The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - USA-Canada Reaction: LeBron & Steph Curry prove they should win Gold at Olympics

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

Jason Timpf reacts to LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Team USA’s win over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, and Team Canada in an Olympics exhibition game. Jason explains why Team USA deserves to be heavy favorites to win the basketball gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. 4:30 - Atmosphere at the game 6:30 - Takeaways from the game 25:00 - Thoughts on Team USA 29:30 - Thoughts on Canada 31:30 - Kawhi Leonard out from Team USA (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We're going to break it all down today. I want to talk about what it was like in the arena. I want to talk about what the basketball game was like some notes that I have about this particular team as they head overseas to start their Olympic campaign. And then at the tail end of the show, I want to talk a little bit about Kauai Leonard, him being sent home from the team to rest and recuperate and prepare for next season with the Clippers and the decision to bring Derek White, Jalen Brown's teammate, Jalen Brown, who got upset about it on Twitter yesterday, to replace Kauai Leonard on the team. I want to talk about

some of my thoughts surrounding that decision. You guys know the drill before we get started. subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. And then keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the summer. All right, let's talk some basketball.

So the environment at the game last night was insane. It was just like a, it was a relentless kind of parade of famous people. Every single time out, it's like here's all of these all-time great college basketball coaches. here's Jim Beheim and here's Coach K. Oh, here's Obama. He walked on to the floor. Oh, here's all these famous women's basketball players who played for Team USA. Oh, here's all these famous former men's players who played for Team USA. Here's Dwayne Wade.

Here's Carmelo Anthony. And then that led, that was all surrounding this basketball game where we're watching, not just Team USA, that has Steph Curry, LeBron James, you know, Jason Tatum and Anthony Edwards and Anthony Davis and Joe Lambette and all this incredible star power. but against a feisty, energetic, really good defensive, especially on the perimeter, Canada team that has a player in Chey Gildes Alexander that is regarded by most basketball people to be better than anybody that plays for Team USA. I think that's up for debate, but he's certainly in that echelon with the guys at the top of the league,

right? And Jamal Murray, who's a famous playoff riser, NBA champion, and they've got R.J. Barrett, and they've got Dylan Brooks, who's tripping everybody and playing dirty basketball. event about that a little bit later. But it just was, it just was an incredible environment inside that arena. It really felt like a special basketball event. I felt very fortunate to be there. I'm thankful for the volume for sending me there.

I was able to be there with some of my, some of my family, two of my brothers and my mom were there. So it was just a really, really cool experience. I was very thankful to be a part of it. And as a basketball fan, how could you not enjoy that? And like, even just talking about it from a tactical perspective, it's just super interesting. to talk about like, you know, scheme approach for the different defensive front lines that they can use, how they should play offensively, the fit of Steph Curry and LeBron James, and how you kind of accentuate them with other players on the perimeter.

It just is super fascinating. I'm really excited that for the next month and a half, we get to talk this level of basketball during the summer in the NBA. Like, if you're a basketball fan, it just doesn't get any better than this. It was super exciting. And honestly, what was super. interesting is the game itself was insanely intense from the opening tip. And like, this was not, the USA team got off to a clunky start on the offensive end, but they were defending. Both teams came out with just an insane level of defensive intensity. Like this, it was a friendly, and the coaches were kind of manipulating it as a friendly in the sense that like, like the USA team did line shifts, meaning like they had the entire starting five come in and then they bring this entire

different unit in with Tyrese Halliborne, Anthony Edwards, Jason Tatum, Bam, out of bio, Anthony Davis. There were some crossover as MB got in foul trouble. And in the fourth quarter, they tried kind of like a mixed group that had Anthony Edwards with LeBron and Steph. But like for the most part, like the coaches tried to coach it like it was a friendly. But the players wanted to win that game. I actually tweeted this out during the game, but I was surprised that Canada punted when they did. It was early fourth quarter and somebody hit a three. I can't remember who it was. I think it might have been to kill Alexander but one of their guys hits a three and it cuts it to 12 with like eight minutes left and you're like

this game is there to be had for Canada if they want it and then Canada ends up punting the game which I was actually surprised by because like you could tell if you were watching that game all of the players wanted to win that game for both teams even though it was an exhibition which to me that makes for great basketball like the game was kind of ugly that stretches like it the final score was pretty low the first quarter in particular I think Canada led 21 to 14 at the end of it. It was not pretty basketball in the sense that it was free flowing and lots of really pretty skill work, but that kind of ugly basketball actually like. When it's ugly basketball because people are playing bad basketball, don't really have an interest in watching

