Speaker 1: Breaks breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines or tilled
Speaker 1: in so the heat Check. The Heat Check was just
Speaker 1: a crazy, the best podcast covering all the drama around
Speaker 1: the association.
Speaker 2: So if the Magic, the Thunder, the Pacers, and the
Speaker 2: Jazz are all on the move, then who's fallen off
Speaker 2: the cliff? That's the question, because that's this is a
Speaker 2: lot easier to predict, in my opinion, than the teams
Speaker 2: that are on the rise, to be honest, and it's
Speaker 2: for a lot of different reasons. Number One, we gotta
Speaker 2: go with the number one most obvious team the people
Speaker 2: think is actually a contender, but they are not a contender,
Speaker 2: and that is the La Clippers. They are a team
Speaker 2: at a crossroads. They have one of the more talented
Speaker 2: deep rosters in the NBA, and it doesn't matter because
Speaker 2: their players don't play. Their players are never healthy. You
Speaker 2: have nine guys on the roster with at least seven
Speaker 2: years of NBA experience under their belt, including seven with
Speaker 2: a decade or more of wear and tear on that trend,
Speaker 2: that's that's fine. I'm like, oh, you want to a
Speaker 2: veteran team, Yeah, but like those tires are getting a
Speaker 2: little bald. And the Winter's coming. You add you have Westbrook,
Speaker 2: but Toom played fifteen years, Paul George has played thirteen,
Speaker 2: Kawhi Leonard twelve, and that right there, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: is the problem. They're not a healthy team. Kawhi has
Speaker 2: played just forty nine percent of the games in the
Speaker 2: past six seasons. Paul George has missed forty of his
Speaker 2: games as a Clipper. Even Norm Power has missed one
Speaker 2: hundred games in four years. That's just too much. That's
Speaker 2: just too many games to miss if you think you're
Speaker 2: a contender. I am not convinced that any of these
Speaker 2: players can play even close to eighty two games. And
Speaker 2: now you add in the new low management rules. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's problems, problems. This is an old team that lacks
Speaker 2: true point guard and has very little depth. kJ Martin's
Speaker 2: fine player. I like them a lot right way. Maybe
Speaker 2: bones Hiland can develop, maybe he can be useful, but
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't love this roster at all, and
Speaker 2: I don't think they have much time to fix it.
Speaker 2: I don't want to play this. I don't want to
Speaker 2: overplay this too soon. But there were rumors last season
Speaker 2: about discord in the locker room and discord with Tylou.
Speaker 2: And when you give Michael Winger the clips GM who
Speaker 2: bolts for the Washington Wizards, it doesn't give you much
Speaker 2: confidence that things are being run in a productive and
Speaker 2: healthy fashion. Sometimes sometimes you figure maybe the rumors were true, right,
Speaker 2: Maybe something miss going on. It's like NASCAR driver ditching
Speaker 2: Coca Cola as their main sponsor and then they replace
Speaker 2: them with Starry, which I think is like what if
Speaker 2: it used to be? I don't even remember Sierra missed
Speaker 2: something like that. Something is up uh and that's not
Speaker 2: done unless there's a reason for it. And the other
Speaker 2: problem for the Clippers is they just don't have any
Speaker 2: trade capital. There's nothing they can do. You want Harden,
Speaker 2: who gives a fuck? How are you gonna get it? They
Speaker 2: gave it all away and shake Yojes Alexander for Paul George,
Speaker 2: which could be and probably is the worst trade in
Speaker 2: NBA history. Their draft class Kobe Brown at thirty I
Speaker 2: don't hate. I guess six to eight small forward has
Speaker 2: a little hitch in his shot, like Jordan Miller from Miami.
Speaker 2: Neither are altering franchise altering players. Let's be real and
Speaker 2: with the west On the rise, like even Utah. Utah
Speaker 2: has a better roster than the La Clippers. I know
Speaker 2: that's crazy to say, but top to bottom, I'd rather
Speaker 2: have Utah's team. The Clippers are one of those teams
Speaker 2: that's just gonna drop off of a cliff and unless
Speaker 2: something goes significantly differently than the last years that Paul
Speaker 2: George and Kawhi have been there moving forward, Brooklyn, that's
Speaker 2: another team that you have to expect is gonna decline.
