Speaker 1: On this episode of the Heat Check. The league is
Speaker 1: humming along very nicely, thank you very much, despite the
Speaker 1: doom and Gloomydia reports that the NBA ratings are tanking.
Speaker 1: We will talk about that soon, but for now, what's
Speaker 1: up with the Pacers? Man? They don't even look like themselves.
Speaker 1: They're in trouble, and I think I know why the
Speaker 1: New York Knicks are reimagining Tibb's ball. We're getting one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty five points in a Tibbs game. That's crazy.
Speaker 1: I get all the tea on Zion in New Orleans
Speaker 1: and it's piping hot. Anthony, my man, drop that motherfucking
Speaker 1: beat that should be Rihanna. Okay, suppose they giving episode
Speaker 1: as a check. We got to get into everything we can't, Dottle.
Speaker 1: Let's start in the Midwest city that I just visited, Indianapolis. Man.
Speaker 1: The Pacers are a team, honestly, truthfully, very near and
Speaker 1: dear to my heart. We haven't spent enough time talking
Speaker 1: about them this season, and I think, full disclosure, it's
Speaker 1: because I just didn't want to address it, you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm fully ready to disclose. As you guys have
Speaker 1: known before, I am partial to the Pacers, not because
Speaker 1: just because I'm tight with some of the folks in
Speaker 1: the front office, but I like this team. I root
Speaker 1: for this team. They have transformed the team over the
Speaker 1: last few years in a way that I'm rooting for.
Speaker 1: But this season just doesn't look the same. It is wonky,
Speaker 1: and I hate having to say that it's wonky. They
Speaker 1: are four and seven in their last eleven games, and
Speaker 1: three of those wins are against the Blazers, the Pelicans,
Speaker 1: and the Wizards. That's not exactly a murderers Rose, folks.
Speaker 1: So let's get into what I think has gone wrong.
Speaker 1: There are long stretches where I don't even recognize this
Speaker 1: Pacers team on the court compared to last season. And
Speaker 1: I'm not just talking about the fact that Tyrese Haliburton
Speaker 1: clearly still isn't right, who, like everyone else in the
Speaker 1: NBA media space, has mentioned he's in a slump. We
Speaker 1: know that. I honestly think it's just an injury thing.
Speaker 1: I think that hamstring is not fully healed. Either he
Speaker 1: can't trust it or there's some sort of kickup that
Speaker 1: he's dealing with that nobody knows about that he's not
Speaker 1: talking about. But the entire team though as a whole
Speaker 1: is functioning completely differently. A friend of show that we
Speaker 1: had on last season, Samson Folk, he had a great
Speaker 1: breakdown of the Pacers last week and he called the
Speaker 1: Indiana Pacers bizarro, which I think kind of hits the
Speaker 1: nail on the head. They are biz They are bizarro.
Speaker 1: I have another word that I want to use, schizophrenic.
Speaker 1: I'm not a doctor, okay, Like I can't not someone
Speaker 1: who has the right to diagnose a team with a
Speaker 1: mental ill like that their identity is a mental illness.
Speaker 1: But it really all works out in the same In
Speaker 1: the end, the team is acting strange, weird, erratic. Folk
Speaker 1: wrote the following, The team is playing differently. Performances look different, worse,
Speaker 1: they look worse, and even the things that have gone
Speaker 1: well have gone well in such a way that it
Speaker 1: still looks unfamiliar to me. As much as I don't
Speaker 1: want to, we got to talk about Halle first, because
Speaker 1: the Pacers kind of start and stop with him. Everything
Speaker 1: about Halle since he came back from the injury has
Speaker 1: been off. He's a step slower, his passes lagsing, his
Speaker 1: shots seems short. Remember this man was was averaging like
Speaker 1: twelve assists a game. There were times where he was
Speaker 1: getting twenty assists the game against the Pelicans. Notwithstanding, he
Speaker 1: just doesn't look that confident at times and important times. Remember,
Speaker 1: at this point in time last year, the Pacers looked
Speaker 1: like they were gonna win the NBA Cup. They beat
Speaker 1: the Bucks multiple times. They were one of the fastest
Speaker 1: teams in the league in terms of pace of play,
Speaker 1: and this identity doesn't really look the same. Pacers fans
Speaker 1: hoped that Hallie's performance against New Orleans was gonna be
Speaker 1: the turnaround game, right. He had nine threes in that game,
Speaker 1: But then in Sunday's game against Memphis, he had eight,
Speaker 1: two and seven in thirty seven minutes, shooting thirty percent
Speaker 1: from the field. That is just really bad. Guys, we
Speaker 1: can't You can't have your star point guard, the guy
Speaker 1: that's like an extension of the front office, the dude
Speaker 1: that was averaging like twenty something points, twelve assists, six rebounds,
Speaker 1: go eight too and seven against Memphis. I think the
Speaker 1: issue too, is like on the road, we only have
Speaker 1: like a eleven game sample, but the home and a
Speaker 1: waste splits for Halle are bizarre. At at the field House,
Speaker 1: he is averaging twenty three points a game, forty eight
Speaker 1: percent from the field, sixty four percent true shooting. In
Speaker 1: ten games. Away he is averaging twelve points a game,
Speaker 1: thirty two percent shooting, forty three percent true shooting in
Speaker 1: eleven games. What's going on there? What is happening?
