The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: 57's The Mike

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

"Excellence is not an act. It's a habit." Has there ever been an episode of the Dan Le Batard Show to age more poorly in 24 hours than yesterday's Local Hour after the Warriors win over Wemby and a Norman Powell-described "really bad loss" for the Heat? Plus, Mike Ryan is here with 200% more gum, and Amin, Zas, and Tony are playing the "blow it up" show. Today's cast: Dan, Zaslow, Chris, Amin, Mike, Roy, and Tony. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, Smyrnoff, official vodka of the NFL, world's number one vodka. Chris Cody, you're with me here. Smeanor! Wow, you're on the money with Smearnoff. Spirnoff. I'm going to ask you, Chris, what's your favorite game day food? Smearnoff. That's your favorite game day drink.

What's your favorite game day food? Smearnoff. All right, here's the deal. Game day is everything. The noise, the rituals, the passion, the dip, the wings, the dip again. Smearnoff. Smeernav. belongs in that mix because if you're tailgating or hosting or just sitting there checking

your fantasy lineup every 30 seconds you need fair enough otherwise it's not a real game day they've been doing it since 1864 which is i don't even want to do the math it's a long time it's like when great cody was born they're award winning they make cocktails super easy and they're all about bringing fans together so yeah we do game days that's their thing and if you're over 21 you should do why chris Smarin off. Grab a bottle of... Smirnoff!

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New York, New York, please do not share with anyone under legal drinking age. Marenav. That's annoying. What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it? Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out.

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whole month to catch all the exclusive offers waiting for you see your local nissan dealer or nissan dot cae for details conditions apply chris cody i really need you to be a strong leader today because i've got two things happening that uh feel uh cruddy okay and i need you to lead us here on this one is i've got lewis roaming around here saying how badly he needs this chief's money on sunday okay i I've got on the television. I can't believe what I'm seeing on the television. It says Chiefs must-win game. And I'm like, it is this week?

The Chiefs have a must-win game. But for Lewis, it's a must-win game. For all of us, it's a must-win game, Dan. Lewis has like 17 kids. That's, yes. Lewis is the only one in the office muttering. I really need that money while walking past me as if he doesn't think I can hear him. I can feel that off him at all times, but it usually doesn't come out of his mouth.

So the Chief's game is a big game. But the other problem I have is, and I've been in negotiations with Eudanus Haslam, and he's expensive, and Mike's not helping, he's not helping things because I need someone to oversee the punishments in this league. And I don't know what Mike was doing today, but he's just wearing a Raiders sweatshirt and saying he's Pete Carroll and that no one has honored the punishments more than Mike Ryan has. Okay. I have honored every single punishment, no matter how difficult, and today is probably the most challenging thing I've ever had to do since freedom. Get the hell out of here. I have to chew gum during the show. The show just started, shouldn't you be? Do you know how much gum I usually chew during the show?

Zero. Zero. Zero. There might be times during today's show where I have one, maybe two pieces of gum in my mouth while I'm talking. A lot of squatting, too. That is a choking hazard. It's also, it also represents a 200% increase in chewing gum that's in my mouth during these shows. Well, no, it's more than 200%. You went from zero to whatever it is. That's an infinite.

It's 700%. You're the president of the United States now, playing with percentages. Hey, Dan, are you excited for 50-year mortgages? That's how we're going to solve this. A 50-year mortgage. I mean, if you think about it. Yeah, it just did. It's as good as an idea as Zaz's

Let's Rest Players in the first half And make them play the second half I'm dying on that hill You just sound like you're dying You just sounded like you were dying on a Civil War Bayonet Murchase What happened to you? I don't know

No, but you and Ethan Look, you and Ethan The amount of cream cheese that you're costing Metal Arc is why I can't pay you Donis Haslam To govern this punishment list Couple Lucky Jays This is the Dan Levatore show with the Stucats podcast. Tony's taunting me during the break saying Udonis Haslam has become Diana Rusini's grandpa Santa on the phone.

