The Deep 3 Podcast - The NBA MVP Race Heats Up, Lebron Injury Update, & More! | TD3 Live

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

Breaking down a big week of NBA news! #nba Support the stream: https://streamlabs.com/thedeep3pod Today we react to all the latest NBA news! Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Join the TD3 discord!: https://discord.gg/RUkjpMPp7E Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Muhamed's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Y'all, I think we're live. On top of that, too, we are live and we're on time. Who'd have thought? And on top of that, we're alive, we are on time, and we're in person. Why does it say chat is disabled for this live stream? What is going on here? Oh, I disabled it. I got to say, I'm not tired of these people talking.

I got to hear them. I'm tired of the late, late. I disabled it for the first few minutes. jokes on you it was on me I know new powers unlocked I think it's the streamlines messing out it looks like it's live on YouTube we're here y'all hope you guys can chat

hope it's working for you all as you see we're live streaming a person only doing this a couple times we're still getting used to it you know figuring out the right setup and everything but should be a good one today as you guys see about the title we are in the thick

of NBA MVP season the discourse is at an all time high it's finally gotten extremely toxic as we know what to get around this time of the year we're getting non-stop vitriol from both sides of what's become a two-horse race between Shea, Nicole Yokic. It's crazy. It's crazy.

It's not quite as crazy as when it was Joelle and Beat on the other side, but it's close. Because it went to proportions that, you know, don't have to do with basketball with Joelle. Oh, don't get to mess up.

The race relations are still part of it right now. Really? People are still making a racist. That's crazy because I feel like I'm very, very tapped in on that side. Yeah. I have not seen a lot of that. Yeah.

You know, that's tapped in this guy. Clear his day. Yeah, we're going to talk about that today. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What kinds of tweets are you seen? What side of the tweets are you seeing? This year, it's more, uh, it's... Because what is the algorithm showing you based on what you've liked.

So right now is the other way, right now, so in the year you were talking about, it was the Kendrick Perkins stuff, where, we know where that was... Where did it say, reverse my mind. I forget, I forget, all I know is that basically he was like, and Bid is not getting it because he's black. Uh, okay. We'll like a better word. Interesting.

Yeah. And right now, Chey fans are like, nobody cares when Yokish is a bad game. He has a white privilege. That's where the racial relations are going right now. But lots of talk about there. We're going to talk about a few key injuries, a couple big reports, some miscellaneous stories. Lots and lots to get into. I think today, let's start with some Sacramento Kings talk, which is something I never, ever, ever say.

We actively cut them out of the episode a couple weeks ago. It was actually this most recent episode, that I had a couple weeks ago. It was this week. But there's some interesting stuff to talk about that's barely even about them. Actually, I guess technically we're having some Spurs talk to start the episode. NBA drama. Deerrin Fox, there's recently been some discourse around his trade request or lack thereof how he went out from the team.

Essentially, Kings fans fucking hate him now because they say that he put them in a terrible position by narrowing his market to one team, right? He said on that topic, there was no fucking list. I wanted to go to San Antonio. A lot of people are mad, saying I handcuff the team. Well, this is my career. It's not my job to help build your team.

I'm not about to just go where they want me to go. How did you feel about this? Because obviously this pissed Kings fans off because they're like, you're in the car track, do your job. And then other people were like, hey, player and power motherfucker deal with it. Super sassy response. I like it.

It's like he honestly sounds like someone who was like completely fed up with the situation that he's been given, seeing all the wrong moves. happen even when there's right moves happening seeing them take steps a couple years ago when this one that light the beam stuff happened and all that like I don't blame him firing the head coach abruptly like that as a star player given no type of like green light or none like that too I understand it yeah it makes sense the kings drafted de Aaron Fox in 2017 they did not make the playoffs until like two years ago damn right so you have one

playoff appearance in his seven or eight year tenure, if Deeran would have played his entire Koreans in Sacramento and they would have been on this pace that they are, that they're on right now. He's one of the greatest losers of all time. Exactly. Like, what do, what do they get? Like, do they probably get two playoff appearances, three playing appearances? And then all of a sudden, like, they're supposed to be some valor in that.

If Deerrin Fox wants to, if he wants to go play with somebody else, he 100% can do that. And I'm glad that he said there was no list. I wanted to go play with this guy. And they made it happen because fans don't even have to be mad with Dierre Fox. You can be mad at ownership because ultimately they're the ones who make the trade. They could have said, no, Deere, we're not going to trade you. They could have said, you know what? I know you want to go to San Antonio.

We're going to send you to Portland. Like, you know, like they can do all this other stuff. Portland, buddy. Like, it doesn't matter. Like, shout out to Deere and Fox for requesting the trade. Ultimately, the burden falls on the front office to do all this stuff. So you can't be mad at him. Yeah.

Shout out to K.J. Blazing for tipping $3. Appreciate your man. He's the best part of the day. Shout out. Oh, interesting part of this is this was surprising to me, this comment, because this all comes from the same new story by Mike Wright, where he, I think he sat down with Deer & Fox and got some pretty candid quotes. He went into a pretty explicit detail about why he requested this trade, too.

And it comes down to the Mike Brown firing. He said, I was like, yo, I've been here for my eighth, going on my eighth year. If Mike gets fired, I'll be on my fifth coach. And I told them, I'm not going to play for another coach. I'm going to play for another team. That's hilarious. He's like, if you fire them, I want to leave because I'm sick of new faces in here. I like Mike Brown.

And part of this is he also, I don't have to quote pulled up. He said, I don't know if he said or if it was reported but not explicitly stated to him that there were some players on the team that had an issue with Mike Brown. It became a locker room issue. Kings fans are theorizing that DeMontasabonis is the one who had a falling out as the other most influential player on the team. So interesting that it seems like we can trace us back to when the Deerrin Fox trade first happened, he had followed Demontasabonis the next day. And Kings fans were like, why did you do that? What did he do? Yeah.

And he was like, I don't want to see it. So apparently they're close. And we can now link that to they have differing of opinions on the Mike Brown situation. It's all making sense. And exactly, this is what you have to say. You are a Kings fans. man, right? Or you're, whichever side you're wrong, just look at the other side and say, stay over there. Stay over there. If you are rocking with the, with the organization, with De Manus a bonus a bonus, stay over there. If you were a fan of Deer & Fox and you're like, we did wrong by him, all right, you are rocking with him in San Antonio because Deerem Fox was the one. And this is just, this is how the kings operate. And so you see them kind of switch up their plan every two to three years.

And because of that, now you're in the situation where you've traded away, one, Tyrese Halliburton to go get Subonis and start this whole core. You bring in Mike Brown, give him an extension this offseason only to fire him midway through the year, right, knowing that there was probably a little bit of beef between Deeran and De Manus about what the, what the coaching situation was like. So you keep putting yourself in these positions. I'm going to need you to sit still. I'm going to need you to think about some things before you start making moves, you know? Their future is so interesting because no dear and Fox, obviously, you have Zach Levine, who is very good. The, I don't want to see Zach Levine and DeMarter Rosen play together long term. Why? You've seen it already. What's the problem?

