Speaker 1: You're tuned into Heat Check with Triste Quick.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, We've got a
Speaker 2: very special treat for you a couple of interviews that
Speaker 2: I recorded on my nightly betting show bet MGM The Night,
Speaker 2: which I co host every night Monday through Friday, seven
Speaker 2: to eleven pm Eastern with my co host Ryan Horvat
Speaker 2: and PJ Lasser. On this episode, we talked to NBA
Speaker 2: insider Sean Little of the MSG Network and the No
Speaker 2: Ketchup Podcast. He breaks down his thoughts on the NBA
Speaker 2: season so far, and we follow it up actually with
Speaker 2: an interview with Robin Lundberg of SI who gives some
Speaker 2: great insight into the league as well. There's one team
Speaker 2: that he is surprisingly low on and it rhymes with
Speaker 2: Smiladelphia Sixers. Double interviews mean double bonuses for you, Nick,
Speaker 2: do me a favor and drop that beat. In this
Speaker 2: first clip, I asked Sean his thoughts on the New
Speaker 2: York Knicks, who lost their opener to the Grizzlies but
Speaker 2: managed to claw back and force overtime. They showed a
Speaker 2: ton of grit, and since he's a Chicago guy now
Speaker 2: living in New York City, I had to ask him
Speaker 2: about the Bulls as well.
Speaker 3: Listen in Yeah, I mean I live. I live out
Speaker 3: here half the week now and majority of the week.
Speaker 3: I went back and forth from New York and Chicago,
Speaker 3: and everybody I talked to this morning was very encouraged.
Speaker 3: I know, I was watching them. Yeah, that was easily
Speaker 3: a game that they could have. You know, opening night
Speaker 3: kind of got tucked in early, were down big, and
Speaker 3: they could have folded up. But I think they showed
Speaker 3: a lot of fight Julius. It's such it was so
Speaker 3: important for Julius Randall to get going and be involved
Speaker 3: early like he was, because when he's not, everything snowballed
Speaker 3: and it starts to snowball from game to game. I
Speaker 3: also think it was major that, you know, they went
Speaker 3: and got Jalen Brunson to handle the rock so Julius
Speaker 3: doesn't RJ. If RJ didn't play is bad as he
Speaker 3: did last night, they win that game about five, six,
Speaker 3: maybe even seven points. So yeah, I was encouraged. They
Speaker 3: have a big home stretch coming up here that they
Speaker 3: have to play really well. They play, they play some
Speaker 3: of the bottom teams in the league, Detroit being one
Speaker 3: of them. They kick off tomorrow with the opener, But yeah,
Speaker 3: very encouraged. Everyone I talked to in New York is
Speaker 3: very encouraged. Memphis is supposed to be, you know, a
Speaker 3: top flight Western Conference team, and they went head up
Speaker 3: in the opener.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the Chicago Bulls because first and foremost,
Speaker 2: very impressive win against the Miami Heat, even though the
Speaker 2: Miami came back, made it a game, just a I
Speaker 2: would say, very impressive. More impressive than even last year,
Speaker 2: considering that a bunch of your guys are not really
Speaker 2: right and secondarily you know your thoughts on that. But
Speaker 2: what's up with Pat Williams.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's be clear. The only people that I want
Speaker 3: to know are Io Desumu and Jamar Jarroz and everybody else.
Speaker 3: They can't even take credit for that WU yesterday. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it's it was a very encouraging win. They looked good. Jamar,
Speaker 3: It's just ridiculous. I I tweeted out yesterday, looked for
Speaker 3: look to take his point total, attent total, all that
Speaker 3: stuff over. When Levine's not in his use is great.
Speaker 3: Skyrockets by like five or six percent. His attempt shot
Speaker 3: to go up by five or six, He scores six,
Speaker 3: seven points more a game. He's sensational when Levine's out,
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was a it was a great win.
Speaker 3: I don't know just what's going on with Pat Williams.
Speaker 3: I it's it's very nauseating because at the very least
Speaker 3: for a guy that's his friend, six's a you know,
Speaker 3: but you know the whole story, perfect frame for a
Speaker 3: young hooper. He doesn't even clean He doesn't even clean
Speaker 3: up the glass. He makes no impact in the game.
