Speaker 1: Well, well, well, the All Star break has coming gone.
Speaker 1: We're getting ready for the playoff push around the league.
Speaker 1: Games are about to start up here in the past,
Speaker 1: I guess they've already started up for you listening. In
Speaker 1: the future, we're gonna recap some of the some of
Speaker 1: our favorite moments in the All Star weekend. We're going
Speaker 1: to discuss the state of the AM I seeing this right, Lakers,
Speaker 1: and plenty more with singer artist, NBA writer Claire de
Speaker 1: Loom on today's episode. I'm Jack O'Brien and this is
Speaker 1: JABORI and from Miles and this is Miles and jackets
Speaker 1: seez dog? Sorry, got it? Look a dog hitch. Okay,
Speaker 1: there you go and be driving spinning. So bunch got
Speaker 1: it with five? Is going to try another three?
Speaker 2: Mister?
Speaker 1: Okay, change to Claire. What's going on? Hi? It's good
Speaker 1: to be back, a returning champion, one of our faves.
Speaker 1: Great to have you back. Your album dropped, Spirit of
Speaker 1: the Staircase.
Speaker 3: It did, yeah November, Yeah, congratulations, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: The band is Tiny Deaths. I think I know what.
Speaker 1: That's a reference to naps. It's a reference to naps, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: because sleep is the cousin of death.
Speaker 4: I thought it was every Laker lossy.
Speaker 1: So we this is an unbiased podcast, just three unbiased
Speaker 1: journalists kicking it around, have no uh, you know, affinity
Speaker 1: for any particular NBA team. But before we get to
Speaker 1: the Lakers and just like what's going on around the
Speaker 1: league as we head into the playoff push, I did
Speaker 1: want to check in how was everybody's All Star weekend?
Speaker 2: Like what was what?
Speaker 1: But maybe we could open with the best thing you
Speaker 1: saw this whole weekend? Mine was. I think it was
Speaker 1: just like phone videos of Luca and warm ups doing
Speaker 1: those like half court sho.
Speaker 3: Bounce when he called bounce and then it actually bounced in.
Speaker 1: I was like, it's cheap spell.
Speaker 3: Did you cast that?
Speaker 1: He is like truly a magician with the ball, Like
Speaker 1: I said that about people with ball handling, but his
Speaker 1: shot making is so like Jabari and I were talking
Speaker 1: about this earlier that you know, usually with great shooters,
Speaker 1: their their shot generally like always looks the same. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, they have a like Steph's shot. You you
Speaker 1: just like know what it's going to look like and
Speaker 1: you kind of know that the path the ball is
Speaker 1: going to travel. Yeah, Luca just can do. Also, it
Speaker 1: truly is like wizardry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 1: I don't like it. It freaks me out.
Speaker 3: I need him and I need him and Jokic to
Speaker 3: end up on the same team, both because they seem
Speaker 3: like they're good friends who enjoy each other's company, but
Speaker 3: also because they're the only two people in the league
Speaker 3: that I personally think have that in common where it's like,
Speaker 3: it's not like you look like you know what you're doing.
Speaker 3: It's like you look like there was a magical spell.
Speaker 1: Calf.
Speaker 3: You had one wish and it was to be the
Speaker 3: best basketball player alive, and it came true, and now
Speaker 3: nothing can leave your hand without going in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I watch this.
Speaker 4: I just have to say, for the rest of the
Speaker 4: basketball loving world that is not a Mavericks or Denver fan,
Speaker 4: why are you wishing this upon us?
Speaker 1: Because I can't tell you now.
Speaker 4: There are several combinations of players in the league that
Speaker 4: I absolutely don't want to see if it's not on
Speaker 4: my team. And that's that's pretty high up there.
Speaker 1: Wait, I'm sorry. Isn't the implication always that every good
Speaker 1: player is going to end up playing for the Lakers. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Claire was implying that this would be with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: that they would.
Speaker 3: Be wearing the You know what, what I was revealing
Speaker 3: is my ultimate truth, which is that above any allegiance
Speaker 3: to any team or any fandom, I'm just a fan
Speaker 3: of excellence, guys, and I just want to see excellent
Speaker 3: basketball at the highest level. And also I'm a fan
Speaker 3: of friendship. I think friendship is first and foremost my
Speaker 3: priority in this life.
Speaker 1: So I just wondered, Yeah, anti friends. Yeah, yeah, And
Speaker 1: Luca's energy like he's he's winning me over, like he
Speaker 1: has Jabari you made. You made the point that he
Speaker 1: has like some Golden Retriever energy to him, Like he
Speaker 1: just like seems he's just like kind of like bounce.
