Speaker 1: All right, let's get into some shorter, quick little news
Speaker 1: bites just to kind of like keep you updated on
Speaker 1: what's happening around the league. We talked last episode about
Speaker 1: how good Zion looks. Christian Clark of The Times, pickiyun
Speaker 1: maybe my favorite newspaper in America, just because you get
Speaker 1: to say pickiun might have given us an extra reason
Speaker 1: of why Zion seems extra motivated in being skinny. One
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty nine million dollars one hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: three million dollars deal right with massive incentives? So what
Speaker 1: are these incentives? We finally know if he wins any
Speaker 1: of these accolades MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, or
Speaker 1: is a full first team All Star this year, first
Speaker 1: team All NBA, excuse me, he is due to receive
Speaker 1: thirty eight million dollars more, thirty eight million dollars, thirty
Speaker 1: eight million reasons to be in shape and to ball
Speaker 1: out and to be completely healthy. I would definitely hire
Speaker 1: a nutritionist if thirty million dollars thirty eight million dollars
Speaker 1: was on the line. What does that mean? I think
Speaker 1: that means Zion is going to be an absolute wrecking
Speaker 1: ball and they are going to be the team, the
Speaker 1: team in the West to watch this year. Speaking of extensions,
Speaker 1: Tyler Hero, we talked about that last episode, but we
Speaker 1: now know what his extension looks like. Tyler Hero four years,
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty million dollars, ten million dollars in incentives,
Speaker 1: right around thirty two and a half million dollars per year.
Speaker 1: Remember he said last week there are players across the
Speaker 1: league who have got and paid who I know I
Speaker 1: am better than, So it's gotta be the right number. Well,
Speaker 1: he's making more than Jayleen Brunson right now, he's making
Speaker 1: more than Anfretty Simons right now. Apparently the right number
Speaker 1: for him, thirty two and a half million dollars seems
Speaker 1: like the right number. Also less than he would hope,
Speaker 1: also a lot more than I thought he was worth.
Speaker 1: I thought he was like twenty eight, twenty nine, and
Speaker 1: what's three and a half million dollars in the cap
Speaker 1: is as big as it is. But still at least
Speaker 1: he's no longer going to be a part of these
Speaker 1: trade rumors. Wonder what that means now though for Michigan
Speaker 1: player Duncan Robinson, who's just sitting there on the bench
Speaker 1: making I think sixteen million dollars per year. That was
Speaker 1: a bad signing. That was a really bad signing. So,
Speaker 1: speaking of trade rumors, nobody has been in more trade
Speaker 1: rumors outside of Myles Turner than Harrison Barnes. Harrison Barnes
Speaker 1: and Sacramento rumor to be traded to ten teams eleven
Speaker 1: teams maybe over the last two years, which is why
Speaker 1: when he was asked what it's like to be constantly
Speaker 1: looking over his shoulder, he gave a refreshingly honest answer.
Speaker 1: Barnes said, you know, the NBA, I check Woji checked Shawm's.
Speaker 1: They've still got me here. So as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 1: this is where I'm supposed to be and I'm going
Speaker 1: to give it my best effort. It's pretty incredible to
Speaker 1: hear that these NBA players literally don't hear news any
Speaker 1: earlier than us, Like we get the news the very
Speaker 1: first moment we can have it. That's why you have
Speaker 1: to have them on notifications. But it's nice to know
Speaker 1: that Harrison Barnes is checking for the WOJ bomb to
Speaker 1: see his name. And also, on a very separate side note,
Speaker 1: could you imagine if you had been fired and it
Speaker 1: happened on Twitter, like you find out on Twitter, Hey,
Speaker 1: come into my office. Nope, you don't get that. You
Speaker 1: get It's been reported that Trista Crik has been removed
Speaker 1: from the heat Check starting now. It's so wild. It's
Speaker 1: been ordered the tryst that has been traded to iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: like okay, where where am I going? Also quickly Yannis
Speaker 1: Yannis is a dark dude, as like a sonny of
Speaker 1: a disposition that he has, and as funny as he
Speaker 1: is and all these dad jokes. He likes dark movies.
Speaker 1: Disney Plus movie Rise was made about his upbringing. His
Speaker 1: criticism it wasn't dark enough. What I immediately said to myself, well,
Speaker 1: I need to know how dark was it, Like what
Speaker 1: was the darkest moment? I need to go to Milwaukee
Speaker 1: and ask what was the darkest moment of your upbringing?