Speaker 3: Whatso everyone he's out there and I know he got
Speaker 3: hurt and missed the majority of the year last year,
Speaker 3: but even in like the ten or twelve games that
Speaker 3: he did play, it was very similar the way you
Speaker 3: saw it last night, not really making an impact. He's
Speaker 3: kind of just a guy out there jumping around and
Speaker 3: playing a little bit of defense, but he just doesn't
Speaker 3: make an impact on the game. And I don't know,
Speaker 3: you hate to give up on a dude that's so
Speaker 3: young like he is, but you also have to look
Speaker 3: for something that gives you a spark, a flash of something,
Speaker 3: and I haven't seen it at all.
Speaker 2: In this clip. I asked Sean his candid thoughts about
Speaker 2: a couple of teams from the West who could surprise
Speaker 2: for different reasons. The New Orleans Pelicans and the Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 3: The Pelicans are awesome. I won't jump out and say
Speaker 3: they're a legit contender to go on and win the West,
Speaker 3: but they're loaded. Man, Zion is awesome. He's literally a
Speaker 3: walking twenty five plus every night. Ye whan when he
Speaker 3: wants to walk on the court and he's healthy. I
Speaker 3: was joking around in the group chat. One of my
Speaker 3: boys says, man, make Zion go right, and it's like, man,
Speaker 3: you can't. It's impossible to make him go right. He's
Speaker 3: going to go left whenever he wants, and he's going
Speaker 3: to get to the basket and try to finish at
Speaker 3: the rim. I mean they're awesome. Zion can score, Ingram
Speaker 3: can score Herbs. The big question mark right, is who's
Speaker 3: going to play defense. Well, Herb Jones will play D.
Speaker 3: You got Alvarado who will come off the bench and
Speaker 3: bring energy and play D. You got Balanceonis who will rebound.
Speaker 3: Davonte Graham off the bench, is not afraid to get
Speaker 3: shot up. He'll get his shots up. Larry Mantill run
Speaker 3: the floor. I really I'm with you, guys, I really
Speaker 3: really like the Pelicans, and I didn't even namc delacull
Speaker 3: him who when a big bucket is needed, jump shot
Speaker 3: or otherwise, he's shown that he can get it done
Speaker 3: for you. Yeah, I really really like this squad. They're young,
Speaker 3: they'll have a lot of energy. They'll be fun to lost.
Speaker 3: My number one leak past squad right now for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely another team that I think some of us thought
Speaker 2: maybe would take a big step back just because of
Speaker 2: all the drama issues with the contract of DeAndre Ayton,
Speaker 2: you know, Chris Paul getting another year older, and some
Speaker 2: of this that he has with teammates. Just generally speaking,
Speaker 2: what a gritty, gritty comeback win for Phoenix against the
Speaker 2: mass They could have just laid down and died, and
Speaker 2: yet somehow, some way, Monty Williams decides, Okay, well, I'm
Speaker 2: actually going to bench Chris Paul that my guys who
Speaker 2: were on microwaves finish this game out. What were your
Speaker 2: thoughts just on that game and whether we can take
Speaker 2: anything from that in terms of how good Phoenix can
Speaker 2: actually be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what it feels like to me that
Speaker 3: Dallas is just a bad matchup for them. Overall. They
Speaker 3: have a lot of trouble with Dallas. That's obviously been
Speaker 3: seen in the playoffs and we saw and you saw
Speaker 3: it last night in the majority of the game. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it was awesome. They locked in and did what had
Speaker 3: to be done. I think when you get in situations
Speaker 3: like they were down last night, in a little momentum
Speaker 3: starts to come back. As they're getting back into the game,
Speaker 3: we're not thinking about like the off the field stuff
Speaker 3: we're not talking are off the court stuff we're not
Speaker 3: talking about. Aden's not wanting to be there. He's already
Speaker 3: on the floor doing this thing. I think it was
Speaker 3: a very gritty win. It was encouraging to see. It
Speaker 3: was encouraging to see, you know, those guys get rolling.
