The Bill Simmons Podcast - NBA Scuttlebutt, Trump's Rockiest Month, Yanks-Sox, and Teen Culture Watch | The Bill Simmons Podcast (Ep. 382)
Episode Date: June 25, 2018HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Kevin O'Connor to talk NBA draft aftermath, Kawhi and LeBron speculation, possible opt-outs, Jaylen Brown's true value, and more (2:20). Then Bill calls ...up his buddy JackO to revisit the Yankees and Red Sox before their upcoming three-game series, talk rule changes, and discuss Donald Trump's interesting month (37:23). Finally, Bill's daughter Zoe talks about teenage pop culture, including Millie Bobby Brown, movies, teenagers on Instagram, and more (1:13:38). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Kevin O'Connor is here from The Ringer.
Fresh off a 90-hour work week last week.
It was good.
It was a good time.
It was fun.
It was controversial.
Some picks, some controversial trades i value the miami pick that phoenix got
um or that phoenix gave up way more than you did oh way more i mean look i mean it's like we
discussed the 2021 draft could be the year high schoolers are allowed in but there's also a chance
it's not like they said 2021 at the earliest maybe the nba makes it 2022 2023 not to mention
miami could be good uh but it's a lottery ticket. That's a good part of it. So just to, to, to follow up on that,
the word I've been hearing is, or the phrase is double draft. So at some point next decade,
there's going to be a double draft and it might be 21 at the earliest could be 22. It's going to
be 21, 22 or 23. They need to give the teams at least a two
year heads up, maybe even three. And the reason we call it a double draft is one of those drafts,
high schoolers are going to become eligible. So you're going to have all the players that you
thought were going to be in the draft anyway. And then the entire McDonald's all American high
school class. And I was saying to you, I think from what i've heard teams are really scared to
give up 21 22 23 now it's one of the many reasons why the celtics value that grizzlies pick so much
i think they value that grizzlies pick even more than the kings pick i mean that pick becomes
unprotected in 2021 top eight top six which could be the double draft. So, um,
I,
weird times are ahead for the NBA.
Yeah.
I do feel like they're going to revamp the draft system a little.
I think expansion is a real possibility.
Seattle.
Yeah.
I think,
I think they could go add two more teams.
Um,
I think it's ready.
The league's loaded with a lot of talent and they need,
uh,
they need to figure out some of the cap stuff.
Silver alluded to the idea of a hard cap, right?
It's almost like a preventative measure.
So KD to a 73-win team
that almost won the finals
never happens again in the future.
Well, I think the biggest mistake
they made this decade
was not staggering that 2016 cap,
which they knew.
They knew that was going to be a problem.
They talked about it.
They tried to get the Players Union to buy in.
The Players Union, as always, making the wrong decision.
The Players Union over and over again screws up.
And in that case was just indefensible
because you're going to look at the market this year
and really nobody has cap space.
You have these free agents.
I heard Anus Kanter was going to potentially opt out of his next contract.
Where's he getting $18 million next year?
That's weird.
I would think for some of these guys, you want to lock in this year, like a one-year deal, maybe a one-on-one,
and then hit free agency next year when it's a mini bump to around $108.
This year is going to be around $101, $102.
Get a little bump next year.
Maybe you get paid more long-term.
So Atlanta has like 20 million in cap space.
Dallas has like 25.
Philly's going to have around 26.
Indiana might have potentially a lot of Thad Young ops out of his contract,
which he actually, that might not be the worst idea if he did.
He's at 13.7, I think.
Yeah.
Even for him, it could end up being a mistake
i guess it depends on what your priorities are if you want like a four-year deal eight per
to get that long-term security four for 32 something like that but it feels like for
someone like thad young you can get that next summer too and then there's some interesting
opt-out guys like i didn't realize milos might leave the clippers and maybe that was we were at
the draft i I couldn't
figure out why they took two guards, but I think one of the reasons was Milos is on for six.
They can buy them out for two and they're very close to luxury tax. There's some, there's some
really fun free agents. They're not, they're not marquee free agents, but there's a lot of free
agents in that kind of Milos, Marcuscus smart these guys that are like the fourth fifth
starter guys like even a trevor ariza type yeah something like that derrick favors there's a
handful of interesting fun one yeah i mean i would like him for a team like a pacers something like
that you know add a big to their rotation erin baines erin baines a lot of those guys there's
a lot of guys who could play in a playoff series for you on the right team and then like you know JJ and Ilya Sova
and Bellinelli
but you're going down the line
and there's just a lot I think
but then there's not a lot of money too
which I had heard that
Indiana is going to make a run at Marcus
Schroeder
on Atlanta
very available
has been for months so one of the trades that i think it's starting to
trickle out was available was schroeder for um basically like bledsoe and trying to feed the
pick or whatever bledsoe expires next year atlanta is trying to cut bait yep get to that
schroeder thing i still like him for orlando though by the way i we've argued about Schroeder thing. I still like him for Orlando, though. By the way, we've argued about Schroeder,
and I think I've changed my mind on him 20 times.
But I don't know.
Schroeder, he's like 23 years old.
I thought he was better last year.
He's young.
I had a conversation this week with somebody in the league,
and he's like, I heard you on the podcast or whatever it was,
saying Schroeder, you wouldn't want him on your team.
It's like, yeah, I wouldn't.
But then he made the counterpoint.
He's like, but look how young he is.
Think about a situation.
He's still a young guy.
Put him in a new environment.
He's not a bad dude necessarily.
Maybe he matures the new situation.
Maybe having continuity on the roster helps him.
Maybe having a proven head coach helps him.
And it's true.
Like he's had 19 and six this year
and he's had some impressive games
over his career in the NBA.
So if you're a team like Orlando, right? needs a point guard maybe he's someone you gamble on for
the next three years there was i was messing around the trade machine with it this weekend where
they could take back basically bionbo and uh either shelvin mack or terrence ross is expiring
and put in schroeder but then put in the bad Plumlee, make Orlando take that contract,
basically it would all work out,
maybe get like a conditional first or like a high second
or something like that.
I think if I'm Orlando, I really want to get a decent point guard
because I don't want to throw away Mo Bamba's rookie season
with DJ Augustine and Shelvin Mack.
And for them, it's like you have a stabilizer on the roster.
I just wonder if he's the guy,
because he's someone who you'd almost want him to hone back
some of the scoring sometimes and develop more facilitating skills.
I think when he came into the draft,
that's almost what I expected him more to be.
People compared him to Rondo, and watching him overseas,
that's the guy he did remind you of, not his body but sometimes his game with a pass first you know
mentality with hints of scoring yeah it's kind of flipped and and who knows maybe having an
aaron gordon and and mo bama around him does turn him more into a passer in orlando i still like him
because he's competitive and i liked how he played against better teams. He had some good games against the Celtics last year.
I don't remember if it was this year or the year before.
He had one game where he went at Cleveland really.
He had a monster game against Cleveland.
He had some big games.
There's that upside.
I'd like to see him on a good team.
So not Orlando then.
Maybe not Orlando, but Milwaukee would be fun
if they could get Bledsoe
and I don't know,
whatever else.
Maybe Thon Maker,
they could have one more tall guy
who doesn't really totally know
what he's doing.
Hey.
What else are you looking forward to?
So we have July 1st is Friday?
No, Saturday.
Or is it Sunday?
Sunday.
But the opt-out date is June 29th for some of these guys.
So that is Friday.
And then July 1st is Sunday.
Yes, it is Sunday.
Yep, yep.
And we're going to find out if LeBron is opting out,
I would guess, the day before.
His date is June 29th.
So if he opts in, that means either A, he's staying with Cleveland,
or he's going to do the Chris Paul thing.
I feel like if he opts in, that means he's getting traded.
I mean, it's always possible he could stay, but I'm doubtful.
Are you still hearing Cleveland and Lakers and that's it?
Yeah, I mean, I think there's a little hint of Philly.
Just because of the quarterback possibilities.
Yeah, and the Ben Simmons
and Joel Embiid the fact that they are
like if they add LeBron James they are East
favorites I think that
that's still there I still think it's mostly between
the Lakers and Cleveland though
so is there a chance
nobody he can't get anyone else
to come in with him because I didn't think there was a chance
but now you read over
the weekend Sam Amick reported that the Spurs are just not going to trade Kawhi to the West I didn't think there was a chance. But now you read over the weekend Sam Amick reported that
the Spurs are just not going to trade Kawhi
to the West. I don't 100%
know if I believe that. I think it's an interesting
bargaining stance. It's leverage
really. Right. I think ultimately
you have to make the best trade you can make. You can't
just rule out 15 teams. I agree.
But I think
Brandon Ingram, let's say the Lakers put him on the table.
If you're the San Antonio Spurs, are you really really gonna let the fact that the lakers are in the
west change the fact that you're gonna get a 20 year old prospect who is rising and flashes
not just his scoring potential at the end of last season but it's passing yeah and lots of
balls are you really gonna say no to that and he's like still he turns 21 this year 20 yeah
20 years old this next season he's 21 i I prefer him over Jalen Brown as a prospect.
So it's like, are you gonna...
Really? You think he has higher trade value than Jalen?
I don't know about trade value because Jalen's more proven
in playoff situations, but I think as a
prospect long term, Ingram
is so
much more fluid as a ball handler.
Jalen is still rigid-y and
herky-jerky a little bit, but
Brandon Ingram, with his passing skills, feel, his length,
I think long-term he could be the better player.
The problem is they would have to put Dang's contract in the trade,
which I would want no part of with the Spurs.
There's another way, though, because they do have cap space.
So potentially they could offer just Ingram and Kuzma for Kawhi and that's it.
Exactly.
And the Spurs would save $13 million.
And if you're the Spurs, you say, find someone else to dump Dang on.
That's really what you can do.
I still think Philly is the best Kawhi possibilities.
Philly has some interesting stuff because Covington's contract,
which I think is
like 17 million right now, but next week drops to 10. So it makes it easier for them to trade him
now, but they don't, you know, Bayless isn't expiring. It's not, it's half as much money as
Dang and it's one less season. They have more assets to kind of go in. I have no idea what
Fultz's trade value is. I know if I was a GM, I would actually value him really
high and try to trade for him. Me too.
You and I are in the camp of
Markel Fultz can still be
an NBA guy someday. I think the
shots are a concern still, but
he showed everything else last
year. He showed the passing vision.
