Speaker 1: You're tuned into Heat Check with Triste Quick. On this
Speaker 1: episode of the Heat Check, the play in picture is complete,
Speaker 1: and boy was it a doozy. On Sunday Guinea, we
Speaker 1: talk about the drama that is taking place in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: There's two things that will really shock you. Damian Lillard's
Speaker 1: comments in his exit interview and what that means for Portland.
Speaker 1: A couple of coaches that have already been fired. And
Speaker 1: some more news around the league. So Nick my Man
Speaker 1: drop that generic ass beat that should be Rihanna Man.
Speaker 1: The final day of the season might have been one
Speaker 1: of the strangest craziest days in league history. Strange because
Speaker 1: one game left in the season, we had no idea
Speaker 1: what the playoff schedule was going to look like, none zero,
Speaker 1: Crazy because the games themselves were a combination of tanking
Speaker 1: teams sitting everyone, and other teams fighting like angry hornets
Speaker 1: to preserve their place in either the play in or
Speaker 1: the playoffs themselves, and sometimes trying to thread that line
Speaker 1: between avoiding the suns and avoiding the plan, very very
Speaker 1: tenuous line. That is. Day ended with not one but
Speaker 1: two fights between players on the same team. A forty
Speaker 1: two year old who scored more points than he has
Speaker 1: since two thousand and nine. A pair of coaches getting fired,
Speaker 1: two NBA team records getting broken, a ton of chaos
Speaker 1: going on in the APT for math and a partridge
Speaker 1: and a pear tree. The weekend. We had a weekend, folks.
Speaker 1: Let's quickly recap the play in as it is officially here.
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference We've got the number eight Hawks versus the
Speaker 1: number seven Heat on Tuesday. We've got the number ten
Speaker 1: Bulls versus the Raptors in Toronto on Wednday. Western Conference
Speaker 1: we've got the t Wolves taking on the Lakers on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: and ten seed Oka see Thunder taking on the nine
Speaker 1: seed Pelicans on Wednesday. If you don't already know, here's
Speaker 1: the breakdown. Loser of the seven to eight game plays
Speaker 1: the winner of the nine to ten game on Friday
Speaker 1: to's determined who is the eight seed and plays the
Speaker 1: number one seed in each conference. Back to the games.
Speaker 1: We are one hundred percent, completely, totally, absolutely have to
Speaker 1: start with the batshit team, the Minnesota Timberwolves versus the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Pelicans. Ah wow, I don't even really know
Speaker 1: what to say. The Pelicans start of the day with
Speaker 1: an outside chance to make the number five seed. If
Speaker 1: everything fell their way, the Wolves could have also won
Speaker 1: and tried to avoid the plan if a disaster hit
Speaker 1: where the Lakers, Clippers, and Warriors all lost. This is
Speaker 1: the only game on Sunday where both teams equally wanted
Speaker 1: to win a lot. There was a ton on the line,
Speaker 1: and by god, was it one of the strangest, most
Speaker 1: dramatic games in memory. Here is what happened the Wolves.
Speaker 1: The Wolves play Timberwolves, but basketball typical Timberwolves basketball, which means,
Speaker 1: when you think they're gonna lose, they win. When you
Speaker 1: think they're gonna win, they lose. And sometimes all of
Speaker 1: those emotions happen in one game, super inconsistent. The leader
Speaker 1: of this erratic play, the leader of what the fuck
Speaker 1: is going on, is, of course Rudy Gobert. Of course,
Speaker 1: of course it's him. Why else wouldn't it be? Uh,
Speaker 1: He's always up to something. What was he up to?
Speaker 1: Well before the game, Rudy Gobert didn't even want to play.
Speaker 1: He was quote suffering from back spasms, and so he
Speaker 1: was going to sit himself out in an essential, very
Speaker 1: critical game between two teams trying to make it out
Speaker 1: of the mud, and Kyle Anderson aka Asloma, was like, no,
Speaker 1: fuck that noise. I got back spasms. Two. You're playing.
Speaker 1: You are playing. That's what we're doing. I don't care
Speaker 1: what you're going through. You're on this court. That's the
Speaker 1: first sign of problems is Kyle Anderson telling Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: what Rudy Gobert should do. Rudy Gobert did end up playing,
Speaker 1: if you want to call it playing, because he was
Speaker 1: on the court in body, but not in mind or spirit.
Speaker 1: Two points that he made in the middle of the
Speaker 1: second quarter, completely ineffective, playing absolutely zero defense, just loafing.
Speaker 1: Peliicans open up a double digit lead. It looks like
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert wants to be any place but there. Valentunas
Speaker 1: put up seven points and seven rebounds on the first
Speaker 1: quarter alone on Rudy Gobert, so it is not very good.
