The Daily Zeitgeist - MJGMB #147: Could the Spurs Pursue Jimmy? with Chris Barnett

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Jack and Producer Jabari were pleased to be joined by NBA analyst and writer Chris Barnett for today's episode. The trio discussed the continued domination of the Cavs and Thunder before transitioning to the Jimmy trade rumors and where he might land in the event Miami wants to truly move on!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's up everybody? Adnan Verk here to tell you about a new podcast. It's NHL Unscripted with Verk and Demurz. Jason Demurz here and after playing 700 NHL games, I got a lot of dirty laundry to air out. Hey, I got a lot to say here too, okay? Each week we'll get together to chat about the sport that we love. Tons of guests are going to join in too, but we're not just going to be talking hockey, folks. We're talking movies, we're talking TV, food, and Adnan's favorite, wrestling. It's all on Le Table.

Listen to NHL Unscripted with Virk and Demurr's and the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, well, well, we are back, baby. Wait, so the league didn't stop playing over the last couple weeks when we were off to Bari? No, no, I'm pretty sure they did. They were like, hey, you know what?

When my jacket told told the Cavs and Thunder are each still on pace to break franchise win totals, break 70 wins. But yeah, so we're going to talk about those teams because it's interesting. They're on historic paces and are being historically disrespected. I'm proud practicing my ESPN talking head. Anyways, we're doing all that with Chris Barnett on today's episode, one of our favorite returning champions. I'm Jack O'Brien.

And I'm producer Jabari in for Miles. And this is Miles and Jack and sometimes Jabari. We all got bad boosties. The Celtics are NBA champions over the double team. Oh, night night. Yanis with the take. Look out. No show time. What you got, Yanis. Chris Barnett, welcome, welcome back to the show. How are you doing?

I'm doing good. It's great to be back. I love listening to Mad Boosies when it drops. I put it in on my truck when I when I drop my son off. It's really NBA content. So for me, coming here just brings a smile to my face, knowing I'm with two, two, dope basketball minds at any given time. So I know Miles isn't here. Just joking. Just joking.

I mean, I was going to go. I was going to go to one and a half. One and a quarter. We'll take it. We'll take it. What does your son think? Just I can't accept the compliment. Does your son hate the show? What you said you listen. You know what? My son is a swimmer. Okay. I try to get him into basketball. He watches it, but he's not he's not there yet. It'll get there.

How old is 11? 11. All right. So I got a six year old and an eight year old. I am already a vortex of basketball disappointment. You know, my mom's dad, famous basketball coach, my dad, basketball coach. I was expected to like do something with basketball beyond have a podcast called miles and Jack got mad boosties. Um, my kids don't even know basketball exists. They're like, what are you watching? Like they are so completely out on basketball.

It is just the degree to which basketball has diminished familially among my family line. I mean, they're young. I feel like I didn't start loving hoops until I was like, you know, 10, 11. So there might be hope for them. Yeah, there might be hope for them yet, but it's kind of hard to love basketball when you can't get the ball to the rim, you know? Yeah. You're just too small.

I can see it now. They also may have been watching you, unfortunately, watch your team. And that's not, you know, I already told you my team is made as can be, but you know, like that probably doesn't help. They're like, oh, the thing that goes on the TV that makes dad emotionally volatile. Yeah. Let's not encourage that. Yeah, they're way smarter than me. I'm just being like, yeah, no, no, no, man. Let's find something else to watch, please. For us, not

for your benefit. Anyways, Chris, it's great to have you back. This is a very interesting time in the National Basketball Association. You cover the NBA at large on watch playback TV and X spaces. You've covered the Indiana Pacers. We're going to talk about them a little bit, but I want to start off talking about the two teams that are at the top of the league. The Cleveland Cavs in the East, the Oklahoma City Thunder in the West. OKC is on pace to win 70. Cleveland's on pace to win 72, 73. Geez. It's crazy. This is before they played. So one of them is going to be off the pace that I just mentioned

because one of them just lost. So I just want to, the Cavs championship odds are, like if you go and look at the survey of all the odds to win the NBA championship right now, the Cavs currently on pace to have the best winning percentage of all time or close to it, like right up there with the 96 Bulls. OKC is number one Vegas odds to win it all. Which I was happy to see that it wasn't the Boston Celtics. The Celtics are right behind them. The Cavs, again, on pace for bests in the history of the league and like not just

their winning percentage, like their net rating is top four all time. Like they are historically stacked. They're coming in at fifth in Vegas odds. They are. So the Thunder's number one, Celtics number two. I can maybe accept those. You know, I can definitely accept the Thunder. I can definitely accept the Celtics. There's some part of me that's just like the Celtics number two, I can maybe accept those. You know, I can definitely accept the thunder. I can definitely accept the cell is there's some part of me that's just like the cell are going to win this. Like they're, they're definitely going to win. This is just them. That is the Jason Voorhees experience of being a Celtics hater.

