Speaker 1: New pr on the leg press. Oh I leg press
Speaker 1: sixteen hundred pounds. Yeah, but you can't squat three hundred.
Speaker 1: What good is a sixteen hundred pound leg press when
Speaker 1: you're out on the football field. Do you have a
Speaker 1: leg press when you're throwing the shot put? Do you
Speaker 1: have a leg press when you're knee deep in the
Speaker 1: muck in Vietnam?
Speaker 2: Do you have a leg press? Good morning, sweet world,
Speaker 2: and welcome to the No Dunks podcast on the Athletic Network.
Speaker 2: It's Friday, January twenty second. This is the drop hashtag
Speaker 2: full squad on Jay Skeets and alongside me, mister what
Speaker 2: you need to.
Speaker 3: Know Test mellis Good day, everybody, Good day tasks.
Speaker 2: We got the bass Master ripping them lips. Nice shirt there,
Speaker 2: Trey Kirby, Hey hey, oh yes, the great Dead Lithuania shirt.
Speaker 2: That is amazing there TK. We also have the international
Speaker 2: Man of Mystery taking it to the max in an
Speaker 2: NBL jersey.
Speaker 3: Lee Ellis pre.
Speaker 2: Lee last but not least making the magic happen. It's
Speaker 2: JD Hello, there is and here we are. Shout out
Speaker 2: to the stream team joining us live right now on YouTube.
Speaker 2: Yesterday we reached twenty seven thousand subs. All right, that's
Speaker 2: a lot of subs. Let's intro our way to thirty thousand,
Speaker 2: then to forty thousand, then to fifty k and then
Speaker 2: we get that slim Lee Ellis country song dropped on
Speaker 2: your head. But big news with our YouTube channel yesterday,
Speaker 2: Trey take it away. You do it. You let the
Speaker 2: people know. Whoopsies are back there. It is, Yes, NBA
Speaker 2: Whosi blooper series is back. Forget weekend whoopsies. It's weekly
Speaker 2: whoopsies now from the entire week. So if you haven't
Speaker 2: go check that out again on the No Dunks YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: Fantastic work that music. JD Man, it took me back.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, just to too. Yeah, a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: Great. First, I'm feeling a lot of pressure right now because,
Speaker 3: as you said, we used to do weekend whopsies now
Speaker 3: it's weekly whipsies. Feeling pressure to not miss a whoopsie
Speaker 3: missing it's gonna be a lot of work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, help us out, Help us out. Actually,
Speaker 2: that's a great point there. Tasks for everyone listening and
Speaker 2: joining us of course live watching us here. If you
Speaker 2: see a whoopsie in the NBA, let us know about it.
Speaker 2: Best way is probably on Twitter at No Dunksinc. But
Speaker 2: you can email them in or you can let us
Speaker 2: know in the YouTube comments as well. We've got our
Speaker 2: eye on that. So yeah, if you see something that
Speaker 2: you think could make the whoopsies, tag it and let
Speaker 2: us know what game, where it happened, what it is.
Speaker 2: That really really helps us. All right, keep your questions
Speaker 2: in your comments coming for next week's Beach step in podcast.
Speaker 2: Email them in No dunks at the Athletic dot com.
Speaker 2: Immaculate items always available at no dunks dot com. You know, Task,
Speaker 2: I almost feel bad now I said, nice shirt, Tray,
Speaker 2: nice jersey. Lee. Task has the shirt on. Let's be honest.
Speaker 2: He's got the No Dunk basketball shirt there. It's a
Speaker 2: nice shirt rock in the purple. You can go get
Speaker 2: that at No dunks dot com. T shirts, hoodies, shorts,
Speaker 2: and a mug even. All right, we got a lot
Speaker 2: to talk about, as we always do on the drop.
Speaker 2: We're gonna touch on last night's light NBA schedule, only
Speaker 2: three games. We'll get to those. We got worse of
Speaker 2: the week, we got tweeted the night we got rapid firefun.
Speaker 2: But I teased this earlier in the week the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one NBA regular season already a month in, guys,
Speaker 2: and we're actually nearing the quarter pole really of the season,
Speaker 2: with only seventy two games. We're getting close there. Lately.
Speaker 2: On Wednesday's podcast, we discussed our early season surprises and
Speaker 2: disappointments and some prediction mulligans and our best plays. And
Speaker 2: I teased on that one that on this drop we
Speaker 2: would share in debate our NBA award front runner. So
Speaker 2: let's do it. We'll take turns going through, you know,
Speaker 2: each of the six major NBA awards. Now, I'd like
Speaker 2: to point out I don't think and correct me if
Speaker 2: I'm wrong, Guys, I looked at it like this, This
Speaker 2: is not who I think's going to win it, you know, necessarily,
Speaker 2: but who right now, you know, fifteen sixteen games in
Speaker 2: would be at the at the top of the leaderboard
Speaker 2: or top three even because I want you, guys to
Speaker 2: give me your top three candidates in each one. So Lee,
Speaker 2: let's start with MVP. Work it backwards. Lee, Okay, goes
Speaker 2: three to two to one for us, And who do
Speaker 2: you have right now as your MVP? A month?
Speaker 3: Then?
Speaker 4: Okay, so this is a good award because we all
Speaker 4: have different ways of evaluating the MVP. No we I
Speaker 4: mean some go on numbers and stats, some give weight
Speaker 4: to team success, and some of it is just part
Speaker 4: of the itest two way effectiveness narrative plays a part.
Speaker 4: So based on all those categories, at number three on
Speaker 4: my MVP leaderboard, I have.
Speaker 5: Joel emb Okay.
Speaker 4: There are a few guys in contention here, but I've
Speaker 4: been really impressed with the early returns of Joel Embi
Speaker 4: playing under Doc Rivers. I think Doc has gotten through
Speaker 4: to Joel to make him understand that he needs to
Speaker 4: be a more dominant player closer to the basket. The
Speaker 4: numbers are great, the raw numbers twenty six and twelve
Speaker 4: one and a half blocks and steels per game, so
Speaker 4: he's doing it at both ends there. But he's shooting
Speaker 4: career highs across the board fifty five percent from the field.
Speaker 4: He's taking less threes than he's taken in the past,
Speaker 4: but he's shooting them at a better percentage, and he's
Speaker 4: getting to the free thrown free throw line more and
Speaker 4: making those at a career best clip. The Sixers best
Speaker 4: record in the East, but they have had the easiest
Speaker 4: or an an easy schedule, I will say, but I
Speaker 4: think Joel Embiid so far has has has shown this
Speaker 4: is probably his best career season. For me in the
Speaker 4: early games, okay, at number two on my MVP leader board,
Speaker 4: I have Kevin Durant Now. The Nets numbers in terms
Speaker 4: of win losses only nine and seven and seven and
Speaker 4: five when Durant plays, but he has been simply amazing
Speaker 4: on the court when he's been playing, and I think
Speaker 4: they are the best team in the East right now,
Speaker 4: even though their record doesn't say it. Durant's numbers thirty
Speaker 4: one points, eight rebound, six assists on incredible shooting fifty
Speaker 4: four percent from the field forty six from three, only
Speaker 4: eighty six percent from the line for Kevin Durant a
Speaker 4: little bit lower than normal. But to me down to
Speaker 4: while the Nets had some defensive issues, every single team
Speaker 4: who plays the Nets has defensive issues. When Kevin Durant's
Speaker 4: out on the floor, that's just how good he is.
Speaker 4: He's had a couple of chances to win games and
Speaker 4: he hasn't been able to do it. But right now
Speaker 4: in the Eastern Conference, if I was to pick who's
Speaker 4: going to make it to the NBA Finals. Kevin Durant's
Speaker 4: team is going to make it to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 4: He has been incredible, hasn't looked like a guy who's
Speaker 4: missed eighteen months and is also recovering from an Achilles' injury,
Speaker 4: which is sometimes devastating to a player. He's been unbelievable.
Speaker 4: And I've seen so many games of Kevin Durant that
Speaker 4: I sort of feel I feel like he has just
Speaker 4: impressed me so much because I was wondering if he
Speaker 4: would be able to be back so quickly to the
Speaker 4: player that we saw before he got injured. And I think,
Speaker 4: unquestionably he has number one on my leaderboard. I'm going
Speaker 4: with Lebron James for a lot of reasons. Well, look,
Speaker 4: the Lakers the best team and the clear favorite to
Speaker 4: win the title right now, the best record in the
Speaker 4: league at twelve or four eight zero on the road
Speaker 4: or I mean, it doesn't mean quite the same these
Speaker 4: days because we don't have that sort.
Speaker 5: Of home road impact.
Speaker 4: But Lebron last night, I think we saw a classic. Hey, guys,
Speaker 4: you know how awesome I am. Watch me just dismantle
Speaker 4: the Milwaukee Bucks out here. Now, Lebron's numbers aren't huge
Speaker 4: by his standards, twenty four to eight to eight on
Speaker 4: forty eight percent shooting. But it's just so impressive to
Speaker 4: me that he's doing it in basically playing a career
Speaker 4: Lozer in minutes, I think, apart from his rookie season,
Speaker 4: and it's just so easy for him and the Lakers
Speaker 4: right now. You know, coming off winning the championship last season,
Speaker 4: we wondered, I wondered if maybe Anthony Davis would be
Speaker 4: the guy this year who's like, right, I'm going to
Speaker 4: be the best player on the Lakers. I don't think
Speaker 4: that's happened. I think Anthony Davis has kind of not
Speaker 4: quite really found his form yet this season, although he's
Speaker 4: been good, but not certainly the player that I thought
Speaker 4: he was. Whereas I look at Lebron, I look around
Speaker 4: the league and I'm like, man, he is just cruising
Speaker 4: right now. This is the time of year where Lebron
Speaker 4: you know, I know, this season started later, but he
Speaker 4: often takes a couple of games off and he just
Speaker 4: chills out a little bit.
Speaker 5: Well, he is chilling out a bit.
Speaker 4: But his team is incredible and he's putting up uh,
Speaker 4: you know, again, not huge numbers by his standards, but
Speaker 4: just doing it so easily, shooting the ball well, and
Speaker 4: his team looks so good. So Lebron James as of
Speaker 4: today is my MVP, which would be his fifth officially,
Speaker 4: I think it would be my twelfth if I.
Speaker 2: Was right, right right, Yes, it should be the biggest
Speaker 2: surprise that you.
Speaker 4: Have just before, just before you guys jump in, I'll
Speaker 4: just say Nikola Jokic was in there because he's obviously
Speaker 4: averaging a triple double. But the Nuggets seven to seven,
Speaker 4: not even in the playoffs in the West right now,
Speaker 4: and Steph Curry is also having a great season. The
Speaker 4: Warrior is also not in the playoffs. So those why
Speaker 4: That's the reason why I took those two guys out
Speaker 4: of contention and went with the three that I chose.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, Trey, let's uh, let's go to you. What
Speaker 2: do you think of Lee's list here, especially with Lebron
Speaker 2: at number one? Do you agree or disagree?
Speaker 6: Well, I've got the same three on my ballot as Lee,
Speaker 6: but I'm gonna be buster rhymes here and flip it
Speaker 6: on him. I've got Lebron at number three on my
Speaker 6: MVP ballot because it kind of feels like We've been
Speaker 6: watching preseason Lebron for the entirety of this year up
Speaker 6: until last night against the Bucks. Fourth quarter. Lebron is
Speaker 6: the MVP. When he turns it on in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 6: as he's been doing throughout this season, he's clearly the
Speaker 6: best player in the league. But it's hilarious to look
Speaker 6: at his stats comically low, like lia Is saying, twenty
Speaker 6: four to eight to eight incredible for anybody. That's sophomore
Speaker 6: season for Lebron, James like he's not given the full
Speaker 6: effort out there. We all know it. He knows it,
Speaker 6: but when he needs to, he can reach into the
Speaker 6: bag and still be the best player in the league.
Speaker 6: I got Kevin Durant at number two. I think he
Speaker 6: likely will and will win MVP at the end of
Speaker 6: the season. Like Li says, he has been phenomenal. He's
Speaker 6: instantly back in the best player in the game conversation.
Speaker 6: But I'm given the MVP right now to Juwel Embiid.
Speaker 6: He's been dominant, he's been engaged. He looks like an
Speaker 6: MVP game the game throughout his career, but he's constantly
Speaker 6: putting the team on his back right now, doing it
Speaker 6: on both ends, and I'm giving him the MVP for
Speaker 6: now because it probably won't be the case in a
Speaker 6: couple of months. And this is just how it goes
Speaker 6: with Jewel Embiid. We've seen him really put the team
Speaker 6: on his back in the past before. I remember. I
Speaker 6: think it was the Christmas game last sear and he
Speaker 6: was going against the Bucks, had like a thirty five
Speaker 6: to fifteen, looked like the best player in the world,
Speaker 6: but it didn't totally translate for the rest of the season.
Speaker 6: He's been awesome this year. He's my MVP right now
Speaker 6: because I want to give him a little shine while
Speaker 6: he's on top.
Speaker 2: I agree with you, Trey, I got Embiid right now
Speaker 2: as the MVP front runner. You know, one month in here,
Speaker 2: twenty five points per game. He's shooting, you know, fifty
Speaker 2: seven percent on twos, thirty nine point four percent from
Speaker 2: from deeply. But he hasn't fallen in love with a
Speaker 2: three point shot like you said. He's going down into
Speaker 2: the block and making it work down there. Both career
Speaker 2: highs though, and I'll add to this. You know a
Speaker 2: reason why I think he is the MVP right now.
Speaker 2: The Sixers' performance without him helps his MVP case. I
Speaker 2: believe they're oh to three when Embid's not playing compared
Speaker 2: to like a nine to two record when he's in there. Now, yes,
Speaker 2: they haven't played the greatest teams yet, but still he
Speaker 2: can only play who's in front of you there, so
Speaker 2: that I think does help him. I got KD I
Speaker 2: actually have him second as well, but then I had
Speaker 2: Jokich just third. But Kad, I have a question for you,
Speaker 2: I'll go to Yulie. Moving forward. I know we're talking
Speaker 2: about one month in here, but moving forward, does trading
Speaker 2: for Harden hurt Katy's MVP chances? Like is it almost
Speaker 2: going to be impossible now for him to win it?
Speaker 2: You know, as the season goes on, Like, what's your
Speaker 2: take on that?
Speaker 5: I don't think so.
Speaker 4: I think Kevin Durant has clearly established himself as the
Speaker 4: best player in the Eastern Conference so far in this
Speaker 4: one month into the sea.
Speaker 2: But if Lebron and Ed at times cancel each other out,
Speaker 2: then why it couldn't. Yeah the same about Katie who
Speaker 2: also had that happen with Steph curry back.
Speaker 4: I think for that to happen, James Harden would almost
Speaker 4: have to just have like just an an astronomical season,
Speaker 4: which I just don't think he's going to do. I
Speaker 4: think again, it's the eye test for me with the
Speaker 4: Brooklyn Nets, like they're nine and seven and seven and
Speaker 4: five when Kevin Durant plays, which is like, oh, they
Speaker 4: should be better than that. But it just feels to me,
Speaker 4: again in the Eastern Conference, I wouldn't pick anyone to
Speaker 4: beat the Nets in a seven game series right now.
Speaker 4: While Kevin Durant's playing the way he is, I just
Speaker 4: feel is that dominant and that impactful if you take
Speaker 4: James Harden off that team. Even prior to that, I thought,
Speaker 4: I still think while Kevin Durant's there, the Nets are
Speaker 4: the best team. Harden improves them. Butt for me is
Speaker 4: back to already his best, the best player he was
Speaker 4: before he had the injury. So look, I'm maybe a
Speaker 4: little bias too because I have fallen back in love
Speaker 4: with KD. You know, it's like, you know, he because
Speaker 4: he was kind of like he was on the out
Speaker 4: of there for a while when he went to the Worriores.
Speaker 4: You know, people kind of like that's a bit of
Speaker 4: a dick move. But he's now gone to another team
Speaker 4: with star players. But it's like, Okay, let's just let's
Speaker 4: just not forget that this guy is an incredible talent
Speaker 4: in the league. And like I say, when he's on
Speaker 4: the court, which other team goes, well, we can defend
Speaker 4: Kevin Durant. You know, That's part of the reason why
Speaker 4: I say they like the Nets have got a terrible
Speaker 4: defense and they allow teams to score, but they have
Speaker 4: Kevin Durant, so they know that if the game comes closed,
Speaker 4: you want the ball in Kd's hands, as we saw
Speaker 4: the other night against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 2: Okay, so tas Leely's got Lebron right now as his
Speaker 2: MVP front unner. Tray and I have Joel Embiid at
Speaker 2: the top of our list, and then we're obviously talking
Speaker 2: about all these other guys. Who do you have?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would go with Joel Embiid as well. I
Speaker 3: think one guy who's not part of the conversation right
Speaker 3: now because he contracted the coronaviruses, Jason Tatum. Who would
Speaker 3: be I think either one or two if he was
Speaker 3: entirely healthy the entire season. It's usually a factor is injuries,
Speaker 3: no doubt, but this year a factor is the virus
Speaker 3: contracting the virus and missing a couple of weeks is huge.
