Speaker 1: Robin Lumberg.
Speaker 2: Rob enjoined my show Night There's seven to eleven Standard
Speaker 2: time Monday Friday. I was joined by my co host
Speaker 2: Big Ash and my friendj Glass or I'm listening. Very
Speaker 2: few people in the league see it like Robin.
Speaker 3: When you see this, when you hear these stories, do
Speaker 3: you look at this and say, Okay, it's a team
Speaker 3: that's struggling a little bit and this is what's coming out,
Speaker 3: or does it feel like it's maybe something bigger like
Speaker 3: the Darvin ham eras crazy enough already unraveling in LA.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, look, they won the nd season tournament.
Speaker 4: They're a banner and everything.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: I said it at the time, and I was only
Speaker 4: half joking that Lebron and the Lakers need to go
Speaker 4: as hard as they possibly can for the n season
Speaker 4: tournament because you know they are Their roster is not
Speaker 4: that talented from top to bottom.
Speaker 1: When you look at it, they really don't have shooting.
Speaker 4: They've got Tory in print playing minutes, Guys like that
Speaker 4: out there playing minutes. Lebron is the oldest player in
Speaker 4: the league. Anthony Davis, you know, as the street closed
Speaker 4: meme going on for him, So counting on those guys
Speaker 4: to not only be healthy in the playoffs is enough,
Speaker 4: but also counting on the rest of that talent around
Speaker 4: them being enough is too much. So I really did
Speaker 4: think going for the nd season tournament was a really
Speaker 4: good idea for them. But yeah, I mean I think
Speaker 4: once you start seeing stuff like this from Shams and
Speaker 4: the like, there is smoke to that fire that they've
Speaker 4: been in a bit of a tailspin. And we all
Speaker 4: know the coach is always the easy scapegoat, you know,
Speaker 4: Rob Low I mean, Rob Plinka ain't gonna get canned,
Speaker 4: you know, in the middle of the season right now,
Speaker 4: So it's it clearly there's some disconnect, some discontent going
Speaker 4: on with that team. I mean goes back to Austin
Speaker 4: Reeves and even reports of him having friction with Darvin
Speaker 4: Hamm and he's probably the third best player on that team.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I think the Lakers do have legitimate issues,
Speaker 4: and roster can production, aside from rotation, is one of them.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think Genie is a big part of that too,
Speaker 5: unfortunately hiring a lot of her friends. I know, Linda
Speaker 5: Rambis is like making calls and I think she was
Speaker 5: a Laker girl back in like the Showtime Era and
Speaker 5: then her and Kurt just kind of hung around. Emanuel
Speaker 5: Quickly though near and dear to my heart six Man
Speaker 5: of the Year candidate, he probably should have won it
Speaker 5: last year. He goes to Toronto, probably going to get
Speaker 5: the absolute bag. He goes crazy in his starting role
Speaker 5: twenty six points. How do you think he and RJ
Speaker 5: affect Toronto moving forward?
Speaker 1: Who quickly needed that sort of changing scenery?
Speaker 4: I think because of the conflict with Brunson, I mean,
Speaker 4: through no fault of his own. Those two guys just
Speaker 4: played the same position, and Brunson is really good, you know, Brenson,
Speaker 4: aside from his height, it doesn't really get enough credit
Speaker 4: for what he's actually done with the Knicks in the
Speaker 4: league at this point, so quickly was never going to
Speaker 4: get all the way off the leash with the Knicks
Speaker 4: just because of that position. Fit in the fact that
Speaker 4: you couldn't play those two guys together. So I like
Speaker 4: that look for Toronto there.
Speaker 1: RJ.
Speaker 4: Barrett was never that much of an impact player for
Speaker 4: the Knicks, but maybe back home and Kennedy played well
Speaker 4: for the national team as well. You know, it's just
Speaker 4: the kind of thing, perhaps a change of scenery less
Speaker 4: expectations will help him out. So Toronto was going really nowhere.
Speaker 4: There was no reason for them not to take a
Speaker 4: swing at something that could stick. And it looks so
Speaker 4: far like the move has been a good fit.
Speaker 6: And then on the other side, Robin, I mean from
Speaker 6: the Knicks perspective, did you like them trading for Og
Speaker 6: And then do you think like the Knicks finally have
Speaker 6: enough now for them to go out in the offseason
Speaker 6: and attract one of these big free agents.
