The Daily Zeitgeist - MJGMB #90: In-Season Tournament and the State of the Raptors with Esfandiar Baraheni

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

Miles and Jack were joined by SDPN NBA Reporter Esfandiar Baraheni for today’s episode! The trio discussed just how incredible the inaugural In-Season Tournament has been, the state of the Toronto Raptors and plenty more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, y'all? It's Cam Jordan from the New Orleans Saints

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your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. Jake Stielli here from john boy media i want to tell you about my podcast wake and jake i've been a sports nut my whole life and there's nothing i love more than talking about it if you're a sports fan wake and jake is the place for you covering all the hot topics from the sports world a lot of baseball

a lot of postseason coverage mock draftss, awards, guest interviews, all of it. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday. Come watch along on the Wake and Jake YouTube channel or listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wellachie, Wellachie, Wellachie. Your Minnesota Timberwolves wrapped up a 13-3 month of November. Wow. November to truly remember. Meanwhile, Denver is just 5-5 over their last 10, but they'll be welcoming

the return of Jamal Murray soon. And we'll get into a ton of stuff around the league, including the state of the Toronto Raptors man-nam with NBA reporter and podcaster Esfandi Arberaheni on today's episode.

I'm Miles Gray. And I'm Jack O'Brien. And this is Miles and Jack O'Brien. Welcome back. SPPS Sports MBA reporter. Host of the Objective Podcast alongside Lauren Gunn. Good to have you, man. I appreciate that you're throwing in the Toronto accent every now and then. Had to go alongside. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Not alongside. Longside, obviously. But yeah, excited to have you back, man. We had such a fun time, so it's really good to have you back. Yeah, appreciate you guys having me on, man. Can drill down on some tings, as it were. Jack, You alright? Yeah I'm good

I'm doing the secretly eating a hot dog thing I think you should leave Are you ripping your quesadilla Into mini bites that you can manage Putting them under my tongue I'm microdosing a quesadilla Do your pack and a lip a quesadilla for those that don't know we record many podcasts throughout the day jack and i sometimes the the

meals the the opportunities the looks for to get a bite in are limited so jack had to just smash a quesadilla had to smash quesadilla in front of you guys just yeah well you guys had a conversation. I apologize. I'm back. I'm fueled. I ate an entire quesadilla in like 10 minutes. Felt like that. Too much. Felt like that. How are we feeling about the... I mean, I think we can say in-season tournament is huge failure.

Bomb city. Nobody cares. Nice try. Nobody's watching. The players are laying down on the court in the middle of the way oh no wait what royal tenenbaums they got one one sock off they're just sitting on the court uh no this this turned out to be pretty fun yeah i feel foolish in the beginning to being like i don't get it like what what are the stakes clearly there are

the stakes are as the prize for competitors and the out-of-body performances we've been seeing i mean just watching tyrese halliburton like ascend to like another level of existence against the celtics i'm like oh okay i see what y'all are doing here yeah yeah yeah this is good this is good yeah i knew adam was a genius the whole time. I was saying that. The fact that it happened against the Celtics has nothing to do with us being happy to see him. We're just appreciators of his game and happy to see him rise to

a new level. You know what's crazy? I saw this tweet by Nick Friedel. I'm sure that's going around right now on Twitter, but he was saying the NBA better hope that the Lakers and Knicks win tonight. Cause nobody's going to watch a Pacers bucks final or whatever. And it's like,

I don't know what you're talking about. I think that's wrong. Yeah. Yeah. That's like very incorrect. I bet you the like Halliburton, whatever last night's game was like, it's going to come back as one of the most viewed games in November or

December by far, like very easily just because of how insane that game was. It's not even a competition, man. The tournament has done the job that it was supposed to do, which is make the start of the season exciting. And I'm sure if you like a team that just

went out recently, you'll probably keep watching because part of it's like, man, we could have done that. That was our matchup, you know what I mean mean so i think there is a lot of incentive for everybody to to stay tuned in aside from the fact that the games have been very entertaining yeah i feel like that's out there like i feel like a lot of young people just follow players more than they're like this is my hometown team it's the only team that I ever got to see because I would just walk down the street and listen to the arena from the outside. On my gas-powered bike.

Exactly. Yeah. No, that's true. Like, I don't think, you know, I was saying this earlier, but, like, LaMelo Ball is top 10 in jersey sales in the NBA. I don't think there's a lot ofotte hornets fans out there to get top 10 jersey sales people are fans of lamello same thing plus like john morant you know what i mean right i bet tyree's halliburton will be like that soon too i just i feel like it more it's more of a players league it's more loving who the player is catching highlights whatever online then

like you said i'm gonna go and watch whatever yeah it just doesn't make sense to me first i'm gonna go warm my hands around this trash can fire and sing doo-wop with my buddies then we're gonna go down to the game and back when it was yeah it was scout tickets there was a doo-wop group on every corner right going to sell some papes outside the stadium. And then with the winnings, I'm going to buy a ticket. Yeah. Again, as of this recording, we do not

know the fate of the Lakers against the Suns. Who knows what's happening there? We don't know. We just don't know. And that's the beauty of recordings that do not happen in real time. But we do know what happened in the other game, Pelicans and the Kings. Brandon Ingram also bringing a tear to my eye.