Um, but then they got the Knicks, which, okay, you can be like public money. N New York's a big city. They haven't had a team this exciting and good In a long time then they got the nuggets Who? Like I get it because they won recently and then the cats. I don't know. Is it just What what are you guys thoughts because to bar? I know you were you were saying that like the Cavs are when you watch the Cavs they are that team they remind you of the Celtics last year

But Chris just I'd like to hear from you first. Like what do you think is going on there? That's making people discount them One people are biased against Cleveland. Shout out to the Browns for that And shout out to the Browns for that. Odds are really funny. And what happens and a lot of people don't really take the big picture here. They look at last year and they project forward and nobody really were sold on the combination of both Darius Garland and Mitchell and the combo of Jared Allen and Evan Moble. And I remember talking about the Cavs when I said in my preseason prediction,

the Cavs are gonna go as far as Evan Mobley's lead this year. And I remember when he was drafted, I said he'd have the chance to be the best player from his draft class, but it's gonna take until a second contract. Four years in, then we're going to start seeing this, you know, 18, 22 points, 10 boards, two, three assists, steal in a block. Right. And him being able to do that and more specifically, facilitating the offensive of the high post for Cleveland took away the problems that Cleveland had last year when

both Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland kind of both needed the ball in their hand and triple 20 million times as my cat came running through and knocked over the phone. And with that, it provided balance. And that is what they were missing last year offensively. And when you have that, it also allows you to get back on defense and their defense has been superb this year as well. Anchored again by Jared Allen being a double double machine and cleared out the pain. Evan Mobley is an elite help defender.

And then at that point, all you're doing is having your other guys play more simplistic roles and have very simple assignments. And you live with your offense just being more efficient than your opponents. So like the four games they lost and like an 880 winning percentage is crazy after 30 games. Yeah, it's insane that they just are able to plug in whenever they need to when the player goes down.

And Oklahoma City has been able to do the same thing, because in reality, they're built similarly. The difference is Cleveland had to trade for their star, right? I mean, Thunder did, technically, too, because they traded for SGA. But he wasn't a star yet. He was just a really good prospect. Yeah, it was an early investment. Yeah, when you have that dominant guard, when you have Mitchell,

when you have SGA, everything can fall into place offensively. As long as you're able to do three things, let me turnovers, rebound the ball, play good team defense. And that's what Cleveland, Oklahoma City has done since tip off of opening night. And no teams, they know what they're going to do. And they just simply cannot stop them because that's what a balanced team is. And I think we just moved away a lot from balanced basketball because we have these

super teams, LeBron and you know, the big three Miami, Kevin Durant went to the Warriors. Like there's nothing you can do when you just have that top heavy talent. So you just see now what real true team basketball is with that dominant lead guard. And to me, it's beautiful on both sides for both OKC and Cleveland. And I wish more people would actually get on their lead pass. And I wish the league Hey league, I guys flex more of these calves games like you're doing the thunder games. Put them on at seven 30, put them on at 730, put them on at 830. Let's grow what you have. Like it's hard to see them on national TV because

you know, it's Cleveland and they got to get over that. And I think once they do that, Cleveland will pop just like Boston did last year in terms of like overall watchability and popularity, just like OKC did two years ago, in overall popularity and watchability. So like they're playing really great. I just think people need to be led to them. And I just think they're going to keep mowing down opponents. And the other fear is a lot of people buying into this idea that they're only a regular season team. And I find it funny because every team is only a regular season team until they get to the playoffs multiple times.

And like Donovan just got there, went to the playoffs. Donovan's there now. They're the number one seed in the entire NBA. And I don't really see that changing through the regular season. The question is, much like Boston had last year, once we get to the playoffs, are they're going to be able to keep pace? Right. And and I don't know. And that's where the trepidation and the quote disrespect of putting them down at five when you're going up against Denver,

who recently won one has the best player on the planet going up against Boston. They just won last year. They got a top three guy, top five guy on the planet and the Knicks. And I understand this because I said this as well. The Knicks are going to be a terror because they also play very, very good team defense and they can do what no other team can do outside of Cleveland in a healthy OKC that's dominating the rebound. So, yeah, yeah, Cleveland's built great.

So is OKC. And I'm pumped for, you know, this game that we're going to watch. Yeah, that we already watch. Because, yeah, it was last night. It's yeah. I mean, my argument on the, like, they're not built for the postseason is like, that seems to be so based on what happened last year and you know, we saw them underperform in the playoffs last year.

