The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: Greg Cote's NBA Comp

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

"It's knee week." Greg is late (again) to our discussion on Ja Morant following the Jimmy Butler playbook. He also doesn't have a Back in my Day, but he DOES have a legitimate excuse, and when he's here, you gotta feed him the rock. Today's cast: Amin, Greg, Zaslow, Chris, Jeremy, Mike, and Tony. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The tequila. That invented tequila. Broximo.com. Please drink responsibly. Quervo. This is the Dan Levator show with the Stucats podcast. I have a problem. What's your problem?

I have a huge problem. And it might sound very back in my dayish. But hear me out here. I don't want to listen to anything anymore. I don't want to watch anything anymore. I want to read. Why do you want to read? I'm intrigued. Go on.

Heat have a big win last night on the road against the Clippers. Great end to that game. Norm Powell gets his revenge game, locks up Quai on the last play. Great fun, right? Great play. Bam out of bio, 25 and 10. That dude is aggressive. They're running their offense. They ran the same set around, say, four or five times down the stretch. Clippers had no answers.

You know what I wanted? I was like, you know what? Big win. Norm Powell, revenge game. I wonder what they said after. to the game. So I'm trying to find a transcript of the post-game comments. That way I can read, I can make notes, I can copy and paste, ready for the show. Everything. Everything is a YouTube video. I don't want to watch no video, man. I ain't got time for that. I want something I can look,

read, refer back to, look away, look back at. Not like, oh, hold on, let me rewarned it again. What do you say? Oh, yeah, he said. I'm tired of this. I got a little something for you. Yes. Wait till you find out about YouTube's transcripts feature. You go on to the transcripts and you and they're long, yeah, but you get the whole thing, yep. No, it's not doing no weird, funky AI thing. No, no, no, no, it's legit. Or it calls them banned out of buyer or something like that. Oh, no, no, no, sir.

I also got a website to share with you that also you can pull YouTube transcripts from that I use often. Very nice. Because here's, I'll tell you a big deal for me. People are like, oh, did you, so-and-so reported this? I'm like, well, I'm following them on Twitter. I'm reading the athletic. I'm into the way. Like, where?

Oh, they sit on a podcast. I'm like, I'm not listening to our podcast. If it's not the Dan Levittar show with Stugats or... Cynophobe. Cynaphobe or basketball Illamati. Or here's the science of Bar Rescue podcast. And even those, you don't really listen. You're talking to them.

I listen to Cinephope every single episode. After you record it? Because it drops like weeks later. But you lived it. Oh my God. But to relive it? You're the Greg Cody of the day. Oh, my God.

Speaking of that, I don't know where he is. Well, there's traffic because there's a big thing happening. And I'm sure... The big thing's tomorrow, though, It's not today, it's tomorrow. I can't wait. There's like a tidal wave. It's like a ripple that starts and the other side of it.

I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do the damn thing and sit here in shame Greg Cody for not leaving earlier when he knew there was a huge event happening downtown. All right, good. I'll be the one to do it then. So Greg is late like every week. All right. And this week in particular, we were specifically told Tuesday,

today's election day. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, tomorrow, the press. president is going to be here, okay? Not here, but across the street. That's here. That's here. That's here. That's here.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So we were specifically warned and given options, okay, as far as how to make sure we are here on time. Matter of fact, your boy, I mean, that's me, I took the bright line. Wow. Same. For the first time ever today. How was it?

I liked it. Did you get a little morning pop? You know, just something to get you in the mood? Nah, you know, I took my seat. I wanted to make sure I was following. directions, and I just enjoyed the quick ride, and then I got off and I walked on over here. All right. I liked the bright line.

I'll probably do that again tomorrow. But even when it's normal, Cody is always late. God forbid, he decides, instead of sending his alarm for whatever God forsaken time it is that he gets up in the morning, how about you do it 10 minutes earlier, 10 minutes earlier, and you want, oh, I'm not getting up in this, 10 minutes earlier and you won't be late. He refuses to not be late. You would think you would get out of his tomb now that the sun comes out earlier.