Speaker 3: But there's just so many guys that are like middling
Speaker 3: right there at the top. There's like, I think you
Speaker 3: could make an argument for I don't know, I didn't count,
Speaker 3: but like ten guys. All the guys you've mentioned are
Speaker 3: all right there. And Lebron. I think Lee kind of
Speaker 3: went with him, and a lot people do because it's
Speaker 3: sort of a default pick. Yeah, he is the best
Speaker 3: player on the best team. But this is the one
Speaker 3: year Lebron's not even going for it. I mean, he's
Speaker 3: playing the fewest minutes he's ever played. This is his
Speaker 3: second lowest point total since his rookie season. He needs
Speaker 3: things to motivate him. I think there's a reason why
Speaker 3: they're eight to NOO on the road, because he's got
Speaker 3: to get up for games and that he's always loved
Speaker 3: playing on the road. This is a season where he's
Speaker 3: chilling a little bit, you know, only playing thirty two
Speaker 3: minutes a game, and Anthony Davis isn't playing to his
Speaker 3: capabilities whatsoever. It's amazing that the Lakers are what they are,
Speaker 3: but yeah, I guess I'm sort of picking embiid because
Speaker 3: you know, Tray and I picked him last year thinking
Speaker 3: that the jump that came this season would have come
Speaker 3: last season, and it's it's it's there, it's apparent. I
Speaker 3: don't know how long it's gonna last, because it's it's
Speaker 3: hard to be an MVP. It's hard to be jannistet
Speaker 3: Kompo and go seventy two games the full frick and throttle.
Speaker 3: So Embiid and Jokic I would pick because I'm pumped
Speaker 3: to see them right up there at the top of
Speaker 3: the leader board. It's just it's it's an anomaly. I
Speaker 3: just don't know how long those guys last at the top.
Speaker 3: So I would pick it while it's there.
Speaker 2: I think them beads MVP cases helped too that he
Speaker 2: has a you know, he's a factor on the defensive
Speaker 2: end as well. I mean that's why we were always
Speaker 2: bumping Giannis up over the last couple of years, because
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, yeah, he's also a great defender. He's
Speaker 2: in the running for Defensive Player the Year, which I
Speaker 2: you know, Embiid is always in the mix too. I
Speaker 2: think that's helps him right now and beat can win
Speaker 2: this thing if obviously the Sixers win enough games and
Speaker 2: he plays enough games like he's going to have the
Speaker 2: counting stats. It's just whether he actually has the games played.
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess he'll have the average, is what
Speaker 2: I mean, but whether he'll have the games played, It's
Speaker 2: it's fascinating. I am a little intriguedly that you sort
Speaker 2: of have Durant so high, and I get it, you've
Speaker 2: fallen in love with him coming back. The league's better
Speaker 2: watching him. You're watching a ton of Nets games, but
Speaker 2: like you said, the Nets are what nine and seven?
Speaker 2: And you know the Nuggets are disappointing? What seven and seven?
Speaker 2: But you know, like it's so it's not that much different,
Speaker 2: is what I'm getting out here. And we got Yollkich
Speaker 2: averaging a triple double, you know, twenty five, eleven and ten.
Speaker 2: I think he's still at but you still have them
Speaker 2: sort of just outside your top three. But I am
Speaker 2: with you there a task like it's it's very very
Speaker 2: close between a lot of these guys. I mean, Luca
Speaker 2: in the mix, yeah exactly. Of course, Gianness is sort
Speaker 2: of still in the mix there, just with his cheer numbers.
Speaker 2: You know, Lillard obviously a little bit still in play
Speaker 2: though they're eight and six, Paul George and Cole Leonard
Speaker 2: on the Clippers. I think I have to be considered too.
Speaker 2: So there's a ton of guys, but you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of us are going with embid right now. At
Speaker 2: the top, Lee says Lebron James. He loves a good narrative.
Speaker 5: I love it all. He's got it all.
Speaker 4: But but also again, the Lake is their their their
Speaker 4: point differential, best in the league. I mean, yeah, I'm
Speaker 4: just giving white to the fact that Lebron these numbers
Speaker 4: are a little bit lower by his standards, But he
Speaker 4: looks to me like he's in complete control of the league.
Speaker 4: And right now there's no one I would pick to
Speaker 4: beat the Lakers in the finals as we are today.
Speaker 3: So that's the other thing.
Speaker 2: Well, let's hear from you guys out there with all
Speaker 2: of these awards. Let us know in the YouTube comments,
Speaker 2: shout out to the stream team again and you can
Speaker 2: tweet at us that as well. At no Dunk's inc.
Speaker 2: Anything else to add to the MVP conversation or just
Speaker 2: the table is full. I think we got like ten guys.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you named everybody that's in the league.
Speaker 4: YEA, yeah, I did say. I did say the Warriors
Speaker 4: winning the playoffs. They are actually in the playoffs at
Speaker 4: eight and seven. I did get that wrong, the seventh
Speaker 4: in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2: Well, let's get to our next award. It's most improved
Speaker 2: players so far. Actually, before you give us three, tray,
Speaker 2: is Lebron in the mix? Because I'm getting ready for
Speaker 2: people to start up Lebron for most improved because he's
Speaker 2: added the three point shot, like he's like suddenly back
Speaker 2: to being like a I guess he did it once before,
Speaker 2: like a forty percent three point shooter. I'm just waiting
Speaker 2: for somebody to fire up that take. But who do
Speaker 2: you have as your top three mips right now? While
Speaker 2: at number three I got Lebron James.
Speaker 6: He missed that huge three against the Warriors, made a
Speaker 6: big one last night, so I'm putting him in the mix.
Speaker 6: It happened last night, so it matters the most. I'm kidding, Skeets,
Speaker 6: you hate this award. Guess what I love it?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Little known fact about me, I was Plano High School's
Speaker 6: most improved player in two thousand and one. I just
Speaker 6: sucked when I was a junior, honestly, Yeah, But once
Speaker 6: I got a big role was ball and mip Trey Kirby. Anyways,
Speaker 6: here's my top three at number three on my ballot,
Speaker 6: Jeremy Grant twenty five points per game this year. That's
Speaker 6: a thirteen point in crazy's career highs across the board.
Speaker 6: The percentages are steady. To me, this is kind of
Speaker 6: the Paul Millsap corollary. Shout out to Tom Zill back
Speaker 6: in the day. Jeremy Grant has an increased role with
Speaker 6: the Pistons, but he's maintained his efficiency. He's seizing an opportunity,
Speaker 6: He's doing it every night.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of.
Speaker 6: Questions about this signing in the offseason, but the Pistons
Speaker 6: got this one right. I don't know about the rest
Speaker 6: of the moves they made, but the Jeremy Grant won
Speaker 6: it looks good. Number two on my ballot Christian Wood
Speaker 6: twenty three points per game. That's a ten point increase
Speaker 6: career highs across the board. Again, percentages are steady. He's
Speaker 6: gone from a curiosity to an established player with star potential,
Speaker 6: maybe a building block for the Houston Rockets. I really
Speaker 6: think that that is Christian Woods team, like they did
Speaker 6: acquire Victor Oladipo. John wall Is there, but that's the
Speaker 6: future for the Rockets. Christian Would, and you know, I
Speaker 6: think that people are loving to dunk on you if
Speaker 6: you didn't watch the Pistons a lot last year. But
Speaker 6: Christian Would also started like twelve games for the Pistons.
Speaker 6: It wasn't a long stretch where he was out there
Speaker 6: putting up twenty five and ten. Now he's doing it
Speaker 6: pretty consistently. Also a good rim protector, so he's in
Speaker 6: the mix for me as well. But my most improved
Speaker 6: player so far is Jalen Brown. I've been sleeping on
Speaker 6: Jalen Brown. He's one of my favorites. Did you realize
Speaker 6: Jalen Brown is now up to twenty five a game,
Speaker 6: six rebounds, four assists, steal in a half, career highs
Speaker 6: from the field, career high from three. He's got better playmaking,
Speaker 6: his handle has improved, his usage rate is now up
Speaker 6: to thirty. That's superstar level. Celtics have been bawling because
Speaker 6: he's really knocking on superstar status. Jason Tatum, like tast Set,
Speaker 6: has missed some games, Kemba Walker missed some games, but
Speaker 6: Jalen Brown has been there doing it every single night
Speaker 6: for the Celtics. Really impressive stuff.
Speaker 2: All right, I didn't see that coming. I like that
Speaker 2: pick though, task What do you think about that? Jalen
Speaker 2: at number one on your leader board?
Speaker 3: That was a great one. No, he threw me for
Speaker 3: a curveball. I've kind of forgotten about the Jalen banwig.
Speaker 3: I guess I've just come to accept that Jalen Brown
Speaker 3: is awesome and I don't think of him as an
Speaker 3: improved player because I've been you know, I followed the
Speaker 3: lead every tray is. You know, jumped on that bad
Speaker 3: and Wigan last year and I'm on there. I wonder
Speaker 3: what happens to his shots when when Jason Tatum comes back.
Speaker 3: He definitely was kicking ass when Tatum was in the
Speaker 3: lineup earlier this season. He's come back a little bit
Speaker 3: to earth. Jayalen Brown was shooting like sixty percent from
Speaker 3: the field. But yeah, he's phenomenal. I don't know. The
Speaker 3: jump isn't as big than it is for Jeremy Grant.
Speaker 3: As Trey said that, that and Christian Wood are just
Speaker 3: those two stand out to me as big jumps when
Speaker 3: I look at it the Most Improved Player award. It's
Speaker 3: harder to go from good to great like traded in
Speaker 3: his senior year at a Plano or you know these
Speaker 3: numbers where you just get playing time, you get a role.
Speaker 3: Christian Wood is that guy, and Jeremy Grant is just
Speaker 3: he's just phenomenal. It's not like he's gotten you know,
Speaker 3: more minutes. The numbers are wild. He's taking ten more
Speaker 3: shots a game, but the percentages are exactly the same.
Speaker 3: It's crazy. I didn't think that that was going to happen.
Speaker 3: He has scored twenty or more in thirteen consecutive games.
Speaker 3: That just doesn't happen on good percentages. And you know,
Speaker 3: some say that anybody somebody has to score. I should
Speaker 3: say on the Detroit Pistons, somebody has to score. But
Speaker 3: he's doing it efficiently, so he's he's great. I think
Speaker 3: he's probably the front runner along with Christian Wood. Depending
Speaker 3: the last sixty games of the season, their number increases
Speaker 3: just too damn high to deny them.
Speaker 2: Lely and who you got, yeah the end.
Speaker 4: The other name I would throw in there, I like
Speaker 4: the Jalen Brown pick is Chris Bouchet from the Raptors.
Speaker 4: I think he's been incredible, shooting sixty percent on from
Speaker 4: the field, averaging fifteen and a half points a game,
Speaker 4: forty eight percent from downtown, and six rebounds. So he's
Speaker 4: clearly having his best season for the Raptors. The Raptors record, obviously,
Speaker 4: they've they've started off badly. They lost a lot of
Speaker 4: games at the start.
Speaker 2: But he doesn't play a ton of minutes either.
Speaker 4: Well but yeah, but still that's that's good though for
Speaker 4: his Well, that that's good.
Speaker 2: But I got a little trivia question off of that
Speaker 2: for you, Lee Okay, can you name Okay? I saw
Speaker 2: this from bleacher Report. The NBA hasn't had a most
Speaker 2: improved player who averaged under thirty minutes since this in
Speaker 2: ninety seven ninety eight. A tough one. This is a
Speaker 2: tough mip. We don't talk about this guy a lot.
Speaker 2: He played for the Hawks.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 2: I think he played for the Nets. The well fact
Speaker 2: check that while you guys maybe try and pick it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's got a very oh, he's got a very common
Speaker 2: sort of last name a lot Jo Henderson. Yeah, man
Speaker 2: TK coming through with Alan Henderson. Did he play for
Speaker 2: one that didner? I'm sorry. He played for the MAVs,
Speaker 2: the Cavs and the Sixers at the end of his career.
Speaker 2: That's what I was thinking of. So anyway, it's very,
Speaker 2: very tough to do. I guess was my point. Dell
Speaker 2: Bouche at twenty four minutes per game right now, that
Speaker 2: could go up if he gets the starting nod eventually
Speaker 2: in Toronto.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The other hey, what about this guy, Colin Sixton is
Speaker 4: averaging twenty seven points a game for the Caves.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 4: He's only played nine games. He's missed the couple, but
Speaker 4: he's shooting fifty three percent from the field and fifty
Speaker 4: percent from downtown. Only three and a half sitts the game,
Speaker 4: but a steal and a half as well, And obviously
Speaker 4: the Calves have been a much better team, and you
Speaker 4: know this season, last season, but twenty seven a game
Speaker 4: over nine games, that's that's not just the tiny sample size,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I had him in the mix as well, but
Speaker 6: I kind of think he's just on fire right now.
Speaker 6: The guy cannot miss from outside, so ergo, his scoring
Speaker 6: stats are going to be the same because when you
Speaker 6: look deep into it, he's taking the same kind of shots.
Speaker 6: He's doing the same stuff assist wise. Like you're saying, like,
Speaker 6: but he is on fire and we just saw him
Speaker 6: score twenty straight for the Cavaliers, So how can you
Speaker 6: not put him in the mix.
Speaker 2: I love the Jaalen Brown pick. I gotta say I
Speaker 2: sort of had forgotten about him. I think I was
Speaker 2: like task, Like I just you know, we were debating
Speaker 2: Jaalen Brown's All Star capabilities last year, so he's obviously
Speaker 2: we thought he was a good player, but he's taken
Speaker 2: it to the next level. I'm not going to disagree
Speaker 2: with that. Another hate what about this guy? Maybe Julius Randall. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean what he's doing. I mean, like, I know,
Speaker 2: he's sort of always had good numbers, but they're up
Speaker 2: this year and obviously it's impacting the knicks in the
Speaker 2: wind calumn as well, so I think he's added some
Speaker 2: things to his game as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he has to do a ton So this missed
Speaker 4: out on his triple double again last week.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of guys. It sounds like most
Speaker 2: people probably Jeremy Grant, Christian Wood, and then Jillen Brown
Speaker 2: is an interesting pick. So let's hear from you.
Speaker 6: And for me of Brown is because like Task to say,
Speaker 6: and it is harder to go to good from good
Speaker 6: to great, and we've already We've known that Jalen Brown
Speaker 6: is a good player basically since his rookie year. But
Speaker 6: you look at the list of guys who have won
Speaker 6: Most Improved in the past couple of seasons, it's Brandon Ingram,
Speaker 6: Pascal Siakam, Victor Oladipo Jannis back in the day. They're
Speaker 6: going from established good player too, you're making All Star teams,
Speaker 6: and I think Jalen Brown is going to be an
Speaker 6: All Star.
Speaker 2: That's a good point, Paul George. I think comes to
Speaker 2: mind too, right, he sort of did that leap and
Speaker 2: that's sort where my mind goes to when I think
Speaker 2: Jaylen Brown. So yeah, no, for sure, if that trend continues,
Speaker 2: then he could win this link all right, sixth man
Speaker 2: of the Year so far tasks who you got top three.
Speaker 3: And number three? I'm going with the Philadelphia seventy six ers.
Speaker 3: Shake Milton, what a name. Shake. He has been everything
Speaker 3: the seventy six Ers have hoped for. Seventeen points off
Speaker 3: the bench. He's in the mix for most improved player
Speaker 3: as well, going from nine points a game last year
Speaker 3: to seventeen this year. Nearly fifty percent for a guard.
Speaker 3: That's a lovely Doc Rivers and Darryl Morey talked him
Speaker 3: up in the preseason. This guy's amazing. This guy's amazing.
Speaker 3: Usually when front office people talk about a player like that,
Speaker 3: they're just kind of bigging him up. And then in
Speaker 3: the regular season he drops off. This guy skyrocket, he's
Speaker 3: doing great. Number two. You guys mentioned him, Chris Bouche.
Speaker 3: He's not your typical six man for the Toronto Rappers.
Speaker 3: He's a backup center.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's a backup center.