They also didn't perform that well in the regular season last year. And this year they seem to be better. So I don't know. Maybe that's worth taking into account. Sometimes. And honestly, you know, Chris hit it on the head, especially with that comparison to last year's Boston team prior to them winning. That's all we said was like, eh, you know, they get to the conference finals,

but you know, you get them up out of there and until they want it, we didn't believe. And honestly, these odds, it, it feels like that's the case. It's a, we didn't believe in honestly these odds. It, it feels like that's the case. It's a, we don't believe you need more people situation, but the reality is, you know, to Chris's point again, if you watch the games, you can tell this Cleveland team is different. Sometimes it really is a confluence of things like Evan Mobley has taken a step. Darius Garland and Donovan look very comfortable together. They play off one another extremely well.

Idiots like myself used to question whether that would ever be the case simply because we hadn't seen it yet. But the reality is this, they can play you any type of way they want. Like they got two bigs that are very formidable in that starting lineup. They can go small against you and push pace if you want that. If you, if you want it to play, if you want them to play in a half court, they play extremely well there. They're just an extremely disciplined team. And you know what credit to coach Kenny Atkinson because sometimes and this has taken nothing nothing at all away from JB Bickerspeth but sometimes a new voice another voice to build upon what you've already established is exactly the

right voice and that and that is what they have in in Kenny Atkinson and his current staff I think Cleveland is serious I don't know where I would put them. I would, they would not be my fifth team. Like if I were a betting man, they'd probably be one or two. Uh, but I do understand, I do understand other people's trepidation specifically because, you know, we did see them underperform in the postseason most recently. Yeah, I will say it like I still, like I said, you know, the Celtics are scarier to

me as just like, you know, somebody who doesn't want to see the Celtics win. Like, I don't know, like are the Celtics worse than last year? Is it just the poor Zingus injury? Is it simply poor K poor Zingus? Is it the zingosity of it all? Or what, why are we seeing them take a step back? all or what, why are we seeing them take a step back? My, my, just that much better. My, my personal belief, um, is that drew holiday, having a lesser role on offense to accommodate the burgeoning superstardom was Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, as well as the emergence of Peyton Pritchard, cause they, they like, you only get about 88 shots per game.

Right. Yeah. And he's got to sacrifice it. But when he's out there, it's hard to just play defense for 34 minutes a night. And it gets disjointed. They did a really good job developing Lou Cornett into a good backup. They got out Horford, another good, heady veteran who's also a good backup. But they really hit a home run with Quavis.

Like he was able to step in and carry some of that load. But also the other thing that's happened is they've lost rebound. Their team rebounding has kind of like falling apart. You got Tatum near 10 boards, the game tried to make up for it. And I think that's really going to be their Achilles heel, because I think that is the way you beat them. And that's also why New York is as high as they are. Because you know, if you get even if Mitch is off the bench, you're going to get three

bigs who are going to snag 25 to 30 boards just from New York. And then you got Josh Hart crashing everything from the from the weak side. So like you got real, real heavy presence. And that's Boston's kryptonite. Cause if, if KP goes down, there goes your whole ability to hold your offense in the half court. That was my, uh, the most uncomfortable I was as a Sixers fan last year was in the series against the Knicks when Josh Hart would go after an offensive board.

Just like being unable to stop that every single time. I was like, I've never had that. Like I've had the experience of, you know, the team that I root for not being able to stop somebody on offense from scoring. But I've never had the experience where it's like, we can't get a rebound. Like we're defending fine. They're missing their shots and we just can't get a rebound and he can get a rebound at will like an offensive

board at will was very frustrating. Unfortunately, we are not going to be talking about the 76ers right now because my catch phrase don't look now for the 76ers season. Every time they win a game, I text that to Jabari. Don't look now, but the Philadelphia 76ers are pretty mediocre at this point. But the don't look now of this week's episode, the Pacers are looking pretty okay. Halliburton starting to put it together again. How are you feeling about the Pacers and Halliburton and this season so far? Jabari, you want to kick us off or Chris, you want to kick us off?

No, go ahead, Chris. I got you. You know, being here, I get to see the team. What I would say is that I think Pascal Siakamu finally felt comfortable. When they made the move, they made the move because he was the best available player, I think that they could trade for that doesn't necessarily mean it was a really good fit immediately. And then Rick Carlisle in the off season, spent some time trying to carve out a role specifically for Pascal Siakam. So it was a little bit heavier on him to open the season and then Tyrese

Halliburton was 100% honest. He started bad. He just, he just, he got out the gate and it was horrible. He was in his own head. He couldn't really, you know, like Steph attributed this to like performance anxiety. He was just questioning everything he was doing. And then now he's at a point where I think he's comfortable and he feels that if he doesn't make the shot, Benedict Maffer is going to make the shot.