Speaker 3: I feel like he has Mutt. He definitely has dog energy,
Speaker 3: but I feel like he has Mutt energy. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: just dog than golden because I think he seems a
Speaker 3: little more like like Golden Retrievers seem like there's just
Speaker 3: nothing going on behind the eyes in a way that's
Speaker 3: really charming. They're just sort of like I'm just happy
Speaker 3: to be here. Yeah, Luca, Like, no Golden Retriever would
Speaker 3: complain that much to a referee. That's right, I feel
Speaker 3: confident in that assertion. Yeah, it's some terrier in him,
Speaker 3: I think, is my point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he reminds me of like when our dogs would
Speaker 1: like get to a yard after being cooped up too
Speaker 1: long and just like they're just psyched to be there
Speaker 1: and they're running around yeah. Fun, but also they're complaining
Speaker 1: endlessly when they're not in the yard. You know.
Speaker 3: Like, So did you feel because you said he's growing
Speaker 3: on you? Did you feel because I felt like I
Speaker 3: am a huge Luca fan. I love him, I love
Speaker 3: watching him. The All Star Game attitude like really irked me.
Speaker 3: It was his attitude and his in particular. It wasn't
Speaker 3: just him, but I felt like he was the worst
Speaker 3: about it because he didn't he he didn't even really
Speaker 3: have like a moment in the game where he seemed
Speaker 3: like he gave a crap. And I feel like at
Speaker 3: least some of the other players, they're like, all right,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna like phone it in for ninety five percent
Speaker 3: of this game, but I'm going.
Speaker 1: To like do this one fun a cool thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And Luca was just like, I literally have my
Speaker 3: uber black booked to the airport for forty five minutes
Speaker 3: from now.
Speaker 1: Are we done yet, He was like, didn't you see
Speaker 1: what I did in warm ups? That was cool? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was done? Here?
Speaker 3: Can you do the check shot on the court? Luca?
Speaker 3: Is that so much to ask? Can you do something
Speaker 3: cool during the game?
Speaker 1: It does make me want to like as shot making
Speaker 1: has entered like new levels of like greatness and also
Speaker 1: like new dimensions where people are just like making it
Speaker 1: from uh so far away. It does Dame half.
Speaker 3: Court shot was really cool. I don't want to hear
Speaker 3: any hate about that.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I was happy to see it. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: because I feel it. It's a thing that is in
Speaker 1: my mind when I'm watching an NBA game is like, man,
Speaker 1: he could just like pull up from anywhere, Like when
Speaker 1: are we gonna just games start doing that? Like that's
Speaker 1: the offense, Whereas.
Speaker 3: Luca was like, I do not dream of labor, which
Speaker 3: you know I understand. But my favorite, okay, my favorite
Speaker 3: moment from All Star Weekend. I love all the videos
Speaker 3: of people of players with their kids. That's truly my achilles.
Speaker 3: I feel like like any video behind the scenes of
Speaker 3: a player with their child, like Damian Lillard's daughter taking
Speaker 3: his picture with a disposable camera or Bam, like messing
Speaker 3: with Jason Tatum's kid. I also really liked when Lebron
Speaker 3: was trolling Luca on the bench and talking about his
Speaker 3: first All Star appearance and he was like, yeah, it
Speaker 3: was nineteen sixty eight. It was me and both Chamberlain and.
Speaker 1: I.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I wish there was more of that. Yeah, wud
Speaker 3: be my number one if I was named commissioner tomorrow.
Speaker 3: If Adam Silver was like, dude, I've had enough exam.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're not sure that that's not going to happen.
Speaker 3: We can It's hard to say, but if the way
Speaker 3: is he Adam, here's my pitch.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 3: Well as famously, I'm next in line to be NBA commissioner,
Speaker 3: so I mean it's a matter of time. I'm the
Speaker 3: Kendle Roll. That's not what you want to be at all.
Speaker 3: I don't think that's what you want to be either, actually,
Speaker 3: come to think of it. Anyway, my first change would
Speaker 3: be that you could pay a premium package. You had
Speaker 3: to prove that you're over eighteen, but you could pay
Speaker 3: a premium package to hear a miked up alt cast
Speaker 3: of every NBA game, and like they could take turns
Speaker 3: making up different players on each team like for a
Speaker 3: few minutes a game or whatever, but like the stuff
Speaker 3: they say on the bench, like the trash talk. I
Speaker 3: want to hear all of it. That is like one
Speaker 3: of the most fun parts of the game, and we
Speaker 3: don't get it except for in very small, very watered
Speaker 3: down doses. So I would love to hear more.
Speaker 1: It is. What's great about basketball compared to other sports
Speaker 1: is that we just like get full access to their
Speaker 1: face to like their personality on the court. They're just
Speaker 1: there fully for us to drink in. I didn't mean
Speaker 1: to make that sound that creepy, but the you know,
Speaker 1: if they yeah, if we got more access to the
Speaker 1: miked up stuff, that would be great. Sorry my pitch
Speaker 1: on the shot making though, Like I I know they
Speaker 1: did horse during the pandemic. Yeah it was cool, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't like I feel like a like, you know,
Speaker 1: full packed house for a horse game between like Luca
Speaker 1: and Steph or something, you know, like somebody who's an
Speaker 1: amated Stephan Dame and Luca. I feel like Jokic, like
Speaker 1: I want to see that weird shots like that would
Speaker 1: be so out.
