The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 66: NBA Trade Deadline Winners and Losers w/ Juliet Litman and Chris Ryan

Episode Date: February 19, 2016

HBO's Bill Simmons leans on Juliet and Chris for help in making sense of the NBA trade deadline. Topics include: Duke-UNC upset (5:00), the Warriors' supremacy (7:00), the savant Sean Marks (10:30), Frank Vogel on 'The Bachelor' (13:30), Cleveland's ability to be beaten (17:15), the Thunder's formula (20:30), problems in Phoenix (30:00), the Grizzles (33:00), the competitive Celtics (37:00), Orlando's odd dynamic (41:30), BK's new outlook (46:00), the pageantry of Kobe (53:00), and overall winners and losers (56:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's special trade deadline was really lousy. Edition of the BS podcast is brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor and favorite app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music. Go to SeatGeek.com slash BS to start using SeatGeek. That includes Boston Transplants looking for tickets to see David Lee and the Celtics on their West Coast trip later this month. How is he still on the team? Don't forget to download the free SeatGeek app and our promo code BS. SeatGeek sends you $20 upon your first purchase.

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You can sign up for our new newsletter that's gonna be launching next month We'll see you next time. ringer to follow us on all the social media platforms we even tweeted there for during the trade deadline today at ringer so check that out and we are off it's not a three-man podcast because uh the microaggressors would say that's not not correct to say that good start start. Three-person podcast. Better alliteration. Just three people. We don't see gender in this podcast. Chris Ryan from The Ringer.

Yeah. The Ringer's Chris Ryan. At Ringer. Juliette Libman also from The Ringer. Hello. Do your bit about, Chris, do your bit about when we were coming up with fake names. I liked what you had to say on your podcast yesterday, but I think you needed you didn't get the movie right it wasn't about Tarantino or Scorsese they've specific it was even creepier because it was blue is the warmest color

Carol yeah it was always like I was introducing myself checking in at the blue is the warmest color or Carol junket and saying my name is Chris Chris Ryan and I'm here to see the luminous Leah Seydoux and I am from Binge Mode. Who says no to that? Or Click. That was another one we liked. Fantasy really liked Click.

He claims he still liked it. I'm Chris Ryan from Click. Click's not a bad name. It just sounds like a music magazine from like 2003. It sounds like a website that would be in The Good Wife. Yes. Oh. I like where you're going on that. Or like a Canadian website

or something. Yeah. We were surprised. We were so nervous about the name. Yeah. And it seemed like people liked the name. I think we overthought the Johnny Knoxville thing a little too much. Yeah, we really overestimated the influence of that film. Yeah. And its hold on the culture.

It's been on Comedy Central twice in like 10 years. And we were like, geez, the Johnny Knoxville. And it's fine. Is he even famous anymore? Like if you saw him on the street, would you A, do a double take? And does anyone stop him? Johnny Knoxville is super famous from Jackass. Yeah.

Three Jackass movies. Juliet. He's not really a top talent to me. He's not in your vendor. Were he to be traded today on the trade deadline, I'd be like oh, that's it. He actually should have been traded today. It would have fit in with Chaney Fry and Markeith Morris. Johnny Knoxville's stretch

four. He's totally stretch four. We should wish Juliet a happy birthday. Oh, thanks, guys. Happy birthday. All right. We're doing this from the temporary ringer podcast studio in our undisclosed studio offices off of Sunset Boulevard. And Tweets by Tate is next to us.

Tate couldn't even manage to get his contact lenses in this morning. That's how much he was crying about Carolina last night. It was the first 22-year-old performance by Tate since we've hired him, where you had Duke beats North Carolina. Yeah. Tate hates Duke more than I hate cancer. And I really hate cancer.

Tate hates Duke more than I hate cancer. And Duke beats North Carolina yesterday at about, what, 9.15 a day? We're like, Tate's not here. I hate cancer. And Duke beats North Carolina yesterday. At about, what, 9.15 a day, we're like, Tate's not here. And then 9.40, Tate's still not here. Should we be worried? And then I walked to get a juice, and here's Tate walking the other way. He's got glasses on, which I've never seen.

Yeah, I didn't know he wore glasses. He's super hungover. He's sad. He's angry. It was everything I wanted. I was out last night with our buddy Ryan O'Hanlon, who's going to be joining us at the Ringer. And I was supposedly wishing him also a happy birthday. So happy birthday, Ryan. But I kept getting distracted by how much Tate reminds me of Grayson Allen.

Wow. And when I said that to him this morning, I've never hurt Tate's feelings before. I never felt like Tate felt anything other than love for me. Except for that one second where I was like, Tate might take a shot at me. He really hates Duke. It's unbelievable. I think when you grow up in Carolina, it's either or. Yeah.

It really is. You're either in one side or you're in the other. It's like the, I don't know, 1700s. It's like New York versus Massachusetts or something. I don't think people from North Carolina like Duke that much. Like most Carolinians are for UNC, right? Oh, now you're waking up Tate. He doesn't look hungover for the first time.

All those schools. That's right. Wait, one more Tate comment just so you guys know. Oh, I had a Tate comment too. Oh, he was watching Seven at 3 a.m. last night. Was he? That's how he was recovering from the loss. Was he planning anything?

Tate Frazier has the upper hand now. I'm going to do my imitation of Tate complaining that Coach K is missing a Duke game because Duke's not good this season. Yeah. Yeah, he's saying he's sick. Yeah, that's what he always says when his team stinks. You can guarantee he gets a mystery illness, right? Every time he doesn't have a good team.

If this team was top five, he wouldn't be sick. I'll tell you that much. And then ask him what he was saying when Roy Williams had vertigo. Where he's like, they're not telling me what's wrong with Roy! Hubert Davis is my coach right now. What's wrong with Roy? Totally, yeah, it was great. Now that we're on minute five of Tate Talk,

do you think that that's a good way of saying how boring this trade deadline was? Yeah, I think- No disrespect. I don't think there's ever been a better advertisement. We should have saw it coming. I think in the past, the trade deadline has seemed like it would be boring.

And then all of a sudden, there'd be a flurry of activity. There was no flurry. There was a McFlurry. And so what's the main reason for that, do you think? Is it really the specter of the Warriors, or is it offseason is going to be so different this year as the cap stuff?

Yeah, it seemed like the hot take coming out of it was, oh, nobody wants to mess with the Warriors. They're conceding the title. I think that there's a piece of that, but I just think sometimes there's just years where the available guys don't match what people want. Like if you're Portland or if you're Charlotte, why are you renting Dwight Howard for a year?

What does that get you? So you make the second round? For what reason? So you're just going to get killed at some point in the playoffs. And then if you're in the West and you're not OKC and you're not San Antonio and you're not the Clippers, what's the motivation to make a trade? You're going to get waxed. So I think it was partly that.

And then just I don't think the right guys are available. Who is available that you liked? Like I thought Portland should have rented Dwight Howard for a year, but I wouldn't have given up anything for him. I bet it was one of those things where it was like if Love had gotten traded, if Howard had gotten traded traded that would have set off a chain reaction maybe but with no big names moving it's just like and now in like looking back at it with an hour of hindsight you wonder whether the theme of the trade deadline is coaches who were just like i have to get this guy out of here so it's like marquee yeah or or lance and they're just like what do you what can i give you like i have a can of tennis balls that i've never opened that i'll throw in with this.

What do you want for this? But yeah, without Dwight or Kevin moving or Horford or whoever. Here's my thing about this that I'm kind of worried about. Is the NBA getting too smart? Yeah, this has been a theme for two years now. There are so many teams. Everybody's got a smart guy now. Sean Marks, we joked about Sean Marks, but by all accounts, great guy.

