The Bill Simmons Podcast - A Knicks/Celtics Switcheroo, Ja’s Crisis, Harden’s Resurgence and GSW’s Weird Season With Ryen Russillo

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss the Knicks double-overtime win vs. the Celtics, as well as the Knicks new ceiling, the 76ers' big win over the Bucks (2:07), Ja Morant's suspension, concerns for each playoff contender (22:19), another Trade History segment: the Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett trades, UFC 285: the Return of Jon Jones (1:24:45), and more. Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Ryen Russillo Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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All right. Taping this 745 Pacific time. We're going to tape right after the Knicks-Celtics game ended, which we thought was going to be 7 o'clock, and it kept going, going double OT. The Knicks prevail, nine straight for them. And before I start complaining about the Celtics, we're so low. This Knicks team isn't just frisky. They're convincingly frisky. I think they have reached a point.

What's the difference? What's the difference between frisky and convincing? They're not just like, oh, you're talking yourself into some friskiness. Now it's like, oh, not sure I'd want to see them in a 4-5 matchup. Not sure I'd want to see them in round two. They have a lot of fight. They have multiple scores. They seem like they just like

each other and like playing with each other. What's the ceiling for you with this team? Second round or do you think like party crasher? Like, could we see them keep going? You know, it feels weird because we all consider Boston a contender here. And, you know, I was there Friday night in person and it's the worst loss of the season where he was like are you guys going to get back in transition at any point here um the nets game the nets game and then there was a moment here when the when what the knicks went on was it a 25 to run or something i mean it was ridiculous and i was just watching celtics being like why like it was 21 to, where's the energy?

Like, how can you not match their energy? How can you not understand that once quickly goes, he's going? Like, you have to adjust to their energy. You have to adjust to their pace. And they actually did get back in the game. They're losing overtime. So the reason I go through that is that I think all of us sit here. They've been watching all season.

Consider Boston a real contender being in the finals last year. And now they're 0-3 against the Knicks. Like, especially to lose this one. This is the one you were like, like okay Brunson isn't playing you played like it's the worst loss of the season two nights ago against the Nets you lost at New York granted Jamlin didn't play but you weren't even in the game and then the Boston uh like the starters just got completely annoyed like they were emotionally out of that game in New York five, six days ago. So you would have thought they would be completely up for this

and then quickly goes crazy. So if we were considering Boston a contender and then the Knicks do this to them for a third time, you're like, well, how can I not have them be a contender? What stops me from doing that with just full contender status is that means you actually think they could win the title. And as great as Brunson has been, and as great as Randall has been,

that would be one of the worst duos to ever be a championship duo. It's fair. I think they have reached we could knock somebody off in a round status pretty easily. I'm looking at the last... These are the records since December 1st.

The Celtics are 27 and 16. The Knicks are 29 and 15. The Knicks have been slightly better now. We're talking three months and that's not nothing. And they match up well with the Celtics and they're not afraid with them. And they have some coaching advantages too. Can I talk about the coaching now? I can't wait 10 minutes. Yeah, because we at least, when you say frisky, like if they played Cleveland in the first round, you know, as much as I think all of us really love watching them play,

figure Mitchell's better than any of the 10 guys that would be closing a game, which isn't a slight to Brunson. I mean, the fact that I'm even wondering if that's the right pick is a credit to how amazing Brunson's been this year. But Cleveland doesn't win on the road. They're 13 and 19. The Knicks do win on the road. The Knicks are 20-12.

So if they win that, okay, that's not a huge upset. They're only a game behind them now, so who knows, they might jump them in the standings. And then it's like, okay, are you really going to pick them against Milwaukee? I mean, hell, if you picked them against Boston, I don't think anybody would pick them against Milwaukee, considering what happened in the regular season here with Boston.

I don't know. So go ahead. I know you're actually at the tone in your voice. Three 40 in. We're not going to call a timeout here. We're just going to hand you the ball. Well, the reason Boston could see them, Boston can still be the one seed. It's still it's neck and neck right now.

Boston's 45 and 20 and the Bucks are 46 and 18. I think the Bucks are cruising toward it, but it's not inconceivable. It could be one, four, one, five, Nick Celtics in round two.

Look, the Brooklyn game was disgusting. I think, I don't know if he's a bad coach, Joe Missoula. I just know that he's learning on the job as this goes along. And I don't want to coach for a team that has a chance to win the title that is still favored to win the title. Who's learning on the job as this goes along. And I don't want to coach for a team that has a chance to win the title that is still favored to win the title.

Who's learning on the job. And you saw it today. Stuck with the same lineup way too long. Just William Smart, Horford, Tatum, and Brown. He just wasn't going to waver. Quickly was doing whatever he wanted. They were in the same play over and over again. Derek White, who's the third best player on the team all season, just doesn't play in

crunch time. Just come to accept it. He's not going to play in the last five minutes of these games. But the timeout stuff, which on the one hand is like a total sports radio guy calling into Eddie Andelman in 1979. I don't understand why we're not calling timeouts. On the other hand, it's been really damaging. There's been multiple games this year where the no timeout thing has really hurt them, including today where they had the ball 22 seconds left. They should have called a timeout. They should have put the, put one more shooter out there instead of Grant who hasn't made a three in about six weeks. And instead they, they just kind

of run it along 14 seconds pass. Nobody knows the play. They have to call timeout with eight seconds left. Knicks have a foul to give. Now we're down to six seconds and you end up with the rush quarter for three, but it's just little stuff. And if it's 2-7 Celtics Miami, Rosillo, I just think Spolstra is going to look at this like, I can out-coach this guy and we can win this series,

even though we don't have a better team. We can out-think these guys and out-strategize them and we can win games in the last two minutes and i feel like it's headed for two seven because unless atlanta um folds it doesn't win that division miami's gonna be either six or seven it looks like celtics would beat any seven or eight team other than miami and i think the miami thing would be a dog fight but i i just can't believe we're watching the starting back from the Amiadoka thing early on in, what was that, August?

To, oh, this Joe, no, he knows what he's doing. He's going to learn. And now it's March and I don't feel any better about him than I did four months ago. Okay, a lot of stuff there. Let me start with timeouts. Most of us do not know what's going on to the level that these guys do. Almost all of us that talk about this for a living. It's actually one of the weirdest dynamics of all of what we do is the terminology hey

actually the help was supposed to be here actually this was supposed to happen but we know about timeouts right and so when something doesn't happen and then you have failure everybody jumps on timeouts because it's the only fucking thing people are comfortable talking about all right and it's like well this guy didn't call a timeout and i feel better about myself and we are far more likely to criticize anyone than compliment all the other things that happen and go right the entire time but when it's this definitive thing of like oh a timeout wasn't called okay this didn't work all right now i have a four-hour radio show and i'm going to talk about timeouts the whole time that play and thank god thank God for J.J. Redick.

I love what he's doing on some of these broadcasts. He called it out. I mean, anybody that's ever watched any basketball knows what the horn set is. It's two in the corners, it's two at the elbows, and the ball handler has an option of going left or right, and then you can cut off of that on the backside or somebody pops, and Jalen's the only one

getting the ball probably off of that action. Grant didn't know that it was horns. That's Grant Williams' fault. Horford, once Tatum was waving him, and then Horford's looking at him going, dude, what are you doing? I'm also sensing an annoyance with teammates with Grant anyway, which I don't think is any breaking news here

because there was a switch that got messed up. Dude, in the Nets game, it was 34 seconds left. The game was over, and Grant's screaming for a challenge so the call wasn't on him. The finger wave for every challenge. He just loves challenges. Josh Hart made fun of him. He pushed Hart. Some of the rebound fouls are really tough, but I think it evens out over the course of the game.

There was the foul where Hart got it. Then Hart actually made a Grant Williams face. It was like making fun of him with his arms out. There's two things. Maybe you're right. I don't know that Spoh has... Spoh's better than everybody. Do you really think that Miami team

is going to win four out of seven with that offense against Boston? I don't know. You were there in person on Friday night watching the Celtics just fold for an hour. I'm more on... Look, when it comes to basketball, I'm way more on the players being the reason you

win and lose than I am the coaches and I don't think you like any coaches when's the last boss the Celtics coach you thought was good Casey Jones I thought he may was good last year I liked him you didn't for a while you didn't for a while I didn't for a couple months that I talked myself into him I uh I so I would go the other way on the no timeout thing at least on the grant play you call timeout or allows you to take grant out of the game he can't make threes anymore why is he out there

I mean well I think it was minutes he played tonight 40 minutes okay but if if we're getting in a lineup thing and I agree like Derek White's been incredible you can't sit smart even though smart couldn't make anything until he hit actually two big threes. Just stop what you said there. You can't sit smart.

Why? Derek White's better than smart this season. I just don't think you're going to do that to a team. I think there's team chemistry, emotional stuff. I think that would be a really tough move to pull to a team that did what they did last year and smart. I think having probably the best season I've ever had, just the way he played, controlled the game, wasn't trying to do too much. Like a subdued smart offensively is what we all want. I actually thought he did a lot of really nice things tonight.

Do you think physically he looks 100% to you? No, I don't. No, I don't. I think the numbers are meh. And I think there's other times where the numbers probably look better than he's actually played. But I thought he busted his ass tonight defensively. One of my favorite plays is that play where he forced a turnover

and it was a scrum along the sideline. Where actually, I just thought it was off the Knicks player. And quickly wanted to review when his back was to it. That was my favorite demand to review. Quickly didn't even see what happened behind him. But the other thing is with Mitchell and Randall, it that was my favorite demand to review quickly didn't even see what happened behind him but um the other thing is with Mitchell and Randall I don't think they could afford to take Grant out and have Horford be your only size I don't think you were going to get any rebounds with no Rob

that's just me you know I don't know I would have gone smaller personally okay maybe you're right maybe you're right I just I didn't I didn't like Grant in that game I thought over and over again, their goal was just to get quickly switched on him because he's going by him every time. And if that's happening quickly at the game of his life today, at some point you got to change it up and try different things. I just really, really worry about teams that just over and over again, the same thing happens, right? Like we'll talk about the Warriors later.

The Warriors are in a different situation where they just fall behind a lot. And at some point, you kind of are who you are. If just over and over again, you're scrapping from, we're down, like what are the Warriors of the road now? Seven and 24?

Like that's not a sample size anymore. They suck on the road for whatever reason. And the Celtics over and over again have this tendency, they did it today in this Dix game, they have a lead and they just blow it like in two minutes. And I don't know, the one thing with White

that I think he does for them, at least offensively, is he pushes the pace and he can get to the basket. And I don't think Smart gets to the basket in the same way. Now, they posted up Smart a couple of times in the game today against Quick, because Quickly is like 150 pounds. And when they did that, the Knicks were like, oh shit, they're not going to keep doing that, are they?

And then, of course, we stopped doing that again so we could get to Brown or Tatum just jacking up shots. These are bad losses. Brown was awesome tonight. All right, Brown gave... I love Jalen Brown tonight. Tatum's final numbers are good, but the shooting line was brutal.

Tatum was bad the second half. Yeah, Brown finished 12 for 25. Tatum was 12 for 30. And both of them played high 40s in the minutes. The Josh Hart thing is real, though. If you're a Knicks fan and you're watching that, and like Tatum had a really hard time with him. And then there was two plays in particular where they ran a switch. When they

finally got the switch, then they didn't get the ball back to Tatum. And then the play that drove me crazy, I think it was the end of the first overtime where Brown had it. And then this is something I just harp on all the time. It's like people are so switch happy. And I get that part of the forcing a switch isn't so much the one-on-one matchup. It's forcing

a team to make a decision and getting guys moving. I'd say it's to get a mismatch in the post, but nobody throws it to anybody in the post anymore. Phoenix tried it twice today with Aiton late in the game, and they're like, all right, we're not doing that again. It's like, yeah, no shit. That's why you guys don't do it. So I don't think anybody ever other than Embiid will be like, okay, let's get a post touch here to do something different.