Exactly. That's the point. You've seen it. It's gone great every time, famously. Famously, an effective duo. Just a lynchpin of NBA history. A duo you want to see together every year, I'm sure. But I hope that that's not a long-term plan. Shout out DeMar. adding in Zach Levine makes me want to have Demar around a little bit less than I did before. And I don't know. Like what's the what's to be gained by building around DeMonte Sabonis and Zach Levine long term? That's like it's a worst version of what you have with Fox in Subonis, but just just marginally. It's close to the same level. But you know what it is.

You know what it is. I don't. I wish I knew what it was. M.I.D. 42 wins a year. That is that is why that is why you do that. And for the Kings, I can see a little bit of that. of that mindset where you've been bad for like 20 years and you want to create some kind of culture, some kind of stability of like, I know we're not championship contenders, but we are at least a respectable team, where at least a respectable organization. And so making, you know,

the playing or making the top six, all that, that does have some kind of value, especially if you don't want to tell your fans, hey, we're going to bottom out for the fish. time in three years, you know, like some other teams do pretty consistently. Yeah, yeah, there's definitely a fine line there when you're a small market team. The other interesting part is, I guess we all assumed that DeMontasabonis is the rider die. He'd never seem to the type to rock the boat or assert any type of player empowerment, pressure of anything of that sort, right?

The Athletic also reported that DeMontasabonis is expected to seek clarity on the king's direction this summer. Don't know exactly what that means. Or let me not say that. verbiage makes you think, I don't know exactly what that means. We all know what that means. He's going to be like, are we trying to compete or not? Is this going to be a rebuild or not? What's up? If not, I want to be out of here. The second one of the kings are hilarious because it's like, bro, that's what I've been doing the entire time? What do you mean? The quote says, league sources said, Sabonis, who has three more seasons and a combined $143 million left on his current deal is expected to see clarity about the organization's plan in the offseason. Just as Fox wanted to know whose voice mattered on most on key decisions and who the team's owner might be,

trusting the most as counsel. So bonus is known to have similar questions. I think I read a report that in this, it seems like the owner's daughter has a big say now in the team's direction, that she's kind of taken over a lot of decision making in lieu of the owner himself. Like he's kind of handed the keys over her a little bit as like a little shadow owner. So I think Kings fans are assuming that's what he's talking about is like, yo, is she in charge?

Are you in charge? Is Monti McNair in charge? What's going on here? Because apparently there's a lot in flux. And that makes sense. This seems like a team that is not under one cohesive vision, you know, to bring in Demarder Rosen. We understood the talent play that, you know, he's better than Harrison Barnes. I guess you're a better team now, right?

But all of us scratched our fucking heads and said, that's the fit. That's the all in peace you want to go for. Yeah. And then to get Zach Levine after you know how he fit with Demard Rosen, like a lot of incohesive moves going on here. That makes sense that there's like a muddy of who's in charge. And 2017, Lanzibald and Alice Caruso are not walking through those doors. Correct. Or 20, 29.

It was 2021. Wow. Yeah, it was actually way clear. Wow. But yeah. So they're not walking through those doors. And so again, you don't really know what's happening with the Kings. And for sub bonus, I'm going to warn you, right?

You guys remember that thread on Twitter like a couple years ago where the guys like, you need to love the wife of your youth or something where you're like, it's not like the grass isn't always greening. For Subonis, I feel like he kind of fits into that because I don't know what teams are shelling out their assets to bring in Subonis. It's very hard for me to see. What assets would you be able to get for Sabon's sure, right?

I don't know what the hall would be like and I don't know what situation he would go into that would be ready made for him to slide in because anywhere that you put Subonis, at least offensively to maximize him, he has to have the ball in his hands a lot. It's very, it's very weird for me to think about

Sabonis being like the third option and some like pseudo like big three type of thing. So you might go and request the trade and the league might have an answer for you very quickly about like your value or where you want to go. And you, you can have a list. I don't know if everyone's going to respect that.

I think when it comes to the bonus, something that he does bring and give teams is like adult of life. and identity is he can't go to a team that has like serious aspirations to win a championship or a team that you know like what an indictment what an indictment on somebody as a player everybody has a role and what they are how they are valued in the NBA and that's just what it is and he so happens to be like the face of that um he went to he got traded to indiana from okayc helped bring a jolt of life was the best player or one of the one of the two best players on that team alongside miles Turner got traded to Sacramento and he brought a jolt of life and they created a whole new

play style catered around him and teams that I can think of right now off the top of the head that need a jolt of life because similar to the Sacramento Kings are back in the back in those days or the Indiana Pacers back when they had the Victor Oladipo era like he needs adult of life alongside of a guard too who just needs more stability and immediately I think of Atlanta Hawks I don't say the same thing or Or fucking the Charlotte Hornets at some case. I think those two teams match up perfectly offensively with what he is able to provide. I can see, I could see the Hornets if they are, if the Hornets, only because if the Hornets were like, we have to be relevant.

We have to be good. Yeah. And they also seem to be in a position of transition. And like, you don't know what's about to happen. So maybe Charlotte, I don't like, I don't like the fit. In Charlotte. Also, the Atlanta pick is like, all right, that's super weird. To have Trey and Sabonis, that's one where...

That's so mid. That's so fucking mid as your two building blocks. And that's... Trey, Jalen Johnson, Subonis. Chat, what do you guys want to see DeMontasabonis traded if it comes to that? What would be a good fit for Subonis in your guys' eyes chat? That's a hard one. The better question is that, is there a good fit?

Just plainly yes or no. There's certainly a team he can play. Clippers, maybe? I don't know. I don't know what they would get for the Clippers. That's why it's so hard to envision the team like that. Okay, so you want to pair Subonis with a slashing guard that they have a Fox because he's really good at REN DHOs and he can set guys up on driving angles. So who's a team that has a slashing guard that needs a big to be a playmaking cup to set him up a little bit better, but also has good defenders that can kind of hide Sabonis's weakness as a rent protector.

I would say like, oh, shit, maybe the Portland trailers could use the services, but that doesn't make any sense because they already just drafted a center for the future. And I don't know if their guards there are necessarily just, I don't know if they've made. that development curve yet so it's hard the fucking magic ew bro you want to add nothing like that's the worst place i don't okay oh the grizzlies i don't know jaron jackson's kind of a good fit to hide his weaknesses they need a big the grisies would be good but i think you risk too much you might risk too much on defense you might risk too much it depends on what they want back but it's fine it's fine honestly if that's the move that that you want to make because the grisleys also and we've talked about it before like they they find and develop guys so well that if you make some type of like consolidation

trade to go and get subonis and bring them in that it's okay you know that you're going to go find two rotation players what about the goal don't say warriors stop that i mean it would be the worst fit in the world but i mean if yeah anyone there to like help cover sabonis's deficiencies defensively the guys right oh but you can't draymond would you think subonus would want to go there after dream on stopped on his test i mean i don't think he'd be excited to play with the guy but i think it probably he'd probably deal with it would they even work money wise to be able to have step and jimmy and i think you don't have to do like a trade and uh sign and trade with camiga yeah you have to extend caminga and trade him yeah so they the kings really have to believe in

someone like camina they could work i don't know if it'd be the best because he's another that would be awful so in the chat dq sempai said i like sabonis on the trailblazers you like sabonis on the trailblazers because you've seen a sub bonus on the trailblazers before and it's a good story fit wise i do not like sabonis on the trailblazers i much rather than continue to build young and have donovan clinging as their center of the future with tumani kamara and denny and have like three good defenders subonis putting him on that team is just like rebuilding what you have with the kings just having him be a just 41 winning commander yeah and i want better for the trailblazers welcome to minnesota just the thing when it comes to that's what

comes with the people are spanned minnesota right now really that's That's absolutely, I mean, I can understand it because Anthony Edwards, obviously, when it comes to all the aspects of his game, playmaking is not the strongest suit of his. Yeah. But I don't know if it makes sense. So most of the Raptors are a good fit? I guess him and Scotty aren't the worst fit in the world. You need to have shooting. Yeah, I don't think their offenses as high octane.

