The Bill Simmons Podcast - An NBA Mini-Mailbag and All-Star Picks, Plus Kon Knueppel Stops By

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons opens up a mini-mailbag to answer questions from the listeners before talking about his NBA All-Star picks (1:51). Then, Kon Knueppel joins to catch up on life as a rookie in the NBA, discuss his toughest matchups, and much more! (52:54) Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Kon Knueppel Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo This episode is presented by State Farm®. Dishing the assists you need off the court. State Farm® with the Assist. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠⁠ www.rg-help.com⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Please go against me. Today we're doing basketball concan nipples coming up later. At the very top, I am going to do a little mini mailbag and my NBA All-Star picks. So that is next. The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by Fandall. Fandall's got it all. Same game parlays, quick bets for jumping in live.

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Must be 21 plus president select states, 18 plus in D.C., Kentucky, and Wyoming. Gam, call win, 800 gamble. Visit RG-dash-Hulp.com. call 8887-89-7-77 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, this isn't an official mailbag. It's a mini mailbag. I really just wanted to do my all-star starters and reserve picks and just bounce through what I was thinking.

But I thought it was a chance to sneak in some timely mailbag questions. These were questions that were sent into BS Podcast 33 at gmail.com. First one came from Rob from Long Island. then in parentheses it says via the Cape. So he went from the Cape to Long Island, to each his own, I guess. He said with the recent Yokej injury, was wondering if the NBA went too far

with the 65 game minimum for awards, which has been a controversial topic. He said, he suggested, what if all players were eligible for awards, but if you don't play 65 games, you become ineligible for contract incentives. He had another thing about a sliding scale for MVP points.

I keep getting questions like this and it keeps being a topic. And it's interesting that Yolkij was the catalyst because I think people realized how absurd it would be to have a award season where Yokic wasn't represented. And as I've said many times in this podcast, for whatever reason, I care about this about as much as anyone because it all goes back to when I was working in my book. The all-MBA stuff was really important trying to figure out a snapshot of the year. This is why I've been so fanatical about they changed the rules. you can basically vote for 15 guards for the three all NBA teams. I'm not doing that. I like to obey at least some of the things that went through the first eight decades of the league

where big men mattered and awards, wings, guards. We had all types of players. So I care about this stuff. And here's why I landed on this, because we could have had this conversation last year. There are other players that got heard. For some reason, Yoko became the catalyst because he's having the best year of his career. He is one of the best players.

of the century and is now in the running for top 10 best players ever and just have, if he plays 59 games, 60 games, whatever, and he's not on an All-MBA team, it's just going to seem stupid. I don't mind the 65 game thing,

and I don't want people to forget the premise of why that was created because the league was under the gun a little bit with guys just skipping games and people paying to go to a clipper game, a Warriors game, a Celtic game,

a Nets game. whoever and they thought somebody was going to be in town and they go to the game and that person just doesn't play for rest, to rest of minor injury, whatever it is. And they're really trying to incentivize teams and players not to do that. So I get it. I think 65 games is fair and I think we should keep it. I do think there should be a wrinkle that if you have a specific injury that you're knocked out and we could say it's 12 straight games, it's 14 straight games, we can even say it's 15 straight games. But let's say 12, because 12 is basically three weeks. So if you miss three consecutive weeks with an injury, maybe that drops from 65 to 60. I don't think the problem with what's

happened here is that Yokeh, who's a durable guy who is available for just about every game and is reliably there if you're paying to see the Denver Nuggets come to your town. Pretty good bet Yok is going to be there. We're penalizing him for something that he couldn't control, he had a serious injury that knocked him out for a month. So if Yokage plays 60 games but misses 17 in a row, I still think he should be eligible for all NBA. So that's what I would do. I would have a 12 plus straight game knocks you to a different tier

where now you can get to 60 and you still play. And I think that solves this Yokic issue. So that's my first one. Next, email is from Samir from Brooklyn via Boston. A lot of VIA. today in the mini mailbag. He said he was switching between the Boston and Indiana broadcast for Celtics Pacers, and he heard Brian Scalbriney called Pritchard, quote,

unlike any player he's ever seen. And then Quinn Buckner, who's the Indiana guy, called Pascal Seacum an All-Star. So Samir asks, why haven't we had a booth that pits local color commentators against one another so they can bring each other back down to Earth? Instead of having neutral boosts for national broadcasts, We could have color commentators from each team saying most unabashedly biased things possible while

the other says things like, wait, you just called an average player in a last place team in All-Star game. So Homecourt gets the play-by-play guy who's desperately trying to keep the things moving, and then you have the color guys from the local markets fighting it out. I love this idea. They always talk about what is the future of alternate broadcasts. And normally they're pretty terrible. Or you're just going to end up watching the normal broadcasts. Like the Manningcast is fine.

I always watch Buck and Aikman. I have no idea why anyone would watch the main cast when I could just get the game on a bigger thing. All cast should have some sort of bent. Like if I'm in the playoffs and all I have is the national team, I should be able to watch a broadcast with the Celtics announcers. If I have the Patriots game and I don't want to hear Romo, I don't even know who's doing the Patriot. I actually don't think it's Romo. It's Collinsworth.

But let's say I hate Collinsworth. And as you know, I love Collinsworth. Let's say I didn't like Collinsworth and I want to hear the Patriots announcers. That should be an alt-cast for that. I like the idea of an alt-cast where it's basically a regular season free-for-all between the two color commentators for the two teams. I think that would be pretty funny. They would just be incredulous with each other for two and a half hours.

I don't blame these guys for doing it, though. They have to ride on the team playing. They're incentivized. Like if the team wins a championship ring or something, they get a championship ring. So they really do think it's like, we. That's why they get so bent out of shape with the calls. but it would be funny to just pit them against each other. Marcus and Temecula via Phoenix

has a question about the Phoenix Suns. He said, last year's Phoenix Suns, most unwatchable NBA team of the decade. I think that actually might be right because we've had bad teams, but when a team hates playing with each other, that's way worse to watch. She said, slow, old, predictable, stagnant offense,

no defense, no chemistry, iso ball, overall disgraceful effort, professional basketball team. I agree with all that. Then he says this year, son's an absolute delight. fast, young, unpredictable, flowing offense, intense defense, amazing chemistry. Objectively, it would appear that the Phoenix Suns have accomplished the George Costanza just do the opposite of your instincts with great success. Can you name another team in NBA sports history that succeeded with the Constanza

theory and is Dylan Brooks, the actual human Costanza to Bradley Beale? Lot to work with here. So the Suns Over Under was 31.5. went under. Michael Pina on the ringer wrote some, he was doing an increasingly crazy predictions piece. And one of the predictions was that the Sons would have the worst defense in the league. So just those two small events, Pina making a crazy prediction and everyone on our podcast, I think going under has now turned the Sons fans into the, you didn't believe in us, it's us against the world. It's like, well, you're over under was 31 and a half wins. Like nobody believed in you.

And this is a great story. You have an awesome. You play really hard. Guys like Gillespie showed up. Brooks treats every game like it's a game seven. I think all this is awesome. And the crazy thing about it is it was a complete 180 from how Ishbia built the team McBeedith, right? He did the new owner syndrome.

I got to do something fast. I'm going to trade everything for Durant. Oh, let's get Bradley Beale. And just he's trying to put it together like it's a fantasy team. And now he's attempting to put it together like a real basketball. team. So I think to just call that a Kastanza kind of belittles how cool it is that they pulled off all the stuff they pulled off. The biggest thing is they hired an awesome coach, sure or not. And I was texting somebody in league about this today about it feels like we have more good

coaches than we've ever had before. And a lot of them are younger. A lot of them are analytics based nets, Raptors, Celtics, sons. You go on down the line, there are just these young guys that come in and you watch the teams. They have a specific identity. They have players that fit that. identity and it's really cool to watch. So if you're going to talk about like is this an actual way to do something, a Costanza where you just go against yourself. The obvious next team to try this would be the Sacramento Kings, a team that has been the most pathetic franchise of the century, I would say, and by NBA purposes. I don't, I wouldn't say that lightly, but I think it's true. Probably in the bleakest situation they've been in in a long time where they just

have not a lot of assets and a lot of contracts on trade-ball. They're basically they're, everything is gearing toward can they get a top four lottery pick now? And yet they're still playing all these veterans trying to win games. I don't understand what the kings are doing. There's a million things we could say about the kings. Could the kings go Castanza and what would that mean? I think that would basically mean they just asked Vivek what to do. he gives their recommendation, and then they just do the opposite. That would be the full Costanza and also a pretty good idea for a franchise. So it worked for the Sons, even though I think it belittles how much smart thought they put

in everything. But I think that King should be the next Costanza team. And I like the theory. Next one, this is a text from every single, every single liquor fan friend that I have in my life because I've gotten over the last two hours. And at some combination, I just did an amalgam of all the texts I've got. You're an evil genius. You launched this Game Over podcast with Rich Paul and Max Gorman solely so you could destroy the Lakers, and it's working.

First of all, I'll never do that. As much as I despise the Lakers, I would never use a ringer podcast to try to bring that down. That just feels like bad karma. It feels like something bad would happen with the Celtics. So how dare you on that? this podcast has made a lot of news for the Lakers stuff, especially this week. And if you haven't listened to it, it's Rich at Max, I'd known each other forever. It's a really good podcast.

I won't call it a fear, but my one question with it was, is Rich going to be candid? He's still an agent and a power broker or all these things. Tied to LeBron, obviously. Is he going to be candid? Is he going to be candid about the Lakers? He's been incredibly candid. And I was walking around LA on Monday listening to it. And all of a sudden, he's talking about how the Lakers need Jared Jackson.

And then it's like, well, they would have to give up something to get him. And maybe Austin Reeves if they don't want to pay them. And it sounded like my podcast, but Rich is LeBrod's agent. I love it. I think this is great. And by the way, this is what's happened with podcasts the last 10 years. We've had players like Draymond and those type of guys have starred. Paul George, Jaylen Brunson.

All of these guys have podcasts where they're, They just talk about their life and they talk about the sport like their fans. And now Rich is doing it, but he's the most powerful agent in the sport. It is fascinating. I couldn't be more delighted that the ringer is involved. And if it's caused trauma for Laker fans and disarray behind the scenes, I can't say that was the intention. But it's a pure delight to me as the Celtic fan to just watch this happen.

So yeah, the unintended consequence. but I've been really enjoying the podcast. Go Rich. Next question. Speaking of Rich, it's a LeBron question. It's from Sam. And Sam says, he's trying to figure out what would LeBron have to do to pass. It's a long email and I'll just try to summarize it. Basically, if you get six rings to match MJ, LeBron is at two Miami, Cleveland, 2020. So he's got four? Yeah, four. He's behind. It's behind Kobe.

I mean, MJ 6, Kobe Duncan, 5, LeBron, 4. He's asking basically what would have to happen for him to get the last two and do it, does it count if he's like a coach or a GM or even an owner? My short answer would be no. I think he has to be a player. And I think he can win the post-playing career. MJ, by all accounts, pretty horrible basketball owner. No offense, MJ. I think you're the goat.

You're the best basketball player I've ever seen. You're a bad owner. You just were. So he can beat him in the NBA player afterlife as a GM owner or whatever. I don't think that's going to be hard. Let's say he leaves the Lakers and he goes to Cleveland. Sam's thing is, could he, could he, could he be a six-man lead the bench?

What if he even won six-man of the year and maybe finish some games for a team and won the other two rings, would that discount the rings at all? I don't think so. I didn't feel that way with Carl Malone when Carl Malone was going for a ring on the O-4 Lakers. He wasn't one of the two best players of the team,

but he was still a really important player on the team. So if LeBron went to Cleveland, became a six-man, closed some games, they won two more titles. That's six rings. I'm sorry. It doesn't just take one player to win a ring. It takes about nine and there's four or five crucial ones plus the coach, plus the GM.

I think that would count. I wouldn't feel like he was chasing it as long as it was organically he was really part of the team. So the last part of this question is, would success in a basketball role other than players significantly alter his legacy? I think it would because we just saw it with Jerry West. Jerry West was the logo. Jerry West was one of the eight best basketball players of all time when he retired, maybe one of the six best. Even in my book now, he's in the Pantheon.

He's one of the top 15s still. But then he had this whole other career as a front office executive that made completely change his career. So if LeBron chooses to go that way, I think it would affect him. Next question is from Tyler. If Linsanity happened in 2026 instead of 2012, would it be a bigger story small, story are no difference. I think smaller. There was a 2012, whatever was happening with basketball in the internet, basketball writing, Twitter, there were all these variables. And we were right in the middle of it. It was the first year at Grant Land. And it was really when it felt like just a lot of

things were changing. It was post-lockout. It was accessible clips was the first year like you could actually go on Twitter and watch a dunk that you just heard about or somebody forwarded you. And there was really good basketball writing. I mean, that was, I think my favorite time ever for journalism was that early 2010s, where we just had blogging still mattered. Long-form journalism was still on the internet. There were a lot of good writers. There were people willing to take chances with their voices and their angles.