Speaker 1: Things are not going well. So then Rudy Gobert loafed
Speaker 1: a couple more plays in the second quarter. He was
Speaker 1: a disgusting minus fourteen in the short amount of time
Speaker 1: that he played, and Anderson was like, yo, they have
Speaker 1: a time out. He comes up to Rudy and He's like, yo,
Speaker 1: you need according to the reporting, yo, you need to
Speaker 1: play some fucking defense. You need to try now. And
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert responded like, oh bojou, you need to rebound.
Speaker 1: And then Kyle Anderson's like, verbatim, this is verbatim, this
Speaker 1: is not my summation. He says, shut the fuck up, bitch,
Speaker 1: And what did Rudy Gobert do? Erry had a character
Speaker 1: for Rudy Gobert. He punched his own teammates, full closed
Speaker 1: fist in the chest, full stop. I believe nas Reed
Speaker 1: or Torrean Prince got into the middle of it, started
Speaker 1: bum rushing Rudy Gobert. Kyle Anderson went after him. They
Speaker 1: had to be separated. The whole thing was a melee,
Speaker 1: of course. Then Rudy Gobert had to be removed from
Speaker 1: the scene. Got to get Rudy Gobert away from all
Speaker 1: of these men who want to kill him. And that's
Speaker 1: not the end. Surprisingly halftime, Kyle Anderson, who of course
Speaker 1: was still furious at Rudy Gobert because he just got
Speaker 1: punched in the chest by seven footer, went to the
Speaker 1: locker room where Rudy Beert was finishing changing because he
Speaker 1: was not gonna play anymore, and proceeded to threaten Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert that he would knock his ass out. According to reporting, Yeah,
Speaker 1: a recording was leaked which I posted of Kyle Anderson
Speaker 1: at halftime cussing the rest of his team out for
Speaker 1: protecting Rudy Gobert because Rudy Gobert according to Kyle Anderson obviously,
Speaker 1: because that's what the reporting says, that he called him
Speaker 1: a bitch, So the reporting is probably accurate that he's
Speaker 1: why are you protecting this bitch? The quote, what the
Speaker 1: fuck is wrong with y'all? Y'all guys are kissing Rudy's
Speaker 1: ass way too much, telling me to focus. Y'all got
Speaker 1: some decisions to make this summer. What are those decisions?
Speaker 1: What are the what are those decisions that they gotta make?
Speaker 1: It a is it a him or me? Scenario? It
Speaker 1: took GM Tim Connolly and assistant GM Dell Demps coming
Speaker 1: into the locker room to intervene before we got some
Speaker 1: sort of Roman Reign's chair on head scenario going down.
Speaker 1: They had to send Rudy Goberart home, had to remove
Speaker 1: him away from the arena. It was so bad because
Speaker 1: probably he would have gotten knocked out by someone. If
Speaker 1: you think that that was the end, that on its
Speaker 1: own right would have been plenty. But there's more and
Speaker 1: more impactful things actually happened, literally impact before the scuffle
Speaker 1: that was hundred percent Rudy Gobart's fault. We have wing
Speaker 1: defender Jaden McDaniel's young stud that Minnesota did not want
Speaker 1: to trade to Utah, so much so that they added
Speaker 1: in an additional first round pick to the deal so
Speaker 1: they didn't have to move. Jade McDaniels, one of the
Speaker 1: best perimeter wings in the league, averaging sixteen to four
Speaker 1: and won in the last fifteen games, picked up two
Speaker 1: quick fouls in the second quarter and was so mad
Speaker 1: at himself that he stormed into the tunnel in a
Speaker 1: fit like Tasmanian devil and let loose a haymaker on
Speaker 1: a brick wall to no one. What do you think happened?
Speaker 1: Do you think he was fine? Do you think everything's good?
Speaker 1: You think he went out and played the rest of
Speaker 1: the game like The Wolves ended up winning the game
Speaker 1: because Jaden McDaniels had a phenomenal second half. No, Jade
Speaker 1: McDaniel's broke his fucking hand. That's what happened. Jay McDaniels
Speaker 1: is done, done zero times. Remember that MLB player who
Speaker 1: was so excited that he broke his own hand after
Speaker 1: the team made the postseason and he didn't play another
Speaker 1: postseason game, and I think they got eliminated. I think
Speaker 1: the kid was for the Brewers. Yeah, this is Jade
Speaker 1: McDaniels in the middle of a crucial game to decide
Speaker 1: playing seating. That's Jade McDill No more time spending playing
Speaker 1: basketball this year for Jade McDaniels. He fractured a bone
Speaker 1: in his shooting hand. Night Night Sleep mask for you.
Speaker 1: Maybe one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Crazy? Uh.