Speaker 3: He's a backup big. He's an anomaly. He is one
Speaker 3: of a kind. You watch him out there. He's got
Speaker 3: a unique shot. But he you know, when you think
Speaker 3: about a six man, you don't think about blocking shots,
Speaker 3: but he does a lot of it. He just does
Speaker 3: a lot. So from this list, I think Chris Bouche
Speaker 3: probably does the most because he blocks two and a
Speaker 3: half shots a game, fifteen and a half points, sixty
Speaker 3: percent from the floor, forty eight percent from three. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's wild. Is that going to come down? Yes, but
Speaker 3: still hitting a couple of game. That's that is instrumental
Speaker 3: for the Reps right now because they're not getting anything
Speaker 3: from their center play. And yes, it's most likely Chris
Speaker 3: Bouche will become a center. I don't know who. That's
Speaker 3: what Nick Nurse does. He's a mastermind. Maybe he's gonna
Speaker 3: keep starting. Aaron Bain's playing for twelve minutes and Bouchet
Speaker 3: the better player coming off the bench, but at number
Speaker 3: one with a bullet. The sixth man of the year
Speaker 3: right now, it's Jordan Clarkson. This guy's found his spot
Speaker 3: in the league. You think back to his Laker days.
Speaker 3: He's playing behind Kobe Bryant and he's starting. Then he
Speaker 3: went to the bench and he wasn't great off the bench.
Speaker 3: Then he just wasn't in his lane. He just didn't
Speaker 3: know that I'm a score that's what I do. And
Speaker 3: then he went to Cleveland and he played behind Lebron
Speaker 3: and he still couldn't find his role. So that's that's
Speaker 3: the point. When you had two tries and you haven't
Speaker 3: found your role, maybe you're not gonna find in this league.
Speaker 3: But then he got traded to Utah, had a really
Speaker 3: good season last year, you know, only had half a
Speaker 3: season there, and the Jazz are kicking ass this year
Speaker 3: and Jordan Clarkson's going along for the ride. Top bench
Speaker 3: player with seventeen and a half points per game, forty
Speaker 3: nine from the floor, forty three from three. Those are
Speaker 3: great Jordan Clarkson numbers from blowing kisses to the jenners
Speaker 3: to ballin' he is. He is the best Jordan Clarkson
Speaker 3: I've ever seen. You know, he was just he looked
Speaker 3: like a guy who is just going to sort of
Speaker 3: float around the league for a long time. But he's
Speaker 3: found a spot. He should never leave the bench ever. Ever. Ever,
Speaker 3: He's in a perfect spot.
Speaker 2: He's a contract deal, too, isn't he. He's not paid
Speaker 2: a ton if I remember correctly, fifty. Yeah, so he's
Speaker 2: making like eleven and a half. That means or something
Speaker 2: like that, twelve maybe this year. That's a hell of
Speaker 2: a bargain deal for Jordan Clarkson coming off through bench.
Speaker 2: So you're right, he's just having a super efficient year
Speaker 2: off the pine. And he is sort of like the
Speaker 2: prototypical six man you think of, a guy comes in
Speaker 2: and just shoots and scores and gets you back in
Speaker 2: games or builds leads and stuff like that, and can
Speaker 2: be out there in closing games too. Okay, Clarkson is
Speaker 2: a task his pick. You agree with that one trade
Speaker 2: you have somebody else.
Speaker 6: I've got almost the same ballot as Task Clarkson is
Speaker 6: my guy for the number one slot because he's the
Speaker 6: new j R.
Speaker 5: Smith.
Speaker 6: He even dresses awesome to come into games, and then
Speaker 6: he goes out there and shoots every time. He's taking
Speaker 6: a lot more threes this year, just like the rest
Speaker 6: of the Jazz are really helping him score efficiently. Bouche
Speaker 6: number two. But my number three I got Patty Mills. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 6: Patty Mills. He's kind of emblematic of a fun Spurs bench.
Speaker 6: He picks up the pace when he comes in there.
Speaker 6: The Spurs second unit, I think is a lot more
Speaker 6: fun to watch than their first unit and part of
Speaker 6: the reason they've been so successful this year. But you
Speaker 6: could easily go Shake Milton. The only reason I'm really
Speaker 6: picking Patty over Shake Patty over shit.
Speaker 2: Crazy.
Speaker 6: But the only reason I'm going with Patty Mills over
Speaker 6: Shake Milton is because I got some more sixers coming
Speaker 6: up in some awards here, so I wanted to sprinkle
Speaker 6: sprinkle some other stuff here for the Spurs.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, Leah, sounded like you're very happy with Patty
Speaker 2: Mills making Tray's top three at least.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's having a career best year coming off the bench,
Speaker 4: shooting the ball, scoring points, and I think he's been
Speaker 4: instrumental to the Spurs in their wins. So I'm glad
Speaker 4: that Patty is getting that recognition because the Spurs, you know,
Speaker 4: they're up and down. Watch Sometimes you want to watch them,
Speaker 4: sometimes you don't. But Patty, he's really grown in that
Speaker 4: role there in San Antonio. And always say this about
Speaker 4: Patty that I don't think he shot selection has changed
Speaker 4: all that much in his entire career. I just think
Speaker 4: he knocks him in now. At the start, he used
Speaker 4: to just fire away and a bit like Jordan Clarkson,
Speaker 4: you know, the first couple of season was like he
Speaker 4: just fires away. But now they go in and that
Speaker 4: makes a huge difference. So but absolutely I agreed that
Speaker 4: Jordan Clarkson would be the clear favorite to win this
Speaker 4: award right now.
Speaker 2: You had some fun talking to Shane Hill the hammer
Speaker 2: about Patty Mills. Really got around to listening to it.
Speaker 2: That came up. For sure, it was great. He's sounded
Speaker 2: like a big Paddy Mills fan himself.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, he was.
Speaker 4: I mean Shane Hill was a bit of a smaller
Speaker 4: player too in terms of his stature, and he used
Speaker 4: to go out there and fire, and so I think
Speaker 4: he sees a little bit of Paddy Mills and himself
Speaker 4: there and also played in San Antonio under Greg Popovich
Speaker 4: too there the hammert So yeah, great.
Speaker 2: Awesome, all right, Clarkson all of us taking him for
Speaker 2: the leader right now as six man of the Year
Speaker 2: because I agree with you, guys. No to add on
Speaker 2: to Bouche and what he's doing off the bench for
Speaker 2: the Raptors. He leads the league in true shooting percentage
Speaker 2: and offensive reading. Right, Chris Bouche, wild wild times we're
Speaker 2: living in here in twenty twenty one. All right, Rookie
Speaker 2: of the Year. I'll get a started with this. I
Speaker 2: think it's pretty cool. First off, how many rookies are
Speaker 2: making like an impact right now. And now I don't
Speaker 2: know if that's maybe a little bit because of COVID
Speaker 2: and all like these like guys missing time and with
Speaker 2: the health and safety protocols, and maybe there's more minutes,
Speaker 2: more opportunities for some of these rooks to get in there.
Speaker 2: But a lot of guys are like contributing. And we
Speaker 2: have never here on no dunks pretended to be draft experts,
Speaker 2: but it does seem and correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 2: Guys like this rookie class is already a little bit
Speaker 2: better than most expected. We have fourteen rookies I think
Speaker 2: it is that are slash were because Killy and Hayes
Speaker 2: is now out with an injury. Averaging over twenty minutes
Speaker 2: per game. That's pretty significant. So a lot of guys contributing.
Speaker 2: But my top three Warriors rookie James Wiseman at number three.
Speaker 2: You know, the numbers will not wow you. Actually, with
Speaker 2: all of these guys, the number aren't going to be like, whoa,
Speaker 2: that guy's like a twenty ten already. It's not like
Speaker 2: that this year with these rookies, but they're impactful. Wiseman
Speaker 2: has impressed obviously being the starter there for the Golden
Speaker 2: State Warriors and helping he's out. He has some duds,
Speaker 2: but then he has some great games where he's like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, you could see why this guy was such
Speaker 2: a high pick. He could be a you know, a
Speaker 2: building block. And number two because of his impact. Probably
Speaker 2: the most impactful rookie, Tyrese Haliburton with the Kings, fortunately
Speaker 2: hasn't translated into a ton of win for the Kings,
Speaker 2: but he helps them. He definitely helps watch the watch
Speaker 2: sacrament of Kings basketball when he's out there averaging eleven
Speaker 2: three and five. But number one, I'm going with the
Speaker 2: Hornets rookie LaMelo Ball. He's averaging twelve seven and six.
Speaker 2: He leads the rookies in win shares, so he's actually
Speaker 2: having an impact on the w's Now he's only shooting
Speaker 2: forty percent from the field and still like pretty abysmal
Speaker 2: for a guard, sixty eight percent from the line, but
Speaker 2: he's hitting over a three and a half per game
Speaker 2: and it's thirty three percent. You know that you want
Speaker 2: to get that a little bit higher, but he could.
Speaker 2: And he's just getting more minutes here in the new year,
Speaker 2: he's getting twenty seven minutes per game. Brego is trusting
Speaker 2: him more and more, and he's a human highlight film.
Speaker 2: Money's out there. He must watch televis. So it's close.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you guys agreed disagree who you
Speaker 2: have number one? But I got Ball, then Haliburton and
Speaker 2: then Wiseman, and you could obviously play what about this guy?
Speaker 2: I think with this rookie class, but tasts, what do
Speaker 2: you think do you have ball number one.
Speaker 3: MM, you're a wise man, but I think you should
Speaker 3: put James first. James Wiseman. Yeah, I think it's tough
Speaker 3: to be a center in this league right out the gate.
Speaker 3: The Mell's got the ball.
Speaker 2: Well, no, it's more difficult to be a point guard
Speaker 2: in this league, right, Yeah, he's playing a point guard.
Speaker 6: Would say the big man defense is the hardest thing
Speaker 6: to learn in the NBA.
Speaker 5: But I'm sure you're right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he doesn't play much anyway, It is a toss up.
Speaker 3: This draft class is phenomenal so far. There's no there
Speaker 3: isn't one standout. It's sort of like the MVP minus
Speaker 3: fifteen points per game, but there's like a billion that
Speaker 3: you can you can talk about Haliburton. He was injured.
Speaker 3: I guess that plays a role. But anyway, those guys, yeah,
Speaker 3: they have impressed coming out the gate. We talked about
Speaker 3: this whole this draft class for one three thirty. Well,
Speaker 3: is there is there a Camp miss prospect. No, there
Speaker 3: wasn't a campus prospect. But they're all, you know, playing
Speaker 3: fairly well here to start this season. So it's been
Speaker 3: a pleasant.
Speaker 2: Surprise, including the number one pick Anthony Edwards. So I
Speaker 2: think who has impressed some people, at least Patrick Williams
Speaker 2: obviously the Florists, and Chicago's played well, there's a ton
Speaker 2: like obviously some knicks as well. Yeah, who do you have? Leley?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 2: At number one? Do you go Wiseman, do you go Bald?
Speaker 2: You got somebody else?
Speaker 4: No, I'm going LaMelo ball to I can excuse the
Speaker 4: shooting for rookies because hardly any rookies come out there
Speaker 4: and start shooting high percentages or decent percentages straight away.
Speaker 4: It takes a few years to work on that. But
Speaker 4: Mello's doing the rebounds seven a game, six assists the game,
Speaker 4: and he's lived up to the hype. And I think
Speaker 4: that's the hardest thing to do for a rookie, because
Speaker 4: all rookies a hype to some degree. But LaMelo not
Speaker 4: coming from college, you know, playing down in Australia. It
Speaker 4: was like, well, he's playing in a lesser league, but
Speaker 4: he's playing against men, so will that help him?
Speaker 5: Will that hurt him?
Speaker 4: I think he's gone out there, he's come off the bench,
Speaker 4: he's accepted that role and he's not afraid to take
Speaker 4: those shots either. He again, he's not shooting it great,
Speaker 4: but he's like, listen, if I'm open, I'm gonna take it.
Speaker 4: So I like that about him. I think he's been very,
Speaker 4: very important for the Hornets so far. Wiseman has been good.
Speaker 4: Wiseman probably started off a little bit better than Mellow,
Speaker 4: but I think Mellow has just gotten a little bit
Speaker 4: more comfortable the last couple of games. So I would
Speaker 4: have Mellow, Wiseman, and either Redwoods or Halliburton, probably Edwards.
Speaker 4: I suppose number three, but hey, yeah, you know you're
Speaker 4: you're fanangling the numbers a little bit there anyway, So
Speaker 4: it's really down to one and two, and I think
Speaker 4: it's lamellow ball right now.
Speaker 6: TK talk rook, so you got I got the same
Speaker 6: exact ballad as you, Skeets wise minute three. I do
Speaker 6: think he's probably playing the most important minutes playing as
Speaker 6: a center of the most important defensive spot on the
Speaker 6: basketball courters. You guys know I love defense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was like, well you're switching it up now.
Speaker 2: I thought you didn't care about.
Speaker 6: Defense, Skeets. I'm giving you the backstory here. I did
Speaker 6: win MIP in high school senior year as I played defense.
Speaker 6: I hate to say I played defense. I was rebounded,
Speaker 6: I was taking jog as I was setting screened. When
Speaker 6: you're the tallest guy in the school, Why do you
Speaker 6: think I hate defense? I hate him doing my whole life.
Speaker 3: Let me shoot pat.
Speaker 6: Anyways, so I got him at number three, But him
Speaker 6: playing these important minutes is huge, right, Like he's playing
Speaker 6: on a team that has championship aspirations. They're probably not
Speaker 6: getting to the finals this year, but this is a
Speaker 6: team that is a championship organization. They've got Steph Curry,
Speaker 6: They've got Draymond Green. What he's doing is impressive for
Speaker 6: a guy who is super young to have to actually
Speaker 6: step into a playoff situation. Palli Burton is the guy
Speaker 6: that every team wants. He's the next andre Iguidala to me,
Speaker 6: from a connectivity standpoint, they don't play the same, but
Speaker 6: just the extra juice he gives you on the court,
Speaker 6: the ability to do anything you need and the ability
Speaker 6: to keep the ball moving and make the right decision.
Speaker 6: Incredible from a rookie. But LaMelo is the guy. He
Speaker 6: is a star. He's a building block. He's leading rookies
Speaker 6: in points, rebounds, assists, and steals and he needs to
Speaker 6: play more. Start him already. What are you waiting for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we could get an awful close to
Speaker 2: that trivia question with the rookie class, can you name
Speaker 2: the guy of all the rookies who play is the
Speaker 2: most minutes per game? It's not anyone we've said, Sorry,
Speaker 2: who'd you say, Trey, No, it's nobody we've mentioned. No, no, no,
Speaker 2: the guy that went top five. I'll give you that.
Speaker 2: So there's a hell of a giveaway.
Speaker 6: Okay, who is the fifth draft remember any more?
Speaker 3: A Coro?
Speaker 2: I think that's right, Isaac A Coral thirty seven point
Speaker 2: four minutes per game, which seems like what it seems
Speaker 2: almost like an error run basketball reference. But yeah, gets
Speaker 2: a lot of burn from them out there. They're like,
Speaker 2: what you can do? Contribute on both ends? He's been
Speaker 2: all right too, he'd be in the mix, is well,
Speaker 2: I guess I'm getting out here. But again, like definitely
Speaker 2: uh quickly for the Knicks. Is impressed, Peyton Pritchard for
Speaker 2: the Celtics, and we're gonna do that. Cole Anthony We've
Speaker 2: talked about a little bit, so there's been a lot,
Speaker 2: so it's been pretty impressive. But yeah, who's the star
Speaker 2: who will be? Like that's a fun question. Who will
Speaker 2: be the guy from this rookie class in five years, Like,
Speaker 2: is it is Lamello? Is it Wiseman, is it Edwards?
Speaker 2: Is it Patrick Williams? I mean, I can talk myself
Speaker 2: into any of those guys being them, to be honest,
Speaker 2: So let's just from hear it. Yeah, he's played well.
Speaker 2: I wanted to get Williams in there. He has played
Speaker 2: really well for them. I think, all right, defensive player
Speaker 2: of the year Lee talk defense. We almost gave this
Speaker 2: one to Trey just to anger it.
Speaker 4: I sort of wish you did give it to train
Speaker 4: in the end, because when I dug into this one
Speaker 4: last night, I went down a rabbit hole and I
Speaker 4: was like, I shouldn't have volunteered to do this one
Speaker 4: because because the Lakers have the best defensive rating in
Speaker 4: the league right now, then it's the Cavs and the Knicks,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, okay, come on, that can't be right.
Speaker 4: Then you got the Grizzlies, Okay, the seventy six is fine. Okay,
Speaker 4: that's a good defensive team. Then you still got the Mavericks.
Speaker 4: Remember they started off the season pretty hot, So I'm like, okay.
Speaker 2: This must be the jazz around there.
Speaker 5: Then around the Jazz and next in seventh.