And insanity was perfect. And that was some of my favorite stuff that we wrote at Grantland that. I remember Jay Kang had some good pieces. I had a bunch of fun writing about it back then. We had a bunch of NBA people that wrote good stuff. And just general, it just felt like it fit into everything that was happening in 2012. Now I just feel like there's so much stuff going on all the time. I don't know if anything would cut through like that in the same way.

So that's my answer. I might be wrong. All right. Next question is from Will from Somerville who asks, I got a bunch of these, too, about the Celtics traded for Jared Jackson. And there were rumors that they were interested. I'll just say when there are rumors about the Celtics being interested in players, I never believe them because nothing leaks from the Celtics ever.

Like when they traded for Derek White, it's not like that was being rumored for a week or a month. I always feel like they're very stealth under the radar and then shit happens. And then you find out about it. So when I hear stuff like, the Celtics are interested, I just tend to not believe it. The Jared Jackson thing is interesting, though, because Memphis clearly should be trying to trade him and Jha

and just reboot and completely start over. Will said as a Celtic fan, he likes the idea of adding his elite rib protection and forespacing. I'm out on this one. I'm not a giant Jaron Jackson fan. I liked him when he was in the 25 million range as a center, but his next four years started next year, 49, 50.5, 52 million,

and then 53.5 million player option, which I'm just going to guess he's picking that up. I don't love when big guys don't rebound. I actually think he needs to be next to a center, like why Zach Edy was so interesting when he got to play next to Zach Eady or when he got to play with Stephen Adams way in the past. You know, three-point shooter.

I don't really love his low-post stuff. And to pay that much money to him and now Jalen and now Tatum, like, that's my team. I can't get out of that. So that leaves the Celtics with no outs. There's trades that they could do. Like they could definitely do the Simon's contract with Hauser, with like Luca Garza or something.

You could patch up the contracts, take the extra money and pull it off. But I would just be against it. I would not want to do this. And with that side, if they end up trading for them in two weeks, I'll talk myself into about 10 minutes. But right now I'm against it.

Next question. Matt Edwards in Richmond, Virginia. Is Hillary Swank, the Steve Nash of multi-Oscar winners or is Steve Nash the Hillary Swank of multi-MVP winner's also who should be more offended? It's from Matt

in Richmond. Obviously, he came to the right place for this question. I would say I'm the perfect person in the universe to answer this. I think Steve Nash should be more offended. And I say this with all due respect to Hillary Swank who won two Oscars, two best actors. Two best actors. Not a long list for two best actress Oscars. She went for a million-dollar baby, a movie that if somebody gave me on Blu-ray or 4K UHD, I would throw in the garbage. I only want to see that movie once.

I'm still mad at it. And then she won for Boys Don't Cry, which is a really good independent movie. She's great that. Here's where this falls apart, though, because you could say, well, then Nash won his two weird MVPs. And it's just like Hillary Swank winning two Oscars is weird. Nash winning the two MVPs is weird. Here's where this goes off the rails. The rest of her career just doesn't add up to those two Oscars. And really, it's one of the strange IMDBs you've ever seen. I think probably the third best movie she made was Insomnia,

which I really like. It's on the rewatch of his lips. Christopher Nolan, Robin Williams, Al Pacino, who can't sleep the whole time. I can't sleep. next three maybe the hunt Logan Lucky and the core for movies you'd ever want to see again

it falls off fast plus she has the next karate kid which is how we got to know her not a good movie and then she had season 8 9-2-1-0 she joins as carly the waitress who works at the peach pit and has a kid and falls for Steve

Sanders they wrote her off the show Steve Nash does never have He doesn't, I guess you could say the sons traded him. So when they had, I think it was Kevin Johnson and Jason K, and they had too many point cards and they traded him to Dallas. That's the equivalent of being written off a show. But I would say not being able to find chemistry with I and Zering in season eight of a long running TV show.

And they had to send her way. It was one of those things like, my mom got sick. I have to leave. And she was just gone. I think I and Zeri might have maybe even cried for a brief second. but that's Nash has nothing like that and then Nash's whole career I mean Nash was one of the 10 best point cards of all time I have them low 40s in my pyramid somewhere in the 40 to 44 range I can't remember where

the 05 sons and then that whole seven seconds or less sons I'm widely credited and rightly so for saving basketball I don't think you remember how terrible was to watch basketball back then. So, and it was just the defense and the shit, it was just, everything was a rock fight. And the sun's kind of opened the doors for that. And then the 2010 Sun's team, which I think really could have made the finals and had some bad luck in a Lakers series. But he was in the title mix there for five or six years in a real way, plus with the O2 and O3 Mavs, he was in there. I think he had a way better career.

So I think Steve Nash should be more offended. Mark Atkinson, I get this question a lot too about basically upon Tatum's eventual return, are you all worried about the Celtics falling into their old habits of walking the ball, playing not to lose it, and then the games, iso ball, all that stuff. Because everybody loves watching the Celtics team. So it's weird because one of the things people seem to think is that they're playing with more pace, which technically when you watch it, eye test-wise, it seems like there's more pace. but they're 30th in pace in the NBA.

So it's not like Tatum's going to slow that down because he's not. I think the difference, the part they need to figure out is more of this is being initiated by Derek White and Pritchard and then Simons, when he's in, through the guards, through Jalen Brown, and the big guys that come out and set picks for them are just better at it, Kada and Garza. So how is Tatum going to fit into this new identity? To me, it's a good problem to have. He's taking minutes from guys like Shireman and even somebody like Hauser, Hugo Gonzalez, who's one of the best plus minuses in the league, but he'll probably lose some minutes.

But Tatev, they're going to ease him in when he comes back. He'll play probably two, nine minute parts of the half. And with his defense and his rebounding and his scoring and the fact that he was probably the fourth best player in the league when he went out, like I'm not worried about this. could there be a little Tatum Brown stuff? Who knows? Is there a little alpha doggy? We'll see.

But the team has currently constructed is not winning anything. They're not winning a title. Tatum might change their ceiling a little bit. So please don't overthink this, everybody. Next question is from Aaron. He talked about, recently we did that mailbag thing about NBA

when I had Mahoney on to do the NBA mailbag, about NBA awards for players that were best at certain skills. They basically named after Steph Curry, who year after year was just by far the best at shooting. Aaron says you could take it even further and recognize the best weirdo skill each year. I love this. As Satanus takes over the game, let's recognize niche skills that are never captured in box scores. For instance, T.J. McConnell's ability to continually steal the inbound's pass, which he just did the other day and actually won them a game.

Like he does this sneaky, you know, almost like he's hiding. the bushes and then pounces out. It's amazing to see people continually fall for it through the years if tape didn't exist of him doing this all year long. So that's from Aaron. I love this. So I was thinking the Weirdos go finalists, and I just did this. I probably left out two people.

I'll be interested in Zach Lowe's take. Maybe Zach Lowe will tackle this as well on his podcast. Weirdosco finalist for me. McConnell and the inbound steals. I think Alvarado had that title for a second, the McConnell just took it back. Derek White guard blocks

the best player prop you can do is the Derek White block with any other result you want from a sloth the game.

He always gets one especially if it's a big game, guaranteed. He's also, he has another weirdo skill, which is the same one.

Dave Jacoby can back me up. Jacoby, if you're watching or listening, back me up. Derek White really good at

breaking up two-on-ones and three-on-ones, which is its own basketball skill and not to toot my own horn, not to compare myself to NBA star Derek White, but I was really good at breaking up two-on-ones and three-on-ones. And Jacobi saw it for years and years. You just kind of lay low and

then you use quick hands and you try to strip them before they, before, as somebody makes it, you kind of play possum with it. And then you jump on it. And he's one of the best I've ever, the best ever at this was Jason Kidd. Jason Kidd was either he would strip the guy, he would draw, he would draw charge. It was almost like if it was a two-on-one or a or 3-1 and Kid was the guy back, you felt like Kid had an advantage. There's never been anyone like that. White is really good.

I would throw him in there, guard blocks or that. The Yoke Edge 70-yard, one-handed passes in there. Pritchard's end of the quarter shots, I wish he was a little better at this. I really wanted to put this in there because they run. Anytime there's four seconds or left, they always have Pritchard, they cut it out, and he's really good at getting the shot he wants,

but he's been cold lately. I don't think he'd win. And then this might be too good of a skill. But Michael Porter Jr.'s coming off a pick, off balance, almost like he's 45 degrees floating and being able to straighten up and shoot is unlike any other, and he's been doing it, by the way, since the Nuggets. He's just shooting them more in the Nets. But that's the one that always makes me marvel.

I just think it's so freaking hard to do that. And when I watch him play in the Nets, I'm always like, how does he do that? So I think that counts as a weirdo skill, but I would say Pritchard would be minus, I'm sorry, McConnell would be minus 180 to win that award. Ricky Brackett asks, since it appears an NBA team is nowhere close to coming to Seattle.

I have another idea. Let's make Seattle University an awesome college team that becomes the city's team. Couldn't a rich guy basically buy a coach and some awesome players and make them one of the top 10 teams in the country. Short answer, yeah, I love this idea. This is one of the best ideas we've ever heard.

Seattle's not getting an NBA team anytime soon. If anything, if they do expansion, it's just going to be Vegas and that's it. I don't see Seattle. I don't see it happening. I'm sorry. The Seattle University just rejoined the WCC, which is the one with Gonzag, all those teams. Pepper Dines in there, whoever.

Just blow everyone out. Rich guy. There's rich people in Seattle. Just go in. All of a sudden, Seattle are you, people are buying the merch. Great idea. I love it. I think Al Jabila went there too. So rename the arena, the Eljabella arena. This could work. End of the game situations.

Amir Scher Wright saying about how do we fix close games turning into a free throw parade? What if we make foul in the final two minutes result in three free throws instead of two with that strongly discouraged intentional family. I was there for three free throws to make two as a kid. I think it was the 1980 season somewhere around there. A complete abomination. Please never do that again.

I would go the other way. In the final minute, if a team is up by four points or more and they get fouled, they go to the free throw line. That first free throw, if they make it, counts as two. And we just keep the game moving.

And the guy gets credit for two free throws, even if it's on one shot. If he misses the first throw, first one, gets to take the second one. So it's still advantage to the shooting team, but I really think that would move it along. I think, how about this? Find me somebody who disagrees with that idea. We're going to have less free throws. I think everyone's like great. I would also, you cannot call a timeout after a timeout. I've been saying this for 20 years. I think I've been saying it ever since I've become. No timeouts after a timeout. We're good. Chris Leary asked

about the where did you come from award, which you really liked for, that was my idea for the break, the most improved player, instead do a breakthrough player, the where the fuck did you come from award? He tweaked it to, could it be a guy last season

who had no chance at having his own shoe, but now is promoted for the awards, he actually now is a chance to have his own shoe. I thought that was pretty good. So he said like people like Jalen Johnson, Stefan Castle, etc. People that before the area, you would have said,

no way that guy's going to have a shoe. By the end of the year, like, that guy might have a shoe. It did prompt me to look at all the people who have a shoe, and I was kind of stunned. LeBron, Durant, Jha, that's sure much longer Jaws going to have a shoe. Janice, Booker, Wemby has one, Cade's got one coming next year. That's all with Nike. Shea's at Converse. Jordan Brands, Luca, Tatum, Zion, Russell, Westbrook. Probably coming to own end soon. Adidas, Hardin, Edwards, Dame, Donovan, Mitchell.

I mean, we're already out like 16 players. Curry is a free agent right now, but he'll have one soon. C.J. McCollum is Leaning. Kauai's at New Balance. Austin Reeves is at rigor. Rigor? 361, whatever you call? They have Aaron Gordon.

Puma has lamella ball in the Scoot Zero, which matches the number of minutes he's played this year. And then Anta has Clay Thompson and Kyrie. That's a lot of guys. So it's almost like the ones that don't seem to have one are Yokage, which is hilarious, who's been the best part of this decade, hands down, doesn't have a shoe, and a couple others. But I like that idea of the, oh, he might get a shoe now. It would be a fun, goofy word.