Just from being like, I wish. Why? What happened? I love you, Ingy. He's just coming into his own. I hoped he would, or it appears that way. But yeah uh really really good win over the kings yeah no that was special um that i mean i was kind of rooting for the kings

too just because i thought sacramento's crowd would be really fun to watch them kind of explode yeah they kind of feel like the crowd at least feels like peak warriors crowd in the sense that like they just start to build and build and build and build and it's crazy to see. The Pelicans went in there and took care of business. Zion didn't even play well. Zion did not have a... 10 points or something. They didn't even have a good game.

BI, Herb, Trey Murphy, they just came out there and took care of business. It was really fun to see. Young guys, man. Young guys taking over this in-season tournament. Did you see Chuck go after Zion, though? He's man he doesn't run he's just put everything's just all talent with him just doesn't even like to run any day but then i was like you know he needs to get in league shape how do you guys feel about that you get you agree i mean look he sure he's he might not be as in shape as he could be but there's always going to be players who play like that.

I think it's like, it feels like one of those things when you're like a school teacher, like if you just applied yourself, you would go to the next level. But I, I look, he's still, but I'm not like,

I'm not applying myself. So here we are. This is who I am. Right, right, right. But like, yeah,

to Jabari's producer, Jabari's point. It's like, yeah, Charles Barkley may be the most qualified person to say that, as they look back at their career. So, you know, I think, that's why I'm, like, for me,

I'm like, let Zion, he's got some, like, he has time, or, you know, hopefully, like, hopefully injuries aside, he can, you know, make the decision he wants to. That's my only thing, is that i want him to be in whatever shape is going to keep him playing and not have him injured right and if that's his game then so be it because like yeah great yeah i think i think i think part of his like he's he's

kind of come out the gate slow this season i think part of it is also the pelicans are running a bit of a different system like they're trying to get the mall ball moving a little bit more they're actually putting the ball in his hands to be more of a point guard like point forward type a little bit more too yeah um so if they are trying to do that change up the way that they play plus incorporate a bunch of these new new guys they've had injuries cj mccallum had a collapsed lung uh they've had to go through a bunch of different things and i think now we're going to see them get into rhythm like they were they were what the first or second best team in the west over the last the first two months three months of last season they can get to that level again um and

i'm kind of excited to see if they can reach that and if they can stay healthy yeah because he's he's a great point forward type yeah when he plays that position and is the but everything's going through him they're really strong on offense yeah his line in the first playing game reminded me of like a ben simmons line like it was like 10 7 7 you know like i was like huh that's but yeah that makes more sense when you think about it that he's distributing yeah they're just they're they're asking him to play a little bit different of a role than he did last season. And maybe that'll help him stay healthy, honestly. I don't know if that's going to be the case.

But to your point, I would rather him longevity versus giving me 40 games a year or whatever. Right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Even though he can block some shots that are unlike anything i've seen or dunk sometimes in a way that's like that doesn't seem physically possible that seems like special effects or like maybe maybe we don't do that during the regular season and then get to see that during the playoffs right but yeah to the point about that jabari's point about chuck being the one who's

kind of qualified to talk about it it's interesting like he had that one year where it was like oh no he's in he's in shape and he was like the mvp of the league like okay um yeah maybe maybe that is maybe that is worth listening to. Wasn't Chuck's downfall pretty part of a downfall, too? Once he started to stop being shaped as much? He got a little bit of big boy flex, and then it was just like, all right, there's no way he can be as productive. Yeah, it's kind of a bit of a slow roll into the station at the end there.

Yeah, exactly. I don't know how else to put it. Well, I guess also, you know, in other news, or not other news, since we have somebody who can actually speak with some level of authority on the state of the Toronto Raptors, the Raptors, you know, 9 and 11 as of this recording, 4-6 the last 10 you know before wednesday's game versus the heat i know siakam is not shooting well what how are you like what's how are you looking at this team i know there's also talk what's your before that my favorite player from the draft grady dick uh yeah you know they're not they're not messing with his shot right like part we were talking about this earlier like they're like but he're not messing with his shot. Right. Like part, we were talking about this earlier.

Like they're like, but he's the best shooter. So why would they attempt to do something like, they're not messing with his shot. There's, it's been like confirmed like 50 times by now, but he, they're not,

they're not changing his shot at all. Nothing has been adjusted. It's all his fault. Yeah. He's missing because he sucked. No, I'm just kidding. But he's, he's's like so the way that

they're doing this is on his makes apparently he has a wider base like he's he's spreading his legs a little bit more on his jump shot they're saying hey on your makes you have that we've noticed your misses we have noticed on your misses you are a little bit closer right right they're like hey just just focus on that when you're taking the jump shot and it'll work better to your advantage they're not trying to change anything they're just saying hey this is something that we noticed go out and do it that's why he's dropping into a squat when he shoots his threes now that's why he's about to just sumo wrestling yeah actually i had a high school uh when i when i used to play in high school, there was a

guy that would actually like sit into a squat after he would shoot the ball. It was insane. It worked. He was actually not that bad of a shooter. But wait, that's how you would land after the release. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

