Speaker 1: On this episode of the Heat Check, we talk about
Speaker 1: another division in the Western Conference, Baby, which might be
Speaker 1: the most loaded in NBA history. I know that's a
Speaker 1: hyper believe, but we're doing it on a Sunday night.
Speaker 1: You can make the case that almost any team in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference, just pick one out of that, any
Speaker 1: one of them, except for my Portland Trailblazers, could make
Speaker 1: the playoffs. We now break down the second Western Conference division,
Speaker 1: which is the Southwest. I don't know what the car
Speaker 1: reference would be of that. I know it's definitely not
Speaker 1: a Cadillac. I know it's definitely not a Maserati. It's
Speaker 1: more like mid tier, like ooh, i'd be fine. Is
Speaker 1: it the hunt Day Division? I don't know. Memphis, Dallas,
Speaker 1: New Orleans, Houston, and Santa an fucking Tonio. Santa fucking
Speaker 1: Tonio is probably gonna be the Maserati of the bunch.
Speaker 1: Let's get a move on, William. We don't have much
Speaker 1: time to waste. I already did this segment, so we
Speaker 1: got to do it again, and I wasn't recording, so
Speaker 1: drop that generic ads beat that should be Rihanna.
Speaker 2: Was breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines. We're tuned
Speaker 2: in to the Heat Check. The Heat Check. It's just
Speaker 2: a crazy the best podcast covering all the drama around
Speaker 2: the association.
Speaker 1: We've started our NBA with the cattle, the the cream
Speaker 1: of the crop, which was the Pacific Division. We now
Speaker 1: turn our attention to the Southwest Division, which is fascinating
Speaker 1: in its own way. It's actually we can make more
Speaker 1: of a of a reference not to cars, but maybe
Speaker 1: to an airline, and we'll just keep it right there.
Speaker 1: It's like the Southwest airlines of the NBA, Like, you
Speaker 1: don't get your own seats, you better get there fucking
Speaker 1: early or you're gonna be ended up in thirty two B.
Speaker 1: So we'll start up top with the Memphis Grizzlies fifty
Speaker 1: one and thirty one. They were second place last year.
Speaker 1: They add Marcus Smart and smot they add Derek Rose,
Speaker 1: they add GG Jackson, they subtract Tias Jones, they subtract
Speaker 1: Dylan Brooks. So how should we start this preview right? Like,
Speaker 1: should we talk about the fact that they won the
Speaker 1: Southwest Division last year and John Brand only played like
Speaker 1: fifty seven games sixty two games? Should we talk about
Speaker 1: the fact that they were a two seed last year?
Speaker 1: Should we talk about the fact that they added Oh
Speaker 1: my god, Marcus Smart, this culture guy, oh Dereck Rose
Speaker 1: like og former MVP. Should we talk about the fact
Speaker 1: that I don't know Brandon Clark is out for the season.
Speaker 1: Should we talk about the fact that Steven Adams might
Speaker 1: be finally fully healthy? No? No, we should Was that
Speaker 1: the most poignant thing to start with? Come on, guys,
Speaker 1: it's Jaw. Jaw Jaw the man himself who decided after
Speaker 1: Adam Silver said, hey, Jaw, no more guns, he was like,
Speaker 1: you know what I think would be fun? You know
Speaker 1: what I think would be just hilarious is buying a
Speaker 1: lighter that looks like I could glock and then just
Speaker 1: putting it on Instagram live for the world to see
Speaker 1: so that I can get my ass suspended. So if
Speaker 1: we don't know what's up with Jaw and he's not
Speaker 1: gonna be back till Christmas, we probably don't know what
Speaker 1: this Grizzlies team is because Jaws now suspended twenty five games.
Speaker 1: A what a present from Adam Silver. Just open it up,
Speaker 1: find out what the Memphis Grizzlies are by January first,
Speaker 1: who knows, who knows? Maybe not even by then. Maybe
Speaker 1: all Star break, we'll know what they are, right. Uh,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of sheen on Jaw this time
Speaker 1: last year. It's easy to forget he was like the guy.
Speaker 1: He was the one we all wanted to build the
Speaker 1: league around. And uh he had power aid commercials and
Speaker 1: the new Nike shoe and he was just the dude
Speaker 1: on a Tuesday night that every kid wanted to watch
Speaker 1: what the top Jersey sales, Like, everybody wants to go
Speaker 1: to some random NBA town to see Jaw. And Uh,
Speaker 1: I tell you what that sheen came off fast is
Speaker 1: we haven't heard a peep really about in this entire summer.
Speaker 1: Probably a good thing, considering that there was a lot
Speaker 1: of chatter. There was about a million allegations on the
Speaker 1: athletic about what he was doing and what he wasn't
Speaker 1: doing with his friends and his dad and weather T
Speaker 1: looked like Usher, it's all done now, it's all about
Speaker 1: the grizz. Well, the time that he's taken off turned
Speaker 1: him into a different player, because Jaw the old Jaw
Speaker 1: for so many reasons. The reason that we liked him
Speaker 1: was he had complete freedom on the court and he
Speaker 1: gave zero fox like none, absolutely zero Fox. He got
Speaker 1: into the paint with reckless abandon, and then he went
Speaker 1: to shotgun Willies and hooked up with strippers. Probably with
Speaker 1: reckless abandon. We made shots he had no business taking.
