4: I think John Wall was optimist dime on basketball?
Speaker 7: Oh, yeah, you're right, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Maybe he just doesn't want to be the bad guy
Speaker 4: DeAndre Hunter. Let D'Angelo Hunter be Megatron.
Speaker 2: Well who do you just to circle back? Who do
Speaker 2: you like in the Godzilla versus Calm matchup, lely.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, if you're talking a crocodile of us
Speaker 3: is as if it's on land, I mean, I guess
Speaker 3: the eight can can get on top of him and
Speaker 3: do the business there.
Speaker 2: Okay, you're like the like calm with a submission what round?
Speaker 3: That's probably what I'm saying. But if it's near the water,
Speaker 3: then the crocodile I think can take care of him,
Speaker 3: you know, So I think it favors which which home
Speaker 3: ground advantage you have there?
Speaker 5: What if?
Speaker 6: What if the crocodile can breathe fire?
Speaker 3: That's that that adds a new element I'll say, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, like, get a hippo in there. Anyway, hippo
Speaker 3: would do the damage on both of those in a second. Hippos,
Speaker 3: you know, quick enough, strong enough can go on land,
Speaker 3: can go on water. So I hope there's a I
Speaker 3: hope whoever wins this in the next in the sequel
Speaker 3: takes on the hippo for the world.
Speaker 2: For the undisputed total. Yeah, the hippo's just waiting training exactly.
Speaker 3: It comes out wipe those two in a second.
Speaker 2: Leave it till Lee for me to ask him, who
Speaker 2: does he like in a God delivers is Calm match
Speaker 2: up to see, I'm like the hippo incredible, always amaze.
Speaker 2: All right, pick the results from Friday night. It was
Speaker 2: the Nets Calves game. The Nets were favored by nine
Speaker 2: and a half, had to win big, but the Calves
Speaker 2: got the victory. We probably would have had the Caves
Speaker 2: as a winner of the weekend if they didn't follow
Speaker 2: up their performance are on Friday Night by getting absolutely
Speaker 2: slacked by Gelen Brown and the Celtics there on Sunday.
Speaker 2: But anyway, good victory for Ley. You're nine and twelve.
Speaker 2: You had the Calves to cover and they got the victory.
Speaker 2: Like I said, so you're nine and twelve. Everybody else
Speaker 2: had the Nets. Everybody else got a loss. Tray's nine
Speaker 2: and twelve. Tass Is eight and thirteen. He's currently in
Speaker 2: last place, and I'm eleven and ten. A lot of
Speaker 2: games on tonight. Tasks which one we pick him from.
Speaker 5: We're going to the Celtics and the Bulls. The Celtics
Speaker 5: won by nearly forty on Sunday against the Calves. Chicago
Speaker 5: has won three of four, though, so you think this
Speaker 5: line would be a little bit smaller than it is
Speaker 5: at seven and a half, but the Bulls are getting
Speaker 5: seven and a half points, can lose by seven or less. Right,
Speaker 5: what do you think about that? You think are coming
Speaker 5: out straw?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 4: Of course, tassy, that's way too big a line against
Speaker 4: the Chicago Bulls. Who has my good friend Tom Poro
Speaker 4: messaged me over the weekend are one hundred percent back.
Speaker 4: If you've got a yoga mat, you need to roll
Speaker 4: it out, laid down, check out the game with your
Speaker 4: no dunks, immacula items. The Bulls are back. They're keeping
Speaker 4: this one close and they're taking the wh.
Speaker 5: Is that Tommy Porol lying down there beside you?
Speaker 4: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 5: Maybe he should get up and put his Christmas tree away.
Speaker 5: Come on, it's time man.
Speaker 4: Jeez Tommy, he's a festive man, celebrate year round.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you got the Bulls to cover obviously, you
Speaker 2: and Tommy Porol. What do you got, lely?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Bulls were back until they ran into the Lakers,
Speaker 3: but they kept that one close enough too. Umm. No
Speaker 3: kemball Walker tonight, but Jason Tatum is back to the Celtics. Ooh,
Speaker 3: I the Bulls can cover though. I give me Chicago, Okay,
Speaker 3: tasks go ahead.
Speaker 5: I'm joining Tommy, joining Trey, I'm joining Lee. Give me
Speaker 5: the bulls.
Speaker 2: I'll swerve. Let's make this interesting. I'll take the Celtics.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, dominant performance there on Sunday. Why can't they
Speaker 2: do it again? That's excited to hear Jason Tatums back
Speaker 2: in the mix there too. That could help. So I'll
Speaker 2: take the Celtics to win my eight. It's big line,
Speaker 2: feels a little big. I'm with you on that one.
Speaker 2: But everybody else has the bulls. Tommy poros bulls to cover.
Speaker 2: Put the tree away, Tommy actually put my Christmas stuff
Speaker 2: away yesterday, had already taken it down, but it had
Speaker 2: it all boxed up, just in the spare room, got
Speaker 2: it in the crawl space yesterday. Guys. It's finally out
Speaker 2: of sight, out of mind. But yeah, you're gonna get
Speaker 2: you got your trade down, Lely, I assume you do.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, it's so much fun putting the tree up.
Speaker 3: But then like by January second with it is like
Speaker 3: get these tree out of my face. I said, I
Speaker 3: want to move on from Christmas right away.
Speaker 5: Wow, what are you moving on too?
Speaker 2: Though?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Like no, it's just what you lead us to roxy
Speaker 2: when this January.
Speaker 3: Because it's it feels like sometimes that tree could be
Speaker 3: up until like now, you know, like January twenty or something.
Speaker 2: You're like, oh, we've had friends of kept our tree
Speaker 2: up till like June to the brown.
Speaker 3: Subscribe, move on from it.
Speaker 2: You know that's a nice looking thing though sometimes Okay,
Speaker 2: I guess you're not very festive. That's fine, No, we
Speaker 2: are festive.
Speaker 3: Wallet's Christmas, but after the New Year's once New Years
Speaker 3: hit boom, move on.
Speaker 2: Okay, great, well well let's wrap it up then let's
Speaker 2: move on. No, you know this is like turn it
Speaker 2: into Christmas here on this podcast is keep emailing your
Speaker 2: questions and comments in for our next beach step in
Speaker 2: podcast No Dunks at the Athletic dot com. Like comment,
Speaker 2: subscribe to No Dunks on YouTube, grab your No Dunks
Speaker 2: merchan at no dunks dot com and subscribe to the
Speaker 2: Athletic for three ninety nine a month right now. Go
Speaker 2: to the Athletic dot com slash no dunks to sign
Speaker 2: up so they know that we sent you fun show
Speaker 2: here on a Monday. We'll be back on Tuesday with
Speaker 2: what you need to know from tasking Early in the morning,
Speaker 2: and then the Daily Show. Clipper Bros.
Speaker 4: You heard it here first, have a great time, turn up.
Speaker 5: Love you guys awesome, Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 5: And remember the strong maple tree has sat Trey's friend
Speaker 5: has a last name Poro, and I'm thirsty, so I
Speaker 5: would love both those things in a sap porrow.
Speaker 3: Whatever.
Speaker 2: Wow was, Embrace the day, baby.
Speaker 6: You could stay.
Speaker 2: Every day.
Speaker 6: And Aggie happy every minute.
Speaker 2: It's been so long that YO wanna wait, It's happened already.
Speaker 5: It's gonna be grevy