Speaker 4: But okay, I'll start at number three on my Defensive
Speaker 4: Player of the Year leader board. I'm going with Miles Turner.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 4: He's largely here because he's averaging a massive four point
Speaker 4: two blocks per game. Now, he probably would be higher
Speaker 4: on other leaderboards because people will sort of look at
Speaker 4: those defensive stats and say, wow, well he must be
Speaker 4: doing well, he must be great defensive player. The paces
Speaker 4: are only thirteenth in defensive rating, though, and the more
Speaker 4: I looked into I thought, I don't even know if
Speaker 4: he's their best defensive player. I think at Sibonus, the
Speaker 4: numbers say Sibonis they're better when he's on the bench,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, that doesn't jive with what I'm seeing
Speaker 4: out Come on, come on. And also Myles Turner. I'm
Speaker 4: reluctant also to put him higher because his pick and
Speaker 4: roll defense has improved, but it still needs needs work.
Speaker 4: So he's getting the stats. So he gets in there
Speaker 4: at number three.
Speaker 2: Okay, and he's out right now with an injury. Of
Speaker 2: course he needed there with an injury.
Speaker 5: With the hand injury.
Speaker 4: Yeah, at number two of my Defensive Player of the
Speaker 4: Year leader board.
Speaker 5: I'm going with Kawhi.
Speaker 4: Leonard, now fourth in Steel's third in total plus minus
Speaker 4: in the league. When he's on the court, no surprise,
Speaker 4: the Clippers are much better at both ends of the floor,
Speaker 4: but they have the equivalent equivalent of about the third
Speaker 4: best D in the league. And when he sits, it's
Speaker 4: pretty much as bad as the Kings, the Wizards, Bulls, Wolves, Blazers.
Speaker 4: So clearly Kawi Leonard. He's won this award before twice.
Speaker 4: I think he's a two time defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 4: But the Clippers D in total is only fifteenth in
Speaker 4: the league. But when he's out there, they are a
Speaker 4: much better team, and the Clippers have quietly improved after
Speaker 4: a bit of a sluggish start. His team lost by
Speaker 4: fifty points though as well. So I can't give a guy,
Speaker 4: you know, to defensive player of the Year when you
Speaker 4: lose that by that much at home. But at number one, Sketsy,
Speaker 4: you might get angry here, but anyway, I've got I've
Speaker 4: got to go with it defensive number one.
Speaker 5: On my Defensive Player of.
Speaker 4: The Year leader bought, I'm going with Rudy Gobert, but
Speaker 4: it probably should actually be Mike Conley because when Mike.
Speaker 2: Cutts Rudy Gobert.
Speaker 5: Mate, you got to listen.
Speaker 4: When Mike Conley's on the court, the Jazz have the
Speaker 4: best d in the league by a mile, and when
Speaker 4: he sits second worst. But I'm going with Rudy Gobert
Speaker 4: because you know the numbers.
Speaker 3: Because it's a good listen.
Speaker 4: He has more work to do short than Mike Conley.
Speaker 4: But I think the Jazz seventh best defensive team in
Speaker 4: the league, and Rudy Gobert does lead the league in
Speaker 4: defensive field goal percentagele that's how geeky do you want
Speaker 4: to get with these stuff?
Speaker 2: He's like, Rudy Golbert is the king of the advanced
Speaker 2: defensiveness exactly exactly.
Speaker 4: But again that the numbers will tell you. For the Jazz,
Speaker 4: Mike Conley is their most impactful defensive player. I know
Speaker 4: the eye test, Man, It's different, isn't it. You know,
Speaker 4: You're like, Wow, who would you rather have out there
Speaker 4: protecting the paint? Mike Mike Conley on the on the perimeter.
Speaker 6: But Mike Conley has played all but fifty minutes this
Speaker 6: season alongside Rudy go The reason his defensive reading is
Speaker 6: so good is because he's on the court with Rudy Gobert.
Speaker 4: I know, I know, but I don't think we we
Speaker 4: we give him the credit that he deserves. He's a
Speaker 4: very good defensive player, Mike Conley.
Speaker 2: But Okay, I'm fine, I can agree with that, but
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say he's the better.
Speaker 4: I know, I know, I'm going with Rudy Gobert, but
Speaker 4: I'm just saying again, when you when you dig into
Speaker 4: these numbers and you just go, oh my god, like
Speaker 4: like Conley's like the best defense in the league by
Speaker 4: a mile when he's out on court, not with Rudy.
Speaker 4: It's not the same case with Ruby. So the Jazz
Speaker 4: seventh in the league and defense, you know, you always
Speaker 4: expect them to be somewhere in that top five mix.
Speaker 4: So I think that will improve because again I don't
Speaker 4: see the cads in the Knicks staying there all season long. Right, Okay,
Speaker 4: does have an impact, But yeah, I'm going with Rudy Gobert.
Speaker 4: But I'm like, Mike Conley sort of is going to
Speaker 4: be the one presenting him.
Speaker 2: With that award.
Speaker 6: Rudy, at least if he wins it, he should let
Speaker 6: Mike Conley carry the war around it'll be his third one.
Speaker 6: It's like, all right, man, just carried around, you've never
Speaker 6: made an All Star team. You can hang onto my trophy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The shocking part herely to me is not that you
Speaker 2: have Rudy Gobert number one. It's maybe who you have
Speaker 2: to at two and three or who you didn't have
Speaker 2: at two and three. I think Anthony Davis would still
Speaker 2: warrant a lot of defensive player of the reports and
Speaker 2: a Joelle embiid as we talked about. So, okay, Tash,
Speaker 2: what do you think of Lee's list there? And you
Speaker 2: can touch on coldly if.
Speaker 6: You want to.
Speaker 3: I mean, let's just throw it at LEAs. You got
Speaker 3: to stop looking at defensive stats. You got you went
Speaker 3: into the trade machine this year. Just just start with that. Man,
Speaker 3: This is a this is a lot too for you.
Speaker 3: Miles Cerner is a great defender. I think he could
Speaker 3: he could be at the top. But Anthony Davis is
Speaker 3: leading a Lakers defense that is number one in the
Speaker 3: league by a pretty good amount, which is shocking to me.
Speaker 3: Anthony Davis is not having a great offensive year by
Speaker 3: his standards whatsoever, But him and Lebron have somehow got
Speaker 3: everybody on that team to play defense, even though they
Speaker 3: lost Avery Bradley, who was the starter for much of
Speaker 3: the year, they lost Danny Green, they lost Dwight Howard,
Speaker 3: and then they stopped in some some good defenders, some
Speaker 3: not so good defenders, and they've got the number one defense.
Speaker 3: I think a d would probably get it. If you
Speaker 3: look back and see that Giannis won it last year
Speaker 3: with the number one defense, you know it sure seems
Speaker 3: like Anthony Davis would be given that nod this year,
Speaker 3: and he was pretty close last year as well. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I did not volunteer for this award because I don't
Speaker 3: like looking at defensive numbers. I don't think they mean
Speaker 3: all that much. It's it's really just about impacting the game.
Speaker 3: And yeah, is really really good, but they should be
Speaker 3: even better. And Miles Turner is really really good. I
Speaker 3: think they should be even better. So yeah, I think
Speaker 3: just even looking at the best defensive teams is probably
Speaker 3: the most important metric to look at.
Speaker 6: What do you got TK, Well, I actually got Myles
Speaker 6: Turner as my number one because I love looking at
Speaker 6: the stats. This is actually the worst award because you
Speaker 6: got to look at the stats. He is by far
Speaker 6: the best rim protector in the league. Right now, the
Speaker 6: Pacers have the league best defense when he's on the court.
Speaker 6: He's also averaging a steal and a half as a
Speaker 6: big guy, four point two blocks, leading the league, and
Speaker 6: the lowest defensive field goal percentage at the rim while
Speaker 6: challenging the most shots at the rim. Rim defense is
Speaker 6: the biggest part of defense in the NBA because a
Speaker 6: dunk is still the best shot in basketball, so if
Speaker 6: you're able to deter them, then that's good. The only
Speaker 6: knock on Turner is that he doesn't rebound, but Demanta
Speaker 6: Sabonis does rebound. Lee like you're saying, you would maybe
Speaker 6: think that Demonta Sabonis is the best defender on the Pacers,
Speaker 6: but he's not very good at the rim. To be
Speaker 6: quite honest, the other guys I would have in the
Speaker 6: mix jowel Embiid. He gives you the rebounding that Turner doesn't,
Speaker 6: and the pace are The Sixers have been good, and
Speaker 6: Rudy Gobert obviously still elite, but I've got Embiid at
Speaker 6: number two over Rudy o'bert because Embiid doesn't have a
Speaker 6: lockdown guy like Mike Conley out there helping him.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I like everybody getting all these guys in here,
Speaker 2: I go Rudy Gobert. I actually think he's sort of
Speaker 2: running away with it at the one month in mark.
Speaker 2: Although all these other guys are phenomenal defenders Turner Davis, Embiid, yes,
Speaker 2: Mike Conley as well, but you know, Rudy second best
Speaker 2: defensive rating, second most defensive win share, second most blocks,
Speaker 2: third most rebounds, and like that's his role, his goal.
Speaker 2: Like what I love about these Rudy Gobert lines you're
Speaker 2: seeing from all these Jazz wins is like, not Rudy
Speaker 2: eighteen twenty twenty two points, It's like thirteen points, and
Speaker 2: then there's twelve thirteen rebounds, and then it's like three blocks,
Speaker 2: and then we know how much he just deters as well.
Speaker 2: And yeah, you're right, the Jazz team defense feels like
Speaker 2: it should be higher, like, but seventh is still good.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure if we really, you know, dig into it,
Speaker 2: like I don't have it in front of you, what's
Speaker 2: the gap between the second best defense in the league
Speaker 2: and the seventh best defense in the league this early
Speaker 2: the season. I'm sure it's pretty close, though, I do
Speaker 2: agree with I think Task said at the Lakers are
Speaker 2: sort of a you know, a marginal or not marginally
Speaker 2: quite impressively a little bit better than whoever's in second.
Speaker 2: But I go, Rudy Gobert, let's hear from you. Guys.
Speaker 2: No one wanted that award. That was the last one
Speaker 2: filled in in our document.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I asked Tasser Lee, who wants it? And Lee put
Speaker 2: up his little emoticon hand. So I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I guess Lee's into it. I knew Task was avoiding it.
Speaker 2: He was like, I don't want to do this. I
Speaker 2: didn't want to do it, obviously, but I signed up.
Speaker 6: For Coach of the Year rather than talk about.
Speaker 4: Well that's the thing though, with defense, I think it
Speaker 4: is more about sort of eye test and feel. It's
Speaker 4: like they are just a better defense than this. That's
Speaker 4: necessarily right.
Speaker 2: Because like look at Andre Drummond. Look at Andre Drummond's
Speaker 2: defensive numbers. Yeah, okay, and you just got Downe talking
Speaker 2: about the Casby and one of the best defensive teams.
Speaker 2: He leaves like rebounding by a mile. Yeah, he's got
Speaker 2: tons of blocks and steels. I mean, he's a decent defender.
Speaker 2: But we don't even We hadn't even included him in
Speaker 2: the conversation here, so what up with that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and Larry Nance Junior, I believe leads the league
Speaker 4: in total steals and deflections. Right, you wouldn't know one's
Speaker 4: saying Larry Nance Junior is in contentent of defense.
Speaker 5: We play of the year.
Speaker 4: But he's doing this counting numbers and it's having an
Speaker 4: impact on his team.
Speaker 3: And Isaac accorro leads the league in minutes played per
Speaker 3: game for rookies. Nobody's talking about.
Speaker 5: And the six man's up to twenty seven.
Speaker 2: Again, we're gonna win the championship. Yes, we have determined that. Okay, well,
Speaker 2: maybe the camps are in running for Coach of the Year.
Speaker 2: That's our final award, Trey, you wanted this over defensive
Speaker 2: Player of the Year.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about guys in well, I was gonna say suits,
Speaker 2: but they're not in suits, wear polos.
Speaker 6: So yeah, let's talk about guys in quarter zips. Let's
Speaker 6: talk about guys named Steve who often wear corner zips.
Speaker 6: Let me tell you, for personal experience, Coach of the
Speaker 6: Year candidates number three for me? You know it, Billy Donovan.
Speaker 6: The holes made one change in the offseason. They brought
Speaker 6: in a new coach. They said it's time for Billy ball,
Speaker 6: and now we all recognize that the balls are one
Speaker 6: hundred totally and fully back. Their record could be even
Speaker 6: better than it is. But there are so many guys
Speaker 6: that you could put into this number three spot for
Speaker 6: teams that have kind of exceeded expectations. My number two
Speaker 6: on the ballot, Taylor Jenkins of the Memphis Grizzlies, talked
Speaker 6: about it on Wednesday's show, My biggest surprise of the season.
Speaker 6: So far, they've gotten five games from Jaw and Jaron.
Speaker 6: They're seven and six, playing as a top five defense,
Speaker 6: and I think defensive coaches get a lot of cred
Speaker 6: in the Coach of the Year voting because it's all
Speaker 6: about scheme and it's all about buy in. Both of
Speaker 6: those things are a factor for Taylor Jenkins. Here. Everybody's
Speaker 6: playing hard and they're forcing a whole bunch of turnovers.
Speaker 6: It's working in Memphis or as that song goes, well,
Speaker 6: Gonay mayl fizz. But my number one by a mile,
Speaker 6: Doc Rivers is coach of the Year for me right now.
Speaker 6: The best record in the Eastern Conference. More importantly, it
Speaker 6: looks like he made sense of this roster pretty quickly.
Speaker 6: They've been a ragtag bunch. They've had Embiden, Simmons and
Speaker 6: Harris there for the majority of it. Embiiden Harris look
Speaker 6: particularly unlocked. Doc Rivers just seems to know how to
Speaker 6: get the best out at Tobias. Harris has n't making
Speaker 6: quick decisions, has him getting good shots and moving the ball,
Speaker 6: and Embiid, like we talked about, is an MVP candidate.
Speaker 6: The last piece the puzzle will be figuring out how
Speaker 6: to get the best from Ben Simmons. But Doc Revers
Speaker 6: has figured things out so far the first month of
Speaker 6: the season, so I have some confidence you'll get the
Speaker 6: best out of Ben Simmons as the season progresses.
Speaker 2: Lee, what do you think? This one's a tough one?
Speaker 2: I think because there's so many teams that feel like
Speaker 2: they're eight and six or seven and seven that you
Speaker 2: may be heading into the season you're like, ah, they
Speaker 2: might be like at this point in the year, like
Speaker 2: lucky to have four wins, right, So what do you
Speaker 2: think of Trey's less and then who you would have?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I like that list.
Speaker 4: I like Jenkins because I think they really did so
Speaker 4: well when John Moran was out, and of course they
Speaker 4: haven't had Jaron Jackson junior.
Speaker 5: So I think that's really important.
Speaker 4: I think the Doc Rivers bump is like, Okay, he's
Speaker 4: got the sixers playing to that level. It's like, can
Speaker 4: you unlock this talent? Can you get them to work together?
Speaker 4: The offense has looked so much better than it has
Speaker 4: in years gone by, so I think he deserves credit
Speaker 4: for that. Then it comes down to, like, Frank Vogel
Speaker 4: didn't win it last year for the Lakers, But if
Speaker 4: the Lakers win, let's say they win sixty games this year,
Speaker 4: how can did he not be Coach of the Year,
Speaker 4: you know, because it's not like, well he got it
Speaker 4: last year, like coach Budenholz is not going to get
Speaker 4: it even if the Milwaukee Bucks win from here on out,
Speaker 4: He's just not going to get it. But I think
Speaker 4: someone like Frank vogue could just be like, well, let's
Speaker 4: just give it to him, you know, why not? I mean,
Speaker 4: he's got the Lakers playing really well, ty Lu's got
Speaker 4: the Clippers playing really well as well. And what does
Speaker 4: this award? Is this award about improvement over last season?
Speaker 4: A new coach in a new situation or is it
Speaker 4: just like, let's just give it to this guy like
Speaker 4: Nate Bjorkrin. You know the faces.
Speaker 5: They're surprising as well, and.
Speaker 4: They've lost their last couple. They were eight four, they
Speaker 4: got off to a good start. So so many coaches
Speaker 4: have a different storyline or a narrative that they could choose.
Speaker 4: I think ultimately, though, because Vogel didn't win it last year,
Speaker 4: his record could put him in the box seat to
Speaker 4: win it.
Speaker 2: I can't believe you didn't go with one of your
Speaker 2: two favorite teams in like a bigger staff with the
Speaker 2: Calves or TIBs with the next I mean there's a
Speaker 2: five hundred teams right now that not a lot of
Speaker 2: people expect it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I'll get to the Knicks when we talk about the
Speaker 4: games a little bit there later on. But yeah, look
Speaker 4: they've had an improvement and Bickerstaff has got the Cavs
Speaker 4: playing exciting basketball as well. Will even out his stein
Speaker 4: it though, that's the question.
Speaker 2: Task Coach of the Year take us home? Who do
Speaker 2: you have the top year leader board?
