Speaker 1: Time for just a little news from around the NBA,
Speaker 1: around the league, and news that went way under the radar,
Speaker 1: and I mean way under. The Mexico City Capitanes began
Speaker 1: their second G League season this week. I have to
Speaker 1: confess I didn't even know it was already a G
Speaker 1: League team until now, like right this second last year
Speaker 1: due to COVID, they were forced to play out of
Speaker 1: Fort Worth, So this was their first actual game in
Speaker 1: Mexico itself. And you know what, it's going to change
Speaker 1: the NBA forever. Why why you say one word expansion.
Speaker 1: Adam Silvert is trying to take this NBA thing to
Speaker 1: the GBA, not the National Basketball Association, but apparently the
Speaker 1: Global Basketball Association because he wants to put a team
Speaker 1: south of the border, folks. The kickoff to the Capitane
Speaker 1: season was a part of a two stage process by
Speaker 1: the NBA to push to promote, to sell the NBA
Speaker 1: in Mexico. The first stage was the inaugural game for
Speaker 1: Mexico City, the latest G League franchise in the first
Speaker 1: ever in Mexico. Adam Silver has long wanted to tap
Speaker 1: into the Mexican market, and now he has a foothold
Speaker 1: in the fourth city's fourth largest city in the world.
Speaker 2: It's pretty pretty important, pretty.
Speaker 1: Big players are already raving about the facilities, including the
Speaker 1: Arena CD in Mexico, which is pretty lit, seats sixteen
Speaker 1: five hundred eight thousand for g League games. And the
Speaker 1: second Stage is an actual NBA game that's taking place
Speaker 1: in Mexico City between the Spurs, a team that's already
Speaker 1: got strong Mexican fan base, in December, and this is
Speaker 1: gonna be an annual thing. Apparently huge event. Mark Spears
Speaker 1: from Anandscape, a subsidiary of ESPN, was just down there.
Speaker 1: He reported this on The Hoop Collective. He said, everything
Speaker 1: feels really good. He said it was actually better than
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills down there, which is pretty stunning. All of
Speaker 1: this is taking place against the backdrop of the NBA expansion,
Speaker 1: because Adam Silver recently came out and said it's not
Speaker 1: a matter of if, it's a matter of when the
Speaker 1: league will expand, and we are not talking about tomorrow.
Speaker 1: This is kind of like Game of Thrones when you
Speaker 1: know it's coming, but it's like seven years away. Everybody's
Speaker 1: talking about it. Oh, when what we see John snow
Speaker 1: Well is John snow alive or is John snow actually dead?
Speaker 1: I saw the red woman what was her name, the
Speaker 1: Red Witch or whatever? I saw her in his room.
Speaker 1: Does that mean? Does that mean he's coming back to life?
Speaker 1: It's like, bro, we're not gonna know until like four
Speaker 1: years from now.
Speaker 2: We won't know until there's a new president elected.
Speaker 1: Why are we talking about this because it's fun to speculate.
Speaker 1: So the NBA is getting an expansion team, but it's
Speaker 1: probably not until like twenty twenty seven. Right, It's obvious
Speaker 1: that the league wants to expand into the Spanish speaking world.
Speaker 1: This is why their Mexico city moves are getting tons
Speaker 1: of push. I don't I think this is going to
Speaker 1: be very high priority. Seattle is a lock as well,
Speaker 1: since they stole a team from the team up north.
Speaker 1: The Sonics bolted down to OKC. Where does that leave Vegas?
Speaker 1: Vegas seems like a lock as well. So you have
Speaker 1: three spots when the league wants to expand, and then
Speaker 1: you have to give balance to the conferences. So that
Speaker 1: means there must be four spots on the table, doesn't
Speaker 1: there hmm? What would that fourth spot be? Apparently possibly
Speaker 1: San Jose, another Spanish speaking market. One of the fastest
Speaker 1: growing cities in the United States. For what reason, I
Speaker 1: do not know, but that brings up another issue that
Speaker 1: not enough people are talking about. Does the league actually
Speaker 1: have enough quality players to flesh out two expansion teams,
Speaker 1: let alone four expansion teams, Because that means an extra
Speaker 1: thirty to sixty NBA players. How many more truly elite
Speaker 1: basketball players are there out there just sitting on couches,
Speaker 1: not playing in the NBA, playing overseas, playing in G leagues.
Speaker 1: On the top of my head, here's a short list
Speaker 1: of players either in the G League, playing overseas or
Speaker 1: unsigned free agents. I think that would definitely get a look.
Speaker 2: We can count them.