Speaker 1: Jake Fisher, friend of the show, I think, three days ago,
Speaker 1: published a piece why the Timberwolves Jaden McDaniels is the
Speaker 1: elite defender you need to know more about. Oh. I
Speaker 1: think we know about him now. I think he's a
Speaker 1: part of the national zeitgeist. At this point, the loss
Speaker 1: of Jaden McDaniels cannot be overestimated. He's one of six
Speaker 1: players in the league to defend a thousand plus minutes
Speaker 1: against NBA All Stars the season, and now he's gone
Speaker 1: for the year. I mean, in the history of the world,
Speaker 1: if you're looking at the battle between Cement and Fist,
Speaker 1: Cement wins every time two men, I think is undefeated.
Speaker 1: And guess what, all of this happened. And we didn't
Speaker 1: even reach the third quarter yet, so things were happening.
Speaker 1: And then because the Wolves are the Wolves, they lost
Speaker 1: their center, they lost their perimeter defender. They're down double
Speaker 1: digits to the Pelicans who are trying to make it
Speaker 1: into the sixth seed or better. What do they do? Somehow,
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns goes crazy. Somehow, Aunt Edwards goes crazy.
Speaker 1: Aunt Edwards had five blocks and five steals in the game,
Speaker 1: most of that was in the second half. The things
Speaker 1: that happen with the Wolves are just truly unimaginable. They
Speaker 1: end up winning that game. Remember there's a possibility now
Speaker 1: that they could end up playing the Grizzlies in the
Speaker 1: first round if they win their playing game against the Lakers,
Speaker 1: who they now play in the first round, which is
Speaker 1: gonna their first playing game, which is gonna be wild.
Speaker 1: But man, the Grizzlies versus the Wolves would be one
Speaker 1: hell of a doozy. Also breaking news, of course, Wolves
Speaker 1: suspended Rudy Gobert for the playing game. He's suspended. He's done,
Speaker 1: which is I think a blessing in disguise because they're
Speaker 1: eight and four when Rudy does not play nine to
Speaker 1: four if you count yesterday. And then out West, the
Speaker 1: Clippers were in a dogfight with the s squad of
Speaker 1: the Phoenix Suns, Saban Lee, Darius Baisley just putting up buckets.
Speaker 1: It was like an AAU tournament game. Nobody was playing
Speaker 1: any defense. They were giving it to the Clippers. At
Speaker 1: one point they were up ten anyway, Sons at a
Speaker 1: four point lead at the start of the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and then Plumbley and Bones Island, both newcomers at the
Speaker 1: trade deadline, had words that ended up also getting physical.
Speaker 1: What Yeah, it didn't get past shoving, and it immediately intervened.
Speaker 1: And let's be honest, Plumbley's not probably gonna punch anyone
Speaker 1: because it's plumbly. And then they had to be separated
Speaker 1: where they were sitting at opposite ends of the bench
Speaker 1: for the rest of the game. So beat Rider Andrew
Speaker 1: Greff spoke with Plumbley after the game. Apparently he was
Speaker 1: pissed because Bones was missing assignments, which is not shocking
Speaker 1: because Bones has been missing assignments since he's been at
Speaker 1: a VCU, so he missed assignments in Denver and that
Speaker 1: was one of the reasons that he was traded. As
Speaker 1: for the Clippers, it was Kawhi Leonard. It was Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook that brought them back to the Promised Land where
Speaker 1: now they get a date with the Phoenix Suns full
Speaker 1: a squad Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul DeAndre Ayton,
Speaker 1: who you barely beat without them when they were sitting
Speaker 1: in street cloths. So we're gonna have to see how
Speaker 1: that goes. After the game, Tylo says, if you ain't
Speaker 1: getting it right, fight then. And after that we took
Speaker 1: off and we played better. Maybe we should do it
Speaker 1: AKA fight more often. They worked it out. Everything is good.
Speaker 1: The rest of the what are we talking about? He said,
Speaker 1: maybe we should fight more often. The rest of the day.
Speaker 1: The Lakers held off Utah to win. Golden State, put
Speaker 1: up fifty five points in the first quarter alone to
Speaker 1: the Portland Trailblazers, which is an NBA record, and beat
Speaker 1: the Blazers by fifty which we'll get to in a
Speaker 1: bit because there's ramifications of all of the losses that
Speaker 1: the Blazers have had, I think, which we'll get to
Speaker 1: as well. I think the Blazers have had seven combined
Speaker 1: wins in the last two years. After the trade deadline
Speaker 1: down in Miami, forty two year old eu Donnis HASLM
Speaker 1: yes that's his real age aka walking dnp CD, had
Speaker 1: played only sixty four games in the last seven years combined.
Speaker 1: He put up twenty four points yesterday in a game
Speaker 1: Ewdonnis HASLM Miami bench as a whole put up one
Speaker 1: hundred and eleven points, which broke the NBA record held
Speaker 1: by Toronto of one hundred and twenty twenty. Eudonis Haslam
Speaker 1: had thirty two points all last season in thirteen games.
Speaker 1: Eudonis Haslam last game of his career puts up twenty four.