But the Celtics, and I would put this more on the players, is like, why are you running a switch where now Brown ends up with Hart? That's the opposite of what you wanted. You're trying to get him off of Tatum, and now you're the ball handler up top. Granted, Tatum had that kind of layup thing, but it was just so rushed because it was like three seconds with the ball left. So I love what Brown did tonight. Grant Williams, 44 minutes, two for seven, one for five from three,

six rebounds, 44 minutes. And then defensively, they kept putting them in those switches. I just, I don't get the lineups. And the thing that really scares me about the Celtics for the spring is that I don't know who they think the best five-man lineup is, but it's always these lineups with size, which I think slows them down. And I don't like when they play slower. And I'm worried about like Milwaukee, you saw them have,

and I want to talk about that Milwaukee Philly game, but you saw them have trouble with that weird lineup that Philly had. Cause PJ Tucker was hurt and Harris was hurt. And all of a sudden Philly had that goofy lineup. They put up 48 points. Milwaukee is a little bit bigger. Like they, they just had trouble matching up with it. Milwaukee's a little bit bigger. They just had

trouble matching up with it. And that's what I'm not seeing from the Celtics team. I'm not seeing innovation during games where it's like, oh, let me try this. Let me see if this works. Let me go a little smaller here. I just don't see it. And I've been watching all season. I've been waiting for the light bulb to go off. And I just don't feel like this team is well-coached. I don't think they're badly coached, but I don't this team is well-coached. I don't think they're badly coached, but I don't think they're well-coached. Okay, but he did have less. And I worry about it. He had less options tonight. You know, you don't

have Brogdon, who, you know, some people would have six minutes a year, although I think quickly he's going to get a massive bump now because of what happened. So, you know, as soon as you start saying that you didn't have Rob Williams or you didn't have Brogdon, I mean, you didn't have Brunson, who's been the best player this season for that team.

So it's not really a good excuse. Is it more surprising when you don't have Rob Williams or when you do? I mean, I think it's surprising when you have him for a long stretch. Like the starting five that they want to have with Horford, Williams, Tatum, Brown, and Smart hasn't played much.

My dad texted me during the game the other night, and he was like, Rob just went to the locker room. Go figure. So I think durability is a skill, which we've talked about before. And Rob can't stay on the court. And I don't know what it is, but just over and over again, isn't able to do it.

We didn't talk about the Knicks enough. RJ had 29. Quickly, he had 39. it is, but just over and over again, isn't able to do it. We didn't talk about the Knicks enough. RJ had 29, Quickly had 39. Randall, who is one of the most frustrating good players, because when you're going against him and he makes shots, you get mad. It's like, oh man, again? But he's got this weird herky-jerky ISO style that we don't really see anymore. It's like, what year is it out of? Like 1997? And it's been working for them. But they're a hard team to play and everybody in the team

is competitive and I don't know. I just like them. By the way, that lineup that I was talking about has only played 180 possessions going into the night. Smart, Brown, Tatum, Horford, Rob Williams. The actual differential on it's pretty bad. It's just interesting to see, hey, that's supposed to be the lineup, right?

Now, if the other team goes small, you would go with one of the two between Horford and Rob Williams. I mean, the fact that Horford's still playing like this too. I know. He's unbelievable. He played 46 minutes tonight. Most of their best lineups have... He'll be at DNP minutes tonight. Most of their best lineups have...

He'll be at DNP coming up. Most of their best lineups have White in it, just for whatever it's worth. And I think he's been really good as a two-way player. Their best lineups are with Smart, White, Jalen, Grant Williams, Horford. That one's plus 18. Then the other one is Tatum in for Grant, obviously.

That's plus 13. Like I have all the stuff up here. The most alarming one is the one that they is either Brogdon instead of Williams with Horford. But, you know, the one that they want, the one they expect to have is one of the worst differential ones they have, which I think speaks more to the inconsistency of that group actually playing together.

I like on NBA.com, they have the two-man lineups where you can just see what pairings are. And they have, of their 13 best lineups this year, White was in eight of the 13. He's been really good all year. So you would bench Smart? I would have benched Williams, and if that didn't work, I would have played white over smart.

But I would not have played Williams. In my opinion, I would have gone smaller, and I would have either played Williams at the five or Horford. What's Mitchell Robinson going to do? He's going to get a couple offensive rebounds. He's going to do that anyway, whether Horford's out there or not. Yeah, look, I'm not even trying to A-block zag on you. You might be right.

Hey, try something different. Go with white. There's a really weird thing. I mean, it's not even trying to like a block zag on you. You might be right. Hey, you know, try something different. Go with white. There's a really weird thing. I mean, it's not even Missoula. It's the NBA. Once the overtime starts, nobody says anybody. People are just entrenched with their lineups. Like if they had started in second overtime, just like, all right, Derek White, your turn now. That would have been really weird. Teams don't do that anymore.

If the NBA had a coaches convention, it would be funny if somebody was like, hey, I'd like to make a proposal that we can sub guys in and over time and then the league would be like you've always been allowed to and it'd be 30 head coaches going are you fucking kidding me we're allowed to do that this whole time it's like soccer when the guys are out there that's just what what happens uh i have one thing to add though that would be to your case because i'm i'm not even like i just try to think, if he didn't do this, why didn't he? And I thought it was because the size

the Knicks played with there. Why not hack Mitchell a couple of times when you couldn't stop quickly? But they should be able to stop quickly. They have so many good perimeter defenders.

They quickly shouldn't be able to do what he did in that game. His energy was unmatched. His energy was, his energy, he just was so good, man. God, he was good tonight.

We were vindicated. What was the trade that we both liked? It was quickly somebody else and three first-rounders for Mitchell. Quickly Barrett and three firsts. Yeah, Barrett was going to be in that. Utah wanted more. I don't know. I still like that trade. I don't think they were going to do...

I don't think the third... I think the problem, the holdup was the third first wasn't going to be in there. I know other people point to the RJ contract, but I'm pretty sure that you could figure out a way to work with that if you wanted to. So are the Knicks here... Where would you put them on the fringe contender rankings?

I'll give you the Knicks. I'll give you Dallas. I'll give you Miami. I'll give you the Knicks. I'll give you Dallas. I'll give you Miami. I'll give you Cleveland. I like the Knicks. I'll give you Minnesota. I'll give you Sacramento. Well, I'm going to take the Knicks ahead of all of them

because they play defense. Over Sacramento. Sacramento's defense is so terrible. This is an awesome story. I love the consistency. When you start looking at the five-man units, I think they have like the, I mean, granted, we're not going to do cleaning the glass all day on the pod today, but that group, De'Aaron Fox, Herter, Barnes, Keegan, and Sabonis, they've played over 1,500 possessions, and it's like 300 possessions more than the second most played lineup in the NBA. And they play like that. When you watch them early in the year, you're like,

okay, wow, this group looks like they've been together a long time when they haven't. And that's, I think, one of the most impressive things. But I don't know if we're going to get into it later, but the Sacramento defensive numbers are bad, and they're actually trending worse. So it's a great story. One last thing on the Knicks before we take a break. I have one last thing on the Knicks, though. I break because I don't think... I have one last thing on the Knicks though.

I didn't do a good enough job at this at the start. The thing that they've done... Actually, let's take a break and then I'll do this. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite.

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Your game time tastes like Miller time. Must be legal drinking age. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember.

You'll do great things too. You won't win the Super Bowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research. And if you don't want to grow a mustache, you could still walk or run 60 kilometers, host an event, or set your own goal and mow your own way. Do great things this November. Sign up now. Just search Movember. So the thing that Nick's did, I had a friend who was out in New York City, who lives in New York, long time Knicks fan,

the night of the heat game when Randall hit the three. And he said, what's changed? And what feels like 2013 and then 90s, basically, which was the only times this happened in maybe 2000, 2001, was that all the bars were locked in on the Knicks game. And like when Randall hit the three, it was kind of wherever you were, it was kind of a moment in the city. And I think the Knicks have at least reached that point where they have rejuvenated and reignited this fan base that had kind of given up on having a meaningful thing. I mean, think about two years ago with that weird Derrick Rose pandemic team when they

were excited about that, like just that weird Derek Rose pandemic team. And they were excited about that. Like just that they made round one. Now I think they like this team. This is a very Nixie kind of throwback to the nineties type of team. And I think there's a real energy behind it. Like I guarantee that this will be the big talking point in New York all day tomorrow. You see the next game,

see the next game. And they have the Celtics number, at least this year, which the Knicks-Celtics, we've talked about this before, is the worst feud probably. It makes no sense, but it's a terrible feud. These two basketball cities

that are three hours apart and have basically three memorable playoff series over the course of 70 years. Oh, that's because Philly was the Eastern Conference one forever for us. For Boston.

It's just the Knicks Celtics just never happened. They were never good at the same times. It just never happened. And it was always going to be overshadowed by anything that happened while they were at home in the finals. So, I mean, nothing's going to match Boston and LA. So, I mean, it's just weird. It's like one of those ACC things where it's like Duke's our rival.

And you're like, actually, Duke has like three teams ahead of you. Yeah, it's like Sixers, Lakers, Pistons for a long time. Yeah, I mean, there was even some Bucks history there that's been revisited too. Yeah, the Knicks aren't even in the top four. So yeah, cool thing that the Knicks are at least relevant. And the thing is, they have a lot of assets and they're sitting there. They have the ability to make one more trade. The Tibbs thing, which looked pretty

shaky there, at least around Christmas, where it looked like they were going to have to separate from him. Now, this is the kind of team I think he wants to coach, where it's a lot of scrappy guys, some weird ISO stuff that actually works. And I don't know. Congrats to the Knicks fans.

Yeah. So since this win streak going into tonight, they're the number't know. Congrats to the Knicks fans. Yeah, so since this win streak going into tonight, they're the number one offense. They're the number nine defense. They're the best rebounding team, and their true shooting percentage is fourth. So it's hard to find much that they're doing wrong during this.

And Brunson's been incredible. The funniest thing is that for the longest time, you're watching Mitchell doing what he's doing with Cleveland. And you're like, okay, you know, that's where you give up the extra pick. Like you keep waiting around for the right guy. And the argument I had heard where the Knicks were split on it was like, let's not use our assets and we'll wait to get the next guy. It's like, we'll get the first guy before you get the next guy.

And the first guy ended up being Brunson who, you know, just I didn't care about the contract. It was just this guy's way beyond, you know, we all knew he was good, but damn. And then Randall's back. And it's funny to see him with these isolation things that everybody likes. They hated him last year. And it's the same number of isolation possessions per game because it got really. Remember how bad the Randall thing was?

Like at home games, it was really nasty. It looked like he had to be out of there. And then it almost looked like it was a bad contract. And hell, I mean, he could have been more expensive, but he took the earlier extension to it all. But when I look at what they've done with Quickly, and this is with Barrett, I mean, think about RJ Barrett, who's been an afterthought now. We've talked about it a lot about how Tibbs has decided to go with other guys and the Hart thing was going to make it even harder to find him closing minutes. And yet you have somebody who can come in and create enough to get 30 and double overtime on the

road. It would be really crazy despite me thinking they were wrong for not doing the Mitchell deal, which I'm still kind of at. I'm not going to freak out because of two weeks here because of how special Mitchell is. We're talking about somebody that's arguably always in that top 15 argument

here for his prime years. What if not giving up quickly ends up being the best thing ever? I mean, that's... Quickly's been on a tear now, too. I mean, he's averaging like 16 a game, so tonight's a whole other orbit for him, but he's been making his shots.

And it also speaks to Bridges getting the chance to be the first option and seeing what he's doing. It's how talented this league is. As Brunson's out, Quickly runs the show and does what he's doing. It's how talented this league is. As Brunson's out, quickly runs the show and does what he did tonight. And there's zero doubt with that guy. Zero.

Hart, I've always liked. I've always kind of wanted to see him on the right team. And he makes so much sense as a Knick for some reason. The Randall thing is funny because he was one of those guys that you just, if he took a three, you kind of wanted him to. And now it at least seems like it's going in. But when that three went in the Miami game, that's the kind of shit that happens when it's kind of your year to lunge for going to the right, a lefty fall away shot just to get it off. Those shots never go in. Like one out of 20 times a shot like that goes in and that went in. And that's what makes you think like, oh, something's happening with this team. So

something's happened with them. I'm not sure what the hell has happened with the Celtics, but we did this last year when we started looking at these stat muses you can put in any record and just look at all the records. And that December 1st thing where they had the fourth best record, we were doing this last year with Dallas, remember? Like, look at those Dallas numbers

since it was like December 1st or December 10th. Well, their defense was incredible. Yeah, third best team in the league. And then it was like, oh, for three straight months, they've been, well, what does this mean? And then all of a sudden they're in the Western Finals. So I don't think it's nothing. I do feel like sustained,

you throw away the first two months, they barely have training camp, the guys they're resting, all that stuff. The lineups are so different because there's so many, there's so much roster changes now with these different teams. But by December 1st, you kind of know who you have. And I don't know.