Speaker 4: You know, I think I like the move quite a
Speaker 4: bit actually, because, like I just said, that they needed
Speaker 4: that wing position they had quickly giving them a glut
Speaker 4: at that guard spot. Now maybe they need a backup there.
Speaker 4: I think they could use an upgrade at shooting guard.
Speaker 4: But they had Brunson, they had Randall oj Og goes
Speaker 4: in tween and that's a good fit for them.
Speaker 1: As far as a big star, I mean, we're so caught.
Speaker 4: We're almost like trained with muscle memory to do the
Speaker 4: same exercises in the NBA.
Speaker 1: So they need to get the guy. They're got to
Speaker 1: go get the gotta make the move. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's the way that the league is constructed anymore.
Speaker 4: Every super team that's put together fails now, Yes, you know,
Speaker 4: everyone falls apart at the seams. We're already like talking
Speaker 4: about the devise of the Phoenix Suns. They were just
Speaker 4: put together. So I don't think we're in that era anymore.
Speaker 4: In fact, I think one thing. Look at the odds
Speaker 4: right right there on my screen. Look how close and
Speaker 4: bunched up a lot of those teams are. None of
Speaker 4: those are super teams per se. I mean, obviously Milwaukee
Speaker 4: now has Giannis and Dame. The Celtics have a bunch
Speaker 4: of guys, but the Heat were in the finals a
Speaker 4: year ago. No one's calling them a super team. Plus
Speaker 4: fifteen hundred looks pretty good to me given their recent history.
Speaker 4: So I think the NBA has done a good job
Speaker 4: at developing parody in a certain sense, where we're now
Speaker 4: in a world where the Oklahoma City Thunder or all
Speaker 4: the sudden contenders, the Minnesota Timberwolves are all the sudden contenders.
Speaker 1: You're probably could list off six eight.
Speaker 4: Teams who realistically could at least be in the mix.
Speaker 4: So I don't think the Knicks have to go out
Speaker 4: there and land the biggest fish possible.
Speaker 1: I think they have to continue to.
Speaker 4: Build on their roster and improve their personnel because they
Speaker 4: aren't that far away. I mean the heat I just mentioned,
Speaker 4: we're in the finals last year. The Knicks won six
Speaker 4: games with them last season without these moves, So I
Speaker 4: think they keep making those moves around the margins, they
Speaker 4: could be right in the mix.
Speaker 3: Yeah, where do the Knicks stack up to you?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 3: I mean we haven't seen much obviously with this new
Speaker 3: roster in the way that it's constructed yet. But the East,
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm looking here. We got the magic, the
Speaker 3: Cavs and the Knicks all sitting there at nineteen and fifteen,
Speaker 3: and again, look, we got a long season ahead of us.
Speaker 3: The magic could fall off, although we've all sat here
Speaker 3: and talked about how much we like the magic coming
Speaker 3: into the season. Anyway, so fingers crossed it doesn't have
Speaker 3: you know, we've got a few bets on that division winner.
Speaker 3: But like, just it feels like right now we haven't
Speaker 3: gotten to the point where a lot of teams have
Speaker 3: truly separated themselves besides maybe a Boston, but we found
Speaker 3: moments where Boston's incredibly frustrating too. Like I kind of
Speaker 3: feel like the Knicks are in a spot where they
Speaker 3: could easily climb back up to like maybe around like
Speaker 3: the four spot, maybe surpassed the Pacers because they're kind
Speaker 3: of up and down. It just everything feels very very
Speaker 3: wide open right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, that was what I was just saying.
Speaker 4: I think the Knicks are probably the fifth best team
Speaker 4: in the conference, you know, looking at it on paper,
Speaker 4: given the heat, the pedigree points, given Boston and Milwaukee
Speaker 4: the edge, and then Phillies look really good. That's another team,
Speaker 4: sneaky team around the deadline. You know, Darryl Morey's always
Speaker 4: been very aggressive. One move could really put the Sixers
Speaker 4: over the top.
Speaker 1: Though.
Speaker 4: I'm you know, I'm not a big believer in Embiid
Speaker 4: when it comes to the postseason, just because he's usually
Speaker 4: broken down around that point in time and he doesn't
Speaker 4: get the same calls generational flopper for a big man.
Speaker 4: But you know, when the when the refing gets a
Speaker 4: little tighter. But yeah, I'd say the Knicks are right
Speaker 4: in that group of teams.
Speaker 1: Again. They were, they were there last year.