Release into a. So rather than gooseneck, it was full squat. Clean and jerk. Right. Exactly. It was impressive as I don't know how he did it right it's like a athletic uh feat in itself but no grady grady is figuring things out he's he's thrown into the 905 so the g league squad now um and he kind of needs to get that run just to one

get his jumper back a little bit like right used to professional hoops uh and also just work on his cardio a little bit you know playing in nba games is a little bit different than playing in you know college and i think he needed to get his cardio up to get his legs under him the way he wants to play you have to be moving all the time and relocating get into a spot corner you know above the break whatever um and he just was he was probably a step slow on a lot of that to start this year right i think that's what they're trying to do with getting him into the 905 is like let's just get you playing 30 minutes a game so you can get your cardio up a little bit and then once you get back to to the raptors squad

then you know hey you'll have your legs under you right because as we all know without that cardio that nothing will come together yeah you can't even dribble yeah so there's been a lot of rumors that the raptors are going to blow it up you know pascal siakam is going elsewhere how do you feel about that like are you ready to see a tear down and build back yeah i mean look just to sort of answer both of your questions at 9-11 they sort of are what they are and what i've expected i thought this team was going to be about a 500 team to start the year and if they don't make any changes i expect them to continue being about a 500 team like 38 to 42 wins depending on any given night and injuries and all that stuff um ultimately i think this is what they are just

because they have a deeply flawed roster uh just tons of duplication, a lot of wings, not enough guards, not enough creation juice, guys who can get downhill, create a shot for themselves, et cetera, et cetera. And you have guys who kind of just do similar things in similar areas of the floor. And when you watch them play, it's like they're playing archaic basketball. It's like they're playing basketball from the mid-2000s or the 90s. It's just a lot of guys converging into one area of the floor. Siakam likes to operate in the middle of the floor. Scottie Barnes, their young star, likes to operate in the middle of the floor.

Even guys like Jakob Pertl, OG Ananobi. They duplicate a lot of the same skill sets, and they don't have a lot of variety in their approach. So that's why they struggle so immensely offensively. And to your question about Siakam and, you know, if they're going to blow it up and move a different direction, I don't think this team and their ownership necessarily wants to blow it up and rebuild and like be a lottery team forever. I think they would much prefer building through the middle and trying to get to a spot where they're, you know, back in contention through that middle spot. It's a lot harder to do that, obviously. But I think it's more likely that they trade Siakam for players that can help them now. Plus, you know, a prospect or something other than, you know, instead of them going like, hey, we're just going to blow it up for the sake of blowing it up.

Let's get pigs. Let's get, like, young guys and do this. I think they would rather get guys that could potentially help them now. More intentional rebuild. Right. Because, like, some fans feel like it should have just been, like, let's just liquidate Siakam for some picks or something that we can put around Scottie and things like that.

But for you, you're like, I don't know if that's actually the the best solution here in the short term even if it is a solution i just don't think the raptors will take it like i think um when it comes to ownership like they're very happy being a team that can consistently be in the playoff hunt being consistently in the plan hunt just because money right at gate revenue and i think given where they're at like financially it would make sense for this team to not want to tank because then ticket prices go down and you know you don't get that gate playoff revenue either so uh for the most part i just think they're in a position where they don't really have the ability to tank even if they want to but they are i think you know given

their recent history of losing free agents, right? Kyle Lowry, they had a chance to trade him at the deadline. They decided not to. They got a sign and trade in the summer, got precious to true or whatever. Fred VanVleet, same situation. They had the opportunity to trade him. They didn't trade him. He walked to the Houston Rockets for absolutely nothing.

You got nothing in return. Right. I think now with Siakam, who is a better player than those two guys were, you've got to take advantage of that, and you've got to take advantage of getting something, because if you don't, you're essentially letting the best player on your team just walk.

And Scottie has emerged. Scottie is becoming a really, really good player. He might end up being an all-star this year, but you can't just let Siakam walk for nothing, or else you risk yourself putting yourself in a really, really bad position. Right. Did Siak come walk for nothing or else you risk yourself putting yourself in a really, really bad position with the roster. Did Kawhi leave for nothing?

Kawhi left for nothing too. Danny Green left for nothing too. He didn't mark their phone here, right? Yeah, Serge Ibaka too. I could have went down that list. Yeah, Kawhi, Danny Green, Mark. Hold on, I think that list is longer than what we just said.

It definitely is. Let me make you sadder real quick. Because who else is in unrestricted free agency? So, what? Pascal could leave. So, Pascal could leave. OG Ananobi has a player option, but he's definitely going to opt out of that

because he can get a bag this summer. And he's an unrestricted free agent. But I would actually, I would bet money that they would keep him no matter the cost. They're just going to re-sign him. And even if teams offer him a bag, they're going to still match whatever bag that is. And then Gary Trent Jr. is also a free agent this summer and can walk as well.