Speaker 3: Would love to see.
Speaker 2: More.
Speaker 3: Silly Do we have more silliness, like just more silly games,
Speaker 3: more like just fun. I mean, I feel like, make
Speaker 3: the skills challenge even weirder, make it even goofier. I
Speaker 3: want people having to hula hoop at half court before
Speaker 3: they try and pull up for a shot. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: just like, bring me the hijinks.
Speaker 4: You know, here for it.
Speaker 1: And what was your moment of the weekend.
Speaker 4: I'm actually piggybacking on Claire's point. I am an absolute
Speaker 4: sucker with jack and I discussed this before the show.
Speaker 4: I'm a sucker for any behind the scenes footage. I
Speaker 4: love seeing the old school footage in fact, especially of
Speaker 4: the players and the moment. My best moment was when
Speaker 4: they showed Haimi haak.
Speaker 1: Is as a kid. Oh I love that dunking on
Speaker 1: the smaller court.
Speaker 4: Yeah, those mom or whomever was in the background asked,
Speaker 4: you know, like who are you and he's like, I'm Shack.
Speaker 4: And then forward to you know, this year's dunk contest,
Speaker 4: and you know, I think Jackie have the point that
Speaker 4: you made probably one of the best dunks of the night,
Speaker 4: if not the best duncan that he's jumping over Shack from. Yeah,
Speaker 4: read their lying, so you know moments like that coming
Speaker 4: full circle in any of the behind the scenes stuff,
Speaker 4: you know, that's my preference for sure.
Speaker 1: That was my favorite dunk of the night, Like the
Speaker 1: fact that he windmilled, jumped from distance, jumped.
Speaker 3: Over the underrated dunk. I was both him and Jacob Toppin.
Speaker 3: I'm like justice for them because of their dunks, Like
Speaker 3: Jalen Brown jumped over a guy who was like five
Speaker 3: to two on a good day sitting in a chair
Speaker 3: and got a forty nine. And JJJ, who I understand
Speaker 3: is not Jalen Brown caliber of All Star, but he is,
Speaker 3: like he has been a starter for the most of
Speaker 3: the year for Miami. It's not like he's he's not
Speaker 3: a g leaguer, you know, And he was. He was
Speaker 3: putting himself on the line as well to do the
Speaker 3: dunk contest and maybe should have gotten the benefit of
Speaker 3: the doubt with his scores as well. I thought, you know,
Speaker 3: like I heard a lot of talk about, like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: Jaylen Brown, it's really good for the league to have
Speaker 3: stars of that caliber participating, and I'm like, it absolutely is,
Speaker 3: and I don't think they're wrong, but I think you
Speaker 3: could put Himahawks in the category of like a star
Speaker 3: that didn't really necessarily have that much to gain, Like
Speaker 3: he's a rookie, but he's in the top five, like
Speaker 3: rookie of the year conversation. So yeah, I thought also
Speaker 3: very underrated.
Speaker 1: Just from a novelty perspective, is the first time we've
Speaker 1: seen someone do it dunk that that spectacular with like
Speaker 1: guy at a fish concert hair and like there's just
Speaker 1: that that's unique, Like that's gonna stick in my mind,
Speaker 1: like those those locks flowing behind him as he jumps
Speaker 1: over shack and windmills.
Speaker 3: I decided what he looks like because I've been trying
Speaker 3: to figureut. I'm like, what does he remind me of?
Speaker 3: He looks like like a villain in like an early
Speaker 3: two thousand's Western movie.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, he looks like he could be
Speaker 1: in the Cowboys like the Tombstone Bad Guys, or like.
Speaker 3: The Wild Wild West like the Will Smith Salmahayak. Like
Speaker 3: he looks like a villain in that. Yes, it's the
Speaker 3: facial hair more than the like the head of hair.
Speaker 3: The head of hair is just immaculate in any time,
Speaker 3: any era, any movie category. The facial hair is giving
Speaker 3: early two thousand's iteration of a wild Western villain.
Speaker 1: It's given wiki wild, wild Wicked.
Speaker 3: It's given wiki West. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, but Wooden Spider. Yeah, all right, let's uh, let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break and we'll be right back. And
Speaker 1: we're back. And a couple of teams that are kind
Speaker 1: of heading into the All Star break hot. I don't
Speaker 1: know who do we want to talk about? Guys, there's
Speaker 1: oh yeah, look at this, the Lakers are are a
Speaker 1: little hot heading in. There's seven and three over the
Speaker 1: last ten, six and one over there last seven. They
Speaker 1: that there's the stat about uh lebron A, d Reeves,
Speaker 1: d Lo each average twenty points in five assists for
Speaker 1: the month of February. How how much has Dlo been
Speaker 1: involved in the six and one run here?
