Speaker 1: On this episode of The Heat Checked. Oh Baby, Oh no,
Speaker 1: our dubs, we gotta talk about them. There is sad
Speaker 1: news to report, ladies and gentlemen, about a murder, about
Speaker 1: the death of a dynasty, and it falls on me,
Speaker 1: Tristan Crick, to break the news. We also have the
Speaker 1: Kimmy is a week and he's barely twenty. And then
Speaker 1: we have a special interview with Sports Illustrated Robin Lumberg.
Speaker 1: So let's get right into it. Anthony, drop that motherfucker
Speaker 1: beat that should be be honored. I don't relish in
Speaker 1: saying this exact it, don't I'm ready to finally make
Speaker 1: an announcement. Warriors just might be cooked. This might be
Speaker 1: their funeral, march I said. I'll say this team is
Speaker 1: absolutely washed. They are foo bar folks, fucked up beyond
Speaker 1: all recognition. You may think this is me with my chopen.
Speaker 1: He's being overly dramatic. Not are dougs life. I will
Speaker 1: explain clinically easily why this dynasty officially, and like all
Speaker 1: dead bodies, like a detective on Fargo with a better accent,
Speaker 1: I have to find out who the real Coloor is.
Speaker 1: What is that? Fortunately, the murderer in broad daylight with
Speaker 1: the world wide. So who killed the Warriors? I hate
Speaker 1: to say it, the world watched the dyning Eye on
Speaker 1: a random Friday night. I don't want to say when
Speaker 1: Yoki led the Nuggets back from eighteenth point deficit in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter and with two seconds left to go,
Speaker 1: he hit a thirty nine foot contested three to done.
Speaker 1: Everyone eating seph three. Steph Curry was eating his damn
Speaker 1: killing on his damn mouthpiece like he has stunned up
Speaker 1: right in cold blood, a man who you would never think, man,
Speaker 1: it doesn't look like he has it in a man
Speaker 1: who looks went. But on Sunday night, the corpse of
Speaker 1: the Warriors was resurrected, only to get murdered again by
Speaker 1: the Toronto Raptors, blowing them out on their home court
Speaker 1: again by fifteen. You don't say not the Toronto Raptors. No, No,
Speaker 1: not the kill shot r J.
Speaker 2: Bear.
Speaker 1: He had thirty seven Golden State Camp play any damn defense.
Speaker 1: Steph went two for fourteen. He went zero for nine
Speaker 1: from three. Scotty Barnes was strapping that man, and no
Speaker 1: one else can score. No one else gives Steph the
Speaker 1: ability to operate, Not even a sliver of daylight on
Speaker 1: the court. Damn, damn, damn, damn, it's over. Back to
Speaker 1: the funeral march we go. Let's break it down some more.
Speaker 1: Let's start with Jonathan Kmingo Kamina, excuse me. He was
Speaker 1: the first Domino. That's the Domino Kaminga. That's how we
Speaker 1: got the comingo. He started by pretending he did his
Speaker 1: best Lebron James impersonation, and he decided he was gonna
Speaker 1: go leak his displeasure of his head coach. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: what uh? Just to the media. Just Hey, I am
Speaker 1: not happy with how I am being used. My role
Speaker 1: fucking sucks, and I have no faith in this coach
Speaker 1: to develop me to a reasonable level of where I
Speaker 1: should be. That is horrible. I mean he went straight
Speaker 1: to Athletic, went straight to Shamps Run and was like, hey,
Speaker 1: I got some things to say about Steve Kerr. Kerr
Speaker 1: responded saying he's the most successible coach in the league.
Speaker 1: Have you got a problem with me? You better come
Speaker 1: and say it to my fucking faith say it. The
Speaker 1: next domino happened before the first Domino, and that was
Speaker 1: the diagnosis of Chris Paul breaking his goddamn hand. He's
Speaker 1: been okay for the Warriors. He's been okay. He's a player, though,
Speaker 1: making thirty million dollars a year for them, and is
Speaker 1: now going to be out four to six weeks. Woj
Speaker 1: is reporting his injury won't stop other teams from taking
Speaker 1: him on the trade. And guess what, baby, all the
Speaker 1: folks that I know in our dub circle, they think
Speaker 1: that Chris Ball has played his last game in the
Speaker 1: Warriors uniform, so that right there is another domino, and
Speaker 1: next up another domino is Moses Moody. He must have
Speaker 1: heard of the leak news because the reps are saying
Speaker 1: that they are also unhappy with what Moses Moody has
Speaker 1: got going on with them. He's getting multiple DMPs, getting
Speaker 1: next to no minutes when he does play. Here's what's
Speaker 1: being reported. This came out right before Jonathan kaminga. But
Speaker 1: there's these things are getting louder and louder as we go.