He showed the feel. He showed the
athleticism. He showed the ability
to get to the rim whenever
he really wants to he played pretty good defense the most best you can expect for a rookie point
guard right he did everything that made him a top prospect except for the jumper and that's a
serious concern however if that gets fixed and you know if you know we look back at this and
Fultz's rookie year and think oh my god like how far he's come yeah he's gonna be one of the game's best point guards so if you're a team like San Antonio you have Chip England maybe you
feel good about him working with Drew Hanlon this summer hey I mean I think it's a good situation
for him if you're the Spurs and obviously for the flip side of Philadelphia your doctor Glasshow
is the guy who I went to when he was new york yeah you probably have more confidence than any other team can have and his his level of um injury proneness moving forward not to mention
you have the right assets to plug him in um into a trade easily and you mentioned covington at 17
million bill i do wonder if i mean you can do it this year like right now before the the year turns
at july 1st but there's also some incentive to waiting too
because then you have to put Bayless in a trade.
You have no other choice depending on how the salary is.
Yeah, it's better for Philly to dump the Bayless country.
Sure.
And if you're the Spurs,
maybe you're okay with waiting as well
because then you have more time to get more offers too
instead of rushing through things.
And the other place Fultz could go is Cleveland.
If,
if there ends up being LeBron thing too,
I would love to see him on the Spurs because.
Does Cleveland have enough leverage for that though?
No.
I mean,
if,
if,
if it's their version of the Chris Paul trade a year ago,
you know,
where LeBron ops in and then they trade and try to get something for him.
Fultz and Sexton together would be bizarre.
Oh,
that'd be fun.
But yeah,
I mean.
The thing with Fultz and Sexton together would be bizarre. Oh, that'd be fun. But I mean. The thing with Fultz, the speed that he had that he showed even in that last month, the speed, control, athleticism.
Power and size.
Yeah.
This is not like an Anthony Bennett thing where when he was playing, you just watch and go, wow, I don't even know what position that guy is.
And he was out of shape, and it was a disaster from the get-go.
Fultz's speed was really in the high end.
I thought he was one of the eight or nine fastest guys in the league.
And I don't know, I was really impressed.
He's good.
He went number one for good reason.
Seriously.
I really think they made a mistake not kind of floating him out
in some of those playoff games.
I would have done it in the home games because the crowd would have rooted for him.
I'm a little surprised, too.
Brett Brown said this.
I think it was maybe right before the playoffs.
He's like, if you aren't risk or be safe, I want to lean towards the risk side,
like the high-up side of having someone like Fultz out there.
But then again, they put T.J. McConnell out there instead,
and he also provided that upside in certain games as well.
Remember, McConnell played over Ben Simmons.
The game after the confetti game, yeah.
So if the Spurs could end up with Fultz and Sarich
in that Miami pick and something else.
Zaire Smith too.
And do Kawhi and then also dump the Patty Mills contract.
I think that's a home run for them.
For the Spurs.
Yeah, for a guy who's going to leave in a year
who they clearly have to trade.
I don't see who's topping that.
I mean, is there a scenario where they can get
an established player for him in a trade?
Maybe.
I don't know who that player is.
But if you have the Sp spurs would you rather that established
player or would you rather like a mixture of young guys and the rise with a established
player like covington i would too never mind the fact that you're you might be getting a zaire smith
and that 2020 2021 miami pick it's a blend of both and i think that would allow san antonio to
remain competitive they won 47 games
last year with Kawhi only playing nine, right? And adding a young core to that, that's really,
really appealing for the Spurs. What if it was, what if Washington called and just said,
we'll give you Beal in our 2021 first, and that's it? See, I'd rather have a Philly package.
I think I would too. And that's like, there's a theoretical Philly package,
but if that were on the table, I'd rather that. Because the thing. I think I would too. That's a theoretical Philly package, but if that were on the table,
I'd rather that.
Because the thing is, if they trade Kawhi,
now you have to figure out what your team is
and why LaMarcus Aldridge is on it too.
It's almost like that might be a two-part deal.
If you trade Kawhi, then maybe it makes sense to also then trade Aldridge.
Would you take that route if you're the Spurs?
Or would it depend on what you're getting back?
Because I've thought about this as well.
Like if Kawhi gets dealt before July 1st
or an early free agency,
I do wonder if they go full, quote unquote,
blow it up mode and get rid of all the veterans.
Or they're like, you know what?
We can win 50 games and have this, you know,
hall of draft picks and young players come in
and develop in and be an assets for us to build back up.
I wonder if that's maybe the path to go.
But Aldridge is older too.
So there's some logic to trade in him when he just had an all-NBA season.
The X factor is how long Pop wants to coach
and that 2020 Olympic team that he's going to do.
And it seems like there's a feeling within the league
that he does two more years and his swan song is the 2020 Olympic team that he's going to do. And it seems like there's a feeling within the league that he does two more
years and his swan song is the 2020 Olympic team.
And this is why I just don't see him going out,
just handing Kawhi over to the Lakers.
Even if that's the best possible trade,
I still feel like he's won five titles.
He's a stubborn guy.
And obviously they feel really betrayed by how this kawaii
thing played out and you saw it last year with uh with kevin pritchard and paul george
where he passed up trades that people at the time thought were just better trades nobody realized
the whole depot was going to turn into what he turned into but uh and then people were like
wow that was like a spiteful trade i don't think they even realized he'd be that great.
Yeah.
He wanted to get him out of the conference.
The whole mentality of wanting to get the guy out of the conference is bizarre to me.
It's like, oh, we'd only have to see him twice a year.
So instead of three, who cares?
I understand it if you're a team that has contending aspirations, right?
You don't want to deal with them in the conference.
But I also think my philosophy has always been like,
just take the best deal.
I mean, just take the best deal.
It doesn't matter where the player is going.
You need to worry about where you're taking in more so than what you're
giving up and where he's going.
If you're taking a lesser deal when you know it's a lesser deal on paper,
I think you're just fooling yourself if you do that.
Well, there's an underlying piece of this,
which is if the Spurs feel like the Lakers have been tampering here the last
year,
which I think the tampering buzz around the Lakers right now is the highest
I've ever heard about a team.
Like teams are just convinced that they're operating like there are no rules.
And even if they get caught,
so what?
All right,
well,
here's your,
here's our million dollar fine.
Great.
It's like Rob Palenka had that comment last week where he's like,
I,
people,
you know,
might not deal with this.
It's totally paraphrasing because of the banners,
right?
Cause of the history and all the winning.
It's like,
well,
maybe it's because of the tampering.
Yeah,
seriously.
I think,
I think they have a really bad reputation now for,
you know,
they've been pretty blatant about who they've been going to lunch with and
taking out people and people's inner circles and just kind of throwing stuff out, leaking stuff to
reporters. And even like that weird genie bus tweet last week. Do not underestimate whatever
it was. Yeah. What is that? What does that mean? So I don't know. Isn't it great? Like all these
players and owners even and executives can tweet things. I'm like, what does it mean so i don't know i think isn't it great like all these players and owners even
and executives can tweet things i'm like what does it mean right well really tampering has been
thrown out the window the last few years i think we talked about this on last year's podcast right
around now it's just like the nba looks the other way pretty much on everything now i don't think
they care you have the july 1st comes around and 10 guys sign contracts within
five minutes. So these
guys are all talking now.
We talked about this, I think, when the Chris
Paul trade to Houston happened.
How does
Houston know that Chris Paul's going to opt
in? And how does...
All the mechanics of that were crazy.
Obviously, everybody's talking to everybody.
Don't you know Daryl Moore is psychic?
Of course he knows.
That's how.
Yeah, he's still pathetic.
But when I had Kyrie on my podcast, he said something that I thought when he said it was
going to be a story and nobody even noticed it.
He was saying how the tampering starts at All-Star Weekend with the players when they're
all together.
And that's when he's like from that
point on it's on i was like oh that's interesting that makes sense to memorize isaiah thomas talking
without horford uh yeah 2016 all-star weekend people made big story about that and guess what
it turned out horford signed with the celtics yeah tamper central uh would you be stunned if
chris paul didn't go back to the rocketsets? Because there's been a little buzz, and I can't tell how real it is.
You know, I wouldn't be floored by it.
Right, you wouldn't be flabbergasted.
Yeah, but I would be mildly surprised.
I think it's a great situation for him in that D'Antoni offense
playing alongside James Harden, but I wouldn't be absolutely blown away.
But I would be a little surprised.
Would you be floored if the Celtics did a Jalen Brown
and a Kings package for Kawhi in the next three days?
No.
I think they should go for it.
I think Jalen Brown has become a tad overrated.
Oh!
Yeah, I do.
No!
It's funny because...
He's now the overrated?
He used to be underrated?
He used to be way underrated right
like entering the draft all southwark fans are like want chris dunn you know what want jamal
murray and it's like no jalen brown is like an elite athlete you know length and scoring upside
of his shot um really really comes along and it has but i do wonder like i said earlier he still
doesn't he's still not a great ball handler. Maybe I'm underrating him now,
but I still haven't seen that progress as much as I would hope to
in terms of fluid athleticism,
in terms of quick twitch movements driving the ball.
He's going to be a good player for a long time,
for a very, very long time,
but I'm not sure I see that path to a Kawhi level.
I can see a paul george level
potentially wrote about this last week yes still a really good player like i could see paul george
i think he can be a better paul george i really do i think he can be a 2.0 version of paul george
but even george is still like so much more fluid with the ball i mean it wasn't after two years
brown brown's better now than george was then And it's certainly the argument. My fear with Brown is he sucked in game seven against the Cavs, right?
That was his worst game of the playoffs.
And I do worry about like the James Harden 2012,
where James Harden, who was just a flat out assassin
in some of those playoff series,
and then in the finals just had a shitty finals and then got traded.
And that was like the last memory of people like, oh, well, he did suck in the finals just had a shitty finals and then got traded. And that was like the last memory of people like,
oh, well, he did suck in the finals.
And then he goes and he becomes James Harden.
I don't think Jalen Brown is as good as James Harden,
but I don't like trading people after.
I wouldn't do anything.
I've already got the record.
I just think I like the team they have.
I want to watch these guys together.
I want to keep the Kings pick. I want to root for them. I just like team they have. I want to watch these guys together. I want to keep the Kings pick.
I want to root for...
I just like all the assets.
I think the reason why you wouldn't trade,
put him in a trade for Kawhi
is because you don't know the health of Kawhi.
You don't know if he's going to leave.
No, the health?
I don't know his state of mind.
But if he theoretically...
I now have Uncle Dennis in my life.
Yeah, of course.
But if he theoretically were to agree to a long-term deal
and if you were to get assurances that he would be healthy,
like let's say this is a theoretical possibility would you then put jalen brown in a
trade or would you still rather hang on to the young guy and all the rights moving forward with
him and see him develop i would i would keep it and i think they have a chance to win the title
with this team anyway and i think davis is the ultimate prize not kawaii i would keep my eggs
in the Davis basket.
That's fair.
Because then New Orleans in a couple of years
could rather trade him to the East than the West.
Could be four months from now.
Yeah, who knows?
We'll see what happens.
Everyone in the West got better.
New Orleans.
I guess they didn't get better in New Orleans.
I don't think the summer, though.
It's way too soon.