It's crazy. It's crazy behavior. I like the idea of one day maybe AI can do this for us and we'll get to how much it sucks. Hold on, we'll get to that in a minute. Get that in a minute. But for right now, I'll say this. One day, AI will be good enough.

Well, I'll say, can you remake back to the future for me? But instead of Michael J. Foxes, Martin McFly, put Greg Cody. And you know, at the end of Back to the Future, spoiler alert, he's like, he knows the Doc gets shot. Doc doesn't want the note. So he's like, I'll show up 10 minutes early so I can warn him. Greg Cody will show up later. 10 minutes later, add to the Doc got shot. The Libyan still killed Doc.

There's no punitive measures. At a certain point, you need to bench the center that keeps having the false start, guys. No one's even asking him to be here for a production meeting. No. Just be here for the show. Just be here in time. in front of that microphone. I don't know, man.

I think sometimes you've got a star player. Sometimes we hold that bus, man. Hold the bus a little bit. Right, but is he a star player? Ooh, now we're asking a question. That's the right question. Is he coasting on a past resume? He's a rotational guy.

He's a great locker room guy. I think of him as like, Udana's Haslam. His jersey's going to the Raptors. We could argue build a statue for the man. But you could also argue, what's he still doing here? But he's also not going to. Utah's Hesom's M.O. is work ethic. That's right.

In Greg's defense, I would argue this is more of a Kauai Leonard situation. Yeah. Which is that this is a superstar. And when he's there, you're feeding him the ball. But he's in and out of the lineup. And you can even question why is he in and out of the lineup. It's more Joel and B. He's got like 20 minutes in him.

Maybe more Joe L&D. It can also be Kauai in that it's a contract no one else wants. What about this? Hear me out on this. I hear of Kauai. I hear Joel Embed, I raise you, Zion Williamson. Whereas things are always saying, you know what, part of your unavailability is you're doing. You have to bear some responsibility.

But when he's here, he's a star, man. I disagree because at least Zion this year, he decided to make a drastic change, which was he lost the weight. He's also done that four times. He made an attempt to pretend like we haven't seen that Zion looks in great shape during training camp four times. previously. And then what happens comes January? Well, all the pictures of Coke. Poe boys. Poe boys and bignets and all that stuff. A whole picture

of Coke. Oh man, it was one of the craziest stories I ever heard. It's not recent. It was like a couple years ago, but still I was like, how? Like when they brought it to the table, did they try to put it at the center of the table? It's just like, no, though, that's right here. That's mine. Why don't you just leave this right here? I'll take care of the rest of this. Could have been diet?

Maybe. Okay. Diet's not. Perhaps. A zero? Code zero? A pitcher? Did he drink? it's straight out the pitcher because it's just for him he put a little straw on the picture actually and it's like like a cartoon character like a cartoon character just

there's no sharesies it's just for him it's up if I had read the story rather than hear it firsthand I would have thought it was you want to read it well yeah if I read it then I'm like okay now I'm in but I heard the story but I heard the story not like on a podcast I heard it in real life from a source yeah

this is me doing reporting kind of sort or not really but the other part of it, the first thing I thought of was, do you guys remember the Kwai Leonard Apple Time, Apple Time story? True, I remember Apple Time. That's still... That story is true. I don't care what they said. That's right. Mike, to this day, I'm on the radio on Series XM NBA Radio, which you can catch me with me and Jason Jackson, Sunday's 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Jackson, if you're nasty. When people call and, all right, you know, call you're on the air, and he's like, hey guys, how's it going? Which they do is Dan outlawed years and years ago on this show, but people still do it on other radio shows. every time someone asks me how I'm doing, my response always is Apple Time, Apple Time.

And I just wait to see if anyone notices. To this day, no one doesn't say, wait, what'd you say? Everyone's just like, oh, yeah, that's great. But the quiet under the Apple Time, Apple Time Story is the purest example of I want to believe. Right? When we talk about fake stories, right, made up stories, there was a story yesterday about a certain collegiate executive being ejected from a game.