Speaker 3: Ayden was efficient, Devin led the way. I was watching
Speaker 3: the show and I heard Bill Ryder crush Chris Paul.
Speaker 2: When you were interviewing.
Speaker 3: I thought he crushed him, and I thought that was
Speaker 3: a little over the top, right, I'm like, man like,
Speaker 3: he's shown year in and year out, and as recently
Speaker 3: of last year, that he's still one of the best
Speaker 3: clutch basketball players in the world. He would close out
Speaker 3: games for the Sun night in and night out, and
Speaker 3: basically tough teams away and he was a non factor yesterday.
Speaker 3: It was almost like they realized they had to move
Speaker 3: on without him. So, yeah, you're right, they left Paul
Speaker 3: on the bench and when he did that thing.
Speaker 2: Finally, I asked Sean about the Los Angeles teams and
Speaker 2: his thoughts on the Clippers and Lakers. They are very,
Speaker 2: very well worth listening.
Speaker 3: After all the law of that the Clippers got in
Speaker 3: the offseason. We know who's coming back and apparently who's
Speaker 3: coming up, who's coming off the bench. We can have
Speaker 3: a whole other conversation about how these injuries are are
Speaker 3: dealt with nowadays, Like people strain a calf and they're
Speaker 3: out forty games. It's like it's kind of insane. But
Speaker 3: we can talk about that the other time. But the
Speaker 3: Lakers are they still have the rocks. But I also
Speaker 3: think that number was a little fishy to five and
Speaker 3: a half the point spread for all the love that
Speaker 3: the Clippers gott and how deep they are, because they
Speaker 3: are incredibly deep. You start talking about take because a
Speaker 3: ad looks great. Last night, he was moving really well.
Speaker 3: I like the way he looks. Lebron is Lebron. He
Speaker 3: scored twenty nine or thirty last night. But then okay,
Speaker 3: we know about the deal with Russell Westbrook, but the
Speaker 3: who's the fourth best player? Kendrick Nunn is that the
Speaker 3: fourth best is that the fourth best player on the team,
Speaker 3: Kendrick Nunn is it Walker the fourth like who? Like that?
Speaker 3: That's where he gets really really spooky, right, So if
Speaker 3: you pull those two guys and then there's questions around
Speaker 3: the third best player. So, I mean, it's just a
Speaker 3: really tough situation that it just seems like Lebron is
Speaker 3: just internally has kind of, you know, has accepted, like
Speaker 3: I have a lot of other stuff going on. I'm
Speaker 3: going to try to go get Kareem's record, like I
Speaker 3: think deep down, you know, if there's no titles coming
Speaker 3: anytime soon.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The thing about the sun, Sean, I don't know
Speaker 2: if you've ever lived in la is that it just
Speaker 2: makes you forget all your ambition. When it's seventy two
Speaker 2: in sunny every single day, you just like you're like,
Speaker 2: I don't really even care. I said this really quickly,
Speaker 2: and I'd like to get your thoughts. Is it possible
Speaker 2: Lebron James as a Laker never makes it to the
Speaker 2: playoffs ever?
Speaker 1: Again, Oh, I.
Speaker 3: Mean to the league. Yeah, it is possible. It definitely
Speaker 3: is possible. I think with the play in kind of
Speaker 3: changes that a little bit. But I don't see unforseeably
Speaker 3: competing in the NBA. You don't want to be the
Speaker 3: team scratching and clawing to get the eight and then
Speaker 3: get bounced like that's the worst place in the entire
Speaker 3: world that you want to be. And that's kind of
Speaker 3: what I'm afraid of for my bulls. If this whole
Speaker 3: of beam thing continues to happen, we might have to
Speaker 3: rip it down once again really quick. What happened to
Speaker 3: Lebron last year? He realized they weren't going to do
Speaker 3: anything and the roster that they assembled wasn't going to compete,
Speaker 3: so he just went out every night and tried to
Speaker 3: score thirty second and scoring in the league.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: I think something like that can happen once again this year,
Speaker 3: where he just looks around, He's like, man, this isn't it.