A great guy. Great basketball mind. Really impressive work by New Jersey. Learn from the tutu of Javarsi Buford. But that is conceivable now that the Nets could be smart now. And that means that there are no more dumb teams, really. You have a couple of trigger-happy owners,

maybe a couple of owners who want to get into the playoffs before you know like now you know and they're they're willing to mortgage certain things but i kind of almost wonder whether some of the the the trade drought is linked to the fact that everybody's too smart to get scooped what do you think juliet i just think that the like teams like the rockets and the hawks like what do they do now like there's not really very many moves to them available and like both they're both do they do now? There's not really very many moves for them available. They're both imploded teams, basically.

There's no way they can win. Dwight Howard can opt out is the other reason why he wasn't traded, right? He's opted out at the end of year three. So I don't understand really how they move forward. Hawks, I think they should have taken a better deal for Jeff Teague instead of taking him off the table. I'm never a fan of trading somebody just to trade them. I think you trade from a position of strength.

It's like you do anything else. What's the path for the Hawks now? I think they floated stuff out to see if they could ignite some interest in Horford and Teague, and they got a bunch of crappy offers. I'm sure the Celtics were like, hey, we'll give you David Lee and some non-lottery picks. Because the Celtics, right towards the Celtics were like, hey, we'll give you David Lee and some non-lottery picks. The Celtics, right towards the end of the deadline, it sounded like Danny Ainge had taken the Brooklyn pick out of any negotiations.

Yeah, and they should because they're not going to win the title this year. There's no player that they could have traded for that would have made them better than the Warriors in a series. So I would have been mad if they traded the Brooklyn pick. I think the only way you do it is if Cousins is on the table. So if Cousins is on the table, you know you have him for a couple years and there's nobody like him and just watching him hustle in the All-Star game got me excited.

I'm disappointed there wasn't anything stupider done by the Kings, actually. They didn't make any moves. Let's talk about that in a second. I have a take on Sean Marks, who's a great basketball minor and a very smart guy. If he's so smart, why would he take the Nets job? Because how many jobs are there? But that's a terrible job.

That's the same thing with Brett Brown. It's like, Brett Brown, I got to take coaching jobs. There's only 30 jobs. First of all, 10 coaches get fired every year. Second, he's taking the worst coaching job probably anyone's had in 20 years. He's like a caretaker for a 10-win team. But you're Sean Marks. You have no lottery picks.

You have Brooke Lopez, who could get hurt at any moment and be out for the year. And you have no other trade assets other than Thad Young. That's a terrible job. I wouldn't, if he's smart, I wouldn't go near that job. I have another take on that, which is everyone from the pop R.C. Buford coaching tree has not been that successful anywhere else. Like Sam Presti is the butt of all of your jokes. Well, he's been a good drafter.

He's just a terrible traitor. And Bud, I mean, Bud came in and had a great season. I mean, I know that's Danny Ferry, and Danny Ferry is from the Spurs too. He heard of that team. They were like a, what are they, 60 games last year? Is Danny Ferry, or I can't decide, is that a win for the Pop Buford coaching tree or not? I'm not sure. It's a semi-win.

I'm just not convinced. He did a great job in Atlanta. That's true. But then he didn't do a great job in Atlanta. Fantasy's so in my head. Just so scared. But back to the pressy thing, though. Drafting is good, but then all his other moves haven't been that great.

And he doesn't take the pieces and turn them into like they can't get over the hump and they're like they're probably just never gonna win with this duo right and this is where the the warriors thing is real i think a little bit is that i know from people i know from atlanta how much fun they had with that team last year i didn't have fun with them but i know atlanta people who love that team last year who are your people you fun with them, but I know Atlanta people who loved that team last year. Who are your people you know in Atlanta? Like, why? Why didn't you just say, I know from Remember?

You made it sound like you knew all these people in Atlanta. I was all excited to hear you list the nine, ten people you knew from Atlanta. Lang Whitaker? We like Lang. Anybody else? Yeah, you know Lang Whitaker.

There's two. Lang is a close personal friend of mine. He lives on the same street as my parents. There you go. That's basically like, that might as well be my brother. Does Dobbins count yeah sure you know all right I I take it back Dobbins I don't know if I ever exchanged anything about the Hawks of Dobbins but the point is is that a good basketball team can provide a lot of joy for the city and the fans

and because they can't win the title does not negate the need for them to be in existence and i think it's sometimes a little fatalistic to just be like oh well we're just not competitive so we're gonna blow it up like i know that the thunder are have a long shot of winning a title this year but it's probably really like enjoyable to be consistently like in and around it and go to the playoffs and have guys to cheer for i don't know especially what do you want from life yeah especially when especially when you have Russell Westbrook, which is fun. There's a lot of joy in watching Russell all the time.

The Thunder may be a bad example, but the Pacers or the Hawks or teams that are just pretty competitive. Tough week for the Pacers. George Hill, Paul George, and Frank Vogel were on The Bachelor, and Frank Vogel didn't get to talk at all. It was a little damning. It was my nba coach and he shows

up in the bachelor and he's just window dressing like he's like the chauffeur in the background they just cut him out they edited him out completely it was really bad and they made george hill wear a hat the whole time to cover his blonde hair it's just that's a conspiracy theory of mine it wasn't as bad as the 20 different plays he designed this season for a terrible Montella shot in the last minute, but it was right up there. It was pretty bad. It was a really poor indication of where the people stand on Frank Vogel. People at large.

And I like that guy. Or he got edited. Or got edited. And it wasn't his fault. He probably was just really normal. Or the people who edited The Bachelor didn't know who Frank Vogel was. They thought he was like Paul George's buddy. They didn't know he's the only one who can corral Lance Stevenson into being useful.

I have a question. Would you consider OKC's act to not go all in and try to get somebody like Al Horford, a typical OKC trying to half-ass it with the team they have move? Or am I overrating Al Horford, a typical OKC trying to half-ass it with the team they have move, or am I overrating Al Horford? What would you have to give up to get Al Horford? Well, they had the right kind of contracts, players type of match that they could have done a three-for-one with stuff. I mean, they have assets.

So you're talking about Steven Adams? Well, I'm saying like, yeah. They're going to have to pay Steven Adams at some point. But if you did Steven Adams and you did a future pick, I don't think they would put Cameron Payne on the table because that guy looks really good. He jumped DJ Argosy and that's why they got rid of him. Oh, yeah. I think he's an X factor when we get to the playoffs. Because I don't know.

I'm still trying to figure out what their crunch time lineup is. But I know if they had Horford, now I know it's Horford, Ibaka, Durant, Westbrook. But when you get to Golden State, doesn't Durant have to play four? Or do you think that that's still a switch? I don't know, because Horford can move around and do stuff. And so can Ibaka. And maybe that's the type of team you need to have. Now, I don't think Horford's been as good this year as he's been last year.

And he has a couple shoulder things in the past. And maybe he's 30. Yeah. I get it. He's got some wear and tear. Played hard at Florida. Maybe teams thought they had miles on him. I thought for sure the Celtics were going to trade for him if he's on the table without the brooklyn yeah i i don't want to like

lose you for 30 minutes but do you mind that they haven't that they didn't make a deal it just seems like they were in this no man's land of the brooklyn pick was too good to give up right but none of their other picks were good enough like hey we got we can give you 19 and 23 in a bad draft right any interest i kind of want them to keep those picks because i i have a crush on valentine from michigan state who i fell in love with last year and then he was in the second round in chad ford's big board um by the way chad i'll never forgive you for doing a trade value column i'll never forgive you ever in my entire life. But sorry, guys. Wherever I stand, I stand with SG. Thank you. Valentine, though, is right around where those picks are.