I'm keeping track about all these through at the end of the next year. All right, two more. Next question. This is from Mike Grandy, and he has a theory in the best trade of the year. It's a conspiracy theory. So he's activated conspiracy bill. He mentions how Hal Burton hurt his calf in the finals in game two. The Pacers traded their first round pick that year for next year's first round pick to Atlanta

right before game five. And he hurt the calf even more in game five. And he's wondering, did they do the trade as an insurance policy for exactly what happened? Everyone keeps saying they got lucky it was a cat move. Mike Grandy thinks they did the deal as insurance in case something worse happened to his calf that they knew he was playing on. It was too risky. And it was almost like an insurance policy. I got to be honest. Even conspiracy bill wants no part of this. It's good. He appreciated it. He likes the way you're thinking. You're thinking outside the box. You checked a lot of

conspiracy bill boxes. Staying away from that one. Not staying away from this one, from Marcus in New York. My friends and I are 30 and were recently talking about how crazy it must have been when the NBA finals were interrupted by the OJ car chase. I can tell you it was amazing. I've talked about this before, but I was in Portchester, New York, at my buddy Jim Grady's house with him and our buddy camp

and a couple other people. We were drinking and we were going to go out and we ended up watching the finals and the car chase and we never actually went out and we just could not believe that OJ Simpson was being chased around. Marcus asked who would be the 2026 equivalent to OJ from a famed talent standpoint

to be in this exact situation. His first thought went to Barclay and Shaq. Then he asked if it was a basketball player interrupting the Super Bowl, if you need a cross-sport interruption, if it was Shaq with the Super Bowl cutaway. He goes in a lot of directions here. And then asked who the least famous talented athlete, they would cut away from the Super Bowl to,

if they were in a car chase like OJ. And he said, Carmelo might be the border for basketball. He thinks the news waits until the commercial break for Carmelo. But if it was Dwayne Wade, they cut away during the game. and then he asked for my lines. He said, football, breezes the line, baseball pool holes. Great question. So if you're using the OJ blueprint, because OJ was massively famous, you can see OJ

behind me. See that poster right there behind me? It's a spot-built OJ poster, and it says the juices on the loose, and it was made well before he actually was on the loose. It's a super famous athlete who remains super famous after they stopped playing. That would be one. It would have to be a complete suppress, goes without saying.

It would have to be somebody that everyone likes. And that's a tough thing to say in 2026, but there's a like test that you could say. People that you're just instinctively like, I love that guy. We all loved OJ. And in the 70s, 80s, early 90s,

especially with naked gun, and we were all in on them. So my nominees, none of these are the winner, are Charles Barkley, Serena Williams and Jason Kelsey. I was really proud of the Serena Williams idea because you think it's male,

but what if we switch over? Everybody loves Serena Williams. Serena Williams, Charles Barkley, Jason Kelsey nominees and none of them are the winner because the winner is Peyton Manning. It's clearly Peyton Manning. I think they would cut away from any sporting event if Peyton Manning was trying to escape the police

after a murder involving his wife and a waiter. I don't care what the, it could be the Oscars. It could be anything. They're cutting away to Peyton Manning and the White Bronco. Cut off line, guys. I have Wade for the NBA, David Ortiz for baseball. And ironically, Eli Manning for football. I thought that was funny.

I would all came around with the Manning brothers. So yeah, I'm pretty sure this will never happen again. I think the OJ Car Chase, which was the most unbelievable TV experience, I think of my lifetime. It's in the running. I'm pretty sure it's not replicable. All right, we're going to take a break, and then I'm going to do my all-star picks.

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State Farm with the assist. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability and eligibility vary by state. All right, I'm back. I'm going to quickly go through my All-Star Picks. Thanks to everybody who sent in a question, by the way. It was fun to, it was a mini mailbag that somehow ended up being almost 40 minutes. So classic me.

All-Star Picks. I'm going to try to make these really quick, and then we can bring in Con Cknipple. We had to hand in starters today. For the West, I did SGA. I did Joker. I did Anthony Edwards. I think those were the three that had to be in. No question.

Don't need to make the case for any of them. My fourth was Steph Curry, who is averaging 29 a game, 47% field goal, 39% from three. He's Steph Curry and selfish say I want to see him in the game. So shoot me. It's basically him versus is Jamal Murray and Devin Booker for that spot.

And I thought long and hard about giving that to Jamal Murray because I think he's been amazing this year. He's been 25-4 and 8, 48% shooting 44% from 3. He's been awesome. You think about last year, early November, how depressed everybody was about how bad he looked. He'd just signed that contract, and it felt like he had sunk cost potential for the Nuggets.

And now he's come like a bad out of hell. And I really wanted to vote for him. but Curry's one of the 10 best players of all time, 12 best players, whatever your list is. He's intent for me, and he's having a really good season. And it's not his fault that he's on this weird Warriors team that he's on. Fifth one, you could have talked to you in a Murray for this spot too.

It's a begrudging one. It's Luca Donchich clearly has to be honest, averaging 34 a game, 34, 8, 9. Typical Luca season. It's tailed off a little from the ceiling of where it seemed like we're going to be a couple a couple months ago, first month of the season when it seemed like it was revenge,

Luca. The defense is really bad. The monoball is really bad sometimes, too. I'm not positive, he's that fun to play with some nights, but as a force of nature, I don't know how you don't have them on there. So West starters,

SGA, Joker, Aunt Curry, Luca, I don't think any of that is that controversial. For the East, Janus has played enough games, I think, to be on, so I'm putting him on 25 games. And then Jalen Brown, if he's not out, I don't know what we're doing.

I think he's an MVP candidate as well, average in 30 a game. One of the many reasons why the Celtics are a two seed. Three guards I have after that. I have Maxie, Cade, and Brunson in that order. And it's interesting. Some people have that ordered a little differently. It might go Cade, then Brunson, then Maxie. I would have Maxie first.

I think what he's been able to do on that kooky Sixers team where you never know who's playing night tonight. The most reliable other player they have is a rookie. You never know if Embed's playing. You don't know if George is playing. It's just a bizarre team. And night after night, he either brings that,

they're down 10 and he'll just max it up for two minutes and bring them back. He's relentless. I think he's been really good at the end of games, unusually good at the end of games, especially because you know he's probably shooting. And I don't know how he's not the first guard out of all those guards.

Cade's been great and is the biggest reason Detroit is good. And if you want to say Cade over Maxie, that's fine. But both of them have to be on there and then Brunson as the third guy. And Brunson's still looming if the Knicks can get going as MVP candidate.

So Janus, Jalen, Maxi, Cade, and Brunson for that. Okay, reserves for the, for the West. This is what I have. I have four locks for me. Jamal Murray, Devin Booker. I still have Schengun, and you could feel Schengun when he wasn't in those Rockets games, you know, to have a big guy who's 22, 9, and 6. I just think he's the one that tilts the rockets, so they become really unusual and really hard to play when they just seem like they have too much size and too much offense. And once you remove him out, they seem a little bit more

normal. So Murray, Booker, Shengun, and then Wembe Nama has to be on there. I don't care that he's played 25 games. I don't care that he's probably going to get to 1,800 minutes for the season, whatever he ends up in. He's 24 and 11 and 3, is three blocks a game. They played the South Dick Saturday night, and he was on a minute limit. And every minute he was out there, it felt like they were going to go on a 10-0 run. The stuff he does on defense, which you don't need to hear me expound on it for 10 minutes, but it's the most important defensive thing anyone's doing. He's in everyone's head at all times. Even Jalen Brown, who all year was able to get any two-point shot he wanted and able to go to the basket any time he wanted. There was a couple

times he was just like, I'm pulling this back out. But Wemby stuffed him in the second half on one play that Jalen's gotten it all year. Webby's like, no thanks. He tilts the floor in all these different ways so that a 12-footer now becomes a 15-footer. And then offensively, it's getting better and better with figuring out how to use him against the Celtics. They won the game by just going to Wembe over and over again right around the foul on and have him shoot over people. And it feels like he's going to make it every time.

So he has to be on there. That's nine. I'm just, I tilt All-Star toward the proven famous guys sometimes. Everybody's got their own method for it. But to me, KD has to be in, averaging 26, 5 and 5. There's good advanced metrics with him too. And eye test-wise, end of the game,

still seems like he's 95% of where he was seven years ago. It's amazing. Have to have him. Abdiah on Portland doing 26, 7, and 7. Keeping them near 500, which makes no sense at all. And it was a team that, when you thought in the West, was just going to have no chance just because how lopside of the West was,

but he's been, I don't know where this one ranks on, on, biggest goddamets for the wizards that you've had this century of just like, ah, God damn it. But he's got to be way up there. And then the last one I have,

so on the bubble, before I say who I gave the last spot to, Kauai was the toughest cut. I just think the team record disqualified him. It's not his fault. They're 16 and 23, but he has been on the team the whole year and they're 16 and 23

and as good as he's been for the last month or so I just somebody's going to get caught and it's going to hurt. Brooks was another one because he's the tone setter of that son's team along with Booker

and I just love what he's doing game to game and how competitive he is and I think the culture that he brings in really matters. Never thought I'd say that about Don Brooks. Chad Holmgren?

Sure. It's just weird to only have one O KC guy. Amman Thompson was another one as a two-way guy, also averaging 18 a game, marketing with the scoring. And then I would have Fox in here until about 10 days ago, but I felt like he's gone backwards a little bit.

And Castle is another one. I don't think they've done quite enough. My 12 spot goes to Randall on Minnesota because that team has really rounded into being an actual contender. And Randall is now at 22, 7, and 5. He's 50%. They're plus 6.2 when he plays. I attest him in Edwards.

I just like them together. I really feel like they figured out him, Gobert, Edwards, and just how those three guys work. I really enjoyed watching Randall this year, and I wanted to reward a second guy from that team. So I would rather go Randall than Kauai. And I think if you switched Kauai and Randall,

I don't know if Minnesota has a better record with Kauai. I'll just say that. Plus, he's not as reliable as a dirt ability standpoint. So that's who I have. SGA Joker, Aunt Curry, Luca, starting. Murray Booker, Schengun, Wembe, and then K.D. Abdiah and Randall, that's in the West. In the East, already said as the starters,

Maxi, Jalen, Cade, Brunson, Yannis. Mitchell was the toughest cut. He's got to be in there. He's averaging 30 a game for it typically, week after week, just a Cavs team that seems like you're on a double date with a couple that you're driving home. You're like, oh, man, you think they're going to break up? That's how you feel about every calf's home game.

Jalen Johnson has to be on there, 24, 10, and 8, and they traded Tray Young to make it his team. We'll see if he could deliver. Scotty Barnes, 19, 8 and 5, 50% shooting. Some bullyball defense, some bully ball stuff in general. There's a physicality of him that he's always had, but I feel like he's channeled it better than ever. he's got to be on and Toronto is overachieved.

He's the biggest reason. Jalen Duren up to 1811 and 2 this year, 63% shooting and a physicality and an intimidation presence. Just an old school, you can see him on the 2004 Pistons, which is the highest compliment you could play. He absolutely could have played on that team

in one of those spots and you wouldn't have lost a beat. I love how competitive and hostile he is in a good way, not a bad way. So he has to be on for me. I had to put Michael Porter Jr. on. He's averaging 26 a game eight rebounds. I look at it this way because this is,

I think they have the worst record of any all-star I put on. And I'm deliberately zagging from my same Kauai take that I had earlier, but there's less all-stars in the East. So it's more defensive. If it was in the West, he wouldn't have made it. There's been eight to nine games this year where he's just been the best player in the court or he's going against somebody

who is a top 10 or top 15 player and matching that dude, which is the same case for Jalen being an All-MBA guy and an MVP candidate, you have to have a guy like that in the league now because the league is so deep and so good. You kind of need your... And Obdi has been the way from Portland

and Cade's been the way for Detroit. You go through. If you don't have that guy, you get in trouble. That's like the case for why Sacramento is in trouble among many other reasons. They just don't have that guy to match the other good guys. Porter's just been, if you didn't know anything,

if you're in a coma for the last five years and you just watched this season, you watched him play, you would have thought he was like a five-time all-star or something. It doesn't make a lot of sense. And I think he's an incredibly important trade piece, especially if Golden State can get him, which I've talked about earlier,

if Golden State can get him, I don't think they win the title with him, but it raises their ceiling, and he's exactly what they need, somebody who can create his own shot, another three-point shooter. Another variable, heat check guy, everything. If they can get him, interesting.

All right, two spots left for three guys. Norman Powell on the Heat, basically a 500 team. He's 24 a game and has played with a massive chip on his shoulder all season because he can't believe the quippers traded him. And I've really enjoyed it. Plus 2.6 is advanced metric for on-off. Towns, 21 and 12. Catch him on the right night.

Seems great. It gets a little gamey every couple weeks. You'll watch a game with the Knicks every once in a while, or it just doesn't seem like he's interested in guarding anybody. Zach and Mahoney, Zach's podcast last week, they talked about him. And whatever Zach said, I agreed with where it's like, it seems like he should be an All-Star, but something's holding me off. And I feel the same way.

So we'll just complete the exercise here. Bam and Mobile are out, by the way. They're not even in the bubble. The third one is Derek White, who the way to ding him is he's only averaging 19 a game and he's shooting 40%. And part of that is because if you watch the Celtics, there's times when the plays break down and whoever has the ball with four seconds left just has to put up a bad shot. He's plus 8.2 on off. More importantly, they have the second offense net rating in the league. Miami has the 21st rating, for example, with Powell.