After the season they had,
there's no way they'd trade him this summer.
Oh, I don't think they will either.
But I'm saying in February, he's hurt. Oh, sure. All of a sudden, they trade him this summer. Oh, I don't think they will either, but I'm saying in February,
he's hurt.
All of a sudden, they're 15 and 27.
They lose Boogie this summer, and Boogie's thriving with the Mavericks
or something like that.
Sure.
There's some West teams.
If Dallas signs Capella or DeAndre,
they might actually be pretty good next year.
I'm not saying a 50-win team, but they might be a 37-win team.
Competitive.
The Lakers are going to be better next year.
I think the Kings, the bag man's going to come in and win rookie of the year
and put up the 23 and 13.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Big, big time.
But they might be like a 37-win team.
They have no incentive to tank because they don't have their pick next year.
And then the Suns is another one.
Bridges comes in. Bridges, bridges i think will be competent right away ayton at least gives them you know some athleticism
and booker has gotten better each year booker's gotten better their their whole supporting cast
they have money to spend on a free agent it feels so good to have friends in the sun strand in there
son's bandwagon well they finally that's our league pass team for next
year.
Yeah.
Telling you,
they're going to be
good in a couple
of years.
I love their
young core.
Someone put up a
poll on Twitter
this morning.
Would you rather
have the Suns
young core or
the Lakers
young core?
I'd rather have
the Suns.
Yeah,
exactly.
It's a really
good core.
I mean,
the reality is
they got Booker
at 13.
And in retrospect,
he'd be like the third or fourth guy in that draft.
They got Josh Jackson at four, which I think was the right spot.
Maybe even higher for Booker.
Maybe, arguably.
I forget who was in that draft.
Was that the Towns draft?
Yeah, Towns draft.
Porzingis.
I mean, would you take Booker ahead of Porzingis?
Well, now that I know Porzingis has a blown out day.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, even before then, I think the argument could have been made
just because 6'6
25 points per game as a 21 year old
pretty insane
I want to read the Josh Jackson
puff piece feature
about how awesome he's doing this summer
and then I'll be really in on the Suns
cut his hair
shot's going to improve now
yeah just Josh Jackson.
All he did was lock himself in a gym and shoot threes.
And he's obsessed with becoming awesome at threes.
And he's ready to be the best player from that draft.
I want to read that piece.
I'm not positive he has that in him.
I think he might.
But I want to read it.
I know last year, the year after Jalen's rookie year,
he was in the gym the next day.
He demanded to go to summer league.
And he worked on his game and was really passionate about it.
And so the Josh Jackson thing.
They also have, I think, some expirings
that they could potentially make some moves in February, right?
Yeah, Chandler, I believe, is expiring.
Right.
Dudley might be expiring as well. I think he is. Yeah, Dudley and Chand believe is expiring right um dudley might be expiring as well yes yeah dudley and
chandler are expiring uh and then a couple smaller contracts like a troy daniels type
um but that's only 3.2 million but yeah they have some even brennan knight only two years left
how we've forgotten about him right um maybe he comes back and is solid who knows maybe maybe not
but if not he's only got two years left.
That's not an albatross of a contract.
We should do an oral history of that trade. One of the worst trades of all time.
That trade was fascinating. That day was wild.
Hey, one other thing I heard was that
one of the reasons
Cleveland took Sexton was because they knew
Charlotte liked him.
And if LeBron does decide to stay,
they know they have the Sexton and Clarkson
for Kemba trade.
That's right.
Sitting there.
Makes sense.
Which, by the way, is a great trade.
I actually really like that trade for both teams.
It's a little too much for Cleveland, but at least they dumped Clarkson.
It's interesting how Charlotte, they liked both Shea Gilchrist-Alexander,
the guy that drafted them, traded to Clippers,
and Colin Sexton didn't end up with either of them.
I thought there was a chance like a month ago,
both those guys would be on the board at 11th pick.
And only Gilgis Alexander was granted,
weren't able to keep him.
Good deal for them.
I went to go visit the second spectrum guys on Friday
and you can basically tell them,
put this in and see what comes up.
And one of the things was,
people at the top of the key,
who's the most successful?
Because I was like, why? I couldn't understand why the Celtics didn't One of the things was people at the top of the key, who's the most successful?
Because I was like, why?
I couldn't understand why the Celtics didn't put Tatum in the Cleveland series at 35 feet from the basket at the top, clear out.
The old Paul Pierce isolation, just dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble.
Why don't we do that?
So I was like, what are Tatum's stats in that?
And they were awful during the season.
He was like 0.75 points per possession.
So I was like, oh, that makes sense because he's apparently not good at it.
But with that 0.75, what's the context, right?
So that's a bad number in the grand scheme compared to cuts, which is 1.1.
He had like 60 chances, though.
Oh, yeah.
But I mean, with like seven seconds left in the shot clock, that might be one of your
top options.
Maybe.
I still wish they'd done it.
The reason I bring it up is they had like the top 12 and it was all the
people you would think for like points per possession.
James Harden,
Chris Paul.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jordan Clarkson was like fourth.
And I was like,
maybe Jordan Clarkson is good.
Maybe LeBron was holding him back.
That Jordan Clarkson,
the top of the key last two months,
the last month or so
of the season
into the playoffs
I like the Sexton Clarkson
for Kemba trade
it's fun
and I do think like
look
if Paul George
decides to stay in OKC
for one year
for 30
the one-on-one
and wait till next year
if Kawhi gets traded
to the Sixers
and now LeBron's
LeBron's basically going to the Lakers to play the young team, maybe you opt into Cleveland for one more year.
Your family moves to LA and you just kind of run it back in 2019.
And then Carmelo's a free agent at that point.
You can bring him with you.
You can maybe get Paul George a year.
Who knows?
Right.
Now, the counter to that is I think all this stuff has been done for a long time.
I think Paul George has been done for like a year.
So we'll see.
What's your prediction?
Where is LeBron right now?
What day is this?
June?
June 25th.
Where is LeBron playing?
Same prediction as last summer.
Lakers.
Okay.
Where's Paul George playing?
I think he could do the one-on-one.
Okay, so he abides to lean towards Lakers.
Yeah.
So you'd pick gun to your head Lakers.
George and LeBron to the Lakers.
What team is Kawhi in?
Sixers.
Where's Boogie Cousins?
Dallas.
Dallas?
I think Houston probably matches Clint Capella.
I don't see how you let him go.
I don't.
I think Capella is such a great center.
He's gotten better each year.
Like his passing.
He did not pass like this overseas.
He's gotten so much better at passing.
He's not great, but he's like good now.
There's still more room for him to improve.
I don't think you can let him go.
So the Celtics do nothing.
Just maybe minor little things back into the roster.
Kevin Love?
But where does Love go, though?
We think about Phoenix for him.
You know, I actually am intrigued,
but then you have an Aiton-Love frontcourt,
which is really
dynamite offensively but love obviously is just average in combo yeah eight and like there's a
lot of pressure on a young big man to anchor a defense right away um and i think that's unfair
to expect from any young big man even even for someone that projects as a good defender long
term um it's like year one year two that could be a really troubling defensive front court.
But you know what?
You're not getting the guy for that time, though, right?
You're getting him for three, four years from now when you're ready to make a push.
I still like Kevin Love.
I want to see him on a different team.
We saw the flashes, right?
When Cleveland started running more off-screen, off-ball actions for him.
I think LeBron's really hard to play with.
I think when you're playing with somebody who's that
great, who has the
ball all the time and is always deciding what everyone
else is doing, I think it's hard for
some people to fit in with that.
Kevin Love was more enabled.
It's like
you wish LeBron had
pulled a hammy or something for five weeks
and we could have just seen like, this is Kevin Love's team for a
month. What happens?
Could he be the Minnesota Kevin Love again?
It was,
it was like a couple of years ago when Russell Westbrook got hurt and then Katie,
you know,
elevated or vice versa.
When Katie was out and Russell Westbrook elevated,
right.
You would like to see in that.
I think with LeBron,
like he used to trade elevated for sure.
Yeah.
That's always elevated though for Russell.
I think for LeBron,
like he needs to,
wherever he goes,
he needs to really commit off ball, you know, as a cutter. Yeah. Even as a screener. I think for LeBron, like he needs to, wherever he goes, he needs to really commit off ball,
you know, as a cutter.
Yeah.
Even as a screener.
I mean, he's throwing away
the regular season at this point.
I think he really is.
We're fine.
Anything in the playoffs
that that's when he needs to commit
regular season.
Who cares for him?
My prediction for LeBron is
I think his son being
this good at basketball
is going to is going to
really hurt LeBron's
basketball career.
You think so?
Yeah.
You know what's really fun?
Watching your kids play sports.
Sure.
It's my favorite thing.
Like LeBron's going to, all he's going to want to do is watch his son play basketball.
He's going to take his eye off the prize.
It's going to be bad for him.
So you're going to the NBA awards tonight.
Yeah.
Me and Jason Gallagher.
Are you going to find out some scoop?
We'll see.
What do we do with the red carpet before the show we'll see how it goes try to find out some stuff
try to find out some shit for god's sake i know definitely people will be having some cocktails
exactly i don't i like the idea of an nba award show but i don't think it should be uh
this late after the i know season it the thing that would make sense to me
is if they ever did the entertaining
and self-tournament
and you had like 10 days off
between the regular season and the playoffs
and you had a 70 game regular season
instead of 80 and all that stuff,
you could do it where the final four
is at New York City.
You have the two games,
the two playing games in New York City
and there's an award
show that night or something.
Then it'll be fun. Then you're handing out the awards right after.
I think the difficulty is
as you see with the NFL, with the Pro Bowl,
right? To get all the people.
Players don't always come. The players in the Super
Bowl or whatever.
In the NBA, I'm not sure you get as many players to
come, whereas now it's like... Put them on Skype.
Take a weekend in LA.
You know whose speech is going to stink tonight? James Harden's.
These guys, it's not like they give good speeches.
Who cares?
That'd be interesting. Have Pete players Skype in.
FaceTime.
Do a little FaceTime? Yeah.
Use social media.
KOC, you have a calm comment tomorrow on The Ringer
and a whole bunch of more stuff there in free agency.
Excellent work on the draft guide. Thank you, draft guide and fun doing the ringer Thursday night
show.
That was great.
Those three and a half hours blew by.
It felt like an hour.
The Dallas trade was really funny to rewatch on the,
on Periscope.
When Gallagher comes in,
it's like,
he just won the lottery.
Exactly.
Yes.
And Chark's excited.
It was awesome.
High five.
Awkward high fives.
Yeah.
All right.
Thanks,
Ken.
Thank you,
Bill.
All right. We're going to bring in Jacko first.
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And since we're here, don't forget, I am guest hosting against all odds for Cousin Sal this week.
So yeah, gambling talk.
It's coming.