Tate, do you like Valentine? Tate says yes. Watered down Draymond. Watered down Draymond. That felt really insulting. He's shorter than Draymond. Watered down. He's good, though.

He will be on a playoff team like in that 6, 7, 8 ninth man role. I think there's a lot of those guys in this draft, so maybe... I don't know. Do they win the title if they get Al Horford? No. Could they beat Cleveland

with Al Horford? I think Cleveland's beatable. Am I crazy to think that? No. But maybe not now that they got their stretch four. Oh my God. He's stretched all right.

He's been good in two years. One thing that I think is underrated for this trade deadline is that LeBron lost two so-called friends from Cleveland. Cunningham and Anderson. Yeah, and Veragiao. And Koufos and McLemore did not get out of Sacramento, which is like, that's a loss and a loss for LeBron. Tough times for clutch sports.

You know, I saw like Chaining Fry, if you look at his stats, shooting like basically 39, 40% from three the last couple of years. Every one of those shots is wide open. Yeah. Right. So you can't compare that to somebody like James Harden. James Harden's 36% from three, but probably one out of every seven shots he takes is a really hard shot with a hand in his face or in a shot clock. In Chaney Fry, if he took 100 threes over the last two years, I bet 85 of them he's wide open at the top of the key or the side of the key. And against a team like Cleveland, I'm not positive you're getting that shot. But with Channing Frye also, there's like a chain reaction where he opens up the floor for everybody else. I do think that Cleveland has somebody who's apparently a bigger guy who can shoot from outside

who supposedly should open the floor up for everybody else. But where are you putting him? Channing Frye or Kevin Love? Well, that's my point. All right, let's say I'm playing Channing Frye and Kevin Love together, and Kyrie has the ball and LeBron has the ball. Channing Frye likes to be near the top of the key. So Kevin Love's now where?

Right back where they didn't want him, where David Blatt was using him. So that means they can't, it would be weird to play. The geometry doesn't work with those two guys at the same time so it's channing fry kevin love insurance in case you know that's the other thing that's my point i also kind of he plays unless this is the other reason why i think i wonder if it feels like it's been a few years it was since they like the abaca injury against the spurs a few seasons ago that a playoffs has been really defined by an injury, but I feel like we're due. And I don't mean to like, is that dark?

No, I just feel like you always say that. We're due for an injury. Because I just think that we always look at things where it's like, this is fixed. Like this is a fixed thing that this team is better than this team. And we are like a Steph ankle roll away from something weird happening.

First of all, how dare you? I'm not trying to curse him. You just, Tate fell asleep again hey you're right i really heard that was like you just did the wrong thing um i think okc is closer to golden state than i think people are giving them credit for and i think san antonio is too i mean you can't judge san antonio during the regular season what about aldridge though like i feel like he's kind of plateauing a little bit with this team like he was he was really lost at the beginning started playing better than their system and now heading into the all-star break he just hasn't been you know quite the prolific score

that we're used to seeing and like sure he gets the ball less but it seems like he's taking fewer of his like signature shots on the elbows it's cruise control okay i think that whole team is february march is when they just kind of they become bears they really needed channing fry stretch spread the floor a little bit one thing about okc is i feel like robertson is not really going to turn into the piece that they would like we're hoping he was playing better when he got hurt yeah then msn he's hurt but he probably would have been a good trade asset if he was not yeah a week or two ago how many people have have the thunder plugged into that spot over the last five, six, seven years

and none of them have ever really fit? The plugging Harden spot? The Dion Waiters, Derek Fisher. Anthony Morrow. Anthony Morrow. Jeff Green was there for a while. He was going down the line. Yeah.

Yeah. There's been a million of them and they've never totally... Who was the other guy? Was Eric Snow there one year or am I imagining that? That was like ancient history. It was at Cleveland. Yeah, it was Cleveland. There was an Eric Snow type person year or am I imagining that it was at Cleveland yeah it was Cleveland there was an Eric Snow type person

but they've had a million of those guys and they had Ish Smith they've never been totally the guy yeah

and they've drafted a couple but they've never really found that fifth guy it's and the Clippers are a lot the same way

now it's like they're maybe Jeff Green's our fifth guy and it's like no we've seen that play before. Three teams have given up on Jeff Green now. What do you think? And I like Jeff Green, I should say.

I thought he was going to help Memphis. Who is a team that didn't make a deal that should have? Because Milwaukee was somebody that everybody was talking about. Except for Giannis, nothing was off the table with Milwaukee. And Greg Monroe might get traded. Yeah. But if you stink, though, why do you have to shake it up? I've never understood that premise.

Like, there's 30 games left. Just get through the 30 games and shake it up in June. Just one Newt Rockne speech from Jason Kidd away. Yeah. Well, I don't think Carter Williams has trade value. OKC is the team that I was hoping would actually do. They should have thought about that. I wish OKC had done something that wasn't Randy Foy. Yeah.

That just feels like a classic half-assed, I'm kind of doing something but not really move. Like, just go make a move. Go get somebody. Get somebody who can be one of the five guys for you in a game six in OKC if you're somehow up three to two against the Warriors. That's what I wanted. They've been looking for a three-point shooter for as long as the team has been Oklahoma City, like a reliable Kyle Korver type, and they've never gotten it.

They were hoping Morrow would do that, but now Singler's playing ahead of him, which is crazy. The press stats were all telling us that Morrow was going to be that guy. Right, and he wasn't. They still need that guy. That's what I call the OKC media, the press stats. They were in play for Aflalo last year when he went to Portland, and I always thought that they should have,

like he would have been really good for them. They should sign my guy Darrell Wright. He's back from China. He's available, people. One of the things that's happened is that just because the way the game's played now, and you really saw it at this trade deadline, there's not enough swing guys.

There's not enough 3 and D guys. And there's way too many big guys. And everybody can trade for a big guy, but nobody can trade for a 3 and D guy. I was not surprised that Houston didn't trade Ariza, but I thought that was the move. If Darrell was kind of subtly tanking, which I think was in play.

I think if it was up to him, and he hasn't told me this, I'm just guessing, you dump Howard, you get under the tax, you trade Ariza for a pick, and you basically pack it in. They keep their pick if it's a lottery pick. So I thought maybe Ariza would be a guy that somebody would overpay for. But he's another guy who hasn't been playing that great the last couple years. I think he's another guy who hasn't been playing that great the last couple years I think he's fine but I don't know if he's like

would he have swung OKC's title hopes probably not I don't know who the guy is I don't know they seem like they were Ben Macklemore that seemed like a classic OKC trade like a little bit of the waiter's logic of Ben Macklemore bring him in see if maybe he's the guy I was thinking about

Ben Mackleore today and how sad he was I can't remember who it was a couple of years ago where I was like I've never seen that guy make a shot it was Jeff Green Jeff Green I don't know if I've ever seen Ben McLemore play like in the stretches of Kings games that I've watched he's just never participating that's not true because when we were really into them under the Mike Malone regime he was a big part of that so I know that you've seen him play. Ben McLemore? I guess it's just been wiped from my memory.

For the 11 games that you watched in 2014. Somebody came up with the Men in Black pen, and I just can't remember watching Ben McLemore. I've been saying this for a while. I think at some point the Spurs are going to get their hands on him. And it might not be until 2024. Interesting. But he'll find the right team, and all of a sudden they'll be like, oh, Ben McLemore. He has Future Sixer written all over him.