I think it's a good sample size. Like right now, the four best teams since December 1st, Denver 31-12, Philly 29-12, Milwaukee 30-13, and then the Knicks at 29-15. And those seem like the right four. Those have been the four teams that have been playing the best for the last couple months, I think. So Rudy chimed in here.

He said from FanDuel, quickly he said odds to win NBA six man of the year. Start of March, it was plus 3,200. Before tonight, because he's been on the shooting tear too, but it was still like 16 a game before tonight. It was plus 220. That jumped from before tonight,

plus 220 to now plus 135. And Brogdon not playing for a couple games. That hasn't helped either. All right, let's move to the Philly-Milwaukee game because I thought that was another one. We try not to overreact in March because the playoffs are still 20 games away. We don't know.

I thought that was an incredibly important win for Philly. Like, it actually, I wasn't quite shoveling dirt on them, but I was not taking them seriously because it just seemed like against good teams, they couldn't get their shit together. There were certain ways to

play them. Harden was fantastic, especially in the fourth quarter. Like that was his best game in a while. And they really took it to Milwaukee. Milwaukee had their full team, 16 in a row, ABC game. They had a lead in the fourth quarter and then Philly scores 48 points. Is it weird to say I like the matchup in that series for Philly a little bit? I don't know why, just like I don't like them against Boston. So I think Boston has great matchups all over the place against them.

It could go small, but it gets Milwaukee. I felt like they were playing the style they wanted to play. And I thought Giannis was playing well and it didn't matter. And Philly still beat him. So what'd you take away from that game? I can't believe Milwaukee lost it. I thought it was playing out as a classic Philly game.

It's been a weird Philly week. It's been a bad one. I mean, they were in it with Boston a week ago. Tatum hits the last second shot. Okay. They lose to Miami with Embiid and then they smash Miami without him, which whatever, it just happens. And then the Dallas game was like, you had the tweet. That was Philly

101. Yeah, because you're just like, you're like, this isn't going to work out. So then Grayson Allen goes fucking bananas in the third quarter. Milwaukee's got the lead. And you're like, yeah, I don't put you in this group. So I think it's the best win of Philly's season. I really do.

Because I think the matchup thing that you're on, it's all about Embiid. You know, nobody's stopping Giannis. Whenever we look at these defensive matchups and whatever, and you're like, oh, can you slow this guy down? It's like, oh, these guys get 30. They're all going to...

A bad night forms 20. Embiid's at least going to make Giannis feel him in a way no one else in the East can. And there were four possessions. I mean, Giannis still went off. And the thing I love about Giannis is that he wants to attack and be, you know, I think it might be something if they face each other in the playoffs where

it would be like, let me get switched on to him and try to get him in some foul trouble here and make him work. But on the other side, the Giannis has to feel and be in a way that nobody else has that kind of physical presence with the athleticism on top of everything else. They tried to throw a lob to him. Embiid got in there. There was a short deep seal where he just tortures teams with that deep, deep catch.

And he just turns around and just finger rolls it in. And it's like, you're helpless. He tried to do it against Embiid. Didn't happen. He tried to hit a jump hook on him. So even though Giannis' numbers are terrific and he went on this single-handed scoring run, it's about making a guy feel you. And Philly can do that with him. And I don't really know. I mean, there's certainly not someone on Boston that can. Cleveland, in theory, has big guys, but they're not stout enough. Well, there's one other piece.

Milwaukee is not... I wouldn't say they're a fast-paced team, right? They're like a playoff team. They're a little methodical, a certain pace to them, which is really helpful to Philly. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, that's what Philly wants to do.

Philly doesn't want to run. They don't want to get back on defense. And the slower it goes for them, the happier they are. If I'm Milwaukee, I'm a little alarmed that Giannis and Lopez and Holiday all hit good games and we still blew the game. And then the other thing I'd be alarmed, and this is something the Philly fans have been talking about, back to coaches. You know, Tucker is a little like Grant Williams with Missoula, where Tucker, you just trust him. You know what he is. You have him out there. You know exactly what he's going to do. There's no

variance, right? He's just, might make a three in the corner. He's going to play good defense or whatever. And coaches get used to that. Same thing for what Harris was for them. As soon as those guys went out, it kind of opened up Philly to try some stuff. I like Niang. I think

he's a good shooter. I think heang. I think he's a good shooter. I think he's not scared when he's out there too. He was forced to play Paul Reed. He only played nine minutes, but was really good in the nine minutes. The Philly fans have been calling for that for a year. But in general, it seemed like it opened up Max a little bit.

And I don't know. I just like how they look when they're spread out with Embiid, and I think he's kind of afraid to do that. He's so, you know, kind of that, oh, Harris and PJ, those are our guys, but I don't think they're going to win four straight rounds with PJ Tucker

playing 35 minutes a game, in my opinion. They need a little more variance, and to me, the key is, like, how can we get different kinds of lineups, and then how can we unleash Maxie because whatever ceiling they have Maxie is the guy that's going to create the ceiling I think

because he's a 20 points a game guy who was getting worse as the season was going along so I hope they learned if you're a Philly fan you're hoping they learn lessons from that the big thing for me was how good Harden was in that game but he kind of wasn't he had Drew on him in the fourth quarter hoping they learn lessons from that. The big thing for me was how, how good Harden was in that game.

But he kind of wasn't true on him. Not in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, he was incredible. It was like a weird game. Cause he was nine to 24 before he started cooking. And he, he cooked, he cooked holiday and he cooked Middleton and Giannis was guarding him at

one point. I was shocked by that. You know, what's really funny too, is that as that game, cause I was like, all right, is there a perception changing part of shocked by that. You know, what's really funny, too, is that as that game, because I was like, all right, is there a perception changing part of you? Like, you know, any two of these games that we're watching where it's potential playoff matchups, you're like, is there anything

that's going to happen? It's going to, like, change your mind about some stuff, right? And I think the Knicks, to our earlier point, is forcing us to ask ourselves those questions. And yet, here's Philly where, you know, Niang hadn't made a shot forever it felt like and then yeah he hit what four threes in the third but again like grayson allen went for 20 in the third so you play that game being like well that won't happen again then

you could also say well yannis is going to make every single free throw in a game again unless it's an elimination game of the finals um but i i like your harris point you know because as talented as he is and whatever like my joke is like i forget about him in the fourth quarter all the time and some of it's by design because they're just running that mb harden side pick and roll action over and over and over again i think your point about pace is perfect because they're a match i mean this is the slowest pace that hardens played at since his last year in Oklahoma city. I mean, that's a really long time, but you know, Harden shooting it better than he had the last previous seasons, but he's actually driving it less. Like it's been in decline now, I think for five straight seasons, like one year he led

the league and drives at almost 20 drives per game. And now he's worked his way down five straight years like 13 and a half so uh you know it was it was a weird week because when philly like when they were down and then harden almost turned it over and i was like oh here we go late turnovers between harden and beat again and then in bead got it back and harden hit the earlier three and then in bead looked like he didn't really want to shoot it. And then he shot it anyway. Then he got it back and it was like he didn't have a choice. And then, you know, that's probably the biggest shot he's hit all season. So I thought it was the best win for them.

It was great. But it doesn't really make me write off Milwaukee. I'll ask you this. Is Milwaukee all of a sudden going to go from what's up with their depth to having real options? I'm telling you, I think they're the best team. Gun to my head, that's still the team I'm picking. I did not really understand the Drogic signing

because I just don't think he's been any sort of relevant for two years now. And I think that's just another guy who's wondering why he's not playing. I like their team. I didn't really think they had to do anything. I'm all in on them. The way Lopez is playing. The like their team. I didn't really think they had to do anything. I'm all in on them. The way Lopez is playing.

The question for me, and we were going to do this a little later with you, one thing that scares you about each contender, but I just don't like the way Middleton doesn't make threes anymore. And you could say, ah, it's a small sample size. He's made them in the past, but

he's not shooting well. And I don't know how many games before you get worried about that because he's played, I think, like 20, 20 plus. I don't feel like his threes are going to go in when I watch them.

I don't know. Maybe he doesn't have the lift yet or what's going on. But when he's out there, it seems like teams kind of want him to shoot the three. You notice that? Yeah, because I think Drew's been on such a

tear and then Lopez spreads you out. I mean, it can do some really weird stuff to you. I mean, you're right though. It's weird. Like Lopez has this incredible game and you go awesome. Here's what I'd say about Middleton and I don't think many people are going to agree with me. I've been watching it too and it hasn't looked great

and I know his number sucked in the Philly game. I thought it was the best he was moving that I'd seen. So I'll keep paying attention to it. It's too early. It's been 20 something games. But I would agree. There were times earlier on his comeback here, I was like, oh man. But okay, whatever. I mean, Jamal Murray

didn't look great when he first came back. Clay has had moments where he looked great. And then you look at what Clay's done scoring-wise the last few nights, you're like, okay. He might not ever be back back to what he was defensively where he's locking down quick guards but um it takes time and i actually thought there were some positive physical signs at least it was something just i noticed but you know maybe i was lying to myself a little bit there but yeah at to this point it hasn't been what you'd expect but then you think of ingles you think of portis you you go Jay Crowder. Granted, some guys were hurt, some guys were in and out,

but I think Milwaukee's kind of sneaky added all this depth. Although contenders during buyouts is like kids at last call. You just are freaking out going, how many things can I get my hands on? Patrick Beverly, we got him. One last thing on Harris. He's 15-6 basically this year. The shooting percentages are good, but I do wonder what their best five is and if the ceiling of that team is even a little higher than they've shown. But you think

they've had one of the best four records in the league the last three months that we've mentioned. I had some Harden stuff for you really quick. I was looking at his career, which is very strange because you have the OKC Harden and then you have... He started seven games.

I mean, like, every time I look back at his numbers because I was looking at the drive and the pace stuff today, he started seven games in three seasons. And it was like, his ceiling is he might be the next man of Genova.

I remember even writing that. This could be Genova 2.0. Then he goes to Houston. In those first four years, he's 28-8-6. 44-36-86 shooting. Then he has that run

when he just goes nuts from 17-20. 32-9-7. Basically the same shooting percentages but goes up to 21.4 field goal attempts, 10.9 free throw attempts. Now he's morphed into this other version of Harden. The slower, you mentioned how it's a little tougher

for him to get by people, finish the traffic, stuff like that. 23 a game, 10.5 assists a game, and seven rebounds a game. This is like almost three years now. The shooting percentages are exactly the same and the field goals are down almost six compared to that four-year peak and the free throws are down to seven and a half. But in general, statistically, he's really close to

the other stuff. It's just he shoots less, but the eye test doesn't follow that at all. To me, he looks like a completely different guy, but the percentages are all the same for basically 12 years. Just the frequency of how much he's shooting, I guess, has changed. I just thought that was bizarre. I would have thought something had gone down other than just attempts. Well, the shooting had gone down in a couple of the most previous spots uh and i thought he was like hunting for threes so much or hunting for fouls on the threes that was actually shooting his his shooting was off his percentages were off and that would back it up but his shooting percentage is back up now i think he's third and assist or you know at times been first and assist

and that's you know the best part of it. The problem will be in the playoffs. Which problem? Well, it's not even his history of these flameout games. We've all been over because I don't want to be negative about him right now because that was an awesome, awesome win. It's just the moments where it's like when you're not in the play, you don't do anything. And I think in a playoff series,

when you get a little bit more comfortable with it and you start realizing you can cheat away from him or once he's not in the play like he's never going to move he's never sent screens he's never doing any of that kind of stuff that I mean it's just not the way you would want to play basketball and you know that's been part of the problem so awesome

game and the shooting is back and the passing for him has always been incredible and now that he's really having to choreograph more of this stuff, like the skill set was always there. So this transition for him, you know, even though he's not that anymore, I mean, you know, those were absurd, absurd numbers. I think his passing keeps him as a really, really dangerous player.

And the fact that the three-point shooting is back up after kind of hovering around the low 30s there. Can I give you this one? This is the most fun version of Harden for me. I couldn't stand watching the 2017 to 20, had the ball all the time, you know, mono basketball version. This version actually seems like he'd be relatively fun to play with, right? If you're going to give me the three different eras of Harden, like the first three, first four Rockets years, the peak Rocket years, the next four, and then these last three,

I think this is probably my favorite version of him. Yeah, I don't have a favorite version. I should have known. I should have guessed it. His playoff stats, not as good as the regular season stats. We'll see. He's only year 14. And it does feel like there's a little bit of an end game to this Philly thing because that Harden Houston, that athletic story I thought was one of the most bizarre stories of the year.