Speaker 1: Warriors GM Mike Dunlavy Junior has been asked directly about
Speaker 1: the organization's plan for Moses Moody with the intention of
Speaker 1: finding him a more consistent role.
Speaker 3: Basically, hey, uh, are you guys gonna do anything with Moses, like,
Speaker 3: is there any specific thought into what he has and
Speaker 3: his role on this team.
Speaker 1: And the answer is no, Like the answer is that
Speaker 1: Moses Moody is being squeezed out. Really, anytime the player plays, well,
Speaker 1: we'll just give their minutes, give them Moses Moodie's minute.
Speaker 1: At this point, it's important also to look long term
Speaker 1: at the causation of this disaster. And that's a two timeline.
Speaker 1: That's just the two timelines. Golden State drafted three young
Speaker 1: guns who are supposed to develop along the core and
Speaker 1: guess what they didn't it was it was just not
Speaker 1: a possibility. Wise men coaminga and movie and now their
Speaker 1: number two quote unquote generational pick was a generational whiff,
Speaker 1: while their other two lottery picks are as I've said,
Speaker 1: very unhappy, very unhappy with their role, very unhappy with
Speaker 1: the coaching, very unhappy with the rotations. And oh, by
Speaker 1: the way, are going to be restricted free agents next year.
Speaker 1: Not much incentive to stay except for the fact that
Speaker 1: the Bay is such a beautiful place, just great food,
Speaker 1: great women, bad roles, bad rotations, and a toxic situation.
Speaker 1: Lots of teams are interested in them on their upside. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I am currently watching Bob Myers on television talk about
Speaker 1: all the players that he has passed on as a
Speaker 1: GM of the Golden State Warriors. I heard him talk
Speaker 1: about why he passed on Haliburton I talked to. I
Speaker 1: heard him talk about why he passed on the mellow
Speaker 1: ball Ron's born. SKU is getting ridiculous here. What is
Speaker 1: this show? Is it just you talking about all your mistakes?
Speaker 1: You have to a zone every time you do a
Speaker 1: Warrior game because I don't want to hear all that,
Speaker 1: and I don't think other longtime Dubs fans want to
Speaker 1: hear all that. Eil And guess what. Also, suspension is
Speaker 1: now over. He will need a week to get back
Speaker 1: into shape. Imagine being out for so long via suspension
Speaker 1: because you cannot keep your hands to your health that
Speaker 1: you need a ramp up period to get back onto
Speaker 1: You need a mini camp to get back onto the
Speaker 1: court and be able to be informed.
Speaker 4: And we know that.
Speaker 1: You know that, I've been knowing that the last thirty
Speaker 1: games Draymond has played in, one of they fifteen five hundred.
Speaker 1: When Draymond is you know what their you know what
Speaker 1: their record is from the last twenty four games when
Speaker 1: Draymond had missed.
Speaker 5: Twelve.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't matter morale for Steph, to be honest,
Speaker 1: it's just Steph that he's the morale for. He's just
Speaker 1: not an impactful player right now. You've got two young
Speaker 1: guns who are just Ramont Green, transcendent, small change the
Speaker 1: way that you guys basketball. He's not impactful at all.
Speaker 1: Record Thompson is such a bad vibe wet blanket right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: walk him into his office and be like, yo, you
Speaker 1: you get yourself into a right head space because you're
Speaker 1: playing not just for yourself, you're playing for a team.
Speaker 1: And yeah, we know that your personal accolades right now
Speaker 1: aren't where you want them to be. But guess what, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you had two major injuries and you're still playing basketball
Speaker 1: and you won four rings. So maybe you should just,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like have an attitude adjustment because he's
Speaker 1: visibly pouting during games on the court. Play has been
Speaker 1: largely terrible. In his last seven games, he's averaged which
Speaker 1: is below obviously his career. Despite being tonight or last night,
Speaker 1: depending on when you're listening to this hot ass fuck
Speaker 1: against Toronto, but he's been playing, he's been a cone. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins, another starter, has been a disaster. He's got
Speaker 1: one hundred and nineteen point six. It's that line is
Speaker 1: twelve points per game. Hold on, let me just go back.
Speaker 1: One hundred and nineteen point six. Defensive rating is like
Speaker 1: Tree Young levels of bad. And this is the guy
Speaker 1: that you have to strap other guys. That's his main role. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like he can score, but he's supposed to strap up
Speaker 1: dudes and get rebounds. Twelve points per game, forty two
Speaker 1: percent from the field, forty two percent from the field,
Speaker 1: thirty percent for three and sixty nine percent nice from
Speaker 1: the free throw line. Hit three points against the Rappers.