Speaker 3: Mm? You guys named all the coaches. I think if
Speaker 3: Nate Jorkrin didn't lose Miles Turner, his best defender. Last
Speaker 3: couple of games, everybody be singing a little bit of
Speaker 3: a different tune for Nate Jorkrin because he really has
Speaker 3: those guys playing. They they have impressed me a lot.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, you named them all though, and we've
Speaker 3: got a top ten coach of the year ballot. That's uh.
Speaker 3: I don't think we just like, say, Nate Yorkrin's name
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 2: It's a good name, great name, because if we're naming
Speaker 2: Doc Rivers in helping the Sixers, oh, you can maybe
Speaker 2: argue they were helped out with the personnel they brought
Speaker 2: in to add a little more shooting around them. So
Speaker 2: maybe Executive of the Year to Mary there. But whatever,
Speaker 2: what about Tyleru with Doc's old team, they're damn good too.
Speaker 2: And he's the new coach. There's the new voice. I
Speaker 2: think they're playing a little more fun. But no one
Speaker 2: wants to talk about the Clippers. Everyone's done talking about
Speaker 2: them more. We're waiting until the playoffs with them.
Speaker 3: But also pretty awesome last year in the regular season.
Speaker 2: I know they were, but you know so, I mean,
Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, the Sixer did disappoint they weren't. It's
Speaker 2: not like they were out of the playoffs, so they
Speaker 2: were still winning games. But I hear you that's fine,
Speaker 2: it's your list, dock at the top. Let's hear from
Speaker 2: you guys out there. That worked really well. I think
Speaker 2: going to our top three candids. So let's hear from
Speaker 2: you guys in the stream team and tweet at us
Speaker 2: at no dunk's inkor Okay, well, let's get through those
Speaker 2: games from last night. Only three on taskt has started.
Speaker 2: Lebron and the Lakers opened a long trip here by
Speaker 2: beating the Bucks one thirteen, one oh six.
Speaker 3: Big takeaway, Well, the Lakers can do whatever they want.
Speaker 3: That's the biggest takeaway. When it came down to the
Speaker 3: last few minutes, Lebron said, all right, I'm taking over now.
Speaker 3: A part of that is the Milwaukee Bucks. And we've
Speaker 3: talked about the Lakers already. Their defense is phenomenal. They
Speaker 3: know who the heck they are when it comes down
Speaker 3: to winning time. Everybody just hang around and watched Lebron
Speaker 3: do his thing. They're great. The Bucks, on the other hand,
Speaker 3: they're not causing fear and another team whatsoever. They keep
Speaker 3: winning games, they definitely do. But when it comes down
Speaker 3: to crunch time, when it comes down to playing really,
Speaker 3: really good teams. The other team on the other side
Speaker 3: thinks that they can win. I think that's that's just
Speaker 3: the way it works. They believe that if they find
Speaker 3: something that works, that Mike Bunenholzer isn't going to change
Speaker 3: enough in his scheme to adapt. And it keeps showing through.
Speaker 3: They just can't find a way to beat these great teams. Now,
Speaker 3: Chris Middleton has the ball more in his hands than
Speaker 3: Yannis does at the end of games, which is kind
Speaker 3: of like the playoff last year, which is probably the
Speaker 3: better recipe. But I think when it comes down to it,
Speaker 3: Drew Holliday needs to get it more. When it comes
Speaker 3: down to it, it's just guys who can make shots.
Speaker 3: And Giannis isn't a creator when it comes down to
Speaker 3: the last few minutes. He's got to play second man's
Speaker 3: or third man. And they've got to figure this out. Now,
Speaker 3: they've got to figure this out before they get to
Speaker 3: the postseason. They just need more bucket makers. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: they can just like in a game, they'll get down
Speaker 3: to the last few minutes, they'll beat the bad teams.
Speaker 3: Just like in the regular season. They're gonna win a
Speaker 3: lot of games, but when it comes down to the postseason,
Speaker 3: this was this was exactly what we saw with the
Speaker 3: Miami Heat last year. The Heat figured it out. Bucks
Speaker 3: couldn't adapt and Lebron just kept getting switches good night.
Speaker 3: I mean even Montrez Harrald in the post kept getting
Speaker 3: switches good night. It's just too easy. And then the
Speaker 3: offensive end doesn't worry too like like I mentioned, so
Speaker 3: just just scared, scared for the Buck's future. But the
Speaker 3: Lakers are obviously, yeah number one with the bullet they're awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Lakers offense there for a good stretch down
Speaker 2: in the fourth there was like post up Trez, post
Speaker 2: up ad the double has to come. It's going to
Speaker 2: come because there's a smaller Bucks player on them, and
Speaker 2: then those guys are just gonna kick it to KCP
Speaker 2: in the corner or Caruso wide open in the corner
Speaker 2: right Trey. Like it felt like that happened like four
Speaker 2: or five times. And good on Vogel and Lebron and
Speaker 2: the Lakers for going back to back to back to back.
Speaker 2: Just keep running into the ground because, as Tass said,
Speaker 2: boonholes are slow to adapt or switch up the defense,
Speaker 2: like maybe try something else, you know, Like I think
Speaker 2: in that instance, I always think of someone like Nick
Speaker 2: Nurse might try something else there. Let's go zone or
Speaker 2: let's drop back in coverage and let's not switch so easily.
Speaker 2: But what did you think?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it was that halftime of this game,
Speaker 6: right that Shaq said the big man is back, and
Speaker 6: we were talking about, Wow, this is great, this is
Speaker 6: a I love seeing all these big bodies banging down.
Speaker 6: But yeah, you're right, And honestly, the Bucks should watch
Speaker 6: the tape of the Lakers and see how they're getting
Speaker 6: the ball into the post every time, because Jannis did
Speaker 6: have a nice post bucket there in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 6: hit like a little fade away sort of dink or
Speaker 6: dumper from probably nine or ten feet, And that's how
Speaker 6: he's got to get involved on the offensive end when
Speaker 6: it comes down to clutch time, because he doesn't strike
Speaker 6: fear in people's hearts with regards to having the ball
Speaker 6: on the perimeter when it's the fourth quarter. It seemed
Speaker 6: like the Lakers decided we're gonna try and take a
Speaker 6: charge on Giannis every single time he comes into the
Speaker 6: into the lane, and that seems to be the recipe
Speaker 6: for how you stop him, because if you're if you're
Speaker 6: just waiting for him, if you're building the wall there,
Speaker 6: you're either gonna get sent him to the free throw
Speaker 6: line where he has struggled, or you're gonna get the call,
Speaker 6: you're gonna the charge, and it's going back down the
Speaker 6: other way. There's got to be other ways to get
Speaker 6: Giannis involved. Offensively, he's a pretty solid passer. I don't
Speaker 6: He's not Lebron passing, as we all know that's his
Speaker 6: greatest strength. But you still got to be able to
Speaker 6: get him the ball in the post. Let him go
Speaker 6: to work, let him get some buckets because he's your MVP.
Speaker 6: And yeah, I agree that Middleton has been ball and
Speaker 6: he's been cooking. He's the best option for the Bucks.
Speaker 6: And also it would be nice to get Drew Holliday involved.
Speaker 6: But there's a reason that Yannis is the MVP. The
Speaker 6: guy can be automatic when he's in the post. Maybe
Speaker 6: he needs a little bit more booty to be able
Speaker 6: to displace people because he's still tall, He's got a
Speaker 6: high center of gravity, especially with those giant shoulders. I
Speaker 6: think that there is opportunities for Giannis to be an
Speaker 6: even better post player. But I don't know, it doesn't
Speaker 6: seem like that's going to be happening right now. The
Speaker 6: good thing for the Bucks is that, yeah, it's scary
Speaker 6: for the future with regards to this season. Maybe they
Speaker 6: don't win the title, but at least Yannas signed before
Speaker 6: the season, because if this was the case right now,
Speaker 6: if you just saw him lose to the Nets and
Speaker 6: Lakers and back to back in a back to back scenario,
Speaker 6: that would be really scary.
Speaker 3: Hours.
Speaker 2: That's a good point. Yeah, Lakers did a good job
Speaker 2: of keeping Unis off the free throw line last night,
Speaker 2: even though you want to put them there at times.
Speaker 2: Ley he only had four free throw attempts, hit two
Speaker 2: of them, and he had nine turnovers too, so you know,
Speaker 2: obviously you want to shore up that. But what did
Speaker 2: you think from this game?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would be very concerned about the Bucks because
Speaker 4: in those two big games, as you mentioned, they're trade
Speaker 4: Nets and Lakers. The Nets they won the game. It
Speaker 4: was a close game, of course, but I didn't feel
Speaker 4: this one last night was actually particularly close. I felt
Speaker 4: the Lakers were in complete control of this game because
Speaker 4: well sort of, it was incredible.
Speaker 2: It got to a two point game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like they made They did make a push there.
Speaker 4: But then the Lakers answer. And one guy who I
Speaker 4: have been critical of the past, who's having actually an
Speaker 4: incredible season for the Lakers is KCP. He is very
Speaker 4: very important for them offensively and defensively. The numbers right now,
Speaker 4: you know, eleven points a game, he's shooting fifty five
Speaker 4: percent from the field, fifty seven percent from three. Now,
Speaker 4: he doesn't do a tonails in terms of the actual stats,
Speaker 4: but I think defensively, they know they've got a guys
Speaker 4: like go and defend this guy. Put you on this guy,
Speaker 4: rotate around and if he's he knocks down that shot
Speaker 4: every time. He's really more comfortable in his role. He's grown,
Speaker 4: he's matured as a player and become a very sort
Speaker 4: of quietly important player for what they do. They can
Speaker 4: rely on him now and that's something they couldn't do
Speaker 4: in the past. So I think that's important. But I
Speaker 4: felt particularly in the second half, and again, you know,
Speaker 4: when we're talking about MVPs this morning, watching Lebron last night,
Speaker 4: I'm like that that is kind of how I still
Speaker 4: feel about Lebron. He's not scared at all of the Bucks,
Speaker 4: not at all. I don't think he's concerned that they
Speaker 4: could take him down in a seven game series, because
Speaker 4: as good as Yannis is, he still forces it a
Speaker 4: little bit too much on the offensive end, and teams
Speaker 4: like the Lakers will say, if you go inside, yeah
Speaker 4: that's a handful, You're a handful inside. But we'll live
Speaker 4: with your shooting the ball anytime you want. We'll just
Speaker 4: live with that right now. And the Lakers instead, they
Speaker 4: have guys who can hit those threes, and it just
Speaker 4: feels like the Lakers have that confidence that they're not
Speaker 4: intimidated by the Milwaukee Bucks so early in the season.
Speaker 4: Still time to improve, but a couple of warriorsome side.
Speaker 4: Hasn't been a great week here for the Bucks.
Speaker 2: No lak A shot nineteen to thirty seven from three
Speaker 2: coldwell Pope had seven of them. Lebron had six. Quick trivia,
Speaker 2: what's the career high for Lebron? Most three is made
Speaker 2: in the game? I my man, Leelis did eight a
Speaker 2: couple times in his career. Yeah, six is a lot
Speaker 2: for Lebron, like and it's it's uh, he's added it though.
Speaker 2: He is feeling comfortable with that three point shot right now.
Speaker 2: He is it's money right now. I will say to
Speaker 2: you if you were, if you were holding out hope
Speaker 2: that Giannis could go back to back to back for MVP,
Speaker 2: It's not a chance not held. There was no chance
Speaker 2: at the start of the season. Tried telling you about it.
Speaker 2: But if you were still holding out hope, I think
Speaker 2: last night it's gone. It's it's just this. I don't
Speaker 2: care what he does from here on now. There's no
Speaker 2: way he's doing it. He's still awesome. He's still awesome.
Speaker 4: When Lebron gets that little struck going at that sort
Speaker 4: of top left hand side, that left wing where he
Speaker 4: sort of rubs his shirt, and it's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: I am just gonna I might step back into three,
Speaker 4: I might drive inside, but it doesn't really matter what
Speaker 4: you guys do. I'm just gonna do something here that's disrespectful.
Speaker 4: That's like Lebron, you know, twirling the ball again.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, as a fans, we're well aware
Speaker 2: of Lebron, Yeah, wiping his body or spinning the ball
Speaker 2: or yeah, looking like this, he's going to be easy. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: next game here. Donovan Mitchell helps the Jazz beat the
Speaker 2: Pelicans for a seventh straight win. Trey Big Tickaway.
Speaker 6: Well, as predicted, the Jazz, we're going to go on
Speaker 6: a huge winning streak and we're gonna start talking about him,
Speaker 6: Like you said, Skeet's seven straight right now, thanks the
Speaker 6: huge games from Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley. Mitchell, that
Speaker 6: guy was magnificent last night. He's got every shot, he's
Speaker 6: got every pass, and at his best, he finds the
Speaker 6: balance between the two of them and he's in control.
Speaker 6: And that's what it's been for a lot of this season.
Speaker 6: He's still an explosive score, but I feel like he's
Speaker 6: just his decision making in his control of the game
Speaker 6: has gotten a lot better. Mike Conley is giving the
Speaker 6: Jazz exactly what people expected last season. He's another playmaker,
Speaker 6: he's another scorer, and the team is taking a ton
Speaker 6: of threes. With Bogdanovian back. Clearly there's an emphasis on
Speaker 6: getting more attempts up there. Taking forty one a game
Speaker 6: this year thirty five a game last year. Maybe you
Speaker 6: put Quinn Snyder in the Coach of the Year. Yeah, conversation,
Speaker 6: just for that little change, they're saying, Hey, we can
Speaker 6: shoot some jumpers. Let's make them three point jumpers. They're
Speaker 6: going in right now. They've been one of the best
Speaker 6: three point shooting teams in the league, and that opened
Speaker 6: things up for Rudy Gobert to just dunk inside whenever
Speaker 6: he needs to. Mitchell was awesome, but afterwards it was
Speaker 6: all about what people were saying about Donovan Mitchell as
Speaker 6: tests went into on what you need to know earlier today,
Speaker 6: just a completely unnecessary conversation. The man had twenty one
Speaker 6: points in the first half and we're trying to decide
Speaker 6: if he's going to be a top five player for
Speaker 6: the rest of his career. Why literally why?
Speaker 2: I think we'll We'll get to that probably and worse
Speaker 2: of the week coming up here, Yah shack, it's the
Speaker 2: post game with Donovan Mitchell. Crazy a good win from
Speaker 2: the Jazz. Mike Conley, you're a defensive Player of the
Speaker 2: Year candidate league after the game said, our ability to
Speaker 2: turn up our energy level a couple of notches, especially defensively,
Speaker 2: is making the difference. Because they did turn it up
Speaker 2: in this game, and they have a couple times here
Speaker 2: where they just like it's like suddenly just like you
Speaker 2: can't score on them, and that helps out those huge runs.
Speaker 4: So you know, the Pelly's putting out forty three in
Speaker 4: that first Yeah, that's I mean, the Jazz almost wouldn't
Speaker 4: give up that many more for the rest of the game,
Speaker 4: you know, I mean when I really locked down. I mean,
Speaker 4: the Repelicans have some offensive weapons, but their defense right
Speaker 4: now is need some.
Speaker 2: Work task, anything to add to this one.
Speaker 3: The Pelicans got a lot of things to work on. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they came back with a forty three point first quarter
Speaker 3: because they played a baseball doubleheader. That happens game two.
Speaker 3: It's just like a series. In a playoff series, Game two,
Speaker 3: a team comes back, but man, Eric Blitzo and Lonzo
Speaker 3: Ball stopped going to the rim after the first quarter,
Speaker 3: and they've got some serious shooting problems. The Jazz know
Speaker 3: who they are. The Pellies are still learning. So it's
Speaker 3: tough in the Western Conference. Man, it's just tough. You
Speaker 3: got a great Zion Williamson, but you need some guard.
Speaker 2: Play final game from last night, RJ. Barrett scores twenty
Speaker 2: eight as the Knicks beat the Warriors for their third
Speaker 2: straight victory. Knicks are five hundred lately, eight and eight
Speaker 2: here sixteen games in Again, RJ. Barrett's been cooking over
Speaker 2: his last five He's averaging like twenty two points per game,
Speaker 2: shooting really really well, what's your big take away from
Speaker 2: this one?
Speaker 4: So the Knicks r eight and eight. They've won three
Speaker 4: in a row, they lost five in a row, and
Speaker 4: now they've won three again. So they're a little bit
Speaker 4: up and down, but their defense has improved clearly. Right now,
Speaker 4: will that be the way the entire season? I'm not
Speaker 4: so sure, but very very good so far. Two big
Speaker 4: talking points though, really for this one. The first one,
Speaker 4: Obi Toppin had two dunks, and the comparisons to how
Speaker 4: he looks to a Muri Startama are just incredible. The
Speaker 4: way that he goes up there dunks and then he
Speaker 4: just the way he runs down he wears that number one.