If he doesn't make the shot, Johnny first, he's going to make the shot. If he doesn't make the shot, then Shepard is going to make the shot. And him now starting to reacquire that trust is moving the ball more. And now he's also able to get his shot off because the team's defense, the opposing defense is now just taking that half a step back because now they got an account for the swing and the reverse. So like it's one of those things that I think is lost on a lot of people. This was a Rick Carlisle. Hey, we're going to do two months of this and we got, we're going to figure

out who we are by Christmas. And then by Christmas, we're going to double down on what we think we are. And I think they found it. They are a winged team with Pascal Siakam also being able to drive and kick. And I think it's really entertaining basketball, especially when Miles Turner is hot and he stepped up to the last couple of weeks. So I'm going to be I'm going to about to be guilty of exactly what I just described in the previous conversation and say, okay, so all of this regular season stuff is cute. I appreciate it that you're, no, you're a hundred percent right.

They are fun to watch, especially when they get it going, especially when miles Turner is, you know, is hidden from, you know, hidden from the top and you know, spreading the space in the court for everybody, especially when Halliburton as he currently looks, you know, looks comfortable within his role. But we've seen teams like the Celtics. And he currently looks, you know, looks comfortable within his role. But we've seen teams like the Celtics and we talked about, you know, we just talked about the Knicks, even the Bucks, we've seen them play at their top levels. You feel as confident in these Pacers in a series when it, you know, when it comes

down to it against the likes of those teams? Uh, no. That's fair. None. Uh, let's take a quick break. We'll come right back. They are, they are the, they are like the Hawks. They are a quintessential matchup team.

Like if they hit Milwaukee, they can beat Milwaukee, right? But if they hit New York, it's game over because New York is just going to out rebound them and play defense and say, okay, Halliburton, here's 30 shots. You go beat us. So yeah, I wouldn't feel comfortable if they're taking the top tier teams on in a first round. Like it's just it's not going to work out. Alright, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. What's up, everybody? I'm Dan Burke here to tell you about a

new podcast from iHeart Podcasts in the National Hockey League. It's NHL Unscripted with Burke and Demers. Hey, I'm Jason Demers, former 700 game NHL defenseman turned NHL network analyst. And boy oh boy, does daddy have a lot to say. I love you by the way on NHL Network. We're looking forward to getting together each week to chat and chirp about the sport and all the other things surrounding it that we love, right? Yeah, I just met you today but we're gonna have a ton of

guests from the colliding worlds of hockey, entertainment, and pop culture and you know what? Tons of back and forth on all things NHL. Yeah, you're gonna soon gonna find out we're not just hockey talk. We have all kinds of random stuff on this podcast, movies, television, food, wrestling, even the stuff that you wear in NHL now. You wish you could pull off my short shorts, Berkey. That's sure to cause a ruckus. Listen to NHL Unscripted with Berken Demurs and the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back and let's take a look around the league. So big a half court shot from ice tray.

So I'm sure a lot of people saw that saw the highlight. Colin sex and ties it up with 2.9 seconds and then Trey Young hits a buzzer beater from beyond half court. No timeouts. No timeouts. Feels like when he took it, well, first of all, I wasn't surprised that it went in because I was watching it as a highlight. I was like, I bet this goes in because I wouldn't be watching it otherwise, but I do feel like the number of half to full court buzzer beaters has to have gone like way up, whether it be the like game winners or just like buzzer beaters and like an end of quarter, which used to be like a very rare thing. And now we know this is a shot that like people are practicing and hitting regularly in practice. They say Peyton Prisher shoots

60% from the three-quarter court in practice. Come on. Is just impossible. I'm terrified anytime the clock is winding down and he's got it in the back court. Do we feel like teams should start thinking about changing the way they defend it. Like right now, we're still in an era of, you know, doing the hoops equivalent of prevent defense, where you're just like stand three feet away, whatever you do, don't foul, which obviously you don't want to foul. But when you have people like Trey Young and like Peyton Pritchard and Steph and Dame, who can just pull up from that range. Like, I don't know what,

it feels like we need to start taking this shot a little bit more seriously. To me, it just feels like shot making has continued to progress and continue to improve. I think the fact that, I mean, don't get me wrong. We've always practiced half course shots or like the full court toss in, but not with any seriousness. It used to be that, yeah, man, when Steph shots or like the, the, you know, like the, the full court, you know, toss in, but not with any, you know, like seriousness.

It used to be that, yeah, man, when Steph is on a heater, you got to pick him up full court. It doesn't matter. Pick them up because he's going to hit it. That was 10 years ago. Now, like you just mentioned, no disrespect to Peyton Pritchard. In fact, respect to pay, but Peyton Pritchard can do that. All these guys, all these guys, you get, you know, you have to be concerned with them. Uh, you know, if, if they, especially around the half, you know, the half court and then I feel like everybody in the NBA now can hit the logo three.