Speaker 1: What an end of the season. And we still have
Speaker 1: the second season left to go, which is the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Bring in the play in need it, I want it,
Speaker 1: give it you make you talked about the Blazers getting
Speaker 1: stomped by the Warriors. Fifty five points they put up
Speaker 1: on the Blazer's head in the first quarter alone. It
Speaker 1: has been rough. It has been. It has been a
Speaker 1: tough road if you're a Blazers fan or somebody that
Speaker 1: works for the Blazers organization, or somebody probably who plays
Speaker 1: for the Blazers. I think that they've had six signings
Speaker 1: in the last week, guys that were two way players
Speaker 1: I had never heard of. Like, what was his name again,
Speaker 1: Spencer Hayes, No, you know who I'm talking about. Mays,
Speaker 1: Skyler Maze. I feel like I'm living that was Trendon
Speaker 1: for last year, right, Like, who is Trendon Watford? That's
Speaker 1: a real name, right, who is Skyler Mays? I think
Speaker 1: they're both LSU products, which is crazy. I think they are.
Speaker 1: I think they are Skylar Mays a bucket. Never have
Speaker 1: heard of them before. It sucks. These are the things
Speaker 1: that you have to put up with when your team sucks.
Speaker 1: Is players who suck playing significant minutes for your team.
Speaker 1: No shade to Skyler Mays or Kevin Knox, but those
Speaker 1: guys getting forty minutes in quote end of game or
Speaker 1: end of season scenarios shows you everything that's going on.
Speaker 1: They've had seven wins in the past two combined years
Speaker 1: after the trade deadline. Let me say that again, there
Speaker 1: is no team worse than the Portland Trailblazers post trade
Speaker 1: deadline in the last two years, which is crazy because
Speaker 1: the Portland Trail Blazers weren't even trying to lose this
Speaker 1: year the trade deadline. They didn't start tanking until three
Speaker 1: weeks left end of the season. Portland has managed seven
Speaker 1: total wins after the break combined, not seven each year combined.
Speaker 1: So now what's going on. The Blazers has some decisions
Speaker 1: to make. Damian Lillard is obviously not stoked. People are
Speaker 1: calling this the most important off season in Blazers history.
Speaker 1: The biggest question will Portland be able to surround Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard with any players who can make this team relevant competitive?
Speaker 1: Dare I say a contender? Psh? Come on? Come on.
Speaker 1: Lillard came out and made some very clear comments about
Speaker 1: what it is he wants and what he does not want.
Speaker 1: As we all know, Portland currently has the ten and
Speaker 1: a half percent chance of getting Victor Wambiyama, which I
Speaker 1: believe is fifth in the NBA for the lottery. If
Speaker 1: Portland doesn't somehow get Victor wim Miyama that pick. Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard did everything short of demanding that they move that pick.
Speaker 1: You are not getting another nineteen year old kid and
Speaker 1: putting him next to me, absolutely not think of that.
Speaker 1: Portland is now in a quandary. This is supposed to
Speaker 1: be a historic draft, one of the deepest in memory,
Speaker 1: and Damian Lillard says, fuck them, kids don't want to
Speaker 1: see him, don't want him on this team. I want
Speaker 1: nothing to do with them. Literally, that's what he said.
Speaker 1: I'm not babysitting anymore nineteen year olds. The Blazers, according
Speaker 1: to all the reporting, probably going to end up trading
Speaker 1: out of the lottery to add a star player. Here's
Speaker 1: what Dame said. If you want the quote about adding
Speaker 1: another young player to the team, drafting another young player,
Speaker 1: I'm just not interested in that. That's not a secret.
Speaker 1: I want to as to go for it. And if
Speaker 1: that route is to draft youth, that's not my route. Huhh, Scooby,
Speaker 1: does that mean? Dame says, hey, that's not my route,
Speaker 1: meaning if that's your route, then me and you gotta
Speaker 1: go separate routes. Not my route. Immediately, Joe Cronin was like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Dame's right, We're not doing that. We're gonna get some stars. Yeah, Dame,
Speaker 1: We're good. He goes out publicly. Him and Chauncey Billupson said,
Speaker 1: we don't want to go through this anymore either. It's
Speaker 1: time for us to start winning basketball games. Billups said, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is very important to me. Billup said, yeah, We've
Speaker 1: done the tweak thing a few times. We've got to
Speaker 1: be much more aggressive than the tweak thing. If we
Speaker 1: want to do right by the best player in the
Speaker 1: history of the organization, we have to be aggressive. The
Speaker 1: million dollar question for a Blazer fan is how do
Speaker 1: you fix it? How do you fix this team? I
Speaker 1: don't know. They are among the smallest roster in the NBA.
Speaker 1: They have only two players taller than six eight thin
Speaker 1: in terms of depth at talent, they ended the year
Speaker 1: starting a guy named Genathan Williams. That's not a typo,
Speaker 1: not Jonathan. His name is Jenathan Williams with two e's.