Nice. Well, you're ready to walk him into your heart. They're distressed asset all-stars. One thing I like to think about after the trade deadline is who's the most miserable to not have been traded. Oh, yeah. Dwight Howard. I think he's not bothered enough by what other people have to say and think about him in

some weird way. No, let me rephrase that. I't think he's like worried enough as a human like i don't know if he like internalizes stress so i feel like he's just like drinking a baja blast mountain dude he's just like who am i playing for talk to me at capri sun i'm good but i just feel like i feel like so i feel like hardens probably even more pissed that howard's not gone than howard is that he still has to play there oh i think I think there's a whole, there's so many other levels to how it plays out. They have to go get dinner to talk about stuff. Oh, yeah.

And then there's going to be the leak story on like Saturday of Dwight Howard and James Harden had a great dinner. They hashed some stuff out. Things are better now. Can we get Howard to date a Kardashian? Kourtney's available. I think Howard's available. It's funny, though.

It's like for each of them, it's the worst possible scenario for a teammate for what they like to do, right? Harden, it's like Howard just clogs the lane. He has to watch him shoot 17 free throws a game. And then Howard has to just kind of stand there and watch James Howard do stuff. I'm in the James Harden's amazing camp. I watched him a couple times. I looked at his stats for stuff because he was throwing around kind of casually in some trade rumors. And I was thinking, like, that seems improbable.

Then you go look at his stats. Like, this is his fourth straight year where he's putting up, like, 27-7-7. Takes, like, seven threes a game. He gets to the line ten times. He's their whole offense. He's on this chemistry nightmare of a team. Not that he's not part of it, but I think he's untouchable. I wouldn't trade him unless

you're getting like a top seven guy back. Do you think Houston has a shot at Kevin Durant? I don't know. I don't know. You wouldn't have said They had a shot at Dwight Howard Right I think he's staying

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NMLS number 1121636. SoFi.com. All right, back to the trade deadline. I don't know what to make of Durant. And I don't believe any story I hear. I think the Warriors story was the single dumbest story of the year. I don't think the Warriors are focused on him at all. I think it was all BS. Don't you think it was year. I don't think the Warriors are focused on him at all. I think it was all BS.

Don't you think it was BS? I couldn't. Other teams just floating that out. Oh, man, they're already looking at Durant. It's like, no, they're not. They want to win back-to-back titles, and they're 50-4. Right. Coming here on Saturday night.

I know. I know. I'm at UC Geek trying to get a ticket. What an organic pug that was. Who do you think was the most bummed out not to be trading chris ryan i have to imagine that kevin love might be i mean i don't think kevin love wants to be traded but this is just never is this ever going to work out for him there no it's just not you have to i think he's got to go through one more ride with this team I think he would look

like a quitter if he asked out don't you think? oh definitely I went to that game three I keep coming back to it game three in Boston

when the game before Love got hurt and it really did feel like they were figuring out that offense and guys slashing and getting to spots

and Kyrie LeBron Love together yeah I walked away and J.R. Smith launching threes I walked away from that J.R. Smith launched in threes. I walked away from that game thinking like, uh-oh. They figured this out.

This is a team that could win the title. And then he got hurt. And I've never seen them with that same energy again. I think that the answer, what I would have done if he hadn't been traded, would have been Markeith Morris. Because I don't know that anyone has wanted to be traded worse than this. He got traded. I know.

I'm saying, if he hadn't been traded, Mar Marquis, I mean, he really wanted out of Phoenix. But for the most part, I mean, it's been a weird couple of weeks where the like there was Doc coming out and saying that there was no way that they were ever going to they were going to trade Blake. And, you know, even Earl Watson was like, we're going to build around Marquis Morris. I'm going to nurture him. It's strange that these guys like we were kind of messing with their own leverage by making these public statements about that.

Yeah. Can you make sense of anything Phoenix has done for two years, though? No. That's a pretty precipitous drop-off from the most fun, exciting young team with just assets coming out of their ears to this. Yeah, like almost having to apologize to Robert Sarver for making fun of him this whole time. Juliet, you're our Mavs correspondent. Yeah, I'm here for you.

Because Celtics have their number one pick. It's top seven protected. And Dallas is like one Nowitzki slight calf strain away from dropping into the lottery. Like it's their hair away now. And they didn't try to improve the team at all, which I thought was interesting. Why do you need to improve your team when you have one of your cornerstone pieces coming back from injury and suddenly playing really well?

Who's that? Barea? Chandler Parsons. There's a picture of him in this office right now. What team would you not want to play out of the under the four, top one, top two, top three, top four? Anyone below that, who would you not want to play? of the under the four, top one, top two, top three, top four? Anyone below that? Who would you not want to play in a playoff series?

It's a fun question. In the West only? Is Portland in yet? Portland, I think, is in. I'm going to pull it up. I just can't wait to watch Lillard McCollum in the playoffs. And I just wonder whether or not with the soccer moms and the shooting there could just be a little bit of a

I know that they probably don't have the guys and that they're all so young and there's all so many weird Vonlay pieces that they're throwing around but I would really not want to see Lillard and McCollum every night. For two weeks? Yeah. I wouldn't want to see Utah.

Because they haven't really been healthy that much this season and at some point like in march or april they're gonna have their whole team having had played together for four or five weeks and they have size they have a good coach they have yeah but a good coach perimeter guys i like alec burks is gonna that he had an ac what did he have an ac was in his shoulder or His shoulder or whatever. But physically he – usually when you're out for that long, it takes a while to get back. But I just like the look of that team.

Memphis is in five right now. They'll probably fall out with Marcus Ulhart, right? I thought there was – I asked Chris Vernon, old friend of the Grantland channel. Yeah, he's got a great show. Grantland.com. I asked him if – because he was saying Conley was untouchable. And I was like, really?

Why wouldn't they trade Conley? It makes so much sense. Like, Gasol's out for the year. Like, just reboot. And apparently he's, like, he's a grizzly for life. And him and Gasol are boys. Really? Yeah.

I was surprised. Makes me like him more. I like that loyalty. Mike Conley and Marc Gasol. Big Spanish guy. Grew up in Memphis. Greg Oden's former best friend. Grew up in Indiana.

I don't know what they have in common, but apparently it's a bond for life, man. That's really nice. That's special. Yeah. The Jeff Green Lance Stevenson trade was... Yeah, let's talk about that. Pretty... I remember a couple weeks ago when this deal

happened and I was like, oh, Jeff Green, that's weird. It's pretty obvious that Doc loves acquiring players that he's done really well against his teams or he used to coach and that is the limit of his scouting. Or people... Yeah, this is... When you're the GM and you only know players

you've coached for or against. He was probably typing Sheldon Williams' name into Bing as, like, somebody was just like, look, Jeff Green is available if you want to send Lance and those tennis balls. But just a couple of months ago, there was some Jeff Green incident where, I don't know what he did or didn't do, but one of the Memphis beat writers was, like, basically there's some questions about Jeff Green's level of interest

in the game of basketball. I love when those stories come out like someone has to float that for it to come out like someone who's like usually on management because i mean like that's just a ridiculous thing to say like jeff green's been playing basketball his whole life like sure like that's just i had loved those stories they're i think they're always just so incredibly malicious like i feel like that comes out about that when that came out about andrew bynum that was true might have been true yeah yes i'm going the other way as somebody who watched jeff green and wanted him to succeed like there was an edge that just was not there with him and he'd have games where he looked awesome you know and i i actually thought he was more of a complimentary player than a main guy which is

how the seltzer using him near the end but you know he had these actually thought he was more of a complimentary player than a main guy, which is how the Celts were using him near the end. But, you know, he had these games where he looked like James Worthy. And Tommy actually thought he was James Worthy. Tommy Hudson. He looks like James Worthy. You're just going crazy. And then he'd have five points the next game. He's like James Worthy.