Speaker 2: That's a bit unfair because they were the sixty last year,
Speaker 2: but a lot of those games that they won came
Speaker 2: when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Duramer on those teams. So
Speaker 2: they skated into the playoffs and they were running on
Speaker 2: fumes playing the Philadelphia seventy six ers. Mckel Bridges is
Speaker 2: a nice player. Cam Johnson's a nice player, but hey,
Speaker 2: what are you gonna do? That is the way the
Speaker 2: cookie crumbles. They lost two Hall of Famers within a
Speaker 2: week lass season, a third made his way out in
Speaker 2: the preseason h last year, and we shouldn't have much
Speaker 2: of an expectation for this year. Right There's a real
Speaker 2: chance that the Nets might be bottom three. That's that's
Speaker 2: with the healthy Ben Simmons. I'm not sure Ben Simmons
Speaker 2: is even himself ever. Again, they have nice pieces. I
Speaker 2: like they have mckel bridges. Like I said, Nick Claxton
Speaker 2: is a nice piece. If he could shoot free throws,
Speaker 2: he'd be really good. Royce O'Neill is a nice player
Speaker 2: off the bench. But like I like Spencer Dinwiddie too.
Speaker 2: No shade the Spencer DINWIDDI hm hmm. That's pretty much it.
Speaker 2: That's kind of it. You lost Utah Wattenabe, your one
Speaker 2: of your better three point shooters who could do a
Speaker 2: little bit of everything, because he decided to go play
Speaker 2: with Kevin Durant and they lack depth. And fortunately, if
Speaker 2: you're a Nets fan, you now have assets again to
Speaker 2: go and make stuff happen. And you drained the cupboard
Speaker 2: for a decade to get Hard and Katie and Kyrie.
Speaker 2: But now after this year, you'll have five first rounders
Speaker 2: in the following five years. Kind of prime for a rebuild.
Speaker 2: If you ask me, maybe you want to try to
Speaker 2: trade for Dame. I don't hate that. Go ahead, have them,
Speaker 2: go get them, go go make a deal for him.
Speaker 2: We then turned to Philadelphia. We talked about a lot
Speaker 2: in the off season. They are. They are also headed
Speaker 2: for a very tumultuous season. Let's be real. Anytime Hardin
Speaker 2: is on your team in the preseason at trading camp
Speaker 2: and he he doesn't want to be there, then I mean,
Speaker 2: what are you gonna say. It's just you're headed for
Speaker 2: You're headed for drama. I don't think big game James
Speaker 2: is going to decide to play for Darryl Moray anytime soon.
Speaker 2: He already said it twice. Let me say it again.
Speaker 2: I will never play for this team as long as
Speaker 2: Daryl Moury is there. So as long as Daryl Moury
Speaker 2: is there, you've got fat suit James to be worrying about.
Speaker 2: And given the fact that he was supposed to be
Speaker 2: your starting guard, You've got Tyree s Maxi there, who's
Speaker 2: a fine player, but definitely isn't I don't think ready
Speaker 2: to step into James Harden's shoes. You have Montres Harrow
Speaker 2: who tore his acl and is out for the full year.
Speaker 2: It's it's tailspin city, really. They finished fifty four and
Speaker 2: twenty eight last year, right third place. A lot of
Speaker 2: people were high on their chances in the playoff to
Speaker 2: be a real contender. A lot of people also forget
Speaker 2: that Joel Embiid is always hurt in the playoffs. But hey,
Speaker 2: I digress, But why do I think that this team
Speaker 2: is headed for a big falloff? Best case scenario, the
Speaker 2: Sixers train discreuntel star for a boltload of assets, and
Speaker 2: that's not happening. The only place he wants to go
Speaker 2: to is the Clippers, and like I said, they don't
Speaker 2: have enough assets to go and get him. Some of
Speaker 2: that has to do with Hardens not the same Hardened
Speaker 2: as he was in twenty nineteen. Most of it's due
Speaker 2: to the fact that no team is dumb enough to
Speaker 2: risk valuable assets on a player who is on an
Speaker 2: expiring contract and has been known to be an asshole
Speaker 2: when he doesn't want to play for that team. He's
Speaker 2: now forced his way off of three teams in three years.