I like that story. Turns out it wasn't real, but the reason why people thought it was real and ran with it was because they want to believe. They want to believe. But the account was followed by Joe Shad. Yeah, it's all Joe Shat's fault. He's not willy-nilly with his follows. What's the threshold for the followers on the account that puts something believable,

not believable out there? There is no threshold. For me, if I don't know you, you're out of here. So I'll give you a great example. Oh, why would you know someone covering play-by-play of a St. Bonaventure game? It wasn't because it was a tournament. It wasn't a random game at wherever the hell they are. I mean, Joe Shad follows.

Don't just grow on trees. I'm just saying, man, like, my thing, remember when they came out, someone came out with this lengthy column about Michael Jordaners coming back to the TV because he's sick of people, like, staying in the past and he wants to, like, big up the current generation. And everyone ran with it. And I said, wait a second. This thing was, first of all, published on Medium.com,

which is basically a glorified blog spot, right? But second of all, the credentials of the guy said he was a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, which everyone ran with, who's covered the NBA for 15 years. I said, buddy, if you cover the NBA for 15 years, I would have heard about you. You can't be on unknown working at the Chicago Tribune, and you go cover my sport for 15 years. Mike, you said, how would I know? I may not be on top of college basketball like that.

I know the names. Okay. I know the Jeff Goodman's. You're in the circles. I'm sorry. You got people that know people. I wanted it to be true. And I showed you.

I wanted it to be true. I showed you and you had the right amount of scrutiny. And this is how fake news is so effective. I still think it might be true. Follows 44,000 people. Come on, man. Now he has 245,000 followers himself. So not the worst ratio.

He's doing the Tay Diggs. Follow me. I'll follow you back. I remember the day I got followed by Tate Diggs. I was like, I made it. Can I ask you something how that was? works. How many followers did you say, Joe Shad? Or how many people does he follow? He follows 44,000. Okay. So for someone, like, I don't give out follows all willy-nilly, all right? I probably

follow a couple hundred people. Really? But yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to earn that shit. You just followed me. Yeah, well, all right, you've earned it. Notice I didn't do it right when I started working here. You're on my turf. That's why. You earned it. Didn't do it right away. But the point is, when someone like that follows 44,000 people, how do they navigate their timeline. Zaz, how many, 560 people I'm hearing? That's how many. Zaz follows 561 and he has 47,000.

How do you navigate your timeline now? It's not even the people that you follow. I don't see anybody I follow, by the way. That's why I don't use Twitter as much anymore because it's just like, I'll open it. I see you lately in the Twitter streets, though. I've seen you lately. Just replies. I do I do my, I take care of my car. Your threads I'll go

is dialed. My threads is on point baby. Man, I never check that thread. I like That's just where it's at, man. I never check. I don't know if it's worth. I don't know if it's worth. I don't know about that. But like my Twitter, I'm at like 119, and I follow 1,19.

And that's a lot. That's a lot, man. But it's 10% of like what I have. But you only have 119 followers. You've got to up your game. 119,000. Put that K on that with that respect. Greg, how's it going?

It's going great. Thank you. Do you have it back in my date? What? We talked about it last week, that you were going to have it back in my day. Oh, yeah. It's a Tuesday. It's just.

It's surgery week. It's knee week. There you go. You know. When he plays, he's amazing, but he's hurt a lot. That's on me. I didn't know that it was knee week. I'm sorry. . It's neat. I got a lot on your plate. I have you feeling, Greg. It's going up to knee week. I'm a little apprehensive. I'm going under. I'm going under for that. It's going under. I'm going under. I'm going to go. I was a full anesthesia. going under the knife at this point is always a risky proposition.

Well, thank you for that. You never know if you're going to wake up. That's true. What are you doing? But then you do. He's right. Then you do wake up. But you might not.

But you might not. In fact... I'm two for two, but it's a small sample size. The odds are... Right now, the odds are worse than they've ever been in your entire life in terms of waking up from surgery. That's true. He wakes up every day out of the tomb, relax. I tell you what, I am older right now than I've ever been in my old life.