That it's an empty threat that doesn't mean anything to anyone around here on the punishments. And Mike Ryan is actively, and this is disrespectful, and it's an act of resentment, honestly, that shouldn't expect. press itself this way. I think he's Pete Carroll today. This doesn't feel like a real punishment, but the only one who gets punished is me is because every time I'm talking, Mike is whispering into his headset, 57's the mic, while covering his mouth with his play sheet, and he's trying to distract me from doing the show while also doing Pete Carroll not, like Daniel Day Lewis says Pete Carroll. He's not leaving character. Let's settle down. Take the air out of the ball. H.B. Dive. Big gap. That's what he's been doing every time I'm talking.

Listen to safety, run duo. He's doing it when I'm trying to give points and while I'm talking and trying to organize the show. So the team is actively playing defense against me today on a legitimately good content day because 24 hours later, how silly does this show sound, laughing at the Warriors and celebrating the Miami Heat? 24 hours later, I don't know that I've heard someone do what Norman Powell did yesterday, where he's like, just put my name on the quote, that's a bad loss, where that's something fans say?

I rarely hear players say of losing to other professional players, man, that's a bad loss. And he didn't even leave it at that. He said it's a bad loss. That's a really bad loss. How often do you hear, he's right, you're losing to...

Loved it. What did you love? No, I loved that he came out and said that. Yeah. Why are we should... Oh, it's a professional team, you know, they got guys who know. No, no. That's a really bad loss last night. Good for you, Norman, pal. I like you even more now.

The headline is Heat Waste, big lead, Wilts in fourth quarter, in quote, very bad loss to undermanned calves. Mowgli is not there. Come on. Man, Mitchell's not there. Like, that's not their team. Garland's not their team. That's not what I thought the heat's bad, like you can't. You're undefeated at home. Like, explain that to me. So it's a very bad loss. They were five and a half point favorites in the game with all of the calves back home because the calves were, that's as close to tanking as a team will do overtly. Is it not just sending its starters home like that? Zaz, you know about that Nequan, Tomlin?

That's a made-up name. We want to do a spelling bee on Naquan? How do we spell it? I mean, I know the way y'all looking at me. I'll take a try. I'll take a stab at it. Here we go. N-A-Q?

Nope. You sure? Thanks for playing. That's how you spell Sequan. Very bad loss, Norman Powell, says you guys, well, I'm not saying it's the rarest of things, but it's normal for fans to say, wow, that's a bad loss. You rarely hear it in the locker room where a player will say that of other professionals. Generally, they respect the other team's backups.

No, I like it. I wish sometimes a player would come out and say, yeah, that's a really bad loss. That team sucks. We should have won. Sometimes you do hear that when it's a team that's. actually bad as opposed to a team that sat all of its starters. But I'm with Zaz, man. I like the accountability.

I like the lay, man, this is, we're not going to shirk this. We dropped the ball. They were up double digits in the first half. But then I'm watching the game all night. I'm like, this doesn't feel right. It's a lot of ISO ball. They were so sloppy. So much isolation from the heat, even when it was working for them.

And then the other thing was, at one point I looked at the person next one. I'm like, is this the Jared Allen game? Yeah. Because he just looked like Hakeem down there. Everything around the rim, I'm like, you can't keep falling for an upbake from Jared Allen. Make him make a shot over you. And this is a substantive difference between whatever where is athletically that BAM isn't, but what where is defensively that BAM isn't.

Like this is not a minimal piece that's out for the Miami Heat. But regardless, yesterday, we were out here loud and proud on what the heat are going to be because they were undefeated at home and they're still scoring an incredible amount per game. but you lose that game and then Steph Curry does Steph Curry at Wembe and 24 hours later we all sound ridiculous talking about basketball in

24 hour terms this is a punishment for you it's a punishment for you you got to raise it that you're like Steve Spagnola you don't know you're holding a sheet down here it's got to be what is the punishment that you're chewing gum during the show or that you're doing

the Pete Carroll which is the what Okay, the punishment is Pete Carroll, and the gum is part of being Pete Carroll. 200% more gum. I have to spend an hour in the bathroom putting on makeup with my wife to get my costume ready. You throw on a Raiders jersey and a headset and throw some gum in your mouth. It's a kuzzi. I ate 70 nuggets. Well, I've learned, and I also took a gummy before the shell, just to emotionally prepare for how difficult.