Oh, yeah. But he actually did have the one-handed running Worthy dunk, like Worthy did. And did some of the same things. But it just— Jeff Green has three dunks a year where you're like, I would give up my firstborn child for Jeff Green. And then you realize that then Jeff Green will score like three points against Sacramento one night and play 16 minutes. It's kind of a Celtic tradition to have guys like this that drive my dad crazy. And somehow they don't have any of them right now. But the guy who just is out of it for a game and my dad's just sad in his seat like wondering why he

doesn't care where's your dad at on evan my dad loves the celtics team i love evan turner yeah i love him i only check snapchat can you tell tell people tell the people what evan turner's uh all star philosophy was so first of all he was in was in Jamaica with his girlfriend and Michael Carter Williams. Oh yeah. What? Yup. How are they friends? I don't know,

but they were at a club together. Evan Turner is so, pardon the pun, turnt on Snapchat. It's unbelievable. He just like every day will be like lying in bed and just like talking

into the camera, sharing his positions. And he said- Revisiting his time in Philadelphia. Yeah, he said he had something along the lines of like, F Philly forever on Snapchat.

Oh, no. And he also said on Snapchat, if you're at All-Star and you're not in the game, men and women, you're a thot. And he's like very acerbic on Snapchat. It's so entertaining. Titus said he was acerbic. Acerbic?

Yeah. He said he was like the most complicated teammate he'd ever had. I loved said he was acerbic. Acerbic? Yeah. He said he was the most complicated teammate he'd ever had. I loved him. He's super moody. He also takes a lot of pictures of his teammates with stacks of cash. Like when they're playing poker on the plane. He's always commenting on how much money people have, basically.

It's incredible. I recommend a follow. That's interesting. I can imagine him having a weird social media because he's so weird to watch game to game. The thing I love about him is what a gamer he is. Yeah. He's freaking competitive. This whole Celtics team, it's like this team that just doesn't make sense.

That Clippers game was awesome. Yeah, all of them fight. They have eight guys who just fight. Marcus Smart, two times in the last week, his Celtic was shooting a free throw and he was on the second block going against a big rebounder and just basically

overpowered the guy and got the rebound. He's one of those guys and they have a bunch of those guys. Evan's actually a guy who probably is better suited to being a veteran who knows his limitations and doesn't have the pressure on him of being a number two pick anymore. You can tell that his attitude is a little bit more like,

I've been through this a few times. Right, he's not trying to be on the all-star team anymore. He's just trying to save Indiana's season. Oh man, that was the saddest Evan Turner. I was doing the show with Collins that year, and Collins called it from the get-go. He needs to be involved. He needs to have the ball in his hands.

If you're having him stand over on the left, it's out. You might as well just play four and five. My favorite thing about that Clippers-Celtics game was Everton. That was one of the games of the year. Yeah, and he had scored something like eight points in a row or something. It was almost single-handedly beating the Clippers in overtime. And you could just feel how painful it was for Isaiah Thomas to seek him out and pass it to him. He's like, in any other situation, I should be chucking right now.

But I cannot deny the fact that Evan Turner is on fire. Well, he had Jamal Crawford guarding him. Yeah, that's true. That was a Brad Stevens just ass slap at Doc Rivers. All the Celtics fans, that was the takeaway. I was like, wow. Wow. A way worse team from a talent standpoint.

And it was just coaching and effort. I wish we could hire Brad Stevens for the ringer. I just feel like he's really talented. Who knows what he could bring to the table. But I wouldn't want to take him away from your favorite team. So it's a tough call. That would be tough. That would be like when the Miami Dolami dolphins owner when michigan was trying to

hire harbaugh yeah and he knew he should go after harbaugh but he was like i can't go against the alma mater and then he was like it's not about the michigan thing at all but meanwhile he's one of michigan's biggest owners and they end up with harbaugh my favorite thing is when haral bob is just such a savage to coaches and then like brad stevens will do something well and like it's the twitter equivalent of like the 2001 space like last space drop scene he's just like good good call by Stevens what a coach what a play he runs some of the best end of the game plays I've ever seen and that's this is a whole coaching thing now where they all studied it like Steve Kerr said he studied had his staff make like 150, 200.

He compiled them in a computer as he was trying to figure out whether he was going to coach or not after his last broadcasting year. And then you watch these guys that are like, all right, so Russell, we're going to throw it to you and just take a three. Just try to get something. And that's it. Is there any team that you think could make like a

really interesting get hot in the second half of the season and make things interesting or is it just is it just all completely that's the these four teams what do you think i would just love to see like i would love to see toronto upset cleveland or just some really like exciting like a boston or toronto upset cleveland not that i I don't want LeBron to be in the finals. I think that would be really exciting to see him play against Steph, but I just think it would be so exciting to have a really competitive, awesome

seven-game Eastern Conference finals. I think it's more likely we get that finals, but in the seventh game, Cleveland shoots 58 free throws. Right. And everyone in Canada, and it could be the closest we come to some sort of North American conflict. I feel like a big thing in the NBA is just that everyone loves Toronto. Everyone loves to talk about how fun the city is.

Not even how they play. It's really, really quite a turnaround. Everyone's like, Toronto's the best city, opposed to just never wanting to play there. Everyone loved All-Star there, except for the weather. I don't know. That's a pretty big except for the weather. Everyone I talked to up from All-Star said it was absolutely bone-chillingly freezing. Really? Off-the-record commentary.

I think the slam dunk being incredible was... Was Sean Marks cold? Sean Marks? His high IQ keeps him warm. Speaking of the slam dunk, what is Orlando doing? What is happening with them? I don't know. Well, they only made

two trades. They basically just wanted to get Aaron Gordon playing time. At the expense of Alfred Payton? Are we sure Alfred Payton's good? I think you have to let him play it out, right? I'm in Alfred Payton's corner, and I even told my friend Mike Mendelsohn to buy Alfred Payton rookie cards back in the day.

Yeah, you were really high on him. And I still am. How's Oladipo doing? Just not sure, not positive he's good, because something's wrong with that team, right? You just got to start looking around. Oladipo's just on the wrong team. That guy should be – we got the Tate nod from that.

Yeah. He should be a two-guard. Like he would be an unbelievable Celtic. If you put him on this Celtics team with Bradley Smart and Isaiah and Crowder, I wouldn't even want to send her. Just send those four guys – send those five guys out. Are we going to have her. Just send those five guys out. Is that where we're going now? Just be competitive.

I remember in 2006 and the Hawks had six 6'7 guys. That was it. It was Joe Johnson, Josh Smith. It was all guys that were 6'3 to 6'8. That was it. It really was those mid-2000s Hawks teams. Trailblazers. You and all your Atlanta friends loved watching those games.

Myself, big boy. I was thinking about how bad of a GM I would be and how hard it must be to make a trade. Because I love Oladipo. And I'd just call in Rob Hennigan and be like, Hey, Rob, just checking in, man. Deadline's coming up. So, yeah, you got anything cooking?

It's like seven minutes of foreplay. is coming up. So, yeah, well, you got anything cooking? You just see, it's like seven minutes of foreplay and then like, hey, Oladipo, what are your plans for him? What do you think

you got going with him? Is he, you're happy with him? Yeah? Like he, maybe? Like, how do you get to the point

where you're like, so what do you think? Well, how did Stan Van Gundy get to the point where he was just like, you guys should take Brandon Jennings?