Someone like Anthony Edwards is like in the same vein as a score as someone like. Yeah, he's hard to fit around, Jesus. Yeah, he is. Try to tell y'all. It's, like, you can, you can ask for the trade, but ultimately, like, he can't move the way the Deer & Fox was moving where he's like, I have one team and you want to, and I want to go there. It's like, all right, congratulations, buddy.

Like, it's not going to work everywhere. All right, man, that's been one. That's enough King's Talk. That's about 16 minutes of King's talk. You guys, that's a make-up for last episode. That's all you got in you? That's all I got in me. Today, we had to talk about.

the NBA MVP race. It is getting serious. Like we said, the top of the episode, vitriol is being thrown both ways, and it's perfectly timed because the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Denver Nuggets,

just played back-to-back games and back-to-back days, which is absolutely insane way to schedule for the season. NBA, what is what is wrong with you? But in the first game of the season, now let's do it. And it's funny, too.

The first one is on ABC, it's the Sunday primetime game, and the next one is on NBA TV on a Monday. Like, nobody cares about the second one. Yeah. Narratives are craft. with the first game. And in that first game,

it was a close game for three quarters, but in the end, the Thunder won and Shea had 40 points. And they won, by a margin that made it look decisive. They won by double digits, which was, I think, like, their 40th, double-digit win in the season.

I think 40th first or 42nd. They lead the league in that, and they're just like 10 years away from breaking that record. It's insane. It's crazy. So, when this game ended, and Shea had another 40-point game,

he just stacking them up. He averaged like 41 for the week and went 3-0. Makes no sense. People were talking, nail on the coffin. The AVP race is over. He got it. He solidified himself over Yokic,

who was having the statistically better season, best player, but the team's better with Shea, and he's been rising to another level to score. And then the second day comes around. And the Nuggets win that game. They win the rematch. Yokic has 35 points, 18 rebounds,

75% from the field. SGA has 25 and 7. Chet has his worst game of his career. He went like 1 for 10 to start. It was crazy. So they split the series, which now maybe that kind of softens the whole Shea ended the debate thing. Well, you already said it. One of these games on NBA TV.

I don't care about that. I don't care about that. If Mike Breed is not calling the game, it don't matter. But it is very, very interesting. I still think that Shea has it locked up. I've also thought that Shay, she... You think it's locked up, locked up. It's okay.

You can't say anything is locked up yet. Like there's, no, I do, I do think that it, that it's locked up. I think that for the, for the people that, for the people who have like years of voting or whatever and there's the precedent, Shea fits that. Okay. Right. Like, Shea Fitz, best team, best player. They're one of the best teams by a landslide in the league. They're dominating everybody.

If you want to talk about guys who are just going out there and getting buckets and having these amazing performances, Shea is doing that I think that for a large amount of the people who are voting for Yokic or saying that he should be MVP, not to say that Yokish doesn't have a deserving case but I think the people arguing for it

are doing it out of bad faith. Yeah, yeah. There's bad faith arguing on both sides. That's how it goes. No matter what, there's going to be bad faith arguing. Some people are going to call Shay a free throw merchant who is only a score doesn't provide anything else. One dimensional player. Some people are going to say Yokich can't defend anything and he's a stat patter. There's

bullshit on both sides. There always will be in these type of close debates. But it's really close. Like, right now, Yokic's MVP case is just as strong as it has been in any end of the year that he's won it. He's having his best statistical season. He's up his level of efficiency and volume into a place that we've never seen before. He's just as sharp as ever. The team is just as mid as ever. He's doing just as much of a carry job he's ever seen, which is, you know, part of why he's won MVP's in the past. And they're pacing to win similar games to last year when they got it when they're tied for the second tie for the first year with okayc right so it's kind of

a combination of all those previous cases but I do kind of still agree that she's the MVP and it feels weird because in general over the last five years of NBA discourse I fucking hate the best player best team automatically deserves the idea but

Shay's been the second best player in the league this year and while I don't think best team automatically gets you it like some people do it's a it's a factor and they are so much better everybody else. It's the level of dominance that we're seeing by Shea and the Oklahoma City Thunder. I think that's like the extra level boost where I'm like, okay, when it comes to the

how you believe the voters are going to vote based off the president that they set, that they set years ago, yes. I think it's going to lean that way, like, I'm 60% sure he's going to win MVP. Yeah. For sure. And I don't think it's not even necessarily just because the team is so dominant because we've seen that before. It's because he is carrying almost as hard offensively as Yokach is.

And it sounds crazy because Yokic is the best score, best playmaker. The Nuggets suck ass without him. And people will have this idea that the Nugget, that the Thunder would be good without Shea, which is just wrong. But his on-off isn't as dramatic as the Yokish one is because the Yokic benched units without him fall off a goddamn cliff. And that's because the Thunder have an amazing defense with or without Shea, right? But offensively, his swing is gigantic because I've said it all year.

There's two people on this team that can dribble. one is Jalen Williams who has had an inconsistent scoring season and one is Shea their entire offense only works because of him and his ability to create and keep the offense moving their whole team construction is like the 01 Alan Iverson 76ers where they say we're going to make a team full of defensive goons and this go-to score is going to be the offense that it looks different than what Yokic is doing but it's nearly as impressive a carry job so if you combine that with the team success that he's responsible for I think it's fair to go towards yeah and what makes it even more impressive of a carry job

is the efficiency and the rate that he's consistently doing it at. We've seen guys get their shit off. We've seen guys like Bradley Beal get their shit off and get like 31, 32 points per game or win the scoring time or whatnot. But with Shea, it's just different because it's efficient from all levels

of the court. And specifically in the paint, mid-range too, it's generationally efficient. Things that we see people who are not twice as size, but six, nine, six, ten, six, eleven, seven footers do and he's just six six bro yeah and like and i fully understand the yokech side too that like the best player is by definition more valuable to some people right it's the same argument

from people who are saying braun should have more now that's yokish because he's the more talented player so i get it to yokch fans he's the basketball messiah and you should always go towards the best player and he will always be the best player so every given year they're going to want him to win and we'll be disappointed if he doesn't and i understand the line of thinking the simple reality is best player doesn't always automatically guarantee the MVP in how people vote and how people choose to make the award a award go. Yeah. It's a collective factor award, not just you're the best individual player. It always has been. It always will be. Even if we don't necessarily want it to be, that's always what it's going to be. So I understand your guys' perspective,

but you're arguing from a basis that just isn't reality. Yeah. Like, there's so many moving parts when it comes to this conversation. And to me, I think, for example, if the Oklahoma City under weren't as good as they are this year and they were closer to like i don't know 50 wins instead of like 50 or whatever they're at right now then the conversation would be a lot tighter than what we see it as right now because the like there's the team boost that okayc has when you deplete that then there's no rule there's an argument obviously still but it's not as strong someone said if yokech played for a better team he'd be untouchable yeah probably if he was on a 70 win team or 67 win team whatever it's going to finalize as yeah yeah you're right