And the makeup stuff at Kupaduya. I mean, what do you want me to do? There are punishments on the bucket board and I take the punishments and I do the punishments and I've done more punishments than anybody else. All right. So when you say, what do you want me to do, it doesn't surprise me that you don't wait for an answer and then you tell me what the answer is on what do you want me to do. What I want you to do is respect the audience and the punishment. Excellence is not an act. It's a habit.

Respect the punishments and the audience by putting some effort into. We are watched and listened to show an entertainment option for people and your chance. cheating the punishments and the audience when you do the Pete Carroll this way. You should be ashamed to yourself. Can you give me a break? Anyway, the basketball stories... He called the timeout.

That's the same sound as the penalty box. Don't distract me. Be on my team, please. Someone here be on my team. He called the time out. What do you want me to do? The NBA has 10 games in. You have blow up the clippers.

He's so distracting. Yeah. No, he's been doing it in my ear. It's been private. It's been private. I've just been holding the private communications button chewing in his ear. Just chewing in my ear and also putting the play sheet over him. And it sounds like a faraway air traffic controller when he's like, no, no, no, no, 75's the mic. 59's the mic. They dropped a D-Lyman? No, this is what I'm saying. It's meant to distract me. I'm thinking in my ear talking to you guys, I'm like, you don't put a D-Lignment in the mic. Did you drop it back to Nosecicle? You're confusing me.

With the defense, what is the nose tackle doing in coverage? One time, Gino. One time. So I'm having an argument with the show in my head, and this is what it's like to be an insane asylum. You hear voices in your head, because it's not just chewing gum. He's also throwing mock at plays at me.

Decoy plays at me. It's not just normal plays. You got to be ready, Dano. So I've got blow up the Mavs, blow up the clippers, okay? You got Mark Cuban getting back into management, going to have some reportedly more voice around the Mavis. Mab's as they try to fix what Amina is calling a crater trade. You have the possibility of your franchise being doomed for 30 years.

Amina is shouting from the mountaintops. Do you know what's been done here? We're sitting here watching the smoldering crater. And Amin's hey, hey, it's a lot worse than this. This is now. It's hard to dig out of this if Cooper Flag doesn't end up becoming Luca. So you got blow up the mabs. You got Jason Kidd.

Can we play this sound? You got Jason Kidd saying the Mavs coach. Go ahead and play the sound. And this will drown everyone in leadership in Dallas if they continue to underestimate how mad their customers are. Like this is not the America to insult your customers when they pay a lot of money to support you by telling them to move on when they don't want to move on.

Okay, hit it. You know, you only hope that we don't have to go through that again because it wants a little disrespectful. because the guys are playing hard and they're trying to win and so with that chant during when we should free those

is very disrespectful but understanding that they got their point across the fans but we have to move forward understanding the healing process for us fans but these guys are playing hard ever since the trade

10 seconds on the clock. These guys have given everything you have timeout You're clear. Zazlo, when I hear Jason Kidd, and he doesn't mean this as lecturing, he's going to protect his players, but this bubble is getting smaller and smaller that these guys are allowed to exist in. Bubble! And they're in the rarest of places. They're in, our customers are coming to the arena, and they kind of hate us, and it's not because we're bad.

They just want a place to kind of hate something because of how mad they are. Not a lot of teams play at home that way. I totally hear everything you're saying, and I understand it can be hurtful for the franchise where, let's say, you know, you want to try and acquire a free agent, and then they think, wow, do I want to go there where our own fans are going to hate us every game? That's certainly not going to help acquire players. But I don't feel like being lectured by Jason Kidd if I'm a Mavericks fan who had my heart ripped out. and now because we got our point across, it's time to move on. Like, there's going to be a time when Jason Kidd is no longer the coach of the Mavericks. And that's, I'm not saying like he's going to get fired anytime soon.

That's every coach in the league. There's going to be a time where he is no longer the coach of the Mavericks. And guess how little he's going to care about the Mavericks on a day-to-day basis? He's not going to. But all of those fans who are in the building who have yet to move on, they care about that team for the rest of their lives. don't tell me not to be angry and to move on. All right, tighten it up.

When you say ripped out the hearts of your customers, I do think that one of the things that you guys just have to, especially if you have kids, that you just have to imagine. Just imagine explaining to your kid who's wearing the Luca jersey why your team did what it did. And that's his generation of fandom that's beginning or hers, that's beginning right there.