Speaker 2: Is there?
Speaker 1: Home cooking Halle goes in the oven, comes out a
Speaker 1: perfectly teeny mac and cheese at game Bridge and then
Speaker 1: ends up on the road like those fake teeny TikTok
Speaker 1: creators that can't put the ruin correctly. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the mac and cheese is all gritty and fucked up.
Speaker 1: Is that? What's happening? What is going on? I cannot
Speaker 1: remember seeing another NBA player who literally has a fifty
Speaker 1: percent lower output on the road, Like it's fifty percent lower.
Speaker 1: The massive drop in production underscores a huge dark cloud
Speaker 1: hanging over Indiana this season. To me, that offensive production
Speaker 1: for Hallie is down twenty percent across the board, and
Speaker 1: that GAP's not being filled anywhere else. And then you've
Speaker 1: got Pascal Siakam, who again I love Pascal. He had
Speaker 1: an incredible first year in India, which is why he
Speaker 1: got the bag. And now this season, he's acting different.
Speaker 1: As Samson pointed out in the twenty twenty two playoffs,
Speaker 1: Siakam drove the ball nineteen times per game. This year,
Speaker 1: he's driving eight times per game. Some of this is
Speaker 1: natural progression and an evolution of his game, but some
Speaker 1: of it is just because he seems less aggressive on
Speaker 1: offense than he used to be. He's settling for threes
Speaker 1: in a way that he hasn't since Toronto won the championship,
Speaker 1: and to be fair, he is shooting really well. But
Speaker 1: the problem is, just like Haliburton, his overall production is
Speaker 1: down since last year, particularly rebounding the ball, where he's
Speaker 1: down nearly twenty percent from his seven point eight rebounds
Speaker 1: per game last year. He has been their best player,
Speaker 1: but once again, those statistical dips, no one else is
Speaker 1: picking up that. It's not like oh Obi Toppins rebounds
Speaker 1: are up forty percent because he's grabbing the rebounds. The
Speaker 1: pascal is not the five percent drop in scoring, the
Speaker 1: twenty percent drop in rebounds, the seventy seventy five percent
Speaker 1: drop in block shots. Those numbers add up for a
Speaker 1: team struggling to reach five hundred in a week. East
Speaker 1: The Pacers as a whole are averaging nine points less
Speaker 1: per game over last year as a team, which is
Speaker 1: even worse considering that they're still in the bottom ten
Speaker 1: for defensive rating. They finished last year in six words
Speaker 1: in the league, which was fine. It was fine because
Speaker 1: it was like the Pacers will give up one thirty
Speaker 1: and they'll put up one forty, you know, and almost
Speaker 1: two thirds of those missing nine points come from Halle
Speaker 1: and Siakam and their drop in production. I think also
Speaker 1: the Pacers are playing down to their competition. They have
Speaker 1: a forty percent winning percentage against teams under five hundred.
Speaker 1: That is gross. They play five hundred against teams above
Speaker 1: that mark. I think we need to start thinking about
Speaker 1: what's up. They better get it right fast because beginning
Speaker 1: December nineteenth, they have a stretch of fourteen games, twelve
Speaker 1: of which are teams in playoff positions. They play Boston Wolf,
Speaker 1: Cleveland Wolf, Golden State, and Phoenix twice during that stretch. Wolf.