Speaker 3: I mean it's he's been huge for them. I wouldn't
Speaker 3: say like this team lives and dies by dil I
Speaker 3: wouldn't go that dramatic because I do think one healthy,
Speaker 3: like they have enough depth to weather a bad deal
Speaker 3: game here and there. But I would say that the
Speaker 3: alternate side of that coin is that him playing at
Speaker 3: his highest level, which I do think like this is
Speaker 3: Delo's ceiling. I don't think that there's another level for
Speaker 3: him to reach. I think Delo's been basically playing the
Speaker 3: best he can possibly play. He hit like a career
Speaker 3: high and assists the other night. I think it was
Speaker 3: like seventeen or eighteen assists in a game. He's been excellent,
Speaker 3: and that really raises their ceiling as a team. Like,
Speaker 3: if Dilo is the best Delo he can be, the
Speaker 3: Lakers ceiling goes from like struggling in the play in
Speaker 3: to like maybe can make some noise in the playoffs
Speaker 3: for sure, especially with a healthy Lebron and a healthy AD.
Speaker 3: So I think that it's been hugely impactful. I also think,
Speaker 3: to your point about some of the names you rattled off,
Speaker 3: what do you know when you actually play the starting
Speaker 3: lineup from the Western Conference finals last year? Good things happen,
Speaker 3: it turns out, And it took a good you know,
Speaker 3: four or five months for that to become the starting lineup.
Speaker 3: But it's almost as if the thing that worked last.
Speaker 1: Year works so it would work again.
Speaker 4: Nah, Almost as if like if you have Ruy in
Speaker 4: a starting you know situation, he's going to absolutely play
Speaker 4: like a you know, championship level role player.
Speaker 1: You can play.
Speaker 3: Yeah, far be it from me to you know, try
Speaker 3: and cosplay as an NBA coach. But I feel like
Speaker 3: if something worked a few months ago and all those
Speaker 3: people are still healthy, it might be worth a try
Speaker 3: because it might work again. It's just kind of like
Speaker 3: a pretty fool proof thesis. Yeah, so yeah, do you.
Speaker 4: Think they need to like find a way to claw
Speaker 4: their way out of the play in situation or does
Speaker 4: it matter as long as as long as those guys
Speaker 4: as you just mentioned are healthy.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think when you're arguably, I mean I
Speaker 3: would say, actually this year, Anthony Davis is pretty solidly
Speaker 3: their best player. But when you're there's an argument that
Speaker 3: could be made that your best player is turning forty
Speaker 3: this year. I think it's always good to play less
Speaker 3: games versus more games. I think that's just a generally
Speaker 3: good rule of thumb. That being said, Like weirdly, matchup wise,
Speaker 3: for the Lakers, I think they're some of their better
Speaker 3: matchups are going to end up towards the top of
Speaker 3: the Western Conference. As far as like who they match
Speaker 3: up well against, Like I think Thunder, like the Thunder,
Speaker 3: the Timberwolves. I think that those teams are like a
Speaker 3: lot of what the Timberwolves have been dominating based on
Speaker 3: is their size. They're huge and dominant, especially defensively, and
Speaker 3: the Lakers are one of the only teams in the
Speaker 3: West that has that size and that length to match
Speaker 3: up with them. So I feel like that's actually a
Speaker 3: good matchup for the Lakers. And then like the Thunder
Speaker 3: alternately are very small on by design, like that's kind
Speaker 3: of they're small, that's how the team is set up,
Speaker 3: and then the Lakers' size can kind of like combat
Speaker 3: that well. Also, the Lakers have a ton of playoff experience.
Speaker 3: The Thunder have no playoff experience. But then once you
Speaker 3: get into the play in and like also into like
Speaker 3: maybe what's going to end up being like the four
Speaker 3: or five six seed, you get the Phoenix Suns, you
Speaker 3: get the Warriors. You get some teams that can exploit
Speaker 3: the Lakers' weaknesses and also can do things that they
Speaker 3: can't do aka like consistently shoot well from beyond the arc.
Speaker 1: So we should mention the Warriors that the Warriors. So,
Speaker 1: Lakers and a bunch of other teams are seven and
Speaker 1: three over the last ten. The best record in the
Speaker 1: league over the last ten is Cleveland in the Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: but a lot of teams in the West are seven
Speaker 1: and three over the last ten. You get the Wolves,
Speaker 1: got the Clippers, you got the Suns, the Pelicans, the mevs.
Speaker 1: The Lakers, But the best record in the West Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors eight and two. They're they're starting to put
Speaker 1: some momentum together and they're coming coming. I mean, is
Speaker 1: it just Draymond being back and like kind of locked in.