Speaker 3: I'm going to go get Kareinge record and the score
Speaker 3: a toront of points and I'll pull a handy. I'll
Speaker 3: sit a bunch of games if I need to, and
Speaker 3: we'll just continue the way for Brownie to show up
Speaker 3: and I'll do movies and I'll do all that other stuff.
Speaker 3: So to answer your question, I think he'll get back
Speaker 3: to the playoffs. Will he ever actually have a chance
Speaker 3: to compete again and even make it to the Western
Speaker 3: Conference finals at this rate, I would say no.
Speaker 2: We also had on Robin Lundberg, senior host of SI,
Speaker 2: to get his thoughts on the opening week. In his
Speaker 2: first clip, he gives a very savage opinion on a
Speaker 2: couple of teams with very myopic fan bases, the LA
Speaker 2: Lakers and the Philadelphia seventy six ers. How does he
Speaker 2: think they're going to fare this year? Do they have
Speaker 2: any chance to contend?
Speaker 1: Listen in, the Lakers still have Lebron James, and they
Speaker 1: still have Anthony Davis. But beyond that, who's the third
Speaker 1: best player. It's probably Patrick Beverley, right, So there's always
Speaker 1: a little extra when it comes to Lebron, when it
Speaker 1: comes to the Lakers and some of the criticism that's
Speaker 1: probably lobbed their way, and everyone knows that they got
Speaker 1: to get it out of the way now, especially if
Speaker 1: it spirals downhill. Plus, there's a whole Westbrook dynamic, and
Speaker 1: he's the punching bag. But the problem is that the
Speaker 1: construction of the roster in a few ways. One, they
Speaker 1: don't have the three point shooting, which Lebron pointed out
Speaker 1: the other day. And if Lebron's going to be the
Speaker 1: basis of your team, you're gonna need shooters. That's been
Speaker 1: the blueprint basically, you know, the entirety of his career,
Speaker 1: especially you know, since he went back to the calves
Speaker 1: and became, you know, the older version of himself as
Speaker 1: he evolved a little bit. And then one thing I
Speaker 1: think is also interesting is everybody talks about the bubble
Speaker 1: and they like to say TJ. Warren, or they like
Speaker 1: to point out whoever, you know, a random player that
Speaker 1: went off in the bubble. Perhaps the biggest bubble anomaly
Speaker 1: was the shooting of Anthony Davis, who looked like Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant in the bubble and has been the least efficient
Speaker 1: jump shooter in the NBA over the last two years.
Speaker 1: So yeah, without some sort of influx of athleticism in shooting,
Speaker 1: I do think it's probably gonna be a long season
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. They'll win some games, you know, Lebron
Speaker 1: will get thirty five forty points, in some of these games,
Speaker 1: and I'd actually give them a better chance in a
Speaker 1: series against some teams than I would over the course
Speaker 1: of a long eighty two regular season when depth comes
Speaker 1: into play, because if you get into a short, truncated series,
Speaker 1: you can get carried by a couple of heroic efforts.
Speaker 1: But I just don't see the personnel on this team
Speaker 1: for the Lakers to be anything better than average, because
Speaker 1: they might have the worst roster in the league three
Speaker 1: through fifteen.
Speaker 2: That's facts. Joe l Embiid said after they lost to
Speaker 2: the Heat they needed some dogs, and he specifically named
Speaker 2: PJ Tucker. What I'm saying is, we don't have a
Speaker 2: PJ Tucker. So they go out and get PJ. They
Speaker 2: go out and get a bunch of other guys that
Speaker 2: James Harden played with in Houston. And the question that
Speaker 2: I have is, even with those dogs, do you trust
Speaker 2: the Philadelphia seventy six ers to be a real championship
Speaker 2: contender or is this just a cute team that ends
Speaker 2: up racking up some regular season wins.
Speaker 1: Absolutely no trust. I don't think the Sixers have any
Speaker 1: chance to win a championship. You know, when you talk
Speaker 1: about the flaws on the Sixers. They're also a team
Speaker 1: with some depth issues beyond their top four or five guys. PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker is a dog and I love PJ. Tucker. I
Speaker 1: also loved Tyrese Maxie. Big fan of Maxis games. But
Speaker 1: the real problem with the Sixers is their stars. Joel
Speaker 1: embiid It's about time we start pointing the finger at him.