Check that out.
All right, let's bring in Jacko.
All right, on the line right now for the first time in a while,
the longtime fan of the failing New York Yankees, Jacko.
How are you?
I'm good, thanks.
That was quite an intro, failing.
That's good, sure.
Swept by Tampa, I mean.
I know.
I don't know.
Not ideal.
This could be the end of the season.
Yeah, that's probably all she wrote.
Might as well pack it in.
We'll see you in 2019.
Take care.
I actually watched last night.
Now that the NBA is over,
I am now in the
hate watching the Yankees
portion of my summer.
Sure.
And I really enjoyed
the last couple innings
and I enjoyed the
walk-off homer by Tampa
and the sadness
in the Yankees announcer's voice.
Right.
All of it was really great. Since the last time we talked, the Yankees announcer's voice. Right. All of it was really great.
Since the last time we talked,
the Yankees had shaped up as a juggernaut,
although that was briefly interrupted this weekend.
Give us your thoughts on this Yankee team.
Your favorite of the decade?
Oh, easily.
Oh, my God, yeah, absolutely.
No, I love them.
I love the kids.
It's an odd position to be in as a Yankee fan to hear about these prospects
and see them come up and actually perform.
You know, Glaber and Duhar, which is how he pronounces it.
So it's great to see.
And, you know, they've developed into an offensive juggernaut
where they're never out of games.
And people throw back a tweet that I had in April,
in the dog days of April when things weren't looking so great for the Yanks.
They had blown some huge lead against Tampa.
I think they've had a lot of problems with Tampa.
I forget if it was Tampa or Toronto, but they blew a lead
and I'm like, this team has no heart.
People regularly throw it back at my face on Twitter, which is fine
because it means the Yankees are coming back from behind.
The other day they were losing 5-0 to Seattle and came back to win with John Carlos Stanton's
big first Yankee moment, a big home run to win the game.
So they have a lot of offense now, and their bullpen has been fantastic with the exception
of Chase and Shreve, but the rest of their bullpen has been lights out.
Dillon Batances is back to his old form.
He really is. He's been amazing.
He's been phenomenal for the past month or so.
And this kid, Jonathan Holder,
all he does is come in and
save leads or keep the game right where it is.
He's been great. So between
their lineup and their bullpen,
I mean, it's really been magical.
I saw a semi-scary stat the
other day when they were 50-22 that they've won 50 wins in 72 games seven times previously in all.
Seven times they've won the World Series.
Ah, well, let's just cancel the playoffs then.
Yeah, pretty much.
Should we just send the trophy?
We'll just start planning the parade, exactly.
So, yeah, they've looked good.
Now, their starting pitching is questionable
at best they essentially have you know one quality starter in luis severino who's phenomenal
um i thought they had a little something with domingo uh herman i would have said that last
week but not after yesterday's performance because he's had some crazy stats where he has the highest
uh swing and miss percentage he was has the highest swing and miss percentage. He was the third highest swing and miss percentage behind only Scherzer and Chris Sale,
which is pretty phenomenal.
But then yesterday he got lit up by the Rays,
so maybe we'll hold off on the Cy Young presentation for Domingo at this point.
I have him on my AL keeper team.
Yeah.
He's a rough first inning, and after that it usually gets better, but yesterday he didn't.
Yeah, he throws gas.
I just like him. He seems like the kind
of guy who's going to be
two and a half years from now really good.
But right now...
The Yankees in recent years have developed this
organizational philosophy of
getting pitchers that just throw
heat ridiculously.
They don't want any junk ball.
They brought up this kid, Loizaga,
and he throws 98, 99.
So they're raw
because they're young.
Loizaga has some problems with the strike zone, but
I like these guys that throw
gas, just like throw it by somebody because
especially in today's game,
everything's either a home run or a strikeout.
So if you have a guy that throws hard and hitters can't catch up with it,
it's good the way the guy's swing note is.
So that's good.
I mean, they could definitely use another starter without question
because, as I said, they have Severino and then they have Tanaka,
who unfortunately pulled both hamstrings
because he had to play in a National League park and run.
Wait a second. He pulled both hamstrings? He did, yeah in a National League park and run. Wait a second.
He pulled both hamstrings?
He did.
I don't know if I knew this.
What's that?
He pulled both of them at the same time?
Yeah, I think so.
I think both hamstrings were pulled.
He was on third base and he had to tag up and run.
I mean, we've had this conversation forever about how ridiculous it is that
baseball has two different rules for two different leagues.
Yeah.
And it's more so now that we have interleague play and these American League pitchers
then have to do something that they probably haven't done since high school
and hit and run the bases.
You almost get afraid when, I definitely get afraid when they have to get on base
because it essentially ruined Ching Ming-Wang's career.
He was never the same.
And then they had Tanaka,
and guys were murdering me on Twitter saying,
well, he's a professional athlete,
making millions of dollars,
he should be able to run.
I'll grant you that,
but it's not just running.
You have to decide whether to slide
into the base or not.
In Tanaka's case,
he had a tag up from third,
and you got a catcher waiting
for a throw from the outfield.
He's got to worry about,
do I slide or run into the catcher?
Those are all things they're not used to doing.
It's ridiculous.
And, of course, he got hurt.
He pulled both hamstrings, which is ridiculous to think about,
a professional athlete that can't run 90 feet,
but there's a lot more involved in it than that.
So it's just ridiculous.
So he's on the shelf.
The Red Sox had that when, and it wasn't an interleague game,
but the idiot John Farrell, who wasn't an interleague game, but the idiot
John Farrell, who wasn't an idiot
when he won the World Series, but turned into one.
He had Steven Wright pinch running
in that game. Yeah, I remember that, yeah.
And he blew out his knee.
And he was out for like a year
and a half. Right. Yeah,
pitchers on the base pass, it's
you never know what you're going to get.
I personally enjoy it. If you're a National League guy, if you're a National League know what you're going to get. I personally enjoy it.
If you're a national league guy,
if you're a national league player,
you're used to that.
You know,
it's probably practiced
in spring training.
You know,
the American League,
they have,
you know,
they do sliding drills
and things,
but I don't even know,
do pitchers participate in that
or they spend like 10 minutes
doing it
because they have other,
they have to work on pitching
and it's only going to come up
in interleague,
but it's asinine
that you have two different rules in two different leagues.
So your least favorite...
In 1973, to placate people that didn't want
the designated hitter, that they would still have old-timey
baseball. It was almost like a temporary
provisional thing, and here we are 45 years
later and we still have two different rules in two different
leagues. Yeah, you know,
change is good. You know what's a good rule? The intentional
walk rule. Where they just
hold up the four fingers?
Yeah, like Stanton last night or yesterday in extra innings.
It's like, yeah, we're going to walk him.
All right, next batter.
And then the game just keeps going.
I really want to get rid of the pickoff throw.
That's become my new obsession.
Really?
Yeah, just put a line at each base and you get to move seven feet off the bag.
But you can't go over that line until the
pitcher starts throwing the ball
and there you go.
You're not in with me on that one?
No, I'm not.
It's a way to get the
base runner to go back to the base.
He's leaning one way or the other. You've got to pick off.
Don't you love a pick off? No.
Andy Pettit was the king of that. I really
don't love a pickoff
I'd be fine
if we never had
another pick
if I never had to watch
another pickoff throw
in my life
I'd be good
no cause then
I think guys would
you know if you have
like a Ricky Henderson type
and I realize there's
no more Ricky Henderson types
but somebody who's
a base stealing threat
the guy's gonna steal
all the bases
if he doesn't have to worry
about going back to first
he can only lead a little
if he can only be
five feet off the bag
doesn't that even it out?
I want to try it.
They should try it in like double A and C for worse.
There you go.
Um,
CC Sabathia?
Yes.
CC,
I mean,
he's actually pitched okay.
And he's,
you know,
he's developed into the aforementioned Andy Pettit.
He's developed into an Andy Pettit type cause he doesn't have a fastball
anymore really.
So he fools you with arm angles and different speeds and moving the ball up and
down and everything. And, you know, he's a gamer, no question about it. And he's still out there.
The other day he had 10 strikeouts. But, you know, he's a little up and down and he's definitely
hittable. So it's like if he has a good outing, I'm like, yeah, good for CeCe. But I just don't,
I don't like count on't, I don't like
count on that. I don't bank on CC going out there and throwing a jam every time. I hope for it,
but I don't bank on it. What do you bank on from Sonny Gray other than sadness and being traumatized?
I bank on misery, anger, and the possibility that I'll need a new TV remote from throwing
it against the wall. So he's your least favorite Yankee this year? Least favorite. Yeah. He's the
new Tyler Clippard for me.
Like when he pitches, you know, I look at my phone in the morning
and see what the Yankee schedule is and see who's pitching
and I see it's him and like my whole body slumps.
I sag my shoulders.
I get depressed.
It's just so awful.
He's just so awful.
And he's hard to watch.
He is really slow.
They had him like speeding up his delivery
and when he did that he was actually good because he probably was thinking less yeah and just throwing
the ball and and for some reason he just will not do that and and if you know michael k and
l lighter cone whoever's doing the game they treat them like a toddler like they're like is this stuff
just too good because the ball just moves too much and it's five feet off the strike zone yeah i'm like i don't think the problem is that this stuff is too
good i really don't let's come up with another alternative and it may be that his pitches move
so much but he becomes like a nibbler and nothing is in the strike zone and he's almost he's afraid
to pitch in the strike zone because it gets hit super frustrating to watch incredibly frustrating
and then he gives an interview after the game like,
oh, I felt great.
I thought things went well.
Except for those five runs I gave up.
100 pitches in four innings.
I thought everything was great.
Yeah, it was phenomenal.
The Red Sox have Pomerantz, who's now hurt,
but kind of the same type of guy.
You're through four innings and he's at like 128 pitches.
Right. And the announcers are talking about how great his stuff is, you're through four innings and he's at like 128 pitches and the
announcers are talking about how great his stuff is
but 11 people have gotten on base
in four innings
and it's just I was so happy
he went to the DL I hated when he pitched
and the relievers when those guys
are starting the relievers must be like
alright guys they're using us
tonight don't go out
tonight we're pitching them early bedtime exactly well that's the be like, all right, guys, they're using us tonight. Don't go out tonight.
We're pitching to Murph.
Early bedtime, exactly.
Well, that's the problem is that he burns through the bullpen every single time he pitches because he can't get out of the fourth
or fifth inning.
Yeah.
Which has been a problem for Sabathia, too.
He doesn't go long at the games, and then it burns out your bullpen
for a couple days.
So it's frustrating.
I'd much rather have, you know, obviously Severino is great,
but even a guy like Herman who's up and down,
the kids throw a 98, 99 if they hit it.
You know, you tip your cap.
He's not afraid to challenge hitters.