Speaker 4: Stop line used to be that the Knicks have won
Speaker 4: one playoff series since I graduated from high school. That
Speaker 4: is no longer true because they won a playoff series
Speaker 4: a year ago. So that's now two playoff series since
Speaker 4: I graduated from high school. And if they could win
Speaker 4: a playoff series, who's to say they can't win two
Speaker 4: With a slight improvement like they just made. I wouldn't
Speaker 4: be shocked if the Knicks are in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 5: Finals, especially now that they have some guys, or at
Speaker 5: least a guy, and Og and Nobi, who's a really
Speaker 5: good corner catch and shoot three point shooter. We saw
Speaker 5: what happened against the Miami Heat when they stopped being
Speaker 5: able to score from deep. They just packed the pain
Speaker 5: on them. I do want to get your thoughts on
Speaker 5: the Brooklyn Nets, and I know it's not a sexy
Speaker 5: team to talk about, but they're fascinating because they're hanging around.
Speaker 5: They have reasons to compete. I mean, you would imagine
Speaker 5: they don't own their own draft picks due to the
Speaker 5: trades that they've made, and yet they seem already to
Speaker 5: be punting on the season, especially that game right around
Speaker 5: the Christmas break against Milwaukee where Jacques Vaughn sat every
Speaker 5: one for absolutely no reason against a packed house.
Speaker 4: That was the move of contender makes, which was strange,
Speaker 4: you know, The reason that game stood out was Mchael Bridges.
Speaker 4: That game would not have been talked about the same
Speaker 4: way if it wasn't for Bridges to streak, because we
Speaker 4: see teams rest guys all the time now, usually it
Speaker 4: is a team that plans to be playing late into
Speaker 4: the spring and into the early summer, and that's not
Speaker 4: going to be the Brooklyn Nets. But they sat everybody
Speaker 4: but cam Thomas and Bridges. Bridges obviously played because of
Speaker 4: his streak and then didn't go back into the game.
Speaker 4: That was what was so curious about it and really
Speaker 4: so infuriating if you're rooting for the team, because it
Speaker 4: was a winnable game, and then it's hard for jacqu
Speaker 4: Vaughn to get up there and go, you know, we
Speaker 4: gotta dive on the floor, we gotta make all these
Speaker 4: hustle plays when you totally give up on a game.
Speaker 4: So I don't think they they're punting the season because
Speaker 4: of that.
Speaker 1: I think they were expecting to then win the next.
Speaker 4: Game against the Wizards, but their season has gone to
Speaker 4: a tailspin since then. They haven't won a game since then.
Speaker 4: They lost to the Wizards, who obviously they should beat.
Speaker 4: They losto the rockets last. They look lifeless, they look
Speaker 4: soulless right now, and they're stuck in a nebulous area because,
Speaker 4: like you said, Trista, they don't have their own draft picks,
Speaker 4: so there's no incentive to tank right now. At the
Speaker 4: same time, they're clearly not contenders and their best assets
Speaker 4: are down the line. Like I really, I'm a fan
Speaker 4: of the Kevin Durant trade, all things considered. Once you know,
Speaker 4: once that red button is pushed, you know you're forced
Speaker 4: into making a move. I thought they did as well
Speaker 4: as you possibly could, getting Bridges and Johnson back, not
Speaker 4: to mention four first round picks, pick swaps, whatever the
Speaker 4: rest of that package was. And if you look at
Speaker 4: the way Phoenix is constructed, very good chance they are
Speaker 4: bad when those picks come due. But they're still paying
Speaker 4: the debt on the Harden trade to Houston. They owe
Speaker 4: their pick to Houston this year, So you make the argument,
Speaker 4: I suppose sell off everything and just try to get
Speaker 4: as many assets back, but that's probably not helping you
Speaker 4: in the short term. I think most likely they're keeping
Speaker 4: what they consider their core pieces, the Twins. I don't
Speaker 4: know what the organization thinks about Cam Thomas because he's
Speaker 4: weirdly been jerked around.
Speaker 1: Where's he's not.
Speaker 4: Starting, then he's starting, then he's not starting, then he's
Speaker 4: getting pulled after struggling a little bit, when really you
Speaker 4: should be developing somebody like him over Spencer Dinwiddie. I guess,
Speaker 4: even though you know Thomas has his flaws, but maybe
Speaker 4: they view him as a trade chip. I'm curious to
Speaker 4: see where they go if they make a desperate move
Speaker 4: at the deadline, or if they make more like marginal
Speaker 4: moves like trading Dinwittie who's in expiring, trading Claxton who's inexpiring,
Speaker 4: trading guys like Royce O'Neill and Dorian Finney Smith who
Speaker 4: might have value to contenders and not value to them
Speaker 4: right now, and still trying to build around those guys
Speaker 4: who are in their late twenties on good contracts.