Speaker 1: What do we think's going on?
Speaker 3: I think it's the same. I would say it's a
Speaker 3: very similar thing to what's transpiring for the Lakers, which
Speaker 3: is that it's an alchemy of a lot of different
Speaker 3: things starting to break, right, Like Andrew Wiggins has been
Speaker 3: playing better, Clay has been playing better, Draymond is back,
Speaker 3: which then unlocks Steph Curry. Kaminga went through a weird
Speaker 3: little phase earlier this year where he was throwing a
Speaker 3: tantrum about his minutes and that kind of created some riffs.
Speaker 3: But now he's playing better and he's getting more minutes.
Speaker 3: I also think that for both the Warriors and the Lakers,
Speaker 3: it was super impactful to have the trade deadline come
Speaker 3: and go, because I think there were a lot of
Speaker 3: guys on both of those teams that were just sort
Speaker 3: of like waiting, trembling in a corner, waiting for their
Speaker 3: names to be called, to get shipped to Detroit or
Speaker 3: like Chicago or whatever. And those guys all know their
Speaker 3: jobs are safe at least through the rest of the year.
Speaker 3: And so I think that was really impactful for both
Speaker 3: of those teams. But I think for for the Warriors
Speaker 3: as well as the Lakers, like it is like an
Speaker 3: alchemy of a bunch of things starting to click. And
Speaker 3: I just don't understand how people can watch the horror
Speaker 3: movie of like Lebron James and Stephen Curry every single
Speaker 3: playoffs since I was like in college and like what
Speaker 3: they're capable of in a postseason setting and have been
Speaker 3: writing them off in like December January. I just couldn't
Speaker 3: be me.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't be me?
Speaker 4: Right, get bored if folks get bored, and they always
Speaker 4: want to, you know, move on to the next when
Speaker 4: it's like, yeah, the next. It is good to you know,
Speaker 4: represent them and the and to acknowledge them. But Lebron
Speaker 4: and you know, Lebron and stuff are not going anywhere anytimes,
Speaker 4: or at least not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: We've seen this movie before.
Speaker 1: Yep, like so many times they are sitting at nine
Speaker 1: and ten, they're sitting at the very bottom of the
Speaker 1: play in.
Speaker 3: I don't think that's going to be true, but my
Speaker 3: personal opinion is that by the time the playoffs come,
Speaker 3: I would imagine that those two teams are at least
Speaker 3: maybe like seven, eight, eight, nine somewhere in They're gonna
Speaker 3: be sought. They're gonna make the play in most this
Speaker 3: is not a hot take.
Speaker 4: Most likely to be lead frogged and you know what,
Speaker 4: this is official, so we're gonna we're gonna hold you
Speaker 4: do this now. Is Sacramento and New Orleans of those
Speaker 4: teams which are most likely to be lead roged.
Speaker 3: I feel like Sacramento just does not have it together
Speaker 3: this year. There is weird because like their two best
Speaker 3: players are playing really well and have all year long.
Speaker 3: Also Malik Monk front runner for six minute the year,
Speaker 3: so it's not like their their best most impactful players
Speaker 3: aren't playing well. There's just something off about this team.
Speaker 3: And I know that it's like they don't pay you
Speaker 3: the big bucks to be like I don't know, bro
Speaker 3: vibes are just off, but like like it's just I
Speaker 3: just don't see it for them this year, So I don't.
Speaker 3: I think they'll they'll obviously make the playoffs their play
Speaker 3: in but I just don't this isn't the year that
Speaker 3: they get over the hump of the first round. I
Speaker 3: really don't believe that. And then New Orleans, I don't.
Speaker 3: I just don't trust their health. I just think they've
Speaker 3: been quite unlucky over the years with health, and for
Speaker 3: this year so far, for all intents and purposes, like
Speaker 3: relatively healthy, and they still I think are trying to
Speaker 3: figure it out. I feel like if they have anybody
Speaker 3: miss a significant amount of time down the stretch, it
Speaker 3: would be really easy for them to plummet because I
Speaker 3: think Zion, like them starting to figure out how to
Speaker 3: incorporate Zion into what they're doing down there is a
Speaker 3: huge part of their success right now. And if Zion,
Speaker 3: you know, lands funny, like God forbid on an ankle
Speaker 3: or something like that, Like, I think I could see
Speaker 3: them plummeting for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean it does feel like I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm of the mind of like, yeah, but what if not?
Speaker 1: What if Zion stays healthy?