So when Stanton's PED shipment came like five weeks ago,
he just shared it with Patantis?
He didn't share it with anybody else?
I think he was starting to share it with Sanchez.
But then he hurt himself yesterday, so
unfortunately that was wasted. That's too bad.
Yeah. Well, you should get the rest
back and give it to
Greg Bird.
Yeah, Greg Bird could use a lot of it. He's been
so disappointing. Breaks my heart
because Francesa is always singing his praises
and said for years he was the
prospect the Yankees had the highest hopes for.
I guess I'll chalk some of it up to the fact that he's always injured
and has been up and down in terms of injuries.
But I don't know.
I haven't really seen a lot of production.
There's been flashes of like a month last year in September.
But every time they bring him up, he's hitting like under 200
and just not great.
I have him on my team, too, and I have Aaron Judge, who I now have to subconsciously kind of sort of root for.
Yeah, everybody loves Aaron Judge, though.
It's kind of fun to have Aaron Judge on your team.
You know who's not fun to have on your team?
Greg Bird.
No, he's been bad.
He strikes out pretty much every third time.
I mean, that's the thing that's heartening as a Yankee fan.
The Yankees are, well, I guess they were 50-25 now,
whatever, after getting swept by Tampa.
Until recently, Stanton hasn't been hitting.
Sanchez hasn't hit at all.
He's got 14 runs, but he's hitting like a buck 90.
Greg Bird hasn't done anything,
so you're getting like no production from first base.
And, you know, Ketcher, you're getting some pop, but you're not getting a high average.
And Stanton, who was supposed to be a world beater, now he's starting to look like that.
But for a good portion of the season, he was not a world beater.
So the fact that they've been as dominant as they have been is a good sign,
because you figure maybe not Greg Bird, but Sanchez and Stanton will start
to do what they're supposed to do.
Well, you play Philly these next three games.
Right.
And then a day off and then.
Yeah.
Home.
Showdown.
For the Red Sox.
All right, let's go through this, Mike.
Friday night, Sabathia against Rodriguez.
Yep.
Who are you liking that one?
Well, I always liked the Yankees at home, but Sabathia, you don't know what you're going to get. Against Rodriguez. Yep. Who do you like in that one?
Well, I always liked the Yankees at home,
but Sabathia, you don't know what you're going to get.
And Red Sox have a crazy record when Rodriguez pitches.
Now, he got beat the other day, I think.
But I saw some crazy stat where, like, before yesterday,
Chris Sale starts, they were, like, 8-8.
The Red Sox and his starts, and they were, weren't they like 15 and two or 13 and two or something
when Rodriguez starts?
A lot of run support.
Something like,
yeah,
he didn't pitch well
in the last game.
That feels to me
like a Friday night,
like 11 to nine
type slump fest.
I could totally see that.
And maybe somebody
gets hit by a pitch
and bench is clear
but nothing happens.
Then,
I'm really excited
about Saturday's game
which is going to be on Fox.
It's a 7.15 affair.
Chris Sale
going against the man,
the myth, Sonny Gray. It should be great.
I'm really looking forward to it.
I can't wait. I'm clearing out my whole
Saturday.
I'm going to go out and not
watch TV. The Sonny Gray
buffet table will be open.
Oh, Lord, will it ever.
God help us.
That's a terrible matchup.
I don't like that at all.
So I think you win Friday, we win Saturday,
and then the rubber match, unfortunately, is Sunday.
Luis Severino, who's frightening,
against David, the Yankees' own midday price.
Oh, perfect.
Well, let's hope that purple tunnel doesn't act up.
Hopefully there's no
big Fortnite tournaments going on
leading into that week. Your jokes
are bouncing right off me. He's been really
good for
eh?
How many?
This is eh? Since May 12th.
I think ever since the carpal tunnel outbreak, whenever they last
played the Yankees and he had the terrible
carpal tunnel that prohibited him from pitching.
He's been okay since then, right?
He's been pretty good.
Eight-start sample size now.
He's been really good.
He won six of seven starts, then he lost last week.
But I've got to say, he's pitched well.
He had one start like two starts ago where his last pitch was, I think, 96,
which was— Yeah, I think, 96, which was.
Yeah, I saw your tweet about that.
Yeah, but he's pretty consistently mid-90s and looks pretty comfortable.
But the Yankees are the hump that he has not been able to get over as a Red Sox player.
He's probably shaking right now, wrapped in a blanket, worried about Sunday already.
Yeah.
Six days away.
The Red Sox.
I just want to tell you how much I love Julio Daniel Martinez.
Why wouldn't you?
Speaking of PED shipments.
Oh, totally uncalled for.
Well, it's just I had to reciprocate.
All right.
That's fair.
Yeah, he's been amazing.
The Hanley Ramirez.
Yeah.
Waving him and then immediately
people started getting hurt, and just
bad guys were up, and my dad was very
upset about that. I was going to say, no one's
more bummed out than your father on Twitter.
Every game, he brings up four Hanley Ramirez.
My dad really... But then there was
sort of a little wrinkle in that plan
this weekend, but I guess now that's all been
cleared up, I'm still confused by that.
Yeah, I mean, it really did seem like he got thrown under the bus
by some friend for no reason whatsoever.
But yeah, there's a 24-hour span where people were like,
the Red Sox waved him because he was in a major drug operation.
That was like a Boston Globe Bob Holer special where like
too many people, you know, Tito Francona where we kick him out.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
It started, I forget who first reported it,
but the facts were basically right.
It's just that the, you know, some quote unquote friend of his got stopped
and just for whatever reason decided to FaceTime Manny
and pretend Manny was involved.
Yeah, Hanley.
All right, Hanley. He should have tried Manny. I think Manny and pretend Manny was involved. All right.
All right.
Hanley.
Uh,
he should have tried Manny.
I think Manny would have been more believable,
but,
um,
but it really,
they,
they keep saying he's a friend.
I'm going to,
I'm going to go with not a friend,
Mike.
That's not your friend right there.
He's just not,
that's not a friend,
not a moving friend.
Doug,
you cannot be calling your friends FaceTime and during a police stop,
not a friend.
Not your friend. That's right. You stop. Not a friend. Not your friend.
You're just not a friend at that point, Mike.
So that was weird.
The Sox are...
The weirdest thing going on with the Sox this year,
which I just don't understand for the life of me,
is how bad Jackie Bradley is.
They had three hits yesterday.
But going into yesterday's game, he was batting 179.
And this is like he's played the whole season.
He's terrible.
He was, I mean, Chris Davis is having, I think,
the worst season of all time of all time.
Right.
But Bradley, every time, and then at the end of the lineup,
like Vasquez, for some reason, can't hit at all this year.
It was just, you'd get to the end of the lineup,
and then Betts keeps coming up with like nobody on base
yeah that's a murder for them
but the Betts, Benintendi
Martinez
like those guys
you know the Red Sox have scored more runs than the Yankees this year
I don't know if you're aware of that
what's his name
JD has 23 home runs now
right? yeah
and what does Betts have?
Betts has 19 and missed a week and a half.
A couple weeks.
I got to say Mitch Moreland,
they waived Hanley partly to play Mitch Moreland more,
and he's been really good this season.
The Red Sox are good.
I actually like the team.
They need to figure out the Bradley thing, though,
because I don't feel like you can go into the playoffs with two zeros
at the bottom of your lineup like just
automatic outs whereas the Yankees
have the opposite problem
the Yankees have an advantage there because their lineup is so
deep even with Greg Bird
not doing much
and Sanchez hitting 190
and Uhar and Torres have been great at the bottom of the
lineup just phenomenal
and you have guys like at AAA who are dying.
I read that article about a couple of them are in AAA and they're all pissed off.
They're like, we're major league players.
Brandon Drury.
And Uhar was supposed to just come up for a little while when Drury had his issues with migraines and things.
And he played so well, they can't take him out of the lineup.
So, you know, they went out and signed Drury in the offseason,
and everybody loved that signing.
It was like, oh, this is good.
It'll be like the stopgap that will bridge the gap to Andujar someday,
but someday is now.
So, unfortunately, they're stuck down at Scranton.
But it's a good place to be in that you've got too many guys
and not enough positions, which is an odd place to be, but it's good.
Are some of them trade bait for a starter?
I don't know.
I don't know how many people are salivating over Brandon Drury or Tyler Wade, for that matter,
or Tyler Austin.
I don't know.
Is Tyler Austin the guy who – that's the guy who Joe Kelly kicked his ass, right?
Isn't that Tyler Austin?
Well, yeah, until Judge almost ended his life.
The Michael Spinks to Joe Kelly's Mike Tyson?
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Joe Kelly.
Local folk hero Joe Kelly.
Give me a freaking break.
So.
Speaking of back to your father's Twitter feed and Hanley Ramirez,
last night I saw on Twitter where he was saying that the Red Sox
should trade Blake Swihart for a reliever.
I was intrigued by the notion of a trade market for Blake Swihart
and his 149 average.
Speaking of people, I don't think teams are salivating over.
People are like, boy, if we could just get that Swihart away from the Red Sox.
Final piece of the puzzle.
He's up to a buck 50.
Oh, there you go.
The problem with the Swihart thing is
every team has,
every team slash fan base has that one guy
that they irrationally think too much of.
I've heard about him for years
in the Red Sox prospect chain, right?
Even when they waived Hanley,
I think pretty much all the Red Sox fans
are like, this is great.
Swyheart's finally getting a chance.
He's just been, he's been, knock it.
The Yankees right now are plus 225
to win the East.
The Astros are two to one, plus 200.
And the Red Sox are plus 325.
I actually feel like, I feel like those are pretty good odds for the Astros.
The Yankees have the most ways, I think, to get better
because you have so many prospects you can trade.
You just go out and get the two best starters.
I would have said this was a good thing before they just got swept by the Rays,
but they have one of the easier schedules in baseball.
The other night on Yes, they were talking about their schedule.
They've basically really played the hard part of their schedule.
They're still going to play the Red Sox however many more times,
but they're done with the Astros, and I think they're done with the Angels.
And so whatever their schedule is, it's like the sixth easiest or whatever,
which on paper would be great, except that part of that was also playing the Rays
three times and the plan was not to lose three times.
So on paper, everything is good, but that definitely helps them, too, that they're scheduled
easier than the Red Sox in the second half.
So the Astros are 21-15.
Yeah.
And now they're 52-27.
Yeah.
And they've scored 169 more runs than the other team.
I don't understand why they're only two-to-one favorites.
I still feel like they're a near insurmountable mountain
unless you can get home field,
which the Yankees or Red Sox could potentially do
just because of the crap teams in the AL East.
But I would still, my money would still be on the Astros. I'd be
Their pitching staff is just so good.
They're just loaded.
But their bullpen is shaky.
The closer is shaky.
But they have the McHugh. They just made a trade
with the Royals.
No, that was the Nationals. Never mind.