This long story about the bond between Harden and the Rockets and how they, the owner said, whatever, you'll be back. And that just, it was like, why is anybody writing the stories on Philadelphia? I would have been mad if I was a Philadelphia fan because it just felt like

there were a lot of breadcrumbs being dropped. And then in the whisper circles, everybody seems to think he's going back to Houston. So I don't know, does that add urgency to this or is that just where we're going? But I think the's going back to Houston. So I don't know, does that add urgency to this? Or is that just where we're going? But I think the Houston part is just bizarre. Really since Christmas,

we'll just drop that thing on Christmas. And it's like, where's this coming from? I'm about to watch five Christmas games. And now it seems like a foregone conclusion. If you talk to anyone around the league, they're like, yeah, Harden's going to Houston. And it reminds me a lot of that LeBron Lakers year, a year before LeBron went to Lakers when everybody was like, yeah, Harden's going to Houston. And it reminds me a lot of that LeBron Lakers year, a year before LeBron went to Lakers, when everybody was like,

yeah, LeBron's going to the Lakers. I don't know what to make of it. What do you make of it? Well, it's definitely out there, you know, and I know... It's profoundly out there. Yeah, right. There's stuff that's out there, and you're like, hey, remember when that was out there, and then it didn't happen, and everybody was convinced it's happened. I mean, there's been a ton of those things. Paul George and the Lakers is a good one. Yeah, but there's stuff that's out there. And you're like, Hey, remember when that was out there and then it didn't happen. And everybody was convinced it's happened. I mean, there's been a ton of those things.

And there's also been a lot of Lakers is a good one. Yeah. But there's also like a lot of things you're like, yeah, I really knew that was going to happen. And then it does happen. So, um,

I, I think my favorite part of this story is that as soon as he did the pay cut and the two year deal with the opt out, people were like, are the Sixers going to get investigated? Right. All right. That was like, everybody was okay just saying that. And then Hart actually had a quote where he was like, I don't get enough credit for taking the pay cut, which I thought was awesome. Yeah. And it's like, if he opts out and goes back to Houston,

two things can happen. People can take back suggesting that Philly should have been investigated because of that contract. And Harden also then doesn't get credit for taking the pay cut when he opted out a year later to leave a winning situation to go to Houston. And if I'm Jalen Green, I am praying he doesn't sign the Rockets. Well, the story was March 1st. The headline was James Harden,

the Houston Rockets, and an undeniable bond that refuses to go away. I'm sorry, was I in a coma or was I actually alive during that stretch when he just stopped playing hard in Rockets games and basically put a gun to their head to trade him? Did that not happen or did I imagine that?

So why is there an undeniable bond that refuses to go away? I'm just, the NBA is just drunk all the time. I'm confused by it constantly. I don't get it. We'd always heard like he wanted out of there. He was tired of the owners. Get me the... And now there's rumors he's coming back. So, go

figure. What a weird league. Speaking of weird leagues, we gotta talk about John Moran, but let's take a break. When you ride transit, please be safe. Yeah, be safe. Because what you do, others will do too. Others will do it too. So don't take shortcuts across tracks. Don't do that.

In fact, just don't walk on tracks at all. Not at all. Trains move quietly so you won't hear them coming. You won't hear them coming. See, safe riding sets an example. Yeah, an example for me. Because safety is learned. It's learned.

Okay, give it up. Give what up? Really? Really, really. This message is brought to you by Metrolinks. This episode is brought to you by Nespresso. Elevate your morning coffee ritual. From the first sip of coffee in the morning to the on-the-go cup.

Make every morning unforgettable with Nespresso. Discover a world of possibilities with or without milk. Visit Nespresso.ca to learn more or a Nespresso bout Discover a world of possibilities with or without milk. Visit Nespresso.ca to learn more or an espresso boutique near you. All right. So the biggest story of the weekend, which somehow we didn't get to until the 40 plus minute part of this podcast was John Morant. Seems like he got suspended by the Grizzlies. I don't know where Adam Silver was in the whole thing. We'll talk about that a little bit later. But a series of incidents added up and he had to

leave the team. And on the one hand, people are talking about this gravely. This is like a behind the music special and we're in the last 20 minutes of it and this is headed a certain way or you could look at it and say,

is it 23? Okay, he's made a couple of mistakes. I was 23 once. I made mistakes. You were 23 once. You made mistakes. And maybe three weeks from now, jaw's fine and this was a blip

and we all just move on. But it's definitely something. And I think I was talking to Van Lathan about it today. And he was saying one of the things he noticed, which I thought was a really good point was how much people love jaw. And if this was like most athletes, he'd be like, Oh man, what the fuck is that guy doing? But this one, there's a bond with him. I think people just like the guy. He was being positioned as possibly being the next guy. He was one of the most popular selling jerseys.

He was the most searched social media guy last year or the most impressions, whatever the F. He was just being positioned a certain way and now it seems like people are watching this, one wondering, all right, is he gonna get his shit together? And then the other, man, this would suck if he didn't get his shit together. So it's a really unique situation. And I can't remember it that many times in my life as a sports fan.

I don't know what's going on with the dude. And I don't know if this stuff is a little overblown, a couple of mistakes, or if there's something way more serious going on. But it's a bummer. And I hope he figures it out. And I have no idea if he's going to figure it out. We might look at this three weeks from now and be like, oh, remember that Jaffe? That was weird.

It's fine now. They just want to eat straight. I don't know. What was your take listening to everything this weekend? I think I was just a little surprised because it all kind of came together really quickly. Because if you go to the timeline, it was this Pacers incident

where it was him and some of his guys like threatened somebody. And then apparently there was like a red dot target on somebody, but the timeline, it was this Pacers incident where it was him and some of his guys threatened somebody. And then apparently there was a red dot target on somebody. But the NBA investigated it and there was no actual proof of any gun or anything like that. So you're like, okay, that's sort of weird. But then what happens is then when one thing pops off, then it kind of opens up some other stuff. It's like, hey, did you guys know back in July he had this party at his house and they were playing pick up hoops? And again, it kind of got reported that he beat up a kid but then even though you know everything was alleged yeah it's all alleged

and the guy was 17 and then there was supposedly a gun accusation there but then they couldn't prove it so then there was no charges then there was all sorts of stuff happening like on some of the local media stuff where it was like serious pr spin for jaw so i didn't really know what to believe i'm not dismissing it, but I'm not going to repeat any of it. Cause I have no idea if it was true or not. Everything was debunkable. Right.

And then they had the mall incident where apparently his mom was at finish line at the mall in Memphis. And then she called job because she said somebody was messing with her and he showed up nine deep. It's always tough when you show up someplace and be like, can I be a plus nine? And, um,

then it escalated out in the parking lot. And somebody said, I'm going to wait until you get off. I mean, and then you had this picture with him where the timeline of like where he would have to travel to then also post this IG video, allegedly with a gun. It all kind of happened really quickly. And I think back to your point and back to Vance point is that you're like wait I thought we all like loved this dude like I thought he was like the perfect guy to lead this Memphis franchise that has such a different vibe about it that I think all of us are like we all really like it like I know I kind of went off last year during the classical and say because it can feel a little too soon but I'd rather you be

brash than apologetic you know I'd rather you feel like you belong instead of thinking that you don't, especially in basketball. And then where he's so much fun and then Nike's going to be thinking like, we went all in on this dude. We're giving him a signature shoe. That's a group of five guys, man, that are at that level.

So you're thinking everything's working out because even during this rebuild and that they haven't gone far enough in playoffs, it's still very early for them most of the people don't have playoff success until you're like 26 or 27 anyway so you know he could he could pop off they've had some comments they had some stuff with golden state that i didn't always love but none of it really fucking mattered so i don't know what to make of it i don't know if you know there's plenty of dudes that are out there that are tricking us all the time uh then there's the element of where it turns into, well, it's just the wrong crew. He's going to stop hanging out with the wrong guys.

You know, maybe that's totally true. There's also times when you're the worst guy in the crew. You know, like, hey, you know, what happened? Oh, I was, this guy was there. You know what happens when Steve shows up and then eventually it's like no dude you notice the common denominator is that it's you every time this is the speech I give to nephew Kyle

like once a month the thing with the I thought Jalen made a really good point last night when he was like ultimately you can blame the crew do the whole thing. But ultimately he's the one who picks the crew and he's the leader of the crew and they're all going to follow his lead. So what the whole, Oh, he's got to change his crew. Yeah. And who else in the crew has a max

deal on a signature shoe with Nike? Right. This isn't, you know, like a 90210 episode where somebody shows up and teaches Steve Sanders how to smoke. Chad's an adult. He's a professional athlete. He's also 23. And I think I'm always prone to thinking people are allowed to make dumb choices. The IG video was an especially really stupid choice. And that's where when you read this stuff today where it's

like i'm gonna take some time i'm gonna regroup like it's like yeah you probably should because that is really weird that almost seems like self-destructive that he did that but i but i think that's the point like right like i don't know i have no idea so i'm not even really gonna bash him i you know like and again i'm not a huge moralist when any of this stuff happens. It's not really my deal. Maybe I'm wrong for not being more upset about it. I guess I'm just so confused. I'm not upset either. I just think it's, it's really weird where this seemed pretty abrupt where we, this Grizzlies were this young, lovable team and he was the most young, lovable star in the league.

And then you think like, like, just think about who is the league being handed off to? You know, and you think the best American players right now, the most famous ones, the most successful ones are LeBron and Steph, right? LeBron, year 20,

Steph's 34. You think of that next generation of guys, all of them are, it's Giannis, it's Embiid it's Luka, Jokic those are four of the five best players in the league right now

and then the American guys under 28 the guys that would be you know perennially those are the guys you put in the face those are the guys who sell the most jerseys here for whatever reason you can analyze that all you want but it's Tatum and it's jaw booker zion probably moves a lot of product but you know but zion like we don't i don't trust zion to be the face of the league he can't stay on

the court right i agree with you i'm just yeah yeah and then then you get into like mitchell and halburton and bam and garland and you get triple J and Mobley, like Anthony Edwards, maybe a couple of years away, but it is a weird time for the league because the LeBron thing, he can't, he just can't play more than 50 games a year anymore. Curry's hitting a,

you know, he's going to be in his, he's going to be 35 this year. Who is the next guy? Who's the next American super duper star? I would have bet on jaw. He would have been my number one pick. And I think this is why this is a bigger story than maybe, you know, it usually would have been if it was just typical athlete, just kind of going off the rails a tiny bit. Can I add one thing here too? Cause I can't help myself. Um, yeah. When

I see people posting like this Ja needs to do this Ja needs to do that whether it's a video or it's a tweet you're not even doing that for Ja you're doing that for yourself performance art right like how can I look good in this moment

I mean you can pretend you care and maybe you kind of do but when I see that in our business, I'm like, yeah, you're actually doing this for the retweets. Agree. One basketball point with this job situation, the Grizzlies were like a legitimate contender to win the title. I think until the Phoenix trade, I think you would have said they were the second best team in the West and the second most likely team. They're really good at home.

I was interested to see what they're going to do in the trade deadline. They were in the mix for Ananobi at one point. It's really unusual for a player's off-court stuff to derail a contender. And it's too early to say whether this will happen with John Memphis, but I was looking back over history.

It's not a lot of examples. You think in 2016, Blake punched a team manager, right? Remember that Quipper season when him and DeAndre Jordan and the team manager were out, I don't know, dinner drinking, and Blake punched him and broke his hand? Quippers won like 53 games. It was a pretty significant injury. They were probably the third best team in the West.

They ended up losing in round one. Kyrie last year, I mean, it's hard to compare. It's apples and oranges, but it was a player's behavior kind of sinking a team. I don't know if they had title contender status. Simmons and the 2021 Sixers,

I don't know if they had title contender status. Going back to like Dwight on 2011 Magic, I don't know if that team was going to beat the Heat in a series. Kobe, all his off-court stuff in 2004 with that Lakers team. I still think the Pistons would have beaten them. Artest and the Melee in 2005 when Indy was the best team, that fight happens. That's an on-court incident. Rodman going back to 1995, that when he just kind of unraveled in that Spurs series, all this stuff is like on the court or related to things on the court. This one, where you have your best player and the signature guy in your franchise, and he's unraveled to the point that he's like, I need to take some time to get my shit together.

This is about as unusual as we've seen for a contender. I felt like I was hanging on to Memphis longer than everybody else was. I mean, they were 31 and 13 at one point, and a lot of that work was done without Bane. And then you're like, all right, now you're going to get Bane back? I mean, the Steven Adams thing, you're going to be kidding me.