Speaker 1: Because obviously you wanted it out there. You didn't want
Speaker 1: the whitewashed, wonderbred version out there. You wanted to put
Speaker 1: all of the grit and all of the grime. But
Speaker 1: I also went down a rabbit hole recently about why
Speaker 1: trauma is something that people keep writing about and putting
Speaker 1: out in films. It's very weird. Every book I tried
Speaker 1: to buy from the bookstore the other day, all centered
Speaker 1: around a dark past comes bubbling up that they must confront.
Speaker 1: It's like, no anyway. His biggest hurdle. Mama Anta Zakoumpo
Speaker 1: also didn't think that the movie was dark enough or
Speaker 1: true enough to reality. She was mad it wasn't more realistic.
Speaker 1: Did anybody tell him they could have done this with
Speaker 1: like HBO Max, Like it didn't need to be Disney Plus,
Speaker 1: Like I'm promise you HBO Max would have done that deal.
Speaker 1: It would have been like, all right, we're putting out
Speaker 1: House of Dragons, and then a season before that, we're
Speaker 1: putting out It's not called Rise, it's called like stay Down.
Speaker 1: I don't know. He's happy that the kids are responding
Speaker 1: to his life story, but he cannot wait. He says,
Speaker 1: for a movie about his life that will be more dark,
Speaker 1: because he said it will be more accurate that way.
Speaker 1: I need to know what happened. I need to know
Speaker 1: what happened. I know she was selling, his mom was
Speaker 1: selling like DVDs in Greece. I need to know. Moving on,
Speaker 1: reports hit the wires that Shack is currently interested in
Speaker 1: becoming a part of the new ownership group of the
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns. Shack wants to buy the Sons. Wasn't he
Speaker 1: there for like a season? He was the big Cactus,
Speaker 1: Big Cacti, and then he was something else. He went
Speaker 1: somewhere else pretty quickly after that when he went to
Speaker 1: the Heat. I mean, he has no real connection to Phoenix,
Speaker 1: especially considering that he shares a set with someone who
Speaker 1: is mister Phoenix Sons and Charles Barkley. So to me,
Speaker 1: it feels very petty. It feels like he wants to
Speaker 1: own it and have that to lure over Charles Barkley
Speaker 1: on TNT, really just to so he can make fun
Speaker 1: of him on TNT. Apparently he wants to get into
Speaker 1: business with Jeff Bezos, who is now rumored to be
Speaker 1: kicking the tires on the Suns. I don't want Jeff
Speaker 1: Bezos owning an NBA team. I don't he owns too
Speaker 1: many things. He just does. I don't want him owning
Speaker 1: every facet of my life. I went to a grocery
Speaker 1: store today. It was an Amazon grocery store. This is
Speaker 1: the scariest thing I've ever seen. You just scan a code,
Speaker 1: you put groceries in the bag and you leave. They
Speaker 1: don't even check you out. How do they know? They've
Speaker 1: got cameras, they've got weight markers, they correspond the weights
Speaker 1: to the foods. How do they know? How do they know?
Speaker 1: How do they get it all right? What if they
Speaker 1: overcharge me? What if they accused me of stealing when
Speaker 1: I didn't? All these things? Scary? Amazon? Jeff Bezos is
Speaker 1: a scary dude. What's he gonna do inside of an arena?
Speaker 1: Who knows? Really interesting? But the league does need Shack
Speaker 1: as an owner. I would like that. So here's a question.
Speaker 1: What NBA player can guard positions one through five? I
Speaker 1: think the list is pretty short, right, You've got like
Speaker 1: bam Adebayo, You've got Well, let's actually ask bam Adebayo
Speaker 1: who he thinks UH can do that. He has his
Speaker 1: own ideas. This is what bam said. He says, it's me, Draymond,
Speaker 1: and Jannie, three guys who can literally guard one through
Speaker 1: five and be effective. So he leaves off Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: who played one and now is gonna play five. So
Speaker 1: you would imagine he could probably guard two, three and
Speaker 1: four Lebron James. He just leaves Lebron James off. I
Speaker 1: think he can guard one through five. I think he's
Speaker 1: pretty effective at that h Who am I missing? Kevin Durant?
Speaker 1: Can Kevin Durant guard one through five? Be can guard
Speaker 1: maybe two? One and a half through five? A big
Speaker 1: point guard? Who am I missing? Are there any players
Speaker 1: with the length and the agility? Jason Tatum? Could he play?