Speaker 1: So we wonder. We have to wonder, is he the
Speaker 1: same jaw has the meditation retreats and all the therapy
Speaker 1: and all the time alone changed to jaw is as
Speaker 1: a player? Are we gonna see the same aggressive, fearless
Speaker 1: mentality that made him fucking electric? Or is he gonna
Speaker 1: be more cautious, more guarded, more not himself. Time will tell.
Speaker 1: But he didn't just tweet this out. It's a different
Speaker 1: story for me. It seems I got everything that I've
Speaker 1: dreamed of, but I can't find no peace. Oh jaw Baby,
Speaker 1: that's not good. I really want you to find your piece.
Speaker 1: I hope that it was just a song lyric, but
Speaker 1: that's a lyric from rod Wave, and the lyrics that
Speaker 1: precede that quote was I was on my way to
Speaker 1: the show and it finally hit me. I don't want
Speaker 1: to be here no more. Lord, come and get me now.
Speaker 1: I ain't ready to die like Biggie. I just want
Speaker 1: to dump in my car, fill it with gas. And
Speaker 1: go far and not look back. Oh boy, that is
Speaker 1: a runaway song for jaw. I do not like that.
Speaker 1: That does not give me any hope for what is
Speaker 1: happening currently with John Morant mindset. If that is what
Speaker 1: he is feeling, Jaron Jackson and Jesus take the wheel.
Speaker 1: Oh Steven Adams. Is Steven Adams healthy again?
Speaker 2: Is he?
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't know. I just don't. He had
Speaker 1: a shave. But we're gonna need a lot more aggressiveness
Speaker 1: from Steven Adams and a lot more offense. And also
Speaker 1: Brandon Clark, like I said, out for the year dealing
Speaker 1: with his achille surgery. Kenny Lofton Junior. Kenny Lofton Junior
Speaker 1: showed up to camp three hundred pounds. That is twenty
Speaker 1: five more pounds than he was last year, and last
Speaker 1: year he was probably seventy five pounds overweight. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: Like Kelly Lofton, Kenny Lofton is shaped like a bowling ball.
Speaker 1: I don't know how this roster, I'm sorry, this roster
Speaker 1: is just giving me real vibes. I don't know. They
Speaker 1: did swap Tyus Jones out for Marcus Smart that makes
Speaker 1: them better defensively, but I don't know necessarily if they
Speaker 1: needed that as much as they needed a floor general
Speaker 1: who had the best assistant turnover ratio in the NBA,
Speaker 1: which is why they were five hundred when John Morant
Speaker 1: was out. They do add Derrick Rose to the bench,
Speaker 1: which I like. That helps in a lot of intangible
Speaker 1: ways too, both Smart, which I thought was interesting. Both
Speaker 1: Marcus Smart and Derrick Rose independently said they are not
Speaker 1: here to neither babysit nor snitch on Jamrant, which I
Speaker 1: feel like no one asked them if they were, so
Speaker 1: them just offering that up is a little strange to me.
Speaker 1: But I do know that Derrick Rose was an MVP,
Speaker 1: played a lot like Jaw, wasn't exactly squeaky clean himself,
Speaker 1: so maybe he's not like a mentor, but somebody who
Speaker 1: Jaw can feel the leadership from great moves I think
Speaker 1: by the GRIZ. But is this team better than they
Speaker 1: were last year when they won fifty two games. I
Speaker 1: just don't know about that. I really don't. I just don't.
Speaker 1: Desmond Bane. I love Desmond Bain, probably an All Star
Speaker 1: this year, but all the little Reddit threads and the
Speaker 1: behive of the Grizzlies fans, they're all hoping for santiaal
Speaker 1: Dama and Jake la Ravia to take a step for
Speaker 1: this team to be better than they were last year. Ooh,
Speaker 1: I don't know about that. That is something that I
Speaker 1: am not sure if you are just hitching your wag
Speaker 1: into that. I don't think so. Luke Canard is gonna
Speaker 1: unlock them as an important cog in the offense. But listen, man,
Speaker 1: Lukenard didn't start last year, so we're gonna need more
Speaker 1: than twenty five minutes a night from Luke Canard. Before
Speaker 1: Lukenard came to the Memphis Grizzlies, his team was twenty
Speaker 1: third and three point shooting. When it comes down to it,
Speaker 1: it's a roster that has more questions than answers. Charon Jackson,
Speaker 1: of course, has to figure out how to play defense
Speaker 1: without getting into foul trouble, and the last time we
Speaker 1: saw him that was not working out well. He was
Speaker 1: still kind of figuring out how to do that. It
Speaker 1: all is moot without a healthy and engage and back
Speaker 1: to the job that we know and love. But we're
Speaker 1: not gonna know what they are and we're not going
Speaker 1: to know what he is until probably ten fifteen games
Speaker 1: after Christmas, and until then that means that the Memphis
Speaker 1: Grizzlies have more questions than the Bermuda Triangle