Like, Steven Adams isn't this good, right? He's a nice player. He's actually probably a matchup-specific player in the playoffs, knowing how that all goes. I don't know if it speaks to, you know, you lose Adams, but you also lost Kyle Anderson. You also lost DeAnthony, who's just a really nice player and I thought was really a good fit for them. So you add that all together,

maybe it speaks more to Memphis' building where we look at the roster, like look how talented they are, look how good they are late in the draft. But when you start having to replace multiple players that would play real minutes in a playoff series with some unproven guys that are more valuable because they're younger, but it's still kind of an an unknown and then you add it all up together

you could also say that they just became a little too predictable we know what they're going to run but everybody knows what they're going to run and jaw still fucking goes off i mean what he did against the lakers just a week ago was insane 28 points in the third quarter so you can say you're ready for it um see that's why i go at the unwrapped the i'm i'm kind of prone to not thinking he's unraveling see i watched that laker game and he was incredible and it was like five days ago you know is he making bad choices maybe it's probably he's probably going to be fine i mean maybe this is a quick little wake-up call it's a little blip you know the suspension thing's kind of silly i mean i don't i'm not saying they shouldn't have done it

it sounds like I think a lot of times the league in sports in general it'll be like you do it where it's where it's on the team but then when it turns into like I'm going to step away like what are you going to do like what's really going to happen in two or three days

so I do think it's interesting though that the league deferred to the Grizzlies on it because in the Stern era, there would have been no deferring and he would have handled it and he would have called job to his office and he would have done the whole Stern thing. But I think the league, you know, the, the way the league operates now, they want to be friends with the players and they want to be partners with the players, which has some benefits, but I think has a lot of weaknesses too and i think we've seen a lot of them this season i'm rooting for him i'm rooting for him i'm rooting for memphis i'm rooting

for the story i want it to work out because all of us that are neutral just enjoy when memphis is in the mix even if there are times where I haven't loved every part of it. But yeah, I hope it's a blip, man. I'm with you. I hope that's all this is. Quickly, let's do our worries for each contender. You only have one or two words.

So Memphis, I think we already know the worry. Larry Hoover? Let's go already know the worry. Larry Hoover. Let's go rest of the West Denver. Your biggest concern for them winning the title. The thing that jumps to your mind first, one word or two word. One five, one five switches.

Yo kitchen, a playoff series. Mine. That's about the only, that's about the only thing. Sorry, I interrupted you. No,

no, that's a good one. I had Porter and here's why, even though I like Porter and I think he's made some big shots for them. And I watch a lot of nuggets games. And I think when he's taking an open shot at the end of the game, I actually think it's going in. You know how sometimes with a basketball team,

somebody on that team seems to just be way too involved in the biggest play of the game. And then sometimes that's not the best guy on the team for whatever reason. It just seems like Porter, when they're in a playoff series, I just have this feeling it's going to come down to whether he makes like two shots in the corner against like the Suns or whatever. I think he's their swing guy. Some teams just have the swing guys and it's not necessarily the best guy, but I think he's their swing guy. You think of Mario Eli on the Rockets that year where for whatever reason,

it was like he made a couple of big shots and was one of the reasons they won the title. Porter's just that guy for them. And I don't know if I trust him. It's great. It's a great observation. Thank you. Because you're right. There's no debate on it.

And you like him more than me. I'm very enamored with that size, being able to make those kinds of shots. But I had TJ Carlissimo on recently. And you want to talk like old school coach. Like, his frustration just even thinking about him

wasn't even what he said. And in the beginning, he was a mess. And I actually think Malone was so annoyed with him. And again, this goes back to the beginning of his career where they had times

where they had injuries where you're like, dude, I don't care if he makes every defensive mistake. Like, you have no one to score. Get him out there. And Malone just couldn't give him the minutes. Couldn't reward him with the minutes because he was so bad on not understanding what he was supposed to be doing defensively.

It's not like that anymore. But I would agree with PJ and you on the concern that you just feel like there's a processing with him in a big spot where if you had to bet on it, you're like, look, when he doesn't have to think about it,

and he's just going out there and making shots against guys, it's absurd. And I think there's always an injury thing there with him too, which goes back to why he was drafted where he was drafted. Who do you have for Golden State? Parade. What's that? parade. I wonder if they're all back and ready to go. Whatever. They lost the Lakers today. They had nothing for Anthony Davis.

They even played Iwadala who, it was funny because on the call they were like, that's his fifth three-point attempt of the season. I was like, it sure looked like it. But, you know, whatever. Yeah, it doesn't. I mean, let's see him play for a couple weeks here before we try to make some sort of statement on Andre Iguodala. I wonder if emotionally they can be up to the task considering

what that title meant for them last year. After all the uncertainty, the injuries, Durant moving on, wondering if it was actually over, over, and them having that. I don't know if they can reach that same emotional desire uh knowing that they just did it i'm not writing them off though because i just think it's stupid i you know when they were losing they had a really good week until the loss today they were losing these other games and the road stuff it's like look you know how do we judge any of these teams until we have all their guys out there?

So I'm not writing them off. I just don't know if they can. It wouldn't be anything you could even tell. It would be the kind of thing you do years later. We were like, hey, what happened that year? And they would say, you know what? It was like the year from hell. We just, we didn't consider we had won it the year before. The drive to finish wasn't the same.

And it was, there was like nothing we could do about it. Yeah, I want to watch them for a week with Wiggins before I get... He's been out eight straight too. Yeah, that's the thing. It is interesting though, last year their first in defensive rating. First. Wow, it's a joke this year. 13th.

I'm surprised it's that high. The 7-24 on the road is absolutely alarming. I wrote down 2022 Bucs where the Bucs had that kind of championship residue and they could look like dog shit for 45. I'm talking about Tampa Bay. They look like

dog shit for three quarters and then they could slap together 17 points in the fourth quarter and they won like five games that way. And it's like, oh, the Bucs watch out for them. And even in the playoffs, they were, what, two and a half point underdogs to Dallas? It's like, oh, you don't want to let them in the playoffs. And then they just got the living

shit kicked out of them because they had so many holes. It was an awful matchup for them too. It was like, hey, wait, the best. I don't think they're nearly as bad as the Bucs thing. And even with the defensive and the road road numbers i don't know what any of those numbers mean i mean if if their five guys are ready to go with pool and clay keeps playing this way you know i just saw stuff i don't know it was a couple weeks ago i felt like i was seeing stuff where people were just writing them off i'm like well i wouldn't do that yeah talent wise i'm not comparing the

bucks i'm just like the signs of, this keeps happening and we keep writing it off because they're champions. Then all of a sudden, they're down, getting crushed in the playoffs. They're like, oh, we should have known. That is the part that worries me. We'll see if Peyton can come back to it.

Can I ask you a question? Yeah. The Wiseman thing was a tough decision for them to make. I know some people don't think it is. Whatever. Well, it's also $100 million next year. Yeah, but then they spent the money on Payton. Right.

So I think they're like, if we're spending $100 million, let's get somebody that we know can play for us. Yeah, I don't think Kerr just couldn't find a minute. So they were like, all right, well,r just couldn't find a minute. So they were like, all right, well, if we can't find a minute now, then we can't make a financial decision about moving forward. I wonder if,

who knows, depending if it's an early exit, it's super disappointing. If it's a nice little reminder and they go on a nice run, I don't know, the championship seems a little lofty at this point.

I wonder if they would go, okay, Kaminga, probably at this point, even though he has those moments where you and I both are like, ooh. How often is that the lie that we tell ourselves about a player though? When it's like, yeah, but did you see that player? I loved when Kaminga would guard Doncic or guard Ja. I was like, look how motivated he is and look at that drive. And then there's all these other times you're like, I don't even notice him. I wonder if they would just try to pool everything again and go, is the next mad guy want to come play with Golden State? I wonder if that would be something they would do in the offseason. You know, a Wiggins deal or a pool. Like Wiggins and Kaminga for some star.

Right. And they've got the Draymond thing. They throw in the three unprotected and the swap and say, let's try to add a big piece here and take one more swing at it instead of just running it back. Because the championship aspirations while rebuilding with the three lottery picks has not worked. And it's very, very hard to do.

And the actual assets of those three guys declined. Right? Wiseman ended up selling low. Kaminga, I don't think, is worth as much as he was before the season. And Moody definitely isn't. So, who do you have for... Oh, I had one more thing for them. Off your point.

The got-too got too cute syndrome. When teams sometimes, they don't just try to, they don't just try to do the smart move. There's like a degree of difficulty to it, right? So they were very excited about, we have this contender and we're also developing these young guys, which I thought was smart, but they were really excited about it. And now you look back and it's second guessing

hindsight, 2020, all the cliches. But I wonder like if they had packaged some of that stuff together, what could they have gotten? I'm not even second guessing it. I'm not second guessing it. I like what they tried to do. It didn't work. Right. But I think, I wonder if they got too cute with their assessments of their own guys. Well, when you draft a player,

you usually really like them a lot. But then you're watching them practice for two years. Like at some point, you know, at some point. My broker, my broker,

he called me the other day. He goes, you have an E-Trade account with a called me the other day he goes you have an e-trade account with a bunch of wise men what are you doing because you still have it i thought that we talked about that um what do you have for the lakers what's your one word for them i thought we were doing contenders well not writing them off yet anyone in the west could win two rounds. Not writing off any team.

I just had health for them. I think LeBron, I just, you know, he's 60,000 plus miles on him. Dude, you know how good Austin Reeves was today? My God, he was good. I don't know about some of those lineups. Darvin was running out there.

And then as soon as I did my Anthony Davis video after that Memphis game, I think I even texted you. I go, I've defended Davis forever. I can't. Every time he falls down, I'm totally freaked out now. I knew he was going to go off as soon as I said it, but that wasn't the point

that he was going to have bad games from that video to the rest of his career. He was incredible. He's been really nice the rest of his career. But he was incredible. He's been really nice the last couple days. He's the best player in that Warriors game. To me, it's like Rob Williams. It's just every game that he plays the whole game, you're relieved. We need to

do that. Our first team all land bad. As soon as this guy lands bad, you're like, oh no. I have health for them. Dallas, I think we would have the same defense. They can't get stops. And everybody in the league can score 125 points to them, I think, at this point.

The Clippers, you disagree on Dallas defense? Would you put something else? I guess we could put Kyrie there too. No, I would go. My two words would be Finney Smith. I'm not saying they shouldn't do the trade. I'd also like to make a prediction now that I think Kyrie is going to get his

four-year contract this summer. It's all going to work out for him. That's my prediction. All you need is one other team to threaten Dallas. And I think Dallas will say, Hey, you know what? It went pretty well. We to threaten dallas and i think dallas will say hey you know what it went pretty well we'll add some defense and we already moved the assets so we can't lose the can't use those resources leaving and then we've got the relationship with the gm and kairi with nike even though i think you heard towards the end kairi wasn't exactly

the most collaborative on some of the n stuff. Watching Finney Smith in person, I fucking love that guy. He's not just a good defender. He's nasty. He'll hit you and fight a little bit more. I don't know that I ever really realized it until...

Again, you're just going to learn stuff seeing it in person. Our seats were pretty good. Can I ask you a Donchich question? Speaking of, if Donchich is on this Nets team right now, do they win the East? Just him and all these wings and Claxton? Yeah. They'd probably be the second best team in the East.

It's Denver and Milwaukee. Just flip him and Simmons? Because I'm always trying to figure out the perfect roster for Donchich and when I watch the Nets, I go because Bridges is still I mean, he's been going off and it's funny because watching him hit all those mid-range jumpers against the Celtics, I'm like, he must have just watched

Booker and Durant but never got to take them. Look, he took some, but let's face it, with Bridges, when you're that option and sometimes you're the fourth option excuse me, not from Durant, from Chris Paul and Booker because obviously he was traded for Durant, but you get my point. There's certain nights where he wouldn't score at all

and a lot of it would just have to be in transition or everything. He has that dribble into that shot against a contest and he gets it off perfectly. He was great. And so it's not some super dominant, ISO-heavy opposite guard. It's actually an opposite guard who can defend as opposed to a Kyrie who is just going to get torched in some mismatches, even though I think there are certain nights actually Kyrie tries to play defense and it's better than his reputation where there's just... We've seen swings with Kyrie when he's just not interested of it where he's a really good defender and i think he competes like crazy and then all those other wings that can shoot i was like maybe the nets built the perfect donchit spot but you know i don't know i was just so yeah you don't want to put him ahead

of milwaukee i don't blame you but they might that might be the second best team in the east which is the better conference you know what i I noticed with Luca again today, which I've noticed a couple times when you think how young he is? How fucking annoying he is? Well, he's already developed the bully ball thing that LeBron didn't really have

until like the mid-2010s where he just takes these guys down low and he commits offensive fouls and the refs never knows what to do. That play at the end that he missed the bunny on, it was 100% an offensive charge. He's so strong. You know that's what Booker was doing.