They had the McHugh and Peacock combo, but
they could still go get a closer.
Roberto Osuna could be available in mid-September.
I'm kidding.
The 75 gave suspension.
So interesting times.
Let's talk about, let's talk about Trump really quick.
Okay.
Trump, Trump versus Jimmy Fallon was the feud that I didn't know I needed on a Sunday.
I noticed that.
I know that came from the clouds there.
I don't know where that came from
because he went on his show,
like, that was a long time ago, right?
Yeah.
And I don't know why he felt the need to, like,
well, I mean, every late night host now
is, like, super political.
Yeah.
And I guess Fallon is, like, the least political,
so he probably feels the need
that he has to, like, justify and be political.
No, I think he did a podcast
where he talked about what a mistake it was
to humanize Trump.
Trump just kind of wanders around the wild, wild West.
It's like, what?
What is that?
It's just like red and brawn all the time.
It's like a hockey enforcer.
I read these tweets from him and I just like, I'm just like mystified about, like he's the
president of the United States and today he had some rant, I think it was from today,
about, cause you know, Sarah Sanders went into some restaurant and they killed her off
and then he like murdered
the restaurant today and said how like their
awnings are dirty and the windows are dirty
like, you would think like being the
president, I mean I never heard of the Red
Hen before as this restaurant
you know, I don't think it's like a famous restaurant
maybe it is, I don't know, I have never heard
of it.
He's the President of the United States and he could give up
to the date accounts of how clean or dirty
the red hen is.
Also, how does he know? When was the last time
he was in a red hen?
He's driving by the limo and he's making notes
like, boy, that red hen looks terrible.
Go clean that up.
Tell the Secret Service, I want to go to a red hen.
I want to check it out.
I have a debilitating tweet to do.
The other day I saw he was campaigning
in Nevada for Dean Heller, who's a
Republican senator from Nevada.
His opponent is a woman named Jackie
something, and so Trump's like, I got a nickname
for her. I'm not going to say it.
And then the crowd, of course, of morons
is like, yes, say it, say it.
And he's like, I call her Wacky Jackie.
And the crowd goes nuts.
And I'm like, what are you, like six?
Like Wacky Jackie?
I mean, that's just, you can't wrap your head around it.
And then you have Maxine Waters on the other side.
And she's like, any time a Trump cabinet official is out, they should be like harassed out of the building.
Like, you know know this is america this is not like you know 1930s germany where like there's these competing mob violence in the streets like i don't know
this country it's just like i don't know i think i spend too much time on twitter so maybe it's
worse on twitter than it is in real life like in real life i don't see like people actually like
screaming at each other maybe i don't go to the right places but on twitter it makes it seem like
this country is like headed for like a civil war.
We're just going to break apart or something. It's like, you know,
can't we just put politics aside and go to the redhead or go to the movies or
whatever? God, can we go to,
can we just go to the redhead with Sonny Gray and have a gross meal?
Can't we just all get along in the immortal words of Rodney King or, you know,
I will say this
everybody should watch Sly Stallone's speech at the end of Rocky IV
to the Russians
maybe Sly needs to get involved
I will say this feels like the worst month we've had
the border stuff
the border situation stuff
really was just dark
it's definitely
it's hard to remember more of a rock bottom
from just the human behavior standpoint. would have lasted for like a week's worth of news. Like the Trump, you know, North Korea summit,
that was like two weeks ago.
And it seems like it was about six months ago
or a year ago.
And like stuff that he said months ago
seems like it happened when I was in first grade.
It's just crazy how fast everything moves
and everybody just loses their mind over the next thing.
So you're like, you know, not incorrectly,
you were like, this seems like the craziest month we've had.
True, until the next one will be next month.
Just keep escalating.
It's the craziest month we've had until next month's crazy month.
So it's just, it's insanity.
Yeah.
You would have thought the craziest month was when there was no sign of the first lady
for 24 days and she might've been dead for all we knew, but that wasn't even in the top
four.
I mean, I feel bad for her because she had no idea
she was going to be getting involved in this
when she hitched her wagon to Trump.
She figured she was just going to be on Fifth Avenue
and every so often she'd have to let him have sex with her.
She'd get regular checks and access to his credit card
and live in a penthouse.
She had no idea she was going to be the first lady
and wants no part of that. You can just tell. going to be the first lady and wants no part of that.
You can just tell.
Wants no part of him
and wants no part of being the first lady.
Yeah, things are going to be,
I'm going to make it very clear for my second wife
how it's going to work.
It'll be good.
I'll never run for president.
Just have sex with everyone around.
It'll be great.
Yeah.
Yeah, I keep thinking Just have sex with everyone around. It'd be great. Yeah.
I keep thinking people are now kind of immune to the fact that how weird this is.
Let's say he was the manager of the Yankees.
And you just woke up and the manager of the Yankees was just attacking Redhead for no reason.
Right. redhead for no reason and attacking Jimmy Fallon and then just doing crazy stuff like trying to trying to ban anyone who who was an undocumented whatever from coming to Yankee
Stadium and just all the stuff that he does week to week how how we would just be flabbergasted
by all of it but but yet with the presidency it just seems like like now we're all kind of numb.
I mean, the best comparison to him ever, and it's so apt, is that he's really like 1980s era George Steinbrenner.
Yeah.
Or he's just a complete loose cannon, and you don't know what he's going to do.
And he just cascades from whim to whim, and he doesn't tell anybody in his staff of what he's doing.
He just does it it's all out of like gut and anger and like not a lot of forethought and it's like if
Steinbrenner had twitter basically in the 80s and he could have been tweeting about rumors about
Dave Winfield instead of hiring you know gamblers or whatever private eyes to look at his private
life like all the crazy things he did he could have just expressed all that on Twitter.
And it's just as much of a lunacy.
That would be a fun quiz for a blog post.
Like, who did this?
Was it Steinbrenner or Trump?
Right, which quote?
Just you do quotes.
They really are.
History would have been so much different
if the NFL just let Trump buy the Buffalo Bills as he tried to a few years ago much different if the NFL just let Trump buy the Buffalo Bills, or as he tried to a few years ago.
Yeah.
Like, if they just let him buy the Buffalo Bills and you just had this crazy eccentric,
you know, Donald Sterling-esque owner in the NFL, it would be so different than having
a crazy eccentric Donald Sterling-esque president of the United States.
Yeah, it all goes back to everything is Roger Goodell's fault.
No matter, you can always tie it to him somehow.
Whatever happens in life. everything is Roger Goodell's fault. You can always tie it to him somehow.
Whatever happens in life.
As a lifelong conservative Republican, to see what the Republican Party
has become where it's this
complete and total cult of personality
is just...
If Trump said
the sky is yellow, there would be
Republican spokesmen like, well, no, it is yellow.
If you look at it in a certain light, they would justify whatever
assonanity he said that day. It's just, it's crazy. It's just crazy.
It's a complete cult and it's his party now. And it's just depressing as hell.
Well, hasn't, why hasn't anybody on the Republican side decided to just kind of
go head to head with them? Like, wouldn't that person be a hero?
They're scared to death of them. They're scared to death of his voters. I think for a while they were scared to death of him, you know, his tweets.
And now they're scared to death of, you know, they see he has these rallies and people are like screaming and chanting for Space Force.
His plan to have like a, you know, army in outer space or whatever.
Of course, he didn't brief anybody on or plan for.
There's no Space Force organization whatsoever.
And they're chanting Space Force.
And you look at that and you're like,
what do I want to get primary to lose?
This guy Mark Sanford in South Carolina,
who is a congressman, a conservative congressman,
and he got challenged and Trump came out
and endorsed the opponent and she beat him.
I mean, so it's like they're scared to death.
It's Trump's party.
These people are all like, you know, watch Fox News and it's like they're scared to death. It's Trump's party. These people are all like, you know, Fox News, watch Fox News. And it's like, you know, state TV and they do what he says. He literally could say anything. And, you know, his minions are going to follow him. It's crazy. I mean, to sell your soul for George Bush, or some other Republican luminary of the past 50 years.
But to do it for Donald J. Trump, I will never, ever understand that
and never be able to understand it in any way, shape, or form.
Well, in his defense, Space Force is a pretty cool idea.
It is good, yeah.
If only I was younger, I could sign up for Space Force.
It sounds like the Will Smith movie that was in development limbo for 12 years.
Space Force, the much maligned Will Smith project,
now has a director.
Space Force.
Is that his weirdest idea since he's been president?
Yeah, and it just came out of left field.
And I saw bits and pieces of his rally,
and he's like, we're going to doubt we're going back to space.
We're going to space.
We're going to dominate space.
Okay.
You're good.
Do you think it's like he was out to dinner with,
uh,
with Bob craft or something?
Bob craft's like,
Hey Donald,
do you ever think about space force?
And Donald Trump's like,
what's that?
What do you mean?
An army on space?
It would be great.
Okay.
There's like seven bottles of wine in.
He probably had like a cocktail napkin or something.
And he's like, we got the army.
They're on the land.
And the Navy's on the sea.
And the Air Force is in the air.
But what's even better than the air?
Like what's higher?
Space.
We need a space force.
Write that down. Space force. Space force. Write that down.
Space force.
Space force.
Write that.
Get that.
See you tomorrow morning.
Find out if space force is taken.
And that's just like space what now?
Force?
What?
Huh?
That's just crazy.
My dream radio segment would be Trump explaining space force to Mike Francesa for the first
time, like debuting it. Hey, uh, Mike, I have this great
idea. I think you're going to love it. It's wonderful. It's a wonderful idea. And my, what
is it Donald? Space force. It was so cranky the other day. I was listening briefly and a guy
called and I missed part of it because I was working. I left work and I was listening to it.
Some guy called up and it was almost like a statistical
thing about, I don't even know what the hell they were talking
about, but he started to get into statistics
and Mike hung up on him and goes,
go boy, somebody else. I don't need that
on my show. So then the next guy
called up and he goes, hey Mike, you really
handled that guy great. And Francisca goes,
I don't need you to review my show.
I was like, my god,
were they late with the Diet Coke?
He's like a assassin.
He was just killing these callers.
And the guy was like totally like, you know,
typical sycophant to Mike to be like,
oh, that was great the way you handled it.
I don't need you to review my show.
It's a complete toady and Mike just slapped him away.
You think Mike would be out of his mind with the Yanks?
Yeah, I've joining his Twitter too.
He has these random just drive-by shootings
of people on Twitter. And he's just
murdering the Mets.
He just drags the Mets
through the ground. It's crazy.
He's figured out everything on Twitter except for
feuding with other people.
Well, that's coming. It's coming.
I want him when the next rating book
comes out and Michael K tries to interpret
whatever he wants for Mike to get mad and then go at him on Twitter.
Yeah, no question.
That's what we need.
Michael K's out there saying he's winning the spring ratings.
