Speaker 1: If what was happening in Dallas wasn't hilarious, I would
Speaker 1: probably be sick of talking about it. But it's actually
Speaker 1: quite delightful. Feed me all of the Mavericks misfortune, feed
Speaker 1: me all of the drama going on with Mark Cuban.
Speaker 1: I just love it. I love the chaos. I love
Speaker 1: how completely inept everyone is there, from Mark Cuban to
Speaker 1: Nico Harrison to Jason Kidd, all the way down to
Speaker 1: probably the ball boy. The ball boy probably doesn't even
Speaker 1: know how to inflate the basketballs for the team. That's
Speaker 1: how bad it is there. It's like watching a slightly
Speaker 1: overweight European train go off the rails as a more
Speaker 1: slightly overweight owner tries to fix it, but he can't
Speaker 1: and he just has to watch horror. And if you
Speaker 1: thought that the last month was entertaining, oh boy, this
Speaker 1: offseason just got even more spicy, more of a soap opera,
Speaker 1: because it's probably gonna get worse. So where do we start. Well,
Speaker 1: we talked last episode about how Dallas punted on the
Speaker 1: season technically, and then Luca came out and said, no,
Speaker 1: that's actually not true, We're not doing that, and then
Speaker 1: more bad things happened. They deemed a future draft pick
Speaker 1: more important than trying to make the playoffs, which was
Speaker 1: Luca's stated goal. They said, we need to not give
Speaker 1: the pick to the next so we're going to do
Speaker 1: whatever we can to keep it ourselves. So they tanked
Speaker 1: in a way that was even more egregious, even more embarrassing,
Speaker 1: even more obvious than the Blazers, which is kind of
Speaker 1: crazy because they said the quiet part out loud. They
Speaker 1: told everyone. Jason Kidd came out in front of everyone
Speaker 1: and said, Hey, my bosses are telling me that no
Speaker 1: one can play toon because we need to plan for
Speaker 1: the future, and losing games right now is how we
Speaker 1: do that. And the league says, oh, no, baby, you
Speaker 1: can't say that. You can't do that. Luca came out
Speaker 1: and played for a quarter and some change, got his
Speaker 1: player prop ching and got a weirdly non standing ovation
Speaker 1: standing ovation, and then that was the last that we
Speaker 1: saw from him. That was the last that we saw
Speaker 1: from Kyrie, who did not play, did not give an
Speaker 1: exit interview, and it is just so bad. Why was
Speaker 1: Luca so mad that he didn't get to play the
Speaker 1: full game despite the fact that he wanted to participate
Speaker 1: in a game that was still meaningful because they could
Speaker 1: play in the playoffs. It has everything to do with
Speaker 1: Slovenia because the MAVs scheduled Slovenia Day on the second
Speaker 1: last day of the season, meaning people traveled from Slovenia
Speaker 1: to watch Luca, and Luca played a quarter in front
Speaker 1: of his own people. He had to sit in warm
Speaker 1: ups while people who flew ten thousand miles or whatever
Speaker 1: it is watched insert player you've never heard of and
Speaker 1: Reggie Bullock? Are we serious? Do you know embarrassing that
Speaker 1: is for your people? Do you know how much of
Speaker 1: a slap in the face that bullshit is? And they
Speaker 1: were like, we do not care about Slovenia. The only
Speaker 1: Slovenian that we care about is you. And Luca was pissed.
Speaker 1: So what did they do? They like, I said, They said, Kyrie,
Speaker 1: christian Woods, Hardaway Bullock, and it was everybody was clearly healthy.
Speaker 1: They sat Christian Wood and Jaden Hardy for rest guys
Speaker 1: who were in their early twenties. And then now what
Speaker 1: is going on, Like clockwork, the league investigates the maps
Speaker 1: for tampering. Everybody is thinking about what the outcome is
Speaker 1: going to be. There's every scenario down from finding the
Speaker 1: MAVs five million dollars to taking a draft pick from them,
Speaker 1: which would be hilarious because that was the whole reason
Speaker 1: that they did it to begin with, is to preserve
Speaker 1: their draft pick. Everyone now says that Luca is unhappy.
Speaker 1: There are new reports that Dallas fears that he will
Speaker 1: ask out. Luca says, I am happy here. I am
Speaker 1: not asking out anytime soon, but we need to fix
Speaker 1: these problems. He sounds a little like Damian Lillard. Folks
Speaker 1: with less patience and really less rope with the organization.