it, right? It's boring to watch. But when you watch an ugly game that's ugly because of the intensity, it's ugly because it's a rock fight. It's ugly because everyone's playing super, super hard. That to me is a beautiful kind of ugly basketball. That's what it was. last night. I really enjoyed it. Let's talk about the slow start for the USA. So they get down 12 to 4 at the first time out when Steve Kerr makes that first line change. A big part of it is just kind of like figuring each other out, especially on the offensive end of the floor. The U.S. played a very intense brand of basketball on the defensive end of the floor. With Embed on the floor with the starters, they had to drop, right? Like Embeddead can't switch out onto the perimeter and guard

quicker players in space the way that Anthony Davis can. So when BAM or when Mbid is out there, you kind of have to chase over the top. And I want to, I criticize, I didn't criticize, but I pointed out before this game, before this kind of USA adventure, that one of the weaknesses of this

team is they don't have a ton of perimeter speed. And Drew Holliday is really the only guy on the roster that's like a professional screen navigator, a guy who like, you can count on to dependably get over screens. But I was actually impressed by that entire group. There was, uh, a Steph Curry

did a really good job chasing over screens. Devin Booker did a really good job chasing over screens. Do you guys remember the LeBron Chasedown Block that led on Nikiel Alexander Walker that led to the kick ahead that led to the Devin Booker 3 on the left wing? That was LeBron chasing over the top of his screen staying attached and blocking Nikiel Alexander Walker over the at the rim in a drop coverage. So, you know, even though I don't like Embed's fit with the starters, which we're going to talk more about in a minute. Defensively, I actually did think that the USA showed that they are capable of multiple defensive looks, which I think is good. Because then when they came in with the bench group, it was Bam, AD, Tatum, and they did a ton of switching and Tyrese Halliburton held up. He like tied up

RJ Barrett on a drive. He got a couple of stops fronting the post. He'd have to get burned on an inside seal by Kelly Olinick once, but even Tyrese Halliburton held up reasonably well in switches. And so they're going to have a switching look, but they're over the time. chase with Embed and drop look I thought was pretty solid as well. Defensively, the starters were fine. Defensively in general for the entire game, I was super impressed by Team USA. And there was actually a postgame interview with Stefan LeBron where they both talked about how like, hey, we can work through these offensive kinks. But as long as we defend like that, we give ourselves a really good chance to win every night. And they're absolutely right.

If they defend like that, they're just going to win. There's not a team out there that has the depth of defensive personnel that they have. That Tatum A.D. Bam, front line was just frightening to watch. There is this sequence where, like, AD kept ending up on Sheaildedus Alexander in these ball screens because they'd bring Kelly Olinic into the action. And AD literally stopped Shea on an island four consecutive times to start his shift, which got them out in transition. And then Tatum was bringing that rim pressure in transition. And that group regained control of the game. and the starters came in and played much better. So, like, defensively, I'm thrilled with how Team Jose looks.

I think they look like a gold medal team easy just based on the strength of that unit. Now, as far as the offensive end goes with the starters, it's a little clunky. And you got to remember, too, like, it's clunky on multiple levels. There's the Embed fit, which I want to get to in a little bit. But another part of it is like, you're, you got all these stars out there, right? Like, it's Steph, it's Devin Booker, it's LeBron James, it's Joel Embed, Drew Holliday is the one guy who's kind of like a ball mover, so to speak, in that group, right? And so Steph is used to having a certain level of aggression.

LeBron is used to a certain level of aggression. Devin Booker is used to a certain level of aggression, and so is Joel M. Bid. But when you're playing in a five-man group, it's a totally different type of flow, right? Like a superstar's job on an NBA team is he's typically surrounded by a subsidiary star and then three role players, right? And so his job is to create and then for everyone else to kind of benefit off of that and to play a smaller role. With a unit like this, you can't have four guys jockeying for control of every single possession. There has to be a flow.

There has to be a rhythm. There has to be ball movement from side to side. And early on, I thought they looked a little hesitant. I thought the one kind of personnel weakness in that group is they don't get a ton of dribble penetration. And I think there are ways to address that. For instance, like Steph can manufacture dribble penetration by virtue of his shooting ability to kind of like draw the defense out and create openings on the role or to just beat his man off the dribble weaponizing his shooting. I think LeBron can bring dribble penetration. So I think with the starters, LeBron and Steph almost have to kind of take the more aggressive role and have Devin Booker and Drew Holiday play off of that.