Speaker 2: No shade to James Harden. That's just math school. Maury
Speaker 2: may be waiting for a star player in return, but
Speaker 2: that's not happening, which leaves these other three scenarios. These
Speaker 2: other scenarios, First, Harden gets moved for nothing bag of chips,
Speaker 2: which is probably a realistic call for a discrentold star
Speaker 2: who's probably not even play in shape. But then you
Speaker 2: don't have really any point guard to fill your roster
Speaker 2: with unless it's Tyreves Maxi. Second, Sixers say, Harden, you
Speaker 2: need to play basketball for us playing hardball. There's no
Speaker 2: other way, And that can end in two ways. Harden
Speaker 2: decides he's going to act my neck, my beat my neck, Yeah,
Speaker 2: my bet, and then just sit on the sidelines and
Speaker 2: street clothes until you trade him. That's one scenario. Or
Speaker 2: he can just dip set on you and play for
Speaker 2: China and decide because they've already embraced him in his
Speaker 2: new brand of alcohol, and then the Sixers still have
Speaker 2: a massive hole in their lineup. The other scenario is
Speaker 2: that Harden gets forced to play for a team that
Speaker 2: he now actively hates, and we know how that goes.
Speaker 2: Like I said, he fakes an injury and that's pretty
Speaker 2: much it. Or actually there is one more scenario that
Speaker 2: people are not talking about. Just fire dearral Morey. Just
Speaker 2: fire him, get rid of them, and then maybe, maybe,
Speaker 2: just maybe James Harden plays out the rest of his contract,
Speaker 2: see how he looks. He trade him maybe at the
Speaker 2: deadline to a team he wants to go to or
Speaker 2: that he'd be okay with and then at least his
Speaker 2: values higher than it is right now. When he's telling
Speaker 2: everyone he's not going to play for you, Joel Embiid
Speaker 2: already saying that he's unhappy, or at least alluding to it.
Speaker 2: Michael Scotto reported this summer that the Knicks are watching
Speaker 2: the situation because they're trying to get Joel Embiid. I mean,
Speaker 2: let's be honest. Everything I'm saying is making me out
Speaker 2: of breath because it's a shit show. We all know
Speaker 2: that the Warriors got absolutely derailed last year by external issues.
Speaker 2: If you think Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole in the
Speaker 2: face was bad enough to deroyl a title contender that
Speaker 2: just won the title the year before, guess what, it's
Speaker 2: even worse than Philly, with those fans, with that ownership,
Speaker 2: and with the players involved. Philly is this year's wish
Speaker 2: version of Golden State. All of that brings me to
Speaker 2: the team that I think is going to be primed
Speaker 2: for a massive fall off, a team that I don't
Speaker 2: even know why people think is a real contender this year.
Speaker 2: I've been in a knockdown, drag out war folks with
Speaker 2: Heat fans online not real ones. People thought maybe it
Speaker 2: was real. I'm not into violence, but I had the
Speaker 2: bravery to say, Hey, your team sucks. Okay, your roster sucks,
Speaker 2: and Blazers don't want any of your roster. Honestly, you
Speaker 2: don't have the assets to trade for a top three
Speaker 2: point guard in this league, no matter how old he is,
Speaker 2: no matter how much he gets paid, and no matter
Speaker 2: how much you tell us that you do, no matter
Speaker 2: how much Dame's agent tells us that you do, you
Speaker 2: don't have it. And you would think I murdered a
Speaker 2: school bus full of Miami Dade County orphans. I mean
Speaker 2: they came for me in the streets. It was blood.