So if you're saying, well, Powell's a better offensive player, what happens if you switch white and Powell? What happens to those two teams? So the Celtics still the second best offense is Miami better than 21st offense? I don't know. It's an interesting thought exercise. I think Towns, unfortunately, has to make it because you really only have for Biggs, Yannis, and Duren, and that's it,

and you have too many guards and forwards. and the Knicks probably could get to. So it comes down to White Powell. And if White was shooting 44%, 43%, I'd feel better about it. But it's like 39.7. It's right on the cusp. I think he's, it's almost like if this was the MVP voting,

I think he would be higher than Powell. But if we're just talking about All-Star, somebody killing it, and Miami doesn't have an All-Star, the Celtics already have one. I think I'd feel, like a homer if I gave this to White. And I, as I joke about it all the time, I like to take my vote seriously. So my heart says it's Derek White, but my heart also says that I might not think about it be thinking about it rashly. So I'm going to go Powell. So Maxie, Jalen, Cade, Brunson, Yana,

starting, Mitchell, Jalen, Johnson, Barns, Duren, Porter, Powell, Towns. Toughest cuts, Derek White and Kauai. And I think if anyone gets injured, so we're already going to have Yokic is, I would say probably going to miss the All-Star game, but somebody will miss it between him, Wembe. So then maybe Kauai makes it anyway. And then maybe Derek White makes it

if there's an injury in the East. But I think that's the list. Those are my All-Star picks. Thanks for listing. Thanks for hearing me pontificate. We're going to take a break and come back with Charlotte's Khan-Kinipple. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health,

from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. All right, we're taping this on a Tuesday afternoon.

The most efficient rookie in the history of the NBA is here, Khan Knapple. Do you know that? I did not. Yeah, you're shooting stats and all the, you're very efficient. Try to be. People have been comparing you to players from the eight decades of the NBA, and they're like, you know who's really efficient? Khan.

You passed. Last time I had you on the pod, people still didn't totally know how to pronounce your name who are NBA fans. Now it's like, I don't feel like you get any connoples. Yeah, right? We got it set now. And you're having a really, like, steady, awesome rookie year, which I don't fully understand because you're the youngest podcast guest we've ever had.

Really? Yeah, my daughter was the youngest, but she's May 2005 and you're August. August. Yeah, so you beat her five months. That's awesome. But yeah, I don't understand why you seem like you're 27 years old in these games. So what is it? How did you fit in so easily?

Yeah, I don't know. I definitely have a more mature game. Just, I, growing up playing in, you know, adult men's leagues all the time. My dad's run a men's league in Milwaukee for 20 years. So I had to develop that aspect of playing off the ball that, you know, youth basketball doesn't really get you. Like just trying to fit in and with the whole AAU world. Right.

Like it's, you know, and the Instagram trainers and all that stuff, it becomes more about, you know, one-on-one skill and stuff. But playing that men's league, I think, you learn, learn to grow, and be more physical, how to move off the ball, all those things that are really important today's NBA. And rebound.

Rebounded. That was the one thing I told you before this season. I said, don't forget to rebound. You're like six a game. Yeah, almost. I'm getting down there. I think I'm about five now. Well, now you're your whole team's back.

Yeah. I've been watching a lot. It's been my favorite league pass team. And even though your record, when you're like 12th in the East, but you've been in a lot of these games, so you haven't had Lamello the whole time. And Lamello,

somebody I think I've changed my opinion on a hundred times but he's looked awesome lately and they like it's the first time you can see your team like oh this is what the team could look like right yeah and we're playing our brand of basketball yeah we want to play fast want to play unselfishly and together and uh you know we're we're a good rebounding team and we can hang ourselves our hat hang our hat on that you know on the offensive end um I don't know if you watch diabate at al musa but man he's just all over the glass every night um you know it's a fun brand one brand of basketball to play yeah everybody seems like they give a crap yeah likeable team good good future all right we did the generic basketball stuff i want to dive in a rookie season yeah so you go in

training camp starts september right you've never had a job before really does duke count as a job i don't know i guess you're getting an i o money yeah it still doesn't though here you're like a student you're in class and yeah that's fun so all right walk me through do you buy a place do you rent like how did that whole go how'd that whole thing go in charlotte What do you do? Yeah, I rent. Okay. Yeah, a nice apartment.

Do you have, like, family member, anything, anybody with you, or you're just on your own? No, I'm on my own. On your own? Interesting. No roommate, nothing? No roommate by myself, which obviously first time ever, which I've kind of enjoyed. Yeah. It's kind of cool having an own space.

I was worried about that kind of at first, but, you know, that's new. And to do it when you're 20 is a little bit earlier than that. others. But I'm in like a nice part of Charlotte. A lot of young people growing city. So good, good spot to be. You're just so much more impressive than I was as a 20 year old. We moved off campus when I was 20 and I was sharing a room with my buddy Jacko with two beds and we lived with two other guys and we thought like we were really. A blast though. Yeah, we had four people cramped in a small two bedroom place. We thought we were really living it. You're by yourself, living in Charlotte. All right. So training camp starts. Did you get a car? You leased a car? No, I bought a car.

Okay. So you buy a car. Are you like a cheaper guy or you like an extravagant guy? Probably say cheaper. I got a Ford Explorer. Right. Oh, that's smart. Okay. All right. So practice starts. You fitting in. Do you feel like the rookie or people nice to you? What's happening? Yeah. I mean, we got a great squad of just, you know, guys that kind of embrace you right away. You know, sometimes it doesn't happen. Obviously, we have a younger team. Which is good for you, I think, right? Yeah. And we have four rookies. Yeah. So you're coming.

in and with three other guys, kind of going through the same stuff, but also just the vets on the team being really receptive to a rookie is not something, giving us advice, is not something you see on, you know, every team, so I hear. Well, plus you were part of this incredible rookie class. Yeah. That I kind of can't believe how good it is. It's a good group. You know, it's fun to see the success around the league every night.

That's a good group of guys. Hopefully it continues that way. And how many of them have you known since you were like 13? You know, I was a little bit later onto the... The circuit? Yeah, like, I was playing UIBL, but I'm from Wisconsin, and I was getting really invited to some of the bigger camps early on. But you're aware of the guys, and playing in the Nike circuit.

You play against a bunch of the players. Right. Played Dylan Harper, Liam McNeely, like all those guys, we'd play on Dirk Queen. We played on the circuit. So you see the Queen stuff where they do. trade the future pick for him. Everyone goes nuts, including me.

Like, how can you do that? Well, I didn't like that. I didn't put a protection on it. But then he starts playing, and he's just as good as he was in high school and college. And then people are like, okay, I didn't love the trade, but he's awesome. He's really good. Yeah, and his game

just translated to the NBA, it seems like. He was awesome in high school. Yeah. Like, we're playing in the NBA, MBA has their camp in Orlando. Like, he just, every time he threw it in there, it was like, basket. Yeah.

Obviously super skilled. He's having a heck of a year. And then Dylan, Dylan's fit in on a really good spurs team. Yeah. He's, he's awesome. Pretty strange Dallas situation for the most part.

He's following that trade. Yeah. Kyrie's not there. Davis has gotten hurt multiple times. The season started up badly. They're playing a point. Were you surprised they're playing about a point card? It seemed like a big ask.

Yeah. I mean, I think for your first 10 games in the NBA and try to figure it out, I feel like it's tough. I think he definitely embraced it, embraced the challenge. Yeah. But you know, that's tough to do,

playing out a position like that as your first time playing in the NBA at all. But I actually thought he did pretty solid. Yeah, it was, in a weird way, probably not the greatest experience, but then also a great experience because you're literally thrown into the fire. You have to make all these decisions with the ball.

So there's no way some of that. But you had the opposite. I said they're just, they put you in, you're doing all the stuff you're good at, you only have to worry about that. I, I don't know, I thought it was a little unfair, but it seems like he came out of it all right. Yeah, he's playing, he's playing great now. Is there like a Duke text thread with all your old guys or no? We do, it's Coach Carrowell, C-Well, as assistant, and he'll text us all in a group chat at certain points. But, you know, well, when we were in Cleveland, me and Cian went over to Tyrese Proctor's place for a little bit.

just hang out and enjoy some time together. Well, the most fun thing you did was you brought your entire team to your house. Yeah. Which went viral for like two days. People loved that for some reason. Yeah, we didn't think anything that it was that big of a deal. But yeah. I think people like knowing that NBA players are normal and that you would just go to somebody's house when you're on the road.

I don't think people think of the players like that sometimes. Right. I mean, you know, we were on the plane and obviously I'm from Milwaukee. So, yeah. Grants, like, where are we going to eat? Grant Williams. I was like, well, I'm going, I'm going home. And they're like, oh, we're going to Conn's House, I guess.

And then I thought about it. My parents were like, invite it whoever you want. I was like, I think I'm going to invite the whole team over. So, yeah, the guys came. So what did your mom make? Fajitas, chicken fajitas. Oh, wow. Yeah.

There's a nice Mexican grocery store in Milwaukee, El Ray. So she got all the fixings and everything from there. And, you know, just in the crock pot. And, yeah, the guys enjoy it. Like, we don't get to do stuff like that. Yeah. Very often, especially, like, when you're in Milwaukee, Detroit, like, Cleveland, like, it's cold.

You don't really want to get out of the hotel. So that was a good experience for us. Yeah, I mean, when I talk to different coaches, players, whoever, they all say the schedule is so unforgiving with, like, not being able to practice enough, not be able to actually do anything. Like, you're in L.A. right now. You're a game Monday against Clippers. is you even game Thursday.

You actually have a couple days to kind of hang out, maybe even have a practice, work on some stuff, relax. The schedule doesn't really work that way. Yeah, it's interesting. Like, I can't even remember the last time we had practice like in our facility in Charlotte. Like it was probably two and a half weeks ago, three weeks ago.

Yeah, that's not good. And that's, I mean, just with how the schedule changed where you're basically playing every other night. Yeah. It makes it, I mean, it makes it so hard to practice because your body can't really feel. physically handled, you know, practicing on the in-between day.

Right. When you play every other night. It needs a catch-up day. I mean, the good news is, though, travels. Can you imagine doing this in the 70s when they had flying, like, coach, doing trains and stuff? That would be crazy. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, and then we're in Converse. Yeah, wearing the shitty sneakers, like all that stuff, eating, like, cheeseburgers at three in the morning. Smoking cigarettes at halftime, like, I don't know how guys did it. Yeah, it's a little better. now. Yeah, so you played 39 games. The season started, I guess, like, October 24th range. So it's like 39 games in two and a half months. Right. And we played 39 games at Duke last year.

That was the whole season where you... So are we in rookie wall? When is the rookie wall? Is it 50 games or 40 games? I can't remember. Somewhere around here. I'm not sure. Did you feel yet? Do you feel it in your body? I think it, honestly, I feel like it's more mental than anything else. Like, it just gets really repetitive. And, you know, it's just the same thing like your shoot around again today, going over to the gym in the morning. Yeah. I think that, finding a way to embrace that and enjoy that every day can get tough, especially for younger guys. Well, you have the wild card. If you play with Lamella, who is such a wild card game to game and can go on these, I can't imagine what it's like to play with something like that. I mean that in a good way.

Like, you just don't know when he's going to go off. Like he had that game the other night, we had 33 off the bench. Yeah. And it seems like there's, it definitely seems like he has his bounce back. Yeah. Right? And he's got his first step back and is starting to seem unstoppable again. Yeah.

But we haven't really seen a stretch like this in a while where he can just like stay healthy for four months. But when you're playing with him and then you're seeing the other guards in the league, like it feels like athletically and talent-wise, he's with those guys, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, he's doing a really good job. And I think, you know, training staff, just trying to, like, manage his minutes

to maximize the amount of games he can play. And that's tough to do. Like, when he's, it's tough to get in a rhythm sometimes when you're going, like, you know, 28 to 30 minutes. Yeah. You know, you're going to come out or there's some times in the fourth quarter when, you know, you want to be in there and affect the game.

So he's been battling that. And I just, he's been really locked in this year. Have you gotten to the point playing with him where you can kind of tell when he's about to go off? Like you can notice when he's feeling it on the court almost? Yeah. And there's just some situations where he has the ball on, especially in like transition, where it's just like he has those Alleyu passes that from like half court. It's like how do you throw that when Brandon Miller's at the free throw line?

Right. And he's throwing it. It's like a quarterback anticipating just some of those plays he makes. Pretty head scratching. Yeah. And then you had Miller come back, and he's shown flashes of like, if you catch him on the right night, it feels like he's going to be an all-MBA guy. Yeah.

And he can rebound. He's a little, in a weird way, like a really nice compliment to you because you guys both rebound, you guys can both shoot threes. You can both handle the ball and play without the ball. But I like the combo. Yeah, I think, you know, he's a really talented player and just the athleticism. And, you know, some of that, like, chase down block stuff too, that, He can just make plays like that, you know, that a lot of guys can't make just with his frame and his athleticism.

And it's a fun group to play with. Yeah, he seems easy to play with. Yeah. Like all your bigs kind of know where to go and what to do. And it's a fun team to watch. I'm not even sure, I'm sure in the summer when they try to add to it, figure out what's next. I'm not even positive. I'm sure like rim protection would be something.

But for the most part, it's got a nice nucleus. Yeah, I feel like when we have all our guys playing, you know, we're in a good spot every night. It's a good upset team. It's like one of those teams, you'll be like a giant underdog somewhere. And I'm like, I don't know, they got all their guys. Watch out for them tonight. All right, so you're going through the league.