I think Hannigan is quietly shopping Harris around, gets to Detroit, and Detroit's like, he asked for two expirings and a pick, and Stan does the whole, I can't give you the pick because I'm gonna make another trade with that pick and I gotta keep my pick,

and goes back and he's like, I'll give you two expirings. Do you think Stan's like, I can't give you that pick! He's like, Rob, Rob, come expirings. I can't give you that pick. He's like Rob, Rob come on. Rob I wasn't born yesterday. He's doing that whole thing. Probably

tries to neg him a little bit on how expensive Tobias is. 48 million left on his contract. I don't even, what is he good at? Like he probably does that thing and then like begrudgingly say alright fine Jenennings and and and you know illy so i yeah fine fine and then he's like fist pumping with his like jonah

hill and money ball just like making the fist yeah harris is another guy zach and i seem to be the last two people on the earth who like harris i really like him i just think i don't think you judge anyone on that orlando team they were all on the wrong team what are the bad fit the pistons are in what now they are not ninth so they're outside well so the harris thing's good because you know you could just put him in a marcus morris role and he could do most of that stuff right he'd do that undersized forward stuff he can't shoot threes really neither i don't think marcus morris was that great at shooting threes either. But he's going to be. Now you know you have that guy the whole game, basically. The 6'8", scrappy guy.

Yeah. I think Zach was saying the other day that now with KCP, Tobias, Stanley Johnson, you can just run this high drive people. You can switch everything. And you're going to try to do an Orlando type thing. They don't have the same three-point shooters. But Drummond and just guys spaced around. I would trade drumming if i were them uh you would trade drumming i would but only for like a giant piece oh like who is that like i would try to rope the kings into a boogie drumming thing because boogie's just better yeah that's where i'm like hey man let's do i think

even vladi might know that like he might just be like, no. It's unclear. That was my favorite story of the last week. Woj had that thing about Vlade still confounded by the salary cap stuff. It's like, how hard is this? Tate can figure out the trade machine in five minutes when he's hung over and depressed from the Duke games. How hard is it to be like, oh, yeah, that guy's got a – This guy's got a – Vlad is like, what is a trade kicker? What is it? I don't understand.

A trade kicker? How does that affect the cap? It's not rocket science. Did they hire like a junior person to be under him? Wasn't that a rumor too? How about the hundreds and thousands of people who would be happy to be – Joey Lippman would be D-Vatch's right-hand man. I know one who would love to do it.

Future NBA commissioner Joseph Lippman. Yeah, call him up. He would love to give you some tips, Vladi. That would be a good present for your brother is a basketball. You know the commissioner signatures in the basketball? You somehow work a connection and get the basketball with commissioner Joseph Lippman. Or even better, you just give him a basketball signed by Sean Marks. Yeah, even more valuable. How basketball sign by Sean Marks. Even more valuable.

How about Touched by Sean Marks? Don't worry, guys. Sean Marks is here. You have no lottery picks for the next three years. That'd be great. Tomorrow, Durant's just like, you know, I know that they have no cap space and next to no assets,

and they play in a giant rusty pirate ship in the middle of Atlantic Avenue, but just because Sean Marks is there, I feel like I have to take my talents to Brooklyn. But a blogger at DailyThunder.com had a croissant with Sean Marks once and said his whole life was altered. Oh, man.

He just cannot be that good if he takes that job. I'm sorry. Like, if you took a job right now at the worst website on the earth, and you had no hope for three years, we would all be like, what the hell is Chris doing? But when I get to run that website? Yeah. You're gonna be terrible

for three years. You're out! You quit on the ringer! This is the worst! We need you, man. You can't go. Come on, CR! Would you rather be the GM of the Kings or of the Nets? The GM of the Nets is the worst job in the league. There's no worst job. If I was...

You can't... The worst job does not exist. What's worse than that? If I had bumped into... If I had gone to Toronto, bumped into Vladi, talked my way into becoming the assistant GM or the GM of the Kings, talked my way out of my ringer contract, first thing I'd do is trade for Hazonia that would be my first act

as any GM of any team including the Warriors just for everything Rondo, Hazonia, and Cousins on the same team I don't even know when you get a ticket for a Kings game such a great draft what an awesome collection of dudes

all guys I just like watching. I was just watching Miles Turner. I've been watching Miles Turner for the last couple weeks. Just like, how did that happen? I know. Yeah. It was a great NBA body. Teams were worried about his knees and his legs.

That's actually probably why people thought that Danny Angel was going to give up so much for Horford or Love or whatever. Because he offered the keys to Boston for Justice Winslow. But he looks right. I think when you look at how much Chipotle he eats. Justice Winslow or Danny Ainge? No, Danny Ainge. I think he just had too much Chipotle that day. He panicked.

Because it's crazy. Like, we offered them four picks, including the Brooklyn pick. For Justice Winslow, like, and I think Justice Winslow has a chance to be a multiple all-star, but I don't think he's a superstar. I think Danny was just like, ah, screw it. But now, ever since he's gone off Chipotle, he's just like, I'm not throwing a Brooklyn pick in for Kevin Love. Right. Well, what about Charlotte? Could have had four first rounders

they could have just moved back like three picks in that trade they moved back to 13 they would have gotten Devin Booker who you'd rather have than Frank Kaminsky

which one Devin Booker's the one who's like actually 17 right in the Sun yeah and he's really good Lyle's is so good yeah

Devin Booker had a nice big cup of coffee in the three point contest yeah he was great he made the finals he's with Clay and Steph. He looked really happy.

He was shocked he did that well. Yeah. It was fun. I thought texting his friends during the three point contest was probably. Very melodic. I was like, oh yeah, they do have their phones on the side.

I believed you for a second. I had dinner last night with Kevin Wilds and David Jacoby of former colleagues at the Worldwide Leader. And I think Jacoby was the one saying this. Like, why do they have ball racks for the three-point?

Why don't they have the passes fed to them? And then, I don't know, we got excited about that idea because it's so much pressure on the guy standing the pass that it's like the home run derby. I'm getting missy.

I missed Jacoby's mind. These are the kind of questions I just don't know to ask. But it's, so you have Clay Thompson there and Steph Curry there. God, that's a really good question. I don't know. Why do they have ball racks? They have the same Warriors guy throwing them the passes, but like the Warriors guy maybe likes Steph

or he's trying to suck up with Steph a little bit more. So the Clay Thompson money ball pass, maybe he throws that a little to the right. Maybe it's somebody like Tate that's throwing the passes. Maybe Tate puts a little bet in on one of the two guys and just screws up one of them. But there's so many fun wrinkles to that. Tate's throwing passes while he's got Bovada open on his phone. Dirty secret. Nobody really loves the three-point contest.

It's fun, but ultimately I can't remember who wins any three-point contest. It's fine. There's too many people in it. They can spruce it up. Yeah. There's like eight or ten people, right? That first round is too long. It's way too long.

They would never let those guys play knockout, right? Just because somebody would get hurt? Well, I think maybe it's time to evolve it. The fact that Steph can make 35 footers, maybe there's a seventh ball rack and it's just 35 feet away. There's got to be something. Why haven't we changed this at all? I would also bring back the Miami Vice music from the first couple years,

but that's just me. Well, they did get rid of that shooting stars, which was the same thing where you had to make the half court shot, basically. They got rid of that. Chris Bosh won it three years in a row. It was a horrendous event. Shooting Stars, which was like the same thing where you had to make the half court shot, basically. They got rid of that. Chris Bosh won it like three years in a row. It was a horrendous event. Yeah.

So they should just take a piece of that now that that event is gone. Just put it in the three-point shootout. But I'm not saying half court. I'm just saying like a 32-footer. And by the way, damn you to the TNT director who cut away when everybody knew Steph was going to shoot that half court shot at the end. And he's showing Kobe with the fake Kobe smile on his face. We had to live through that again. He was so thrilled that someone else made a trick shot at the end of his farewell game.