Speaker 1: They are at nine and twelve right now, eighth place
Speaker 1: in the East, and by the grace of the basketball
Speaker 1: gods who smited the East this year, I don't know
Speaker 1: what to say, because the East is very weak, and
Speaker 1: if you're eighth right now in a conference where, oh boy,
Speaker 1: the Pacers basically with the same record as the Detroit
Speaker 1: Pistons and the Brookly Nets. We are having real problems
Speaker 1: right now, Pacers nine and twelve, Piston's nine and thirteen.
Speaker 1: There's a log jam sitting there right below the heat. Ugh.
Speaker 1: Hopefully Halliburton is gonna get right healthy wise, Hopefully his
Speaker 1: mentals are great. I see him watching a lot of
Speaker 1: games with Caitlyn Clark, and so I think he's fine.
Speaker 1: But I think that there's more to it than maybe
Speaker 1: we know, considering that his explosiveness is not there, because
Speaker 1: the Pacers are gonna need Halle to be himself from
Speaker 1: last year, and they're gonna need that very fast moving on.
Speaker 1: I've been skeptical about the New York Knicks since the
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns trade this season, and I I think
Speaker 1: mckelbridge is notwithstanding, because he's a whole different ballgame and
Speaker 1: he's horrible. He's still horrible. Checking in on the McHale
Speaker 1: Bridge's stuff because we talked about it, like a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, Josh Hart came out and it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't care if we gave up thirteen picks for
Speaker 1: his first round, picks for him if we win a championship.
Speaker 1: It's all good. But like all the numbers still for
Speaker 1: Michel Bridges are awful, so mikel Bridge is notwithstanding. I
Speaker 1: think that the Knicks have turned a corner. I am
Speaker 1: readyish to say the Karl Anthony Towns trade again. Trading
Speaker 1: Dante DiVincenzo was tough, but I think it fucking is working.
Speaker 1: And I think appreciating the twenty four to twenty five
Speaker 1: Knicks will require me to sort of and I still,
Speaker 1: cause you can hear it, I'm hesitant. You know, this
Speaker 1: is not the Knicks. You're just somebody that I used
Speaker 1: to know kind of stuff. This is not the Knicks
Speaker 1: that I used to know. They're They're not the defensive
Speaker 1: monster that carried them all last year where it was
Speaker 1: like ninety seven to nine. No. I think this next team,
Speaker 1: I don't know Tibbs is changing, is going to be
Speaker 1: defined by their offense, and I think that has to
Speaker 1: do everything with Carl Anthony Towns. Karl Anthony Towns comes
Speaker 1: in and just completely changes the dynamics of this team.
Speaker 1: And not only is he averaging twenty five points per game,
Speaker 1: he's pulling down thirteen boards. He's shooting this is disgusting.
Speaker 1: He's shooting forty six percent from three and continues to
Speaker 1: stretch the floor in ways that they will never and
Speaker 1: never even dreamed of getting from Julius Randall. In fact,
Speaker 1: right now, Minnesota is running into a lot of the
Speaker 1: same problems that the Knicks did with Julius Randall on
Speaker 1: the court, and it's kind of turning it to a
Speaker 1: little bit of an issue there in terms of the
Speaker 1: friction that Aunt Edwards talks about. So we'll get into
Speaker 1: that later this week as we break down the Wolves.
Speaker 1: And yes, we know this Karl Anthony Towns is a
Speaker 1: below average defender, but so is Julius Randall. And the
Speaker 1: way he opens up offensive games though of the other
Speaker 1: four starters, has just changed everything with this next team. Ogananobi,
Speaker 1: who I've been telling doubters not to sleep on. I've
Speaker 1: said his role in Toronto was not indicative of him
Speaker 1: as a player, and people said, I don't think that's true.
Speaker 1: Ogan Andobi averaging career high seventeen point four points per game.