Speaker 1: So we've got Dwight Howard who's playing in Taiwan. We
Speaker 1: know he can play. He was just playing, Carlmelo Anthony,
Speaker 1: he was just playing unsigned free agents, Boogey Cousins, unsigned
Speaker 1: free agent. As an aside, he wants to play back
Speaker 1: in Sacramento. We will see about that. The Taco Fall
Speaker 1: played in the NBA unsigned free agent. Don't know he
Speaker 1: would get a lot of run, but he would make
Speaker 1: up a roster spot for sure. Greg mon Roe played
Speaker 1: in Milwaukee on the G League on the go Gos.
Speaker 1: Unsigned free agent Hassan Whiteside just played in an NBA team.
Speaker 1: A lot of centers just want to point that out.
Speaker 1: A lot of big men, uh, probably not all going
Speaker 1: to the four teams and his freedom another big man
Speaker 1: unsigned free agent Dante Exum Europe, Kevin Pangos Europe Toomas
Speaker 1: Saturanski didn't even know he was out of the league.
Speaker 1: Really Europe, Uh, Carson Edwards Europe, Bilichia. Probably not going
Speaker 1: to go back from Europe because he just left the
Speaker 1: NBA to go to Europe.
Speaker 2: But he could make a team.
Speaker 1: Of Vasili Michic Europe. Okay, see writes Rocas Jocobatis Europe.
Speaker 1: New York Knicks rights Mike James just a shit talker
Speaker 1: on about balkaira h. Steph Curry Europe. But there's one
Speaker 1: wrench in the plan though. Wind Horse reported that the
Speaker 1: recent sale of the Denver Broncos impacts the NBA market
Speaker 1: as well because it sold for four point six five
Speaker 1: billion dollars. That opened up a lot of eyes about
Speaker 1: how much sports teams are really worth. Wendy said there's
Speaker 1: starting to be some rumblings of some NBA owners maybe
Speaker 1: looking to sell. This market is getting right for NBA
Speaker 1: owners to sell. The Broncos set a new North American
Speaker 1: record after selling for four point six five billion in June.
Speaker 1: This could carry over to the NBA as well, and
Speaker 1: the upcoming collective bargaining agreement in the new rights deal
Speaker 1: could help values grow even more. There might be some
Speaker 1: folks sitting on the sideline sort of wondering, like should
Speaker 1: I sell? And they're gonna see these numbers. Keep in
Speaker 1: mind this too. The Fenway Group is putting the English
Speaker 1: Premier League soccer team Liverpool also on the market.
Speaker 2: Think about that.
Speaker 1: Initially it was reported that the team was for sale
Speaker 1: for four billion, but rumors are that it might go
Speaker 1: for as much as six billion. If that happens, you
Speaker 1: would imagine there's gonna be a lot of NBA owners saying,
Speaker 1: if I can get two million, it's two billion more
Speaker 1: than asking maybe it's time for me to get on
Speaker 1: out before this bubble pops. Well when then I you
Speaker 1: have brawn and you have KD who say they want
Speaker 1: to own teams. They've got unlimited money. They could probably
Speaker 1: buy a team for seven billion dollars. It's a safe
Speaker 1: bet there's gonna be multiple teams changing hands in the
Speaker 1: coming years. What that means for the league remains to
Speaker 1: be seen. T Wolves, let's move on on them. Nothing
Speaker 1: more than I that I love than being ahead of
Speaker 1: the news cycle. So I sense my breakdown of the
Speaker 1: Wolves about ten days ago. Now everybody's on board. Go bear.
Speaker 2: Trade sucks. Fucking sucks.
Speaker 1: People now saying this is the worst trade in NBA history.
Speaker 1: It's only been ten games, by the way I saw
Speaker 1: it after two the wolves woes. Most of it stems
Speaker 1: from the fact that their starting lineup is statistically the
Speaker 1: worst in the NBA. We talked about this last episode
Speaker 1: as well. Aunt Edwards addressed that in a postgame presser.
Speaker 1: He says, are starting five all minuses minus eighteen minus
Speaker 1: twelve minus fourteen. Their whole starting five plus twenty plus.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. Our bench plus plus plus. That's the story
Speaker 1: now of the year. The bench is playing great because
Speaker 1: they play as a team. The starters suck because they
Speaker 1: all have egos. We note that, but Chris Finch says
Speaker 1: that he's changing lineups now. We consider changing lineups and
Speaker 1: rotations all the time, but I don't know if we
Speaker 1: feel one hundred percent confident that this is the problem.
Speaker 1: But we are going to shuffle the deck with the
Speaker 1: starting lineup. But I'm not there yet. What does that
Speaker 1: even mean? Uh?
Speaker 2: Not one hundred percent confident?
Speaker 1: You have a starting lineup with a net rating of
Speaker 1: minus five over per one hundred percent per one hundred possessions,
Speaker 1: that scores ninety seven points per one hundred possessions. That's
Speaker 1: worse than the Lakers. I would think that that is
Speaker 1: probably priority one. I will do a deep dive into
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns because he's the worst.