he's not we can do this every year if yannes was on a 67 win team he would also win the MVP only one of them is actually winning 67 games in reality and again the win lost column is not everything but it's something it is something and in this case that win loss column is directly correlated to one guy being the team like people are like okay see as a super team while yokech is carrying no all stars i'm like bro they're a super team in your eyes in terms of net rating people say that because of Shea he is a super team if he wasn't there and you want to say they'd be a good team still and they'd win games without him okay he obviously makes him go from decent team to the goddamn best team in the league

that is a big-time carry job that is worthy of the most of Apple players season and it's not even like anybody is looking at like the Cleveland Cavaliers on the other side of the league who are pacing very similarly to the thunder and are like oh yeah de Mitch that's the MVP of the league yeah no one's doing that nobody saying that because you obviously have to have the requisite performance to get there and the best the best player best team yes that has always been a part of the conversation but we've seen it in years past where that's not the automatic like everybody was making fun of devon booker a couple years ago when the sons were amazing and people were trying to like shoehorned devon booker into conversations last year when people were

talking about jason tatum trying to be in MVP conversations And we were up here saying, like, no, that's really not where he belongs. You see it time and time again that if you are watching these games and you know this guy is not moving the way an MVP is he's not performing the way an MVP does, then regardless if the team is like at the top of the league, they're not going to do that. So like, does she have that tiebreaker? Yes. Do you think that like it should slash shouldn't matter?

Whatever. Like that's personal preference. So president set aside, you would still pick Shane. still pink shit. What about you? I don't care about president. I just see I was laughing because you said president and I was thinking about it and I repeated what you said. I don't care about the president at all. I do I think it's too close to call right now. I need like all the days possible to think about it. I'll decide on the last day possible. If it end today, I'd probably lean Shay but I don't feel good about it at all. I feel like it's the closest race we've had as long

as I've been like conscious of NBA award debates. Shout out to I love Mo's Toes for tipping $69. Oh, wow. Lovely. He said Thunder should trade for Tray Young with all that draft capital they have and anything else that would tickle the hawk's brain in that direction. That would bomb that entire.

That would bomb both teams. That would bomb O'KC. It wouldn't bomb us. She'd give us all the draft capital. I ain't trouble too hard. Shout out to Bush did Harambe for tipping $5. Shout out to Mo. Your shoes are untie for tipping $3.

And shout out to LeBron 623 for tipping $6.23. Appreciate all of you. I didn't know we were toe-watched. on this podcast, but okay. That's why I wear shoes now. Someone said, it's silly to say that pro-Yokish MVP arguments are made in bad faith. He's still leading the Basel reference MVP prediction.

Don't give a shit about that. He's leading a second seed that without him would be the 10th seed. Yeah, no one said every Yokch case is in bad faith. It's that some people are taking it in bad faith. If that's not you, that's not you. No one is saying there's no case for Yokic, but you understand that there is bad faith arguments

on both sides, especially by Yokic fans who are, you know, as Yokish fan can tell you, fanatical about him because he is a, European players have very, very intense fan bases because they represent entire countries. So they get diehard fans. And when you have that, plus he's the best player in the league, plus he doesn't get the attention in the media because he's overlooked because he's European. There develops a very, very, very crazed fan base that will ride or die for their guy. And deservedly so, I understand it. But that leads to some bad faith arguments. That isn't invalidate every single argument. There are very, very good reasons to argue Yokuch's MVP.

But there are also some that are bit eye-roly, especially after he wanted over Luca, in large part because his team was better. No, 100% because his team was better. Luka averaged 34, 10, and 9 last year. Yeah. And we're like, listen, that's great in all, right? That's awesome. But Yoke's just doing some crazy stuff over here and his team is winning.

Yeah. It's the same thing this year. Like, I understand you put it up. It's a little bit different for Lucas though because, like, he didn't do it. He was doing it the entirety season, but his team. his team was asked for like yes and it's also different because it's the two seed so there's the two not like what did they finish that the five or four the maverick so to to the credit of yokech fans he's the two seats so he's as close as you can get and i you could do the best argument for yokech

is he's as close as you could possibly get in the circumstance of him having the worst team right so you're gonna you know he does they're gonna have a worst record because the team is significantly worse around these two stars and the fact that he's number two you can't get any closer to make of that gap talent-wise, seating-wise. And you know why? You know why? Why? Because the other candidate has played so well that his team is like 10 games clear of

the two-seat, right? He's contributed to the Thunder being 10-12 games ahead of everybody. We were talking about three weeks ago or a month ago, whenever, like, yo, the Thunder are on a 70-win pace, right? Like, they have been dominant from start to finish. And so, yes, Shea has. a lot of legs up over Yokic because he is also dominating. Isaac spent 20 minutes on the,

we talked for 20 minutes last week about how generational and how amazing Shea's scoring season is and how he's having one of the best scoring seasons of guard has ever had. And yes, I understand that Yolkich is doing something the same and he just had that amazing 30, 20, and 20 game, which is ridiculous. But just because Yolkich is making history

doesn't mean that anything that Shay is doing is also not historic. or not amazing. Yeah, and they're both MVP caliber, individual productions. And this is what you want from an MVP race. Yeah, you know what this is, honestly? This is Yokic's fan's first time at the Braun Rodeo where we understand fully.

Everybody knows he is the best player in the world, and you're going to hear that. People are going to look you in your face and say he's better than the other guy, but he's still on MVP. Yeah. And that's bewildering to somebody who's coming from a perspective of arguing in favor of Yokic every go-round right. And this is obviously what Braun fans have to do it with for years,

and you know that's the reality people aren't going to only go off who's the best player like there's other factors involved and you're not going to like it ever yeah so i me personally i think i might be the odd man out i might slightly lean towards yokech if i had a personal vote now i don't say that strongly i don't say that proudly do you think b r could get his votes could you imagine hilarious would be if b r could get his votes i'll play both sides i would not want people to know how he Imagine people look at the list Who has votes And they see us next to T&T

They got us a vote Because they're one of those family Along me go see Try young I'm gonna fuck someone over They go to our channel And they see us talking about Ballheaded players and shit

I've never asked Sam But I don't I feel like it's probably not impossible Oh man But yeah So you're I'll make some calls man I'm thinking about this

So over the last year This is like Kind of a side question What MVP outcome has bothered you guys the most what MVP did we get wrong which one is bothers the most

I wish you asked us on a day we're recording TikToks this is a good TikTok topic well he has his I don't have mine I don't know you do you do I mean the first one comes to mind

obviously everyone hates the Jewel and beat over Yokich one I mean oh no no for you I was thinking 2017 2017 no I'm not super passionate about that I'm not super passionate about that one

I don't honestly I don't really hate any of the outcomes probably joel and beat over yokech but I understand how we got there so I don't think joel and beat season was undeserving MVP at all I just think yokech was a little bit more deserving so I'll say that one but even then I completely understand why joel won okay for me

let me look up all the winners it might be it might be joel's um I was very pro lebron in 2018 um that one's such revision of history You said you were ProVant, so I believe you in the moment, but that was a topic conversation later. So many people use a 2018 playoffs to like revisionist history, to revisionist history, his regular season MVP standings.