Speaker 1: It's always somebody else's fault with Joel Embiid. On's he
Speaker 1: been passed the second round of the playoffs. I don't
Speaker 1: trust either of their stars when it comes to crunchdown.
Speaker 1: And I'll give James Harden a little credit. He's played
Speaker 1: well to start this season and he's hit some like
Speaker 1: little quasi mid range jumpers, which are interesting because he
Speaker 1: hasn't really taken those. But still at the down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this game, and he had the last shot
Speaker 1: attempt there to try and get Philly back the lead,
Speaker 1: he didn't look to make a shot. He looked to
Speaker 1: draw a foul. And that's a problem with Harden. When
Speaker 1: it comes to crunch time, it's either a step back
Speaker 1: three or flailing for a foul. It's not actually trying
Speaker 1: to make a bucket. And I don't trust drawling beat
Speaker 1: at all. When it comes to crunch time, he's flow
Speaker 1: up and down the court. He needs somebody to get
Speaker 1: him the ball to create his shown shot. He often
Speaker 1: looks like he's laboring in those situations to get back
Speaker 1: on D. So I just don't think Philly Stars are
Speaker 1: good enough. And I'm not even sure, you know, over
Speaker 1: the course of the regular season, I trust Boston and
Speaker 1: I trust Milwaukee. Beyond that, we'll see, you know, Miami,
Speaker 1: They've earned a degree of trust with their consistency. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't write the Nets off after one game, though. They
Speaker 1: really have to prove they aren't the softest team in
Speaker 1: the league. The Cavs should be better, that the Hawks
Speaker 1: should be better. I put Philly in the mix with
Speaker 1: those teams, but regardless, when it gets to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: I think they're stealing at the second round.
Speaker 2: We also ask Robin what team would surprise him the
Speaker 2: most a lot of people. He went with the very
Speaker 2: trendy New Orleans Pelicans. He also gave his opinion on
Speaker 2: his very favorite rookie to watch this year, and of course,
Speaker 2: because I have to ask everyone, what was his thoughts
Speaker 2: on the Suns beating the Dallas Mavericks. Listen in.
Speaker 1: I'll say, because I was at this game, I'll say
Speaker 1: the Pelicans. There's something about seeing Zion in person, especially
Speaker 1: if like you have a certain perspective where you can
Speaker 1: see from the side a little bit, where when he
Speaker 1: gets the ball anywhere between let's say eight and ten
Speaker 1: feet of the rim and has any sort of forward momentum,
Speaker 1: the defenders are hapless. There's nothing they can do. He
Speaker 1: can't be stocked. He's just too strong. And then he
Speaker 1: has good touch. If he misses, he has a good
Speaker 1: second jump, so he's right in there. So with that
Speaker 1: aspect added to their team. If he's healthy, you throw
Speaker 1: in Brandon Ingram, who has won me over in recent times.
Speaker 1: I wasn't always the biggest fan of his game, either
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram and c. J McCollum, who are both pickled
Speaker 1: shot makers. So when it gets into like a bailout situation,
Speaker 1: they got two knyes who can make shots like that,
Speaker 1: and then they got a pretty deep roster. You know
Speaker 1: that they can switch around the physical. So I would
Speaker 1: say my biggest takeaway from the you know, it's hard
Speaker 1: to make preseason predictions right because you're just kind of like,
Speaker 1: all right, do I want to be different or you know,
Speaker 1: you haven't seen stuff from stuff I've seen. The Pelicans
Speaker 1: are the one team that I went, oh, maybe they're
Speaker 1: championship contenders.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you look at them right now, I think
Speaker 2: when they open they were just to win the West.
Speaker 2: I want to say they were plus twenty eight hundred.