You've played just about it. You haven't played the Celtics yet. I haven't played the Celtics. They're one of my favorite teams to watch. Yeah, this year's been good. Especially on film. like we were watching because they played the clippers recently. I went to that game.

We kind of killed them. Yeah, we were watching with Jailen Brown. Yeah. He had 50. Yeah, we were watching them just defensively and how they guarded, you know, Kauai and Hardin. And they just have a bunch of guys that are always in the right position defensively. Yeah.

So we were just watching them, you know, how they shipped off the ball. It was a good game, good game to watch just so how they guarded the clippers. So is that part of the process? You try, you guys tried, because you have a really good coach. We had them in Boston for a little bit. But you try to, if you're playing a team, you watch a game where somebody did something successful against that team and figure out what they try to unlock what they did. Yeah, so we have a bunch of clips that we'll watch together as a team, just from games.

But I think in general, just as a player in the league, like if you know who you're playing on the schedule or just catching a game, because we all get league pass. Right. Just catching a game of, you know, who you're going to play. play is always good and see what they want to do. Seeing it for it for a whole 48, just as a watch at your hotel room at like one in the morning, just zipping through the NBA app trying to watch or you're watching. Yeah, that's got to be so much easier than the 70s or 80s.

Yeah, the tape delay. Well, yeah, you got taped away. You have no games we're actually on. You're right. If you had to queue up something, you would have to go into like some video room and they would have to have like the projector showing. you clips. Yeah, I mean, it's the video, the video guys that we have, like, do a really good job or even, I don't know, Synergy. Have you heard of Synergy? Oh, yeah, yeah. We just,

you just look up, I want to see all of Peyton Pritchard shot attempts or whatever. Right. And you can watch them all. Well, you can scout yourself too, right? Like, you can look at every single time you dribbled off the pick on right in what you did. Yeah, like each, each move, hot spots on the court, all that stuff is really interesting. It's the league. I, I was trying to figure out my all-star stuff because I have a vote. And I was write down everybody's points, rebounds, assist stats, and then there are shooting splits, and I'll do like PR out a couple things, and I just put everybody on a list.

The shooting stats are unbelievable now. Yeah. And it's like, and you're kind of the poster boy of this next generation of that, like just efficient everything, where everybody's kind of like high 40s field goal. Yeah. Somewhere between 38 and 42, 3.7,000. to 85 free throw. And it's like everybody.

Like Maxi's 31 a game. Yeah. But all his shooting splits are really good. It's not like he's like a balling shooter. Like they're good shots. Yeah. I think the shot quality throughout the league is a lot better. Yeah.

Where it's just an emphasis on, you know, at the rim shots, at the rim twos. Yeah. Free throws and, you know, quality threes. Open threes in the spots that you know are the right spots. Right. And, yeah. Or, and then I call them like shots of mastery. So, you know, like a guy, like, Hardin, like his step back.

It's a shot of mastery. Right. Or like a Kauai, you know, mid-range fall away. Those type of shots that are really maybe not, or maybe not efficient for everybody. Yeah. But for certain guys. Well, you have one of those. You have, though, like, right around the foul line, like, when you do the hard dribble and you come back a little bit.

A little fade away to the left. Yeah, yeah, yeah. that one, that feels like you're shot. Yeah, I like getting into that spot. Yeah. It feels like the 2.15 footer is coming back. Jalen reinvented himself to share with that. Like, he added two moves, and he became an over 50% 15-footer guy out of nowhere.

Yeah, I mean, if you can add one of those shots in between, you just become a little bit harder to guard. Yeah. Keep you honest. And you can shoot really efficiently. Those are good shots. Yeah, it felt like the league was two, three happy there. I mean, there's still a bunch of threes, but the pace is, there's just more shots.

Yeah, the pace is crazy. Pace is crazy. Like, Denver was at 1-24 a game before Yokic got hurt. You think, like, that's like, that would have been inconceivable 20 years ago that anyone would average 114 a game. Right. You know? Yeah.

But I like it. I think for the most part, they've really figured out with the rule stuff. I mean, I'm sure, like, when you're out there, like, how slow the last five minutes go must be annoying, right? With all the timeouts and reviews and... Yeah. Just trying to stay, like... The challenges and...

Oh, yeah. But I think the challenges are good. I think they're a good addition. Your pro challenges? Have you played the FIBA where it's like it kind of just goes, like soccer almost? You haven't played in that year, right?

No, I haven't. You'll probably be on one of the teams we have pretty soon, I would guess. I predicted you for the 28 Olympic team. You were in my dark horse when I went on Zach's pot. And he got the, whoa! Now I'm feeling like I might be in on that one.

We'll see. We'll see. That'd be awesome. You're at a good pace. That'd be one of my better predictions. My football picks have been shit this year. That might have been my only good prediction. Yeah, that would be pretty sweet.

Yeah. We'll be right on that one. But yeah, it does seem like there's more twos. The games are more interesting. There's more big guys, too. I feel like we have the most big guys we've had in like 25 years. Yeah, you know, the small ball thing. thing was getting real popular there for a bid.

You can't do it anymore. Yeah. You got to have a good big. Even you guys, the question with Charlotte even being competent this year was like, well, who's playing center? Like they're traded Mark Williams. But you've patched together. There's all, like we did it with the, I say we like I'm on the Celtics.

We did it with Kada and Garza. And all those guys do, they set picks and they protect the rim. They can stretch it. Kada knows he can't shoot threes. Garza shoots threes a little bit. So I don't know. It's a year generation is coming. in and all the big guys know how to play 20 feet from the basket instead of just like clogging the lane.

Right. You know what I mean? Like something has shifted. Yeah. I mean, I think just from an earlier age, I think guys are, you know, learning to play basketball in an applicable way. Right. It's maybe future levels or higher levels of hoops. Well, the big guys want to shoot threes, right?

Every big guy you ever play with probably want to shoot threes. He wants to stretch the floor and affect the game in that way. So I think we're moving in the right direction, basketball-wise. Can we go through some of the guys you played against without getting you in trouble? So you played Janus a couple times already. What's that experience like? I mean, there's no way you ever played against a seven-foot alien who's just made out of concrete before, right? Yeah, just so strong.

Did you bounce off them ever? Did you have one of those plays where you just like get swatted like a mosquito on a windshield or something? You know, he gets you, he has a little chicken wing that he gets guys with, and it's really hard for the officials to see. What is it? Explain it? He just, like, he loves going baseline. So he's on the baseline, and he'll kind of get you with a high elbow.

If he gets you up and. Oh, to push you back a little bit? He'll just, no, he'll get it around you, around your body. Oh. And kind of, kind of, it's quick. So it's hard for the officials to see, and he's really, really good at it. And that chicken wing just kind of gets you, gets you off and he'll get you baseline. It's really hard to stay in front of him.

And then obviously in the full court, how he's mastered, like the gather rules and all that stuff, it makes it really hard to guard. It makes one of us because I have not mastered the gather rules. I just, I think I'm too old. I think it's a travel night and every time. I just every time I'm like travel up there and caught. Yeah, it's, it's, what's one of the things that I've really had to work on. Yeah.

That I've gotten better at is like we've been working on like the low pickups. But as soon as you put that second hand on the ball. you get that's a zero step the step you're on and then you get two more yeah it's it's a different footwork it's hard it's a little bit tricky to learn especially coming from college and high school where they're calling euro steps of travel yeah um but yeah i think the way he does it especially in the full court how he can throw the ball to himself and then gather and it looks like it's three steps but it's not well you played we're taping this tuesday you played hard in last night who's another one who's i i don't understand how he does it where it seems like he's going

12 feet with five steps, but it's two steps because he used to gather. Yeah. So, and he's going right, left, right? You can't even keep track of what he's doing. Yeah, it's a gray area, too. And it's really hard sometimes to appreciate and the guys that are good at it and work on it all the time becomes really effective. Lemello's got a little bit.

He'll throw it out from time of time. He'll throw in the slow step too. Did you have to guard, I didn't see the Quipper game last night. Did you have to guard Kauai at all? I was going hard on. Oh, Jesus. What was that like? It was good.

It was fun. You know, at the third quarter, they put up up, he moved in a ninth. Oh, yeah. All time scoring. So they put that up on there. I'm like, man, this is pretty cool. Unbelievable. The top 10 score ever.

Yeah. No, it was great. Who's been in the league almost as long as you've been alive? Because he was 2008. 2008, yeah. So I was three. Unbelievable. Yeah.

It's wild. Wild how these guys can, you know, reinvent themselves. And like Lopez, too, have been, like, Lopez last night. And even him, that's a, that's a guy who's reinvented his career to be able to play. Yeah, him and Al Horford. There was a couple of them. They were back to the basket guys who just flipped it. All-Star back to the basket guys who can reinvented themselves, shooting threes, stretching the floor, just stick around and be effective. Did Harding get you at all last night? Because you're trying to play him a certain way, right? And he still gets the shot he wants anyway.

Yeah, well, it got me with a file too. I was... Oh, you get the flop one? No, I had my hand in the one I got my hand in the cookie jar and he did the and he went right into the three and you got your hand out here and he got me but uh

it's probably my least favorite call I just think that should be a foul I don't think you should get free throws for that yeah but there's a bunch of things I would change officiating wise it's really hard because the guys like him and Shea

like the way they it's a skill You know, it's a skill you feel the guy's hand on, you just rise up and get somebody's hand caught in there. You've played OKC. Yeah, we played him twice. So did you have to? I got a jailed Williams a lot.

But you know, you get switched on Shay a couple times. Then you're like, shit. He's really hard to guard. You just got to stay solid, stay square, keep your hands out of there. I'd be so scared. Because you'd think you would get him, and then he can do like one more. spin or like a second

and then all of a sudden he's going another way. He's like plastic man. Got to stay down on the shot fake. Yeah. Got super long arms. Guys are really, really skilled. You know, it's fun, fun to compete against those guys. Yeah, we have Maxie's another one

who has just become almost impossible to guard. And we have Jordan Walsh. I say we like, I'm on the team. And it was one of Jordan Walsh's breakthrough games. Like he kind of figured out how to defend Maxi for like two minutes. I don't know if it's sustainable, but he just kind of unlocked what to do.

And Maxie was getting bad shots and was like, oh my God, somebody unlocked Maxie. And then Maxie probably fixed it the next game. But when people have like the three moves they can do at any time and you just don't know what they're going to do and they can just and then that's it. Those are like the best scores. And like Brunson's like that too. Yeah. Brunson is, we played them twice as well.

he's different than some of the other guys because all of his stuff is a lot of his stuff I should say is off two feet and the pivots and the shot fakes and which is and it's almost like he's like posting up at like 16 feet and he's crazy

it's like this herky jerky stop and start bouncing off you and he's six foot tall and strong and those he's he's got a little different herky jerky game but he's he's just as fun to compete against

as any of those other guys. Did you have Ananobe and Bridges defending you that game? You must have. Bridges. Brunson guarded me a little bit. Yeah, I don't think Ananoby played when we played them both times. Who was the one who, the defensive player? We were like, oh, my God, I'm in the NBA.

First game, first time we played O'KC, Kason Wallace. Oh, he's a nightmare. Yeah. They had a tough game. It was a back-to-back. We just played the Bucks and Mox in. Milwaukee came back home to play. That unit, great game in the Milwaukee game.

Yeah. Good game. We lost in overtime. I played like 40 minutes. It was a tough one. It was like one of our first back to backs. And then you have to play OKC. We can play OKC at home off the flight.

We get in at like two because you lose the hour coming back to East Coast. Yeah, that was tough. And Kaysa and Wallace is waiting for you with a fork and knife. Yeah. And I don't think Mello played because it was a back-to-back. And he was resting. So it was a tough one. Oh, my Lord.

Yeah, and they have dorts, no prize either if he decides to doubt. He's, he's huge. He's jazzed. And Caruso's doing the swiping and everything and bouncing. Yeah. They're tough defense. Yeah, it's weird. Hardinstein is so, like, because we played him the second time in OKC, and we beat him.

Yeah, that was one of the upsets of the year. Yeah, we played great. But Hardinstein was out, and he makes such a difference for them. just he's physical on the glass. Yeah. Just defensively in what he can do in the pick and roll defense. And what he does offensively too, running all the dribble handoff actions.

Right. And Zoom actions with all those guys. He's really important piece for them. And you play Joker, right? Yeah. We did play Joker. How is that? Yeah.

He seemed like he wasn't even like trying that hard. Yeah, he always seems like that. And you look up and it's like, 29, 13, and 9. He just moved at a certain speed. He was like, he just dominated the game. Right. He seemed like he was jogging around.

We played them too. Murray had a really good game. He had like 25 in the first quarter or so. Yeah. Yeah. Yolkich was just impressive. I have Murray. I was,

every week I do my all-MBA team. Yeah. Just as a process. Because I'm one of the few people that actually cares about the shit who has a vote. Yeah. feel about the non- I've decided I don't like it.