There was no way and fuck LeBron was winning MVP 2018. I still do think that like with that roster, getting that roster to 50 wins. Yeah. I think that and obviously like LeBron just playing at, you know, kind of regular LeBron levels. I thought, yeah, I thought like 2018 could have went bronze way. but I but like but then you go back and you look at 2018 James Hardy and you're like okay like he he's he's getting that yeah I think for me personally if I was to answer my own question I would probably lean towards and this question like this MVP race feels similar

it's to this one obviously Shay's better but it's Drolls versus LeBron back in 2011 the Bulls were first place it wasn't as wide of as a gap I think the Bulls on 62 games and they went 66 66 yeah no way that's 66's crazy but if they did Regardless to number one. It's why he's MVP? Regardless, he's number one. And in the fashion that D. Rose did it is not similar to Shea, but you get a lot of the same arguments. Team is built around you.

You're allowed to cook its AI style basketball, style basketball. And you have a bunch of long, lengthy defenders, Dokeem Noah, Lua, Deng, and all those guys of the world. Super simple. Even like, low-key, similar build of a team as well as OKC this year. But at the end of the day, if you look at the other side of the argument, LeBron is LeBron, we all. know how much better he is he was at the time than Derek Rose. But they, but, but you're also like, you're not giving it, this is the same reason why Steph and Katie would never, we're never thought about as MVP because you look over and

you look at the roster and it's like, okay, you guys are that good. The moment you say, I'm going to play with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch in 2011, you are out of the MVP for like, for, for a couple years. Yeah. And especially the first year of the Super Team, like, he was never going to wait. That was a hard PR to go up against. Shout out to Wardell Glazer for tipping $25. He said, my Warriors are looking good, Isaac. Y'all better pray you don't get the first round matchup. Ooh, shit.

He's coming after you with that one. God damn. I don't play on the team. Shout out to I have avocado for tipping $12. Set out to $1,2, 3, 4 for tipping $5. No, no, no. I say, show his question. Tell them what you got on your feet.

Oh, he said, Isaac, what are those? These are Nike slides. they are definitely like easy knockoff but they are like some like essentially Nike foam runners are they comfortable they're comfortable as hell that's why I got them on if I had the bitches on it looks like to increase my vertical by 10 inches and shout up to one two three four seven five dollars he said so how do you feel about the most improved player race that's a good one how do you feel about that because that one's up in the air there's obviously what's the odds I'll put the odds I hate I seen the turn of this conversation I think the last real most

improved player that the MPA had, which probably like Victor Lidipo, I may be tripping, but he's at least the most, like, notable one where it's like, oh shit, like, who the fuck saw this, like, coming out of nowhere? Can I see something controversial? Go ahead. So you're getting at the fact that you think top picks shouldn't win it because they're expected to be stars? Yeah.

But evolution, time goes, maybe I'm being an old man. It is what it is. I fucking hate that argument with all my heart. And I feel like people are finding a reason to be cry babies about that. I understand it. So, like, I don't think it's stupid, but I'm so over it. because like you said things change and we have an understanding now that becoming a star player is the most important thing possible and how hard it is to go from being good to being

great like that's extremely difficult oftentimes more difficult to go from that than being irrelevant to being good yeah and we understand that everyone acknowledges that but they're still like I want to see Christian Brown awarded I'm like why we don't think that's more important of an improvement we don't think that's a more difficult improvements why do we want that if not for just nostalgia. Sizable. It's the most sizable improvement. You're telling you want to give

the number one overall. The fuck you should be good. What is surprising about that? You want to give the number two, number three overall? You're supposed to be that good. You want to give more for everything these days for these top guys.

I'm not saying Kate Cunning out specifically, but like John Moran is the one people go to do a lot. John Moran deserved most improved player. He went from being a good rookie who was living up to the hype to being goddamn dominate and there was a two seat in the second year. Like that was a big leap.

And not every. A little week class, too. Exactly. It was not a lot of competition. I'm not going to have out here and put my cape on for Christian Brown deserving it. Like it's some huge gigantic improvement. Like it was some seismic shift in the world. Like I respect it and like he can be on the ballot.

I'm not going to like shed tears over the fact that players get rewarded it for becoming stars. I think it's totally understandable. It's understandable. I don't like it. It's not for you. Like, you know, like, it would be P. That's the real award that I want to see you win. the actual spirit of the award like this that's what i mean this is not this is not this is not

for you the spirit changed people change people have a different understanding now this is not for you and that's what we call loser recipe exactly loser loser i don't think that's a recipe that no but this shouldn't be this shouldn't be for for kent this shouldn't be for a guy that from from the moment that he got into the league the ball has been in in his hands the entire time right like he's had every single opportunity to and obviously his situation has been very very dire right but in theory he's had all the opportunity in the world to showcase his talents whatever there are some other guys who may not have had the opportunity or may have stepped into into a new situation and now they are they are fully you know starting to blossom i i would much rather

give this award to like norm powell than to then to then to Kate Cunningham. So is this award most opportunity gained or most improved? That's a little bit. So that's the thing too. It's not only like the most opportunity. Obviously if it was the most opportunity, fucking guys like Julius Randall or some shit like that would have won at a minute ago. It's like actually

genuinely most improved as well. Like the Victor LaDipos of the world, guys like that. He was a perfect winner. That makes sense. That's, yeah, he is like the poster boy for that. You have to actually get better. Yeah. And you could argue, again, I'm not going to use this argument, but you could say that Kay having the same role

and then just being way more effective, he actually improved. It's not just he got more touches. Getting touches doesn't necessarily mean you're better. You just have more opportunity. That's not what most improved means, you know? And I'm not saying that's a bad argument every time. Like, that's a very worthwhile.

If Kay didn't make the Starleap this year, I think we totally fine if Dyson Daniels or Christian Brown want or whatever. But we spend so much time talking about the fact that Kate Cunningham's season is so impressive. That in itself tells you that we didn't necessarily see it coming. Nobody was saying before this season he was going to be a top 15 player

the world this year be a top five point guard like just because he was drafted highly doesn't mean it's necessarily expected otherwise it wouldn't be so celebrated this is clearly a big deal and he got meaningfully better but you were drafted them one overall and so i think the expectation of it just like eliminates you from those like but you don't see that's so arbitrary like we don't do anything else like if you improved you improved it's not necessarily like disqualifying somebody but it's the same way how with the MVP award we know we know that the best player in the world is the most valuable. But that's not really what this is.

Like, because if it is, because if, because if, because if, because if, because if, because if it is, LeBron would have 10, Jordan would have 10. It would be like a championship belt that, like, you hold, you know, like, that you hold for like a decade or something, which would be very, very fire. And I do think that they should have an MVP belt and we need to start passing it around. Like, that would be very, very cool. But so there's like, there is the idea of, okay, this is what we are doing with this award, which is with MVP, kind of how we treat it.

The same thing with most improved. You kind of, we've known kind of the archetype of player that we are giving this award to. And if you want to go and relitigate it based on like the strict, strict definition of most improved, then, and that's why I kind of feel like it's happening now, okay, fine. But we also do this with every single award

where you say most improved or you have whatever superlative. and over the course of decades or whatever, we kind of as a consensus come to a meeting. Nobody to this day has a finite criteria for like coach of the year. Yeah. Right, but we know we thought you were going to be trash. Your team isn't as trash and you don't really have a star player.