Speaker 2: The fan base is delusional. Uh, It's like you're trying
Speaker 2: to convince now the world that Tyler heroes better than
Speaker 2: ogn Andobi because why because now Toronto looks like they're
Speaker 2: in the sweepstakes for Damian Lillard, and so you're gonna
Speaker 2: come after Ogn and Nobi's caliber of play when Memphis
Speaker 2: was trying to trade for him for three first round
Speaker 2: picks and Toronto said no, that's how crazy they are.
Speaker 2: The Heat are primed for a fall off. The cliff
Speaker 2: why they were a playing team last year, they were
Speaker 2: an eight seed. They caught fire, They were lucky. They
Speaker 2: were constructed in a way where Jimmy Butler took this
Speaker 2: team to a place that they probably shouldn't even gone.
Speaker 2: You had injuries to the Bucks, Joannice Middleton, em beat.
Speaker 2: You got carried on the back of Jimmy Buckets right.
Speaker 2: You had some unbelievable performances, nice story, nice run. But
Speaker 2: guess what, you can't steal Damian Lillard for nothing, because
Speaker 2: we still know that those players aren't very good. This
Speaker 2: team went out, they lost Max Streus, they lost gave Vincent,
Speaker 2: very critical players to what they did in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: They want to get Damian Lillard to take and then
Speaker 2: take on Kyle Lowry's our Albatrosh contract when he's thirty
Speaker 2: eight years old, and that Portland should be happy. You're
Speaker 2: absolutely insane. And don't even get me started on Tyler Hero,
Speaker 2: who is of absolutely no use to Portland at all.
Speaker 2: Considering that they have one too many guards on their
Speaker 2: team right now, they don't need another one. But they
Speaker 2: do lose starters from an eighth place team, well, a
Speaker 2: seventh place team, But then you know the whole play
Speaker 2: and thing. They lose Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller And
Speaker 2: before you say, oh, that's no big loss, Oladipo averaged
Speaker 2: eleven three and four in one half of the season.
Speaker 2: Zeller had seven to four in one and fifteen minutes,
Speaker 2: and that wasn't terrible either. So who did they replace
Speaker 2: Max Strue and Gabe Vincent with at this point Josh Richardson,
Speaker 2: which Keith fans think is is like the second coming
Speaker 2: of Jesus and Thomas Bryant. Okay, sure, I love HEIMI
Speaker 2: hack he's a great player. Is he ready to contribute
Speaker 2: right now, right the second to a title team? I
Speaker 2: don't know. I think he's going to need time to adjust.
Speaker 2: I think teams are going to be hunting him too
Speaker 2: because of this lack of size. Here is what one
Speaker 2: scouting report said about Heimi Hawkins. Hawkes struggles to create contact,
Speaker 2: often fading away and maneuvering around defenders. His twenty four
Speaker 2: point nine free throw rate percentage is seventy ninth of
Speaker 2: one oh nine Division wing forwards Division one wing forwards, yuck.
Speaker 2: Despite his size, Hawkes tends to play small in the post.
Speaker 2: He allows defenders to easily alter his shots. Although he
Speaker 2: is an excellent offensive rebounder, this may cause issues at
Speaker 2: the next level, where players are quicker and stronger. If
Speaker 2: he struggles, they have perimeter shots and score on the post,
Speaker 2: he may be unable to make the most out of
Speaker 2: his hybrid size and his unique skill set. In other words,
Speaker 2: we know he's no Max Strews, Like stop with that.
Speaker 2: So this is a team that's counting on major minutes
Speaker 2: from Kevin Love and Josh Richardson. Who The last time
Speaker 2: that Josh Richardson was productive, really in any meaningful way
Speaker 2: was when he played for Miami and Miami flipped him
Speaker 2: to get Jimmy Butler and they fleeced the Sixers. What
Speaker 2: are they don't really want him back? No. Seventh place
Speaker 2: to the finals was the surprise. Okay, that was the surprise.
Speaker 2: What would not surprise me is if this team is
Speaker 2: a lottery team, when if they can't get Dame. See
Speaker 2: I almost said when if they can't get