I mean, your thoughts on what is happening there? These people have the risk of being swallowed by continuing to underestimate the damage they've done. Well, I think, first of all, I've got to disagree with Zaz. Like, Jason Kitt's point is apt. Regardless of Niko is still there or not, that has nothing to do with anybody on the floor.

Matter of fact, none of them even have control over that. They are all subordinates to a decision that is happening far above them. So how does, it's not, he's saying don't chant it. He's saying the game's on the line and our guy is on the fritho line. What's going on? Our guy's on the fritho line. Why are you distracting him?

Why are you actively giving him negative energy? PJ Washington had nothing to do with this. And that's the question right there. So I agree with Coach Kidd. It's like there's a time and place to do it and that was the wrong time. So is the team three and nine because the fans are being mean? They weren't booing. Boo, you guys suck.

They're saying, fire Nico. That's very different. Let me ask you, though, I mean, is there another team in the league presently playing at home under the hostility I'm speaking of? It's not that we're mad at you because we think you're bad. This is a place for us to vent at what you did to us. They're also bad, by the way. No, I mean, obviously not.

There's no team that even comes close to this because, again, nobody has ever pretty much done a deal like this in real time. So don't tell the fans to move on. But again, like, hey, if you want to boo Nico, if you want to boo Patrick DeMont, sure. Even if you want to, like, boo the team, but the game was not in hand, excuse me. It was in the balance. The guy has a chance to make free those and win this game. Why are you actively playing defense against that?

I think that's the point. And to that point, like, at what point is it going to be enough? right the whole season probably when the team's good probably when they're good so what if they're not going to go for another five years but guys the reason I keep thinking that

this is being underestimated emotionally it's just super rare for a fan base to want to punish its team because it's mad at its team because they want to blame somebody so we don't care if we win during this

season because miss the free throws because bleep all of you that's why I'm going to the game to go and get into the crowd and have my outrage fed so that I can have lighter fluid, the country's paying attention to me. We have a bonfire in Dallas. Mark Cubans rushing into the rescue. I got it. I'll save them.

And everyone in Dallas is hurt, wounded, and lashing out at the home team. So, Zaz, a comp is when Portland had the quote unquote jailblazers, right? Their players were getting in trouble, getting arrested. Meanwhile, the team also wasn't so good, right? That's a situation where I'm like, okay, you can boo them. Yeah. You boo them because they are responsible. They are the ones who are doing this stuff.

PJ Washington, Cooper, these guys have nothing to do with the workings of higher up. PJ Washington, either PJ Washington is like, yeah, trade Luca. I'd love to get him out of here. Those guys, of course they want to play with Luca. Of course they'd love to have them. So you're telling me, when PJ Washington's on the free throw line, a professional basketball player who plays half his games on the road where the entire crowd is changing.

chanting and yelling and booing and wanting you to miss free throws. The crowd chanting Fire Nico is so disrespectful and distracting for him. He can't make free throws, even when he knows it's coming. It is jarring. He doesn't know it's coming in that moment. You're a home. They're doing it all game. 12, man.

You're at home, and again, you're at home, and this isn't third quarter free throws. This is crunch time free throws. And you're like, wait, do they want us to lose what's happening here? That is a jarring experience. that I don't think most NBA players would expect in that scenario. Do you think Jason Kidd really thinks that part of the reason that they're not playing well is because the crowd is chanting? They're three and nine.

I just think it's like, hey, we're already having a hard enough time. We've got all these injuries, whatever. It doesn't help to have, you know, fans doing this. It definitely doesn't help, but stop telling fans what to do when they're the ones who are, they're the ones who are the victims, the fans. So it says they are not helping in this regard, right? I don't know how many people listening to this believe in any kind of energy stuff, okay?

Zaz, this is the analogy I'll give you. If Dan Levitar did something to upset me, would it be okay for me to slap Mike? Whoa, Mike, you're all part of the team? I mean, I'm going to slap Mike, right? Like that, it doesn't make sense. Yeah, Percy Harvin, choking out players in the locker room. You want a super ball.