Speaker 1: He got forty one minutes along with Skylor Mays. So
Speaker 1: what does this mean. It means that the future draft
Speaker 1: capital means absolutely nothing until you move those for some
Speaker 1: players who can play right now. The target group is good.
Speaker 1: We'll just say that because Dame believes that somebody can
Speaker 1: come here and move the needle and they want to.
Speaker 1: It's just a matter of whether Portland can get them.
Speaker 1: Here here's the list that they're reporting. Jalen Brown. God,
Speaker 1: let's just sit there and imagine for a second. Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard and Shaden Sharp and Jeremy Grant. That's better
Speaker 1: than Boston right now, here's another player, Ogannaobi. I'm less
Speaker 1: intrigued than I am with Jalen Brown. Still very good.
Speaker 1: Pascal siakam Oh sounds good. Michale Bridges, that's the number
Speaker 1: one on my list. They're already calling him Brooklyn Bridges, though,
Speaker 1: So I feel like I feel like the nets are
Speaker 1: kind of ready to keep them. I feel like the
Speaker 1: nets are saying he's an untouchable piece. All three, four
Speaker 1: of those whatever it is, are difference makers. All are
Speaker 1: defensive minded players. They can all score. Of course, JB's
Speaker 1: the first choice. He can do so many things in
Speaker 1: the court. To me, the perfect scenario is this. So
Speaker 1: we've got some coaching firings. One of those firings, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you call it a firing, they're calling
Speaker 1: it a promotion, is Dwayne Casey. Dwayne Casey out in Detroit.
Speaker 1: He is done coaching those young kids, Jade and Ivy
Speaker 1: has drove him officially insane. He is now in a
Speaker 1: front office position. Chauncey billups, take your ass back to Detroit.
Speaker 1: We now have an open spot and we can say,
Speaker 1: e may U Dooka, It's time to come home, brother,
Speaker 1: time to come on home to Portland where you grew up.
Speaker 1: And then Jalen Brown, the guy who sang from the
Speaker 1: rooftops for you to be the head coach of the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics. Now you, I don't know, like you're fired.
Speaker 1: So maybe Tampa now before you get the head coaching
Speaker 1: job and bring him to Portland, get him to force
Speaker 1: his way there. Another issue that Dame seemed to settle
Speaker 1: is that one hundred percent, Jeremy Grant is coming back,
Speaker 1: no matter if it puts us in the poorhouse, because
Speaker 1: what other options do we have? Dame says he's coming,
Speaker 1: So I guess he's coming. Problem is Jeremy Grant is
Speaker 1: represented by Rich Paul, and Rich Paul is the David
Speaker 1: falk of this modern era. He is going to falk
Speaker 1: Us for everything that he can. He's going to squeeze
Speaker 1: the Blazers for every penny. He did this with nk
Speaker 1: Nirk is one of the most overpaid, overpaid, overrated centers, overpaid,
Speaker 1: we'll call him overpaid centers in the league. Grant likes it.
Speaker 1: He says he's comfortable here. He says he likes the
Speaker 1: players and the team and the organization and probably the money. Also,
Speaker 1: there's a bigger issue, which is to bring in a star,
Speaker 1: you not only have to give up a high draft pick,
Speaker 1: you've also give up players. The beat writers for Portland
Speaker 1: think it's either Shayden Sharp or it's Anthony Simons Ant
Speaker 1: or Shaden. You have to imagine that it's gonna be
Speaker 1: It's gonna be Simons, and you can't trade Shaden Sharp.
Speaker 1: Shade Sharp is the future. One guy makes rookie scale,
Speaker 1: one game makes twenty five million a year. One guy
Speaker 1: has one of the worst defensive ratings in the league.
Speaker 1: One guy has upside in terms of his defense. Sharp
Speaker 1: is probably the one bright spot on this team right now.
Speaker 1: To be honest, he's averaging twenty four to six and
Speaker 1: four with the Steel per game in his last ten.
Speaker 1: He is asking for thirty minutes per game. Well, actually,
Speaker 1: I think that's Chauncey who thinks he can get thirty
Speaker 1: and then Shandon is asking to start. So what is
Speaker 1: GM Joe Cronin have to say about picking between Shadon
Speaker 1: and Simons. He says, well, I think that's something we
Speaker 1: have to look at. I look at it as a
Speaker 1: great problem to have, But you have to figure that out.
Speaker 1: How does the fit work, how do the minutes work?
Speaker 1: Are there other holes that you need to fill instead?
Speaker 1: Paul's woo oo that part, that part, Yes, you know
Speaker 1: that there are what are you fucking talking about? You
Speaker 1: know that there are holes other than shooting guard to fill. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it's an exercise we're going to have to go through
Speaker 1: and evaluate. No, we're not. You already know what the
Speaker 1: answer is. But on an individual level, I love both guys.