Speaker 1: He just put up forty, by the way, the other day,
Speaker 1: forty five and four career high against the Nuggets. Josh
Speaker 1: Hart scoring up sixty percent from last year to fourteen
Speaker 1: points per game. Over fourteen points per game, this is
Speaker 1: the most the Josh Hart has averaged since when he
Speaker 1: played with my Portland Trailblazers and we had no one
Speaker 1: in twenty one twenty two. And although Jalen Brunston's scoring
Speaker 1: twenty five points per game, down from almost twenty nine
Speaker 1: points a game last season, that's kind of a good thing.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, we don't need Jalen Brunson playing hero
Speaker 1: ball every single night. He has another assassin with them
Speaker 1: in Karl Anthony Towns, and that makes life a lot
Speaker 1: easier for everybody, including Jalen Brunson short King. And that's
Speaker 1: why despite the fact that his scoring is down about
Speaker 1: twelve percent from last year, he is a sister of
Speaker 1: sixteen percent. So I think all this is why the
Speaker 1: next lead in the NBA the season in offensive rating
Speaker 1: with an insane one twenty one point one, which is
Speaker 1: kind of nuts because last year when Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: played for the Timberwolves, the Timberwolves were number one in defense,
Speaker 1: kind of middle of the road in offense. Now he
Speaker 1: comes to the Knicks and now they're the number one
Speaker 1: offensive team. The most telling stat I think is their
Speaker 1: assistant turnover ratio, which is two point two, tied for
Speaker 1: Boston for best in the league. They just moved the
Speaker 1: ball really well. This is just not what we're used
Speaker 1: to seeing from the Knicks, which, let's be honest, watching
Speaker 1: the Knicks crawl their way up to like fourth in
Speaker 1: the East last year, a lot of those games were
Speaker 1: really hard to watch. They were tough watches. This is
Speaker 1: much more fun basketball. Their sixth and rebound percentage sixth,
Speaker 1: then turnover percentage, second in effective field goal and troop
Speaker 1: shooting percentage, all while playing at the second slowest pace
Speaker 1: in the league. Slow move the ball, do do do
Speaker 1: do do do? Ye still say things, some things stay
Speaker 1: the same, but I think Tibbs ball has been redefined.
Speaker 1: We are seeing the Knick score over one hundred and
Speaker 1: forty points per game, causing the Nuggets to absolutely melt
Speaker 1: down in a postgame presser. That is a tribute to
Speaker 1: Cat and Thibodeaux, who have a history together in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: who has very clearly adjusted his coaching philosophy to take
Speaker 1: into account what Cat does now, who can shoot fifty
Speaker 1: percent from deep the wild thing though they are winning
Speaker 1: in a year where the defense has just been god awful,
Speaker 1: so not TIBs Tips was just like fuck it, let's
Speaker 1: go with Vibes. The Knixt defensive rating right now is
Speaker 1: twenty second at one hundred and fourteen point six. Last
Speaker 1: season it was ninth at one twelve point four. I
Speaker 1: think some of that's probably due to the fact that
Speaker 1: they just can't defend the paint at all. Some people
Speaker 1: made hay out of the fact that at one point
Speaker 1: opponents teams against Cat were shoot thirty two for thirty five. Wow,
Speaker 1: like ninety percent against Cat in the paint. But I
Speaker 1: think there's just Kat's not a legit center. He's a
Speaker 1: He's a big right. Things are gonna change a lot
Speaker 1: when Mitchell Robinson returns. The offense might dip a little bit.
Speaker 1: Maybe they'll go and get somebody like Rob Williams. But
Speaker 1: a lot of this also falls on mckill Bridges, who,
Speaker 1: let's be real, is supposed to be the point of
Speaker 1: attack defender on the wing and he went from being
Speaker 1: an all defensive player to just I think a statue
Speaker 1: in New York. His defensive rating is one eighteen point
Speaker 1: two right now, which it was one oh nine point
Speaker 1: six in Phoenix in twenty one twenty two. That is
Speaker 1: a long way away from one oh nine point six.
Speaker 1: He's shown some signs of coming alive. But listen, we
Speaker 1: need Michale Bridges to be who we thought he would
Speaker 1: be when we traded for him, or I don't know
Speaker 1: what to say. You know what's funny is it's kind
Speaker 1: of like the Knicks are the Pacers of last year,
Speaker 1: winning games just because they just shoot the leather off
Speaker 1: the ball. They shoot the sides off the barn, and
Speaker 1: then they outlast teams just because they can hit these shots. Late,
Speaker 1: New York has won eight of their last ten games.