I don't know what he's looking at.
Twitter force.
Twitter force attack.
Space force.
Space force. Space force Space force
Space force
Great idea
Will Smith
Good stuff
Lock it down Will Smith
Jacko
Jacko
Pleasure as always
We'll talk to you soon
Sounds good
Take it easy
Bye bye
Alright we're going to
Bring in my daughter
For another
Episode of
Four Reelsies
Her team culture
Update
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Two words, join honey.com slash Simmons to start
saving with honey today. Once again, that is join honey.com slash Simmons. All right. My daughter
is here. She gives us the breakdown every month or so on whatever is going on with the 13 year olds.
The teen pop culture.
Right now, you said Millie Bobby Brown is the most important topic.
Not the most important, but like one of the big ones.
One of the most discussed.
Yeah.
Topics right now.
She is from Stranger Things, which I didn't totally know until the last time we did this segment.
You got mad at me and you made fun of me because I didn't know who that was.
I don't watch Stranger Things.
You should.
Well, I know.
You and mom were watching it.
So Millie Bobby Brown, first of all, she had to deactivate her Twitter.
So explain what happened there.
Basically what happened was people were making it seem like she didn't support gay people and that she thought that it was horrible that people had different or like the same gender had feelings for each other.
That 30 year olds were making fun of her and saying all these horrible things about her 30 year olds who have nothing better to do than make fun of a 13 year old.
But she didn't she didn't't say it though, right?
They made the whole thing up.
They literally made the whole thing up.
So they made the whole thing up as like a character attack on her.
Yeah.
To try to bully her online.
Yeah.
It was just a bunch of different things.
That wasn't the only thing.
They were just completely attacking her and trying to bring her down to their level, I
guess.
But why?
What did she do that?
What about Millie Bobby Brown triggered these random dudes on the internet?
Or ladies, whoever was doing this.
Well, I guess it's kind of like they think if they try to bring her down,
it will bring them up almost or bring her down to their level.
Because she's like one of the really big influencers in the kid world right now,
I guess, because of of stranger things and stuff
and i guess she's really powerful and people don't like that that like a kid is one of the
more powerful people right now instead of adults being more powerful because they're
tend to be superior in families and things like that because they kind of run it this is your
theory well i'm just saying like parents tend to be superior but they probably don't like that because they kind of run it. Is this your theory? Well, I'm just saying.
Parents tend to be superior, but they probably don't like that.
Yeah.
Yeah, we don't need to pretend.
We're superior.
We pay for everything.
I'm not excusing you.
They don't really like that a kid is kind of one of the big people right now.
So they bullied her.
They were super mean to her and so mean that she actually got off social media.
Yeah.
Did she get off Instagram or just Twitter?
Just Twitter because that's where they were attacking her.
You don't like Twitter?
I don't get Twitter. Is Twitter a youth?
That's not really a youth thing, right?
No.
Unless you're a celebrity?
No.
What's the rankings right now?
Instagram's one.
Snapchat.
Snapchat's two?
Those are like the two big ones.
There aren't really anything else.
You're really not on Snapchat that much unless you're hiding it from me.
I don't ever use Snapchat.
I don't really get it.
I mean.
I think you get it when like eighth grade.
Yeah.
Because you can start sneaking around and not telling us stuff.
Yeah, but that's like, you know I can't lie.
And you know I can't do anything about it.
So that app won't be good for me.
Snapchat?
Yeah.
Maybe it'll teach you how to lie. But I don't like anything about it. So that app won't be good for me. Snapchat? Yeah. Maybe it'll teach you how to lie.
But I don't like lying.
Yeah.
All the lying in our family went to our son.
Ben Simmons.
Yeah.
Ben Simmons took your lying and his lying and became a double lie.
So what happens with Millie Bobby Brown?
Are you worried about her from a sanity standpoint?
Because that's pretty rough if you're 13,
you have all these people hating on you.
I think she's 13 or 14.
I don't remember.
I'm going to look it up as you're talking.
Okay.
I think that that can be really difficult for her to deal with,
especially because she's so young that it can kind of, I guess,
affect the way that she acts
and the way that she thinks about things
and she might be more protective
or think a bit more about the things that she puts out.
She's 14.
14.
I think she just turned 14.
Well, I can only imagine how you would react
if all these people were being mean to you.
I know.
You would take it personally.
Yeah, and there's also not only the entire thing
of the adults attacking if the adult's attacking
her it's like her and her boyfriend who cheated on her now they're back together and everyone
who's the boyfriend jacob sartorius and he's from nothing he's a musically person he's a musically
person explain what that is musically it's like the app where it it basically gives you background
music and you like lip saying to it or something that was like the huge thing in fifth grade and yeah that was
like very two years ago fifth grade but a bunch of people have gotten famous off of it i don't
understand why but he was one of them i'm amazed ben simmons wasn't one of them yeah she's dating
ben simmons not one of them musically person so he becomes semi-famous from Musical.ly.
Yeah.
And then he started doing YouTube and all this stuff since he already had recognition from Musical.ly and then became famous.
And then he dated Millie Bobby Brown, but he cheated on her.
How does everybody know that he cheated on her?
I don't get that part.
Because the things were leaked.
Like he was Snapchatting someone.
Oh, Snapchatting another girl?
Uh-huh.
How old is he
15 oh my god i'm gonna drink gasoline
and then they got back together but nobody likes him anymore no not well no one liked them in the
beginnings no one really likes jacob detorius he's kind of a jerk in my opinion so how did they do their reconciliation on social media
well she had
a bunch of posts with him
before the breakup and then she deleted all of them
when they broke up or they kind of took a
break I guess it's not a complete breakup
but then they got back together
and started posting pictures together
and everyone was really upset
everyone meaning all the girls in your
friend group or everybody everyone just because you're all looking out for Millie Bobby Brown together and everyone was really upset everyone meaning all the other girls in your no it's not
only girls it's like everyone just because you're all looking out for millie bobby brown
no we just didn't like jacob sartorius who do you want millie bobby brown to date finn wolfhard
who's that her co-star in stranger things is that in play what that's in play or you're just
randomly putting them no that's in play everyone wants them just randomly putting them together? No, that's in play. Everyone wants them to date.
How old is Finn?
I think he's older than her.
Can you look it up?
Look it up as we're talking.
Finn Wolfhard?
Finn Wolfhard.
So in the...
15.
Finn, if you're listening, stay away from my daughter.
So Stranger Things has more of an impact than 13 Reasons Why.
Well, they're two completely different messages.
Yeah.
13 Reasons Why is a dumb message.
I hate that show.
It bothers me that you like that show.
Well, you know, I like everything.
I know.
That's true. It bothers me that you like that show. Well, you know, I like like everything. I know. I just watched five new movies and I like all of them.
The 13 reasons why, though, I watched the last episode with you and we knew that there was a bad scene in the episode.
I had to walk away.
And we made you leave so we could fast forward it because I like to pretend I'm a good parent.
My friends talk about that scene.
Like they talk about what happened.
And I was like,
what?
Why would they know?
I don't understand the point of that show or why I had to come back for a
second season.
It's coming back for a third season.
I'm pretty sure they left the last episode on a cliffhanger.
Do you think they push the envelope with some of those themes because it
makes kids like you want to watch it
because you know you're not supposed to watch it?
It's kind of smart. Yeah, I guess.
It's like knowing
I guess some people, I don't think this
I just like enjoy the show because
I enjoy the show. And everyone
in your grade watches it. No.
Some kids aren't allowed to watch it.
Some kids aren't allowed to watch it. We only allowed you to watch it
if you watched it with us. Yeah.
But some people only decided to watch the last episode of the second season
because they knew that something bad happened.
Which I don't understand.
Like, why?
I don't know.
Why?
Because they wanted to see something bad happen?
Yeah.
They, like, literally watched the last episode of both seasons
to see the worst things that happen in both seasons happen
for no reason. I don't like that show.
I know you don't. You've told me multiple
times that you don't like that show. Stranger Things is
way more defensible. And it's also
like a really good show.
Stranger Things. Yeah.
So now those two shows are done.
So what do you have now? Just movies? Stranger Things is coming
back. Not for a while. No.
They started filming like two months ago or three months ago.
And it's coming back late 2018.
What's the most popular 30-minute show right now?
30-minute show.
A lot of people like Grey's Anatomy.
Grey's Anatomy is an hour.
You have friends that watch Grey's Anatomy?
Yeah.
Like on Netflix? Like all my friends watch Grey's Anatomy. What? Yeah People, you have friends that watch Grey's Anatomy? Yeah. Like on Netflix?
Like all my friends watch Grey's Anatomy.
What?
Yeah.
The new ones or the old ones?
All.
They've rewatched it like seven times.
Really?
Yeah.
They watch Grey's Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars.
What else do they watch?
What about Younger?
I thought that was one of them though.
I don't know any.
Bachelor?
Two of my other friends. We have a
group chat and we talk about Bachelor on
the group chat. Bachelor's really boring this
year though. I know. I was on Bachelor
Party with Juliet and Liz
Kelly last week talking about is Becca
too boring? And the answer was yes.
Yeah, she for sure is too boring.
Which isn't a bad thing. Like if you were on the Bachelor
I would want you to be boring. Yeah, but
that's not the point of the show.
Like you need someone who's going to be exciting.
Like I feel like Tia would have been.
No.
Mom would have been a good Bachelorette 20 years ago.
Tia should have been the pick for The Bachelor.
Because she's interesting.
Like she at least has background.
Like Becca's boring.
She doesn't really have anything special about her.
I described Tia as a little crazy
and the type who in the Netflix movie
is the one who breaks out the Ouija board
and convinces everybody to talk to their dead relatives.
No, she's the one that like the ex breaks up with her
and then gets with someone new
and she comes back to the house
and starts killing people.
I don't want people to think we're a great
parent because we did take you to Hereditary
two weeks ago. That was good.
You love that one. I've seen people, some
of my friends go to that. Yeah.
I think it was a little overrated
how terrifying it was. Me too. You've seen
scarier movies. It was supposed to be really scary
and I didn't think it was that scary.
Or you're immune to scary movies because
we've watched so many of them in our house.
Like if we watched that at home,
it's not a movie that I would have turned off
or had to walk out of.
And there's bad movies like that.
That you've turned off?
Yeah, like, I won't name it.
You can name it.
The Unfriended, the first one,
we had to turn that off.
That was really scary.
Yeah, that was too scary.
But maybe we were just like,
it was a year ago and we weren't as adapted, I guess.
No, that one was scary.
I would rewatch it now.
You guys were kind of scared by that Amityville horror movie that's on the new Amityville horror movie.
I wasn't scared of that.
Ben was scared of James.
James.
Ben was pretending to be James for the next week or so.
He was scared.
I kind of came in at the end, so I didn't really get the entire
plot. Remember that time we watched that horror movie
about there was something wrong with the house?
