The Mismatch - Cade’s MVP-Level Performance, KD’s Burner, and What We’re Looking Forward to for the Rest of the Season

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Verno and Jacoby return as they discuss the Pistons' impressive win over the Knicks and Cade Cunningham’s MVP-level performance at MSG. They then discuss Kevin Durant’s alleged burner account, Bennedict Mathurin’s explosive Clippers home debut, and Adam Silver finally addressing the ongoing tanking issues across the league. Next, the guys share three things they are looking forward to for the rest of the season.(00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch!(06:19) The Pistons and Cade Cunningham shine at Madison Square Garden in win against the Knicks(14:56) Rockets survive against the Hornets(19:56) Kevin Durant’s alleged burner account(27:06) Bennedict Mathurin lifts the Clippers past the Nuggets(30:52) Adam Silver addresses the NBA's tanking issues(37:11) Potential new playoff teams(44:15) Cavs poised for a run in the East(49:27) Can the Spurs snag the no. 1 seed?(01:02:29) Which team can replicate the Pacers' title run last year?(01:07:36) Awards and All-NBA team turnover(01:16;45) What will happen with Darryn Peterson?Leave us a message on our Mismatch voicemail line! [phone]Hosts: Chris Vernon and David JacobyProducers: Jessie Lopez, Stefan Anderson, and Jeff ShearinSocial: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me see this every week from the rigger.com. It's Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. We're back. Basketball's back. The Knicks are getting waxed by the pistons. Kevin Durant has a burden of account. The All-Star Games fix. Everyone's trying to fix tanking. It just feels like right when it needs to, the NBA has hit its stride. The home stretch. Here we are. I will tell you, I felt like a terrible. NBA podcaster as I went out of town for All-Star Break and I had scheduled my family to go out to a couple of dinners while we were out of town and got early reservations, one of which was on Saturday so I could watch All-Star Saturday night with my son. And so I'm getting ready. I'm getting everybody rustled together to go out. Your West Coast time too, right?

Yeah, Mountain time. Oh, yeah. It was an hour earlier. I'm, now imagine this. I'm rallying everybody to go out to eat. And I look down and as I'm waiting for them to come to the front door so that we can catch the Uber to go to eat, I'm scrolling through Instagram. And it says, Damian Lillard has won the three point contest.

And I'm like, wait. It's 2.30. Hold. How did we miss this? How did I, how did this happen? And I felt, oh, it was the worst I felt as an NBA podcaster in. years. So for all of you that didn't catch on until it was already going on. And then obviously, now we're out to dinner and me and my son are watching the slam dunk contest, unfortunately,

on my phone. We're watching it on the phone while we're at dinner. I'm like, what is happening? Why is this happening early? I didn't have the time nor the inclination to go and look why it was all happening early. But just for everybody out there, you weren't. the only one if you didn't catch on until you had already seen somebody posting on social media that All-Star Saturday night was going on in the middle of the afternoon. It was, and I had this, I mean, forget, All-Stars seems like it happened seven years ago, so we don't have to discuss, it, been discussed whatever. It was a good time to watch, whatever.

But every night, I'm just sort of like sitting down, expecting to be a slate of games. I'm like, nope, oh, Monday, oh, it was the All-Star yesterday. And it's like, Tuesday, I'm like, nope. Wednesday I'm like nope then last night we just had a smorgish board of action and I was 100% locked in on that piston sticks game and it is it's just depressing at this point it's no no no no we're not going to start with the depressing part we're going to start with the encouraging part and a congratulations to you the congratulations to Dave Jacoby goes like this I'm so I'm just wanted to let everybody know I'm very suspicious about this just off the jump no yesterday before lunchtime

you texted me a seat map of the New York Knicks game with the tickets that were available. I was absolutely mortified at the cost of these tickets for the Knicks Pistons game, as were you. Well, allow me to give some context. Let me get some context, right? There's an indoor ski hill in New Jersey. My wife took the kids there, right? And my baby was at daycare, so I kind of had the day to myself to prep for the mismatchments. important do a little workout have lunch and i made dinner steak mashed potatoes green beans mushroom

sauce for the entire family and dinner was over i knew it's going to be over at like 630 so i said to myself huge game show with berno the next day i should get up off my butt i've already made dinner and done the dishes and just go to the game let me just take a look at the numbers please continue the cheapest ticket was like 400 and what did you respond And that I said, why don't you wait until right before the game? Because surely they will go down and you're not going to have to. I mean, I think the tickets you showed me were $400 to hang from the Harry Styles banner. If you're behind the Harry Styles banner.

You have to move it to the side to see the game. And so the reason, but 20 second timeout. Honestly, 20 seconds. Indoor skiing hill? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a thing. Just move on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's this weird mall in New Jersey

that has an indoor skiing hill, two mini golf parks, an indoor amusement park, an indoor water park, and you can drive stuffed animals around it if you rent them. I don't know. I'm quite confident if she took the kids there, she spent way more than $400.

