Speaker 1: On this episode of a Heat Check, it's time for
Speaker 1: the Rookie Report, folks. You're weekly checking on the rookies
Speaker 1: and how they're doing in the league. It is New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve. We've got a check in on Memphis Grizzlies rookie.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about Jalen Wells. I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: Zach Adie. If you follow the NBA, you know exactly
Speaker 1: who I'm talking about. Let's get into it. Anthony, drop
Speaker 1: that motherfucking beat that should be Rihanna.
Speaker 2: By the way, first, and forearm off.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry that the cadence of the podcast are not Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Speaker 2: I am moving across the country. I am packing.
Speaker 1: I am trying to enjoy a little bit of hore.
Speaker 1: So let's let's just give me a little grace before
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Okay, you know who, though doesn't get anywhere.
Speaker 1: Near the amount of grace and love and support is
Speaker 1: he should get Zach Kleman.
Speaker 2: Who is that?
Speaker 1: If you don't know who that is, I wouldn't actually
Speaker 1: blame you.
Speaker 2: Get in line.
Speaker 1: Most people don't know who the GM of the Memphis
Speaker 1: Grizzlies is. But Zach Climan has quietly become one of
Speaker 1: the best gms in the entire league.
Speaker 2: I think he may be right below Sam Presty.
Speaker 1: In terms of current gms that have been building the
Speaker 1: team that they're currently executing on.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: He was even NBA Executive.
Speaker 1: The Year in twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: which makes sense. Not only did he do a great
Speaker 1: job navigating the off court bullshit surrounding job the past
Speaker 1: couple of years.
Speaker 2: He has created a very stable franchise.
Speaker 1: Taylor Jenkins has been the coach since twenty nineteen when
Speaker 1: he took over. We've had a lot of turnover all
Speaker 1: over the league. Since then, He's made awesome trades. His
Speaker 1: first move was to get rid of Mike Conley and
Speaker 1: Iguidala when he took over the team, and that kickstarted
Speaker 1: this team. People were very mad when they got rid
Speaker 1: of Iguidala, but much more valuable in the long run.
Speaker 2: He has killed it in.
Speaker 1: The draft, absolutely destroyed it ever since hitting the Grand
Speaker 1: Slam getting John Morant with a number two overall pick. God,
Speaker 1: can you imagine if they would have had the number
Speaker 1: one overall pick and drafted Zion, so much of this
Speaker 1: would be so different anyway.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty, let's go through him. This is about a rookie.
Speaker 1: I promise this will be about a rookie. Twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: my man, Zach Kleman takes Desmond Baine with the thirtieth
Speaker 1: overall pick, actually having the trade with the Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: to get that pick. Twenty twenty one, goes and gets
Speaker 1: Santi al Damo with the thirtieth pick, twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: gets Jake Larevio with the nineteenth pick and Vince Williams
Speaker 1: Junior with the forty seventh overall pick. Twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: he gets Gigi Jackson with the forty fourth overall pick.
Speaker 1: And then twenty twenty four, of course they had a
Speaker 1: top ten pick getting Zach Edy, but then they go
Speaker 1: out and get Jalen Wells with thirty ninth overall pick,
Speaker 1: who's been very productive so far in his rookie season,
Speaker 1: and Cam Spencer Yukon Great Cam Spencer with the fifty
Speaker 1: third overall pick. And that doesn't even include how good
Speaker 1: Zach Kleman is at taking other people's trash and turning
Speaker 1: him into his treasure.
Speaker 2: From the scrap heaps for example.
Speaker 1: Let's take Scottie Pippen Junior for example, who the Lakers
Speaker 1: gave up on. They said, this kid can't play halfway
Speaker 1: through his rookie year. Zach signed him on a two way,
Speaker 1: and now Memphis has turned him into a dude who's
Speaker 1: playing every game this year, and it's putting up eleven
Speaker 1: four and five with one and a half stocks as
Speaker 1: the seventh or eighth man off the bench.
Speaker 2: Little golf clap for Zach Lyman on the Scottie Pippen Jr.
Speaker 2: But the guy that I want.
Speaker 1: To talk about today wasn't even drafted and yet still
Speaker 1: has an outside influence on the Memphis Grizzlies as a whole.
Speaker 2: We're talking about Yuki kawer Mura.
Speaker 1: If you know Yuki Yuki, it's because he's become a
Speaker 1: cult figure in the league. Undrafted kid who is five
Speaker 1: to seven. He's a guard out of Japan. He wowed
Speaker 1: people in the Olympics, but very few people thought that
Speaker 1: they would ever see him in an NBA uniform. Despite
Speaker 1: putting up twenty nine, seven and six in a game
Speaker 1: against the host country in France that came down to
Speaker 1: the final seconds Yuki fucking barbecued chicken. These dudes, he
Speaker 1: torched them, he grilled them, he fried them. Evan Fournier,
Speaker 1: Bilao Kulabali, Frank Nilakina that they had twenty two years
Speaker 1: of NBA experience between them, but no, no, Yuki put
Speaker 1: him on the fucking hibachi.
Speaker 2: No pun intended.