And I don't know where they are with him and what he might do. He's kind of struggled this season. So maybe they take a flyer and say, hey, we'll take at a at a cheaper cost than what would usually happen but who knows do you feel like scotty is a a piece like the the piece that you want to build around is he like second best player on a championship team and then you just kind of try and put it together around him yeah it's interesting man uh scotty has taken a shooting leap this season he's hitting on 39 of his threes he's just for some reason he's taken a pretty massive stride in the shooting department now to be fair like we're only 20 games in right who knows how it'll look 82 game season but

ultimately just the fact that he can show you stretches like this where he can be like a 40 shooter on pretty high volume pretty good sign for him as a player. And that opens up the rest of his game, right? Like he's able to get downhill because he's such a crazy athlete. He's a great passer, has great vision. So I think the offense and like superstar ceiling really depends on the shooting department and how good of a shooter he'll eventually be. But the rest, he is a very, very good all-star level player. Second player on a championship

team type of guy he could potentially be the best on a championship type team but that requires a leap that like you need to see consistently in the scoring and shooting department that's just not there yet like he's still hella young and like you haven't seen that from him yet yeah i wonder who who does pascal siakam like what team does he make sense on i'm trying to man there's there's so many he can like i feel like he can play on a lot of different teams i i was just on a different podcast yesterday and and they were saying we don't talk about we don't acknowledge that other podcasts i knew y'all would say something like that we're very jealous.

Is it Miles and Jack on Mad Boosties? Only podcast I've ever heard of. You're right. But they were suggesting the Warriors. And I thought the Warriors makes a lot of sense just because of where they're at with their own individual timelines. There is this internal pressure for them

to try and win around Steph Curry. They obviously have tons of contracts that could work on the other side to go and get him. Who knows? I don't know. They also have interesting young contracts that could work on the other side to go and get him. Who knows? I don't know. They also have interesting young players that maybe they'd be willing to move off of because they're trying to win now.

So people bring up Jonathan Kaminga. People bring up Brandon Pajimski. There's these kinds of players that maybe the Raptors could be wanting. This summer, Pascal was nearly traded to the atlanta hawks nearly traded to the indiana pacers those things didn't happen because probably the raptors wanted too much for what pascal was and you know we'll see if they revisit that but those are the types of teams it's like either a contender that is dealing with their own internal pressures

and has to pull a win now move right or a young budding team that is thinking okay maybe we're one piece away from being that contender which is like hey we just saw the indiana pacers you know trek the celtics maybe they feel now like hey let's get another guy for halliburton right and you know they go in that direction but who knows there's there's a lot of teams that could use him yeah are you worried about like his shooting slump like affecting the perception of him right now or do you think it's it'll he'll it'll it'll figure itself out maybe a little bit um i think i mean when whenever you shoot 9.6 percent on threes over the last 10 games it's not gonna help you a lot um it doesn't help the case but to be fair like i saw that tweet too. That was crazy. Absolutely.

That's like, was it the worst three point percentage by a player with 50 plus attempts in a 15 game span since at least 83, 84? That's that's not the kind of history you want to be setting. Yeah, absolutely. And look, you don't want to be like you said, you don't want to be in that category. But yeah, I feel like he's never really been a shooter. And the Raptors are sort of asking him to be that unfairly this season just because they don't have a lot of shooting. They've put the ball in Scottie's hands more and they're trying to make him operate, but they're also asking Pascal to be off ball more. And that's just requiring him to shoot the ball more often from three.

He's not that good of a shooter. He had one season where he was a really good shooter, but hasn't really been that since. So I just think they're putting him in the wrong positions and any team that tries to trade for him you're not going to ask him to take a lot of threes i don't think the warriors are going to ask him to take a lot of threes i think like you have enough of that with stephanie clay and all those guys right um ultimately like if you're getting a guy like siakam you're getting him to be this like utility knife on offense who can create for himself a little bit who's a great cutter off ball mover really good

defender has size like just a very versatile forward that you can throw into any type of situation sounds nice sounds like a nice hey listen man i used to have a career in marketing you know yeah yeah i'm sold, yeah. Hey, I'm looking at these numbers, though. I'm not sure it's that. It's like, trust me, this guy's nice. You like this guy. You're going to come in smooth.

You're going to love this guy. You can walk away with a nice Pascal Siakam today. You're going to come home, your wife's going to say, wow, there goes a man who knows how to get a deal. You wanted to have respect for you again don't you all right this might be your first step towards that all right should we take a break yeah all right yeah yeah might as well all right we'll take a break we'll be right back wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal.

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Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen. Catch the podcast, the NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal every day. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, here we go. It's Cam Jordan from New Orleans Saints here to tell you it's going down on season two

of my podcast off the edge with me, Cam Jordan. Can't stop it. You know what's going to happen. Can't stop it. That's right. Catch new episodes every Wednesday, all season long. That's what you look for in year 14 to do more. No days off.

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the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast has something for you, and you're going to have a great time listening, I promise. Join me and the rest of the crew every wednesday for a new episode listen to the fantasy footballers dynasty podcast on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts and we're back we're back. We're back. And, all right, let's talk Golden State real quick. Mm-hmm. What's going on with these guys?