Speaker 1: He was a game high, really a game below negative
Speaker 1: twenty nine and seventeen minutes play. And also, I think
Speaker 1: it's really funny that Kaminga went out and said, like,
Speaker 1: why can't me and Moody or why can't meet in
Speaker 1: weekends play together? We can't wait. This is why, like,
Speaker 1: you guys are absolutely together. And Steve Kerr Chestnut Checkers
Speaker 1: was like, let me just show you. I'll just I'll
Speaker 1: just show the world why I'm not coaching by committee
Speaker 1: based off of what Jonathan. By the way, I just
Speaker 1: never can get it out of my mind that he
Speaker 1: took the trophy back to Africa when he was supposed
Speaker 1: to be back at the Warriors facility. He literally left
Speaker 1: Transcontinental with the trophy. That's the kind of guy that
Speaker 1: Kaminga is. We don't want him making decisions about his
Speaker 1: rotations at all. Let's go back to the starter Van Looney.
Speaker 1: He was so good, and he was really good in
Speaker 1: the of the playoffs last year against the Kings that
Speaker 1: Washington dominate. Easy Shadow right now scoring his rebounding are
Speaker 1: both Brady has balloon to one and one nineteen. Let's
Speaker 1: come in and provide palm boys. This demeanor, be able
Speaker 1: to handle the rock and crunch time because why because
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole could never do that. He was a fucking
Speaker 1: brain wreck turnover. Why so you're like, oh, let's let's
Speaker 1: flip the pendulum in another way. Let's get a guy
Speaker 1: who's got the slowest pace to play in the end.
Speaker 1: Kim making thirty million dollars a year, not just but
Speaker 1: he's just fully he's fully been on the barbecue for
Speaker 1: three years. He's currently averaging nine. Christ on this team
Speaker 1: would just say for a second, how bad that decision
Speaker 1: was made. No, you had the jettison Jordan's pool. By
Speaker 1: the way, I don't cool, like like you need absolutely
Speaker 1: have botch like it was he was not good when
Speaker 1: I went viral for some that how that's like literally
Speaker 1: one full contract in the middle of my The question
Speaker 1: isn't just bad, how bad this team is right now?
Speaker 1: It's like really, wow, these one of the options to
Speaker 1: try to salvage this a marginal trade for a disgruntled star.
Speaker 1: I don't like a guy who's probably want forty million
Speaker 1: dollars a year and is thirty years old, and Pascal
Speaker 1: siakam like no, and you're not gonna include Kaminga in
Speaker 1: that trade anyway, So that means MESSI Usuri is gonna
Speaker 1: say thank you, know, thank you, trade CP three for
Speaker 1: a player like Zach Lavine. Clavine we know he's not
Speaker 1: a winning player, but he can't get you some buckets,
Speaker 1: So you're back to the Jordan's pool sort of like
Speaker 1: model no shade to Jordan Ford that or comparing them,
Speaker 1: but like that's the kind of ilk that he is
Speaker 1: that probably is making them dangerous when maybe a like
Speaker 1: last year, but neither trade is any fix. What's the
Speaker 1: other option? To blow it up completely. Let's be real.
Speaker 1: That's happened, but let's go through it. You trade Clay,
Speaker 1: you trade Draymond, you trade Wigan trade, and which means
Speaker 1: if you're a rational person, that means crazy gonna be
Speaker 1: like dipset. I'm out of here. I'm not fucking waiting
Speaker 1: around for this shell of a place to turn. You
Speaker 1: ripped out the entire garden, and you want me to
Speaker 1: stick around him. That means he's he's gone. You can't
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 3: So walk.
Speaker 1: Our dubs fans. As we know, we've had it good.
Speaker 1: We've had a good but at some point the piper
Speaker 1: must be paid. And if you look at the current
Speaker 1: contract status of this roster, I don't know how you
Speaker 1: can be confident in an He has three more years
Speaker 1: and a player option at eighty five. Dream On three
Speaker 1: more years, two years, one hundred and sixteen million, Garry
Speaker 1: Peyton one year. Niamel Kaming is on a one year deal.
Speaker 1: He's a restricted free agent. Moody one more year, left
Speaker 1: five point eight million, Kevon Looney one year, eight million,
Speaker 1: plays on an expiring deal. He's an unrestricted free agent.