So if you can hit the logo three, you are, you know, you are a danger even at half court. Yeah. It's a physics thing. It's a physics thing tied with muscle memory. And when you have elite athletes and this, this boats for the WNBA as well, when you have elite athletes who understand or who can be taught the principalities of basic physics and muscle memory, and you practice it, I mean, lethal shooter is hitting these shots

because that's what lethal shooter does. And not only are they doing this at team practice, they're doing this at their individual skill session. Like they'll warm up jacking up 100 shots before they even get into their skills work with their trainers. And 30 or 40 of those are oftentimes 30 footers, 40 footers, or 50 footers. And they're making them in practice. So this is something that I've always hard thought. I always thought you should go into like a one, two, one, one trap zone if you are less than three seconds in, because that way you at least get the ball out the hand of the

main guy who's going to get the ball and force them to make an extra pass. So that I've always been a proponent of that. There are a couple of other college coaches who do it, but you don't see it in the NBA. They don't practice it in the NBA. Oh, they don't. So it's one of those things. Do they pick them up full court? Then you run the risk of increasing the foul calls.

Or do you put like a line at the at the half court line? Do you put, you know, who Cornett and if you got a timeout and you put them, you know, at the at the logo and say, hey, as soon as you see the ball go up to his shoulders, guy, just run up and jump. Half court, Cornnet, uh, challenge the half court, cornet contest. Thank you. Yeah. He just jumped straight up, you know, try to take the rim out of the view and try to mess it up. But yeah, these guys are some of the best athletes in the world, on the planet. So like it shouldn't, it shouldn't be shocking to anybody that this has happened. That's why I learned how to hit three quarter court shots with my eyes closed so that I,

I'm impossible to defend. Um, we do want to wish a, uh, a happy birthday to Victor Wembinghamma, who birthday probably already too old. Uh, you know, it's a 21 over the hill, man. Lost give him another year, but just a quick rundown. Like I, you know, 21 over the hill man. Just lost. Give him another year. But just a quick rundown. Like I, you know, every time he put up one of these games, I saw it, but I haven't seen it all listed in one place. So Jabari, thank you for putting this together. So one game this season, he put up 50 points, hitting eight threes on 62% field goal shooting. Uh, another game, 42 points, 18 boards, six threes, four blocks, 34 points, 14 boards, 11 assists, five threes, 30 points, 10 blocks. Another game that is, hmm. Uh, 24 points, 13 boards, nine blocks. Another

damn near triple double 25 points, nine boards, seven assists, five steals, five blocks, four threes. Come on. That that. What the fuck? People are complaining and people are still complaining about the way he plays. And like, I get it if you're a traditionalist, but come on, that's just fun. I know a few traditionalists and we talk offline.

And I kept trying to tell him, like, look, I'll give you one name like Will Chamberlain. OK, right. Yeah. I'm not saying he's the next will. I'm saying he's this generations with seven for he's physically impossible to gain platform. This guy, when he actually hits his veteran, getting could walk in, give you 30, 15, five or six assists, a steel and a half and five blocks per game on an average, shooting 49% from the floor, 83% from the line in four or

five threes a game. And at that point, it's just not fair anymore. Yeah. What do you just simply is not fair. And I think, I think think we all we all just need to enjoy it because there's a lot of people that are traditionalists are all are. They know they've looked at the past. Like this dude would would would drop 50 on Patrick Ewing. We just have to understand that and accept it. Right. Maybe Hakeem Elijah one, you know, locks him up in the post, but he'll take them out on a three point line and pump fake them and then dunk in two steps.

And like, that's how good he is. And that's why everybody who was an international scout or talk to him for five years when he was 13 was like, yo, this kid is somebody to start watching for the league. And a lot of people didn't believe it. But now that he's over here and you see it, he's much he's much watching TV. You have to just see it in person, too, because the TV doesn't do it justice. It really doesn't. You got to go see him live, guys.

I don't care who your favorite team is, but it's San Antonio's rolling into town. You know, pony up the duckets and get your blood in the seat because it is it is breathtaking, mesmerizing. It's like watching LeBron James all over again, but someone who's seven foot four and doing things that even LeBron can't do. So yeah, I'm all for it. And to the traditionalist man, I'm sorry, but he's going to break records. Yep. I'm sorry to the traditionalists as always. I'm always so sorry to them. Yeah, it's like that drone display of the extremely tall guy in Dubai, you know, like that. That's what it feels like watching him. But I still, I still haven't seen it in person. So I need to do that. I

need to get my buns in the seat and see him. Oh, actually we saw him in person for his very first. That's right. For his very first summer league game, which he, my main takeaway was he's really tall. But also just watching how he moves, like just on defense, how he affected every shot that went up in the half court, like was, I was like, Oh, this is, I don't think I've ever seen that before like he is in people's head Every single time granted those were you know summer league players, but it was it was pretty wild to see He had folks making business decisions with the ball Yeah, this every decision that you make when he's on the defensive side is a business decision Yeah, all right. Let's take one more quick break and we'll come back.