Speaker 6: Rob What about the Grizzlies. Obviously now with John Arampack,
Speaker 6: they're playing a lot better. They're five and a half
Speaker 6: games behind the Lakers for that ten seed, and they'll
Speaker 6: playing game if that were to happen today. I think
Speaker 6: the tough thing with the Grizzlies for me, it's like
Speaker 6: if they end up making like a nine or ten seed,
Speaker 6: Like who's the team that they would replace? But do
Speaker 6: you think maybe they're worth a bet long term with
Speaker 6: job back now in the fold.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I gotta check my receipts and see what
Speaker 1: they say. You know, I keep them.
Speaker 4: I still don't know what John Morant was talking about.
Speaker 4: Did anybody ever say he wasn't a good basketball?
Speaker 1: What the case?
Speaker 4: But it's tough in the West, and with all those
Speaker 4: teams bunched up when you start in that kind of hole. Now,
Speaker 4: the play in tournament changes the whole game in a sense,
Speaker 4: because we were just talking about the nets, and the
Speaker 4: nets are what five games under five hundred right now,
Speaker 4: but still in the play in tournament, right so your
Speaker 4: your your life raft is a lot longer nowadays. It's
Speaker 4: it's not like Leonardo DiCaprio from The Titanic.
Speaker 1: You're not getting kicked off that sink it to the
Speaker 1: bottom of the ocean. You can hang on and cling
Speaker 1: on for longer.
Speaker 4: But I think that the Grizzlies started in a little
Speaker 4: bit too much of a hole to really get up
Speaker 4: there with.
Speaker 3: I got about a minut is so left here. We
Speaker 3: were talking about the Warriors earlier sixteen and seventeen. Draymond's
Speaker 3: gonna be back with them soon. I mean, clearly, they've
Speaker 3: they've gotten older. This is what happens with great teams.
Speaker 3: It's just the way the NBA works. Are they still
Speaker 3: a playoff team in your eyes? Are they just a
Speaker 3: play in team in your eyes at this point? Because
Speaker 3: I feel like it's still really hard to write them
Speaker 3: off just given the history of this team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think they're right on that bubble seven, eight, nine, ten.
Speaker 4: But Steph Curry is you know, it's funny all the
Speaker 4: Steph Lebron talk over the years because now Curry is
Speaker 4: in the position Lebron was once in where he's actually,
Speaker 4: of all the superstars in the league, probably asked to
Speaker 4: do more than anybody else when it comes to singularly
Speaker 4: carrying a team. Klay Thompson is not the same player
Speaker 4: he once was. Draymond Green can't stop choking people or
Speaker 4: you know, doing whatever he's doing to get himself suspended.
Speaker 4: You got who else is Wiggins was benched. I mean,
Speaker 4: they got, you know, cominga guy, little.
Speaker 1: Nice pieces, but they don't have another scorer.
Speaker 4: Really, they don't have consistent secondary production point second third
Speaker 4: production point wise, A lot of that's coming from staff,
Speaker 4: so I really just don't think they have the horses
Speaker 4: anymore to get it done.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy, but all all good things come to
Speaker 3: an end in the NBA, as we've seen Robin Lundberg s,
Speaker 3: I now appreciate it time man, Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1: You got it.
Speaker 4: You remember everybody who talks about Michael Jordan never losing
Speaker 4: when his dynasty ended, he quit to go play baseball.
Speaker 3: Exactly, he dodged. He dodged all the criticism. He knew,
Speaker 3: he knew, but the damn legacy was gonna be to
Speaker 3: smart move.
Speaker 1: Thanks for roving he did.
Speaker 3: He played baseball, came back, team was good again, and
Speaker 3: then you know what, Like nobody ever talks about Jordan
Speaker 3: and the Wizards by the way, let's let's just bring
Speaker 3: that up. I remember those days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he's.
Speaker 3: Having he's having himself A night I watched the Spurs
Speaker 3: and I'm like, why aren't they better?
Speaker 1: Like they have some talent?
Speaker 6: I got you, trust done.
Speaker 3: He's on a nationally televised game going after GM to
Speaker 3: night