Speaker 1: They look like a team that's gonna be able to
Speaker 1: go to the Eastern Conference Finals maybe in May. Are
Speaker 1: they better than the Celtics and the Cavs. I don't
Speaker 1: know actually about that, but with an offense like this,
Speaker 1: they they can take any one of those teams far
Speaker 1: into a series and give those teams all that they
Speaker 1: can handle. If you look at their blowout win against
Speaker 1: Denver a week ago, you will you will see what
Speaker 1: scares other teams about New York. The Knicks scored seventy
Speaker 1: six points. In the first half. Like we saw last year,
Speaker 1: the Knicks score seventy six in a full game. In
Speaker 1: a full game, keep in mind in their last game,
Speaker 1: the Knicks held New Orleans to twenty eight points in
Speaker 1: the first half and just eighty five total points. The
Speaker 1: Knick shot sixty one percent against Denver from the floor
Speaker 1: and fifty three percent from three. That's very Celtics like.
Speaker 1: They dished out a franchise tying record of forty five assists.
Speaker 1: Kat had thirty fifteen rebounds, four assists. Brunson had seventeen
Speaker 1: assists to go along with his twenty three points, and
Speaker 1: like I told you, Og forty points. Josh Hart was
Speaker 1: the low man with the starters with twelve points, but
Speaker 1: he was he shot one hundred percent from the field.
Speaker 1: I literally saw like who is Cam? Because I was
Speaker 1: looking on Twitter Cam eleven points? Who the fuck is Cam? Campaign?
Speaker 1: Campaign had eleven points in eighteen minutes. Kind of cute
Speaker 1: for Michael Bridges to play with this former teammate campaign
Speaker 1: and a team high plus twenty one net rating against
Speaker 1: a pretty solid Nuggets team. The Knicks are dangerous. They
Speaker 1: even got Nuggets coach Michael Don't call me Mike Malone
Speaker 1: freaking out on the microphone is what he said.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, we're not flushing. You don't
Speaker 2: flush when you get embarrassed. You don't flush when you
Speaker 2: gave up one hundred and forty five points. You don't
Speaker 2: flush when you didn't play hard, didn't play with it,
Speaker 2: didn't play with Prisca Calada. I'm not flushing at you.
Speaker 2: We're not flushing. You don't flush when you get embarrassed. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean like Russell Westbrook. I mean, he's he's vocal.
Speaker 2: I mean, but we need more than Russell Westblaper Now,
Speaker 2: I need Nakole Jokic. I need Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1: Whoa he said, I'm not flushing and no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: And then I agree with Malone. That was a fucking
Speaker 1: terrible loss. You can't just be like, ah, that's that,
Speaker 1: We'll just forget about it. As aside, the nugget says
Speaker 1: I noted a couple weeks ago, they're in trouble ten
Speaker 1: and eight overall. Jamal Murray, who had the audacity, by
Speaker 1: the way, to call out his teammates after the nixt
Speaker 1: blowout in his post game pressure, A lot of that
Speaker 1: has to do with him Anyway, Murray said, this, it's
Speaker 1: a long season. Guys have lives outside of basketball. We
Speaker 1: just beat La in LA. We've got some guys that
Speaker 1: live in LA. And like I said, I don't think
Speaker 1: the focus was there from anybody. And that's just what
Speaker 1: happens when you don't have focus. Let's just be honest.
Speaker 1: We went to Delilah. We went back to our Delilah's
Speaker 1: a club and bar loungey thing in LA where all
Speaker 1: the fucking athletes and paparazzi's out and you just kind
Speaker 1: of parlay. So they went there wherever at the like
Speaker 1: cute spots they went at after the game, They got dinner,
Speaker 1: they got bottle service, they were feeling themselves, other people
Speaker 1: were feeling on them. They went back to their pads
Speaker 1: and they were hungover. They went back to Denver, got
Speaker 1: back to the altitude, and they got fucked up. Basically,
Speaker 1: that's what happened. And that's pretty much what he said.