Speaker 1: I think they're both omega talented and I'm thrilled that
Speaker 1: we have them. By Anthony, see you later, enjoy Boston,
Speaker 1: have a good time with all of the beans and
Speaker 1: the racism. Last year, the Blazers acted like they were
Speaker 1: gonna make money moves and they got Gary Payton and
Speaker 1: didn't they get a Cody Zeller? Yeah? They did. That
Speaker 1: was our move. We got Tony Snell and Cody Zeller,
Speaker 1: Gary Payton, Jeremy Grant. Well, thankfully we get the opportunity
Speaker 1: to overpay Jeremy Grant now that he wouldn't extend with
Speaker 1: us for a reasonable salary, So good for us this year.
Speaker 1: I don't think Dame's putting up with Cody Zeller. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna guarantee you that's not the veteran he wants. They
Speaker 1: must make money moves, and who do I think that
Speaker 1: they get. I think it depends on the outcome of
Speaker 1: the lottery. If the Blazers have the number two overall
Speaker 1: pick and they can move that piece, maybe another young
Speaker 1: guy like Anthony Simon's for a guy like Pascal. That's good. Look,
Speaker 1: I think that Toronto is gonna be rebuilding pretty fast.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that Bridges is a possibility. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure that JB is gettable. It is certainly worth a try.
Speaker 1: You try and try all you can. All I know
Speaker 1: is that if you are a Blazer fan and you
Speaker 1: see the Blazers pick a player in the lottery this year,
Speaker 1: just no Dame is gone and we are in trouble. Trouble, trouble, trouble.
Speaker 1: If what was happening in Dallas wasn't hilarious, I would
Speaker 1: probably be sick of talking about it, but it's actually
Speaker 1: quite delightful. Feed me all of the Mavericks misfortune, feed
Speaker 1: me all of the drama going on with Mark Cuban.
Speaker 1: I just love it. I love the chaos. I love
Speaker 1: how completely inept everyone is there, from Mark Cuban to
Speaker 1: Nico Harrison to Jason Kidd, all the way down to
Speaker 1: probably the ball boy. The ball boy probably doesn't even
Speaker 1: know how to inflate the basketballs for the team. That's
Speaker 1: how bad it is there. It's like watching a slightly
Speaker 1: overweight European train go off the rails as a more
Speaker 1: slightly overweight owner tries to fix it, but he can't
Speaker 1: and he just has to watch in horror. And if
Speaker 1: you thought that the last month was entertaining, oh boy,
Speaker 1: this offseason just got even more spicy, more of a
Speaker 1: soap opera, because it's probably gonna get worse. So where
Speaker 1: do we start. Well, we talked last episode about how
Speaker 1: Dallas punted on the season technically, and then Luca came
Speaker 1: out and said, no, that's actually not true. We're not
Speaker 1: doing that, and then more bad things happened. They deemed
Speaker 1: a future draft pick more important than trying to make
Speaker 1: the playoffs, which was Luca's stated goal. They said, we
Speaker 1: need to not give the pick to the next so
Speaker 1: we're gonna do whatever we can to keep it ourselves.
Speaker 1: So they tanked in a way that was even more egregious,
Speaker 1: even more embarrassing, even more obvious than the Blazers, which
Speaker 1: is kind of crazy because they said the quiet part
Speaker 1: out loud. They told everyone. Jason Kidd came out in
Speaker 1: front of everyone and said, Hey, my bosses are telling
Speaker 1: me that no one can play tonight because we need
Speaker 1: to plan for the future, and losing games right now
Speaker 1: is how we do that. And the league says, oh no, baby,
Speaker 1: you can't say that, you can't do that. Luca came
Speaker 1: out and played for a quarter and some change, got
Speaker 1: his player prop ching and got a weirdly non standing
Speaker 1: ovation standing ovation, and then that was the last that
Speaker 1: we saw from him. That was the last that we
Speaker 1: saw from Kyrie, who did not play, did not give
Speaker 1: an exit interview, and it is just so bad. Why
Speaker 1: was Luca so mad that he didn't get to play
Speaker 1: the full game, despite the fact that he wanted to
Speaker 1: participate in a game that was still meaningful because they
Speaker 1: could play in the playoffs. It has everything to do
Speaker 1: with Slovenia, because the MAVs scheduled Slovenia Day on the
Speaker 1: second last day of the season, meaning people traveled from
Speaker 1: Slovenia to watch Luca, and Luca played a quarter in
Speaker 1: front of his own people. He had to sit in
Speaker 1: warm ups while people who flew ten thousand miles or
Speaker 1: whatever it is watched insert player you've never heard of
Speaker 1: and Reggie Bullok, are we serious? Do you know embarrassing
Speaker 1: that is for your people? Do you know how much
Speaker 1: of a slap in the face that book? And they
Speaker 1: were like, we do not care about Slovenia. The only
Speaker 1: Slovenian that we care about is you, and Luca was pissed.
Speaker 1: So what did they do? They like I said, They said, Kyrie,
Speaker 1: christian Woods, Hardaway Bullock and it was everybody was clearly healthy.