Speaker 1: He's probably dousing Chris Paul. He's getting traded at the deadline.
Speaker 1: So the only players you really have under contract more
Speaker 1: than one year are Draymond Wiggins and stuff Ooh not good.
Speaker 1: Not great, mister Dunlovy. Not great. And I said this
Speaker 1: back when Bob Myers pulled the report in a sta state, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we should probably look into this. We should probably make
Speaker 1: some sort of meaning out of that decision, because it's
Speaker 1: usually the architect of the disaster who jumps into a
Speaker 1: life vote first. They know when it's coming, how it's
Speaker 1: gonna they designed it, and it's pretty killing. To another analogy,
Speaker 1: when a CEO of a seemingly successful company, I may
Speaker 1: just decides I'm gonna cash you my option. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just spend time thinking and working with family, and like
Speaker 1: Bob Myers was like, oh yeah, I just want to
Speaker 1: spend more time with my family. But then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden he's on ESPN like NBA counts down every night.
Speaker 1: So what does Bob Myers know that we don't know?
Speaker 1: He saw that the building was about to collapse, and
Speaker 1: he was like, I am bucking out first. Myers probably
Speaker 1: now Steve Kerr very unlikely moving back. I would imagine
Speaker 1: he may not survive to hear the way that things
Speaker 1: are going, and it is trying you. They've got their
Speaker 1: Charlotte's power and they haven't had those since the Trump administration.
Speaker 1: Who might be next to jump off the Titanic into
Speaker 1: a life? Who? Who? I wonder why it's an I
Speaker 1: tell you what you can really truly now, there are
Speaker 1: not any right back of course, into that. I say days,
Speaker 1: you know what's time, and it's time for the hemming
Speaker 1: of the week. He is I and I am him.
Speaker 1: He's him. This man is not them. This man is
Speaker 1: a fucking unit. Pause. This week there were a players
Speaker 1: taken Anthony Davis for. I know that Anthony Davids was
Speaker 1: playing well and the rest of the team is the
Speaker 1: scheming pile, but it's not Anthony Davis. It's not blaming them.
Speaker 1: This is the only time, probably in Laker history, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis has been on the team that thirty twelve and
Speaker 1: five from the field, nearly five stock Stocks stops, that
Speaker 1: steals and blocks five of them per game in the
Speaker 1: last week. Incredible stats. The problem though, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: one and five and that so no himmy for Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: Another guy that I was looking at closely. I'll be
Speaker 1: grudging for him. He is Luca. In his last six games,
Speaker 1: he's averaged thirty eight, eight and ten on fifty forty
Speaker 1: one and eighty two eight it with two point nine stocks.
Speaker 1: Great defensive numbers for a guy who is usually a
Speaker 1: time style and the issue though he's already missed the
Speaker 1: time period, including the one against Portland. We will wait
Speaker 1: he's healthy. Give him a hmmy this week. The hemmy
Speaker 1: goes Paolo, then sattle. It is last five games Hollow
Speaker 1: has average. You will not believe is second year. I
Speaker 1: can't believe it in seeing thirty two nine and seven
Speaker 1: on forty six forty two, seventy eight shooting. This man
Speaker 1: Pala Ban Carrol cannot jump any higher than the Death
Speaker 1: of Cards and he is averaging forty two percent. It's happened, folks.
Speaker 1: Pallo was heading shoulders better than any rookie last year,
Speaker 1: but he's now broken through the skilling. This is a superstar.
Speaker 1: I said it when I saw him in real life.
Speaker 1: This guy is unlike any human being I've ever seen
Speaker 1: with my own two uys, and he is now shooting
Speaker 1: threes for the first time in his NBA career, which
Speaker 1: I could feel might come pause at the When he
Speaker 1: played for Duke the previous twelve game, he was shot
Speaker 1: three crazy game. And now he's shooting seven threes game,
Speaker 1: making them at a paltry thirty percent. He's nearly shooting
Speaker 1: twenty percent more shots per game, and he is shooting
Speaker 1: forty two percent from three. That confidence from deep. You
Speaker 1: can't stop him. Now he's shooting from three at a
Speaker 1: high clip. I don't know what you do with that.
Speaker 1: The best part though, is that the Magic are really good.
Speaker 1: They are came behind me lin Miami heap and the
Speaker 1: rumor is they want to bring in a veteran presence
Speaker 1: mount wrong as if they need more card they do
Speaker 1: not to help baby, We're absolutely gay. They've got matches
Speaker 1: and they are going to send things on fire. That's
Speaker 1: how dangerous they are. Also in their ot wind over
Speaker 1: the Hawks on Sunday, Pilip Houston, who's been I don't
Speaker 1: know nowhere. He had some nice little threasons league. He
Speaker 1: is now getting a part of the career. What did
Speaker 1: he do? Actual Magic they are and Pallo is the
Speaker 1: unquestioned leader. Love this for Pallo, love this for the league,
Speaker 1: and he is just only showing what he can do.