The game's over. Booker's going, that's a charge, that's a charge. And then Donchich was like, shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up. And then they got into it with each other. And I loved it. I loved it from Booker. I love Donchich. I like that they don't like each other. I say that about Donchich knowing you know look I can't give you a bigger compliment this

if there's one basket that need I need a basket I'm picking him first over every single player in the NBA he is incredible at one point again today although I'd ask this about the injury stuff how many games does he have where I'm like he's headed into the tunnel and then he ends up with 40 so what the hell's going on there? I thought he was

wincing and I was like, oh, the calf is messed up again. He is so good where he's getting these foul calls now too. He shot a million free throws today where he's initiating all the contact and they're giving him that call on top of everything else. It's like LeBron. I'm telling you, this is

what LeBron figured out in the mid-2010s. How to bounce off guys, get the call and finish the shot. But his constant bitching for two and a half hours can really wear on you. I don't enjoy it. He's a great villain. I wouldn't even call him that. I don't

hate him. I respect him. No, I'm saying he's a villain. If you're rooting for the other team, he's a good guy to root against. I know the Phoenix Suns fans left that game like, fuck that guy. Clippers continuity would be my word for them. You have DNP. I just don't feel like they... How many times have they played

five guys in the fourth quarter that have been the same five guys? Now they're shoehorning the Russell thing. On the one hand, they are on five with him playing tonight as we're taping. Can I say something pro-Westbrook? They're going back now and putting together these five losses with, what, nine other losses with the Lakers or something to close this Lakers run?

Yeah. I mean, come on. Even we wouldn't do that. Yeah. Yeah, we wouldn't do that. As we're taping, the Grizzlies are up 121 to 111 on the Clippers, so it could be a little over six. Going to the East, we mentioned Middleton would be the one where, I think it's the one for me.

Would you have a different word for Milwaukee? I had New Depth, but we already touched on it. Just watching that Philly game, I'm like, you know what? They actually have some options here, so go ahead. Boston, Jomaz. I just really worry about in an experienced coach having to win four straight playoff rounds. I was getting texts. Your recorder stopped

at one point, so we had like a delay and I was getting multiple texts from people like Tatum and Brown were gassed. Just call the timeout so they can get a three minute blow and then it's in the back. I'm like, yeah, that makes sense too. I just don't like anything that happened today. Philly. just don't like anything that happened today. Philly.

You don't want my Boston one? You have a different one than Joe Mads? What is it? Yeah, I do. Okay. Supplemental tier. You know how there's supplemental draft picks where it's in between rounds? Yeah.

I always feel like we talk about championship players. There's really only a handful that you go, okay, we absolutely have a chance. And I know the Celtics felt like they were the better team last year. I didn't feel that way after the finals. I didn't feel like they were the better team

that lost to the inferior team in Golden State. No, Golden State was the best team. But the part of, you know, wondering where the hell's Tatum, like what's up with him? And then you're like, all right, it's the first run of the finals. And then he came back this year

and he's been awesome. I love the guy. But there's still always a sliver of me that wonders if he's in... If you have to cut off the first tier of players where this dude can do whatever he wants, I have moments where I'm like, I don't know that he's quite there.

My defense or my counter, I think he's a year or two away from being whatever he's going to be. I still think he's a work in progress, as great as he's been this season. He's 25. The history of the league says you peak at 27. Yeah.

For Philly, I just wrote down small ball. I could see them losing a series to four different East teams where the other team just goes small and pushes the pace and does weird matchup shit and weird coaching shit and beats them. What do you have? I was going to put down free throws because I think there'll be a weird playoff game where the crew just decides not to reward them with free. It's going to happen.

Yeah. Because both guys. Doc Rivers with his arms up. Yeah. We call that the Grant Williams. No grants does the thingy. So what do you think? I was going to do the turnovers because

the late turnover thing I've always been on, but it's two words. It's playoff hard. Fair. And you know what? Paul George, who deserved to take all the shit that he took because it was a real thing. We were watching it happen. I don't care about like, I hate when people go back and look at averages

of a guy in the playoffs like three years prior. Oh, this guy was actually pretty good. Raptors fans used to try to argue that Lowry and DeRozan were actually pretty good in those years. You're like, are you fucking kidding me? Did you watch those games? And it'd be really late to kind of change

your story and that's always going to be part of it for me. I'm just going to wonder, you know, sometimes you have to adapt in a series and I don't, I don't know that he does. So, I mean, until, until it actually happens, I'll, I'll always wonder if it will. Quick tangent I thought of as you were talking,

who is the league leader this year for frantically doing the let's challenge that call to their coach followed by the eye roll from the coach who's like we're not fucking challenging that. Well, if it's per 36, it's Grant. Yeah. Is LeBron have the most this year though? Yes.

Yes, he has the most in street clothes. LeBron just feel like he's got to do it once a half? Who else is in there? He's just bored. LeBron and Grant are the bird of magic of waving for that challenge. I don't know who else is on that list, though. Those are the two that stand out.

I mean, Grant does it so much. There's fans listening to this right now. They're thinking of your guy. Grant is on Rushmore if there was a landslide and the other three presidents' faces fell off. For the Knicks, I have, ironically, Randall. Because he's good enough to probably make them a 50-win team this year and make them dangerous,

but I also think he could shoot them out of any series. He would be the black guy I worried about the most on that team. And then Robinson's free throw shooting, which is more than one word, but him just being an absolute catastrophe at the free throw line, we'll come back to haunt them at some point. I had third score, but boy, it doesn't feel like that's going to be an issue after watching quickly. Just because you doesn't feel like that's going to be an issue after watching quickly.

Right. Yeah. Just because you would have thought that that's RJ, those closing minutes. But if he stays big with Randall and Robinson, which he's not going to be able to do in the playoffs all the time, I wouldn't think. And then you're Brunson and you're quickly like that fifth spot. Like you go, you know, he's going to play hard over RJ. So then, you know, prior to tonight, tonight is not the night to wonder

who the third scorer is going to be in a playoff series for the Knicks. But it was the thing I wrote down when I got this assignment earlier today. We're not doing it in their teams. One more break and then one more, two more things to throw you

and then we'll do... Nothing on Sacramento? You just didn't even, you put the Lakers in there over Sacramento? You already said they don't play defense. Can I add something to it?

Yeah. This is what, so my two-word phrase was going to be clutch offense. Their offense in the clutch is number one in the NBA and it is by miles. They're 129 points per 100 possessions in the clutch is number one in the NBA. And it is by miles.

They're 129 points per 100 possessions in the clutch. It's an insane number. They're 11 points better than Brooklyn, who actually still ranks number two, which will probably change at some point. Miles beyond everybody. But they're 26th on defense, and since February 1st, they're actually 28th.

So, yeah, the defense is an issue. I'll tell you this much. If they can keep that three seed, and they're three above Phoenix in the last column right now, we're running out of games. They only have 19 games left. That's going to be an impossible place to play.

I think that crowd will be... Well, not impossible. You know what I mean. I love that the Timberwolves are a six seed. Yeah, but you know, did you see them this weekend? There's flashes of like, oh my God, this could actually be a competent playoff team.

Because Conley's starting to really ingratiate himself in the Conley way in the good ways, right? Yeah, because it didn't look very good. It looked like he had fallen off a cliff there. Actually, he was leaking a little bit last year. I have a lot invested in them kind of being steady the rest of the way because forgotten in the Kendrick Perkins run this season

was that he called the best backcourt. Well, he said low-key or sneaky best backcourt in the NBA was D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards. And big Anthony Edwards fans, not so much as D'Angelo Russell. So, you know, when Timberwolves fans are upset that I was so negative about Russell, and then I was like, yeah, okay, then the team traded him like a week later. Yeah. I have a large position in them looking like a real basketball team

because Russell put up great numbers, really good shooter. It was all this stuff. It was all the other things that we've covered before. And then when you look at the standings, you're like, man, they're sitting there as a sixth seed. With a chance to climb.

I mean, they have a chance to leapfrog the Warriors. They're getting a crazy Nas Reed bench season. There's game. Nas Reed is on the starting team of guys on league pass. So if you catch someone

the right night, you wonder why they don't make $25 million a year. Yeah. This guy's like the 11th best player of the league. That was like that Nembhard game against the Lakers when he hit the game winner. You're like, wait, was he picked

6th or 7th? Oh, somebody took Ivy ahead of this guy? And then Jada McDaniels, when you look at some of those defensive numbers from him, they're insane. You know, I wasn't on it. I got to admit, I couldn't watch Minnesota that much

earlier in the year because I just, I couldn't watch Russell. I just, I just didn't enjoy their team. I love Edwards. I want Edwards to do well. I just didn't like watching them.

And then I can watch him. Look, I watched a ton of them just because of him. And that's why I felt so good about my russell commentary well a couple people were like hey you got to check out mcdaniel's again after i did the trade value the mcdaniel should have at least been honorable mentioning i'd check him out and check them out i mean he's about as fearless as a of a perimeter guy defensively that we have now and by the way the towns the towns injury it's always good when there's you google the carl anth Towns injury, it's always good when you Google the Carl Anthony Towns injury

and the first three hits are, it's a mystery. Yeah. I did that today. Yeah, because the thing is they could add Towns to this team

and they're a little frisky if it's Sacramento, Minnesota, 3-6. Yeah, I mean, he got hurt at the end of November and the initial diagnosis was four to six weeks so that puts you at the beginning or middle of january we're in march baby take one

more break what does possible sound like for your business it's the ability to reach further with access to over 1400 lounges worldwide redefine possible with business platinum that's the ability to reach further with access to over 1400 lounges worldwide. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. All right, let's do, did we come up with a title that you like for trade history? Some people were suggesting the retradables, sober trade history. I think it's kind of on brand for you.

I was messing with you. Bill, for the audience, sent me a thing being like, hey, a listener said the retradables. And I was like, would 30-year-old Bill think that's the best we could do? And then I just shut down the text conversation. I thought that was a mean response. Right. Yeah, yeah.

I could tell because I hadn't heard from you for like a week after that. So in honor of gambling being legal in Massachusetts this month, maybe even by the end of this week, we're going to do the two Boston trades from 2007 that recreated the franchise, won the 17th banner, and led to a really nice five-year run. Two trades.

The first one was Ray Allen. The second one was Kevin Garnett. The Ray Allen trade looks like this. Boston trades Delonte West, Wally Serbiak, who I think had one year left on his deal, and the number five pick, which they used to pick Jeff Green. And the Celtics received Ray Allen and the number 32 pick Glenn Davis. And when this happened,

I didn't understand it. I didn't understand the point of the trade. I thought Pierce and Ray Allen as your best two guys with Jefferson, you're in the mid forties, you have no chance to win a title. And by the time Jefferson matures into whatever he's going to be, Ray Allen's too old. And the thing that I missed on this trade was where the league was going for guys who really took care of themselves and could shoot the basketball. And Ray Allen ends up having five more really important years for the Celtics,

helps them win the 08 title, gets them the 2010 finals, and has this shelf life where by the end of that five-year run, I think he's had a better career than Reggie Miller. I think most people would just not looking at it, not weighing it, would be like, oh, Reggie Miller was better than Ray Allen. He was not.