And then the Embed pieces when you're running five out. And again, like five out is a concept that we've talked a ton about on the show in the last. last six months. But the gist of the concept of five out is you're never permanently occupying a spot underneath the basket, right, in the dunker spot or anything kind of around the basket. You roll into that space, you cut into that space, you drive into that space. But primarily, your big guys operate as dribble handoff fulcrums from the perimeter. They are the guys that are flowing into actions, handing the ball off to a guy coming out of the corner or, you know, you see a lot of Chicago action where guy will pin down to the corner as the guy comes off of that pin down and then flows into the dribble handoff.

He's got to flow from side to side. He's got to make passing reads out of it. The five man in five out is one of the most important roles because he is the fulcrum. He is the thing that makes everything work in terms of moving the ball from side to side. That is not Joel Embed's strength. Joel Embed is one of the five best basketball players in the world. Joel Embed is a force of nature that is impossible to deal with on the local. block. But when he's playing for the Sixers, you can afford to toss the ball to him on the block

and let him just go to work for extensive stretches. You can afford to run spread, pick, and roll and have him catch on the short roll around the elbow and catch and jab step and catch and jab step and pump fake and do all that stuff that he does, right? He can be a ball stopper with Philly because Philly needs him to determine the fate of the majority of their possessions. Team USA does not need that. Team USA needs somebody that can help that offense flow from side to side. And so even though AD put the larger portion of his fingerprints on that game just using his defensive capability, I think he's just a more natural fit with the starters because he's a guy who spent all last season playing five out, who is one of the best five out offensive fulcrums

in the league because he's got that side to side movement because he rolls into the lane and has real role gravity, because he can offensive rebound it when things get car. and the blender and guys get cross-matched and all of a sudden he's got a shorter defender on him underneath the basket. AD is just a natural fit there and so like it's not an insult to Joel Embed. His skill set is just very much

a primary initiator skill set whereas AD offensively is more of a five-out cog that can be easily plugged in alongside other superstar players. And so I think in the long run and we're going to talk about the other positional players too because I'm not entirely sure

I like the Devin Booker fit with the starters either, but I do like the idea of swapping AD for MBD. And then the other part of that is when you go to your bench unit and bam out of bios out there, right? And, you know, maybe it ends up being a Devin Booker out there. We'll see how the lineups end up getting constructed. But when you do get to your bench unit, that's a unit where you actually need Mbid to be more aggressive, right? And so within the context of that, it actually just makes a lot more sense for both. guys. You want AD to go out there and set screens and roll to the rim, put him with all your

high-level offensive players and be an offensive cog. You want Embed to be aggressive as a low post and face-up guy, put him with the bench group where there's less offensive skill and you actually need him to be aggressive. That's just a better way to utilize his skill set within this team. When the starters came in the second time, they played way better, a lot more pace and transition. They got a lot of really fun playmaking in the open floor. There's just so much basketball, skill in terms of basketball IQ, the ability to read the floor, the ability to make every conceivable pass, the knowledge of how to run your lanes in transition and fill open spaces, the ability to finish above the rim in transition. There's just so much of that talent that when you get them in

the open floor, they can be really exciting to watch. And one of the things that the starters did much better the rest of the game was just play defense, get out with pace off the strength of their defense, and make plays in the open floor. It was really fun to watch them. in those sequences. Steph Curry, I got to see him throw out a little flurry in that third corner. I've, you know, I've had the fortune, the good fortune to see a lot of NBA players in person, but Steph is a guy I had never seen in person yet, and that was really fun to watch. It just, it started with like this really cool sequence with LeBron where Steph drove,

it kind of started clunky because Steph drove into LeBron in the corner who caught, and then Steph kind of like replaced in the same corner. So it looked clunky for a second. Embed ended up having the ball on a kickback pass right around the right elbow. And then Dwight Powell basically signaled to Dylan Brooks to switch on to Steph so that he can guard LeBron in the corner and kind of help in case Embed looked to be aggressive. And LeBron identified it and you could see him and Steph kind of quickly figure it out. LeBron just screened his own man.