We'll hit a couple more stories and we will do the rapid fire round of questions. We'll be right back. What's up, everybody? I'm Neal Berk, here to tell you about a new podcast, some I Heart podcasts in the National Hockey League. It's NHL Unscripted with Berk and Demers. Hey, I'm Jason Demers, former 700 game NHL defenseman turned NHL network analyst.

And boy, oh boy, does daddy have a lot to say. I love you, by the way, on NHL Network. We're looking forward to getting together each week to chat and chirp about the sport and all the other things surrounding it that we love, right? Yeah, I just met you today, but we're gonna have a ton of guests from the colliding worlds of hockey, entertainment, and pop culture.

And you know what? Tons of back and forth on all things NHL. Yeah, you're going to soon find out we're not just hockey talk. We have all kinds of random stuff on this podcast. Movies, television, food, wrestling, even the stuff that you wear on NHL now. You wish you could pull off my short shorts, Verckey. That's sure to cause a ruckus. Listen to NHL Unscripted with Verkan Demers, the iHeartRadio app,

Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And all right, before break, you were saying that the Spurs team would be a perfect landing spot for Jimmy. Jimmy wants out as we, uh, as had been rumored and the heat were like, that guy's a liar. He doesn't want out. He actually, things are going extremely well. And then he was like, okay, uh, I want to out. And so they suspended him. And now they're admitting that, OK, maybe he does one out. So people are wondering what are what's the best landing spot for him? I also have the spurs on my list.

But I do for somebody who has such little patience for young players who aren't like ready right now, who don't like have his level of motivation, cutthroat focus on winning. Like Jimmy Butler can be a volatile presence. Like is that too much of a win now move is it to, are you, um, you know, throwing a firecracker into the locker room by, by putting Jimmy Butler in there? What do you guys think? I would say no.

Chris Paul's in that locker room. Uh, that might be the reason. Well, yeah, that's, that's a two, that's a two way answer there because nah, they already have a firecracker going off in that line. They already have. But also Chris Paul and Jimmy Butler want the same thing. They want to win.

And when you get close to your mortality in any professional sport and you are a great player and you haven't won, it starts to eat at you. And then you start being willing to do anything and everything, including things you wouldn't think you used to, you wouldn't do to win. Like Chris Paul going to San Antonio was one to get to middle, but to, to win because my guess is he sees the vision. He'll sign a one in one that's at a lower rate.

But like, let's just work this out. It's not like it would be bad. You probably move off of Kelton Johnson and Harrison Barnes, but Jimmy's an upgrade over either of them. You might have to add in a young player like Jeremy Sohan, but like right now, Jimmy's still an upgrade over him and he plays the same role as Jimmy and San Antonio's offense. You have the young players that you don't even play because you already have other good young players that you could then add to the deal or even bring in a third team. You have the cap flexibility because you already were losing your best players on a rookie deal. Your second best players on a rookie deal.

Your third best player was basically an undrafted free agent in Champagney. And like it could work. They would still need to bring on another shooter. But like if you put him in Texas where he's from, right. And you get him out of where he doesn't want to be. That alone will give him the avenue to be less hostile, Jimmy, to be more, I'm the team, Jimmy, because he understands he thinks he can still do it. And he might still be able to do it sometimes. But deep down, he knows that he's close to the

end of his career. You would have him next to Devin Vassell, you'd have him next to Victor Windenyama, you'd have him next to Stefan Castle, plus CP3. That's just, it's a cheat code. Not only that, at practice, they're going to adopt his mentality at practice. They're already adopting CP3 mentality at practice. To me, if I'm the Spurs, yeah, it's a no lose. It's a no lose. If he opts in, you got him for one more year and he's an expiring. You could trade them again in the off season or you could trade them at the deadline.

If he opts out, guess what? It's not like you were going to bring back Harrison Barnes like you already had shot Calvin Johnson and these young guys that you have that aren't getting any minutes, guess what? They're not going to get minutes because you still got the young guys in front of them. So to me, it makes sense. The part that I always wondered though was with pop going out, would the coaching staff be able to accommodate them? And that's the only hold up that I have. I gotta be honest with you.

You've actually made a convincing like argument and I'm, I'm a lot more on the, on the side of that thought than I would have been. Cause my initial thought was no, like the last point you made is probably why I'm a little bit more skeptical because like specifically you make that Jimmy move, if that's going to make you a title contender. And I'm not saying that a happy Jimmy alongside Wimby and, you know, even a relatively healthy CP3, isn't a team that can do some damage because it is, but I don't think you make that move because that's not a title team and the risk versus reward, you know, then

you start to deal, then you look at it like, okay, so we took the risk, we had to give out assets on top of it. We can't recoup those. If he doesn't work out there, I, you know, I, I, for me, I look at it as like, if I'm RC Buford, I look at it like, if this were one year from now and we had a couple more pieces in line, I would consider this a lot more. Now I can be wrong. And maybe the, maybe they do pull that deal. You know, maybe they do bring them back to at least his home area. I think he's well like from,

is he from a Dallas originally or like that area originally? If I'm not mistaken. Um, yo, maybe that, maybe that would be good. But for me, it feels like more of a desperation deal. And what I mean by that is teams that are desperate, like the sons or like the warriors or like teams that are we need to win now. We need to win right now. I think those are more likely to be the teams to make it to consider a move for Jimmy at this stage.