Speaker 2: Let me see what they are I win. Yeah, let
Speaker 2: me see what they are right now? Yeah, to win
Speaker 2: the West, it looks like they're twenty to one. To
Speaker 2: win it all right now is thirty to one, So
Speaker 2: it's actually moved down a little bit. That's really interesting.
Speaker 2: You know another player that when you see him in
Speaker 2: real life, he just seems way more physically imposing than
Speaker 2: he does on TV. Very similar in some ways to
Speaker 2: zion Is Palo. Ben Carol put on an absolute show
Speaker 2: last night. I'm not sure if you had a chance
Speaker 2: to watch that game. It wasn't a game that necessarily
Speaker 2: was nationally televised, so for those who didn't have League Pass,
Speaker 2: tough to watch. But he looks like he's going to
Speaker 2: be sensational. What do you think about some of these
Speaker 2: rookies Pallo included.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's a good rookie class, right, Murray and
Speaker 1: Matherin and Ivy, but Palla is another one of these examples.
Speaker 1: It's so weird how college basketball could be such a
Speaker 1: different sport, for sure than professional basketball. I guess maybe
Speaker 1: it's because the coaches of the stars in college, so
Speaker 1: they're almost micromanaging.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say that so much about Shachefki,
Speaker 1: who proved what he could do with pro players. You know,
Speaker 1: he earned a lot of respect from me for that.
Speaker 1: I know everybody's easy to win with those guys, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't exactly like they were in Great States when
Speaker 1: he took over the United States basketball team. But in college,
Speaker 1: the one thing you saw about bn Cao is that
Speaker 1: he had that NBA ready body and almost moves set
Speaker 1: off the bounce, and that stuff opens up at the
Speaker 1: NBA level. So yeah, I mean, I think you're not
Speaker 1: even counting chet Holgren, right. So this is one of
Speaker 1: those rookie classes where I don't think we're going to
Speaker 1: look back and say it was mid I think you'll
Speaker 1: look back and you'll be able to look at three,
Speaker 1: four or five kind of guys who were impact players
Speaker 1: in the league.
Speaker 2: You know, I think a lot of people are sort
Speaker 2: of saying that the Suns are going to have a
Speaker 2: big regression this year. A lot of that has been
Speaker 2: because of the drama surrounding the franchise with Starbar and
Speaker 2: obviously all that contract issue with DeAndre Ayton. Last night
Speaker 2: showed me that this team obviously has a lot of
Speaker 2: grit in that Monty Williams is committed to still you know,
Speaker 2: making adjustments including benching Chris Paul like, where do you
Speaker 2: see and does this game you play into it at all?
Speaker 2: Is where do you see Phoenix ending this year?
Speaker 1: Well? I mean they got a good team, right. They
Speaker 1: won a lot of games last year. Their collapse was
Speaker 1: kind of startling, not because we thought, you know, this
Speaker 1: was some sort of dynastics sort of squad, but just
Speaker 1: you didn't expect the wheels to come off the way
Speaker 1: they did. I think that the biggest challenge they'll they'll
Speaker 1: face Christy and you just mentioned Chris Paul is how
Speaker 1: you know us can he stay for how long? It
Speaker 1: feels like as the season goes on, whether it's wear
Speaker 1: and tear or you know, a variety of injuries that
Speaker 1: he winds up nagging injuries that he's not as strong
Speaker 1: at the end of the year. And if that's the case,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're benching Chris Paul in the
Speaker 1: playoffs and still winning those games. But when you're trotting
Speaker 1: out Booker and Ayton and Bridges and Johnson, you know,
Speaker 1: night in, night out, you can win a lot of games.
Speaker 2: That's all the time that we after The Heat Check.
Speaker 2: Bet MGM Tonight airs Monday through Friday live from seven
Speaker 2: to eleven Eastern Time. It's available on demand as well.
Speaker 2: Million thanks to my co hosts PJ Glasser, Ryan Horvaught,
Speaker 2: and super producer cam and Gray. Also thanks to Sean
Speaker 2: Little and Robin Lundberg for coming in and talking hoops.
Speaker 2: That's it for the bonus episode of the Heat Check,
Speaker 2: and do not forget to check out the feed for
Speaker 2: past interviews in episodes.