It happens. Ethan's dog? When we're talking about energy as it relates, I mean, honestly, it's not bad enough. He's trying to distract me. You go in with Ethan's dog as the joke, knowing you're going to annoy me. Knowing you're going to annoy me because you're going so inside on a joke for six people, it's not enough that Mike's doing this. When I talk about energy stuff, says, I'm not talking about spiritual stuff, okay?

I'm talking about everyone listening to this believes what I'm about to say. home field advantage is a thing because the energy of the crowd matters because the crowd gets into the game and supports its home team that support is worth something you're going to tell me the opposite of that does not affect players trying to be professionals at the center of that crater like you can argue it if you want but if they're playing in a place that's a misery energetically where their own fans are not there for support that's not an atmosphere I'm used to seeing basketball teams play at home in right then I think I think the important Important distinction is home energy, positive is what we believe. Road energy, negative. We also expect that. Reggie Miller, LeBron, all these players are like, oh, I love it when they start booing, right? It fuels me.

The thing that I don't think any professional athlete in any sport is prepared for is home crowd negative energy. I think what we could all agree on, though, because what you're saying is fine and it obviously makes sense. But I think what we could all agree on is this is, this is as you can all agree on, though. unique a situation we have ever seen. And in this unique situation, there's one person who is the victim here, and it's the fans. And I don't want the players or the coaches who are the ones getting paid when the fans who are showing up and apparently being disrespectful to you are still the ones paying to see you. I don't want the fan being told what to do. Okay, but the next step on that, you're correct, right? I think most people listening to this would say, yeah, the

Fans paying customer don't tell me how to care. I care. I pay for everything here. And they're doing it because they care. My care pays for everything here. But when I'm describing the following to you, Jason Kidd is saying from at the bottom of this thing ostensibly they all care about, hey, guys, that's not helping. I need those free throws at the end to get all of this out of my building. I'm under the avalanche, too.

I work here. It hurts me too. Please stop doing that so that when my guys are taking free throws at home, not whether it affects them or not, we don't have the energy of that's not support. Our customers are not with us. If you guys believe that this is an emotional relationship between fans and their businesses and that it's the emotions business, this is a betrayal of that to have inside of your building. The energy of the home team doesn't want you to win. Doesn't want to help you. The home team is there to blame you and making it worse. It makes the entire relationship deeply, emotionally dysfunctional. The home fan is not there rooting against his or her team. All right. We're stuck here.

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I'm basically Scott Hatterberg. A lot of walks. A lot of walks, but I'm on base. When it comes to sex with Scott Hattberg. Other dudes, they can be Giambi. You know your role you play well? role. This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. Well, and it's probably why you need to blow it up. Run game, not working. Like, we need

to start. Okay, so what does that look like? What does that look like? GM Jazz comes in. He's like, all right, the full gambit of everything's at my disposal. What do I do? I would trade Anthony Davis today, today. That's not getting very much hurt. That, you know, You're basically trading Luca for nothing. You sent Anthony Davis away. You're not going to get very much. So this is a really important conversation because at the same time, the Clippers are dealing with their own issues.

Bradley Beale is out for the year with a hip injury. There we go. They're horrible. Kwiseman out, right? And so we were talking, who needs to blow it up more? The problem is the Clippers, because of the Paul George deal from way, way back, still O. Picks. So they can't blow it up.

Even if they got a zillion assets in return, because if they go back into the toilet, you know what happens, Dan? If they go in the toilet, OKC, the OKC, the best team in the league gets like the number one overall pick. Meanwhile, Dallas, Dallas actually owns its pick this year, but after this year, it turns into swaps and pick obligations. So this is the time right now, you push a red button in Dallas. You've given yourself an opportunity to start building something. You're not going to get equal return, Dan, as you ask right there. They have their pick this year. At this point, it's not about, I mean, it's not, it's not that they're not going to get equal return.

Right now, you will be trading what you got for Luca, what you told everybody in the league was the future that we get for Luca. You'd be trading it at its lowest value in the career of Anthony Davis. Dan, you can't keep digging a hole and thinking if I dig deeper, maybe I'll get out of the hole. Jason Kidd told us to move on. So move on from the awful trade. The people, Dan, Anthony Davis is a top 75 player all time. You trade him for nothing. And what are you going to get for him?