Speaker 1: So he his eye and eye am him slim with
Speaker 1: the tilted brim. He's him. We in the show a
Speaker 1: special interview with sports illustrators Robin Lumberg. Robin joined my
Speaker 1: show Better than Night. There's seven to eleven standard time
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday. I was joined by my co host
Speaker 1: Nick Ashle and my friend PJ. Glasser. I'm listening. Very
Speaker 1: few people in the league see it like Robin.
Speaker 6: When you see this, when you hear these stories, do
Speaker 6: you look at this and say, Okay, it's a team
Speaker 6: that's struggling a little bit and this is what's coming out,
Speaker 6: or does it feel like it's maybe something bigger like
Speaker 6: the Darvin ham eras crazy enough already unraveling in La.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, look, they won the D season Tournament
Speaker 2: and everything.
Speaker 5: You know, I said it at the time, and I
Speaker 5: was only half joking that Lebron and the Lakers need
Speaker 5: to go as hard as they possibly can for the
Speaker 5: ND season tournament because you know they are their roster
Speaker 5: is not that talented from top to bottom. When you
Speaker 5: look at it, they really don't have shooting. They've got
Speaker 5: Tory and Prince playing minutes. Guys like that out there
Speaker 5: playing minutes. Lebron is the oldest player in the league.
Speaker 5: Anthony Davis, you know, as the street closed.
Speaker 2: Meme going on for him.
Speaker 5: So counting on those guys to not only be healthy
Speaker 5: in the playoffs is enough, but also counting on the
Speaker 5: rest of that talent around them being enough is too much.
Speaker 5: So I really did think going for the n season
Speaker 5: tournament was a really good idea for them. But yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean I think once you start seeing stuff like
Speaker 5: this from Shams and the like, there is smoke to
Speaker 5: that fire that they've been in a bit of a
Speaker 5: tail spin. And we all know the coach is always
Speaker 5: the easy scapegoat, you know, Rob Low I mean, Rob
Speaker 5: Plinka ain't.
Speaker 2: Gonna get canned, you know, in the middle of the
Speaker 2: season right now.
Speaker 5: So it's it clearly there's some disconnect, some discontent going
Speaker 5: on with that team. I mean goes back to Austin
Speaker 5: Reeves and even reports of him having friction with Darvin
Speaker 5: Hamm and he's probably the third best player on that team.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I think the Lakers do have legitimate issues,
Speaker 5: and roster construction, aside from rotation, is one of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Genie is a big part of that too,
Speaker 1: unfortunately hiring a lot of her friends. I know Linda
Speaker 1: Rambis is like making calls and I think she was
Speaker 1: a Laker girl back in like the Showtime era, and
Speaker 1: then her and Kurt just kind of hung around. Emanuel
Speaker 1: quickly though near and dear to my heart. Six Man
Speaker 1: of the Year Canadate. He probably should have won it
Speaker 1: last year. He goes to Toronto, probably going to get
Speaker 1: the absolute bag. He goes crazy in his starting role
Speaker 1: twenty six points. How do you think he and RJ
Speaker 1: affect Toronto moving forward?
Speaker 5: We quickly needed that sort of changing scenery. I think
Speaker 5: because of the conflict with Brunson. I mean, through no
Speaker 5: fault of his own, those two guys just played the
Speaker 5: same position is really good. You know Brunson, aside from
Speaker 5: his height, it doesn't really get enough credit for what
Speaker 5: he's actually done with the Knicks in the league at
Speaker 5: this point, so quickly was never going to get all
Speaker 5: the way off the leash with the Knicks just because
Speaker 5: of that position fit and the fact that you couldn't
Speaker 5: play those two guys together.
Speaker 2: So I like that look for Toronto there. RJ.
Speaker 5: Barrett was never that much of an impact player for
Speaker 5: the Knicks, but maybe back home and Kennedy played well
Speaker 5: for the national team as well. You know, it's just
Speaker 5: the kind of thing. Perhaps a change of scenery, less expectations.
Speaker 2: Will help him out. So Toronto was going really nowhere.
Speaker 5: There was no reason for them not to take a
Speaker 5: swing at something that could stick.
Speaker 2: And it looks so far like the move has been
Speaker 2: a good fit.