Speaker 4: It's like he does look like baby Amari out there.
Speaker 4: But of course, the big talking point really is the
Speaker 4: ejection of Draymond Green in the second quarter there for
Speaker 4: yelling at his teammate James Wiseman, and the referee thought
Speaker 4: he was yelling at him, hit him with his second
Speaker 4: tea and he got ejected. Now the Warriors, obviously we're
Speaker 4: not happy with that.
Speaker 5: Steve Kerr tried.
Speaker 4: To challenge the ejection, but then Steve Kerr said after
Speaker 4: the game that the ref said, okay, that was a mistake. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I didn't realize that. This is something I think the
Speaker 4: NBA needs to look at, like when a guy gets
Speaker 4: ejected and he's obviously out for the rest of the game.
Speaker 4: But if then they admit at halftime they made the
Speaker 4: mistake with a minute to go in that second half,
Speaker 4: in the second quarter, why not say, okay, we rescind it,
Speaker 4: we bring it back into the game. I mean, now,
Speaker 4: Steve Kerr didn't use this as an excuse. He said
Speaker 4: we were playing badly anyway. We lost that game. We
Speaker 4: deserve to lose. He didn't say we lost because of
Speaker 4: the ejection or point at the rest. But it's so
Speaker 4: disappointing to me that the rest can make such a
Speaker 4: mistake that can have such an impact on a game
Speaker 4: and not be able to correct it even when they
Speaker 4: acknowledge it, with still time to be able to correct
Speaker 4: that mistake, because we you know, with coaches challenges and
Speaker 4: in the last two minutes, you can challenge things and
Speaker 4: you can get the call right. Well, this would have
Speaker 4: only cost him just over a minute. Why not just
Speaker 4: put your hand up and say okay, yeah, we got
Speaker 4: that wrong. Sorry, it was a young referee too, so
Speaker 4: that's just a bit of a concern. Again, the Warriors
Speaker 4: aren't using this as an excuse for losing the game,
Speaker 4: but I think there's a way to get this call
Speaker 4: right and to sort of acknowledge that the referees made
Speaker 4: a wrong, costly decision.
Speaker 3: But it was fun to watch, especially in an empty
Speaker 3: arena where you can always hear Draymond Green talk, but
Speaker 3: in an empty arena, it was bouncing off the walls
Speaker 3: like many people in their zoom rooms right now. It
Speaker 3: was just it was echoing, like I turned up the
Speaker 3: volume to make sure I heard what I heard, Like
Speaker 3: he's he yelled at James Wiseman is pissed that Wiseman
Speaker 3: didn't seal off his defender and he turned the ball
Speaker 3: over and it looked like, yeah, he was yelling in
Speaker 3: the direction of Wiseman, but the ref was right there.
Speaker 3: That was weird. It was. It was It was so
Speaker 3: so strange, like the referee must have known, like Steph,
Speaker 3: like they.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone was like, he wasn't yelling at you, like everybody,
Speaker 2: Here's what I think what you're saying is a little
Speaker 2: extremely Like they admitted the mistake at halftime. The better
Speaker 2: like way to handle that, I think would have been
Speaker 2: for the referees just to come together there and sort
Speaker 2: of talk it out and go, Yeah, Draymond Green never
Speaker 2: shuts up. He's always yelling at people. I don't think
Speaker 2: he you know, was he yelling at you?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: I think it was John Butler, I think was the
Speaker 2: official that actually tossed him, a second year official like,
Speaker 2: and he maybe would have been like a maybe he wasn't,
Speaker 2: you know, Like, I think they just should have maybe
Speaker 2: talked it over a little bit more and said, Okay,
Speaker 2: that was a mistake, you're good, let's just play ball here.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, But you know, at the same time,
Speaker 2: if Draymond doesn't pick up his first technical for just
Speaker 2: you know, arguing with the officials too long, that was
Speaker 2: what the first one was for, right, It wasn't because
Speaker 2: he was yelling at someone else on the floor, on
Speaker 2: one of his teammates. You know, Well, that's sort of
Speaker 2: the game you're playing here. With the way you go
Speaker 2: about it, you might accidentally get one and then you've
Speaker 2: really hurt your team. So I think they should have
Speaker 2: just got together though, and really with reasoning, said Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: he wasn't yelling at me. He's yelling at James Wiseman,
Speaker 2: who he's always yelling at.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean we see it though as well. They almost never.
Speaker 4: I don't think rescind a technical fail even when sometimes
Speaker 4: you've seen a bad goal, a player will say, hey,
Speaker 4: that's a bad call, the repay, the replay will clearly
Speaker 4: show a bad coal and the referee will still give
Speaker 4: you a technical foul for that, and it's like, well
Speaker 4: that should be rescinded to in that case as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can I give you a technical foul though
Speaker 2: if you just like use vulgar language, even if it's
Speaker 2: not directed at me, can that be considered unspontsedly?
Speaker 4: I mean, you see, Kelly you break getting a technical
Speaker 4: foul for blowing a kiss to his opponent.
Speaker 2: So I would want it, Yeah, I would see Yeah,
Speaker 2: if you really want to. You think that's on sports alike?
Speaker 4: Sure, but it's one thing, you know, Jeff van Gundy
Speaker 4: complains a lot about everything, but that's one thing he's
Speaker 4: right on, is like you you compound the mistake if
Speaker 4: you give a guy a technical foul for when you
Speaker 4: made a bad or wrong call that was clearly wrong.
Speaker 4: I think that's something the NBA should be able to
Speaker 4: at least say, Okay, yeah, we made the mistake. The
Speaker 4: referees made the mistake. It's okay to admit that rather than,
Speaker 4: like I said, in this case last night, the referees
Speaker 4: got it wrong and it cost Draymon half a game.
Speaker 4: So I think you can I think there is middle
Speaker 4: ground here where you can fix a problem like that.
Speaker 3: Also, the next are good. Yeah, just throw that in there.
Speaker 2: I think a Draymond Green plays in this game, the
Speaker 2: next still might win this one.
Speaker 4: We probably do. And again that's Steve Kerr didn't say
Speaker 4: we lost because of that. So with no one's no
Speaker 4: one's giving disrespect to the Knicks. They played a great game,
Speaker 4: but you know a guy got sent out for half
Speaker 4: the game and the second best player on the team
Speaker 4: over the wrong call.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm yeah, anything to add here, uh, Trey, I
Speaker 2: hate referees, Yeah, Raymond, get him out of here.
Speaker 6: But there are guys who get reputation technicals. And that's
Speaker 6: exactly what this was. Was Draymond. He was yelling like
Speaker 6: task was breaking down on what you need to know.
Speaker 6: Was he yelling at Tom Thibodeau? It did look like
Speaker 6: maybe they were gonna throw down. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 6: we've seen it happen with Boogie before. Even when Draymond
Speaker 6: was suspended for a game after the Steven Adams nutkick,
Speaker 6: the only reason he actually was suspended was because he
Speaker 6: picked up that crazy technical or flagrant with Michael Beasley
Speaker 6: in the first round against the Rockets. Remember, like he
Speaker 6: threw him at the end of the game for literally
Speaker 6: no reason. It just comes back to haunt you eventually.
Speaker 6: But relax, James Butler, I don't like knowen referee Jons.
Speaker 6: I didn't even John Butler. Oh James Butler is Jimmy
Speaker 6: Butler's brother. Yeah, but John Butler get out of here, man,
Speaker 6: Just chill out out. You're right, Skeates, have a little conversation.
Speaker 6: Talk to the Hey, were you yelling at me? No,
Speaker 6: I was yelling at James. Fine, carry on, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Because like Tat said, like everybody on the floor, like immediately,
Speaker 2: like he wasn't yelling at you, like Steph Curry, the
Speaker 2: voice of reason. I mean, I know it's his teammate,
Speaker 2: he's gonna want to keephim out there, but even in Steph,
Speaker 2: it's like I feel like he's a trustworthy guy. I
Speaker 2: think if Steph had seen Draymond actually yell. I got
Speaker 2: John Butler, He's like, you idiot, what are you doing? Like,
Speaker 2: just shut up, you already got one tech but he
Speaker 2: was like, no, he wasn't yelling at you. He's yelling
Speaker 2: at the rookie man. This is what he does. I
Speaker 2: do have a trivia question off of this, the real
Speaker 2: quick one. Green's eleventh career ejection. Okay, guys, for the
Speaker 2: third most in the NBA since he made his debut
Speaker 2: in twenty twelve. Can you name the two guys who
Speaker 2: have more ejections since twenty twelve during that span Boogie
Speaker 2: Boogie Cousins. Yeah, Trey already threw him in there before
Speaker 2: I even asked the question. It was fantastic. He's number
Speaker 2: one with thirteen and this guy's got twelve.
Speaker 4: You can get dwy Dwight Howard No, no, no, no,
Speaker 4: Westbrook Nope.
Speaker 6: I know he's always high on technicals.
Speaker 2: Yeah, technically is an ejection? Pat Beverly Nope, Nope. He's
Speaker 2: a bigger guy. You know, he's like a power forward guy,
Speaker 2: small forward, power forward, and well there's I mean, maybe
Speaker 2: I don't want to give it away too much. Well,
Speaker 2: let's just say there's basically two of them.
Speaker 3: Oh Mars Mars Mars, Marris.
Speaker 2: Yea or Kith Morris. So twelve cousins with thirteen and
Speaker 2: that was Green's eleventh career rejection. I'm not sure if
Speaker 2: that counts the playoffs though, so who knows. All right,
Speaker 2: final piece of news here, just quick. Calves have agreed
Speaker 2: to trade Kevin Porter Junior to the Houston Rockets for
Speaker 2: a heavily protected future second round pick. I mean heavily protected.
Speaker 2: It's like top fifty five protected, meaning that it probably
Speaker 2: will never even convey. So it was sort of for nothing,
Speaker 2: but that's fine. We knew the Caves were moving on
Speaker 2: from him, they were gonna wave them or trade them,
Speaker 2: and they got maybe something, you know, a pick in
Speaker 2: the second round at the end, possibly, But this is good.
Speaker 2: I like the team that Kevin Porter Junior is going
Speaker 2: to here. I know others have pointed this out. The
Speaker 2: Rockets intend to have assistant coach John Lucas work closely
Speaker 2: with this kid, and that's good because Lucas has helped
Speaker 2: several NBA some NFL players to overcome personal issues to
Speaker 2: have successful careers. You know, he did so himself, John Lucas,
Speaker 2: so he you know, speaks from my experience here. So
Speaker 2: I like that that makes sense, and like, why wouldn't
Speaker 2: you do this if you're the Rockets. I think this
Speaker 2: is like fantastic for them potentially if Kevin Porter Junior
Speaker 2: can get everything else, not really even the basketball skills
Speaker 2: in check. I don't know if there's anything to add
Speaker 2: Lelee or not in your head. I feel like you
Speaker 2: feel the same way. Yes, okay, let's get to worst
Speaker 2: of the week, ladies.
Speaker 3: And gentlemen, the worst of the week, all right. I
Speaker 3: asked the people out there, what do you got for me?
Speaker 3: Some great answers this week? For worse of the Week.
Speaker 3: I'll fire through some of the answers that people gave
Speaker 3: to me. Nook No further wrote Kyrie's showing up to
Speaker 3: play against the Kas and getting roasted by a gentleman
Speaker 3: with the last name of Sex wearing his old Calves number. Well,
Speaker 3: Kyrie did have a pretty good game himself. He had
Speaker 3: thirty seven in that game. But I take your point.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your contribution. The life of Kate w
Speaker 3: Writ's task for calling the YouTube fans here stream team
Speaker 3: rather than team stream Oh no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry
Speaker 3: I called him team Stream rather see I always mix
Speaker 3: that up. I always mix that. Okay, yeah it's the
Speaker 3: Stream team, but I always I always can. It's just
Speaker 3: that's just how my brain works. Meg Z rights Lee
Speaker 3: Ellis's chest hair. Yeah we showed this photo. Yeah, come on, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know there it is. Wow. What a zoom in, JD.
Speaker 3: What a zoom in to Lee's chester. That's a photo
Speaker 3: of him. Check our social media pages if you haven't
Speaker 3: seen him attending the US Open in two thousand and one.
Speaker 3: And the linen was that Italy two?
Speaker 5: I think it was two thousand and two.
Speaker 3: Wow, you had trim on that linen shirt too. It's
Speaker 3: not just like a flowing shirt. It looks like, yeah,
Speaker 3: there's a detail on that thing.
Speaker 5: Wow, it was a very comfortable.
Speaker 4: Shit, I will say that.
Speaker 2: Barely relaxed.
Speaker 3: John Ford ninety nine chimed in with a basketball one. Again,
Speaker 3: it's the Timberwolves. That's a fair point. Walker Davidson chimed
Speaker 3: in five game losing streak. The Kangs are back, baby,
Speaker 3: This one was a great one. Romantic to the reporter
Speaker 3: who called Steph Wardell, you know there's a reporter who said,
Speaker 3: excuse me, Wardell, what do you think about that? In
Speaker 3: the end, Steph looks up. If you haven't seen the clip,
Speaker 3: I'm sure we'll get into whoopsies next week. Check out
Speaker 3: our YouTube channel, because you know it's timeless. I don't
Speaker 3: even know when it happened, but YouTube videos you can
Speaker 3: PLoP in a video from whenever who cares. A referee
Speaker 3: called him Mordell. He wasn't angry or anything. He was
Speaker 3: just a little bit shocked. This gentleman here only here
Speaker 3: for move One writes Lee's claim that Facundo Compozo's pass
Speaker 3: the pooper pass, was the best play of the season. Now,
Speaker 3: did I miss it or was this called the pooper pass?
Speaker 3: Because I think he called it. That's a great that's
Speaker 3: a great name. That's why. That's the only reason I
Speaker 3: included it. Because the pooper pass. He dropped it through
Speaker 3: his own legs. It's a very good name for a pass.
Speaker 3: Anybody who drops a pass between his own legs, pooper pass,
Speaker 3: that's great stuff. Mohammed Hassan writes the heat announcer Eric Reed,
Speaker 3: calling Weggie a doink. Yeah. I didn't get to chime
Speaker 3: in with you guys on this one, and this is
Speaker 3: really near and dear to my soul. I'm not so
Speaker 3: mad at Eric Reed like you guys are. He's an
Speaker 3: old head. We've watched basketball for a long time. A
Speaker 3: lot of old heads called some weird names. Eric Reed
Speaker 3: called it a doink. There was a Jim Sparnacle called
Speaker 3: it a Spinarkle called it what do you call it?
Speaker 3: Neck ball? And Ralph Ralph Lawler, Clippers, longtime Clippers man,
Speaker 3: he called it weggie. Now Eric Reed just doesn't know
Speaker 3: that Ralph Lawler's weggie call has been popularized and now
Speaker 3: you don't call it anything but weggie.
Speaker 5: But Eric Read's an old head.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: He likes numbers like Lee Ellis. He likes saying Hassan
Speaker 3: Whiteside just came down with his thirteenth rebound that season.
Speaker 3: This gives him forty thousand rebounds. You know he sees
Speaker 3: just an old head. That's okay. I'm okay with it, guys.
Speaker 3: I know you're angry. I'm not okay.
Speaker 2: He should know, first off, is a weggie, and then
Speaker 2: on top of that, the doink makes no sense. As
Speaker 2: Trey pointed out, a doink does not stick anoint. That's
Speaker 2: you're you're spot on with that TK.
Speaker 3: But that's fine.
Speaker 2: That's fine. I believe though the next weggie called by
Speaker 2: Eric Reed will be called a weggie. I have faith,
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 3: Okay, So some some really good nominees. The Timberwolves a
Speaker 3: great one. They're they're falling apart, especially with Karl Anthony
Speaker 3: Towns contracting the virus. I hope he gets well, Eric Reed, sure,
Speaker 3: Leelis's hair. Sure, but we got a late nominee here.
Speaker 3: Thursday night, we briefly mentioned it. Shaquille O'Neill and Donovan
Speaker 3: Mitchell had a conversation, if that's what you want to
Speaker 3: call it, after Donovan Mitchell's great game. Let's have a listen.
Speaker 7: Part of this is shaq I said tonight that you
Speaker 7: are one of my favorite players, but you don't have
Speaker 7: what it takes to get to the next level.
Speaker 1: I set it on purpose.
Speaker 2: I want you to hear it.
Speaker 3: What do you have to say about that?
Speaker 2: That's it, that's it, that's it.
Speaker 7: Okay, cool, I want you to hear it.
Speaker 3: I've been here.
Speaker 2: I've been hearing that since my rookie year.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm just gonna get better than would I do?
Speaker 2: Good?
Speaker 1: Well, that's what I wanted you to hearing you say
Speaker 1: another garing brother, keep.