Speaker 1: As one Nuggets writer said, it was a tone deaf
Speaker 1: comment as you can find anywhere in the league. Yes,
Speaker 1: remember Jamal Murray, same guy partying at UFC three to
Speaker 1: nine in New York City until the wee hours flew
Speaker 1: back in the morning to Memphis to play the grizz
Speaker 1: had was six for fifteen shooting in a game he
Speaker 1: had six turnovers, twice as many as anyone else in
Speaker 1: a team that they probably should have been beating. You
Speaker 1: can't fly back to Memphis at nine in the morning
Speaker 1: on game day, shit the bed against a worse team,
Speaker 1: then call out your teammates and probably yourself for partying
Speaker 1: in la ah the Nuggets anyway, as I said earlier
Speaker 1: on the season, the team is just cooked if your
Speaker 1: role players aren't gonna do anything for Yokich, and Yokic
Speaker 1: is just gonna have to be an MVP All World
Speaker 1: player in order for you to even be possibly in games.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. Also, Michael Porter Jr. Who I call mediocre
Speaker 1: Porter Junr. His offense has actually been pretty good. He's
Speaker 1: averaging the most points per game for him since twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one. But listen, like Jamal Murray has to be better.
Speaker 1: The burden is on Jamal Murray. You cannot rely on
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson giving you buckets off the bench. You need
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray to be scoring thirty Since that game Denver
Speaker 1: be a tanking Jazz team, as you'd expect, but dropped
Speaker 1: another winnable game against the Clippers. They are currently tied
Speaker 1: for ninth in a loaded West. I said it, I
Speaker 1: told you, I said this team is gonna be a
Speaker 1: play in team. I said it. Remember just Trista Criek
Speaker 1: before the season like even started. This is loaded and
Speaker 1: the Nuggets are fucked. Anyway, Rubber meets the road for
Speaker 1: Denver soon. They're gonna need to figure it out. They're
Speaker 1: gonna need to make some moves before the deadline. Guys,
Speaker 1: the clock is ticking. They should go get Jeremy Grant
Speaker 1: from the Blazers. Give us somebody young, get somebody young.
Speaker 1: We'll get some picks, maybe one pick, and then, like you,
Speaker 1: guys can reunite him because he's he would really help them. Anyway,
Speaker 1: let's move on some quick news from around the league.
Speaker 1: I mentioned last episode that there is trouble brewing in
Speaker 1: the Zion camp. When is there not? Right? Like they're
Speaker 1: not Zion man. We will begin with as we usually do,
Speaker 1: a health update, and according to Sean Shranya, Zion is
Speaker 1: quote not close to a return to the court. I
Speaker 1: really hoped that I was wrong about Zion. I really
Speaker 1: hoped after last year where he played seventy games. That
Speaker 1: the he's in the best shape of his life. He's
Speaker 1: not gonna have the injury bug anymore, and that would
Speaker 1: be kind of behind him. That is not the case.
Speaker 1: We are seeing that that is definitely not the case.
Speaker 1: He's now gone through multiple treatments for his left handy,
Speaker 1: none of which are proving successful. That's bad. Hamstring's very
Speaker 1: important for explosion. That's kind of Zion's thing. He's now
Speaker 1: had two PRP injections. Let me tell you about PRP. Okay,
Speaker 1: I know you don't want this, but I'm giving it
Speaker 1: to you anyway. It's a thick fucking needle pause, like
Speaker 1: really thick, and it takes the blood from your knee
Speaker 1: or your ankle. I don't know where the PRP sh injection.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming his knee PRP injections. They put it in
Speaker 1: your knee, they take a shitload of blood out. Then
Speaker 1: they put it into what's called a centerfuge, which spins
Speaker 1: your blood around, supposed to get the white blood cells
Speaker 1: fucking active like they've been on patron sipping on trome
Speaker 1: bomb bomb bomb, you know, so you're white blood cells active.
Speaker 1: They then they inject it back into the spot where
Speaker 1: your injury is and it's supposed to create like a
Speaker 1: better healing environment. Kobe Bryant did this in Germany back
Speaker 1: in the day because it because the United States didn't
Speaker 1: do it. Rehab usually starts four weeks after the shock.