He screened Dylan Brooks because he knew that Canada was going to switch that action. So then when Steph cut out, Dylan Brooks went. to switch out onto Steph, but ran into his original man, LeBron, who was setting a screen on him, Steph ends up breaking wide open on the right wing for the catch and shoot three, right? Then Steph comes down,

has that really nasty, like, fake spin move dribble where he gets the and one, and then he does the pose on the floor, right? And then he ends up getting the three off of the offensive rebound from Drew Holiday on the left wing. It was like bang, bang, bang, eight quick points. That was really, really exciting to see in person. It kind of fell apart from there

because USA did not do a good job of force. feeding the hot hand. There was a possession where, and again, this is part of the thing with M.B., he, like, he like straight up dribbled the ball of the floor into a post up and then turn the basketball over and you're like, dude, Steph Curry's got eight straight points. Like, get the ball to Steph Curry. Like, just get the ball to Steph Curry, set a screen, get out of the way. Like, that's what you do in that situation. You read, when you're playing five out, it's all flow going side to side. But when you see a guy as a hot hand, you got to find a way to keep getting it to him, right? But that was cool. We had the LeBron lob to Steph, which obviously is a connection.

we've been dying to see for a long time. It was just a really, really fun basketball game. It went almost exactly as I expected. I tweeted before the game, I expected Canada to take an early lead, and then for USA to come back and win a hard-fought game. It ended up being like a more dramatic version of both ends of that. Like Canada took a pretty substantial lead, 12-4, right? And then the U.S. actually kind of dominated the tail end of the game,

and they ended up going up by 15, right? But it kind of flowed more or less as I expected. Canada is the second leading favorite on Draft Kings to win the Olympic gold medal. I thought it was fascinating because before the game, USA, according to Draft Kings, was minus 390, and Canada was plus 900. After the game, USA went way down to minus 500, and Canada bumped up to plus 1,100. So even Vegas saw that as a pretty strong indicator that the U.S. matches, at least at the very least matches up really well with Canada and deserves to be a substantial favorite to win.

you've got to imagine you're going to plug you're going to plug Kevin Durant into this as well which is just going to provide another layer of shooting and defense this team is going to be really really fun to watch we're going to be covering them throughout the throughout the rest of this process

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And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall.

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Thoughts on the team at large, I would start AD. As far as the rest of the starting lineup, I was thinking long and hard about it because Anthony Edwards came in and was just frightening in that second group. The second group took off because Ant in the half court brought dribble penetration. Like straight up beat his man off the dribble and had a reverse layup, was coming off of the dribble handoffs with a lot more pace and he was engaging. Olinic as the drop coverage big, which was creating openings for Bay Meta Bio on the role. He just had that verve, right? He also was like far and away the most confident player for Team USA, which I thought was super interesting. He hit a bunch of really tough jump shots. And again, like to have the confidence to rise in fire, difficult pull-up jump shots when you're surrounded

by other really, really good players and then to knock them down on top of that, not to mention This is just like the next example of the fact that for whatever concern you might have about Anthony Edwards as a jump shooter, every time there is a high leverage, intense, high stakes environment, the dude just has proven to be able to knock these shots down, which is really, really exciting for his long term potential. I thought he looked like the best and most comfortable U.S. player last night. And so there was part of me that was wondering, should Ant start? And the initial thought I had was he brings dribble penetration. And so I like the idea of him kind of bringing some of that to that starting unit that doesn't have a ton of that. But then I thought, I like Ant being this aggressive, right? Like, Ant was the most confident and most aggressive player for Team USA. And that is a real, real value add, especially in a situation where guys can be hesitant and not really feel like kind of grabbing

control of things. And so I actually kind of prefer ants still coming off the bench because I want him to come in and be super aggressive. But if he starts games like that, it might take away from the flow of a unit that has LeBron and Steph on the floor as well. And so I like, I think you keep Drew with the starters, but I think a way to kind of add a little bit more downhill verve to that starting unit is to swap out Booker and Tatum. So we already talked about how I like AD with the starters. If you go Tatum-Lebron AD, you can go with a switching look. Drew Holiday can switch up, Steph can switch up, so that group can switch really, really well.

It alleviates some of the workload for your guards because they don't have to chase as hard over screens. And then on the offensive end of the four, when Tatum came into the game with that second unit, he was primarily doing it in transition to start, but then he did it some more later in the game in the half court. But Tatum was bringing some dribble penetration. He had this really nice like spin move off the dribble. where he got into the lane for a layup, he had some downhill moves, like in the fast break to get all the way to the rim.