It's exactly right. But you're older now. Now. And then now. and now. So, you know, we live and learn. And you want to call him, you Donis, have them. How dare you? You disrespect for that. That's a seller. That's good tape. That's good. He put out good tape just now. threw up the alley if he caught it, came down.

If we put him on waivers, he's getting claimed. Absolutely. I like that. Absolutely. We were discussing before you came in if, like, we should like, you know, like the way an athlete would get benched, if they keep showing up late to practice. Like, should we send a message to you? But we said that you might be so good that we don't do that. Okay. I'm not the John Morant of. Still got your joy. Transition. Yes.

I mean, come on now. I'm not a troublemaker. I'm just laid occasionally through no fault of my own. No fault of his own. Yeah, thank you. Quick time out here. Talk to you about the official ticketing partner of the Dan Levitard show. Speaking, of course, about game time.

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I got a magnum condom. We won't get that out. That's shocking. Stugats. Here's a picture of Christopher when he was like three years old. Right next to the condom. Yeah. That's a subtle reminder.

Never forget. This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. Speaking of John LeBatar's show, as two guys. Speaking of John, as you asked the question, as Greg Cody lost his joy because John told the press that he lost his joy. It's unbelievable. Can we can we play? audio here. So last night, John Morant, he made his return, one game suspension, and he returned last night, did not play well. He was like, I don't know, he's like 3 or 14 or something.

And, you know, body language, horrible during the game. And here he was postgame. Were you and the coach your staff able to talk about what happened Friday and you want? Y'all ask that question to them, huh? What about for you? Y'all asked that question. So y'all know the answer to that. Do you feel like everything's been resolved? Yeah. They told you that, right?

Well, yeah, but you didn't hear from you. Obviously, they can't go and tell y'all something I ain't say. You feel like you kept the same joy right now? Do we use the same for them? No. Why not? What can be done to get it back? Unless we see.

Of course. Do you think you have a good relationship with the franchise? Yeah. Yeah. They told you all that, right? I didn't say anything about that. If I had a good relationship, I would talk to him at all. So...

Gene. We had our combos over these... Do you have any regrets about the way you played on Friday night in the second half? You said what? Do you have any regrets about the way you played the game? That's your home run question? Where's your own? It sounds like a bait question.

Greg, is that fair question? Your journalist has that fair question? Well, how did he phrase it again? Do you have any regrets about the way you played in the second half on the first half on Friday night. No, I don't think it's a bad question at all. I think it's perfectly legit based on his performance and not driving, taking all jump shots. I'm not going to be an apologize for this guy's unprofessional behavior. He's taking the Jimmy Butler seminar on how to behave when you don't want to play there, when you want out. He's just

pouting his way he hopes to a trade. It's ridiculous. Do you have any regrets on the time you left your home this morning? None at all. All done. That's how you answer. The headline is a little misleading of he says he's lost his joy. A reporter says, hey, you have joy. I mean, he does answer no. No, he could. No, he's a little misleading to the headline.

No, I know, but he could have just said no, but it's. Yeah, he could have just said, I wouldn't say that. There's no difference in that headline when you're asked that. Look, here's the thing. Greg's right. There's a way you do this so that you're not being insubordinate, but you're definitely not making everything run smoothly. So easily could have come out and said, I'm putting that behind me. I just want to move forward and win games.

So easy. Zaz, if you want to stay. Correct. If you don't want to stay, you don't do that. He's 100% getting traded. I've taught this seminar many a time to so many players. Look, in the NFL, when you want out, what do you do? You hold out.

I won't show up. In the NBA, when you want to be out, you do show up. You show up and you make a mess. You make a mess not by being, oh, yes, sir, no, sir. Oh, I just want to move forward. and we're all working, no, you be like, you give answers like that? I didn't stop talking to the media. I didn't disparage.

Everything he says when it's like, it's a little radioactive or third rail, what does he do? He says, did they tell you that? Obviously, they wouldn't tell you something I didn't say, right? So he's always shifting the focus. It is a master. Masterclass, if someone wants to get out. Nothing's ever his fault. I mean, look, that's how you lead right there, right?