We were just talking about these guys. No, three and seven are the last ten. A whole one game worse than the 76ers, who were four and six over the last ten. But their next five, Blazers, at Thunder, at Suns, at Clippers, Nets. Do we think they're just a move away? They had some weak spots and all they really did was get rid of Jordan Poole. Is that basically what we're looking at?

They look old, man, is my thing. They kind of look old. I didn't realize this when I came into the season because I was like, I was kind of high on the Warriors. I'm like, oh man, Steph Curry, you know, they still got their nucleus. Maybe Jordan Poole, a little addition by subtraction. Chris Paul would be enough.

But I, like, you look at their core and they're very old. Chris Paul's obviously like 39 years old. Steph Curry is 35 now. Draymond Green is getting up there in age. Klay Thompson is, I think, 32 or 33. They are older, and they're relying on these guys to be the same way. And I think the NBA offense has sort of caught up to the Warriors in the sense that you see other teams replicating that same style.

The Nuggets, the Kings, even to a lesser extent, the Hawks and Pacers are really trying to like, just we're going to play a style very similar to the Warriors, the run and gun, shoot a bunch of threes type of offense. And I think the Warriors have gotten worse and worse at it. That's not to say Steph Curry isn't balling out. Steph Curry is balling his ass off. He's cooking.

But the rest of the team just isn't good enough to keep up and just isn't talented enough to sustain this level. So, yeah, I feel like they are a piece away. Like, if they were to, we were just talking about Siakam, if they were to go and make a splash like that, whatever that trade is, I think they could put themselves back in the conversation of contenders but for now i do not see that like i really don't yeah they feel

like they're on the outside yeah and just like a lot of the players that we thought were gonna keep this like dynastic franchise going you're just kind of like you know cool we're like they're like first thing you know and then you're like and then like andrew wiggins like you know it's not nothing's quite like breaking through in the way that you need for a team like that to have that balance rather than being like i don't know man can we put more mileage on these bodies and expect the same output like that's just it's just tough in retrospect it's kind of wild the season they had where they won it it's like they were on a regression to like you know age the way a team is expected to and then just randomly that season everything comes together and they're playing great

and then it's just like back to back to the same kind of path that they were on before that season it's really a strange outlier kind of a testament to to steph and just what what they did that season was pretty wild right further and further we get away from that championship season the more it looks like the last dance yeah yeah that was their last dance which is just it's crazy given how good steph still is like steph is still really good he's having He's nearly having as good of a season as he did in his, I think, second MVP season or maybe the season after that.

His production is incredible. But just in terms of the rest of this team, like you guys said, you're not getting enough from Kaminga. You're not getting enough from Wiggins. Klay feels like and looks like a shell of himself. So you're just not getting that same production. It's tough, production um it's tough

man it's tough because they have been you know for the last 10 years they've been the most successful franchise like the best you know dynastic like you said yeah um and it feels like we're seeing the end of that now and even the way clay talks like in some of his post games he seems like visibly frustrated but he's also maybe like when people are bringing up the you know the possibility that they are mortal human beings and things might be changing a bit he seems like really defiant about it and i get that obviously you're not going to be out there he's not going to do like he's like what do you want me to say yeah we i'm done i'm hanging it up but i'm still you know there's a check so i'll come in every day it's not like

that but there's like I can tell even for them there's like this frustration and a little bit of like existential awareness around them and being like what is realistic and to your point like was that actually it two years ago like was that the one yeah senior morality that's crazy

yeah I do just want to talk about the in season tournament one more time just the the clip that uh i think it was rob perez shared of like the celebration um of of the pacers bench and then he shared it with the information that 10 players on the books for the pacers who make less than three million dollars in salary this season three two-way contracts, so $500,000 per player to the winner of the tournament is a huge deal.

That, I don't know, man. That really puts it in perspective and makes it so fun. Yeah, it puts it in perspective how great the Lakers are. You see what I'm saying? We're still showing up. Week in and week out.

Still showing up. We could have skipped this thing. We could have skipped it. Weekend and weekend. Still showing up. We could have skipped this thing. We could have skipped this thing. Nobody would have minded. No, but yeah, it is kind of like on some Hunger Games kind of thing, too. They're hungry. Yeah, they're out here. And yeah, it's, yeah, who is it?

So the Knicks, oh yeah, it could be the, wait, who are the Knicks playing again? Bucs. The Bucs, right, right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, everything. And the Lakers-Suns. Yeah, everything has a bit of appeal. I mean, no matter how that Suns game goes, I think because it's the

first one, too, I'm just interested. It's just fun to see, and honestly, at the beginning, I was a little annoyed by the courts and the graphics on the courts. But I like that it does visually anchor that the fact that it gives it a different feel. So then when I see highlights, I'm like, oh, it's OK. It is from the end. So it's in season. Right. Yeah.