He brings some downhill verve, and he's a really good connective piece playmaker. And so I think going Steph Drew Holiday, Tatum LeBron A.D., gives you the best kind of like combination of basketball traits to make a five-man lineup work for this team, until Kevin Durant comes back.

You could argue Kevin Durant deserves that three spot he comes back, but you can figure that out in the long run. Who knows how long it's going to take him to get better with his calf anyway, right? Then with the bench, you bring in Ant and Joel Embed. What I like about that fit is one, when Ant's being aggressive, Embed is a guy who can knock down three-point shots, which generates some more space. He also can pick and pop, which will allow Ant to get downhill or for Embed to break wide open above the break if his man catches him in a drop coverage, right?

And both Ant and Embed can be ball stoppers. and can be more aggressive with the ball because that unit actually needs them to do so, especially with Bametabio on the floor, with a Tyrese Halliburton, who's not really a super aggressive score with the basketball, right? So, like, that's where I think that makes sense. And then Devin Booker can provide you that, Devin Booker can provide you that, like, off ball shooting, close out attacking, all of those things that will help kind of create space for that unit.

So, again, they're not going to actually do line shifts. they'll combine units and you'll get to see different versions of this. Like Embed will get more time with the starters. There are versions of this that can work out with different lineup construction. But I think with the starters, Steph Drew, Tatum, LeBron, AD is your best bet in the short term, at least until Kevin Durant gets healthy. On the Canadian side, they didn't shoot well. According to Synergy, they barely got over 0.6 points per jumper.

On film, Jamal Murray missed a lot of clean looks, especially. in the first half. But at the same time, it's kind of a bad matchup for USA, or with them for Canada with USA, because they just have all the length in the world to contest those pull-up jump shots and to make them really tough. Drew Holiday blocked Jamal Murray on a pull-up jump shot. LeBron had a really good contest on Jamal Murray's first pull-up jump shot.

Another example of him chasing over the screen and getting back into the play really, really well. Shea could not get to his pull-up jump shot over the top of Anthony Davis in any sort of meaningful way. Like, they just have the length to bother their pull-up shooting. It's a really tough matchup. And then Canada's front line is small. Dwight Powell and Kelly Olinick, they're good NBA players,

but it's just a lot to deal with with the massive guys that the USA team has on their front line. But they can really defend. They're really good on the perimeter. They have a clear offensive hierarchy. I do wonder if they actually wanted to bring Zach Edie and Zach Edie decided, and him and his agent decided not to play. or if it was Canada's actual decision, but that EDI would have given them a very different look on that front line.

So I'm genuinely curious as to why he's not on the roster. Before we get out of here, I want to talk a little bit about the Jalen Brown thing. So Kwai Leonard's out. Knee's been an issue. This is kind of interesting because this has been something that's been a topic around the league for a while. I remember I was talking with Tony Jones from the athletic like three years ago. And he was like telling me, he was like, yeah, I've been hearing behind the scenes that Kauai's knees are just shot.

Like, they're just shot and, like, it's a degenerative thing, and he's just never going to be the same. And I never really, at first I was like, well, I mean, like, he, two years ago, he just won finals MVP. Like, let's see what happens. You know, you know how it is with information, too. Like, there's always, like, multiple reports providing multiple different perspectives, right?

And, like, Tony appears to have been right. Like, D, like, he got hurt again in 2022, got hurt, or 2021. He got hurt. He was out all year in 2022. got hurt again in 2020, he got hurt again, 2024, shows up to Team USA camp,

and then he can't finish it. Like, it's clear that that's the case. And honestly, like, I just feel bad. I feel bad for Kauai because this is a guy

who was really, really fun to watch, a guy who, me personally, I tried to replicate a lot of things in his game because I was a bigger forward and I like to kind of like

copy some of his footwork around the post area. This is a guy that I've been a fan of for a long time. And to see him not get to play basketball, in meaningful moments because his body has quit on him is genuinely super sad. I don't know how the clippers deal with it.

I mean, if he breaks down again next year, like I talked about, I think it ends up being a situation where they start flipping players. You trade a Derek Jones Jr. You trade a James Harden and you get draft compensation back and you try to rebuild. But it's just sad because I genuinely don't know if we'll ever see Kauai play meaningful basketball again. And that that's just a huge bummer. But then the debate comes, becomes who's going to fill in for him, right?