Like, that's team leader right there. If you're Memphis, you start taking phone calls now. You really do. Because they get a lot for him. It's not a terrible situation for them. You get a lot for John Moran. You're Memphis, you start taking phone calls right now. That situation is going nowhere.

He is 100% getting traded. So, Greg, I want to throw this to you because you weren't with us yesterday. We were talking about if you're the Miami Heat and you're off to this very positive start. Last night, great win on the road against the Clippers. Bam out of bio looks great. The offense looks great. He's aggressive. Right?

But John Moran's available. Do you make that call? Well, you know, heat culture thinks it can fix anybody. Right? I mean, I think that's the starting point. I would look at that talent and say, I can fix him, we can make him fit. But the question, can they? I mean, Tyler Hero is going to be back soon. There's already talked about how do they make him fit in what they're doing now. But short answer, if John Morant is available for a fair price, yeah, I would. I would think I could fix that guy. We're looking at an option where last year, Desmond Bain went for how many first-round picks? A lot. Five. Four, five, I think.

Four or five. Okay. Does Jai even get close to that? See, I think it's an interesting question because you make, like when you phrase it like that, it sounds like, okay, if Desmond Bain is worth five first-round picks, how many picks is this guy worth? And that's not what it is. Desmond Bain was worth five first-round picks to the magic. Right. It's about one person.

Just like Rudy Gaubert was worth. five first round picks to the wolves. Doesn't mean that those players are worth that. To clarify, Bain was four first round picks and a pick swap. Okay. So, four and a half? But Jaws is a superstar, and you're looking for a permanent fix. You're looking for your culture to permanently fix somebody.

And you look at the recent history of the Miami Heat when they bring in these projects, right? Guys that have a reputation around the league, probably the most sterling example is one of the examples that they would hold against you and Jimmy Butler. That worked out great until it didn't, and he absolutely nuked a season. You have examples like Terry Rozier, Dion Waiters, Hassan White's side, where they kind of work, but temporarily, Terry Rozier. Birdman, too. Never worked. Birdman, I think, is the example, where he was in your building, and from like start to finish, he was bought in, and he had that reputation. What I'm saying is, it's been a while.

Yeah, they did this with Timmy Hardaway. Yeah, they did this with Alonzo Morning. We're talking about 30 years ago now. No, but I think there's a point also where many of those names, right, they, Terry Rozier probably is outlier, actually, from all the names you named. There was a level of productivity and value they got out of all those reclamation projects. And they were, they were considered, essentially considered winning players before the heat even acquired them. Even, even Hussard. No, no. Whiteside, no. Whiteside no. Oh, but come on.

Vianne. No, but I don't include Wenside in that group because they didn't give up anything to get him. It's not like it was a gamble. We're not talking about the acquisition, reclamation project. You're hanging your hat on this culture being strong enough to change John Morant, and you're cherry-picking from examples that are pretty long ago. Mike, what I would say is, one, in terms of reclamation projects, like I said, they all had a level of value that they got out of those guys.

Now, as time goes by, things happen, and, like, there's a reason why those guys were reclamation projects to begin with, right? And I was very critical about how they handled the whole Hassan-wise situation. because I'm like, you know who he is. Like, you might have gotten him to a level, but you guys knew, and you handed him that money and you handed that money before you did Dwayne Wade, and that sends a message. Even if we all know, well, you know, that's just the order of operation,

you know for a kid like that, he's not going to see it. He's like, oh, yeah, I'm the man now, right? So there's that. The second thing also is, of all the reclamation projects, where would John Morant stand in terms of talent and potential in the moment? A greater than Jimmy Butler was at the time. Yeah, like, he's younger. is Jimmy Butler a superstar.

When Jah is right, we're not having that argument. Right. No. Well, I would call Jean Morant a budding superstar, a can-be superstar. And he's played himself into that because two years ago, no doubter. Right. Yes, but he's coming into his prime. He just turned 26.