Positionless? Oh, I hate the positionless. I always try to make it look like at least somewhat of a basketball team. So even if it's not like necessarily a center, I have to have a rebound. I can't have four guards. Right.

I really want to have like a wing forward. I try to have on each team. I think it's kind of a disservice to where you can just get like five guards. And it's kind of a disservice to the history of the game. You look back at like the 80s or whatever. I agree. three centers or, you know, like Andrew Bogots on third team.

Right. Like you're not going to see many of those anymore. Well, there's really, there's guards, there's wings, and there's bigs, right? And I feel like each team should have at least one of those three positions. And then you can go nuts with whatever else you want to do. Or two guards, one wing, one big, and then you can get wacky with the first spot. It should be five guys that could conceivably play basketball together. Yeah.

Yeah. So, like, for me, I still have Shen Gung on my second team all NBA. I don't think he's been one of the best 10 players in the league, but I think he's been the second best center. Right. So he's going to make the team for me. But yeah, Jamal Murray is definitely going to make it for me. I mean, we're halfway through the air.

He's especially what he's doing without Joker is nuts. Yeah, they're playing well. They came in and kicked the Celtics ass. I'll tell you that much. I feel like the guards are as deep and scary as we've very. ever had. I mean, there's like 30 good guards. Yeah.

Like, I think there's like 30 capable all-star guards. It's insane. Yeah. There's no, even you see like teams like Garland, who doesn't have an all-star case this year. But even he,

if he had his own team, I feel like he would probably be putting up 22 and 9 on his own team, you know? Yeah. Yeah. We played them a couple of times too, and he's quick. He's tough to stay in front of.

And he's got all the boom, boom, boom, boom, handle stuff. Have you played Indiana? Yeah, we lost him twice. So you had your first McConnell experience. He's unreal. He's one of the hardest guys to guard.

He's another herky jerky, weird. You can't figure him out. And he's so low to the ground. Yeah. Like his center of gravity is so low. He's really hard to stay in front of. And then he has that rise up, like, mid-range, like 10-footer, where he's got the ball, like, way above his head like that.

Yeah. He's really hard to guard. It's like it's brought back the golden age of these guards that can go in the paint and bounce off people and do footwork stuff. Like Pritchard does this too now for the Celtics. McConnell does it. Brunson does it. There's a few guys in the league now. I don't know where it came from.

And nobody wants to foul them because they're always going to call it when you're trying to foul a little guy. But yeah, McConnell, they beat the Celtics last night in a very frustrating Celtics loss. And it was like they, you realize how good the league is because they're finally healthy. they made the finals last year. They don't have Halber and they're of Miles Turner, but they still have a lot of the DNA of last year's team.

It's like they're not easy to play. Yeah, they're, and they play hard. You know, Carlisle's obviously a great coach. Yeah. Yeah, we lost them at the buzzer. And then they go. I watched that game.

Yeah. It was a little, yeah, it was a defensive mixup at the end. It was frustrating. I'm always reading for the Charlotte franchise. They're my league past team. We appreciate it. Yeah, I was like, ah, why don't you switch out?

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bar obliques triangle for more the detail. Don't say the team because I don't want to get you in trouble, but did you have an NBA experience yet where you played a team

and it felt like the team didn't like each other? Or there was like the vibes were off and you could just feel it on the court? You know, Mason Plumley says that half the battle in this league

is having everybody still like each other in February. That's a great quote. That's what he says. So maybe you're not there yet. I'll see it a couple of times. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe you'll see the Thursday night.

But yeah, we're right around the time when some teams start getting gamey, because either you're not as good as you thought you're going to be, or you're about to start tanking. Guys are in trade rumors. You guys, you haven't had any trade rumor stuff with Charlotte, I don't think. You're one of the few non-playoff teams. I haven't seen anything. But there's other teams that the names are just, it's like trade season now.

Falling around, yeah. It's great for content people like me. Yeah, that's got to be, I mean, just ignoring the noise is a skill that I think teams have to have to, you know, kind of keep it together and still compete at a high level every night. How online are you? Yeah, how long? Are you checking this stuff? Are you, like, going to NBA Reddit, places like that?

You know, I don't have, like, social media on my phone anymore. Great idea. Just kind of deleted it. Really smart. See, this is why you're the most efficient rookie in NBA. history, deleted social media. More so just like, I don't want to be like

scrolling on my phone and be like, oh, there's three hours that just went by. Right. There's more so for that than anything else. So I've been off it for almost a week and a half now because it's kind of a recent thing. That's really, it's a good New Year's resolution. Yeah, I guess it did kind of fit around that time.

But yeah, so I've been off it a little bit, but obviously keeping up with podcasts and stuff like that is something I like to do. Oh, so you listen to some of the NBA stuff? Yeah. Oh, yeah. NBA, NFL. I got a big, big sports sports podcast listening.

I listen to a bunch of stuff. Oh, I want to talk NFL with you in a second. We got to talk about a couple more players. You played Kauai. Yep. One of the strangest games. I mean, he's one of the top 30 players of all time, but the shot release, the line drive shots.

Yeah, it's a strong shot. Quick release. Yeah. Physical as shit. Crazy hands on defense. Dribles the ball, like, harder than. anybody I've played against. Really?

Just like pounds the crap out of the ball. It's weird. But I mean, he doesn't lose. He doesn't speak. Doesn't lose. Yeah. Yeah, he didn't say much last night. He's not talking shit.

He's not there to make friends. No. But just one of the more impressive players I've played against just the shot-making ability. Yeah, Kauai's back. All business. There's 16 and 23. Which before they were like six and 20 or something.

So they're like, I don't know, they're not out of it. They're on a good run here too. And he's, yeah, he's unbelievable and you got hard and still too. They're just really, really tough to guard. What about Minnesota? Did you play them yet? We played them early. No ant.

So I, uh, well, if you're ready for somebody to talk shit to you, he's your guy. He'll have some. He's great for the league. He's been awesome. It's good to have a guy like that, you know, just, I, you know, I didn't get the chance to play against him, but he was talking shit. I could see him kind of in the corner. who's talking talking stuff a little bit,

which was cool to see. Well, in 28, it'll be you guys lead in America against France and Germany. Be the two of you. I love the way they've been playing lately. Randall, I think, is going to make my all-star team. Gobert, if Wembe doesn't get the limit, the 65 games,

Gobert is probably the defensive player of the year. but I like the way they're playing. And it's been unbelievable. I mean, he's just a top five guy now, by whatever list you have. And, I mean, this is a shooter, too. Like, does it miss? Yeah, he's shooting 10-3s a game.

It's shooting a great percent. Yeah, it's ridiculous. And he's been clutch. The thing I love about him, and I think Lamello has this quality too, actually, these guys that really do think they're the best guy in the court, they might even be wrong, but they think it.

Ant, like, he definitely thinks he's the best player in the league. And I think Lamello sometimes you can see, like, he just thinks he's the best guy on the court. It doesn't matter who else is out there. But I do think you need that if you're going to actually try to win the title. Yeah, for sure. And, like, plays OKC. He's like, I'm definitely not afraid of these guys.

I think I'm better than Shea. Right. I'm better than all these guys. We're going to beat them. And he really does believe it. Yeah. He's, I mean, he's exuberant. confident

very confident I just like I said before I think it's just good for the league to have a guy like that super confident talks his game he was in hustle when he was young and like it was good movie yeah

he's great in it and I just think having having guys like that in the league is really really good for it I think Wembe has that too they beat Boston on Saturday night yeah I think I think Wembe thinks he's the best guy

in the world he kind of came back in with three minutes left and they just kept giving it to him and he just kept scoring and he had like a real disdain for the so it was like one of those yeah on opening night when he who were they playing on opening night i forget or his first game of the season this who were the spurs playing i forget we had like 40 rockets yeah something like something like that and i was like oh my god like you played him yet no we haven't played the spurs yet it's like oh my god we like the league might be in trouble um i think the league is in trouble

yeah i think so he's so freaking tall i just i worry about him over the course of 10 years, like, how do you stay in the court? There's no room for error with guys around his legs, you know? Yeah, everybody's around his legs. Yeah, everybody. Yeah, he looked, that team is really scary. Yeah, they're very good. Because way before your time, the 1986 Rockets, your guy, Bird, wasn't your guy,

you're a Milwaukee guy, but he's my guy. He's one of my favorite players. Okay, good. The 86, we were supposed to play the 86 Lakers in the finals. like heading this way. We'd put them in 8045. And then the Rockets had Hakeem and Stanson. And they just like killed

the Lakers. Like just like out of nowhere. They just beat the shit out of them. And it was like a mismatch. And they were just too big and too. And I do wonder if the spurs can do that to a couple teams in the playoffs where they just were kind of a little bit ahead of like ahead of schedule. Yeah. I think it's in play.

We'll see. They're healthy. I'm trying to think who are, what are the other great players? you didn't play against Jalen yet. That's coming. And then Joker, I think we covered everybody. Oh, that's... We played Luca.

We played the Lakers already. Did you have to guard him? A little bit. Not just a couple of switches, not really. He's one of those, like, you just can't talk shit to. Yeah, he's talking the whole game. You almost have to go the other way and be like, Luca, it's an honor to meet you.

I can't wait. to play basketball against you for the next three hours. And just like butter, butter him up. He's great, though. He'd mean, some of the shots, some of the difficulty of the shots he was taking and making against us. You know, just 19-footer, one-legged, off the glass. It's crazy.

Yeah. He's really good. Reeves was really good, too, when we played. I mean, he had an off-night shooting, but, man, he's before the calf strain, he was having a heck of a season. He's another one of those guys who just knows where to go and what to do. Did you have a holy shit, I can't believe on playing against this guy guy?

Who was your hero growing up? Or did you have one? Do you have a favorite that you had to be on the court against? Our third game of the season, we played the Wizards, and we played Middleton. Middleton being from Milwaukee, like one of my favorite guys. And so most of our staff, you know, Charles Lee was assistant for Bud in Milwaukee. So most of our staff was in Milwaukee. And they're like, oh, yeah, well, they're all saying what up to Chris Middleton.

and, you know, I got to meet him after the game. And that was, like, the first time after that, after a game or something, I talked to a guy. And that was pretty special for me. Oh, that's awesome. You know, rooting for him all the time growing up. And it's something as simple as, you know, just like, nice to meet you. Appreciate all you did for the city. He said was a good basketball role model for you, too, right?

Just, like, completely additive player. Right. Knew where to go and went to do. Defended. Yeah. You know, good shotmaker in the mid-range, three-point shooter. I don't know how to pass, knows how to play. He was awesome.

Are you ready for all this All-Star weekend stuff? It's going to be in L.A. Yeah. I assume you'll be in the all-rooky game. That's the most efficient rookie in the history of the league. I think they're going to invite you. Yeah, I think that'll be cool. I can't remember the last time I watched the Rising Stars game.

Yeah, I might have wagered on it a couple times, so that'll be the only reason. A little gambling. Yeah, I might have had some money on it. be sweet. It'd be cool to get out there with some of the rookie guys and see them again. Well, it's good because it's like the, it's the way the league goes. You start there, get to go to All-Star weekend. You're like the wide-eyed little baby of the league and get to go through. And then by year five, you're an All-Star and you're like, oh, remember that time when I was, I was like the wide-eyed rookie. Now I'm used to this. You know, you get to do it.

Then you'd be the grizzled guy trying to make it one more time, try to have the long career. Yeah. It would be sweet. The last time you were on, we didn't really dive into your brothers. And I was told that it was one of the great misses of my podcast year last year. This whole... By who? This whole, one of our ringer guys, Jay Kyle Mann, who's obsessed with the Knieppel family and thinks you guys have a chance to potentially have three to four NBA players conceivably.

We'll see. What's through the proper deal? So how many brothers are there? Four. I have four brothers. Five of us total. Four brothers and all of them are good at basketball. Yeah.

So what are the ages? My brother, Kajer is a junior. Kinston is a sophomore. Cash is a freshman and Kidman's in eighth grade. And do the high schoolers play to get there on the same team? All three of them are on the same on the varsity team. The eighth graders on the? Eighth graders on, he's just the middle school.

Middle school team. So the law of professional sports says the eighth grader is going to to be the best one. Right. Because he's trying to, that's what I'm going to, that's what I'm going to, because when I started,

like, getting in the gym every day, I was in fifth grade and he was five. So he's been, been shooting and getting shots up since he was, every day since he was five.

Yeah, he's annoying. Just like, get out of here. You're not big enough to play yet. Typically the youngest is supposed to be the best. Yeah.

Yeah. That was the Drake May thing. His brothers were like great, great, great athletes. I'm sure you've seen the video of, oh, yeah. The draft video, where they're like,

pretty boy. Yeah, the video's great. He was a good Hooper, too. Yeah. Did you see the videos of him playing Hoops? Yeah. He's from Charlotte. He's a, he's Myers Park.