Oh, you want to correct myself. He's from Houston. But he's actually from Dallas. The one that gets mentioned a lot is Memphis. That one makes I think it makes sense to people as like, all right, they need a veteran presence to like get Ja in line, make sure the madness doesn't keep happening with Ja. And historically, like the Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Butler's historic grind set persona fits with the historic Memphis persona. But I, I don't know.

I think you've convinced me that San Antonio might be the most interesting from a narrative perspective and might be the right thing for San Antonio to do. Like, you know, he's, I just feel like with CP three, like people are always like, you know, like they don't always love them. But they're I feel like people are always like, I learned a lot from playing with him, you know, whereas Jimmy, a lot of times the teams are just like, yeah, that was that was something. That was an experience. So that's the one thing that I don't know.

So that's the one thing that I don't know. I'm just reserving judgment on which of those will be the right spot. I would take them in Philadelphia, you know? You know, I was going to say if they offered, I got two for you. If they offered him, if they said, you know what, give us Paul, give us PG. That's fine. I mean, of course. Yeah. But here's the one for you.

But here's one for you. But here's what for you. What about what about throwing back, throwing them back to Minnesota, throwing them back in Minnesota? I don't know. Along alongside Edwards as opposed to alongside cat. That's the the the dog needs another dog. And I forgot who you know what it is. Yeah.

Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm on a feeling. Yeah. Would not be happy about that. I feel like Jimmy would not be happy about that. Uh, I don't know. You, you, you, you would have to figure out where Randall's going because nobody's going to take a bear.

That's the rule. And then if you move, go bear because of the the salary then you're with Randall Jimmy and aunt and and that would be Must see TV but not for the reasons you think as much as I make as much as I make light of go buried No, you can't move you can't come off go buried like you move those what 19 firsts Heaven and earth for him plus that would just make you too small Because you know, I would not trust Randall and you know, Naz read is our primary bigs, um, in any series. Yeah. All right. Last story before we get to the rabbi fire out of questioning, uh, I do. So ant scored 53 and a loss to the Pistons. Um, our, uh, boosties hit

70 or bust curse continues at pace. No player who scored a 60 in the calendar year 2024 won a game. If you scored 70, you won. And now that the hand check rules in place, 60 has become less common. So 50 is the new 60. And that's also not enough. You got it. You got to do more for us.

But I just wanted to, so Jabari, you were pointing out, you know, the Timberwolves, uh, still hovering in the eight to 10 siege category. The cat trade is looking more and more like he is currently. Sixth in the odds for MVP race. He's currently ahead of Jaylen Brunson in the odds for the MVP voting. He's currently ahead of Jaylen Brunson in the odds for the MVP voting. Like sixth in MVP voting level good season he's having. He's averaging 14 boards a game, 55 field goal percent, 44 from three. Like I knew he was having a good season.

I did not realize he was having, like he's the new best player on the Knicks and he's one of the best players in the league level. Good season. That is shocking. It's like when your ex glows up, when your ex glows up and all of a sudden it's like, yo, wait, wait, wait, where did that come from? What are we doing here? That's what that feels like. So so the biggest knock on cat,

the entirety of Minnesota was he's a little bit soft and he didn't play defense. Go there, gets there. Then all of a sudden, cat becomes an elite defender. Go look at the stats. Don't look at the state becomes the lead defender. And then he gets to New York and people like, oh, well, he's going to get to New York. And like, he's just going to go back to the way that he was. And he didn't, he got better because the team is actually a better team. Doesn't mean they have the best player, uh, you know, and I think would be almost all

of them one-on-one. I don't think he'd be scared because cats just too big, but he's still averaging a steel and a block essentially per game. He's still actually playing help side defense. He's rotating out to the perimeter like he's doing what Anthony Davis was known to do. He just doesn't have the two and a half blocks per game. But he is fit in to exactly what the Knicks needed, which was a dominant rebounder who didn't want to dribble the ball five or six times out on the perimeter and take a bad three quarter. And then like, I mean, I think we all know like who I'm talking about, but when you have synergy, which is what the Knicks were targeting, this is what happens. Great

players become that much better. Um, and, and it's been a wonderful season to watch, um, for him and for the Knicks. I honestly just want them to lose because also as a Sixers fan, Boston's number one enemy, but New York ain't too far behind. New York's right there. I don't care. I only have room in my tiny cold heart for one enemy, and that's the Celtics. All right. It is that time. It is the rapid-fire round of questioning We're gonna we're gonna throw a couple questions at you. No time to think just bing bang boom. I'm back

And Jabari you want to you want to kick us off? I will I will as a matter of fact I'm gonna actually have you pick the game of the week for us because that is something that we've been doing and we want To keep that to keep that tradition. So these are your options. Friday night, you got Bucks at Magic. You also have Thunder at Knicks. Saturday night, you got Wimby coming to L.A. to play the Lakers Monday. Next Monday, you got Bucks at Knicks or Pacers at Cavs.