Speaker 1: It was one of the eye openers of the Olympic
Speaker 1: Basketball Tournament. Still, he was passed up by twenty nine teams.
Speaker 1: Zak Cleman saw something in Yuki. He signed him to
Speaker 1: play for the j League Grizzlies, and guess what. Yuki
Speaker 1: led the team and assists with twenty one twenty one.
Speaker 2: Many were certified dimes.
Speaker 1: The dude is a passer. He also became an immediate
Speaker 1: crowd favorite in Vegas.
Speaker 2: Which you just cannot ignore.
Speaker 1: As a result, Zach Kleman signed him to a two
Speaker 1: way after Scottie Pippens's contract was converted into a multi
Speaker 1: year deal. Even got the jersey number seventeen, a mystical
Speaker 1: number in Japan because it's the same number that was
Speaker 1: worn by show Hey oh Tani. Talk about a little
Speaker 1: pressure anyway, Yuki said at the time of signing, I
Speaker 1: have to prove to my teammates and the coaching staff
Speaker 1: that I can play. Let's face it, most non Memphis
Speaker 1: fans saw it as a publicity stunted.
Speaker 2: They were like, this kid is just.
Speaker 1: Here for the vibes, especially after the photo of Yuki
Speaker 1: the tiny, little, diminutive Yuki and then Zach Edy the
Speaker 1: monster next to him, and that photo went viral. And
Speaker 1: to be fair, the fanfare around the league for him
Speaker 1: has mostly been about the novelty of Yuki. But guess
Speaker 1: what Gus Little's secret Loll's surprise is out kaboom Yuki
Speaker 1: can play ball. Although he has mostly been getting garbage
Speaker 1: time minutes, nobody out there thinks he's a novelty anymore.
Speaker 1: His passes are as good as just about anyone's, proving
Speaker 1: that the G League success was no fluke, and recently,
Speaker 1: in a game against the Thunder, Yuki got double digit
Speaker 1: minutes for the first time and turned into a turned
Speaker 1: it into a ten point three three performance on four
Speaker 1: for five from the field. If you don't believe me
Speaker 1: that he is a real player, check out what shay
Speaker 1: Yeldris Alexander said had to say about him.
Speaker 3: Really good basketball player. He can see he had like
Speaker 3: ten points in five minutes. I'm like three assists. It's
Speaker 3: very skilled, knows how to play basketball in it's court.
Speaker 3: I see that despite the size, that he can play
Speaker 3: out there, and it goes back to what I said,
Speaker 3: if you have feel he can play no matter what.
Speaker 1: Ooh. We already know that Yuki is an incredibly popular
Speaker 1: player on the Grizzlies, especially John Morant who has taken
Speaker 1: him under his wing. Which that is what an incredible
Speaker 1: fucking story. That is like the little Guy cap Buddy
Speaker 1: Cop movie that is Jaw and Yuki.
Speaker 2: I need that.
Speaker 1: It's like rush hour. It's literally rush hour awesome stuff.
Speaker 1: Yuki has gonna be so funny. Yuki has great court vision.
Speaker 1: He's got the incredible ability to pass, the ability to
Speaker 1: knock down the open shot. The question is whether he
Speaker 1: can play defense. But to be honest, he's kind of
Speaker 1: like Josey Alvararo, a little bit hustling on the defensive end,
Speaker 1: and that I think will count for something. He will
Speaker 1: almost certainly finish out the season on a two way
Speaker 1: deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, and he's only played about
Speaker 1: half their games the fifty game limit before converting into
Speaker 1: a two way to a real contract will really not
Speaker 1: come into effect. So Yuki should be with the grizz
Speaker 1: all season, which I think is awesome because not only
Speaker 1: are the Grizzlies home fans chanting his name, you key,
Speaker 1: you key, he's getting standing ovations on the road as well.
Speaker 1: The dude is a sensation and he's doing wonders for
Speaker 1: the locker room. If you need someone to cool down
Speaker 1: the temperature on all the gun stuff.
Speaker 2: You key, you key.
Speaker 1: He's making everyone around him happier, play harder, and that
Speaker 1: has value in this league. Yuki Mania is here, and
Speaker 1: although he has no show, hey Otani, the dude is
Speaker 1: a baller and it is awesome that the league has
Speaker 1: found a place for him, especially even at the end
Speaker 1: of the bench, where if he keeps playing like this,
Speaker 1: it won't be that way for long.
Speaker 2: That's all the.
Speaker 1: Time that we have for this episode of that Heat.
Speaker 1: Check tune in every week as we break down what's
Speaker 1: happening in the Freshman clar and come back next.
Speaker 2: Year har Horror two days from now for an a new.
Speaker 1: Episode, and check out the feed for past episodes and
Speaker 1: many episodes which drop unexpectedly like the.
Speaker 2: Ball drop on twenty twenty five. How the hell did
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four go so fast?
Speaker 1: Do not forget to follow the heat Check all season long?
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Speaker 1: New Year's resolution to tell ten people about that. It's
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Speaker 2: Happy New Year's everyone.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for another season of listening to
Speaker 1: you Check. I appreciate all of you, I appreciate my
Speaker 1: producer Anthony Irwin.
Speaker 2: Have a safe less follow us.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next year and