Speaker 4: And then on the other side, Robin, I mean, from
Speaker 4: the Knicks perspective, did you like them trading for Og
Speaker 4: And then do you think like the Knicks finally have
Speaker 4: enough now for them to go out in the offseason
Speaker 4: and attract one of these big free agents.
Speaker 5: You know, I think I like the move quite a
Speaker 5: bit bit actually, because like I just said that they
Speaker 5: needed that wing position they had quickly giving them a
Speaker 5: glut at that guard spot. Now maybe they need a
Speaker 5: backup there. I think they could use an upgrade at
Speaker 5: shooting guard. But they had Brunson, they had Randall oj
Speaker 5: Og goes in between, and that's a good fit for them.
Speaker 2: As far as a big star, I mean, we're so caught.
Speaker 5: We're almost like trained with muscle memory to do the
Speaker 5: same exercises in the NBA.
Speaker 2: They need to get the guy. They're gotta go get
Speaker 2: the gotta make the move. I don't know if that's
Speaker 2: the way that the league is constructed anymore.
Speaker 5: Every super team that's put together fails now, yes, you know,
Speaker 5: everyone falls apart at the seams. We're already like talking
Speaker 5: about the devise of the Phoenix Suns. They were just
Speaker 5: put together. So I don't think we're in that era anymore.
Speaker 5: In fact, I think one thing. Look at the odds
Speaker 5: right right there on my screen. Look how close and
Speaker 5: bunched up a lot of those teams are. None of
Speaker 5: those are super teams per se. I mean, obviously Milwaukee
Speaker 5: now has Giannis and Dame. The Celtics have a bunch
Speaker 5: of guys. But the Heat were in the finals a
Speaker 5: year ago. No one's calling them a super team. Plus
Speaker 5: fifteen hundred looks pretty good to me given their recent history.
Speaker 5: So I think the NBA has done a good job
Speaker 5: at developing parody in a certain sense. Where we're now
Speaker 5: in a world where the Oklahoma City Thunder or all
Speaker 5: the sudden contenders, the Minnesota Timberwolves are all the sudden contenders.
Speaker 5: You probably could list off six eight teams who realistically
Speaker 5: could at least be in the mix. So I don't
Speaker 5: think the Knicks have to go out there and land
Speaker 5: the biggest fish possible.
Speaker 2: I think they have to.
Speaker 5: Continue to build on their roster and improve their personnel
Speaker 5: because they aren't that far away. I mean the heat
Speaker 5: I just mentioned, we're in the finals last year. The
Speaker 5: Knicks went six games with them last season without these moves,
Speaker 5: So I think they keep making those moves around the margins,
Speaker 5: they could be right in the mix.
Speaker 6: Yeah, where do the Knicks stack up to you? Then?
Speaker 6: I mean we haven't seen much obviously with this new
Speaker 6: roster in the way that it's constructed yet. But the East,
Speaker 6: I mean, I'm looking here. We got the Magic, the
Speaker 6: Calves and the Knicks all sitting there at nineteen and fifteen.
Speaker 6: And again, look, we got a long season ahead of us.
Speaker 6: The magic could fall off, although we've all sat here
Speaker 6: and talked about how much we like the magic coming
Speaker 6: into the season. Anyway, so fingers crossed it doesn't have
Speaker 6: You know, we've got a few bets on that division winner.
Speaker 6: But like just it feels like right now we haven't
Speaker 6: gotten to the point where a lot of teams have
Speaker 6: truly separated themselves. Besides maybe a Boston, but we found
Speaker 6: moments where Boston's incredibly frustrating too. Like I kind of
Speaker 6: feel like the Knicks are in a spot where they
Speaker 6: could easily climb back up to like maybe around like
Speaker 6: the four spot, maybe surpassed the Pacers because.
Speaker 2: They're kind of up and down.
Speaker 6: It just everything feels very very wide open right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, that was what I was just saying.
Speaker 5: I think the Knicks are probably the fifth best team
Speaker 5: in the conference, you know, looking at it on paper,
Speaker 5: given the heat, the pedigree points, given Boston and Milwaukee
Speaker 5: the edge, and then Phillies look really good. That's another team,
Speaker 5: sneaky team around the deadline, you know, Darryl Morey's always
Speaker 5: been very aggressive. One move could really put the Sixers
Speaker 5: over the top. Though, I'm you know, I'm not a
Speaker 5: big believer in Embiid when it comes to the postseason,
Speaker 5: just because he's usually broken.
Speaker 2: Down around that point in time and he doesn't get the.