So we're just going to say coaching. Most improved is kind of the same thing. Most valuable is the same thing. Six men of the year. Who is scoring the most points? That's the most finite definition we have. Like, that's kind of what it is. Things change over time.

And I have no issue with the meaning of most improved shifting towards the definition of improvement. And what we think is the hardest improvement, the most important improvement, the most valuable improvement. Like, I am not necessarily upset that it's shifting that way. Again, I understand that it is a shift. And it's not what it once was. It's more rewarding of star talent because I think everybody's under the end up.

Somebody has to think about the working NBA player. Somebody has to think about the middle fact. Yeah, you got to share the love. It's like, how do you want to like, if you want to angle your league and like focus on all the stars only then sure, go for a row. But like it's a well-rounded league, you know. We got six men of the year. We're giving them an award. It's literally four best players only.

Sixth man of the year. It's only for bench players. They have an award. Sixth made of the year. Some people, some people start and get better. What? Some people, some people aren't the six men. They don't come off the bench, but they are still.

You know who starts and got better this year by a lot? K fucking cunning. And good friend, he's an all-star. Like, you got your- And he wasn't last three. That's a big-ass improvement. You got your recognition. Somebody has to stand up for the Christian browser.

Yeah. Somebody has to stand up for all of these midchie got for the Dyson Daniels of the world. Do you know how embarrassing it is for the award winners to be like, John Moran, you are the most improved player of the year award? And he's like, bro, I don't even want that shit. Get that shit to Desmond Bain, bro. That's embarrassing. Yeah, again, I'm not mad at the change.

I wouldn't be upset with either if it was how it was before. but I think people do so much like moral like soapboxing about it like it's like bad for the game and I'm like I feel like it's just an understandable change that like it's fine it's normal yeah I can understand it for sure if you want to angle the game and like give it to players who are clearly making that like superstar type leap fuck she could have got it a couple years ago bro because none of us saw this type of leap coming you know and now that it's here it's clearly shocking if that's what you how you want to angle it I understand it but me personally there are just some things that just need to do the same.

It just doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel good. I don't get it. I don't really care about this award at all. You're the number one overall pick. You better have improved, you know? Yeah, again, I'm like, I don't even give a shit who wins. I'm not like,

Kate better win by any means. I just think it's fine if he does. And I don't think it's like a travesty if that's the direction the award goes. Me personally, I think if we're saying to myself, my personal or our personal definitions of this award, I would lean towards someone like Dyson Daniels. I believe. Surprise, surprise.

Great barrier thief. It is what it is. He's a fucking monster on both sides of the floor now, brother. It's happening. That's a good pick. I kind of like that pick more. If not a hero. Tyler Hero became an All-Star when we were talking about him as like a role

playerful. I'm cool with that too. Yeah. Yeah, sir. I like Tyler Hero pick. I think Tyler Hero, you know what it is? I think becoming an All-Star is like that's kind of become the barrier for entry for this award.

That's the number one thing. And I think that's kind of okay. Unless there's a year where there's no All-Stars that are gained, then like, obviously give it to a Christian Brown type. I'd be okay if the award came down to who became an All-Star this year. And there's Tyler Hero, there's Evan Mobley, there's Jaylon Williams, and there's Cade, and you pick Tyler Hero because he was the worst last year. And you know what?

And I'll do that. Top three picks excluded. And we can keep it moving. What about Jada? Would you pick Jada? Is he a top three pick? Nope. All right.

You're in it. That's fair. I'm okay with people saying you need to become an All-Star. Yeah. And I'm also okay with you saying top two picks can't be that. I'm not going to necessarily spend time arguing that Christian Banderdice and Daniels are robbed. That's all I'm saying. Over the last few years.

What about Norman Powell? Well, he didn't play enough games anymore, so we can't even go. We can't even grasp that on that. And it's just like that when it comes to Norm Powell, I'm like, it's probably more opportunity. I don't know if you actually, you got maybe you got better at bucket, bucket getting, but it hasn't been as clear to the common eye to me. But going back to what I was going to say when it comes to your point about clear indicators of who will win this award, it all dates back to who's making their first.

All-Star team. 24, Tyrese Maxi, 23, Larry Marketing, John Moran happened, Julius Randall happened, Ingram, Siakum, it's, that is the standard. Randall made an all NBA team. Yeah. Which is crazy. And you know the thing is, too, like, among those players, I think Larry Marketing is like, that's contract year too.

Also, if you are in your contract years, you cannot win most of the game because it's fake stats. Josh Giddy, you're not getting it. I can't do it. You can't be a top three pit. You can't be in your contract. here. Yeah, that's fair.

In a perfect world, a liar mark can type we win it every year. The guy goes from role player to all-star your best player to all-star your best player. If there's not

a perfect candidate in any given year, I'm not going to necessarily be upset if Kate wins. I wish there's a perfect candidate. Like, I wish Dyson Daniels was an all-star. I would love to vote

for Dyson Daniels in that case. But if you don't have a clear-cut guy. But why do you need the validation of all-star voting? Hmm. Let's talk about it. It's the most clear leap that the combat envy a landscape like pays into the most yeah it's very it's very like yeah tangible where people

can point to and like you made the leaf to an all-star that it's very easy to track in that way but again some years it might not be a new all-star and you get a whoever else has wanted without being all-star yeah yeah change every year i understand that okay either way it seems like kate cunningham is going to win i'm not at the conversation i think i'd rather vote tally hero yeah but i will not lose sleep over it yeah next story we're talking about one minute LeBron James is injured, by the way. I don't know if y'all heard. Oh, not my king.

No. What's wrong with him now? His groin hurts. Oh, shit. In the game against the Celtics, in which the Lakers got absolutely clamped up. He got hurt in the last five minutes of the game. He is in a two weeks.

He's a Knicks fan. They got locked up. He is, man. He better to be talking. We'll talk about that game later. We'll talk about that shit-ass organization. Lebron James is expecting the missed. Approximately, probably going to.

to be closer to two weeks than it is to one. The timeline is one to two. They're obviously going to be conservative because they have to get him ready for the playoffs. But in the meantime, they're playing with no LeBron James, no Rui Hachemora, no Jackson Hayes, no Dorian Finney Smith, and Luca Donchich is playing like he weighs 300 pounds still. It's not a good time to have to get wins and keep that second seed. It's going to be rough going for the Lakers. I just hope that he's healthy by the playoffs and that in this time, it was Loua Donchich has to do everything. Does Macon go all the reps he needs to finally learn how to score at the room again because my god is his inside the

arc scoring horrible it's truly atrocious i've been ignoring it because they're winning games because him and lebron are clicking so well with lucas playmaking we haven't seen good lucca scoring inside the arc since early last season we have like 11 months of sample size now i'll leave it there we'll probably talk about in a future episode but it's not super promising i do have a question for you guys okay were we too hard on Nico Harrison. Oh, no, no, we weren't. We fucking, no, we weren't.

Now, listen. Because it's not looking good over the last four days. Well, we do on Nico Harrison. No, he's dumb as rock regardless. But were we, so we might have. Well, question to that. If Luca's body does eventually break down, then would we have to go back and be like, yeah, we were too hard on that.