I mean, Dan, this is the moment. It's more about the timing than it is what I'm going to get for him, right? If I wait until his value goes up, I may have jeopardized the one small window of time. We've got a very tight window to turn keys and push that nuclear option. Outside of that window, we can't have that option available. So it's more about the timing and whoever comes in to take control, you can't be worried about what the other guy before you did to mess this up. All I can do is do the best thing moving forward from this point on. And right now the best thing moving forward, probably for Dallas, 11, 12 games in is blow it up.

On the Clippers end of it, though, you're talking about they don't have the luxury that Dallas has to get their first round pick, right? So it's not good for them to blow it up this season. The problem is they're already in the toilet, right? Kauai is going to be out for who knows how long he's got a foot sprain and an ankle sprain. The team is just not good. Bradley Biel out for the season. Like you have all these things that are pushing the inertia is pushing you that way anyway. Why not?

And I know Tom Havistro wrote this in the summer. What do you say? Go trade Kawhi Leonard. Go get somebody else. Go trade him to the Pelicans for Zion Williamson. Like there's plays to be made that, yeah, you're not going to be exactly what you need. But like you've got to get out from the hole that you're in. So there is a blueprint for this.

The Nets, when they traded for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry, they had all those picks going out unprotected, all those pick swaps. And so once they figured out, this isn't working, all you can do is build like the most rugged, competitive team. The picks are gone. You can't save that. But all you can do is build a team that's going to be healthy and available and win games in the short term to make sure those picks are the 10th pick as opposed to the second pick. Can I just stop all of you for a second, okay, because I know we run from 10 games to 10 games in sports with just blinders on. And so many people not that long ago wanted Bradley Beale. And now Bradley Beal has sabotaged a couple of different plans.

And in the middle of those plans, I don't want to just skip past this Clippers part of it. Pablo detonates a bomb in the middle of that. All of us are a little confused by why would the Clippers trade Norman Powell for Kyle? Anderson and Kevin Love when he's an important almost all-star on three delicate pieces there that nobody trusts before him. You guys are telling me after I thought that the Clippers had a championship chance last season, the way that they finished the season 33 and 13 and could have beaten any team in the league and it wasn't an asinine opinion to have except but four, it's the Clippers and you can't trust James Leonard or James Hardin in Game 7. You guys are telling me six months

later, all of the Clippers stuff is done and we can pronounce it now, given specifically the part that we're ignoring which is, OKC is totally overwhelming. Totally overwhelming. I mean, tell them about John Collins? Yeah, they didn't trade for Collins and Kevin Love it was a three-way deal. They got

John Collins from Utah in that deal. Thank you for the addition. The Clippers, you're telling me, are now a nuked thing, fried thing finished as a product, blow all of it up when I was not asinine in saying that that team could have won the championship,

the one that headed into the playoffs last year. No, 100%. And they played so well to end the season. The problem is that's what it is for championship windows with guys in their mid-30s, right? The window is open one year and then the next year it is completely shut. And then you're looking around saying, not only do we have an issue with the NBA who's looking up under every crevice we got about the aspiration situation, Kauai is not even healthy now. James Hardin's, okay, he's good, like you can get something for him.

Zubots has been bad to start the year. Like, Norman Powell's not there. John Collins is an okay piece off the bench. Like, what do you have in the Clippers organization? It's a really old team. Leonard, Hardin, Bradley, Beale, Brooke Lopez. They got Chris Paul's corpse. You know they had Chris Paul's corpse coming off the bench?

Dan, I did a bit a long time ago about Doc Rivers' decision tree process. It's like, hey, did you play for me 100 years ago? Oh, come back, welcome to the Clippers, right? And it's funny, he's not there anymore, but it's still the same kind of thing. When you're playing scrapbook GM, like, oh, I remember him. Remember when he was good somewhere else? Look at the names he just said. Other than John Collins, who's young?