Speaker 3: They're the most unpredictable team in the West. I think
Speaker 3: to me, like they're the team where I'm just like,
Speaker 3: I don't know what to make of this team, Like
Speaker 3: they can be really good. They also got blown out
Speaker 3: by forty points by the Lakers in Vegas for the
Speaker 3: n Season tournament and looked like a you know, a
Speaker 3: relegation team, Like their ceiling is so high and their
Speaker 3: floor is so low, and I feel like it's so
Speaker 3: hard to predict what's going to happen with them. With
Speaker 3: Dallas to your point, the third team you mentioned, I
Speaker 3: feel like the opposite for them, Like I feel like
Speaker 3: they might climb the standings because they were missing Kyrie
Speaker 3: Irving for like a really significant chunk of this season,
Speaker 3: and if they can have him healthy and Luca healthy,
Speaker 3: Like I don't think we've seen the ceiling of that team.
Speaker 3: I don't want to see that team in a playoff
Speaker 3: series if I'm anybody.
Speaker 1: They seem like they're the Lakers this year of like
Speaker 1: the team that did a few kind of smaller things
Speaker 1: through the trade deadline that are really like kind of
Speaker 1: really good.
Speaker 3: Honestly, I think so I wrote a trade deadline Winners
Speaker 3: and Losers piece like it was an instant reaction to
Speaker 3: like Night of the trade deadline, and I didn't have
Speaker 3: Dallas listed under my winners, and I kind of regret that.
Speaker 3: I feel like Gafford was big for them. Like I
Speaker 3: feel like they did they did exactly right at the
Speaker 3: trade deadline, and it just wasn't like splashy, but it
Speaker 3: was meaningful.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Other big news out of Lakerland, Lebron says he
Speaker 1: is fifty to fifty on whether he'll want a farewell tour.
Speaker 1: I think that I think that is a fifty four fifty,
Speaker 1: like fifty out of fifty aka or fifty plus fifty. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Add it to the memes. Add it to the stack
Speaker 3: of Lebron cap memes.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I love Lebron. I'm like the biggest Lebron fan. I
Speaker 3: really love him. He has rightfully so cultivated a bit
Speaker 3: of a reputation as someone who maybe is prone to embellish,
Speaker 3: prone to tell a white lie here and there. I
Speaker 3: can understand like him not wanting to be like when
Speaker 3: when I'm going to retire, you'll know, and like not
Speaker 3: wanting to lock him into that because what if he
Speaker 3: gets like a horrible injury, God forbid, and it's just
Speaker 3: not worth it for him to ramp back up at
Speaker 3: four years old, so I understand like leaving room. However,
Speaker 3: health notwithstanding, there is no universe in which Lebron James
Speaker 3: is not Are you kidding me? There's no way he's
Speaker 3: not having a farewell tour. It's gonna be like the
Speaker 3: there's gonna be pyrotechnics, like this is gonna be the
Speaker 3: farewell tour to end all farewell tours.
Speaker 1: His farewell tour is going to have the Van Halen
Speaker 1: Rider where it's like, all right, I need all green eminems.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Literally, we love Lebron because he's a messy bee
Speaker 3: who lives for drama. That is part of his appeal.
Speaker 3: There's no way he's going to go quietly into the
Speaker 3: dark night like it's just not going to freaking happen.
Speaker 1: It's going to come in a lion like Katy Perry
Speaker 1: in that Super Bowl You.
Speaker 3: Heard it here first. When Lebron retires, you will know
Speaker 3: for a long time it's.
Speaker 1: It's not just gonna be like wake up, oh hey,
Speaker 1: by the way, oh Lebron retired.
Speaker 3: Wow, It's gonna be like, oh my god, And every
Speaker 3: broadcast is going to be like the last time Lebron
Speaker 3: James plays in Oklahoma, City the last time Braun takes
Speaker 3: a plane from Oklahoma City to Houston, like it's You're
Speaker 3: never gonna hear.
Speaker 1: The end of it, and I'm gonna I'm gonna drink
Speaker 1: it all.
Speaker 3: In and I'm gonna be crying all year long because
Speaker 3: I am not ready.
Speaker 1: All Right, let's take a quick break, we'll come back,
Speaker 1: we'll talk Bucks.
Speaker 2: And we'll do the rapid fire random questioning. We'll be
Speaker 2: right back, and we're back.
Speaker 1: And wanted to check out with the Bucks because heading
Speaker 1: into the All Star Break, they had a couple good wins.
Speaker 1: I mean the big one they played the Nuggets. They
Speaker 1: played really well. They beat the Nuggets pretty soundly. They
Speaker 1: looked good on defense. But overall, since they let Adrian
Speaker 1: Griffin go, it's been a real adjustment period. And I
Speaker 1: don't know, I mean that sometimes that happens, you know,
Speaker 1: Sometimes you need to get the new system in place,
Speaker 1: you need to get the chemistry right. Usually it doesn't
Speaker 1: last quite this long. And yeah, I'm just they are
Speaker 1: probably the team I'm most intrigued to see. Like that
Speaker 1: feels like it could be similar to what you were
Speaker 1: saying with the Pelicans. Feels like it could go in
Speaker 1: wildly different directions. I would be surprised if it like
Speaker 1: continued on this path of you know, being three and
Speaker 1: seven over the last ten, including a twenty six point
Speaker 1: loss to the Heat. I would be surprised if that
Speaker 1: keeps up. But I don't know. It could obviously because
Speaker 1: they haven't quite figured out what's going on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a few things with the Bucks thing Number one,
Speaker 3: I think Doc has rightfully been taking a lot of
Speaker 3: heat for just his tendency to deflect his absolute reticence
Speaker 3: to accept any responsibility.