No, because no matter what, it's dumb as fuck to not shop Luca around. You could have got more assets than what. they got no matter what it's stupid practice but we have put too much we've cut him too much slack in that like oh he'll get he'll get his feet under him he'll get better the scoring will be fine people are not realizing that since march of last year he hasn't been getting to the rim like it is a long sample size now if his scoring not being great and there has been too much it'll be all right like it's a real problem that i think needs a full summer of like being in the lab like i don't expect to be back to pre-20203 levels of scoring until next year that's when you know that's when you

know that it's starting to get bad it's when you go on Twitter and people play all highlight because they're like whatever happened to him you're starting to see that with luca i know exactly where you're talking about you're talking about all those goddamn clips back when he was with the mas and he was just booming shit all day long so like it is a real thing that he is not getting to the rim his burst looks a little bit worse and he's compensated for it like we saw late last year when he averaged fucking 34 with this

still being the case he was looking a little hobbled end of last year his shot making is just outrageous so that will get more comfortable

and we've seen stretches when he has big games of the Lakers where that shot making is just like killing teams but he's real

reliant on that jump shot right now he is not generating easy looks to paint he has always been a guy that tastes

the defense gives him because he has the shot making to like kill you attacking picks and switches it's at the point now where

sometimes it feels like the defense is like getting one up on him because they're like goading him into taking tough mid-range uppers because he can't blow by anybody

and that's where the problems lie and that's where they're going to lie in the playoffs if he looks like this. Yeah, they I don't care what the situation is if you have Luca right now you can't be losing games to the Nets. You can't be doing it.

He shot horribly, so you're right. I know, but this is one of those moments where it's like, okay, it's starting to look a little scary where it's five they had like five rotation players gone though so I know what you're saying but I'm the Nets win games if you haven't noticed

we don't want them to but the Nets fucking win games so like they didn't lose the wizards the Nets like they're a respectable team they refuse to lose on purpose and it's pissing everybody off but they're confident you still can't lose well first of all it wasn't just Luka in that game that was bad Austin Reeves was also not great

so I'm not going to put that all on on Luka but this is like it just again it doesn't feel right it doesn't It doesn't look good to where the first game without LeBron and you guys come in and you lay an egg and you get the loss. And now like the Lakers, their upcoming stretch is about to be crazy.

Oh, they're going to lose a lot of games. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, again, Lucas should win. Look who's playing with. His centers are Trey, or Alex Lynn, Jameson, and Jared Vanderbilt. That is a combined zero players who can score inside. You have zero lob threats, zero roll threats. Nobody can make a layup.

Shout out Jameson tries real hard Has negative touch Alex Lynn is horrible He'd be trying He tries really hard And shout out of him He's been cool defensively He's earning a role for himself

The worst scoring big I've ever seen The only ones who rival him Are Jared Vanderbitt and Alex Lynn Also some of the worst scoring bigs I've ever seen So it's a real tough tough opportunity to be asked of him To like do well with those bigs

What's the schedule coming up Because they have They have two back to back Because they have Milwaukee and then They play four games in five days And guess what? They pay back to back

Denver, Milwaukee Have one day off Denver and Milwaukee They play the same teams In two back to back Shout out to the NBA Four games in five days It's ludicrous

No Bronn And maybe no Rooney Maybe no DFS Maybe no Jackson Hayes That's the most important thing If those guys are healthy Or if two of those four guys are healthy

They win this game And Luca doesn't have to Fight for his life quite as much It's a whole lot to ask Lugo who's not scoring well right now and you have literally no help. You have Dalton Connect and Austin Reeves playing small forward. And Luca was playing Power Forward last night

in the starting lineup, by the way. It's tough. Yeah, it's not looking too good for y'all over there and La La Land or whatever. It'll be fine. The LeBronkins back in two weeks. Alamey, all right. But the two Csies have the question.

They're not getting the two C. Yeah, I just hope that LeBron can play enough games to get to like R&B and he gets like the 65 games. Oh, that'll be so cool. I think he's going to, unless he misses like the whole rest of the other. It depends on when he's on when he's going to come back. But if it really is just like one to two weeks, then he should be fine. But I mean, it's been a very, uh, he's been a very, uh, he's paid 58 games so far.

Okay. So he needs seven, yeah, seven more games. The game on Saturday against Boston was very, very fun, um, as somebody who's rooting against the Lakers. But also in that one, you clearly saw like, yo, Jackson Hayes is a really, really big deal for this team. He's a gigantic deal. And not, one, he's just, he's good, like, sadly.

Like, he's just, he's been a good player for them. Like, hey, we don't root against players, but might have been rooting against that player. I'm rooting against players who can't give their hands themselves. And there's some allegations in the air. So I'm, it's looking like he might get rooted against in the coming years. But he's been good for them. And straight up been a very good defender and a good enough role man. He's not particularly good offensively.

He doesn't have, like, touch or like the size to finish around people. But defensively, he's really important. And even offensively, just by the nature of him being the only big. who can kind of roll, he's everything. Because let me mention with Jameson and Vanderbilt, they have no other guys who are a threat to hit a layup. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Something interesting about his game, too,

that just, like, makes him so much more useful with his ability to swing the ball as a connector here and there once in a while. So valuable to other shooters out there in the corner. So fucking valuable, bro. So, yeah, you're in the trenches, you're in the mud. But Jackson Hayes is doing his thing. anche in the chats

that bro Porzingus was out stopped talking about a haze being out here's the thing a healthy porzingis is a concept it is a figment of your imagination he don't even know what he got right now yeah he is shout out of him I hope he gets well soon

he has an unrecognizable virus which is a terrible situation shout out to him it is routine that he is unavailable so you can't really play that card he's like unavailable in the most tragic way suit because it's like him nor the doctors that he pays

millions of dollar suit doesn't know what the fuck is wrong with him bro Yeah, that sucks. And, like, the crazy foot injury, like, this is the Chris Osperzingus experience. Now, also Drew Holiday wasn't out. He's normally available. So I understand that. I guess not to say the other team is whole.

But, you know, they're the better team. They're used to playing without those guys. The Lakers don't have depth. It means a whole lot more to Lakers to lose your starting center than it does to the Celtics. Like, it's the Lakers rely on their starting center. And the Celtics are just fine with Al Hortford playing. They tried to go out of out Hortford. And I'm not like alive for the first part of that game.

I was like, hey, it's, I was looking old. You see the way Osir was hunting his ass down? There were a couple of plays where I was like backpedaling. And he kind of like lost his foot in. I was like, oh, that's some old man stuff right there. He looked like he looked like he was, you know, like he had played in the league. It almost feels like he's like a great player to guard someone like Luca who's, Lucas quick, obviously, but he's not explosive.

He used to be. Al Horford doesn't have an outs of explosiveness, but he's hell of smart and witty. You know what I'm saying? So he can read his feet. and read all the fake hezies and all that. Luke is going to hit him with. He's a great player, bro. Yeah.

Either way, we'll see where the Lakers go in the stretch. It's going to be rough. It's looking more into three or four seats in the cards. The two seats probably not attainable unless they just miraculously hold their own without LeBron James, but I'm not expecting that personally. What would go through your mind if you went to the doctor? You're sick for like a week. And they said, oh, my God, brother.