Speaker 5: Same calls generational flopper for a big man, but you know,
Speaker 5: when the refing gets a little tighter. But yeah, I'd
Speaker 5: say the knickser are right in that group of teams. Again,
Speaker 5: they were there last year. My stock line used to
Speaker 5: be that the Knicks have won one playoff series since
Speaker 5: I graduated from high school. That is no longer true
Speaker 5: because they won a playoff series a year ago. So
Speaker 5: that's now two playoff series since I graduated from high school.
Speaker 5: And if they could win a playoff series, who's to
Speaker 5: say they can't win two With a slight improvement like
Speaker 5: they just made. I wouldn't be shocked if the Knicks
Speaker 5: are in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: Finals, especially now that they have some guys, or at
Speaker 1: least a guy, and og and Andnobi, who's a really
Speaker 1: good corner catch and shoot three point shooter. We saw
Speaker 1: what happened against the Miami Heat when they stopped being
Speaker 1: able to score from deep. They just packed the pain
Speaker 1: on him. I do want to get your thoughts on
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets, and I know it's not a sexy
Speaker 1: team to talk about, but they're fascinating because they're hanging around.
Speaker 1: They have reasons to compete. I mean, you would imagine
Speaker 1: they don't own their own draft picks due to the
Speaker 1: trades that they've made, and yet they seem already to
Speaker 1: be punting on the season, especially that game right around
Speaker 1: the Christmas break against Milwaukee where jacque Vaughan set everyone
Speaker 1: for absolutely no reason against a packed house.
Speaker 5: That was the move of contender makes, which was strange.
Speaker 5: You know, the reason that game stood out was Michel Bridges.
Speaker 5: That game would not have been talked about the same
Speaker 5: way if it wasn't for bridges a streak, because we
Speaker 5: see teams rest guys all the time now, usually it
Speaker 5: is a team that plans to be playing late into
Speaker 5: the spring and into the early summer, and that's not
Speaker 5: going to be the Brooklyn Nets.
Speaker 2: But they set everybody but Cam Thomas and Bridges.
Speaker 5: Bridges obviously played because of his streak and then didn't
Speaker 5: go back into the game. That was what was so
Speaker 5: curious about it and really so infuriating if you're rooting
Speaker 5: for the team, because it was a winnable game, and
Speaker 5: then it's hard for jacque Vaughn to get up there
Speaker 5: and go, you know, we gotta dive on the floor,
Speaker 5: we gotta make all these hustle plays when you totally
Speaker 5: give up on a game. So I don't think they
Speaker 5: they're punting the season because of that. I think they
Speaker 5: were expecting to then win the next game against the Wizards,
Speaker 5: but their season has gone to a tailspin since then.
Speaker 5: They haven't won a game since then. They lost to
Speaker 5: the Wizards, who obviously they should beat. They lost the
Speaker 5: Rockets last. They look lifeless, they look soulless right now,
Speaker 5: and they're stuck in a nebulous area because, like you said, Trista,
Speaker 5: they don't have their own draft picks, so there's no
Speaker 5: incentive to tank right now. At the same time, they're
Speaker 5: clearly not contenders and their best assets are down the line.
Speaker 5: Like I really, I'm a fan of the Kevin Durant
Speaker 5: trade all things considered.
Speaker 2: Once you know, once that red button is pushed, you
Speaker 2: know you're forced into making a move.
Speaker 5: I thought they did as well as you possibly could
Speaker 5: getting Bridges and Johnson back, not to mention four first
Speaker 5: round picks, pick swaps, whatever the rest of that that
Speaker 5: package was. And if you look at the way Phoenix
Speaker 5: is constructed, very good chance they are bad when those
Speaker 5: picks come do. But they're still paying the debt on
Speaker 5: the Harden trade to Houston. They owe their pick to
Speaker 5: Houston this year, So you make the argument, I suppose
Speaker 5: sell off everything and just try to get as many
Speaker 5: assets back, but that's probably not helping you in the
Speaker 5: short term. I think most likely they're keeping what they
Speaker 5: consider their core pieces, the Twins. I don't know what
Speaker 5: the organization thinks about Cam Thomas, because he's weirdly been
Speaker 5: jerked around. Where's he's not starting, then he's starting, then
Speaker 5: he's not starting, Then he's getting pulled after struggling a
Speaker 5: little bit, when really you should be developing somebody like
Speaker 5: him over Spencer Dinwiddie. I guess even though you know
Speaker 5: Thomas has his flaws, but maybe they view him as
Speaker 5: a trade chip. I'm curious to see where they go
Speaker 5: if they make a desperate move at the deadline, or
Speaker 5: if they make more like marginal moves like trading Dinwitti,
Speaker 5: wh's inexpiring, trading Claxton, who's inexpiring, Trading guys like Royce
Speaker 5: O'Neill and Dorian Finney Smith who might have value to
Speaker 5: contenders and not value to them right now now, and
Speaker 5: still trying to build around those guys.