Speaker 3: It up, appreciated. Now everyone was angry. We'll get your
Speaker 3: opinion in a set. Guys. Everybody on Twitter was extremely angry.
Speaker 3: Shaquille O'Neil should not be saying that to Donovan Mitchell.
Speaker 3: But if you listen, Donvan Mitchell is actually listening intently
Speaker 3: because he respects Shaquille O'Neil. He's saying, Okay, thank you, Yes,
Speaker 3: I appreciate that. I mean, he's he's like, I've heard
Speaker 3: that crap before, I don't need to hear it again.
Speaker 3: I think where this comes from, where the problem comes from,
Speaker 3: is the bigger issue of NBA analysts not supporting and
Speaker 3: loving the game and just sort of being angry about
Speaker 3: having to watch basketball and all that. Because if Shaq
Speaker 3: calls somebody out and you trust his opinion and he
Speaker 3: gives a crap about his job every day, then this
Speaker 3: is just his method of trying to inspire to motivate
Speaker 3: a player. That's he's a tough he's I think this
Speaker 3: is his dad method, this is his come on kid,
Speaker 3: this is his tough love method. But when it's combined
Speaker 3: with the fact that you know he's not into the
Speaker 3: job at all times. He just kind of, you know
Speaker 3: it doesn't watch the game at all times, and it's
Speaker 3: sort of just it's a it's a trait characteristic of
Speaker 3: many NBA broadcasts right now, and and just throughout every
Speaker 3: sort of legend, and not every legend, but a lot
Speaker 3: of the legend. It's just a common thing right now
Speaker 3: that some guys are just angry. It's already come up
Speaker 3: on this broadcast, you know, Jeff Van Gundy, like, people
Speaker 3: just aren't all that, you know, supportive and chummy about
Speaker 3: the game. So those two things combined got people really angry.
Speaker 3: But I think if Shaq was, you know, do that
Speaker 3: other part of his job really well, I think this
Speaker 3: would have been taken a little bit differently. That's all
Speaker 3: I got to say about that.
Speaker 2: It was awkward as hell. Yeah, Wait, what did Shack
Speaker 2: want him to say back? Is what I want to know, Like,
Speaker 2: what would have like been a good response.
Speaker 3: Well, he said that's what I wanted to hear. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he said, go work on your game, kid, and he said,
Speaker 3: I on my game.
Speaker 2: It was ridiculous. I mean, he's Donovan Mitchell. Kudos to
Speaker 2: him for being a professional. He should have said cough, like,
Speaker 2: and I know he doesn't. I'm sure you respect Shack
Speaker 2: because he's an al timer, but like, cough, I what
Speaker 2: a weird thing to say. I trashed you on national
Speaker 2: TV at the half, then I'm going to trash you
Speaker 2: basically to your face just by having a great game
Speaker 2: in a win, because I want to inspire you to
Speaker 2: be better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he just worded it. He worded it ron He
Speaker 3: was saying, hey, you're a good player. He said, you're
Speaker 3: a really good player. I want you to be better.
Speaker 3: He should have said it that way, right, Yeah, Kenny's.
Speaker 6: It over right after Kenny was explained what Shaq was
Speaker 6: trying to get at it. Kenny explained it in a
Speaker 6: way that was constructive and supportive, rather than Shaq, who,
Speaker 6: as Task called it, was curmudgeoning out there. And that's
Speaker 6: exactly what it is. He at the half. Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 6: is having has a twenty one point game. He has
Speaker 6: a twenty one point game. He's in the midst of
Speaker 6: his best season. The Jazz are on a winning streak.
Speaker 6: It's not dissimilar to when Draymond Green in the midst
Speaker 6: of the best Suns basketball we've seen, and said we
Speaker 6: got to get Devin Booker out of there. We got
Speaker 6: to get him away from Phoenix. It's like, no, there
Speaker 6: are ways that you can be constructive. There are ways
Speaker 6: that you can help people besides just hating on him.
Speaker 6: Get that pure positivity training shack is what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: But honestly, think about the way Kobe Bryant was doing
Speaker 6: things before he passed away about a year ago. He
Speaker 6: was challenging players. He was saying, here's how you can
Speaker 6: become the best version of yourself. Here's how you can
Speaker 6: become an MVP. He's doing it for people outside of
Speaker 6: the basketball world as well. He's building them up and saying,
Speaker 6: here's where you can approve. Not saying you just had
Speaker 6: twenty one points during in the midst of your best season,
Speaker 6: But are you're going to be a top five player
Speaker 6: that wins championships? That doesn't even make sense, Like us
Speaker 6: listening to half of a podcast and being like, this
Speaker 6: podcast isn't as good as our podcast. Sorry, not listen
Speaker 6: to it anymore. Might as well deleted off iTunes. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: It's just weird all around. Leally, what did you think
Speaker 2: of this exchange?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 4: I wonder though, if there's a little bit of a
Speaker 4: drama there between Shack and the Utah Jazz because him
Speaker 4: and Rudy Gobert have kind of been getting into it
Speaker 4: a little bit lately. Shack basically trashed Rudy Gobert for
Speaker 4: getting two hundred million for not having an offensive game
Speaker 4: a few weeks ago. So I wonder if there's just
Speaker 4: a little bit of tension there. And Shaq's just basically saying,
Speaker 4: because he had a history as well playing against the Jazz,
Speaker 4: that he's just kind of like, screw you, Jazz. I
Speaker 4: don't care if you're winning. I'm just going to still
Speaker 4: disrespect you. And again, you know, he looks at maybe
Speaker 4: what happened to the playoff last year, and that's why
Speaker 4: he's sort of in that position where he can say,
Speaker 4: I don't think you guys can step up, because they
Speaker 4: did flame out. They lost in seven games there to
Speaker 4: the Nuggets after leading three ones. So I wonder if
Speaker 4: it's just that, you know, just Shack just like I
Speaker 4: don't respect the Jazz and and Rudy Gobert, I don't
Speaker 4: respect him, and so I'm not giving anyone on the
Speaker 4: Jazz credit.
Speaker 2: That Isn't that still a problem like that it's like
Speaker 2: a major analyst, the guy that is supposed to be
Speaker 2: like promote the game and building up is after that
Speaker 2: like didn't know really, you know, we gave him a
Speaker 2: pass with like not really knowing who Christian Wood was,
Speaker 2: and then like you said, like doubling down possibly on
Speaker 2: his heat for the Jazz, Like that's not a good look, right, No,
Speaker 2: I get it. It's Shack. We always go, man, it's Shack.
Speaker 2: He can do whatever he wants. Ha ha. But at
Speaker 2: a certain point it becomes a little tiresome.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean the after the game stuff. After the
Speaker 4: Jazz have an impressive win, when they're having a hot
Speaker 4: streak and a young star of the league, you don't
Speaker 4: want to basically just say you're not that good though,
Speaker 4: and I don't think you guys can win. It took
Speaker 4: Shack a long time to win in this league. Let's
Speaker 4: not forget that as well. Remember he came in as
Speaker 4: the number one pick, he was the star, he was
Speaker 4: hyped up, and it took him until he got to
Speaker 4: Los Angeles in his what eighth season or ninth season
Speaker 4: before he won, and he lost a few times in
Speaker 4: the playoffs as well. I remember the Jazz beat them
Speaker 4: in ninety nine, ninety eight, ninety eight, ninety nine, and
Speaker 4: so Shaq had some questions to answer in his career
Speaker 4: early on. It didn't go as smoothly as he would
Speaker 4: have liked.
Speaker 2: So did Doug Collins inspire him on a broadcast something
Speaker 2: Shack should realize as well that like it takes Michael Jordan,
Speaker 2: I mean, he went through some struggles as well before
Speaker 2: he won.
Speaker 4: So most players, you know, do have to figure it out.
Speaker 4: It takes a long time. And the Jazz and one
Speaker 4: of those teams, they're in the mix. At their best,
Speaker 4: they're a good team, but they do have some issues
Speaker 4: as well, and they have flamed out in the playoffs
Speaker 4: a couple of times.
Speaker 5: But it's not a good look.
Speaker 4: When Shaq just basically on on C and T just
Speaker 4: just kind of dismisses and ships on the team that
Speaker 4: just had an impressive win.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they gotta love basketball a little bit more. I
Speaker 3: think that's what it comes down to to enjoy watching it.
Speaker 3: And I guess I think it's a double edged sword
Speaker 3: because you've got superstars, Hall of famers, legends that are
Speaker 3: on that desk. So Donovan Mitchell was listening intently. He
Speaker 3: wanted to listen to what Shaq said. But being a superstar,
Speaker 3: quite often you didn't have to. You know, it's not
Speaker 3: that you didn't have to work, but you you just
Speaker 3: don't have to grind the same way you're not going
Speaker 3: to grind at your job. You're not gonna watch, you know,
Speaker 3: hours of footage. You're not gonna watch the games. And
Speaker 3: that's just what's the double edged sword. They get the
Speaker 3: great part of it. Like Chris Webber talking to Anthony
Speaker 3: Davis at the end of the Lakers game, asked him
Speaker 3: a question. Anthony Davis talked for five minutes straight because
Speaker 3: it was Chris Weber on the other end, that was
Speaker 3: obviously a huge positive shack if he just showed a
Speaker 3: little bit of Hey man, you know I watched you tonight.
Speaker 3: You were actually on a broadcast. I didn't have to
Speaker 3: do any research. You're right here. You were good. That's
Speaker 3: all I have to say.
Speaker 2: There was no question he didn't ask him a question.
Speaker 2: He literally said, I was talking crap about you at halftime,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna sort of tilt talk crap to you
Speaker 2: to you to your face because I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 2: not hiding from it by any means, and what do
Speaker 2: you think about that? Like that was the question, like
Speaker 2: what do you think about me crapping on you? Like
Speaker 2: what are you supposed to say on live television after
Speaker 2: again a good performance? It's like to a Hall of famer,
Speaker 2: Like I think he wanted to say something else and
Speaker 2: and maybe caught himself and probably wisely so. But it's
Speaker 2: just strange, man, It's just like what you're I'm with
Speaker 2: you task like a little more joy, a little more positive,
Speaker 2: you know, applauding this effort from him and the team,
Speaker 2: and an entertaining game would go a long way for sure.
Speaker 2: Then this, like the the it was a game's not
Speaker 2: the same. I don't like watching whatever it is.
Speaker 3: And I guess part of the attitude is like Lee
Speaker 3: was saying, everybody in the NBA can't win, and you know,
Speaker 3: Charles's on that desk. He didn't win. It takes a
Speaker 3: long time to win. But Shack has this, you know,
Speaker 3: he's got this personality that he's still competing with you.
Speaker 3: I'm still better than you. He's always going to compete
Speaker 3: with you. I'm always going to kick your ass, even
Speaker 3: though you know this is Donovan Mitchell trying to win
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty one. Here he's not playing against you,
Speaker 3: so I think that's partly it too. Right, It's like
Speaker 3: the guy's trying to be that champion and he's freaking
Speaker 3: he's freaking playing so good. In year four, he's expanded
Speaker 3: his game. Shooting nine three is a game to try
Speaker 3: and get better. He's not a finished product. He's fun.
Speaker 3: I like watching him.
Speaker 2: Weird, weird moment, but I think that's a good worst
Speaker 2: of the week right there. Okay, let's get to tweet
Speaker 2: of the.
Speaker 3: Night, Tweet out the night. Wow, we are going away
Speaker 3: from basketball for a moment, Yes, and this isn't getting political,
Speaker 3: although the topic is involving politics. Don't leave yet because
Speaker 3: this tweet from Kristen Anderson Lopez. Oh, we got me
Speaker 3: reeling when Kamala Harris, Kamala Harris and Jill Biden were
Speaker 3: photographed together wearing their long purple coats or Kamala Harris
Speaker 3: wearing a long purple coat, Jill Biden wearing a long
Speaker 3: blue coat and somebody's plit screen that Kristin Anderson did
Speaker 3: with Frozens Anna and Elsa also wearing a long purple
Speaker 3: coat and a long blue coat and then photoshopping Frozen
Speaker 3: behind them. I mean, it's it's uncanny.
Speaker 2: Pretty good, similar colors there. It's a good luck though
Speaker 2: it worked for them in the movie.
Speaker 4: It was also a Lisa Simpson Kamala Harris comparison. That
Speaker 4: was my dad there. She was dressed exactly the same
Speaker 4: when Lisa was Lisa became in an advanced episode or
Speaker 4: Ford episode where she was the.
Speaker 5: President of the Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and she was dressed exactly like Kamala was on
Speaker 4: the inauguration day.
Speaker 5: The right stuff.
Speaker 2: The tweet just made you chuckle, did it?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah. I haven't seen Lee's tweet yet, No, I know,
Speaker 3: but that's going to make me chuckle when I see it.
Speaker 3: Kamma not wearing purple gloves with her purple jacket, although
Speaker 3: Jill is wearing Joe Biden is wearing blue gloves with
Speaker 3: her blue jacket, so I don't know if that's a
Speaker 3: fashion full paw.
Speaker 2: But in Frozen they wear gloves too, right, because that's
Speaker 2: where their power is coming from.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Also, the other one.
Speaker 2: Doesn't no, right, Wow, that sucks. It's got no powers.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but she's you can argue she's the te hero
Speaker 6: of the shelf of It at least of the first movie.
Speaker 2: I didn't know she had zero powers though I thought
Speaker 2: it was ran in the family.
Speaker 6: Her power is love.
Speaker 2: That's a good power.
Speaker 3: Great power she is there.
Speaker 2: Is Yeah, it's because the pearls there really take the
Speaker 2: next level excellent. Good.
Speaker 3: I don't think those are pearls on Kablo. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: hear what you're saying. Hey, come on, Skeets, you know
Speaker 3: that Anna doesn't have powers. I saw you saw Frozen Junior.
Speaker 3: You saw a live I played with Frozen Jr.
Speaker 2: Yeah that was Why did I go watch that? Who
Speaker 2: was in that? That must have been JD one of
Speaker 2: your sons. Were they? And Frozens? That's why I was there?
Speaker 2: They were both in Yeah, they were.
Speaker 3: Both yes, yeah, yeah, Lincoln was He was their reindeer, right.
Speaker 7: Spin span he was right yeah, and uh Jackson, I
Speaker 7: can't remember the character's name. Buddy was like the Duke
Speaker 7: of something or other, the guy who does yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, good times.
Speaker 7: Good times, love to love to get back to the
Speaker 7: live theater at some.
Speaker 2: Point, you know, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7: Well Lincoln is in a school of the arts and
Speaker 7: that's that's his thing. And there's been nothing doing doing
Speaker 7: drama classes over zoom is not is not great.
Speaker 2: No, No, imagine are you reading lines with them every
Speaker 2: once in a while.
Speaker 3: No, he doesn't.
Speaker 7: There's no shows, there's nothing nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but he's got to keep working on his craft.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: I hate to be a shock about this, Okay.
Speaker 3: But o case, take it easy, kid, big winter bum out?
Speaker 3: That's that was a lie. Well yeah, blowout big No,
Speaker 3: he says, big summer blow up, big summer blow up.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I tried to adapt it for Lincoln being upset. Bum
Speaker 3: out right, Yeah, that's not a term. Bum out isn't
Speaker 3: a term.
Speaker 2: Pick of results from last night Lakers Bucks game, Lakers
Speaker 2: favored by one and a half. Trey and I had
Speaker 2: the Laker to get it done and they did. So
Speaker 2: that's a good win for us because it's tight for
Speaker 2: the three of you, especially Trey goes to nine and eleven.
Speaker 2: I'm eleven and nine, and then we got tacin Lee
Speaker 2: who had the Bucks last night with the yel you
Speaker 2: guys are eight and twelve, so you guys are tied
Speaker 2: for last. Tray's right there, and I'm a couple of
Speaker 2: games up. What's tonight's game there?
Speaker 3: Tass Well, that's a rematch from a couple of nights ago,
Speaker 3: we had that double ot game between the Calves and Nets.
Speaker 3: They're playing again, but the spread is shocking. Two teams
Speaker 3: go to double overtime. You expect the spread to be
Speaker 3: close here, but the Calves are getting nine and a
Speaker 3: half points at home. They can lose by nine if
Speaker 3: you pick them. Wow, with the Nets visiting at home,
Speaker 3: this is shocking. So start us off here, Skates, what
Speaker 3: do you think? Wow?
Speaker 2: That is a shocking line. And whenever I see a
Speaker 2: line like that, I go, what does Vegas know that?
Speaker 2: We don't know? What are they got going on over there?
Speaker 2: Which is why I'll take the Nets. You know, that's strange,
Speaker 2: very very strange, big line. You're like, exactly right, you
Speaker 2: just want to double overtime. Colin Sexon was on fire.
Speaker 2: You know, why would you pick against them right now?