Ray Allen was a better player. He had a better career. And that trade alone was a great trade, Rosillo. What was your reaction at the time? You were living in Massachusetts. Yeah, I was there draft night in the garden and I was surprised by it because he was owed like 56 million and it was a ton of money and he was 32. I didn't quite get it because it felt like all right, well, it's Ray and it's Pierce,

but what else? If I had been me now without even knowing the Garnett part of it, I would have liked it better because I was dumber back then i was me too i was i was still one of those guys that thought cap space was like valuable and i remember and i was looking up i even talked to ange after the trade and he could he's like oh

you don't like it and then he was like do you know how good ray allen is i was like yeah i'm pretty aware of ray allen and he's like i don't think you do and i was like oh he's owed all this money and then you know it's the first time i started thinking about it differently he's like, I don't think you do. And I was like, oh, he's owed all this money. And then, you know, it was the first time I started thinking about it differently. He's like, all you guys are obsessed with fucking cap. Oh, he didn't swear. Um, he's like, all you guys are obsessed with cap space, but he's like, I like to trade for, I like to know what I'm getting. I don't want to wait around all summer and then be disappointed when we can't get somebody. So I'm in control of the transaction here. When I'm trading, I know exactly what it is. And that draft was a four-person draft, even though I know as Captain Jeff Green over here,

that was kind of the situation. It was massive disappointment. Yeah. People thought Yijin Lan was going to be the fifth pick. People thought that Ainge really liked him. I'm not sure he didn't. Yeah, no, you're right. You were on that. You were on that early. Because I remember we actually was like,

we were talking prior to that draft. Like, what do you think? Or whatever. So Ray in 2005 was second team on NBA. Two years before this trade. I'm sorry, 2006. And then got hurt in 2007 and only played 55 games, but you made the key point. It's a kind of trade. We didn't realize it was a smart trade in 2007 that now we realize it's a smart trade because there's what 40 good players

in the league give and take exactly really good players. Instead of waiting, now I have two of the 40. That's exactly what it was. And i get to hope that he's good over the next four years like now i have ray allen i also think there's a element to he knew that would help the garnett conversation no question no so because that garnett thing was done for a while i remember you remember how that all played out? Because then it took a little bit later after the draft, but everybody's like, I think this is actually going to happen, which also spoke to McHale at the time.

We were like, dude, if you were going to do it, why did you not do it before? You would have gotten that pick. Now, again, who knows? Jeff Green ends up becoming incredible, then it's a huge, huge mistake. Jeff Green's still a nice career dunking on everybody. But huge mistake. Jeff Green, still nice career, Duncan and everybody. But that was a weird part.

It was like, well, if you knew you were like open to it, then why wouldn't you have done it? I don't think KG was a hundred percent there until after the draft. I think that's why they didn't do it. That's all been debated too, though.

Cause I've talked to Chauncey Billups about it in person. I've interviewed him about it. And it was like, all these dudes were telling him, Hey man, you hey man you gotta you gotta move on or whatever and then that was always the rumors that Garnett did but he didn't want to be that guy

by the way isn't this hilarious it's the complete opposite of the way the league works though yeah he actually cares he stayed three years too long because he's like I'm loyal to Soda and they just put him with the worst teammates. He didn't make the playoffs for the last three years of

his career there after they made the conference finals because the team was so bad. I'd say this. I'd add to it to cloak. Once they got Garnett, then I loved the Ray Allen deal. Not just because it influenced the Garnett thing, but from a basketball standpoint, you were like, okay, you've got this incredible, unique

big who should have shot more in Garnett. You've got this ISO wing who can body people and also can shoot and pierce. And the funny thing about Ray was like, oh, he's going to hit all these open shots. It's like, actually, Ray wasn't this catch-and-shoot dude when he first got there. He was doing a lot worse.

He liked having the ball, but then it was crazy because he didn't have... He sacrificed way more than the other two guys did. I agree. And at the end of his Boston run, he's hitting like 45% of his threes. So, I mean, look, the trade was, you know, I mean, it's one of the greatest summers a guy can have as a GM. Well, and then from the Seattle part, they had the number two pick. So they have Durant and then they have Jeff Green. They also could have,

you know, potentially taken Noah there if they wanted to get, uh, to get a little Randy, but they took Jeff Green and they rebuilt themselves and it was the right move. And they only had to carry Serbia X salary for a year. So then,

so then I think like a month, six weeks passes and the Garnett rumbling start. And there's like a Phoenix possibility and there's a Lakers possibility and it ends up being the Celtics. Here was the trade for the listeners. Al Jefferson, we'll talk about him in a second. Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, some expiring contracts, Boston's 2009 first and Minnesota's 2009 first going back to Minnesota. Boston had this unprotected Minnesota pick. Fast forward.

That pick becomes the number six pick in the 2009 draft that they take Johnny Flynn instead of Steph Curry. So there's this alternate universe where if nothing happens, maybe the Celtics have a chance to of Steph Curry. So there's this alternate universe where if nothing happens, maybe the Celtics have a chance to take Steph Curry. I mean, I mean, there's all these other variables that could happen. And then with the 20th pick, they took Wayne Ellington. So that was the entire trade. They bet on greens upside. He turned out to be what he was. They bet on Jefferson who I fully supported and who had bad luck with the Celtics he kept getting hurt every time it seemed like he was going to have a moment something you know he'd had the

same thing with Dee Brown just these guys that they just couldn't get over the hump with themselves goes to Minnesota and was pretty good then gets hurt and the trade if you look back at it in retrospect Rosillo pretty rough from a standpoint. Garnett ends up playing really until 2014, but he's a meaningful player for the next five years. I voted for him for MVP, even though I didn't have a vote yet in 2008.

And now you look at the price for a guy like Durant and it's four firsts. It's a swap. You get Mikael Bridges. You get Cam Johnson. Garnett was, at the time, as important of a player as Durant is now

and was younger. And that's not a great trade for Minnesota. No, and everybody blamed Mikael doing it because he did it for Ainge. Well, he was a Celtic. I mean, he did. He walks with a limp because he loved the Celtics

so much. Well, I'm not saying it's not true. I'm saying like I think there was some real red Auerbach shit back in the day where those guys were like,

well, if you're going to do it, do it with me. Because the Lakers had what was it? Odom and Bynum. Well, the other part of the the garnett thing is that he wanted to go to phoenix and he didn't want to play in boston wanted nothing to do with boston and then wick and those guys threw on three years of money and he was like i'm in that's great so

so the funny thing about garnett like loving boston i think like a lot of athletes didn't want to go there and then goes there and is like wait this is the best if you're on a winning team here like this is it's almost like it's almost too obsessive and i know you know this but you know it's one thing to go back and look at numbers of players but that thing that everybody wants on their team that's that thing that i'm always looking for when i'm trying to decipher like is this guy actually wired this way like all these fucking guys that want to say built different and all this shit like now a lot of you guys are built the same garnett was different garnett was somebody that as soon as he was in the building everybody knew they had to raise their level because it was like,

wait, this is how this guy's wired. Including the crowd. Right. And people like in the beginning were almost like, is he a dick? And it's like, no,

he's just the intensity from him is unlike anything you're around. I remember like prime Garnett talking to scouts and going like, what, what is it about him? And they were like, they were laughing. Like scouts and going like, what is it about him? And they were laughing. Like multiple guys would be like, have you ever really watched how he'll switch onto a small player?

Like this player's like got no chance. Honestly, Bill, he should have taken 20 shots a game. He could have put up massive scoring numbers if he wanted to, but he actually deferred a little bit too much offensively. But there was this other stuff that happens, not just on the court, but the entire season where you're on this journey together. And the vibe is completely

different because of a guy like that. And you don't really know it. You don't know what it's about until he's on your team. That's why I wrote a column that year with the MVP. And that was why I picked him for MVP because they were the worst team in the league and he completely transformed them where they became, you know, one of the 10 best regular season teams of all time. And by point differential, whatever you want to look at,

it was all because of all the stuff he did and the way like, you know, even younger players like Perkins, Rondo. Grandy was telling, because Grandy did the TV games for Minnesota for a couple of years and saw the KG thing in action day after day. And he's like, Boston's going to eat this guy up.

They're going to fucking absolutely love him more than they've loved anybody in a while. This is going to be their guy. And he was right because Garnett was like a competitive sociopath and it played really well for the city. And they needed it. And we've mentioned this before, too,

that all of those players had to be collectively over their personal individual failures to sacrifice. If they had all been younger players, it might not have happened. Everybody's thinking about their next contract. I mean, I wonder if that's how guys peak in 27 because they care so much about numbers and all-star games and their second fucking contract so bad that there needs to be some kind of sacrifice and that group,

you know, sacrifice and yeah, and everybody's going to make fun of us because we're spending all this time praising the Celtics the whole time. But you know, the best part about that three-year run with those guys, you know, is evil.

All I can think about is Thibodeau when we were, I'm name dropping like crazy, but whatever, I'll tell you, cause I talked to the guys, we were hanging out, uh dropping like crazy, but whatever. I'll tell you because I talked to the guys. We were hanging out, watching games, getting ready to do TV at ESPN. And eventually I knew I'd get there. And I was like, what was the deal?

And, you know, Tibbs, he goes, oh, the 09 team. Like evil movie character Tibbs laugh, which is an insane laugh if you get to experience it. Like he was drooling talking about how good that team was actually. The year after team. The year after, he goes, that was easily the best team. That was the best team. But, you know, Garnett was hurt. Yeah, there's been three what if Celtics teams. That's one of them. The 91 Celtics team for me when Bird's back went out, but that team was really good.

And I think had a legitimate chance to win the title. And then there's the team that the 72 team that was amazing or 73 that I think they went like 68 and 14, something like that. And then Havlicek got hurt. Those are kind of the three what if teams. That 09 team was just absolutely annihilating everybody for two months. Then Garnett goes up for an alley-oop in Utah and it's done. What the reason I want to do those trades together was because it's so unusual to see somebody just completely nailed two trades in a row like that. With the real plan too, if that happened now with the way the ecosystem we have now for how basketball is covered, people would lose their minds how unbelievable those two trades were.

Like, you know, we just didn't have the same infrastructure back then. But it's pretty rare. Like, oh, this Ray Allen guy, I'm going to bet on him just recovering from those injuries and kind of peaking in a different way as he ages. Like that happens. And then, oh, this KG guy, I think he's going to be reinvigorated here and he'll change our culture and we'll win the title.

And then that happens in both of them. You know, I also wonder too, if that kind of summer is even possible anymore with the pricing now of these trades. Like if you were trading for Ray Allen now in that version of him, although I'll admit, like we've already covered, the money and the ankle part of it, although I'll admit, like we've already covered the money

and the ankle part of it. You're like, what's going on? And you're like, I don't think he's that good defensively. And then, you know, Pierce could be real hit or miss defensively. Like if they weren't, you know what I mean? Like Pierce, when he wanted to play defense was pretty good because he was big and he was athletic and he was competitive, but there's also some stretches in there where it was like, all right, this guy doesn't really look like he's in it. And then you're like, so what's, what's, how's that going to work? And then's like, all right, this guy doesn't really look like he's in it. And then you're like, so how's that going to work? And then who's, you know, I guess, you know, at that point. No, here's what would happen.

I think there's a pick swap in that Ray Allen trade, right? In like 2013 pick swap, something like that. But Rondo is in the KG trade, if we're doing that again. It's kind of amazing that Rondo's not in the KG trade and Ainge fought to not have him in. And people like us who were watching Garbage Time, Terrible Lottery, Celtics basketball, Rondo, you could see he had something.

And the team saw it too, and they smartly kept him. And he ended up being an important part of not only the 08 team, but then all the way through. But I think if you do that trade now, there's no way he's not in it. No, but my point is, I don't know that you would have enough assets to satisfy two different teams with those kinds of players. Oh, yeah, there would have been more picks. There would have been pick swaps.

Probably like four more picks, right, under the current rules at least. Yeah, so you wouldn't be able to do both deals is my point. Maybe you could figure something out if you're including Rondo, or maybe that's the point that you're making here. But I also think whenever we're talking about these contenders, as we do at the beginning of the podcast and just sporadically through the rest of this whole thing, is that I've covered this before when I did my top NBA duos,

which I think is Booker and Durant at this point. But Tatum and Brown had a really good argument before that Durant trade. But then you're like, wait, is that good enough historically looking back on who wins titles, but we had the Celtics from 08. We had Miami with those three dudes, which was as unique as an experience where they had figured this out, being like, we're just all going to have our contracts expired at the same time, which should have been the first clue that this was going to happen years before when they had

signed those extensions. But even then that doesn't guarantee anything to then Golden State, to then the reincarnation of Cleveland again, where it was the standard was there has to be the third guy so the lakers that whole year when they win the bubble title it was what can you flip kuzma and whatever for the third guy because you have to have the third guy and it's like no no look around you actually don't need the third guy now you could argue that drew holiday was the third guy with milwaukee but it still doesn't feel like Giannis, Middleton, and Drew is to the standard of what the top three guys were for a decade

plus there, right? You know why that is, though? It's because the league is so much deeper. It's not as much of an advantage anymore, I think, as it used to be. Yeah, but somebody's going to try to do it. Brooklyn tried it twice.