Speaker 1: They sat Christian Wood and Jaden Hardy for rest guys
Speaker 1: who were in their early twenties. And then now what
Speaker 1: is going on, Like clockwork, the league investigates the MAVs
Speaker 1: for tampering. Everybody is thinking about what the outcome is
Speaker 1: going to be. There's every scenario down from finding the
Speaker 1: MAVs five million dollars to taking a draft pick from them,
Speaker 1: which would be hilarious because that was the whole reason
Speaker 1: that they did it to begin with, is to preserve
Speaker 1: their draft pick. Everyone now says that Luca is unhappy.
Speaker 1: There are new reports that Dallas fears that he will
Speaker 1: ask out. Luca says, I am happy here. I am
Speaker 1: not asking out anytime soon, but we need to fix
Speaker 1: these He sounds a little like Damian Lillard. Folks with
Speaker 1: less patience and really less rope with the organization. By
Speaker 1: the way, meanwhile, Kyrie and Luca were five and eleven
Speaker 1: when they played together this year, and Dallas has just
Speaker 1: one option. They must sign Kyrie Irving. There's no other
Speaker 1: maneuvers that you have. The roster is in disarray, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if you can see the train wreck coming,
Speaker 1: but I certainly can't, and I don't know that there's
Speaker 1: much to do to stop it. And by the way,
Speaker 1: quick little aside, I did a show on New York
Speaker 1: Sports radio this weekend on WFAM, and I spent nearly
Speaker 1: two hours talking with fans nick fans about whether they
Speaker 1: wanted Luca on the Knicks, and eighty percent of people
Speaker 1: said no, which is just where we're at on Luca
Speaker 1: right now insane. I love the end of the season
Speaker 1: because every time that it ends, we all know who's
Speaker 1: getting fired. And we've been waiting for months for Steven
Speaker 1: Silas to get fired. We've been speculating for months about
Speaker 1: Dwayne Casey getting fired. We've also been commenting recently about
Speaker 1: whether Nick Nurse would decide to leave. Two out of
Speaker 1: those three are now no longer with the team and
Speaker 1: a coaching capacity. Dwayne Casey stepped down after very rough season.
Speaker 1: When Caid cutting him went down, it was curtains for them.
Speaker 1: We knew that they got James Wiseman, and then the
Speaker 1: curtain call came down even more. That's what happens when
Speaker 1: you win a league low seventeen games on top of
Speaker 1: twenty three wins last year. Just not a team that
Speaker 1: you can trust whatsoever. Killian Hayes developed into a nice piece.
Speaker 1: Isaiah Stewart did as well, Like this is a team
Speaker 1: with talent, there's a team with athleticism, this is a
Speaker 1: team with length. But the good news is that Casey
Speaker 1: has stayed on with the team and some of the
Speaker 1: other replacements that are possible, potentially Chauncey Billups Piston's legend
Speaker 1: and moving forward. Down in Houston, the Stephen Silas Eras
Speaker 1: has also come to an end. He he was fifty
Speaker 1: nine in one hundred and seventy seven while he was
Speaker 1: the head coach of the Houston Rockets. He said that
Speaker 1: it was one of the best times of his life.
Speaker 1: But fifty nine and one hundred and seventy seven record
Speaker 1: would be so painful to watch on a day to
Speaker 1: day basis, not just watch it like us because I
Speaker 1: watch it and I'm in pain, but also watch it
Speaker 1: and be tasked to fix it. It has been rough
Speaker 1: for him. Things were so broken by the time he
Speaker 1: got there. When James Harden and Russell Westbrook asked out
Speaker 1: that you can't really blame them except for that you can.
Speaker 1: Except for that you can. He was not taking into
Speaker 1: account what his coaches said to do. He didn't hold
Speaker 1: any of his players accountable. He had no ability to
Speaker 1: fix the defense. He did not develop Jalen Green. No
Speaker 1: one knew their role. Eric Gordon asked to be a
Speaker 1: part of the offense, and he told them, I'd love
Speaker 1: to give you some more responsibility. However, Rafael Stone and
Speaker 1: the Man with the shrimp Fork Tillman, for Titta, says
Speaker 1: we can't do all that. We gotta let the young
Speaker 1: guns develop. The athletics said this to say about him.
Speaker 1: The absence of leadership on the floor turned to chaos,
Speaker 1: with lack of winning habits the only consistent theme in
Speaker 1: a twenty and sixty two season. Offensively, players deviated from
Speaker 1: game plans and resorted to their own means. It's bad. Defensively,
Speaker 1: the effort was largely Nolan void on a nightly basis.