Speaker 1: Could he guard one through five? I'm just throwing these
Speaker 1: names out here now. Length, agility to defend all positions,
Speaker 1: and strength to be able to take a bruising down
Speaker 1: low in the post. I'd like to know. Let me
Speaker 1: know what you guys think, either in the comments section,
Speaker 1: hit me up on Twitter? Am I missing anyone? Latest
Speaker 1: trade rumor? Buddy Healed and Miles Turner to the Lakers
Speaker 1: for both of their first round picks. This has been
Speaker 1: going on for forever. I'm done. I'm done with this
Speaker 1: Indiana Pacers Lakers trade like either do it or don't
Speaker 1: do it. I don't want to hear any more about
Speaker 1: Buddy Hill being in purple and gold, which will be
Speaker 1: an absolute nightmare of a scenario if it happens. I
Speaker 1: don't want to hear any more about Miles Turner being
Speaker 1: traded Like no more rumors. These are just this is
Speaker 1: the biggest tease. It's been going on for like four years,
Speaker 1: even when Buddy Hill was in Sacramento. We've been hearing
Speaker 1: about all these guys being traded. I'm done, Zach Lowe
Speaker 1: rep My best intel right now is if the Lakers
Speaker 1: called Indiana right now and said both picks unprotected, the
Speaker 1: Pacers would do that deal. I mean, yeah, two first
Speaker 1: round picks for guys that you don't like, like they
Speaker 1: don't like either one of them. Yes, of course that
Speaker 1: deal is gonna happen if you offer him your twenty
Speaker 1: five and twenty seven first round picks, which Lebron James
Speaker 1: will be as old as dust by Ben and so
Speaker 1: this team will be nowhere and Anthony Davis will probably
Speaker 1: be retired by twenty twenty seven. So of course, of
Speaker 1: course they're gonna do it. Well, the Lakers do it,
Speaker 1: that's the question, all right? Uh, Steve, someone asked Steve
Speaker 1: Nash about Ben simmons free throw woes, and he said,
Speaker 1: I believe in Ben as a free throw shooter. That's
Speaker 1: really nice to hear, Steve. I'm glad you believe in him.
Speaker 1: Was he supposed to say? What Doc Rivers said, I mean,
Speaker 1: then they've got to deal with like Ben never coming
Speaker 1: back to the team. He can't levy one bit of
Speaker 1: criticism on Ben Simmons if you're the coach publicly without
Speaker 1: him deciding he needs another back surgery. Like that's just facts.
Speaker 1: The last time we saw Ben Simmons, he shot thirty
Speaker 1: four percent from the line in the playoffs over twelve games.
Speaker 1: That was a point guard at that point shooting thirty
Speaker 1: four percent from the free throw line. I mean, what
Speaker 1: is he supposed to say? I guess, like I don't
Speaker 1: believe in Ben. I pray he never gets fouled. That's
Speaker 1: why we don't want the ball in his hands, like
Speaker 1: he's gonna pass every time he has the ball. Like
Speaker 1: that's why I said he doesn't. I don't want him
Speaker 1: shooting jump shots because God forbid, I have to have
Speaker 1: him shoot three free throws. Like what is he gonna say?
Speaker 1: I plan on benching him in the fourth quarter. Don't worry,
Speaker 1: like everything's fine. Like if if Steve nash knew how
Speaker 1: to manage his rotations, that's what he would do. Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons out there, quarters one two and three, quarters one
Speaker 1: and three, when the pressure is the let the least.
Speaker 1: Of course, you guys say that it's just like Steve
Speaker 1: Nash is maybe the worst, may be the worst coach
Speaker 1: in the NBA right now. And that's saying a lot.
Speaker 1: Because Steve Clifford's back, folks. Also Rachel Nichols, She's back, folks.
Speaker 1: She uh. The coast is clear for Rachel Nichols given
Speaker 1: the fact that the world has turned their attention on
Speaker 1: spewing venom at Malika Andrews. So now Rachel Nichols comes
Speaker 1: from the clouds and announces she's now with Showtime Sports.
Speaker 1: She gave her first interview with the All the Smoke guys.
Speaker 1: She went through her entire point of view over why
Speaker 1: she was ousted or pushed out from ESPN. Listen, I
Speaker 1: like people getting a second chance. But if I am
Speaker 1: if I am, Matt Barnes and Jack, we're not putting
Speaker 1: out that promo right now. We have the entire world
Speaker 1: going after Malika and questioning her blackness. We can't have
Speaker 1: and we were connected in the Rachel Nichols saga as
Speaker 1: the only people of color that she would put on
Speaker 1: her show were us. We can't. We can't promote her
Speaker 1: coming back right now. We gotta push this announcement dog
Speaker 1: a week maybe nine days. This can't be. We can't
Speaker 1: be connected to this. We gotta we gotta reshoot this.
Speaker 1: This is like the day after Malika's Andrew's got destroyed
Speaker 1: by Twitter, people being like bringing Rachel Nichols back, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's like I beck like, no,
Speaker 1: we can't have that. We can't have that. That just
Speaker 1: shows you the one day you're on the spit, next
Speaker 1: you're part of the fire. She turned in just really
Speaker 1: lands on her feet. Rachel Nichols shocking, shocking. Rachel Nichols
Speaker 1: is uh is resilient. I'll just say that, moving forward forward.