So, you know, well done. Well done. Well done. What would you guys change going into next year? Because I feel like I've heard that conversation a lot of like what would a tweak be what would this adjustment be obviously it's been successful you know like yeah even the numbers and like the viewership and all that they had crazy numbers of success but like what would you change if it's been so successful some people have said we should extend the tournament not have it end in in december have it end in like february so that it could like lead into all-star weekend and then you you have a thing and then it's playoff time right um some people say obviously take away the

courts like there's different suggestions but how would you guys tweak it just playing with no courts that feels like that would be chaotic whoa zero gravity like rainbow road and mario kart um yeah it feels like i don't know maybe this is just me as a non-footy fan but like all the like playing in your group and then like having like the point differential matter as much as it did was not my favorite thing and it felt like more more single elimination uh less of the you know playing the same teams repeatedly like if we could figure out a way to do that i think that would be more fun but um like maybe a bigger single elimination portion of the tournament and right uh you know like a couple games to get the seating right but then the know, the single elimination is really what I'm here for. So I want more of that if possible.

I would like something, like I said, first my perception of it felt like the stakes weren't there. Clearly they are in the form of like the prize. But I would like to see if there is a way to have it have some bearing on the seat. Like that it's like you're fighting actually to, this could actually have it have some bearing on the seat like that it's like you're fighting actually too this could actually affect your ability in the playoffs or something like that like it's not just a prize like there's a there's something that you could kind of hack the matrix through the tournament just to see how that would go i'm sure if there was something like

that then maybe they've changed the rules because people will be playing differently but if there was something like you know you, in the first round, you can make your opposition bench one player in the first game and you could choose which one. You know, something just, you know, not too wild, but I don't know. If there's something- Your opponent has to play, we had that one pitch,

your opponent has to play one quarter in Timberland. In Tim's, yeah. Yeah. I would like to see that. I would like, just for funsies, you know, or even in the tournament, be like, yo, we do this thing. Like, there's the mystery ball comes down in the third quarter.

And depending on what it looks like, it might be Tim's for whoever's playing the five. That'd be a huge advantage for the Knicks. Well, yeah, but you have to have more people that are from New York still playing. You know what I mean? You have some of these guys from Europe over there. They will hurt themselves. I wonder what the point differential would be, Tim's to non-Tim's, you know what i mean yeah you have some guys from europe over there they will hurt themselves i wonder what the point differential would be tims to non-tims you know because like you you ever like lift something very heavy and then right afterwards lift something really light

and it's like whoa yeah all right maybe so the quarter happens with tims the quarter after the tims like people are just taking off from the like three-point line dunking and stuff you're like got the fizzy lifting dream. I've never felt this before. This is the secret the whole time. Just play half the game in Tim's. I do feel like we need to shout out Chet, who

made the top five. He was fifth and lowest defensive rating for players so far. Goes Rudy, Kat, which I was surprised to see um mitchell robinson anthony davis who's uh you know despite what some people like he gets a lot of a lot of negative attention people like he's not the it's not that dude but he's uh still playing incredibly defensively and then chet right after.

And then he won Rookie of the Month for October-November. And just generally is looking like a Rookie of the Year frontrunner at this point. Which, you know, we were excited about him. We were very

excited about Wemby, and a lot of people were like, talk about Chet! Every time you bring up Wemby's name, we're like, what about Chet, man? What about Bull Bull? Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa. Alright, we'll get to him. We'll get to Bull Bull. Yeah, he was the Western Conference rookie, and then I gotta shout out

my former Bruin, the real Triple J, Jaime Jaquez Jr. on the Heat. Also, yeah, doing what I was saying off mic, I was like, honestly, the Heat is the perfect place for him to go. It really is. Just with his mentality, his work

ethic, all that. He's one of those guys who's like, what's the assignment? Understood. And here I go. So, yeah, I'm also, I'm pleased to see that. But yeah, Chet, you know, maybe Jack, again, we'll keep bringing up the bet that you made when we went to Vegas during Summer League. Yeah. But you got that ticket burning in your pocket.

OK, see, to win the title. Oh, hell yeah. I like it. Can you like cash out, though? Can you cash out at some point? Can you be like, if they make the Western Conference final. Yeah, can I, can you like cash out though? Can you cash out at some point? Can you be like, if they make the Western conference final, can I just like stop that a little bit?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was, uh, it was, it was after Chet's first summer league game. And I was like, maybe,

maybe this guy's pretty good. Um, so I don't know. He's cool, man. I, uh, I got the chance to to interview him

and a couple of his teammates uh for preseason um and kind of do a profile on his defense and like even from then you're like yeah this guy he can be a defensive player of the year type yeah it was just it was obvious from the onset that he was just going to be so good on the defensive end even in college man like even in college it was just obvious to see that he was just going to be so good on the defensive end. Even in college, man, like even in college, it was just obvious to see that he had such a profound impact on the defense, like the rim protection, the shot blocking, this is awareness, his ability to like switch out onto guards. It's it's like really, really good stuff. We talk about Anthony Davis, which I agree is like overly hated and,

you know, whatever, underappreciated. It's he has a lot of thereciated, um, it's, he has a lot of the similar qualities to him where it's like, he doesn't have a defensive flaw other than, you know, right now people are saying he gets pushed around a little bit. Sure. Yeah.