Speaker 1: It is no surprise that the Rockets, per cleaning Glass,
Speaker 1: have ranked in the bottom four an offensive and defensive
Speaker 1: efficiency over the last three seasons. I mean, is there
Speaker 1: anything more scathing that you can say than that? The
Speaker 1: article basically said what we could all see, this guy
Speaker 1: is in over his head. The Rockets have no identity
Speaker 1: as a team, and that you add that to a
Speaker 1: front office with heavy fire and an owner with no patience,
Speaker 1: and you've got a team that's underperforming on the court,
Speaker 1: that really does not compete. That is a recipe for disaster,
Speaker 1: and Silas pretty much was on the chopping block all year.
Speaker 1: He's a good offensive coach, but he has no business
Speaker 1: leading men. As for the Rockets, the latest rumors that
Speaker 1: they're primed to go big game hunting in the off
Speaker 1: season for more stars. I don't know who they think
Speaker 1: they're gonna get. Honestly, they've got a lot of cap space.
Speaker 1: But would you want to play in that mess right now? No,
Speaker 1: No one wants to oversee a rebuild again in ahe town.
Speaker 1: No chance. Moving forward, Tree Young time, when Quinn Snyder
Speaker 1: was hired to help and helm the ship of the
Speaker 1: Titanic that is the Atlanta Hawks, I did say that
Speaker 1: it was weird timing. But you add that to the
Speaker 1: notion that there were speculation that the only reason he
Speaker 1: came on that late in the season was to figure
Speaker 1: out whether he could live with Tray Young in the mix.
Speaker 1: It turns out that we have our answer about what
Speaker 1: that was all about. Rumors are now catching fire saying
Speaker 1: that the Hawks are one hundred percent going to explore
Speaker 1: trading Tray Young in the off season. The rumors, let
Speaker 1: me say that again, The rumors are the Hawks ownership
Speaker 1: has given the green light to whoever wants to do it,
Speaker 1: to trade Tray Young in the off season. Wow, the
Speaker 1: Tray Young experience may have been coming to a close
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, according to Kevin O'Connor at The Ringer, who
Speaker 1: dropped this recent article called the Hawks have changed everything
Speaker 1: except for Trey Young. The Hawks could be making some
Speaker 1: huge moves and make no mistake, the decision will be
Speaker 1: one hundred percent Quinn Snyder's because, according to O'Connor, league
Speaker 1: sources say during months of negotiations in the lead up
Speaker 1: to Quinn Snyder getting hired, and he has demanded and
Speaker 1: now wields significant influence over personnel decisions. Though Atlanta's front
Speaker 1: office dynamic is described as a quote collaborative effort, which
Speaker 1: is never something that you want, many high level decision
Speaker 1: makers from opposing teams believe that it's now Snyder who
Speaker 1: has the final say pause, paus pause. Did Kevin O'Connor
Speaker 1: just write months months of negotiations with Quinn Snyder? So
Speaker 1: they were negotiating with Quinn Snyder while Nate McMillan was
Speaker 1: still rolling out the ball and coaching the Atlanta Hawks.
Speaker 1: That is interesting. That is very very interesting. I guess
Speaker 1: it makes sense given that the most desirable coaching candidate
Speaker 1: on the market at the time would demand control, and
Speaker 1: it would make sense that he would want some sort
Speaker 1: of conversation prior to the opening. But ge zis christ
Speaker 1: is that why he has been ten and eleven since
Speaker 1: taking over? Because Tray Young doesn't want to move without
Speaker 1: the ball. Basically he is Russell Westbrook. Everybody thought he
Speaker 1: was gonna be Oklahoma Trey Young, which is some version
Speaker 1: of Steph Curry with off the ball movement, pinned downs,
Speaker 1: dribble handoffs, and really what he does when he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the ball is just stand there. Is that encouraging
Speaker 1: to you or not? Because it is not encouraging to me.
Speaker 1: House Snyder has gotten the kids, Aj Griffin, Sadique bay
Speaker 1: Jalen Johnson to buy in, and Trey Young hasn't shows
Speaker 1: you everything you need to know about Trey Young. So
Speaker 1: would that shock me if Trey Young and or Dejontey
Speaker 1: Murray got moved this summer, No, it would not. Would
Speaker 1: I be shocked if they tried to build around Trey
Speaker 1: Young next year, I would also not be shocked. All
Speaker 1: I know is, for the first time in Trey Young's career,
Speaker 1: people are pointing at Trey Young and saying, listen, motherfucker,
Speaker 1: you are dead on the chopping block if you don't
Speaker 1: get that shit Squared Away. They are not putting up
Speaker 1: with his nonsense. So either he needs to move without
Speaker 1: the ball and be a little baby Steph Curry, or
Speaker 1: he is going to somewhere like Houston with Jalen Green
Speaker 1: and them boys. That's all the time that we have
Speaker 1: for this episode of the heat Check. Check back Thursday
Speaker 1: before we start the playoffs. Do not forget to check
Speaker 1: the feed. I hope that there will be more interviews coming.
Speaker 1: Might have an interview lined up that is very special.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for that, and please follow the heat Check
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