Speaker 1: Chet Holmgren, Poor, poor chet Holmgren. On the day the
Speaker 1: preseason began, he tweeted this, it was like one of
Speaker 1: the most heartbreaking things I've ever seen all caps. I
Speaker 1: want a hoop, Damn, damn. I want to see you
Speaker 1: hoop too. Chet Holmgren. Reports say that he's reached out
Speaker 1: to Joel Embiid for advice on what it's like to
Speaker 1: miss his entire rookie year. He said, I briefly spoke
Speaker 1: to Joel on what his experience was like and talked
Speaker 1: to one of his trainers a little bit and got
Speaker 1: some kind words of advice. Awesome, awesome stuff. Also, how
Speaker 1: come he didn't contact Ben Simmons. He missed his whole
Speaker 1: rookie year too. It's weird really quick aside, did you
Speaker 1: guys see that Instagram photo? And it was Kyrie, Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant and Ben and Ben was just like on the
Speaker 1: left side of the photo and he's like looking at bit.
Speaker 1: He's like looking at Kai and Katie and there like
Speaker 1: looking at only each other, like just icing them out
Speaker 1: of the photo, like just turning their entire shoulder, like
Speaker 1: who invited this guy? Who invited this guy? Who is
Speaker 1: this guy? He's like the pr guy off to the side,
Speaker 1: like the agent, not involved in the conversation in any way,
Speaker 1: just eating pizza. Anyway, Back to Chet Holmgren, I can't
Speaker 1: wait to see him. Can't wait to see him back. Finally,
Speaker 1: in my tweet of the week, we get to see
Speaker 1: James Wiseman not only ball out to the tune of
Speaker 1: twenty points nine rebounds, which is also I actually don't
Speaker 1: know which is more surprising. Ben Simmons James Wiseman excuse
Speaker 1: me being fully healthy and dominant or James Wiseman to
Speaker 1: decide in Japan to go in full Samurai gear and
Speaker 1: use a Samurai sword to drop a bamboo target in half.
Speaker 1: James Wiseman in a Samurai suit with a Samurai sword
Speaker 1: in Japan, it's like Tom Cruise, the last Samurai's James Wiseman.
Speaker 1: I think if there's one guy though, because he's had
Speaker 1: so many injuries. If there's one guy, if I'm the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors, I don't want to be wielding one
Speaker 1: of the most sharp swords on Earth. It's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're giving you Valerian steel, a Valerian Steel sword, and
Speaker 1: a dragon. There you go. James Wiseman play play Game
Speaker 1: of Thrones. It's like, no, I don't want James Wiseman
Speaker 1: like cause playing anything that could lead him to get
Speaker 1: injured again, even a flesh wound, because you know, like
Speaker 1: James Wiseman will get a flesh wound and then it
Speaker 1: would ultimately get infected and then he would probably end
Speaker 1: up losing a limb because like that's how bad of
Speaker 1: luck that he has. It'd be like you remember when
Speaker 1: James Wiseman lost from his elbow to his hand because
Speaker 1: he accidentally cut himself with a Samurai sword on a
Speaker 1: pr trip during training camp to Japan. That shit was crazy.
Speaker 1: What could have been if James Wiseman wasn't messing around
Speaker 1: trying to play samurai. Do you guys remember when Jaguars
Speaker 1: kicker Chris Hansen ended his season by hitting himself in
Speaker 1: the leg with an axe trying to chop wood in
Speaker 1: the locker room, Like, that's what I imagine happening to
Speaker 1: James Wiseman. Like, just James Wiseman out for the year, Dodo,
Speaker 1: and then you have to go to like NBA dot
Speaker 1: com Slash Injuries and it's like James Wiseman out designation
Speaker 1: Samurai sword flesh wound. That's what it is. What a
Speaker 1: piece of memorabilia that was. We can only hope there
Speaker 1: will not be a Samurai sword sitting inside of one
Speaker 1: of Lacub's offices or one of James Wiseman's locker in
Speaker 1: the future. Don't want to see that short episode. Not
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff happening in the NBA. But that
Speaker 1: is all the time that we have for the heat check.
Speaker 1: We would be back Thursday and Friday. We'll be at
Speaker 1: Friday with the new episode. Please check out the feed
Speaker 1: for past episodes of the off season as we get
Speaker 1: you ready for the twenty twenty two twenty twenty three season.
Speaker 1: Do not forget to download. Please subscribe, Please tell your
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Speaker 1: check and at Tristan Creek on Today