And I think the Butler analogy is apt because this is a team with a short window. And if they get four or five big years out of Jean-Morant, that's fine. You don't expect to have this guy. he's 35? Well, he's 26. He's smaller, but super explosive. And we have some examples at that position of smaller explosive guys like John Wall, wear and tear. It'll age poorly. Right. You hit your prime. It's been said, you hit your prime in the NBA, 27. You're a fully formed player at that point. Can't shoot. It's hard for guys to get better after that age. So we have a guy that for two years, yeah, there's been off-court stuff, but a diminishing player

given where the hopes and expectations were. This is not exactly, given everything that we know about him, and when you include the concerns you might have about this guy relies so heavily on his athleticism, this isn't a slam dunk trade to make. I agree. So this is what I would say. First of foremost, that's the biggest concern to me. It's not as attitude or off the course stuff.

It's this is his games played. 67, that was a shortened season due to COVID. 63 out of 67 second year. third year 57 out of 82 fourth year 61 out of 82 50 or nine out of 82 six year 50 out of 82 this year obviously six out of six so like we're talking about a guy oh you you can't even stay on the court that's number one i heard i think it was on a podcast or on twitter that jah hasn't played seven consecutive games since 2023 like that that's not because of suspensions or whatever that's because he's not healthy and part and parcel of that is

what mike is talking about he's a great athlete who has respectfully, like my build. He's about my height and probably around my weight, maybe a few pounds less because I've had a lot to eat since I got here. And he's getting in trouble in Memphis. Now we're going to move him to Miami. I don't discount Memphis as a troubled town. Okay, but I count Miami as a town that there's a lot more to do.

Oh, yes, but then my rebuttal to you is, again, knowing this organization, how many people have actually gotten in trouble? That's right. Here. Low weight. We have a really good security set. I know. I know.

But it's not about what you did. It was that one time in the hotel. Yeah. Thank God for Mario Charmers is all I want to say. It's not about what you did. It's what you get caught. Now streaming on Paramount Plus. It's the epic return of mayor of Kingstown.

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You are an infant. You have nobody to me. I literally put together a freaking stage for your toenail. I am. your career right now pal look at me no i am your career no stugats

you have messed with me david and now you're messing with me and i'm more dangerous pal this is the dan lebatar show with the stugats ironically one of the other fits that would make sense in terms of a swap where you could take two guys

who maybe aren't living up to exactly what those franchises wanted it would be Trey Young for John Moran. Are you going to move John Moran to Atlanta? That's smart. Yeah, that actually, that really works. Unfortunately, Trey is out for like a month right now. All right.

So let's take some examples that might be a little bit better to compare to. Miami's had opportunities and sniffed around acquiring James Hardin at this point multiple times. Russell Westbrook was available. I remember. And I think at the center of both those trades, we were wondering, do you give up Tyler a hero for this player? and I think maybe here we are again. The Miami Heat, ultimately, whether it be their trade capital or just internally, they decided to not go down that path and not acquire players that had had a certain reputation.

Westbrook was one of these players that was getting up there that relied heavily on his athleticism, even though he was actually, if you want to be encouraged by John Morant, the durability of Russell Westbrook, go, their frame is different. It's different. No, it's a different beast here. Yeah, but the Miami Heat decided. for better or worse to not go all in on those moves. So can we forecast what they decide to do with John Moraine here? So, again, the problem is, yeah, the inherent risk, again, I don't think the risk that you're weighing is, oh, he's a knucklehead,

he won't get along, he won't buy in. He's not healthy. He hasn't shown the ability to say healthy. And his play might be starting to decline. I don't think so. I think that's totally a part of what's happening right. There. I'm not saying the way they're doing it is wrong. I'm just saying I attribute his poor play to the coach. And the coach even talked about it. He said, we're doing something that's different. That's kind of cutting edge, shorter stints, higher intensity. And he said, there's going to be casualties in that. Casualties of guys are used to playing a certain way, and now they have to play a different way. And casualties in terms of the way they used to play makes it easier to breed chemistry on the court with your teammates. And this might be harder to manufacture that. But we believe that this. This is the best thing for the short, medium, and long term.