They tried it two different times. I mean, Ben Simmons is a fake big three at this point, but Harden, Kyrie, Durant, like that's a real thing. Ben Simmons is literally in the big three. Like he might join the big three league. He could be in there. Well done. Anyway, that's the retreadables before we

go. Let's talk, uh, let's talk John Jones quick. Did you think he would do that? Um, did you think he could weigh 245 pounds or whatever he ended up at? I didn't even know if that was possible. Um, and what was your takeaway watching a very short heavyweight fight? It was short. I was surprised it went that quickly. I didn't know what to think of it. I love him as a fighter. John Anik, I remember a decade ago, was this John Jones dude. I interviewed him in person at ESPN once. What happened? How did you know you were was it? Like, what happened? Like, how did you know you were this good of a fighter? He goes, well, I went into train one day and the guy's like, what have you been doing this a couple of years? The guy was like, no, it's my first day. Oh my God. He was training with like a real dude. And the guy was like, how long have you been

doing this? He's like, oh, it's my first time coming here. Um, so yeah, I mean, when it comes to fighters, I know his resume outside of the cage isn't exactly something you'd be supportive of but when i don't i've made a deal with myself with fighters where i go like i'm not i'm not subletting a room i probably asked for a little bit more than the first and last i'm not introducing him my sister i'm watching you fight yeah so i was rooting for him and i don't even know what it proved. Like, what did it prove to you? I, there was a chance of like, this happens in boxing where it's just, he's washed and

it's, and you just feel bad. That was lingering. I had Ariel on, on, on, on Thursday. We talked about like, you know, there's Lawrence Taylor potential here, but it's like Lawrence Taylor when he's in WrestleMania against Bam Bam Bigelow. We start getting that level of Lawrence Taylor. Or he could

just be really good. I don't really feel like we learned anything because Cyril Ghosn was so bad in the fight and looked scared. Did you feel I felt like he just looked uncomfortable and, um, I don't know. It was, it was just really weird. So now I want to see him fight again because I didn't know what to make of it.

Yeah. I'm not surprised he was able to put on the weight, you know, cause he's, he's a huge guy. He's got the frame for it. I mean, 240 is not that crazy. It was like 246. Yeah, but you're coming back in a three year layoff and you know, you love boxing and we've all seen it where it's like the guy you still want to have when it's over, it's over so

fast. It's usually the best guy to bet against. The guy is like, oh, he hasn't fought in three and a half years. Did you bet on gone? I did a gone, I did a small gone knockout bet. Yeah, I don't really blame you. It was like four to one. Just a tiny one. I wouldn't have been able to bet on gone because there's

no way I wasn't going to root for Jones. I wanted to see what was going to happen. I just think it's... He's the greatest to ever do it, so maybe that's part of it, but there felt like there was real awe from Joe Rogan, also known as Joe Rogan, when he was in the Octagon interviewing him afterwards.

I mean, maybe it's just simply like now you won the heavyweight title to add to the ridiculous resume. I thought Ariella made a really good point that the great thing about this fight going into it is even if he had lost, it kind of leaves the light heavyweight legacy untarnished. Look, I went to go see him fight in the gustafson rematch like i went i couldn't i couldn't wait um to see it in person because i'm just like did i ever tell you that espn went after i interviewed

him they posted a picture of us together and i think he was like part two of his apology tour yeah and the social media director posted the picture it was like ryan rossillo met one of his favorite people today and i was like can you not fucking do that quote unforced error so who's his next fight what does he do now well he afterwards he was like hey anybody you guys want to see me beat up stipe and stipe you know when you're that level of badass nothing scares you. And he just sort of shrugged. He didn't get mad. He showed like almost no emotion whatsoever.

So they were even talking about hurrying that one up. I thought another thing Ariel said that I thought was really interesting is that Francis Nagano was not even mentioned like at all. Yeah, he's been like written out of history. It seems like. In fighting, i would never happen yeah i would never write off anything potentially happening because we just know it's happened too

many times like oh that'll never happen and you're like wait how much so i'd like to see him have to fight like i don't know if gone was scared i mean jones was cutting off the ring and then he got him in a choke and i think gone was like what the fuck just happened it was it was so quick and weird he kicks him in the balls and it gets choked out and the fight's over in a minute what what a round uh it was it was both anticlimactic and awesome especially because it did was unclear what happened because the camera angle they had you didn't even know it was like wait what just happened they didn't even know you I was like, wait, what just happened? They didn't even know. Yeah, the announcers didn't know. Because their back, his back was to them. So, you know, Anik was like

watching the replays, like looking around and go, what happened? And then when you saw the replay, you're like, oh my God. Yeah, it's like he could have like broken his windpipe. Yeah, it's like Commando style. Remember Commando? Oh, yeah. Wait, so is he the number

one draw again? In your opinion? I don't know if he's a bigger draw than McGregor. I mean, McGregor's going to fight again. Yeah. Now that's one I want to bet against. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's one I'm ready to bet against, like, in a real way.

You didn't like 205 McGregor with a couple proper 12s in him next to Gyllenhaal last night? No. I don't like the last five years of McGregor just in general. I'm going to say it's got the arrows pointing down. All right. And the arrows pointing down, but you asked me who's the biggest draw.

Yeah, he is probably the biggest household name. I wanted to see McGcgregor say i got i got next i'll get up to 240 20 more pounds just a ton of goodness all right we're wrapping up uh russell is doing his podcast tuesday thursday this week is that correct that's right. We got John Anik, actually, on Tuesday. And we got Greg Olson. We got Kevin Herter in the queue. Headbands? Maybe I might wear a headband. You should wear a headband.

And then we got McShay coming up again to talk some draft. His newest mocks are on Tuesday. So, yeah, excited. Everyone was losing their minds about the QB and the combine and all the numbers. Anthony Richardson. Yeah. And I usually don't pay attention to the combine at all. And I think it's weird, but in this case, everyone just like had a stroke about what just everything. And it actually seemed like he might've swung it a little bit where he's in contention now for the number of picks. He swung the odds.

There's like a Cam Newton graphic of all his numbers versus Cam Newton coming out of college, and it just feels like something happened. Yeah, Cam Newton had arguably the greatest single season I've ever seen in the history of college football. And that Auburn team wasn't that great. And what he did every fucking week for that team, the Alabama comeback,

granted they smoked South Carolina, but there was a handful of games. I think there was a Clemson game in there. There was all sorts of games in there where it's like, it's such a disservice to compare Anthony Richardson to Cam Newton when all Richardson did was...

And Richardson's weird because you know I'm going to do this next year you and I should do this by the way well actually I don't think you want to do it because you don't watch enough college football so never mind you're out I'm going to look at the college before the college season starts to come out with a mock not the one

that comes out after draft because McShay tells me it's his most watched or excuse me I should say it this way it's his most clicked on article that he does when he predicts the next year's first round it's his least favorite thing and it's the most clicked on because he's like I just got to pick 32 picks a year out without even doing the film I heard

McShay had Bronny James 10th that was different draft guy my bad that was questioned in some circles in nba circles but all of them so uh mcshay or mel whoever you want to pick right um and i know danny kelly does a great job too yeah at our place um i want to do over unders on the before the college football season. Because Anthony

Richardson, somebody had him like 15. I don't know if it was Todd or Mel. Before the season started, I went, no way. Because I had watched him a year before, and I was like, I get the physical part of it. I'm like, he stinks. Then I was in on him after the Utah game, because he was doing some incredible things. And then it fell

apart. And I asked McShay, I go, what happened? He goes, they figured out how to defend him, and he's like a mess. was doing some incredible things and then it fell apart and i asked mcshay go what happened he goes they figured out how to defend him and he's like a mess and so that's what you get to see if you watch gators football most if you watch the full season of it so this is the part where i know like the nfl has this weird protective like college is stupid we hope every college coach comes to the nfl and fails like it's true it happens the time. It's so reversed during this phase. Like, he's testing out at everything. Like, he's a superhero.

And you're like, he was bad. He was just straight up bad this year. And so was Will Levis, by the way. I'll leave you with this take from Tommy Alter, who went to the SNL with Travis Kelsey. Who is Tommy Alter? You know Tommy Alter. No, I know who he is, but out of nowhere,

hey, I went with Travis Kelsey to SNL. No, no, didn't go with Travis Kelsey. He went to the SNL. Okay, see, that's what I think so highly of Alter's circles. You would have figured he went with Travis Kelsey. So he went and he reports back went with Travis Kelsey. So he went and he reports back after watching Travis Kelsey host SNL that Travis Kelsey is going to be the next great

action movie star. That's his review. I've not seen the show. I'm just planting that seed for Todd McShay's next draft. I don't know. I feel like if Howie Long didn't get a fair enough shot, I don't think anyone can do it. Howie Long was good in Broken Arrow he's really good in Broken Arrow yeah that's like yeah I felt like he laid some groundwork there there's a little bit of a bias Bosworth I understand why

that didn't work out now we got Gyllenhaal in this UFC movie like we got actors crossing over to sports and vice versa maybe it's time for Kelsey Have you met Gyllenhaal? Yeah, I did a pod with him once. What'd you think? I actually liked him. It was fun. You say that as if you were surprised. I didn't. You know, child actor, who knows? I always have my guard up. But yeah, I thought he was a really good guest. Also broke the record for most female employees of The Ringer walking by my window where I did the pods, just pretending that they had something to get. Guess who ranked number one at ESPN Car Wash for most women coming by?

Jake Gyllenhaal? Liam Neeson. Really? Yeah. Interesting. I have a particular set of skills. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. You're pretty good at this high- Can I ask you a question? Yeah.

You're pretty good at this high-end, high-level stuff. Yeah. You and Iger had a nice little sit-down. I'm sure you've had more than a few sit-downs, not all public. Is Silver going to take over Disney? I thought that was the most ridiculous thing I heard in 2023 so far, other than about 20 NBA takes on the ESPN shows. I don't think there's any chance whatsoever that he takes over Disney. Because this is your world. For those

listening, there's no way. Bill isn't going to go like, oh, they're going to flip this guy for two seconds. He'll be like, hey, Russillo, keep it low, but there's another moon. You know who's going to take over for Bob Iger? They're going to announce it this summer. You know who it's going to be? No, I'll tell you right now. Tom Arnold. It's going to be Bob Iger. He's not going anywhere.

It's going to be like the Bud Selig thing. I'll just do this for a little while and get it straightened out. It's going to be the Bud Selig. All right, fine. Two more years. The Bud Selig one was great, and then everybody found out how much he made. They're like, oh, wait, this guy doesn't want to quit this job. Right. Exactly. Dana Walden, I think would be the favorite if I had to pick one. Content background, female, first female in charge of Disney. That would be my, that would be where my money was. And you love the Iger book, right? right yeah i think pataro's not it's not not outrageous to think he's a possible guy because he just moved up like they just promoted burke magnus to president pataro kind of moved into that

george bodenheimer type role where that's like there was a there was a moment there when burke moved up i didn't know that burke's awesome burke big day for holy cross he missed out yeah in the holy cross circles it was huge so burke got moved up and jimmy's moving up and i think jimmy's in that Burke's awesome. Burke, big day for Holy Cross. He missed out. Yeah, in the Holy Cross circles, it was huge. So Burke got moved up and Jimmy's moving up and I think Jimmy's in the mix too. I don't think anything's decided.

Yeah, I mean, I shouldn't even be talking with you about it. I should have somebody else on. But first, Burke is one of my favorites and I think the cool thing

about Pataro is that he's just fucking normal. Normal. It's so refreshing. You're like, wait, this guy's this important and he's just fucking normal it's so refreshing you're like wait this guy's this important and he's just fucking normal normal guy who just keeps programming long yankees documentaries over and over again it'd be like if i was in charge of espn it was just like i have a there's nine part nomar garcia para documentary coming honestly dude it's called Nomar.

Are you pretending this isn't kind of true? Oh, I have one last thing for you and then I'll go. And it's short and we can't talk about it. But I saw Air. The Nike movie. It's really good. People are killing the trailers. It's really good. People are killing the trailers. It's really good.

People are going to, people are going to regret killing the trailers. The movie's good. And for people, whatever the Venn diagram is for people like us that like sports culture, certain things have a background of eighties, nineties, nostalgia stuff.

There's just no way you're not going to like it. Affleck and Damon could do Look Who's Talking 4 and I'd watch it. This movie is really good. I'll leave you on that. Rosillo, good to see you. I'll see you next Sunday. All right. Thanks to Kyle Creighton for producing. Thanks to Steve Cerruti. Thanks to Rosillo. I will see you on the Rewatchables feed on Monday night. Might see you on this feed on Tuesday. It's 50-50. You will definitely see me on Thursday. Enjoy the rest of the day.

See them on a way so I don't say I don't have A few years with him On the wayside On the wayside Never once said I don't have A few years with him