What's your game of the week? I'm going to go with the Knicks and Thunder. I'm going to go with the Knicks or Pacers at Cavs. What's your game of the week? I'm going to go with the Nixon thunder. I'm going to go with Nixon thunder and I'm ready to tell you why. And 10 seconds is a contrast to styles. Styles make fights and I want to see this site. OK, I just I want to see it. And I wish Chet was healthy, but I got to see I heart against cat. I got to see SGA versus the combination of McAlbrige's and OG and a newbie, you know,

taking terms, not trying to lock him up. I got to see Lou Dort put Jalen Brunson in the torture chamber. And I got to see if the real J is going to show up because I think J. Dove, you know, Williams is, you know, the the glinch pin to whether okay, he's going to be successful. And I don't think he's getting enough shine or love for most improved player this year. I don't think he would win it. I think he really should be in the conversation about it.

So yeah, I would pick Nixon Thunder Friday night without a question. Bang. By the way, just quickly check is on he's traveling with the team on this trip, so there's no updated return, but it seems like he's going to be back in the mix pretty soon. All right. Last question. Every team gets to redesign the NBA logo that they wear on their jersey rather than the standard Jerry West dribbling one that we all know and love. Who would be Pacers logo? Who would be the 76ers logo? And what are they doing in the logo?

Reggie Miller, you know, flailing, not flailing his legs out. No, no, it's actually it's actually his fadeaway three that he would do when he's on the wing. Yeah, that that would be that would be the Pacers logo. And then the Sixers. So so I had I got an argument. And Jack, I think I want to know what your ideas because there are there are different areas

and levels of Sixers. Yeah. Right. To me, it is Julius Irving. To me, it is Julius Irving without without question. And then to everybody else, it's Alan Iverson. And then I would also give you an additional what I think would be a not so thought of tape of reef cheeks, mo cheeks. Okay. I like it. As a player and as a coach, has the history. And I could see him, you know, with his arms crossed, looking out in the gaze of hate towards the Boston Celtics.

And I could see that being on the logo for the 76ers. All right. So I'm going to give an even less thought of take, which would be Ben Simmons under the basket against the Hawks, passing the ball off when he could have dunked it. And that that is, you know, that encapsulates the the process. So, you know, Sixers fans are all different. Some of us are just in it for the misery. You don't want the co ratless rare, you know double block Well Chris what a pleasure having you on Miles and Jack got mad boosties

Where can people find you follow you all that good stuff? Yeah, you can it's the main hoop spaces It's real simple. HOP SPAC. Yes. You can find me on X formerly known as Twitter. You can find me on playback TV. Uh, you can also find me on blue sky. Just got done working for Amazon. I'll probably be picking up another gig hopefully soon. Uh, if you find me there, uh, you'll be able to talk to me Monday through Friday at 10 AM every day.

Then I break down every single game. Uh, sometimes we be able to talk to me Monday through Friday at 10 a.m. every day and I break down every single game. Sometimes we get players to pop in, sometimes we get coaches or trainers. So yeah, come through and we'd love to talk to you. Amazing. All right, you can make sure you give us a follow. I'm on Twitter at Jack underscore O'Brien and on Blue Sky at Jack OB1. Miles is sky at jack ob one miles is at miles of gray on both Jabari where are you at Jabari Davis NBA on Twitter we still call it that is his mama call it that and on blue sky Jabari Davis NBA yeah and you can find us that hashtag Matt boosties for show links and updates and be sure to join the conversation on our discord which you can also find the link for when you search hashtag MadBousties. That's

going to do it for us this week, sending out a lot of love to my fellow Angelenos who've been displaced by the fires, hoping everybody stays safe and sane out there. And we'll be back next of Miles and Jack, I'm not boosted. Bye. What's up everybody, Adnan and Virk here to tell you about a new podcast. It's NHL Unscripted with Virk and Demers. Jason Demers here and after playing 700 NHL games, I got a lot of dirty laundry to air out. Hey, I got a lot to say here too, okay? Each week we'll get together to chat about the sport that we love. Tons of guests are going to join in too, but we're not just going to be talking hockey

folks. We're talking movies, we're talking TV, food, and Ed and Ed's favorite, wrestling. It's all on Le Table.