Speaker 2: Who are in their late twenties on good contracts.
Speaker 4: Rob what about the Grizzlies. Obviously, now with jam arampback,
Speaker 4: they're playing a lot better. They're five and a half
Speaker 4: games behind the Lakers for that ten seed in the
Speaker 4: playing game if that were going to happen today. I
Speaker 4: think the tough thing with the Grizzlies. For me, it's
Speaker 4: like if they end up making like a nine or
Speaker 4: ten seed, like who's the team that they would replace?
Speaker 4: But do you think maybe they're worth a bet long
Speaker 4: term with job back now in the fold?
Speaker 2: Oh no, I gotta check my receipts and see what
Speaker 2: they say. You know, I keep them.
Speaker 5: I still don't know what John rant was talking about.
Speaker 5: Did anybody ever say he wasn't a good basketball play.
Speaker 2: The case?
Speaker 5: But it's tough in the West, and with all those
Speaker 5: teams bunched up when you start in that kind of hole. Now,
Speaker 5: the play in tournament changes the whole game in a sense,
Speaker 5: because we were just talking about the nets, and the
Speaker 5: nets are what five games under five hundred right now,
Speaker 5: but still in the play in tournament right so your
Speaker 5: your life raft is a lot longer now. It's not
Speaker 5: like Leonardo DiCaprio from the Titanic. You're not getting kicked
Speaker 5: off that sink it to the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 5: You can hang on and cling on for longer. But
Speaker 5: I think that the Grizzly started in a little bit
Speaker 5: too much of a hole to really get up there
Speaker 5: with you.
Speaker 6: I got about a minute or so left here. We
Speaker 6: were talking about the Warriors earlier sixteen and seventeen. Draymond's
Speaker 6: going to be back with them soon. I mean, clearly,
Speaker 6: they've they've gotten older. This is what happens with great teams.
Speaker 6: It's just the way the NBA works. Are they still
Speaker 6: a playoff team in your eyes? Are they just a
Speaker 6: play in team in your eyes at this point? Because
Speaker 6: I feel like it's still really hard to write them
Speaker 6: off just given the history of this team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think they're right on that bubble seven, eight, nine, ten.
Speaker 5: But Steph Curry is you know, it's funny all the
Speaker 5: Steph Lebron talk over the years because now Curry is
Speaker 5: in the position Lebron was once in where he's actually
Speaker 5: of all the superstars in the league, probably asked to
Speaker 5: do more than anybody else when it comes to singularly
Speaker 5: carrying a team.
Speaker 2: Klay Thompson is not the same player he once was.
Speaker 5: Draymond Green can't stop choking people or you know, doing
Speaker 5: whatever you doing to get himself suspended.
Speaker 2: You got who else is Wiggins was benched?
Speaker 5: I mean they got you know, cominga guy, little nice pieces,
Speaker 5: but they don't have another scorer. Really, they don't have
Speaker 5: consistent secondary production point, second, third production point wise, A
Speaker 5: lot of that's coming from staff.
Speaker 2: So I really just don't think they have the horses
Speaker 2: anymore to get it done.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's crazy, but all all good things come to
Speaker 6: an end in the NBA, as we've seen. Robin Lundberg s,
Speaker 6: I now appreciate the time, man, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2: You got it.
Speaker 5: You remember everybody who talks about Michael Jordan never losing.
Speaker 5: When his dynasty ended, he quit to go play baseball.
Speaker 6: Exactly, he dodged. He dodged all the criticism. He knew,
Speaker 6: he knew, but the damn legacy was gonna be to
Speaker 6: a smart move, thanks Roving.
Speaker 2: He did.
Speaker 6: He played baseball, came back, team was a good again.
Speaker 6: And then you know what, Like nobody ever talks about
Speaker 6: Jordan and the Wizards by the way, let's let's just
Speaker 6: bring that up. I remember those days. Yeah, yeah, he's
Speaker 6: having he's having himself. A night I watched the Spurs
Speaker 6: and I'm like, why aren't they better? Like they have
Speaker 6: some talent.
Speaker 2: It's I got you trust.
Speaker 6: Televised going after the night.
Speaker 1: That's how the time that we after thanks to Robbin
Speaker 1: and the gang at bet MGM to Night. Come back
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