Speaker 1: Claire, I wouldn't wish this job on my worst worst enemy.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't wish a job taking over for a team
Speaker 3: that somehow has a championship xpace but also no expectations
Speaker 3: at the same time, Like, yeah, that job must suck,
Speaker 3: Like what are you talk This is the best job obviously.
Speaker 3: This isn't the beginning of him not taking a responsibility.
Speaker 3: This is like dates back to many years of his career.
Speaker 3: He literally makes it sound like the Bucks made him
Speaker 3: do this job at gunpoint, like it's crazy you were
Speaker 3: you could just say no, bro, Like you could just
Speaker 3: say no. There's like lots of other people who would
Speaker 3: have wanted this job. That being said, the Bucks are
Speaker 3: interesting to me because I think in a playoff setting,
Speaker 3: as we know, the margins of playoff games are one.
Speaker 3: It's like, do you have the guy on your side
Speaker 3: who can just make it happen when everything else breaks down,
Speaker 3: when when all the plans fall by the wayside, when
Speaker 3: the defense is breaked down, Like, do you have the
Speaker 3: guy that can just go iso and just like get
Speaker 3: you a magical shot? And Damian Allard is that guy
Speaker 3: and that's why they added him. I just don't think, like,
Speaker 3: to me, this is a team built on a very
Speaker 3: unstable foundation, which is that this man did not want
Speaker 3: to go there, and he made his desire. First of all,
Speaker 3: this man wanted to stay in Portland, Lovely. Let's be
Speaker 3: abundantly clear. What happened was he signed an extension because
Speaker 3: he planned to retire a Trailblazer, because they had promised him, like,
Speaker 3: if you sit out the rest of the season, even
Speaker 3: though you're not really injured, we're going to get a
Speaker 3: high draft pick that we can then trade to get
Speaker 3: you some help over here in Portland, and we're going
Speaker 3: to make a run of it because you just had
Speaker 3: the best year of your career. Statistically and you deserve help.
Speaker 3: Then they found out that they could get Scoot Henderson
Speaker 3: at that number three pick, and they felt like they
Speaker 3: had hit the lottery because they thought he was going
Speaker 3: to be like the next base of the Trailblazers. And
Speaker 3: they renegged on that offer, and that's when Dame demanded
Speaker 3: a trade. Understand I think understandably so, and because he
Speaker 3: had put in, you know, like he got his little
Speaker 3: plaque and like trip to Bermuda, because he'd put in,
Speaker 3: however many years with the company. He's like, I'd like
Speaker 3: to go to Miami, and they didn't send him there,
Speaker 3: And in my opinion, the package they got back for him,
Speaker 3: you know, through a multi team trade with the Bucks
Speaker 3: not much better, I don't think than what they could
Speaker 3: have gotten from Miami, at least if they had been
Speaker 3: willing to involve a third team. So this team was
Speaker 3: built on all of that baggage, all of that drama happening,
Speaker 3: and then Dame coming to Milwaukee and being like, well,
Speaker 3: I'm going to try and make the best of it.
Speaker 3: Like Johannes is great. This is like a pretty good
Speaker 3: situation all things considered. But it's not like he was
Speaker 3: like Milwaukee's where I want to be, you know, this
Speaker 3: is where I want to go. And so I feel
Speaker 3: like they got off on a weird foot. There was
Speaker 3: weird vibes from the jump because everyone knew. He made
Speaker 3: it very public that he wanted to go to not
Speaker 3: just another team, but like a rival Eastern Conference teamed
Speaker 3: to the Milwaukee Bucks. Yeah, and I also think that
Speaker 3: like his skill set, like Drew Holliday, I think is
Speaker 3: more of a two way player than Damian Lillard. I
Speaker 3: don't think that's like controversial to say. And they made
Speaker 3: a lot of changes that I think similar to the
Speaker 3: alchemy that we were talking about in these other teams.
Speaker 3: It's like a lot of things had to go right
Speaker 3: for them to be good. A few different dominoes fell
Speaker 3: or the Bucks that are putting them in a really
Speaker 3: weird spot. They hired a first time head coach at
Speaker 3: the same time as they basically like completely changed how
Speaker 3: their offense was going to revolve. It was totally Helio
Speaker 3: centric ground Yannis. Now all of a sudden, it's like
Speaker 3: you have a second superstar that it needs to revolve
Speaker 3: around too, and they put they laid that in the
Speaker 3: lap of a first year head coach who I think
Speaker 3: was just clearly in over his head. I don't think
Speaker 3: he was doing a very good job. And at the
Speaker 3: same time, you have you know, Brook Lopez starting to
Speaker 3: age and like not be able to maybe do some
Speaker 3: of the stuff that he was able to do, and
Speaker 3: the rest of the East, some of the like some
Speaker 3: of the East got a little better. So personally, like
Speaker 3: going into the season, I was really optimistic about the Bucks.