Speaker 1: My man, Zion has now missed four weeks and we
Speaker 1: have no real positive updates. So from the sound of things,
Speaker 1: probably gonna be gone a Walt I swear. If you
Speaker 1: look at the Pelicans, there is no team that has
Speaker 1: been injured more than them. They're in it's like it's
Speaker 1: like a COVID year, Remember when, like we would get
Speaker 1: guys rolling out the day of game and you're like,
Speaker 1: I've never heard of you. That's what we're doing right now.
Speaker 1: Pretty Much the entire team has been on injured reserve
Speaker 1: this the season already, which is why they're the worst
Speaker 1: team in the league. Have four and eighteen in the future,
Speaker 1: which once seems so bright for New Orleans, it's just
Speaker 1: filled with all dark and ominous clouds. Really good thing
Speaker 1: you traded Dyson Daniels away. Uh. The first sign of
Speaker 1: an impending storm, though, is the fact that Zion has
Speaker 1: fired Cia, which is like the superagent you know his
Speaker 1: longtime agent. The rumor is that he fired them and
Speaker 1: his agent Austin Brown. Austin Austin couldn't get him to
Speaker 1: New York. Apparently that's the rumor, and he not only
Speaker 1: has made this clear that that was where he wanted
Speaker 1: to go, he wanted to go there before he ever
Speaker 1: got drafted to New Orleans. He was like, Yo, I
Speaker 1: don't want to go to this place. Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: seeking a trade right this very second. Why do I
Speaker 1: want to go there? That may have played some role
Speaker 1: on it, But the truth of the matter is he's
Speaker 1: probably fired his agency because they put that like crazy
Speaker 1: weight and health clause in his health contract in his contract,
Speaker 1: like I think they can cut him just the guaranteed
Speaker 1: part of his contract just doesn't exist. Based on his weight.
Speaker 1: His weight in pounds in body fat percentage must be
Speaker 1: less than two ninety five and he must undergo multiple
Speaker 1: team monitor weigh ins throughout the year. The final three
Speaker 1: years of the deal now not guaranteed because he didn't
Speaker 1: play the remind required amount of games in twenty two
Speaker 1: to twenty three. That means they can just wave him
Speaker 1: after this year with like no financial penalty. Also by
Speaker 1: the way. Also, I don't think you can fire somebody
Speaker 1: for not getting you to New York when it's like
Speaker 1: they don't want you. That's like the ship has passed.
Speaker 1: They thought about you, they coveted you, and then they saw,
Speaker 1: oh no, you can't stay healthy. You're not really a four,
Speaker 1: you're not really a five. You only go left, you
Speaker 1: don't play a lot of games, and like you're kind
Speaker 1: of whiny, and there's a lot off the court drama.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I don't the Knicks. How can you fix
Speaker 1: that if you're an agent Like the Knicks, they said no,
Speaker 1: like I'm sorry, they just don't want to do it.
Speaker 1: Zion's injury this year and the fact that the Pelicans
Speaker 1: are so so bad I think has put a franchise
Speaker 1: at a crossroads. Now, Zion's gonna be with h w
Speaker 1: ME my Man Bill Duffy. Brandon Ingram is going to
Speaker 1: be signing with Clutch, which is wild, Like that's crazy,
Speaker 1: by the way, because brandon Ingram wants a super Max
Speaker 1: contract and he's not getting that. Shit is gonna get
Speaker 1: really ugly in New Orleans. I think brandon Ingram becomes
Speaker 1: a free agent after this year. Pelicans have been shopping him.
Speaker 1: Nobody's been. Nobody's been saying, hey, I want that guy.
Speaker 1: And uh. Part of this is probably David Griffin's frugality.
Speaker 1: Like this is a team that's never been in the
Speaker 1: luxury tax, So it's not really David Griffin. It's the
Speaker 1: owner's it's the Saints team, right, Like the owners of
Speaker 1: the Pelicans are the same owners of the Saints. Woda Nation.
Speaker 1: It's one of those places that they really just care.
Speaker 1: Smoothie King Center playoff tickets were going for eight dollars
Speaker 1: like court side, which is fucking nuts. I think that's
Speaker 1: like I think it was like twenty two dollars to
Speaker 1: be on the court. But a lot of this, I
Speaker 1: think is that teams look at Brandan Ingram and they're like,
Speaker 1: we don't know what we're gonna get from him. You
Speaker 1: know what, Brendon Ingram, are we gonna get? Which version
Speaker 1: he's looking for a MAX extension? Nobody's giving that to him.