And that's all well and good. But again, it goes back to what I'll talk about yesterday, Greg. I said, that tells me they never had the conversation with John, which tells me, organizationally, either they're idiots or they've moved off of them. They're like, maybe this team isn't meant to be built around. No, no, you really believe they haven't had that conversation with John? There's no way you have something that drastic of a change, and you're not, like, your star player is not. bought into that. You can't do that.

You cannot say... Well, they can't force him to buy into this. Yes. And then you don't do it. That's the point. Remember, I remember when Don Nelson was the head coach of the Knicks. Greg, you remember this, right? It was a short stint, and they were above 500. But Don Nelson was like, we're not going to give the ball to Patrick Ewing

anymore. We're to give the ball to Anthony Mason, and he's going to initiate offense. Don, you're asking to get fired at that point. Unless, unless the organization is like, yeah, I like it. And if that's the case, then they've already made a referendum on the star player who's getting de-emphasized here. So then they've chosen Jaron Jackson. That's, to me, or they're idiots.

They could be idiots. You always leave that door open. I'll give you a positive example of this. The Toronto Raptors with Dwayne Casey and Kyle Lowry and DeMarie and DeMarjorosen, they'd win 50 games. They'd win the division. They'd go to the conference finals. They'd lose in the playoffs to LeBron every single time. Dwayne Casey's last year, he says, guys, we're not.

They were a very ISO-heavy ball club. So we're not going to win like this. We're not going to win with the ball in your guys' hand. We won 100 picking rolls. We have to have more of a motion offense. But you know what he did? He took, this is before, their season I just ended. He took Kyle Lowry and DeMarjorosen to the NBA finals to go watch the Warriors play.

He said, that's how I want to play. Moving like that. You see how step is off ball, how much. That's how we need to play if we're going to break through to the next level. and they spent a whole summer talking about it they were bought in that next year he was coach of the year they won a shit ton of games they still lost to LeBron because them's beat of breaks right

but the point is when he made the decision I'm changing the system that's made both of you guys millions of dollars the system that made both of you guys perennial all-stars I'm changing it this thing that you do so well you're so successful and by the way we're winning 50 games we're going to the playoffs we're losing to the

eventual like the best player in the league or whatever that's they have every reason and say, man, I ain't doing that. It ain't my fault. But he sold them on it, and that sell job started before the start of the new season. It started before the end of the old season. He starts selling them on that.

And they come in and they bought it. Now, Dwayne Casey got let go after that, but that was not because DeMar DeRosen and Kyle Lauer, like, get this bum out of here. Matter of fact, Nick Nurse was the assistant, and he took over, and he continued that same system, which they eventually won a championship with

Kwai Leonard. So I say this to say, Zaz, you don't make a drastic change to your system without buy-in from your star player unless you don't give a fuck about what he thinks. And in which case, you do whatever you want, especially for a first-time coach.

You're trying to get fired, dog? You want to piss off the best player in the locker room? Well, maybe they don't care what he thinks. But that's my point. Maybe they don't care. That's my point. Maybe it was two things. They don't care what he thinks because, A, if he doesn't like it, we will then deal with it. We're kind of tired of him anyway. Or,

he may not like it right now, but he's going to like it when it works, and we're winning. Like, I will win him over with this new style of play. Oh, man, Jeremy, the show within the show, make it the show. Sacramento Kings. Oh, my God. That's a spot. They would absolutely give the sun, the moon, and the earth. And then I would have the delight of saying, who's better to Aaron Fox or John Moran in real life?

We can see what John Morant gets done over there. That makes so much sense to me. Like, when you look at their contracts, right? I mean, you're a bad basketball team. and you have 47 million in Zach Levine, you have 42 million in DeMont de Sabonis, you have 24 million in DeMars, and 18 in Monk, 15 in Shruder. Like, you have all of these guys that are movable contracts, and you desperately need to do something different than the roster that you created here.