That's something that will eventually, you know, he'll, he'll get better at that, but like skill wise, he doesn't really have a defensive flaw, which is crazy to say about. Yeah.

And he's got good defenders around him. Shea is I think seventh on this list of best defenders. Even if people are hitting him and able to pound him and move him back, you've got other great defenders diving in.

So it's a very tricky team to play. All right. Should we do it? Should we take a break and come back with the fastest segment in podcasting? Yeah. Yeah. I just called my lawyer.

I had to make sure I was covered, and I am. So let's go. Let's go. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews,

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mr barry haney you know we we love you so much man we love you so much man you know and you're a good guy last time you came on you were you were you were active in this segment that's why we really respect you and it's time to turn it up even hotter on you were in the hot seat this is the fourth quarter rapid fire round of questions to close out the show. Only heat. Only quick responses. No grandstanding. No extending the question

because we've got to keep this thing quick. I really need to remind you not to grandstand because since you came on this show, man. I couldn't believe it. I'm a grandstander. You've been grandstanding. I don't really even know what that means but you've been grand standing okay and i need you to stand a little less grand maybe some grand sitting you know how about that all the grandstanding yeah grand squatting you know yeah it's a really

really low yourself like grady dick you know yeah exactly exactly on the release uh so here we go ready here we go yeah yeah here we go yeah yeah yeah yes yes brian start the clock this is fast man this is fast gonna be fast man it's been the fastest thing you ever experienced bro i'm just trying to warn you man jack you want to go first or yeah i'll go first i'll go first okay all right go okay all right go. Biggest surprise team or player so far? We got Mini 15-4. We got Orlando 14-6. We got, okay, see, Cavs just 11-9. Golden State 9-11.

Which way are you taking it? I'm going to say the Orlando Magic. Yeah. I don't think anybody had that one coming. No. I think it was one of those things too you would see last year. Like, oh, i could see that happening and then they're like no no this is this is this is what is happening now jalen sucks baby very good very very good yeah okay all right are you did you go to gonzaga or something you're no but i do like the guys it is weird you're you're

actually making me realize that right now maybe i don I don't know. Okay. Oh, wow. Okay. You like Rui then? Jaime Hock has given off Adam Morrison vibes. Yeah, I was going to say. Yeah. Definitely give him big Adam Morrison. When Grady was missing a bunch of shots, they did call him Adam Morrison.

It was really tough. Oh, man. Come on, man. Leave him alone. Look, he got that neck. Okay. It's a condition, man. Leave him alone.

Leave him alone. That turtleneck didn't do much for him. Okay. Next up. look he got that neck okay it's a condition man leave him alone leave him alone that turtle neck didn't do much for him okay next up of the rough starts that we've seen this season which teams do you think are most likely to work themselves back into playoff contention oh the memphis grizzlies easy money give me john morant coming back right before christmas he's gonna start hooping uh they're gonna look much better yes grizzlies you're taking that over the spurs you don't think spurs spurs 316 3 and 16 spurs 316 is that a bible verse so i crossed myself as i said it really don't worry for the league loved the world so much

that they gave their only wimby you know I mean? To take themselves to the promised land. As what is the, uh, who's been, who's been the best rookie so far? Chet. A hundred percent. Chet. Um,

I mean, look, I love, uh, I love Wemby. I think he'll be good and maybe he'll be better like end of day career wise. But yeah, it's Chet right now.

Yeah. Do you think just because of how good the team's been or you just generally he's just a better player at the stage i think he's just well first of all it's it's i actually there was uh gilbert arena said this exact same thing but they're just different ages so where he's at versus where wemby's at at 19 versus 21 year old chet like it's a different conversation to be had and yeah chet is in like the perfect context for him he was the exact type of big man that the thunder needed he got plopped into there he's having like a 50 40 90 type season he's efficient as hell he is right now the best rookie uh but i could see wimby very easily like topping that in

the next couple years who knows what wimby will look like at 21 compared to to chat right yeah that's probably mostly the same but yeah yeah that's why they're very similar players also like just in terms of what they can and can't do but chat's just in a way better situation but wimby is reading at a 23 year old level from what i've heard because every all the comments about wimby is like oh this dude is reading so many books and it's like not even for the camera it's just like never met a french person before yeah like it's not like the lebron one even for the camera it's just like never met a french person before yeah like it's not like the lebron one page thing you know he's actually like finishing yeah yeah yeah yeah no who said that no someone actually said he's like it's not like he's on

page like stuck on page one either they're like like they're like he is reading and it's just so shows you the difference in how americans view reading yo but like why yeah who's he trying to show off for his book uh but look it's it's lonely on the road you got a lot of downtime okay best you've been you've been doing good so far but you really should have kept it moving that's why i have to keep this thing going and this is a toronto toronto focus question okay the Raptors, who's been like the most underappreciated like legend you think of like the all time greats who've played for the Raptors and who's like a guy who's not getting like his flowers like he should be. Can you just shout him out so people should know?