Yeah. The Kobe love was unbelievable. I was blown away by the actual game when they had the first package of the All-Stars pretending to love Kobe. Then they had Magic Johnson come out, and then they had the second package. Also, Kobeed up saying like speaking in spanish to powder saul and be like i want to post a pal vamos i'm like i'm like into the pageantry of kobe bryant but this was a bridge too far for me this was ridiculous somebody asked me what i thought of the new scripted series on

sunday night and i was like everybody pretending to like Kobe? They're like, no, no, vinyl. I was like, oh, sorry. Confused. I mean, the all-time nay-dear for everybody pretending to be sad that somebody was retiring was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which I was there for that. And it was funny watching.

I made fun of Tolan, my friend who did the Kareem doc, because they had a whole part about when Kareem went to Boston and the fans applauded. I went to that game. We were all so miserable that we had to pretend did the Kareem doc, because they had a whole part about when Kareem went to Boston and the fans applauded. I went to that game. We were all so miserable that we had to pretend we liked Kareem for two and a half hours.

Nobody liked Kareem, not one Celtic fan. Nobody liked watching him. We just rooted against him. We're all happy he was leaving. The Kobe thing is a little different, but I don't think he's connected with his peers like we're being led to believe he did. You know, you saw the thing of Curry standing next to him getting autographed shoes.

And there's a warmth that just wasn't there. Yeah. You know, I was like, hey, thanks, man. I saw a backstage video of him and Caron Butler where they seemed to be friendly. But I think Caron Butler might be friends with every single person. Yeah, you can't judge with Caron Butler. I love looking at all-star pictures of, like of who's hanging out with who at the various parties, and Kobe's in none of them.

Like, literally zero. Yeah, I remember at the... I'm not going to tell this story. I think you were talking about this the other day, maybe with House, but about the new generation of guys. The three generations. It was weird, because I saw... It was weird looking at a picture, I think, of the dunk contest.

The guy standing on the sidelines for the dunk contest. First of all, it was hilarious because they were all dressed up like they were in John Carpenter's The Thing because it was so cold. So like Carl Towns had like a Carhartt hat on like in the stadium, but it was Towns, I think Booker, Wall, Wiggins. And I was like, oh, that's like the new NBA generation. Like these guys, I'm going to watch these guys for the next 15 years and they all went to Kentucky yeah that's right thank you John Calipari yeah you you did it for us the one thing that I uh don't understand about Kobe is like I like Kobe and I've always really liked watching him when I was a kid I lived in New York

and I still like really enjoyed Lakers games but I kind of don't understand how his fan base is this big it's not like he's incredibly personable. Obviously, he's amazing, but the fact that he still is so popular. A lot of Laker fans. A lot of international Laker fans. A lot of young kids. International Kobe fans. But Steph gets the kids now, right?

Yeah, Steph took the kids over, and Tate. And Tate. He took those two. I was just thinking a really good roommate for Tate would be Mario Hazonia. If you could do that. You want to talk about Tate coming in without contact. Tweets by Tate. You took those two. I was just thinking a really good roommate for Tate would be Mario Hazonia. If you could do that. You want to talk about Tate coming in without contact. Tweets by Tate. Mario and Tate on the town?

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made better. Let's do quick winners and losers from the trade deadline and then we'll wrap it up. I would say winner, Jeff Green. Gets from Memphis to LA. Low expectations.

He's not one of the best four players in the team. Might be able to play some crunch time. Might be able to play a little small ball four. Doc isn't saying about him. Blake at the five. There's some weird doc quote where it's like, Jeff Green is my favorite NBA player who's walked the earth. It's some very over the top doc quote about how he's a person.

All the Celtics people really like Jeff Green as a person yeah they would have liked him more if he played hard every game but i think they liked him personally they thought he was an awesome guy uh loser dwight howard everyone knows that he's just completely damaged like on a chemistry standpoint stuck on a team that doesn't want him and the star of his team hates him. This was the league's worst-kept secret. And when I went to the 2012 Olympics and just was kind of immersed in the whole basketball circles there, because, you know, it's only a few people there. I visit hotel bars every night. You just hear a ton of gossip, talk to different people.

I couldn't believe how many people Dwight turned off in 2008. Like, they were delighted that he wasn't at the Olympics. Because I was like, man, you think we can get through this with Dwight? And they're like, fuck that guy. It was like a lot of that stuff. Fuck him. We don't need Dwight. The guy's a big baby.

It was a lot of that stuff. I was like, Jesus. Like, how annoying was he? But there's something about him. I think people, you know. Look, the guy's made a ton of money. He can't knock his career. But I think there's something about him. I think people, you know, look, the guy's made a ton of money. He's had, can't knock his career, but I think there's something about him.

The guys, it's followed him the last five, six years, Orlando. He shouldn't have been that unhappy. It should have ended that bad. I mean, in retrospect,

I wonder if he wishes he never left. I mean, maybe I don't even know what his thought process is about all this stuff, but in retrospect, do you wonder whether or not he should have just like engineered Stan leaving or something like that but just stayed in orlando it's amazing stan stayed that long yeah um a winner for the trade deadline secretly not really secretly is the warriors because nobody did anything that scares them right nobody made a move where it's like oh man oklahoma city got ariza oklahoma city got a follow or something like that like there's it's pretty much everybody

Stan Pat they already know what they can do against the league they can go for the regular season win record if they want what do they have to worry about Stan Van Gundy big winner of the trade deadline definitely I'm happy for him me too I was supposed to be on countdown with him in the summer of 2012 that's true story do you know that I didn't know that yeah it was supposed to be on Countdown with him in the summer of 2012. That's a true story. Did you know that? I didn't know that. Yeah.

It was supposed to be Magic Wilbon, me, and Stan Van Gundy. And Van Gundy had already committed, and they were working on his contract. And then I was at the Olympics, and I think I was in – after the Olympics were over, I took my family to France for a couple days and went to Paris, which was a disaster. French people hate kids. But my son was a maniac and we almost lost him seven times. But during this time, I agreed to be on countdown. It was going to be the four of us. And then like, I don't know, a couple of weeks later, all of a sudden it's like, yeah, Stan might not be on now.

It's like, what do you mean? And Stern squashed it. Really really flat out squashed it they didn't want to have two van gundys one of the interesting sliding doors moments in like five years is going to be the kerr van gundy warriors decision it's a good sliding door because he what would happen is he would have done tv for a year or two for espn he would have been on our show and then i think he gets the Golden State job. And I don't know if Kerr ever gets it. I think Kerr's out there just trying to get Carmelo to pass.

Kerr stayed more visible with the prominent TNT job he had than SVG was just going on Levitard's show. He wasn't nearly as visible. And visibility does help with those jobs. I have another loser. I have a final positive winner oh give a give a winner i just think we all won because we got a bigger platform for sean marks the rc buford rc buford tree spurs east i don't believe in the rc buford tree i'm just throw it out there. Just show me the receipts. Show me the championships outside of San Antonio.

I wonder if there's a social media platform where people can hit you up and let you know about whether you're wrong. Last week on Jam Session, I came out as questioning Beyonce, and I survived. So I feel invincible. Buford truthers. I will say, though, there's an art to hiring people. Yeah. It's something I think I got better at as I was there the last couple years. You learn what to look for and what types of people.

And maybe people look at that coaching tree and they just be like, all right, if I'm hiring from that tree, I'm hiring this type of person. And that's the type of person I want to build an organization around. Now, I don't want to give the Nets that much credit because who's making that decision on the Nets? Prokhorov's like on jet skis with models and freaking. Is it Irina? No, Italy. I don't know. Irina?