Who's somewhere close to their prime? They're playing off of memories. And yes, those guys are all still very good basketball players. But the other part of this, Dan, is when you go and get old guy after old guy after all guy, you're saying, oh, by the way, father timing will come around here with a sprained ankle or a broken hip. But do you guys realize what you're saying? if you guys are right, if you guys are accurate in saying,

demolish everything with the clippers, when I pair it to what OKC is doing at the start of this season and after last season. We're over here talking about this Luca trade again and again and again, and this other one's going to go down as one of the worst we've ever seen in the history of sports because you've just given so much fuel to OKC that when you're bad this year and it blows up on Steve Balmer's face,

you've got the legitimate possibility I think there are worst teams in the league but if it's really bad with the clippers this year then you're going to be giving the number one overall pick to a team that already has two key pieces out and has lost one time this season Don Lebertard

If Daniel Day Lewis did it you'd be jerking off all over yourself Oh come on Yeah I would be Aggressive description I mean what is it what is that I'm just saying You know what that's me that's me Daniel Day Lewis done something yesterday I see that photo of day

Daniel Day Lewis looking like Lincoln before he's about to start filming Lincoln. And you know what I do? I mean, Stugats. I jerk off all over myself. That's what I do. Lincoln, who you outed the other day? Don't make this a rejoin. This is the Don Levitar show with a Stugats.

By the way, another team we haven't talked about at all, but is in the similar situation, the New Orleans Pelicans. Because their pick is going to Atlanta. And they're awful this year. Good job by Joe Duma. Zion's still fat and, well, not still fat, but he's still not healthy, right? And Derrick Queen, while he looks like a good player, is not all NBA. Yeah, he's not enough to lift the pelicans beyond where they're at right now, which is a two and nine team.

And so this then is just like the ballot of, hey, when you give away a pick without protection, you are playing the most dangerous game in basketball. By the way, it's not just this pick, this 26th first round pick that the Thunder have from the Clippers, that's unprotected. They also have their pick next year. It's a swap next year. But, like, if the clippers are really bad again, the Thunder get it again. Zaz, this is my whole Nico thing.

It's like, you can't tell me that Anthony Davidson won first round pick, even if you think Anthony Davis is the best thing to slice bread. You can't tell me that was good enough value when the clippers are still paying off for Paul Jordan. They still have, like, installments left on their later plan. See, my biggest thing with that was also there was no time. that conversation that Nico Harrison said you're also going to give us Austin Reeves like Rob Polinka

who had this gift fall on his doorstep you think he's not acquiring Luca Dunchich because he won't hand over Austin Reeves. Do you think Rob Polika's going to be the guy saying hey I could have Luca why didn't you? I didn't want to give up Austin Reeves. Like it's inexplicable right?

But this goes back to kind of what I talked about yesterday when I read the quote from Jeremiah Engelman who used to work in the front office when you surround yourself over the course of years, not just in that window of time, but over the course of years, with people who don't tell you the realness, who don't provide critical feedback

that is opposite of whatever your impulse is. I used to say, when I worked in a front office as, people always ask, oh, what did you do? Did you make trades? Did you drive people? Like, no, I'm not the GM. I don't do that. My job was to provide enough critical evidence

to the contrary of whatever you wanted to do. do. A little too much I mean. Well, I'm just saying. Play the Barclay sound here because he is defending Nico Harrison. And I am probably remiss in falling into the trap that we do with all of the NBA soap opera, which

is, blow up the clippers, blow up Dallas. Nobody pay attention. That's Yokish, putting up 55 to end the clippers last night. Sheesh. Like 90% true shooting, by the way. Sheesh. No, but I mean, I'm just, the top.

two players. I believe that all of us would say for the last three years, the best two teams in the league are OKC, and Dallas and Boston snuck in there with like this spaceship that just took threes better than everybody else. Let's run and play for Roy. Oh, the Panthers play tonight against the Washington Capitals. That's my play right there.

I'm like, thank you. Gadget guy. I kind of like to taste some hell. Audible audits. We are good idea. Thank you. You've thrown the quarterback. All right, let's not go back to him.

It was just a terrible play call. I don't understand why on third and 11 you made me spike the ball when there were no clock issues going on. Now you've got to go for it on fourth down. But I hit fourth and 11. Let's not give it some more, Sean. I don't trust my coach because he just told me to spike it and we weren't even dealing with a clock situation.

I don't understand why he made me throw the ball at home. Dan, we're paying attention to the wrong things. Okay, so let's let's pay things to the right things. If I ask you, what do you think Nikolokic is shooting from the field this season? It's crazy. 100%. Oh, what are you doing? He knows how to play this game.