Speaker 2: They could win the game for crinel out. Nope, give
Speaker 2: me the Nets by ten plus lee?
Speaker 3: What do you think? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Something weird about that? I don't know. I mean, like,
Speaker 4: will the Nets go?
Speaker 5: Wow?
Speaker 4: Okay, let's be locked in tonight, guys and go and
Speaker 4: get it. Probably, But I all right, give me the Caves.
Speaker 4: I think they've got I think they can keep it
Speaker 4: close enough tonight anyway, I think that wasn't just a
Speaker 4: mirage again. The Calves the nets defense gives me a
Speaker 4: little bit of hope that the sex man could go
Speaker 4: for another forty plus.
Speaker 3: So I'll say the cats, Trey, are you buying this
Speaker 3: sex man talk?
Speaker 6: Yes, I have subscribed to sex Land. I've got the
Speaker 6: premium membership. In fact, I don't know what's tough though.
Speaker 6: Kevin Durant's I guess questionable for tonight's which makes me
Speaker 6: a little hesitant. Maybe then the Calves sleep on the Nets.
Speaker 6: I guess they still got James and then Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 6: That's depth for you right there. Give me the nets.
Speaker 6: I think I'm gonna regret it, but give me the nets.
Speaker 2: Whoa, what are you going with?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I'm going with the nets too. Whoa, I've got
Speaker 3: Lee tied with him at the bottom here, So let's
Speaker 3: break it tide. Don't like ties?
Speaker 6: All right?
Speaker 2: On Monday's podcast, Yeah, somebody will be in dead last,
Speaker 2: all by themselves by their loadsome All right, let's end
Speaker 2: this strop podcast along one here. But we're having a
Speaker 2: lot of fun, a lot of fun conversations with a
Speaker 2: little rapid fire questions. Trey, my man, you got the
Speaker 2: cubes there, that's right, skeet see.
Speaker 6: ESPN's Tim McMahon snapped a picture of Willie Cowley Stein
Speaker 6: rocking a MAVs Defensive Player of the Game Championship belt
Speaker 6: after a game earlier this week. Looks awesome. What's another
Speaker 6: trophy that should be handed out for single game awards?
Speaker 3: Skeets.
Speaker 2: I won't overthink this, Trey. You came up with it.
Speaker 2: When you get twenty plus rebounds, you got a lot
Speaker 2: of roast beef. So when you do that, I think
Speaker 2: you should have to wear an Arby's hat. What's an
Speaker 2: Rby's hat. It's the Farrell hat. That's what you wear
Speaker 2: when you get twenty plus rebounds in a game, the
Speaker 2: Arby's slash Farrell hat, and you wear it proudly a
Speaker 2: little Probably you could stick some roast beef up under that,
Speaker 2: have a little snack later in the day. That's why
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 6: I love it, JD.
Speaker 7: What you got so I was thinking that we could
Speaker 7: get you know, the sashes they have and the boy
Speaker 7: Scouts and the girl Scouts where there's where you can
Speaker 7: put badges on it, and we just give badges for
Speaker 7: literally everything. You know, if you get the defensive Player
Speaker 7: of the of the week or whatever or of the night.
Speaker 7: But you know, add things like composting in first aid
Speaker 7: and that kind of thing. You know, cookie entrepreneur. Maybe
Speaker 7: if somebody's opening a bakery. These are real badges, by
Speaker 7: the way, model design and stamp collecting. That'd be great
Speaker 7: if you just give those out after a game and
Speaker 7: then they they could wear them around and you know
Speaker 7: you can compare. Oh Le Brown's got a lot of them.
Speaker 7: But you know, Anthony Davis, he's got to get it
Speaker 7: up there, man, he's got to get some badges on
Speaker 7: that thing.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: That's not that dissimilar to the like All Star jackets
Speaker 2: they used to do, right that had like a certain
Speaker 2: number of like All Star appearances and like Defensive Player
Speaker 2: of the Earth wins and stuff like that. But you're
Speaker 2: taking it next level with some of the skills that
Speaker 2: they made have acquired. Yeah, Sash, I like the sash
Speaker 2: a lot sash.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's awesome. At the end of the year, you
Speaker 6: can just look back and see everything you've accomplished. Hang
Speaker 6: them all on the wall. That's a great one.
Speaker 2: J D.
Speaker 5: Lee, what you are so you guys.
Speaker 4: You know, we often get emails from Australia when people say,
Speaker 4: you know, why don't you adopt the Australian rules football
Speaker 4: way of doing the MVP. We call it the Brownlow
Speaker 4: Metal by giving votes after every game and then you
Speaker 4: accumulate them at the end of the season, count them
Speaker 4: up and that decides who the MVP is.
Speaker 5: Why don't we do that?
Speaker 4: Finally in the NBA, right, So after each game, the
Speaker 4: referees get together and they give out two votes. They
Speaker 4: give five points to the best player on the court,
Speaker 4: and then one point to the second best player, and
Speaker 4: then at the end of the season we just count
Speaker 4: them up and then we get the MVP based on
Speaker 4: the amount of points they accumulate during the season. And
Speaker 4: in fact, we can have it running so we can
Speaker 4: see throughout the season who is actually winning, so then
Speaker 4: we don't have to debate the award. We can see
Speaker 4: the leaderboard who's winning, and at the end of the
Speaker 4: season it's like, Okay, that guy won it, because.
Speaker 2: After it I can't trust John Butler to make that
Speaker 2: call technical.
Speaker 4: Hey are you saying are you saying the referees of
Speaker 4: more biason? People in the media, you come into this season.
Speaker 5: You say Yannis can't win no matter why.
Speaker 2: True, that's true, and I'm right, I'm right about it.
Speaker 2: You know, I can't trust John Butler. I'm sorry if
Speaker 2: that is it's me.
Speaker 3: I see.
Speaker 5: That's the thing.
Speaker 4: There's no one system that works perfectly for everyone. So
Speaker 4: do it in the heat of the moment.
Speaker 6: Good stuff.
Speaker 2: Second, wrap it by our question.
Speaker 6: Joelle Embiid and Marcus Smart got into a war of
Speaker 6: words about who's the bigger flopper after Embiid shot twenty
Speaker 6: one free throws and went over the Celtics. But here's
Speaker 6: the twist. They both flop all the time. Guys, when's
Speaker 6: the time you faked something for dramatic effect?
Speaker 2: Skates, I apologize if I've told this story before. I
Speaker 2: can't remember if I have on the podcast. But one Christmas.
Speaker 2: Every Christmas we would usually not this year, but we
Speaker 2: would fly home to Canada, of course, be with family.
Speaker 2: And I've been with Nora for a long time, nearly
Speaker 2: twenty years in fact, so this is a while back.
Speaker 2: But I was probably in year three or four, let's say,
Speaker 2: maybe year five of going to her family Christmas, and
Speaker 2: one of their traditions, she has a British aunt that
Speaker 2: married into the family a long long time ago, and
Speaker 2: we would do the British Christmas pudding. Now, Lee, I
Speaker 2: don't know if you've ever done this, but what they
Speaker 2: would do their whole thing is she aunt Jenny would
Speaker 2: put a bunch of dimes in it, and you know,
Speaker 2: then it's cut up, it's put on fire. It's a
Speaker 2: big show, and then it's passed around and you pass
Speaker 2: it around this giant table and it's got to keep
Speaker 2: going until it, you know, obviously gets to the closest
Speaker 2: person back to where the pudding was, and you get
Speaker 2: your piece, and you see if you get a dime,
Speaker 2: if you get a dime, hey, it's good luck.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: Well, I knew this is a thing they did because
Speaker 2: again I'd been there for a couple of years. So
Speaker 2: I just decided, I don't know why. I just thought
Speaker 2: it would be hilarious that I would take a fifty
Speaker 2: dollars bill that I had and I wrapped it up
Speaker 2: in tinfoil and advance had it in my pocket. You know,
Speaker 2: it gets everything gets passed around. There's too much going on.
Speaker 2: It's a huge Armenian family, right, everybody's like yelling and
Speaker 2: talking and stuff, having a laugh, and so I sort
Speaker 2: of just slipped it on my on my plate, and
Speaker 2: everybody always does the thing like, oh found a dime,
Speaker 2: Oh found a dime. Everybody trying and keep track and
Speaker 2: all that, and so I did, oh, what's this? And
Speaker 2: then I, you know, had sort of everybody's attention and
Speaker 2: open it up and was like, wow, fifty dollars, I'd
Speaker 2: be a huge deal. And you should have seen the
Speaker 2: reactions from everyone at the table, like he will jaw
Speaker 2: like literally hit the floor. They couldn't believe it because
Speaker 2: they thought it was real. Uh, and it was a
Speaker 2: grand old laugh and it was nailed it perfectly. I
Speaker 2: played it off perfectly, like I was excited, like, wow,
Speaker 2: Auntie Jenny's putt in fifties now man dimes and fifties,
Speaker 2: so that's nice. I can't remember if I shared that
Speaker 2: story on this podcast.
Speaker 3: I feel like an outside offline.
Speaker 2: No, okay, So that was you know, look, the family
Speaker 2: already loved old Skeetzy, but that took me. Still talk
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 3: Leal still reminius.
Speaker 6: About that time, fifteen years deep in the podcasting game,
Speaker 6: reaching deep in the bag, like the Fries were at
Speaker 6: the bottom pulling on a banger oh skates with a
Speaker 6: fifty dollars dime.
Speaker 2: Love it. Unfortunately, we'd have to use that fifty and
Speaker 2: give half a bit the task.
Speaker 7: That's quick thee I had a little bit of trouble
Speaker 7: coming up with something, so I'm just gonna say I
Speaker 7: faked sweating for a DraftKings ad a couple of months ago,
Speaker 7: and I have Jackson sprang me down with a with
Speaker 7: a little spray bottle and I got water all over
Speaker 7: my system, and but it was totally worth it. It
Speaker 7: was totally worth it the gag. It went off without
Speaker 7: a hitch. So that's my answer.
Speaker 6: I was a banger of an ad Reid too Bley.
Speaker 4: Pretty much every day when I go outside and play
Speaker 4: with my two boys, we play hide and Seek or
Speaker 4: blasters or something like that. And whenever we play Lego
Speaker 4: Blasters or Star Wars blasters, I have to fake going
Speaker 4: down every time. Like my four year old won't let
Speaker 4: me just be like, I can't just let them bounce
Speaker 4: off me. I have to go down. I have to
Speaker 4: be down and out for the count. And it's like,
Speaker 4: after like the tenth time, I'm like I'm not I'm done, man,
Speaker 4: I'm done. I'm not going down again. They're going to
Speaker 4: go back down and then to get back up, and
Speaker 4: then he just blasts me again. And he never goes
Speaker 4: down when I blast him either. He's always got a
Speaker 4: shield up.
Speaker 2: He always protects himself.
Speaker 4: If I use the same tactics, it never works. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I've I've got a should Actually, you don't have a
Speaker 4: shield for this blast. I'm like, woy, how do you
Speaker 4: have a shield all the time? How come you're always
Speaker 4: blocking my blast? But I've always got to go down
Speaker 4: for yours.
Speaker 6: I'm like, they got that advance to technology game up.
Speaker 2: Sounds like you suck it blasters. I do.
Speaker 4: I do, apparently because I can never ever defeat those guys.
Speaker 4: They always beat me, especially the four year old.
Speaker 5: He's very sly, he's very funny.
Speaker 6: He knows how to get me last rapid fire question.
Speaker 6: With the win over Kansas City this week, this weekend,
Speaker 6: Little Bills would go to the Super Bowl for the
Speaker 6: first time since nineteen ninety three. Shout out to Darryl Tally,
Speaker 6: what's something you haven't done since the nineties, But you
Speaker 6: might get back into skips.
Speaker 2: I am just continuing to talk this into existence. NBA
Speaker 2: Jam playing it a lot, and I'm eventually gonna get
Speaker 2: the NBA JAM arcade system, you know, the whole cabinet.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it. You know again, I've talked about
Speaker 2: this before in the pot. We're getting closer because I
Speaker 2: think my buddy Chris just saw one the other day
Speaker 2: at the Walmart. He's like, is this what you were
Speaker 2: talking ABOUT'M like, that's it. That's it, so we know
Speaker 2: it's there. I can just go pick it up later
Speaker 2: today if I wanted to.
Speaker 3: And I'm a little.
Speaker 6: Jam on a Friday looking forward to the unboxing.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, I definitely will unbox that.
Speaker 5: Once I get that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, launch a twist channel if you get into gaming.
Speaker 2: Played a ton of it in the nineties, of course,
Speaker 2: but I'm bringing it back, all right.
Speaker 7: Jerdi shaving maybe you know it's been uh it has
Speaker 7: literally been since the nineties since I didn't have a beard.
Speaker 7: So and it's getting a little Yeah, when you can't
Speaker 7: see the logo on your shirt, it's it's getting a
Speaker 7: little zz top. So I don't know. I thought I
Speaker 7: was thinking what would happen if I just shave like
Speaker 7: complete no no facial hair. I don't it's literally been
Speaker 7: thirty years since I've since That's wow. It was just
Speaker 7: show up one day and just be like you would
Speaker 7: be like, who is that guy? Like you would not
Speaker 7: recognize me?
Speaker 2: Probably, Well, we've never known you. We've seen the odd
Speaker 2: photo maybe, but yeah, you've never known you without a beard.
Speaker 7: Right, Yeah, I don't know. I don't know me without
Speaker 7: a beard. Yeah, yeah, I had a beard ins for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So I'm worried about my jowels.
Speaker 6: Do you know?
Speaker 7: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 7: I got no chin. That's my joke. I'm I'm and
Speaker 7: like Roger Ebert after he had his surgery, his lotch
Speaker 7: and removed.
Speaker 4: When I first started traveling in the nineties, I used
Speaker 4: to have a bum bag, a fanny pack as you
Speaker 4: call it over here, and I used to love it.
Speaker 5: Because fanny packs bum bags. They were in. They were
Speaker 5: in in, in, and then they were out out out.
Speaker 5: People like, get that out of here.
Speaker 4: No one wants to see you with a bum bag anymore.
Speaker 5: But I like them, So I did rock.
Speaker 4: I hold onto mine for a while, and now I've
Speaker 4: missed traveling so much. Next time I'm going on the plane,
Speaker 4: I'm getting a brand new bum bag. I'm putting the
Speaker 4: passports in it, I put my wallet in it, I'm
Speaker 4: put my phone in it. I'm bringing back it's a
Speaker 4: bum bag. I think it's time for it to come back.
Speaker 5: I think so.
Speaker 4: It's a cycle and they're cool.
Speaker 2: I like that they are back. I mean, Tree, you
Speaker 2: can probably speak to this better than I can. The
Speaker 2: fanny pack is it's back, isn't it last couple of years?
Speaker 2: I feel like you always see guys coming into the
Speaker 2: arena wearing them.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the fanny pack is back, but I've never heard
Speaker 6: it called a bum bag. Could definitely come back.
Speaker 2: What would you do, Lea? If Lebron tweeted at you,
Speaker 2: you bum bag, I would say, you see it's back
Speaker 2: in the bum bag is back.
Speaker 5: See the fannie pack.
Speaker 4: Means something different in Australia or you. I woke around
Speaker 4: sign up people, I've got my fanny packed out.
Speaker 6: And Jenny would just laugh.
Speaker 2: That's true, that's true. All right, that's a rapid fire.
Speaker 2: Let's call it there. This is a long one, but hey,
Speaker 2: you got all weekend to listen to this classic. If
Speaker 2: you're in the mood, go grab some No Dunks items
Speaker 2: at No dunks dot com. Hoodies, and T shirts and
Speaker 2: shorts and mugs. Go rep the brand, and you know what,
Speaker 2: treat yourself to an athletic subscription. Go to the athletic
Speaker 2: dot com slash no dunks where you can sign up
Speaker 2: for just three ninety nine a months right now for
Speaker 2: the best damn sports writing in the world. Thanks so
Speaker 2: much to the stream team the team stream for joining
Speaker 2: us live here on YouTube. Really appreciate it. If you
Speaker 2: listen on Apple Podcasts, please leave us that five star
Speaker 2: rating and review. We'll get to a five star Friday
Speaker 2: some point in February, so if you got a new review,
Speaker 2: you might get in the show. All right, fun one guys,
Speaker 2: Clipper bros. You heard it here first, have a great time,
Speaker 2: turn up.
Speaker 6: Love you guys awesome.
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us. And remember one Christmas, I went
Speaker 3: to Christmas Dinner and I wrapped up fifty and food
Speaker 3: Aunt Jenny.
Speaker 2: It brings the weekend. People.
Speaker 4: You could stay.
Speaker 6: Every day.
Speaker 1: And Dannie happy every minute.
Speaker 2: It's been so long of your mona.
Speaker 7: Way, it's happy already.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be grevy