He's a Charlotte kid, so he's a Hornets fan. He wants to come to a game. No, he's a Celtic fan now. We've corrupted him. We brought him over. So what are the heights of the brothers? Cager is 6-9. He's a set.

Yeah, he's huge. It's way tall. He's tall. He's a lot of me. Kinson is 6-6. Cash is like 6-2 and Kidman, it's like 5-10. Yeah, cater's a big boy. So 5-10, 8th grade.

Yeah. 6-9? Yeah. So is he a legitimate big man or is he like a 6-9 shooter? No, he's a shooter, like, shooter, stretch for, super long arms, guard the best player. Oh, he's one of those guys? Yeah. So what is his, like, is he on the list?

Is he, I should have researched that. I actually wanted to find out from you, but I didn't want to cheat. But is he like on the list? Like, is he going to play like, I did one? Yeah, he's got a couple of offers. Butler, DePaul. He's got a couple of visits. Purdue, Marquette, Xavier, they're at one of his high school games.

So we'll see. You know, he's only a junior, so he's still got a little bit of time. We'll see how it keeps getting better. At the worst case scenario, you could just have your, You're a franchise guy for a team and just all your brothers have contracts with it. They're all with it. You just have like the three guys. A couple times.

15-man roster. There's like their four canipples on the team. So the young one, 5, 10, 8th grade, that's the one with the most pressure because of the younger brother thing. Yeah. I guess we're putting that on them. Yeah, I'm going to throw that on him right now. So how's the family after the Packers thing, one of the worst playoff losses of the decade? still reeling for it.

I wonder how many of those did you put a list together? I did it on Sunday night. I went through like 20 losses. 20 losses. How many of them were Packers losses? No, I did all the Packers losses. Oh, you did all the terrible ones they had on,

I mean, like our own five and overtime games. Yeah, I was putting that together in my own notes. The one in Seattle is one of the worst. I was like nine or ten. Yeah, because even that involves. when the onside kick gets involved that goes to another level. Onside kick,

I think of, well, Morgan Burnett had an interception in that game with five minutes left. Yeah. And he slid down with like 30 yards

of running room in front of him. Like slid down and my grandma, who's a Vikings fan, was watching the game with us. It was like, looks like the Packers are going to the Super Bowl.

And my dad was like, no. Shut up. Yeah. So, I mean, there are a lot of, you know, playoff,

break. I think of the Cardinals when Rogers had the two Hail Marys. Yeah. And then the phone, what was it, a fumble touchdown or something? That was the Farr. Yeah. Yeah. Farve had a fumble touchdown to end his thing. Oh, no, that was that was Rogers. That was that was Rogers. Yeah, yeah. So you had two horrible losses in Arizona in the playoffs. We had the- Well, you were too young for the Freddie Mitchell of fourth and 26. That was abominable. My dad, my dad has horror stories about that one. Yeah. I think of Rogers' last playoff game in Lambo, block punt,

touchdown for San Fran. Yeah. And then there's just ones where we just got smoked. Yeah. By Atlanta, San Fran, where he mostered

at 200 yards. Yeah, the case I made... I think this one is... I mean, it's to the Bears. This one was way up there. This is top two.

I think the only difference with this one is, I don't think anyone thought it was a Super Bowl team. Right, right. But you lose to the Bears, so that kind of... It would have been a successful season

with all the injuries went. if we would have beat the Bears and the playoffs in Soldier Field. I feel like it would have been successful considering the Parsons injury and all that. Tucker Kraft. Tucker Kraft. Yeah, I said to Sal, it's weird because the Packers have won two Super Bowls in the last 30 years, right? Yeah. Like, if you're the Jets or the Bengals, you take one of those, you're made.

Yeah. But you've also had all these awful playoff losses, and they never get, the Packers never get thrown into the tortured fan base list because you won the two Super Bowls, but then you had all this other pain. Yeah. And it also means the most there. You know, it's like. Yeah.

And to have, you know, Farvin Rogers, it's the two of like the top five quarterbacks ever, depending on why you want to look at it. And to have those guys and, you know, each of them gets one. But, you know, you feel like the window was open. Basically every year they were the, they were the, quarterback. Yeah. That's tough,

tough feeling. I was talking to one of my teammates, it's like he's a Panthers fan, and they've had a couple of Super Bowl losses. But like when you're out of the playoffs, you'd much rather be in the playoffs, like rooting for the Packers in the playoffs every year. But it's way more painful to lose like a game away from the Super Bowl

or just like a heartbreaking way in the playoffs than it is just like, oh, we miss the playoffs. You want to be in those situations as a fan. You want to be in the playoffs. But sometimes it's, like, all right, we miss the playoffs. It's a little more painless. You're walking me through where I might be on Sunday after Pat's Texans

if the Texans defense kills the Pats. I actually think the Pats are going to be in good shape, but maybe I love to. Brable is awesome. We have a great coach, and I think our quarterback is like legitimately has a chance to be one of the great ones. Yeah, it's crazy how quick that happened. He's awesome. Drake May is awesome.

Good demeanor, too. But it's interesting. the way the teammates talk about him, I think you almost have to, like I always look at that stuff when the other guys are like, this guy's special. Yeah.

Like this guy's a crazy competitor. Like I love that. Like, they just kind of go out of their way to say these things. And after a while, you're like, maybe they're saying this for a reason. Like, I've just seen this in the past. Usually the guy's special when the teammates are.

And I love how he deflects in the post game. Oh, yeah. just like the MVP chance and he's like I think those might have been for Baker or just like how he defle or you're leading the league in passing yards and he's like that's because we haven't had a buy yet. Right. I love that stuff too.

Yeah he's not cocked, not remotely cocky, but he's crazy competitive which is a good combo. Great combo. He's definitely not one of those. Look at me. Look over here. Yep. We'll see what happens. It's everything's heading toward Josh Allen potentially coming to New England. for the Super Bowl, who's the mountain that they now have to get over as a franchise anyway.

He kind of took the Brady spot. Yeah. But it's really fun football season. I'm getting killed to my picks, but I've enjoyed the games. Yeah, it's been good. And it feels kind of with everybody we have left. It feels kind of like I'd feel good about anybody winning it, whatever team. It's a goofy season.

Yeah, it is kind of funny. Wait, tell the story about you trying to find out what the Packer score was when you were playing. Yeah, we were playing the jazz. killed the jazz. Yeah, we're up by a bunch. But I watched the whole first half. And it's 21 to 3 at halftime, so I'm like, great mood. So you're playing during the second half?

The Packers game, yeah, yeah. Your game is happening and the second half is happening. Our game starts. We're up huge. We're up like 77, 38 at halftime. Like it was blowout. And so we have an assistant coach who's a, who's a, as a Packers fan as well.

And, you know, the game, the game was over. Later in the fourth quarter, we're like, yo, what's the score? And it was like, you guys are down four. And with like a minute 40 left, and we were like, what? Like, we were up 21 to 3. Yeah. Yeah, that was probably one of the worst feelings. I got a bunch of Shire from Duke as a Bears fan.

I'm getting all these texts. Oh, he's talking shit? Yeah, just kicking me while I'm down. Come on. Yeah. What a jerk. Yeah, definitely a brutal. Brutal night.

Like, after we win by 60, I'm like, that was great. Did you have any Bears fans on the team? On your team? No. That would have made it worse. No, no Bears fans. Well, Drew Peterson, Celtic is a Bears fan. We waived this year, but he was, he texted me after the game.

I was like, I hate you. It was, it, I mean, you're up to put. get to see it. Well, you, two first downs on that last try. You're up, you're up three with the ball.

They have two timeouts left. You're in there, 21. And it's like there's no scenario where they should win the game at that point. You're either running the clock out or you're killing

enough clock that they can't do it. I don't know if you saw the graphic about teams being up 10 points with five minutes left and like the record. Yeah. Wouldn't they like the second one ever to blow the lead?

Everybody is like 300, since 1970 is like, like 300 some and two or one. And the Packers this year were six and three. We lost three games this year with a 10-point lead with less than five minutes. Jesus. Did you ever play football or now? Yeah, I played in high school.

I played my freshman year. And then you realized it was the bail ticket with hoops, yeah. Yeah. Which is tough. You know, that's kind of how it goes nowadays. Yeah, I mean. More specialization. Football's a tough one, though, because that is, there's somewhere in terror you probably.

We don't need. We run the option, too. Quarterback gets hit every play. I played QB. You played QB? Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

So you're getting hit every play. Could you do any little like side flag football stuff with the Hornets? Could you have a game? Couldn't you guys? Organize a flag football game? We should. That would be awesome. I'd love to see Lamello running.

Oh, he can throw the ball. How about Miles Bridges would be crazy too. probably be a pretty good. Lamello would be the other KB. So you go back and you get Brandon Miller. Lamello and Connetton can throw the ball, Country Mile. I forgot you.

The Conantin piece. Yeah, Conantin, I think he played, didn't he? He played baseball. That's what it was. Yeah. Yeah, we'd have a couple of good arms. So you guys have, you have a couple really good vets on the team.

Yeah. And the whole concept of a vet, I think, is, I've been around the block. I've seen some things. my wisdom. Yeah. And yet most NBA teams forget to put vets

on teams with young guys, but the Hornets did not. See Plumley and Conitin who've been around the buck. Plumley, Conitin, even Grant Williams. Yeah,

Grant's been around too. So, you know, those guys have been great. Seeing some things, been in some different situations. Yeah, kind of taking us

under the wing too and, you know, treating us just like any other teammate, which has been, which has been great, not really getting that.

the rookie treatment of like go away. Right. Which is carrying bags. Yeah, which has been great. Conantin won a title. Anyone else won a title?

I think that's it. I think that's your only title guy. Miles didn't win a title. No. Yeah, just... Charles... Oh, Charles Lee won a title. Yeah, Charles Lee.

Most of our staff was in Milwaukee or Boston. Yeah, that was a good... Conantown to talk. Josh Green was in the finals, but he didn't win. Yeah. Yeah. Conantin. Milwaukee, baby. What's going on with the ladies? Is there time? Do you have a girlfriend? I got a girlfriend.

How long have you had a girlfriend? Three and a half years. Oh, interesting. Where is she? She's at Marquette. She's a freshman at Marquette. So your long-distance relationship? Yeah. The Marquette. Okay.

Yeah. How's that going? Good. Yeah, she's great. great. You know, she comes down as much as he can. We expecting that answer, Gahau?

Long distance with the Marquette student. I wasn't on my bigot card. Yeah, we went to the same high school. Yeah. Yeah, she's great. She turned breaks. She got to come down a couple of times. Yeah, she's awesome.

Maybe you'll end up like Drake May, marrying his sixth grade girlfriend. Is that what it was? Yeah, that's what it was. Six or seventh grade, yeah. They just stayed together ever since. The Pats fans loved that because they were like, obviously like incredibly loyal guy.

Yeah. And she's cool. But it's like, well, that means we'll have him for 20 years. 20 years. She's a loyal guy. He's a loyal dude. Yeah. That's a great call.

So girlfriend, long distance girlfriend. Wow. Yeah. So you're on the road, a little FaceTiming. FaceTiming. But then when you go into Wisconsin, she can come to a game. Yep. Go to Milwaukee.

She came. Chicago, she can come. Yep. She came to the game. Yeah, it's great. getting updates. She loves pictures of the hotel room. All that stuff is cool to her.

The nice resort that we're in here in L.A. We did a tour of Sony Studios today. So we're getting pictures of the car from Ghostbusters, the original or the RV from Breaking Bad. So sending all that stuff. And you said you'd never been to Los Angeles before. Never. First time.

Is there any other? It's a shame. Always great. Yeah. It's really nice. It's January. It's January and we're. it was walking on the beach.

Well, you can see why all the NBA players end up coming this way, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like, that's why they've signed all these free agents. Right. It's the best time when you, everybody looks forward to the trip. Yeah.

I'm out here. The other big trip that everybody loved but doesn't exist anymore was the Portland, Seattle, Vancouver trip for some reason was a popular one. And then I guess Texas would be a trip, but I don't know if that's as exciting. a funny story about my mom. She knows best. She played. She knows basketball. But she doesn't really keep up with professional sports like that. So we were getting my passport. I'd never been outside the country. So before the season, we were getting my passport. Because we played Toronto kind of early in the season at Toronto. And so she's like, all right, when do you play Toronto?

Like, we got to get this. I was like, we play them in November. And she's like, okay, what about Vancouver? Oh, she thought they were still around? She's like, yeah, they haven't been there since like, I don't know, 2000. Maybe she was factory in expansion. Yeah, maybe we're going back to Vancouver. That was the last thing I wanted to talk to you about was the parents thing. Yeah. Because you have a pretty close family with parents.

So how much do you check in with them? Do they check in with you? Do they make, I'm trying to think of what I would be like as your dad in this situation and be mad. We didn't hear from Khan. He played last night. He even sent us a text. Like, how much parent maintenance is involved here?

My mom, she kind of works for me as far as like... Oh, handled now. You're off the court stuff? Yeah, off the court stuff. She really helps out with that. So she comes down a decent amount to help take care of things at the house. But at the apartment. So she does some of that stuff.