Speaker 2: But be on the lookout for that.
Speaker 1: But if you're a Wolves fan, when your head coach
Speaker 1: is saying that the starting lineup isn't the problem, when
Speaker 1: it is one hundred percent the problem, and then maybe
Speaker 1: he is.
Speaker 2: The problem that is concerning.
Speaker 1: Oh, let's move on. Michael Porter junior man. He's a
Speaker 1: fascinating dude. One of the nice surprises to start the
Speaker 1: season has been his performance. He's been plagued with injuries.
Speaker 1: As you guys know, he fell down the draft board
Speaker 1: from Miszoo because of his back issues, and then he
Speaker 1: had more issues with his back and now he's back back.
Speaker 1: As an aside, I don't even want to tell you
Speaker 1: about his three point prop because it's probably just gonna
Speaker 1: continue to go up if I give it out. But
Speaker 1: if you can get it at two or more, it
Speaker 1: is just an automatic.
Speaker 2: Lock right now.
Speaker 1: Anyway, off the court, he's had a bit of a
Speaker 1: rough week. He got a bunch of shits stolen in
Speaker 1: his hotel room during a recent game, to the tune
Speaker 1: of a lot of money. What did the thieves steal?
Speaker 2: This part was very interesting to me.
Speaker 1: They stole money, yes, okay, they stole a gold bracelet, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: two Louis Vuitton bags, yeah, I got that. And a
Speaker 1: bible a bible wait what Yes, they stole this man's
Speaker 1: Bible with his notes in it and everything.
Speaker 2: He had pages ear marked. What is a man to do?
Speaker 1: Like, you can't can't leave you fucking bible in the
Speaker 1: hotel room. By the way, there's another bible that's not
Speaker 1: his in just every single hotel drawer. Everybody knows that
Speaker 1: if you wanted a Bible, you don't have to steal
Speaker 1: his personal possessions, his bible. You stole his bible. Let's
Speaker 1: face it, man, that's weird. That's fucking weird. What thief
Speaker 1: goes into a hotel room.
Speaker 2: Is like, yeah, let's get this bible.
Speaker 1: Yo. That one has a leather binding on it. It's
Speaker 1: like the early edition, a OG bible. Like this one's hard,
Speaker 1: super rare. I can't even get it on Amazon. I
Speaker 1: don't even know which kind of bible. How rare could
Speaker 1: a bible be? Like the King James first Edition, not
Speaker 1: the Lebron James first Edition, but the King James first Edition.
Speaker 2: I have a friend who's a publisher.
Speaker 1: He doesn't even bother to lock his car when he
Speaker 1: goes to trade shows because he says, an I quote,
Speaker 1: there is nothing on earth safer from being stolen than
Speaker 1: a box of books. And you steal a bible Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of breakins. Someone broke into my
Speaker 1: car actually right outside of the studio. And what they
Speaker 1: steal They stole a blanket, an ug blanket. I had
Speaker 1: clothes in their shoes in there, a basketball in there.
Speaker 1: I don't know, like a pair of headphones in there. No,
Speaker 1: they didn't steal any of that. They's stole a blanket.
Speaker 1: So my thoughts go out to MPJ because like you
Speaker 1: can replace money, you can replace a couple of Louis
Speaker 1: Vuitton bags, but like his og probably had it since
Speaker 1: he was four years old. Bible has every verse highlighted
Speaker 1: that he goes back to when he's in certain moments
Speaker 1: of adversity. Oh yeah, let's go to John three sixteen.
Speaker 1: That's on page this one. I got this one highlighted.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's additional lines of scripture that I made
Speaker 1: notes on. Oh yeah, remember this. Like now he's gotta
Speaker 1: go back through the Bible and find all that shit
Speaker 1: out new fresh pages. Gotta sort that out. What's that
Speaker 1: gonna be a special Bible? That shit means something? All right?
Speaker 1: Moving forward, Derreck Rose, I need to let you know
Speaker 1: this is a very pro Dereck Rose podcast.
Speaker 2: Love him.
Speaker 1: I know that he's been hated on. I know he's
Speaker 1: been slandered, but not here.
Speaker 2: We love d Rose.
Speaker 1: Nothing was cooler than him and Tibbs having the love
Speaker 1: connection that they've had. I love it. They are like
Speaker 1: they are like peas and carrots, right. They and he
Speaker 1: literally put the knicks on their back. They didn't even
Speaker 1: have a point guard. It was like a manual quickly
Speaker 1: season and he was like, nah, I got this. They
Speaker 1: carried them to the playoffs pretty much just on one
Speaker 1: knee alone, and then as sadly has been the case
Speaker 1: for him. His body breaks down last year, he has
Speaker 1: to sit on the bench, which probably makes the injury worse.