Is it going to be Kyrie Irving? Is it going to be Jalen Brown? And the guy they end up picking was Derek White. And I think this is super fascinating because Jalen Brown clearly took it as an insult, right? Talked about it on Twitter, called out Nike as part of the process. And here's the thing. There's no question that Jalen Brown is a better basketball player than Derek White, right? But like we talked about earlier, basketball lineups in a five-man context are about feeling responsibilities.

Jailen Brown for the Celtics is the second best player on the team. They need him to do so much high-level stuff, and he's very capable of doing so much high-level stuff. And so because of that, he is a shoe-in fit in his role in Boston, right? Now think about Team USA. You're not going to start. Second unit has, you know, Tyrese Halliburton, maybe it's going to end up being Devin Booker in the long run.

Maybe it ends up being Tatum or Kevin Durant, depending on if KD can come back with that bench group. then it's going to be bam, maybe Joe Al-N-B, right? With that group, you need a role player. You need someone who can knock down open threes, run inverted ball screens with better players, who can defend on the perimeter, who can do all these different things.

And Derek White is a professional role player. He's one of the very best role players in the league. He brings a specific need. I talked about earlier on the roster, you have one guy who's a professional screen navigator and Drew Holiday. This gives you a second guy like that. Jalen Brown is more of a ball pressure guy in a switching scheme, right? So, like, it's one of those things where I, if I'm Jalen Brown, I understand his perspective because it's an honor to be on Team USA. Like, I'll just flat out say it. Like, if I was playing in the NBA and I was a high level player, it'd be a dream of mine to play for Team USA.

I totally understand. He feels slighted. And by virtue of his account, accomplishments as an NBA player, he's done enough to deserve consideration for that spot. But if you're Steve Kerr, if you're Eric Spolstra, if you're the Team USA management group, you are not fearful but respectful of the talent overseas, you're respectful of Serbia, you're respectful of Canada, you're respectful of France, you know these teams have a real shot to beat you, especially in a single elimination environment. You're going to do whatever you can to give your team the best chance to win. And Derek White, as a plug-in-play role player, is legitimately a better fit with Team USA than Jalen Brown.

Jalen Brown is a better basketball player. It's unfortunate that this is the way it works. But this is a lesson that the USA team learned a long time ago from when they brought on Michael Red and Tachon Prince in 2008, right? You need role players. You can't just have a bunch of stars. Get a bunch of stars. Then there's diminishing returns. And you could end up getting yourself beat.

By virtue of plugging in some role players, you give yourself a more natural feel for a basketball team. Feel bad for Jalen Brown genuinely deserves that recognition, but totally understand why USA went in a different direction. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Tonight, I'm hanging out with my family. I'm going to see Dead & Company at the Sphere. Super, super excited for that. That's going to be a ton of fun tomorrow.

going to be at Summer League, going to be there for the Brony game. Come say hi if you want to, if you're in the arena. I, at about 7.30 in the concourse there, I'm interviewing Jaime Hawkesh Jr. It's going to be my first interview of an NBA player, very, very excited as part of our partnership with Chase. Looking forward to that, I'm going to talk to him about his time with the USA Selects team. I'm going to talk to him about his growth as a post player, his bizarre weirdo obsession with trying to post up score on bigger players than him, which by the way, he does very effectively. So I'm really excited to talk to Jaime. He's a player that, you know, it's interesting. I've been, I've been offered opportunities to

interview some lower level NBA role players last year in particular. And there wasn't really a person that I thought that, uh, that I thought would be really interesting for this show until Jaime was presented as an option this year. And I immediately really, and I immediately was like, yeah, let's do it. Like get Jaime. Let's do this. This is going to be so much fun. And so really, really, really. excited for that. So we'll have the Jaime Howkeh's interview. I think it'll either come out that night or on Saturday morning, but I'm also going to have a show on Saturday morning breaking down the debut of Dalton Connect and Brony James at Summer League. I think they're playing the Hawks. So that's Zachary Resachet's debut for them as well as the number one overall pick. So we're

going to get into all that stuff on Saturday. And then obviously when I'm traveling on Sunday, but when I get back on Monday, we'll be reacting to the rest of the games on Saturday. Again, I appreciate you guys. Thanks for support in the show. I will see you in a couple of days. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL, late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel

and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for band. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was probably. You just understood. That's how personal it got.

Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis keep coming to. He's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Joey Dardano. And on my new podcast, Hope From a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian.

I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff rant and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest. people you know. Listen to Help from Hippocrite Wednesdays on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.