Speaker 1: By the way, meanwhile, Kyrie and Luca were five and
Speaker 1: eleven when they played together this year, and Dallas has
Speaker 1: just one option. They must sign Kyrie Irving. There's no
Speaker 1: other maneuvers that you have. The roster is in disarray,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if you can see the train
Speaker 1: wreck coming, but I certainly can't, and I don't know
Speaker 1: that there's much to do to stop it. And by
Speaker 1: the way, quick little aside. I did a show on
Speaker 1: New York Sports radio this weekend on WFAM, and I
Speaker 1: spent nearly two hours talking with fans, nick fans about
Speaker 1: whether they wanted Luca on the Knicks, and eighty percent
Speaker 1: of people said no, which is just where we're at
Speaker 1: on Luca right now. Insane. I love the end of
Speaker 1: the season because every time that it ends, we all
Speaker 1: know who's getting fired. And we've been waiting for months
Speaker 1: for Steven Silas to get fired. We've been speculating for
Speaker 1: months about Dwayne Casey getting fired. We've also been commenting
Speaker 1: recently about whether Nick Nurse would decide to leave. Two
Speaker 1: out of those three are now no longer with the
Speaker 1: team and a coaching capacity. Dwayne Casey stepped down after
Speaker 1: very rough season. When Cade cutting him went down, it
Speaker 1: was curtains for them. We knew that they got James Wiseman,
Speaker 1: and then the curtain call came down even more. That's
Speaker 1: what happens when you win a league low seventeen games
Speaker 1: on top of twenty three wins last year. Just not
Speaker 1: a team that you can trust whatsoever. Killian Hayes developed
Speaker 1: into a nice piece. Isaiah Stewart did as well. Like
Speaker 1: this is a team with talent, as a team with athleticism,
Speaker 1: this is a team with length. But the good news
Speaker 1: is that Casey has stayed on with the team and
Speaker 1: some of the other replacements that are possible, potentially Chauncey
Speaker 1: billups Piston's legend and moving forward. Down in Houston, the
Speaker 1: Stephen Silas eras has also come to an end. He
Speaker 1: he was fifty nine and one hundred and seventy seven
Speaker 1: while he was the head coach of the Houston Rockets.
Speaker 1: He said that it was one of the best times
Speaker 1: of his life, but fifty nine and one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy seven record would be so painful to watch on
Speaker 1: a day to day basis, not just watch it like
Speaker 1: us because I watch it and I'm in pain, but
Speaker 1: also watch it and be asked to fix it. It
Speaker 1: has been rough for him. Things were so broken by
Speaker 1: the time he got there when James Harden and Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook asked out that you can't really blame them except
Speaker 1: for that you can. Except for that you can. He
Speaker 1: was not taking into account what his coaches said to do.
Speaker 1: He didn't hold any of his players accountable. He had
Speaker 1: no ability to fix the defense. He did not develop
Speaker 1: Jalen Green. No one knew their role. Eric Gordon asked
Speaker 1: to be a part of the offense, and he told them,
Speaker 1: I'd love to give you some more responsibility. However, Rafael
Speaker 1: Stone and the man with the shrimp fork Tillman for
Speaker 1: Titta says we can't do all that, We gotta let
Speaker 1: the young guns develop. The athletics said this to say
Speaker 1: about him. The absence of leadership on the floor turned
Speaker 1: to chaos, with lack of winning habits the only consistent
Speaker 1: theme in a twenty and sixty two season. Offensively, players
Speaker 1: deviated from game plans and resorted to their own means.
Speaker 1: It's bad Defensively, the effort was largely Nolan Voyd on
Speaker 1: a nightly basis. It is no surprise that the Rockets,
Speaker 1: per cleaning Glass, have ranked in the bottom four an
Speaker 1: offensive end defensive efficiency over the last three seasons. I mean,
Speaker 1: is there anything more scathing that you can say than that?
Speaker 1: The article basically said what we could all see, this
Speaker 1: guy is in over his head. The Rockets have no
Speaker 1: identity as a team, and that you add that to
Speaker 1: a front office with heavy fire and an owner with
Speaker 1: no patients, and you've got a team that's underperforming on
Speaker 1: the court, that really does not compete. That is a
Speaker 1: recipe for disaster. And Silas pretty much was on the
Speaker 1: chopping block all year. He's a good offensive coach, but
Speaker 1: he has no business leading men. As for the Rockets,
Speaker 1: the latest rumor is that they're primed to go big
Speaker 1: game hunting in the off season for more stars. I
Speaker 1: don't know who they think they're gonna get. Honestly, they've
Speaker 1: got a lot of cap space. But would you want
Speaker 1: to play in that mess right now? No, No one
Speaker 1: wants to oversee a rebuild again in h Town. No chance.