You have an unrecognizable virus. I was fucking horrified. What would go through your mind? mind legitimately it would be recognized it please like try what do you want to say it's like if they don't know what's wrong with me rsvp my funeral like yes and so like obviously we are hoping that that does not happen for christop for sure for sure just the idea it's like unrecognizable bro yeah i think it's bad for everybody yeah so we have another injury news news to talk about similar magnitude that was crazy there's jel brunson injury he's also going to miss several weeks it might be as soon as

two weeks with an ankle injury, which is a good outcome because as soon as this happened, I texted in the chat and I told Donovan, get ready to miss six weeks of Jaylon Brunson because that shit looks like a high ankle sprained and it looked bad. But apparently it's not too bad. What are your hopes for this team over the next couple weeks? Hey, man, just keep winning. Do you know? Okay. It's creep grounded, bro. That's all it is. Listen, we have a new assistant coach. His name is PJ Tucker. B.J. Tucker came in immediately cursing out everybody, telling everybody, if you get an open look, shoot the ball.

He's bringing vibes. He's bringing that dog into our team. And I, yeah, you're just trying to get through it because right now, like, Cleveland's going to be the one seed. And I'll pull up the sentence right now, but Cleveland is going to be the one seat. Boston is going to be the two seed. What you want to do is you want to be able to hold on to the three seed. And it's, it's okay right now the nicks are four and a half games up on the bucks and they are five and a half games up on the bucks five and a half games up on the pacer's i don't think that they're going to go into some wild while while tailspin um over over the next one to two weeks and this is also a very good time to when we talked about it a little bit uh last week when we were talking about the nix get everybody else involved a lot of times a lot of times with with the nakes especially when you get to late game situations like this, it is very much Jalen Brunton time. And I'm okay with that because Jalen Brunson time is a very good time.

He scores a lot. He's an amazing, amazing clutch player as well. But you're going to have to get Mikhail Bridges going. OJ&N and Nobie has been playing really well. I want that to continue. Last year in the first round against Philly, Josh Hart was shooting out. He was shooting the light out. He was shooting off that ball. I need Josh Hart to get back.

to that. And then obviously you want Kat to feel good about himself going in. So, and something that I saw Jamal Crawford, I didn't watch the game directly last night, but I saw Jamal Crawford talking about it was that the Knicks looked very, very connected without Jalen Brunson. And he's like, if you don't have your top player, this is how, this is how you, like, this is the blueprint to win games. I think that a lot of times in tipped offense, it can get very bogged down. If you can come out of this situation where the ball starts moving a little bit more and then you insert jaylon brunson into it and now your offense is back to number one offense in the league that would be best case scenario yeah so they don't have a terribly difficult stretch coming up which is nice they obviously

just beat the kings yesterday hung on 133 points on the king shit-ass defense they play the trailblazers tomorrow then the warriors probably go one-on-one there then they heat the spurs the hornets the wizards the mavericks that's like five straight very winnable games even without brunson This is our time to go ahead and prove that we are the three seed in the Eastern Conference because we've already shown this game right here against the Lakers and especially after Jalen got hurt, it killed me. It killed me because I just need one win against one of like the top, against one of the top opponents in either conference and it didn't happen.

You know my favorite thing is that Knicks fans are coping with? Obviously people keep tweeting that they're 0 and 9 against the top two seeds in both conferences. And that includes the Lakers being the two seed, Knicks fans are like, this is such a bullshit stat. If you put the nuggets at two, we beat them twice. I'm like, okay,

congrats, you're two or nine against the top four teams. Do you feel better about yourself? Like, it's still not great. It's a little bit better. It's a little better. It's a fraudulent stat. Okay,

it's still bad. It's a slightly less bad. It's still fucking ass. No, it is really damning, especially because in a lot of those games, the Knicks have had opportunities to win. Yeah.

Like, obviously in this game, like it goes in overtime. We've had games against the Cavs that have been really close. We've had moments where we were very, like, I think in the first Oklahoma City game, we were up in the fourth quarter with the big league. We squander that. So it's not that they can't fully compete. The only team that they 100% cannot compete with is the Boston Celtics. They step onto that court and they basically spot the Celtics 12 points and then you go from there.

everybody else the Knicks can play with they just they just have not been able to find the ways to win to win those games and so is it a bad stat absolutely is it maybe slightly overblown maybe about like 0.5% but it's something that you you do have to watch for but if jalen doesn't miss too too much time it should be okay we're talking a lot about shit that doesn't matter Let's talk about some real hearting news that affects the media landscape. Jason Tatum doesn't like the nickname the anomaly. Nobody likes that's what I'm saying. He said his friends call him Taco, which he prefers.

Yo, Taco! And he likes Big Deuce, which nobody's ever going to fucking say. Big Deuce. Sounds a little bit nasty. If he has a bad game, they're going to call him Big Deuce. You kind of know where that's going to go. I'm actually surprised that he said Taco because the last thing that I, the last thing that I would think that he would want

is for people who don't know him to start addressing him like the people who do know him I was like I would just would have never given you guys that information do you think that's what Cade meant with the Melliello thing that he hated do you think he was like don't put that out there remember did you see that clip of Mello yellow yeah there was a clip where they were doing a post game conference where after a Wayne Cade was stalking reporter and Tim Hardaway Jr. walked up

and called him Mello Yellow and then the person was like is that your nickname he's like no no we're not going to do that everywhere right I wish you didn't even say that like he hate that nickname or something I don't know I remember was like why does he hate that so much no come on come out

laughing to explain this wow wow it just hit me until now wow wow that's crazy

that's even funter now I'm thinking about it because he was like I wish he didn't even say that on TV of course all Twitter ran with him immediately and kept on that oh man that's hilarious

yeah i'm not gonna call this man yellow that is crazy wild oh my god I haven't thought about it to know that it's crazy it just satin me I'm just like yellow yellow holy shit

and it makes total sense why Tim Hardaway would call that yeah that's bro that's crazy oh so yeah

Tatum hates the anomaly and I feel like I don't know we gotta like it doesn't matter we have to put the flag at a half mass We're too far into the nickname game now. Everybody has a nickname like that, and it's because of, it's because of him.

He really could have embraced something. He could have been, he could have embraced the movement. And he just didn't. He didn't want to be the face. And so now history won't remember him in that way. And that's a shame. It's the only way history would remember you Tatum. It's tough.

I think they'll remember the finals range, but you think so? They might remember the anomaly more. At this time, at this point in time, ring up. Okay, fair enough. when I put more rings on them. Someone said Jason Tatum is a Kelsey Plum of the NBA. What does that even mean? All right.

People. People. He's calling it. Oh, he's corny. Okay. I just think of that video where she's like, that's what they're talking about. That's what they're talking about exactly. Oh, okay.

Gotcha. I don't know. Is Kelsey Plum as good as Jason Tatum? She's good. Tatum's better. Yeah. I don't know how good. How is she like a top five player in the NBA?

Top five. I don't think top of her. Has she fallen off? let's see at one point, but now she's not, or has she never been? Yeah, I think it's some, it's closer to that. I don't know. My, my, my, my, my, my, NBA ball knowledge is limited. Yeah.

With that being said, that's the end of the stream. No. Okay. Now's the end of the stream. Oh, shout out to Kevin Gullochie for coming in. Last second as a stream man's tipping $10. He said, even if Tatum for some reason isn't the top tier for you guys, he's absolutely either the best or second best player to build around,

better to build around than Janice Shea or Luca all right man on top of the other day either way if you should all you're coming out we'll see y'all later this week for this week's episode should be a fun one