How, yeah, I mean, every time I look up, he's at least. His bad games are he went nine for 10. So give me a number. You give me a number. Well, okay, I'll say, I'll say 58%. He's shooting 68% from the field. It's insane. That would be better than anyone ever, right?

He's shooting 42% from 3. He's shooting 78% on non-3-point shots. So he's taking about 12 of those shots a game inside the three-point line and shooting 78% on them. That one has to be a record, right? Well, no, but shooting, if you shot 68% for a season, I don't. DeAndre Jordan had a year which is like 75%. Okay, but I'm talking about somebody who's... No, but still 78% Yokic-2s is better than DeAndre Jordan.

But shooting 78% from twos is ridiculous, but having an efficiency from all of the floor of 68%. There's nobody. Michael Jordan's best seasons would be at 58%, 57%. There's nobody who... On two-pointers? I think, yeah, Jordan was pretty high, obviously, on two-pointers, but not that high. Because, again... That would be a record field goal percentage.

That's not sustainable. He can't do that. LeBron's best season was the one in Miami where he... He's shot 58% from the field because he decided that season I'm not going to play a game that allows for inefficient shots. Jordan LeBron, good stuff. Wilt, in the 71-72 season, shot 72% from the field. Okay, because, all right, but we know what that is. That's not shooting.

That's a lot of dunking and being bigger than everyone else. But I think that's the best comparison, no? Chomarin trade. Well, the only reason it's not the best comparison is because Yokic is shooting what he is from three. Will Chamberlain never took a three? Well, Chamberlain would never shoot for me. Yeah, but that's the air of the conversation, air conversation, but I don't. The thing that I am just saying, I mean, is we will not stop talking about Jalen Brunson limped off the court.

We will not stop talking about the daily soap operas of what's happening in Dallas. We will not stop talking about Steph and LeBron. But the best teams are not the best stories. And so Denver and OKC and all of that excellence will turn to ashes around all the other. Correct? that during the regular season there is nothing OKC can do that maybe threaten the record

of 73 wins in a season but there's next to nothing OKC can do that will matter their regular season is not interesting to the public. No, you just named it like threatening the 73 wins that's the thing and they're certainly on pace forward. And I think the manner in which they're winning, I mean, again, they beat

the Lakers who have been good this year and everyone's been really excited and inspired by them. They smacked them and again, Che Guezzis Alexander scores 30, and again, he doesn't play the fourth quarter. And so at some point, this is going to sound kind of crazy. It becomes bad TV because if every game is a blowout, then it's really hard to keep people tuned in.

All right, we got two minutes here. The part that I find most interesting is storyline to go quick bang against excellence. Boston snuck in there for a year and took the, uh, you need me to talk fast. We got to go, Dan. Tempo. Tempo. Tempo. Tempo. Roy. Roy. What should I do?

Audible out of display? Yeah, yeah. Don't go to Roy. We don't have an audible. Don't go to Roy. Don't go to Roy. OKC is not going to be talked about this season and they're going to be better than everybody again. They're winning by 30. They're not, like, they've had the two overtime games at the beginning of the season, but they're dragging everybody. How did they lose that one game to Portland? Didn't have anybody play.

No, they played. They played their guys. What happened in Portland was they played against a Portland team that they were playing on a back-to-back. What of Oklahoma City was. Oh, wow. No one rested? Nobody rested. Wow.

And they lost that game. Did you just make that up? Did you from that seat just make up that nobody played in that game? I didn't say it. Tony did. Mike did. Tony just pointed it at Mike. I didn't say it.

What are you talking about? You know. I thought we could. trust Roy in that situation really thought we could yeah I thought we could trust him have a lot of I don't know you know it starts with me it's I made the call I made the call I made the call to go to Roy Panthers didn't play last night I should have known that um you know he's he's a lot like Leroy Horde you need three yards you need four he'll give you three yards you need four he'll give you three and I just got to do a better job there I thought the fans were great

A couple calls We're going to go our way Probably saying on basketball Way too long Especially with the CFP rankings That's Brent and Butter right there That's our identity We'll talk politics

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