Speaker 1: Moving forward, Tray Young time when Quinn Snyder was hired
Speaker 1: to help and helm the ship of the Titanic that
Speaker 1: is the Atlanta Hawks. I did say that it was
Speaker 1: weird timing, but you add that to the notion that
Speaker 1: there were speculation that the only reason he came on
Speaker 1: that late in the season was to figure out whether
Speaker 1: he could live with Tray Young in the mix. It
Speaker 1: turns out that we have our answer about what that
Speaker 1: was all about. Rumors are now catching fire saying that
Speaker 1: the Hawks are one hundred percent going to explore trading
Speaker 1: Tray Young in the off season. The rumors, let me
Speaker 1: say that again. The rumors are that the Hawks ownership
Speaker 1: has given the green light to whoever wants to do
Speaker 1: it to trade Tray Young in the off season. Wow,
Speaker 1: the Trey Young experience may have been coming to a
Speaker 1: close in Atlanta. According to Kevin O'Connor at The Ringer,
Speaker 1: who dropped this recent article called the Hawks have changed
Speaker 1: everything except for Tree Young. The Hawks could be making
Speaker 1: some huge moves and make no mistake, the decision will
Speaker 1: be one hundred percent Quinn Snyder's because, according to O'Connor,
Speaker 1: league sources say during months of negotiations in the lead
Speaker 1: up to Quinn Snyder getting hired, and he has demanded
Speaker 1: and now wields significant influence over personnel decisions. Though Atlanta's
Speaker 1: front office dynamic is described as a quote collaborative effort,
Speaker 1: which is never something that you want, many high level
Speaker 1: decision makers from opposing teams believe that it's now Snyder
Speaker 1: who has the final say pause, paus pause. Did Kevin
Speaker 1: O'Connor just write months months of negotiations with Quinn Snyder?
Speaker 1: So they were negotiating with Quinn Snyder while eight McMillan
Speaker 1: was still rolling out the ball and coaching the Atlanta Hawks.
Speaker 1: That is interesting. That is very very interesting. I guess
Speaker 1: it makes sense given that the most desirable coaching candidate
Speaker 1: on the market at the time would demand control, and
Speaker 1: it would make sense that he would want some sort
Speaker 1: of conversation prior to the opening. But ge zis christ
Speaker 1: is that wild? He has been ten and eleven since
Speaker 1: taking over. Because Trey Young doesn't want to move without
Speaker 1: the ball. Basically he is Russell Westbrook. Everybody thought he
Speaker 1: was going to be Oklahoma Tree Young, which is some
Speaker 1: version of Steph Curry with off the ball movement, pinned downs,
Speaker 1: dribble handoffs, and really what he does when he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the ball is just stand there. Is that encouraging
Speaker 1: to you or not? Because it is not encouraging to me.
Speaker 1: How Snyder has gotten the kids Aj Griffin, Sadique bay
Speaker 1: Jalen Johnson to buy in and Trey Young hasn't shows
Speaker 1: you everything you need to know about Trey Young. So
Speaker 1: would that shock me if Trey Young and or Dejontey
Speaker 1: Murray got moved this summer, No, it would not. Would
Speaker 1: I be shocked if they tried to build around Trey
Speaker 1: Young next year? I would also not be shocked. All
Speaker 1: I know is, for the first time in Trey Young's career,
Speaker 1: people are pointing at Trey Young and saying, listen, motherfucker,
Speaker 1: you are dead on the chopping block if you don't
Speaker 1: get that shit squared away. They are not putting up
Speaker 1: with his nonsense. So either he needs to move without
Speaker 1: the ball and be a little baby Steph Curry, or
Speaker 1: he is going to somewhere like Houston with Jalen Green
Speaker 1: and them boys. That's all the time that we have
Speaker 1: for this episode of the heat Check. Check back Thursday
Speaker 1: before we start the playoffs. Do not forget to check
Speaker 1: the feed. I hope that there will be more interviews coming.
Speaker 1: Might have an interview lined up that is very special.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for that, and please follow the heat Check
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Speaker 1: is going and the chaos is insuing.