Irina? Maybe. Oh, well, then big winner. I love Irina. I just think even if he's a great fit in San Antonio, maybe he's a great fit there. But maybe people should just stay in their... We're really questioning Sean Marks here. I don't know why, but it's fun.

Just going with it. Let's go with your loser. I forgot who it was, so give me another winner or loser. I was going to make the Sean Marks joke, too. Damn. Sorry. Yours is probably better. Oh, I've remembered my loser.

Oh, great. I'm going to break news here. Yeah. I'm going to break some news. Wait. I'm gonna break some news wait watch this space for some news no it's not breaking news I've been very suspect

of Blake Griffin will be back soon all those stories about how his hands need four to six weeks all that stuff I've never bought into it I think it's gonna be

longer than that the whole season right and he also has to be suspended for four games. For me, that Jeff Green trade was an admission by the Clippers that they don't think Blake Griffin is going to be back when everyone is saying he's going to be back because they needed that kind of small ball four, small forward, somebody who could take those minutes.

And if you watch Paul Pierce this year, it's not going to be Paul Pierce. There's been a lot of Mabu Omate. There's been some Wesley Johnson. I think they're really worried. Who do you put next to DeAndre Jordan at the end of a game? And that's how I read that trade, because giving up a first-round pick in 2019

when they don't know if Blake's going to be in that team, Chris Paul's going to be 35. Doc Rivers not exactly stockpiling all the assets. Like that's a pretty big pick to give up for Jeff Green. Yeah. So I'm going to make that a loser with an asterisk just because I'm suspicious. Interesting. Yeah.

I like it. I love a good conspiracy theory, especially regarding Blake. Do you think he has traded in the offseason? I don't know. I've heard he. traded in the offseason? I don't know. I've heard he... He was pretty apologetic. Let me ask you, let's end on this. Let me ask you this.

Will we see, is this going to be a huge offseason for player movement? Are we going to see Love, Howard, Blake, Durant, all change teams? I don't think so. Okay. Do you want to be Matthias Testy or Blake Griffin in my next analogy? I'll be Testy.

I stand with Matthias. Okay. Is it Matthias or Matthias? It's Matthias. Matthias? Yeah. You want to be Matthias Testy in this next thing?

All right. So you and Fantasy are out one night. Knew this is where it was going. I love this story. You're having drinks. It's getting a little heated. What is it getting heated about?

Whether momentum exists? Uh-huh. Yeah, it's something. And you start going hard at Fantasy like the ringer would be better without you. And you're just over and over and you say it. And Fantasy's starting to get mad. And you keep going, you keep going, you keep going. And then he just flips out and starts punching you.

Uh-huh. And then we have a whole thing and people write about it. What's it like four weeks later? With Sean and I? You still have a black eye, but it's healed at that point and it's like, no, good, we're gonna get past this. But deep down, you wanna run him over in the parking lot still, right?

Yeah, what's the analogy? This is just like a revenge fantasy. No, I'm just the Blake Griffin thing. Putting into terms you're going to recognize. Well, I would like to think that, I mean,

the thing that makes that a specific case for Blake and that guy is that it is a work relationship, but it's one in which one person is for all intents and purposes, subservient to another person. Like his job is to like get blake ready for a game like that's that's a difficult thing you know what i mean it's not i don't have to get shot they vacationed and stuff yeah yeah and all the other guys in the clippers like this guy it's tough when i've had like blowout i've had very few but when i've had

like real like falling outs with my very close friends, it's like a years long recovery. Many years. And those weren't fallouts that ended with somebody repeatedly punching the other one. No. No violence or surgery involved. I don't know. I really, you know, we're on a podcast. I always worry when we talk about it.

I'm just talking about this just like we're three friends shooting the shit. I just wonder how you get over that when it's like an actual physical altercation with punches and somebody. It didn't seem like he broke his jaw or anything, but how does the team get past that? It's really the most interesting story of anyone in the West right now. How does that team heal from that? And also, as an employer, if you are a doc, if you are someone who is in the front office, aren't you then worried about that happening again? Just as a straight up workplace issue, a fistfight between two employees is a really big deal. Right. And by the way, I don't know if that's what happened. I mean, that's

kind of the theory that's going around that that's what happened. But who knows? It could have been any reason. But at some point, Blake became enraged enough that he started punching the guy and the guy was a foot shorter. That's also like a team as are like there are several teams. I think we might even see this happen with Cleveland in the playoffs if they're playing Channing Fry instead of Kevin Love, where we do seem to be moving a little bit away from this idea that you just try to get the two or three best players possible, put them on the court and like work around that to, if you have Chris Paul and Deandre Jordan running, running pick and rolls and Deandre's dive into the hoop and then you spread

the floor around them. Like, is that a better team than the one they have with Blake Griffin? So does that, does that creep into it? And is that like, can you play Deandre Jordan in the last six minutes? It's a totally different conversation if the Clippers

are 0-17 without Blake. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, of course. But, I mean, their schedule is kind of soft for most of this time, right? Sure. I was amazed they didn't trade Jamal Crawford. I think he's like one of the most overrated guys in the league. He looks good once and everybody's like, oh, Jamal Crawford.

Go look at his stats. And he's ball dominator. Tate, would you have fun playing with Jamal Crawford. Go look at his stats. And he's ball dominator. Tate, would you have fun playing with Jamal Crawford? Tate's shaking his head. Maybe Sean Marks will pick him up. Maybe. I thought they were going to package Jamal Crawford and Lance

and go kind of get somebody. And I guess, I don't know. Is Jeff Green? Wesley Johnson gets a lot of minutes on that team. Eh. I was just thinking, without Blake, I don't know. Is Jeff Green? Wesley Johnson gets a lot of minutes on that team. Yeah. Like, I was just thinking, like, without Blake, they don't really have, who's, like, their second scorer? I guess Reddick's having a great season. And Chicago didn't do anything.

That's a loser. Yeah. What is that team? What a mess. They tried to cut down the tax. Is that just being cheap? Well, because they're still paying the tax, though. Yeah.

That's crazy. It's a weird team. Anything else we got to hit? No? I feel like I'm a trade deadline loser because I wanted the Celtics to do something. I was excited for it. I'm a trade deadline winner because there's just so many awkward relationships to live through now. We're all winners because Marquis Morris left the Phoenix Suns facility on a hoverboard.

And almost fell off. Yeah. And did fall off. Thanks to SimpliSafe for sponsoring today's special trade deadline edition of the BS Podcast. I'm sorry we didn't have more trades to talk about. But the good news is any home security company that says it's free has a huge contract and conditions attached. But not SimpliSafe. No long-term contracts. 24-7 protection for just $14.99 a month.

Visit SimpliSafeBill.com to get my 10% off discount. Thanks as well to SoFi. It's a new kind of company that's sending shockwaves, the good kind, through the financial world. They don't judge their numbers based on a FICO score. They look at their potential and if they show promise, they'll back

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Start your free one-month trial today. Thanks to SeatGeek, the presenting sponsor of the Bill Simmons Podcast, and Channel 33. Thanks to Chris Ryan, and thanks to Juliette Libman from The Ringer. The Ringer. Not Binge Mode. The Ringer. Sign up for our newsletter. It's theringer.com.

And we're going to be starting to update it probably mid-March. Follow us on Twitter, at Ringer. Follow us on Facebook, facebook.com, at Ringer. All this stuff makes Juliette happy. It's her birthday. You should do all these things. Thanks for listening. Enjoy the weekend.

HBD Juliette. We about this bitch. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here, close your eyes, and picture me rolling