Speaker 1: Teams are not gonna trade for him, knowing that he
Speaker 1: can walk after the season and what he wants, So
Speaker 1: the Peals are gonna lose him for nothing. Most likely
Speaker 1: the Peals have their own draft pick this year. It's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be a high lottery pick. They also have
Speaker 1: Milwaukee's first rounder, which is protected five through thirty. Kind
Speaker 1: of nuts. Despite not being on the court, Zion has
Speaker 1: managed to remain in the public eye. By the way,
Speaker 1: he went public with a back tattoo. I just don't
Speaker 1: know what he's doing, do you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 1: the problem with that is that you have to take
Speaker 1: your shirt off to show the tattoo. And he honestly,
Speaker 1: they were showing all this food in the background too.
Speaker 1: They had like they're called hero shots. They had like
Speaker 1: these hero shots of food like chicken and waffles and
Speaker 1: wings and all this like super greasy stuff in the
Speaker 1: background while Zion's getting his back tattoo. And then like
Speaker 1: the back was like okay. Then he turned around and
Speaker 1: we saw the front and that's when shit got weird.
Speaker 1: He looked kind of like Bunny from the Mayor of
Speaker 1: Kingstown more than he did. Zion's in the best shape
Speaker 1: of his life. He's ripped. He gains weight so fast.
Speaker 1: I promised I wouldn't make fun of it, but like,
Speaker 1: what's up. Goddamn it, Zion, you probably don't have to
Speaker 1: put yourself sure in four k you're doing it to
Speaker 1: yourself Zion anyway, I don't think Zion is gonna get
Speaker 1: cut by the Pelicans. I just think shit's gonna get weird.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna get awkward. The problem recently brought
Speaker 1: up by Hoopshype is that when polled, executives are now
Speaker 1: saying that the price that they would be willing to
Speaker 1: pay for Zion has now fallen to a single first rounder. Remember,
Speaker 1: like Portland was gonna trade for Zion to keep Dame.
Speaker 1: That would have been a disaster. A lot of people
Speaker 1: thought at one point Zion was like gonna commander Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobaert package of five to six first rounders. People thought
Speaker 1: Zion was gonna be the next like Lebron James. So
Speaker 1: you've got the Pelicans now, who are four and eighteen,
Speaker 1: who have the worst record in the league. New Orleans
Speaker 1: is a hot mess, and I promise you it's gonna
Speaker 1: get a lot messier as the season progresses. We will
Speaker 1: definitely be checking back on this sometime soon. That's all
Speaker 1: the time that we have this epio, so that he
Speaker 1: checked come up tomorrow for an all new Rookie report,
Speaker 1: and no Thursday for a rookie report and check out
Speaker 1: the feed for past episodes of many episodes which drop unexpectedly,
Speaker 1: like the touchdowns from Jayden Daniels Man. Jayden Daniels is good.
Speaker 1: He is special. I saw him up close. Do not
Speaker 1: forget the follow he checked throughout the season. That means download,
Speaker 1: That means subscribe, That means tell your friends. Can we
Speaker 1: just tell our friends about the show? Listen, guys, tell
Speaker 1: your friends about I'm not joking. This isn't just like
Speaker 1: something I put at the end of the show every time.
Speaker 1: Tell your friends about the show. Please. If they like basketball,
Speaker 1: I think they'll like this show. Even the guy at
Speaker 1: the hotel free breakfast, eating like he's never seen food before, say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know you don't have to stack all the food
Speaker 1: on the one plate. This isn't like a buffet where
Speaker 1: it's just how much ever you can fit into this.
Speaker 1: You can. You can go back and get more food.
Speaker 1: No need to stack four bagels on top of your waffles.
Speaker 1: Go listen to the eat check. Digest those nine thousand calories.
Speaker 1: Follow me on threads, Follow me on Twitter and on
Speaker 1: Instagram at Trista Crik, Trista Underscore Crick, and of course
Speaker 1: this heat Check on TikTok I'm moving soon. I need
Speaker 1: to make a studio, so when I do, they'll be
Speaker 1: at DSR and they'll be YouTube YouTube. I promise she soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.