Speaker 1: You know, when you have a bad back, bad knee,
Speaker 1: you're sitting down. If you've ever had a bad knee
Speaker 1: and you've had to sit in a car on a plane,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm fucking talking about. And so now
Speaker 1: they brought in Jalen brunts it. Now there's no room
Speaker 1: really for d Rose anymore. And not surprisingly because d
Speaker 1: Rose is who d Rose is, they ask him about
Speaker 1: it and they're like, hey, have you talked to TIBs
Speaker 1: about the facts that you don't get to play anymore?
Speaker 1: Your guy, the guy that's like Peas and Carris with you,
Speaker 1: have you asked TIBs like, hey, TIBs, am I gonna
Speaker 1: see the floor anymore? Or what he was like, No,
Speaker 1: I'm letting everybody be. The last guy he wants to
Speaker 1: hear from is the guy who's been in the league
Speaker 1: for fifteen years going in complaining and bitching. I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to give everybody the space I'm in the unknown.
Speaker 1: He doesn't even care. He's like, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna see how it goes. 're just gonna let
Speaker 1: it be when I get in. When I get in,
Speaker 1: it's like kind of like me and my Saturday shows
Speaker 1: on w FAN. When I get in, I get in,
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna ask. I'm fine, We're good. We'll
Speaker 1: see how it goes. How do you not love d Rose?
Speaker 1: No wonder Tibbs just cannot do any team stuff without
Speaker 1: Pencilingrose's name in. He is just like the last He's
Speaker 1: not even like close to a diva compared to the
Speaker 1: guy that we saw as the MVP for the Chicago
Speaker 1: Bulls back in the day.
Speaker 2: Like I loved Ros And this is exactly why.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much is in the tank for
Speaker 1: d Rose, but I have to believe that in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: if they get into the playoffs, he can come in,
Speaker 1: give you good ten to fifteen minutes, smart basketball, good
Speaker 1: decision making basketball. And if he does that, he get
Speaker 1: another two three years left in the league. I think
Speaker 1: the Knicks and the league are better with d Rose
Speaker 1: in the league. I think we need to have a
Speaker 1: talk about NBA Twitter. It's under fire, it's under attack
Speaker 1: right now. You didn't even know that, did you? Have?
Speaker 2: You almost eaten.
Speaker 1: The trash in the last forty eight hours since Elon
Speaker 1: Musk took over.
Speaker 2: I bet you have.
Speaker 1: I bet you saw something from from Adrian wardaw Janowski,
Speaker 1: WARDI and Zanowski and you're like, is that really woj
Speaker 1: or is it not wojo? This is the bomb, this
Speaker 1: is the nope. Uh, that's nope, that's the best, not
Speaker 1: even WOJE. Nope that fuck that. Come on, now, Elon
Speaker 1: Musk is jumbling up Twitter to the point where we
Speaker 1: can't even trust Twitter to be Twitter anymore. Blue checks
Speaker 1: for you. You'll get a blue check. You'll get a blue check,
Speaker 1: You'll get a blue check. Come on. I thought that
Speaker 1: this shit was safe. I almost got taken by a
Speaker 1: fake woj bomb, saying that the nets had released Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 1: same photo, same blue check, sixteen thousand likes and fake
Speaker 1: as fuck.
Speaker 2: Bullshit.
Speaker 1: I think very bullshit. If I can't trust woje a
Speaker 1: blue check mark WOJE with sixteen thousand likes, what can
Speaker 1: I trust? You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: What can I trust?
Speaker 1: I can't trust a man if I can't trust a
Speaker 1: woje account with a blue check mark in sixteen thousand likes,
Speaker 1: saying that Kyrie Irving was released, then who what can
Speaker 1: I trust? Can't trust my Bible to be in a
Speaker 1: hotel room without getting stolen.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you that I have no idea what's happening
Speaker 2: with Twitter.
Speaker 1: All I know is you got to click on every
Speaker 1: single account, and you gotta be sleuth, and you gotta
Speaker 1: do this, and you gotta do that, and you gotta
Speaker 1: make sure it's being retweeted by the right people. And
Speaker 1: then you gotta make sure that you don't retweet it
Speaker 1: before other people that you trust retweet it, or you
Speaker 1: just end up eating the trash. If he fucks up
Speaker 1: NBA Twitter for me, I'm gonna be so mad. That's
Speaker 1: all the time that we have for the Heat Check.
Speaker 1: We'll be back Monday with a new episode. Check out
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Speaker 1: shout out to my producer, Nick Berlanski making sure this
Speaker 1: shit sounds tight and right for y'all, and thank you
Speaker 1: again for listening.
Speaker 2: Super appreciated,