But, you know, they come down probably for a game once a month maybe. Are they sending tips? No. Dad, like, I watched the Wizards game last night. What were you doing in the third quarter? Crash the offensive glass. What are you doing? No, they'll text me before every game.

My mom will just be aggressive, play hard. Dad will be say something. Light him up, DM up. He always texts me that. Text all of us that. So they'll hit me with that stuff before the game. And then they're going to all their kids games, too. Yeah.

So it's awesome. Every day. So my brothers have a high school game tonight. So in the family group chat, light them up, DM up, cash, kinsk, cage, whatever. And then it'll be the same thing if I'm playing or Kidman's playing. So yeah, that's kind of cool. But no more tips really anymore. Did you win a title when you were there?

In high school? Yeah. Yeah. A senior year. Undefeated, 30 and all. Wow. Yeah, so we won my senior year. They won last year.

So my brother's... What school is this? Wisconsin Lutheran High School. So my brother was on both those teams. So they went 28 and 2 last year. So they were 58 and 2 in 2 years. And they have two state championships. So Kater likes to brag.

Like I got, he didn't even play his freshman year, but he likes to brag. I got two losses and as many rings as losses. Yeah. Yeah. And they have another great team this year. My cousin's on the team. Your cousin, what the hell is going around? His family.

He's a stud. He's going to Northern Iowa. And then the coach's kid is on the team, and they all play. So it's a heck of a heck of a high school squad. Did you get used to the eating schedule and playing at night and all this stuff and traveling? And like, when do you eating dinner at 11 o'clock at night, all that stuff? Yeah, we had like a team dinner after the game last night. And it's like 1130, but it's 2.30 on the East Coast.

You're like kind of barely adjusted. Yeah. I'm waking up at like 5 a.m. out here, but no, the eating stuff, it is kind of different because I was never a big, I wouldn't eat much on game day. Yeah. It's like you play 82 games. You got to eat food. Right. Because you don't want to lose weight. You don't want to be like skinny. So I've got a good kind of operation where I'm always eating a big like brunch after shoot around. And there's not really time to work out, right? Or like lift.

It's almost like recovery stuff. So, yeah, a lot of recovery, but we'll lift before and after the game. Like, it'll be kind of split in half because you want to take advantage of the days where it's like, yeah. Like, this is a high effort day where we're playing a game, so we're going to lift on game day. And then tomorrow will be a complete off day. So what's the right number of, like, what would be a crazy number of minutes for you to play this year? Looking up.

When someone we had Brandon and Mellow Auto, there's a couple games I played 40. But I'm saying for like, for like, the season, how many minutes is like total? Total minutes or just like minutes. 4,000 realistic for you? What the math is.

Hold on. I'm looking you up. So you're playing 32.5 a game. You've played every game. I missed one. So you played 39 of 40? All right. So if you're on a pace of 80,

80 times 30. It's like 2,500 minutes. It's impressive. It's a lot. Yeah, I was ticked. I missed that game. What did you miss the game? I sprained my ankle, like, pretty bad in Orlando.

I saw that. I thought you were going to be out for like three weeks. Yeah, we did a great job. Training staff did a really good job. They fly to Italy? It wasn't as bad. And the Kobe jet? Yeah, the Kobe jet.

No, it wasn't as bad as I broke both my ankles in middle school. So every time I roll my ankle or spraying my ankle pretty bad. Playing basketball? broke your ankles? Jesus. It kind of feels like that pain. Yeah. And it's because your mind just kind of does that.

It feels like that sharp pain. So I thought I broke it right away. But then as soon as I could put weight on it, I was like, okay. Like that's kind of the telltale. If you can't put weight on it, you probably broke it. Right. So I missed that game.

I had missed the game in high school or college, so I was ticked. Oh, man. You're like putting together the, who's the street guy now? Bridges. McEl Bridges. Did he cheat, though? Did he do the thing when he came in for one minute?

He did. I'm against that. AC Green started that. Josh Allen did that. This is a little Laker guy started. Classic Lakers just starting some of them. Yeah, Josh Allen did it. He came in for one play and left.

Yeah. And I was like, come on. What's your theory for all the tended injuries that we're having in football and basketball and like all these calf strains and Achilles stuff? Is there something we're doing around? And they're being really careful with it too. if a guy has a calf strain, like,

now they overreact. We're shutting you down for, you know, a month. Yeah. They just did that to Reeves. Reeves. Yeah. Mason Pullm, we had one early in the, in the,

in the, off season. So you think they just know more about it now that they'd be more careful than they used to be? Maybe, or they're just kind of scared from seeing it happen. I think we are playing

a lot more possessions in games and the pace. Like, everybody's, playing fast. But it's happening in football too. Right. So I don't know. So I think it's a combo of, you think it's maybe the specialization? Like I've heard that where it's like guys that played a bunch of different sports are more durable because they're using different muscles in high school. I don't know. You're playing, like I've been playing basketball for basically year round for. Yeah.

I don't know, 10 years. Like it could be that maybe. I don't know. I think basketball, I argued about this with Eddie Johnson, the former NBA player because he has that serious NBA show. And we We argued about it once because he's like, basketball is not harder to play now. And I'm like, dude, watch how much running there. Like, I guess there's no way to really measure it. They'd have to have somebody measure all the games in the 80s versus now. There's no way you're not running more now, like, because you have to run out on defense. Well, you just look at the possessions.

Yeah. Like, we're playing way more possessions than teams did in the 90s. No question. And it's like, and then you talk about the spacing, like, we get a rebound. Like, most of the time it's like sprint to the corner. for the spacing. So, like, you have been really good shape with a sprint to the corner

and, like, you're doing that, you know, 30 more possessions. You have to sprint to the corner to go get a shooter. Right. And so it's, you're just covering a little more surface area. I was looking at something

that the guys that cover the most ground in the league, like it was like top five. I was running like two and a half miles. And that's just like a game. You're just running to the corner. The fucking refs are getting hurt now. Bill Kennedy just got hurt.

Yeah. No, it does seem like way more running they used to be. A lot more possessions. I think that might have something to do with it. Because if you watch the 80s and 90s games, stuff's packing in. It's more physical. Yeah. But there's more time to kind of, you're playing, but you don't have to move as much.

Now I just feel like guys are chasing. They're chasing guys around picks. Yeah. I mean, if you watch like 90s or early 2000s, like Mark Jackson's bringing up, back and down, running the show. All right, we're going to dump it to this guy in the post. no matter who it is. Like LaTrell Spreewell in the post or something

and it's like posting up your three man your four man, your five man, kind of. And everybody's, you know, kind of watching. It's just a different type of game. I got to say it's amazing to watch now. And I was there for all of it. And now when I watch it and I see the spacing,

I'm like, how did we not know? Think of this, yeah. How do we not know that you're posting up McHale and two other guys can just jump down on them? because the shooter is 10 feet away from them. Like, why didn't he just move back? What were they doing? But they just didn't have any idea.

Yeah, it is different. And then it's so much harder now to compare, like you're in the business of comparing eras. There's no way to do it. Yeah. The stats are all fucked up now. Yeah. And when you came out with your book too, like,

yeah. You didn't really see that coming either. Like, it was 2010. It was like, you could still kind of compare, you know, 80s to 2008 Celtics. It was a similar game. Yeah, I was thinking about it. Somebody sent me a good email about

maybe there's like four different eras and you just have to, there's like the era before Russell, then there's the era from basically Russell all the way to win the leagues merge 76. And then it's basically 76 to when Curry has his first good year. Yeah, like 2013.

All that, you can, the stats kind of makes sense. pace of play. Some seasons are fast, others are smaller. But around 2013-14, it shifts. And it's almost like, once Horford and Brooke Lopez

starts shooting threes, the game's different. And even, I think I saw something like the Warriors' offensive efficiency from like that 14-15 season is like middle of the pack this year. Right, it would be like 17th.

Which is unreal. Like, we're even now at a higher efficiency from 10 years ago. The thing that stands to me, Like the Celtics had the second net offense this year so far. We'll see if it drops down a little. But no Tatum.

Yeah. And you look at the team and it's like this is one of the 20 best offenses in regular season history. Right. With the guys we have, like I don't know. But they've just kind of figured out all the math and the possessions and the pace and the right shots and crash the offensive boards. Guys know how to play together. Yeah. The offensive boards is a big thing for.

Yeah. It creates extra possessions. Yeah, yeah. So it's like more shots. Like we defend. Don't care if you give up a fast break basket because the offensive rebound's more important. Yeah.

Well, I mean, we'll see, like we put a huge emphasis on crashing the offensive glass. Yeah. And so you'll have, you know, like a wing like me is getting one offensive rebound in a game or one and a half, you know, getting a hand on a ball. All that stuff is important. Just gets you maybe one more, one more three

or one more opportunity to a shot. So Doc Rivers like his last couple Celtic seasons when they almost made the finals in 2012 but they were older team

and one of his rules was we're giving up offensive rebounds. We don't want to give up fast break positions at all. So it's basically one shot as many people back as possible. It's completely different

than what you do now. Now Doc's coaching Milwaukee probably telling everybody to crash the boards. But yeah, I don't know. I think it's the math. I think they do.

just figured out some shit with basketball. Yeah. We just didn't have this stuff 20 years ago. Right. The analytics, like basketball, baseball, it's harder to do, harder in football. Football, it's almost like defense came back a little bit in football. Oh, yeah.

You know? Definitely. I mean, just how they disguise. Yeah. It's just harder for quarterbacks now to decipher defenses. But it's a little bit hard. Like the analytics decisions are harder in football. Because at the end of they, you still got to go execute.

Like, it could tell you to go. go for it on fourth and two. Like we should go for it, but you still got to go out there and get the first down. Yeah, yeah. This first round, which you probably missed because you were playing. But they were way too fourth down heavy in this first round. The Bears. And it burned some teams.

Bears were 0 and 4 and 4th down and 1 somehow. Or 1 in 5, whatever they were. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. Did you learn anything from all the analytics about you of things not to do? Like, do you think about that stuff? You know, like I said about synergy, I try to look on that a little bit. Like what your weaknesses?

Yeah, or just like, man, there was like halfway through the season. One of the corner threes was like below average. Really? And I was looking at it. I was like, one corner I'm like 56% and the other corner I was like 38. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. It's evened out now, but it's kind of. Yeah, because that could just be a small sample size.

Yeah, it's a smaller sample size. But like, I'll look at that stuff and it's kind of interesting. You can kind of, you can see in different areas where you rank. and it's just like a scale of like excellent, very good, good average, below average, poor. So you can kind of look at that stuff to, you know, maybe get a... It's depressing. Get a grasp. Oh my God, I'm poor.

Yeah. I'm in the poor category. Do you look at like five-man lineups and all that stuff? I looked at that a little bit. I did that in college. There was a Evan Maya did something that I was looking at. But I enjoy that stuff. It's interesting to look at.

I look at, I look up different players to see, you know, who's really good. Like, Shays is unbelievable. Yeah. He's like green everywhere on the court. No, yeah, he's like plus 18, no matter what the lineup is. I like looking at the three-man stuff sometimes. Because sometimes there will be these weird combinations of players. Combinations that are like good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which you wouldn't expect. Like, well, with the Celtics, like you would expect it's like Kada, brown, and white all together. Yeah. Now, they play a lot of minutes together. Yeah. But with those three, you can kind of fit any other two around them. And if you have those three, we're going to be good.

But sometimes there'll be ones that surprise you. Yeah. And there'll be ones where, okay, see, we'll have like Wallace, Dort and Caruso. And it's like small minutes, but their defensive ratings, like 88. Incredible. Yeah. And you're like, yeah, that makes sense. Those guys are like three pit bulls trying to bring the ball off.

But, all right, we covered everything, I think, right? Yeah, I think so. So rookie wall hasn't happened yet. Girlfriend's still going. You're on pace for 2,500 minutes and incredible efficiency. team's coming together. Lamello's got his mojo, it seems like. And he gets to play the Los Angeles Lakers in L.A.

It's amazing. LeBron James. This could be his last year. Who knows? Yeah. Yeah, that'll be sweet. All right. Well, congrats on everything.

It's been fun to watch. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Trying to think when we do the third pod together, it would have to, I don't know what the inciting incident will be. This was, we did one before you got drafted. Now we have one halfway through your rookie year. So we got to figure out like the next for the trilogy when that is.

Maybe that's like right before the playoffs or something. First playoff. Yeah. If you can make it, probably not this year, but maybe. We'll see. A year from now. All right. Thanks for doing this.

Yeah. Thanks for having me. All right. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Khan and Gahau and Eduardo. Don't forget, rewatchable is one up Tuesday night. What Lies Beneath. And don't forget, I have another podcast coming on Thursday, football podcast.

So that'll be the fourth one of this week. You'll be able to watch it on. Spotify, you'll be able to listen to it wherever you want. You could also watch it on Netflix. So please watch it in one of those places. I will see you in 24 hours. Must be 21 plus in President Select States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in President in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming.

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