Speaker 3: I don't think they're going to like bottom out by
Speaker 3: any means. I don't think they're gonna win the championship
Speaker 3: this year. I don't think that's like super controversial to say.
Speaker 3: It's just I would I honestly take several Eastern Conference
Speaker 3: teams above them right now, even though in the standings
Speaker 3: they're higher.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so this is why we have folks, you know,
Speaker 4: let are as bright as clear on because she eloquently
Speaker 4: put you know, put it. I'm just gonna say they're
Speaker 4: gonna do the Doc special. They'll be done in the
Speaker 4: second round. Once again, the.
Speaker 1: Second round is tricky. As a Sixers fan, I can
Speaker 1: tell you the second round is tricky. Uh, Claire, we
Speaker 1: we've got time for too rapid fires for you. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is just you don't think. You just fire it
Speaker 1: back right at us chest, past chess, pass back, be
Speaker 1: ready as ready as I'll ever be, Tobar, you want
Speaker 1: to go first, you want me to go first? Why
Speaker 1: don't you go first? Jack? All right? Greatest Lakers player
Speaker 1: ever and most underrated Lakers player of your fandom? Cool?
Speaker 3: Uh, that's such a hard question. That's like the worst
Speaker 3: rapid fire question ever. Okay, greatest Lakers player ever. Oh
Speaker 3: my god, it's like painful. I'm gonna go Kobe even
Speaker 3: though Magic Johnson's right there, my favorite Lakers player of
Speaker 3: my tenure? Are you joking? Lebron James?
Speaker 1: Like what what? And the most underrated Lakers player of
Speaker 1: your fans?
Speaker 3: Underrated? Yeahaviousbe wow, seriously, I still want case b back
Speaker 3: championship maker.
Speaker 1: That's right. Just underrated by Lakers fans Lebron.
Speaker 3: James, by the way, it's true, and I don't really
Speaker 3: identify with the Lakers fandom in that way, so I yeah,
Speaker 3: but you're right.
Speaker 4: It's not all of us, but there are some of
Speaker 4: us that are very off when it comes to being
Speaker 4: balanced when it comes to discussing the NBA.
Speaker 3: All rightusing the goat keeping it going.
Speaker 4: You said to Jack, all right, who is the most
Speaker 4: underrated NBA social media follow up? I mean not currently
Speaker 4: on this you know show with you.
Speaker 1: Right, obviously the answer would be.
Speaker 3: All three of us underrated. I think Jasmine Watkins. I
Speaker 3: don't think she's particularly underrated because, like she does have
Speaker 3: a decent amount of followers, but people like other media
Speaker 3: companies lift her content and like use her ideas constantly,
Speaker 3: so just based on like dollars and cents, I feel
Speaker 3: like she's literally underrated.
Speaker 1: Following her. So now I'm following her and now she
Speaker 1: underrated I think two times even. Yeah, yeah, that's one
Speaker 1: of the best. Well, Claire, what a pleasure having you on?
Speaker 3: What a pleasure being here semester?
Speaker 1: Where I got mat Boosti's where can people find you
Speaker 1: hear you all that good stuff?
Speaker 3: Well they can find me on Twitter at Claire mpls,
Speaker 3: c l a iri e m pls or on the
Speaker 3: Guardian Claire de Loon I write for The Guardian about
Speaker 3: the NBA, or if you want to hear me sing,
Speaker 3: you can hear my music. I go buy Tiny Deaths
Speaker 3: for my musical projects, and that's on wherever you stream music.
Speaker 1: There you go. Thank you so much for doing it. Jabari,
Speaker 1: where can they find you at, Jabari Davis NBA. Pretty simple,
Speaker 1: I'm at Jack Underscore O'Brien and you can look for
Speaker 1: hashtag mat Boosties or updates on the show. Shout out
Speaker 1: to listener Gritzy Ross, who is booking doing the booking
Speaker 1: for us. Reached out to Josh Donovan said please go
Speaker 1: back on Hashtag mat Boosties. He said absolutely not, that
Speaker 1: show is amateur. No, he said, I'd go back anytime
Speaker 1: I had such a good.
Speaker 3: Human that's ever existed. I'm going to.
Speaker 2: Let you go, folks.
Speaker 1: He let him know. We said hi and thank you
Speaker 1: for doing it. Claire. We are back next week with
Speaker 1: more mad Boosties and we will talk to you all then.
Speaker 1: Bye bye