Oh no, that was every horror movie.
We should just write a horror movie.
Yeah. Where we move into the house and
Ben goes into the attic and finds
some sort of necklace
or something. Yeah.
He finds some sort of box and it has old Polaro or something yeah and then he realizes he finds like he finds some sort of
box and it has old polaroids in it and then he keeps going back up there and keeps getting more
and putting them up in his room and has like you know that black light pencil and it'll write over
his room yeah we we turn on the lights and all of a sudden the room is like filled and maybe he's playing fortnight
and screaming motherfucker top of his lungs oh wait that's he does it anyway oh yeah he's doing
that all the time um he his new thing right now is going on facetime with his friends and then
as on facetime playing fortnight and having a video showing them how to play fortnight
yeah his friend he might not go to college.
Might not.
Wait, we didn't
talk about the other relationship that bothers you.
The other celebrity relationship.
That does not bother me. That bothers Liz.
The kissing booth people are dating.
Yeah.
Who are they kissing? That's the number
one hunk right now. Yeah. What's his name?
Jacob Elordi.
So in The Kissing Booth, your favorite movie on Netflix that you've seen 20 times.
I mean, I have a new movie on Netflix that I really like too.
Oh, what's that one?
It's called Jessica Darling's It List.
Yeah.
It's about seventh grade.
And this girl who's like kind of a weirdo going into seventh grade and has a list of rules that her popular sister gave her that she used in seventh grade and this girl who's like kind of a weirdo going into seventh grade and has a list
of rules that her popular sister gave her that she used in seventh grade and she like uses them
and tries to change herself but it doesn't really work and her best friend going into the new school
like leaves her and she finds a new friend group it's really good i like it it's a movie it's a
movie it's like an hour and 30 minutes.
You like movies where there's either people have to follow a list or people make a pact that they can't break.
If everyone ever had a list and a pact in the same movie, you like when people aren't
supposed to date, but one of them ends up liking each other.
Yeah, it's the kissing move.
That'd be like you and...
I think you better cut that out
if you don't cut that out we won't be friends anymore well you have a couple
male friends in your in your class yeah and you don't and you don't believe me when i say that's
that's never gonna work out long term somebody's gonna like somebody at some point. Kyle, back me up on this. You're so right.
Nobody's ever like, oh, here's my very close platonic friend.
How many close platonic female friends have you met in my life in the last 20 years?
10 years?
13 years?
How old are you?
Are you kidding me?
13.
I'm 13.
Wait, let me think.
Yeah.
I know someone. Aren't you friends someone aren't you because when you get married
oh yeah that's true and juliet oh yeah and all of your people at ringer for the most part i'm
saying people that when when i was like i've known this girl since she was 10 and we're still friends
yeah they don't high school maybe doesn't happen. What other movies?
There was one other movie you liked.
Oh, it was called Hashtag Reality High.
What was the plot of that one?
It kind of had the same plot as the other movie that I just mentioned.
It was like about a girl who was kind of uncool and had a friend who was dating the most popular guy at school,
but she kind of turned into a jerk,
and she was obsessed with her Instagram.
She had like 8 million followers for some reason.
And she was a bad friend to her.
And then she breaks up with the boyfriend for Fousey,
who's another YouTuber who they brought into the movie to make more money.
Yeah.
Oh, they actually cast YouTubers? Yeah, they cast a YouTuber to make more money. Yeah. And. Oh, they actually cast YouTubers? Yeah, they cast a YouTuber.
Smart.
To make more money.
Smart.
And then she, the kind of weird girl,
starts dating her old boyfriend.
And then the other friend.
This sounds horrible.
The other friend befriends her again
and like apologizes
and brings her on her Instagram live show or whatever.
And then embarrasses her and says that she's like stalking her or something.
Oh, so it gets becomes like a thriller.
No, she like lies about it and says that she's stalking her.
But that kind of changes the girl.
So the boyfriend doesn't like that girl as much anymore.
And then they all resolve and get back together.
You've seen so many of these.
Maybe you could just come up with your own movie platform.
I could honestly write my own.
I know exactly what I want in a movie and I haven't really completely found it yet.
What is it?
Tell us.
I want like what I've talked about in the first movie.
Yeah.
Like a mix of The Kissing Booth and Jessica Darling's It List.
I need a mix of that and they haven't made that yet. And I'm really upset about it. What's a mix of the kissing booth and jessica darling's it list i need a mix of that
and they haven't made that yet and i'm really upset what's a mix of it though explain it's
it have to be like kind of betraying the best friend for the brother yeah but going through
middle school instead of high school because i can relate to that more and like dealing with
middle school and like having to change themselves with the list. So it'd have to be a list and breaking the brother's rules or the best friend's rules for the brother.
So like a mix of it all.
So you've kissing with your favorite thing was that she wasn't supposed to like the brother, but she ended up liking him.
Yeah.
And maybe you can do it with like a neighbor.
Maybe it's like a next door neighbor that they made a pact that they would never date.
I would write a movie.
I could do it.
You like that Drew Barrymore movie, Never Been Kissed.
Never Been Kissed.
That's a good movie.
No, it's not.
Well, it got creepy because the teacher was attracted to somebody he thought was in high school.
Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, it's really creepy.
Like, yeah, I guess.
Because he didn't even know that she was a teacher and he was attracted to
her,
which is weird.
But what about a Netflix movie about a girl who gets talked into being the
quarterback on the eighth grade flag football team?
Oh my God.
I hate you.
And falls for the wide receiver.
Um,
I'm trying to think.
Explain to the audience why you wouldn't be the flag football QB.
Everyone's asked you to do it. Why won't you do it? I don't understand. Cause I don't want to. But you wouldn't be the flag football QB. Everyone's asked you to do it.
Why won't you do it?
I don't understand.
Because I don't want to.
But you don't want to.
Why?
Because I don't.
You have a cannon arm.
Because I don't.
This could be your Netflix movie.
We could sell the rights.
Back me up on this and attack him on Twitter because he won't leave me alone.
We could sell the rights to Netflix.
What do you mean?
About the flag football QB.
Okay.
Who made a pact.
That doesn't mean that I have to play flag football.
Who made a pact with the wide receiver
that they were going to follow a list.
I don't know.
Has she seen Little Giants?
Maybe that'll,
maybe that'll.
Yeah, Little Giants.
Have I seen that movie?
That might convince you.
That girl was cool.
Yeah, that girl was cool in Little Giants.
She had a cannon.
What was, there was one other movie
you wanted
that you liked
what other movie?
I thought there was
a third movie
wait let me think
no there was
oh
I watched
I didn't completely
watch the movie
so I can't
really talk about this one
I can't remember
great review
well I
I remember
the beginning of the movie and the plot of the movie is like this
girl and her best friend who's gay.
It was a guy best friend and they had like a no kiss list.
See,
it's another list of who they couldn't date basically.
And they kind of both fall for the same person.
Oh,
a girl and a boy fell for the same guy.
Oh, that's a good wrinkle.
I didn't finish the movie, but that's all I saw.
It was pretty interesting.
I wish I finished it.
You know how Netflix suggests movies to you?
Yeah.
Does Netflix just suggest lists and packs?
Yeah, it seriously is.
Horror movies where something's wrong with the house.
It has suggested for me.
And then I found Jessica Darling's It List.
I found like five movies that looked really good.
And then there were like three horror movies.
You love Netflix.
You don't want to talk about Instagram selfie culture today?
No, I don't want to talk about that today.
You don't want to talk about the Instagram post that made you take down?
No.
You betrayed me.
It was not. Okay, everyone has to understand that it was not a bad picture
you made me mad a lot of things make you mad i told you to delete it and i said if you ever
did that again i was taking your phone yeah and i didn't do it again did i we'll see it's a long
summer yeah but you make it what is it with the girls heading to eighth grade with these like Yeah, and I didn't do it again, did I? Well, we'll see. It's a long summer. Yeah.
But you make it seem like- What is it with the girls heading into eighth grade with these like, here's me in a bathing
suit and here's me dressed up?
I don't have any bathing suit pictures ever.
I'm not saying you, but it's a thing now.
It's like this eighth grade like, here, check me out.
I don't know.
I don't get it.
If you looked at some of my friends' Instagram, you probably would not be happy.
You act like I haven't looked at your friends' Instagram.
You have?
What do you think I do?
As soon as you fall asleep, I go on your phone
and look at all the people you're following.
I know.
I know you do.
I think the eighth graders need to calm down on the Instagram,
is my advice to the kids out there.
I mean, all the kids at my school aren't really that bad.
All the kids at other schools are horrible.
The boys don't do it. You don't see
Gabe just like a
shirtless selfie picture.
You'd be surprised.
Oh God, kill me. Okay.
Thanks for coming on.
We need to name this segment. What's it called?
Teen Culture
Watch? No. No. Boo. Boo. on we need to name this segment what's it called teen teen culture watch no no boo
it seems like a fireside chat with zoe simmons i don't know what fire it's like an intro chat
teens in it has to end with inside i found out what about for realsies i like that oh yeah for
realsies all right would that be on your podcast well we'll see we'll call it for realsies? I like that. Oh yeah, for realsies. All right. Would that be on your podcast?
Well, we'll see.
We'll call it for realsies.
Whoever did that, good job.
Nephew Kyle, I have a really embarrassing picture of him from when he was like nine years old.
Oh my gosh, yeah, I saw that.
So do I put that on my Twitter or the ringer Twitter?
Which one do I do?
Both.
Okay.
That's the best picture I've ever seen. How did you get this?
She's texted me the other day.
It's of him with a bowl cut.
You had a bowl cut. My parents used to cut
my hair. Unbelievable.
Your cousin.
Can I post a picture on
your Twitter of you when you were a kid?
Because I guarantee everyone would be surprised.
It's not great. He looks like a girl.
I did have a bowl haircut at one point.
A bull haircut.
It was like a haircut that went to your shoulder.
You were in Boston all week.
Oh, yeah.
Shout out to Boston.
Dunkin' Donuts, shout out to you.
Yeah.
Zoe, as always, a pleasure.
A pleasure.
I'll see you at the house.
All right, that's it.
Thanks to ZipRecruiter.
Don't forget to go to ZipRecruiter.com Slash BS
Don't forget about
Against All Odds with Cousin Sal
I'm going to be on that this week
And don't forget about
The Rewatchables
We did Forrest Gump last week
People love that one
Devil Wears Prada
Coming up this week
And then
A week from this week
July 4th
The one I'm most excited about
The most excited I've been since heat
For a Rewatchables podcast, Jaws.
Oh, yeah.
Me, Sean Fantasy, Chris Ryan.
This might be our first three-hour Rewatchables.
Wesley Morris, we miss you.
We wish you could have been in this one.
Anyway, back later in the week with more BS podcasts.
Until then.