You just put together a bunch of pieces that are names that really have no flow to their games. They don't complement each other. obviously like building something around the idea of Sabonis and Morant offensively is very interesting. And when you look at how long those guys are under contract, like Sabonis directly matches up and Levine has a player option next year. So if Memphis just wants to get out of this, they can do that with Zach Levine at the very worst its next season instead of one more year of Morant. Like that seems to be the place that makes the most sense so that they can make a splash and Memphis can kind of reset. Yeah, but it's where it makes a sense for.

Jean Morant, too. You're trading for a little bit of a head case type player, right? If he's not, if he doesn't want to play for Sacramento, if that's the last place in the league he wants to play, do you really want him if you're Sacramento? Splash. Let me say this, Greg. Respectfully, he's

playing in Memphis. You don't really get to be a chooser at that point. No, he wants out. No doubt about it. But my point is, my point is Sacramento is a step up. Everything is a step up off of Memphis. I also feel like he believes a step up is going to be wherever he can go, that they do whatever he wants.

Where he wants to play. He play the way he wants to play. I think that's the big thing. I'm looking at this through the heat lens right now. If you're the heat, it's about fit and cost. Can you make him fit? Does he want to play for you? Is the team sold on it?

What does Captain Bam say? I think everybody has to be on board. And if the cost is right, then you go for it. You're not going to trade hero in two first round picks, but if the cost is right, I think they would. I don't think they would. I don't think they would. I hear you.

We might be a Norm Powell team right now. Oh, that's a Norr-Powell. I love Norval. He's great, man. That's a likable player right there. That's a likeable player right there. I can root for that guy. But I will say, every time we've had these debates and we're like, no, let's stay.

We don't need that guy. It's come back to haunt this franchise. And then the same complaint is there lobbied often by me, we got to do something. Now, something might have been Norm Powell. But I- Sure looks like it. Can I ask you guys. I'm a little scared.

Given the recent history. I will say you're talking about guys who most of the time when you were talking about making those moves were still at the peak of their powers or just starting to tail where you weren't making the massive moves of the recent lottery picks and multiple firsts for them. This is a different scenario where you have a guy who's probably at the basement of his value where maybe you'd be making that swap for a talent. But I just don't know that it is a fit right now. Let me ask this question. As you guys are, Miami guys grew up in my... Miami Heat fans, right? Like, is this market capable

of rooting for a team that's like scrappy and that's like this right here? That was how the Miami Heat started. That was, that wasn't until you got shack and then everything changed. Best condition. No, man. Most hated. No, you know that's...

Most physical, nastiest, toughest team in the NBA. You guys know that's not like... Did you ever see Thunder Day and Marley get a hip into a guy? It's been on the 30 and 11? You see when he told. that Charlottage and Charlie Ward into the crowd? Did you see Tyler Johnson and James Johnson off the bench? Come on.

We wrote it on the court. I'm going to tell you guys right now. This is who we are. It's my life. Fugazi. No. Hey, I'm not LeBron D. Wade and Chris Bosch. No, no, no.

I'm John Crudy and Sasha Denold. Someone who was, what, 12 years old in 2004. You know about Grant Long? Someone who is 12 years old in 2004 is now in their 30s. That guy. all they know is we had Shaq and then we had Duane Wade and we had

I was 11 years old when the Heat won the championship and I bleed Heat Colt How dare you? Hold on. You waxing poetic about Ike Austin and for Sean Leonard? No, but I am about Luke Babbit. Guys, they were that in 2020.

When they made it to the bubble finals, they were that scrappy. And you guys wanted more. You guys wanted more. Yeah, but we rallied around. on that team. But the question that you asked is Miami capable of of loving a blue collar team. Yes, we are.

This is it. The two most recent finals we've been to, we had that blue collar team. So blue collar. Right. It's all about winning for heat fans. They don't care about anything else. Plus, if you get Jean Morant, all of a sudden it helps you on the most hated category. I do miss that too. That's a spectrum. Blue collar, most hated. Good with both.

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