It's still and always will be Kyle Lowry. Just it always is. He, in my opinion, he's the greatest Raptor ever. You guys probably think Vince Carter, Kawhi Leonard. Yes. But like it's Kyle. Friend of the show vince carter hey i feel like hey i'm just saying that i got it i'm just manifesting that's what i say all the time yeah yeah i appreciate it yeah like when i say michael jordan was my dad buddies so maybe you can get kyle on too but

um yeah he's we just first thing we ask him is like hey do you know kyle lowry i already like the actual raptors goat yeah it's it's him yeah like without a without a question he he's like one of the most underappreciated raptors still and like he gets a lot of love but for some reason still has that underappreciated tag to him so yeah all right i don't know if you're a fan of the twitter stylings of one irvin magic johnson um but a sample tweet from the month of november wow my washington commanders turned the ball over six times today and gave the giants 24 points off turnovers we lost 31 19 or from a week later the dallas cowboys beat my commanders 45 to 10 dallas was a better football team tonight plain and simple i'd love to hear a tweet if you were ghostwriting for magic okay and you just want to tweet about a movie let's say

what what are you writing any movie okay all right wow oppenheimer was such a great film that guy killian murphy really showed off his acting chops i can't believe they dropped you know what i didn't want to go there, but that's a very Johnson type tweet. But he had to do it to him. It's like, wait, what? Sir. He did not. I think he was struggling with that in the film.

S, you could take two players from all of history to create your Mad Boosties edition NBA Jam Team. Who are the two players you're putting together for that squad? Give me Magic Johnson. Very easily. Wow. Yeah, very easily.

Magic Johnson. I have been selected on S Barahaney's special edition NBA Jam Squad. Cannot wait to see who my two-on-two teammate is. And I need a play finisher. Give me Shaq. Why not? Give me Shaq. Give me Magic and Shaq.

Why not? That'd be fun. Let's do it. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. S has picked Shaq, a center from the NBA who was very big. Very big. Very strong. The league didn't see anything like him when he came in. Very big. Wow. Very strong.

The league didn't see anything like him when he came in. I remember the day. And finally, you've been on before, so you've told us whether you prefer Miles or me. Right. Right. You're right. Furious. I actually don't remember who you picked, but now we want to hear you

weigh in on the question that's on everyone's mind. Is this man saying bacon or is he saying beer can? Okay. You ready? Yep. Bacon. Bacon.

Bacon. I'm from Toronto. There's some patois up there, yeah. There's some patois up there. There's some patois up there. And I think that was patois. Patois. Yeah. It's bacon.

Very easily. Wow. Wow. Correct. Very easily. Correct. Correct. That is correct.

That is correct. Wow. Even though last week Sarah Todd said it was beer can, also correct. Yeah. But yeah, beer can. We even want beer can. Yeah. There you go.

And beer can. Beer can and eggs, you know? Yeah, exactly. Anyway. Amazing. Hey, Bear Haney, thank you so much. What a run. And thank you for clarifying it.

We needed a real Toronto road man to, you know, actually just clarify that real quick for us. Where do the people find you, follow you, support you, listen to you? it we needed a real toronto road man so you know actually just clarify that real quick for us uh where do the people find you follow you support you uh listen to you here read all of that good stuff man yeah um tat well they don't they don't like other podcasts but you can listen to the objective basketball podcast if you guys that's fine i guess if that's the thing you're doing like i guess we'll support that yeah for sure um sure. Brian, edit this out. Yeah, you can cut that out. Just bleep it. Follow me on Twitter at JustSBarahini. You can follow all the stuff I do at SDPN Sports.

They got a YouTube. They got all that stuff, too. So, yeah, check me out. Appreciate you guys having me on, man. This is always a blast. I appreciate having you, man. Pleasure having you. And an honor, man.

Well, you can make sure you follow us on Twitter. Follow the hashtag MadBoosties, B-D-O-L-O-S-T-I-E-S. For show links, updates, et cetera. If you want to follow me, I am at Miles of Gray, G-R-A-Y. And I'm at Jack underscore O'Brien. B-R-I-E-N. I-E-N. Yeah, let them know.

Let them know. I must. That is going to do it for us this week. We did it. Yeah, we did it. We did it. We did it. November's over.

It's going to be a December to remember, and we hope to see you next week. All right, y'all. Bye. Bye. Bye. We'll be right back. single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, y'all? It's Cam Jordan from the New Orleans Saints here to tell you it's going down on season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan. Catch new episodes every Wednesday, and I'll have the biggest NFL stars join me to give a player's perspective

of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moment from around the league. So tap in to Off the Edge with Cam Jordan's podcast, your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. This is Jimmy O'Brien from Jamboy Media.

I want to quickly tell you about my podcast. It's called Jimmy's Three Things. Episodes come out every Tuesday, and for 30 minutes, I dive into three stories in Major League Baseball that I want to talk about. Or I do a stat deep dive. Sometimes I create my own stats. It gets weird. It's now your go-to podcast for staying up to date and in the weeds with Major League Baseball.

No topic is off limits or too small. Bad umpires. Great pitcher-catcher duos. New rules. Old rules. Three things that I want to talk about. Listen to Jimmy's three things on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.