So you would have been okay. I don't know. Actually, the opposite. It sounds incredibly expensive. And then Bruno says to me, he's like, oh, they'll get cheaper as it gets closer to tip off. And I was like, maybe Verno's right. She knows what he's talking about. And then I sent you a second screenshot.

And $700 to have your back against the wall. Sitting next to Harry Styles banner. And I'm thinking to myself, this night's going to be great. I'll go to the game by myself. I'll sit there and cheer on the Knicks. I'll have a beverage. It'll be awesome. I'll get home.

The kids will be asleep. Let's be clear. That's one ticket. Yeah, one ticket. You're not even going with a friend. No, by myself. Right. And this is apartment.

It's like, you know what? I think Mark Cuban is completely wrong about like tanking doesn't matter, but like we need to make the fan experience better. Completely off base with that. But I did for a second be like, Mark Cuban does have a point. Tagging sucks, but this also sucks. All right.

So I just wanted to start with a congratulations because of all of the wise decisions that you could have made. And some of these things, look, it's not, sometimes we judge by what was the result, not what the process was, right? This is result over process. And the result would have been that you would have gone and watched the complete. domination of the New York Knicks at the hands of the Detroit Pistons, who they have now faced three times the team that was their foe in the playoffs last year and that they ousted.

And three times the Nixon won. The first two were in Detroit, and Detroit won by 69 points in those games. And then... I thought that was just the first game. No. And then last night, they walked into Madison Square Garden and not only... beat the Knicks, but really, like, they're up 11 going into the fourth quarter and it's like, all right, maybe the Knicks are going to make the run. Instead, the lead was extended. And they did

this without Jalen Duren, and they did this without Isaiah Stewart. Toulou Smith just owns Carl Anthony Towns. Who would you rather, who would you rather build a franchise around? Toulou Smith or Carl Anthony Towns. I'm like, who is Tolu Smith? And B-Beeball Paul and Tolu Smith just completely limited Carlton Anthony Towns. I wouldn't say this is like this one was competitive in the first half. It did have like the makings of a sort of one of those playoff matchups that would go down to the end of the game. It's just, it's just disgusting. It's just embarrassing.

Cunningham's going to put himself in the MVP conversation like squarely in it. Like there is going to be a debate. If he keeps up like this, when you have a game like that in Madison Square Garden and you're the number one seed by a pretty wide margin now in the Eastern Conference. This whole best player, best team thing, especially with what's going on with Gilgis Alexander and the abdominal thing, with what's going on in the Western Conference. Like, I think like this is the moment where people need to realize like there's a very, very real possibility we get to the end of this thing at Cape Cunningham is the one that's holding up that MVP trophy. because if this keeps on like it does,

and you need those kind of signature monster games against an awesome opponent on a huge stage, and that just felt bigger than your average regular season game last night for Cunningham, especially when you're coming back from All-Star Break, it's the Amazon Prime game. It's in Madison Square Garden. And he was so by far the best player on that floor. It was crazy.

And it was so fun to watch. Again, I'm a Nick fan, but I like basketball before like the Knicks. And like, uh, Kate is so fun to watch. He wanted this one and he was locked in. And without Dern and Stuart, you know, Dern sort of, those are his pick and roll guys. And he was getting to spots he wanted to get to from all three levels. He was hitting threes. He was mid-range, but really one thing that I love about him the most.

And I was texting you about, I texted you the question. And I don't mind saying it on the air. It's not private. I was just like, why do I like watching Kays? so much more than Shade Gildes-Ex-Alexander. I'm not saying Shade Gildes-Alexander, or Cade will win you more games, or he's a better player or whatever.

But, like, I just enjoy his game so much more. And a lot of it is because the no-look dimes to guys under the basket. He just feels so much more of a floor general and someone who's getting his guys involved, whereas I feel like SGA is kind of like trying to get to his spot and his shot or the free throw line. And Kate is more of an orchestrator of the offense. My quick answer,

was he shows a lot of emotion and he dunks. Yeah. I mean, that's why that's why you like it. That's why he's more fun to watch. And he does. He shows a lot of emotion. He talks crazy. And the other thing is, as you notice with the Knicks, the Knicks have such a tremendous advantage of being able to, you know, they can hide Brunson on deep. Brunson doesn't have to guard these giant point guards because they've got giant wings. But that is the one thing. when you see Cunningham and seeing him in person

is absolutely jarring because you can put your big wing on them, on him, and he's still bigger. Justice of me. So he's, Macau Bridges swallows up a lot of these point guards. Macau Bridges, he don't swallow up, Gabe Cunningham.

O. G. Ninobe don't swallow him. You see them and they look like condors when they're guarding the, the Brunton's and the Morantz and the Trey Youngs and the, the Aaron Foxes and the Tyrese, like, there's a lot of guys in the league that when you see them, they just look so physically imposing when the big wing is guarding the point guard. That is just not the case when it comes to Detroit because their point guard is a monster.

Absolutely. And we have to talk about their defense too. Right now, the second in the league in defense. They've got one of the best defenses in the league. And the Knicks, you can easily, if you're at Knicks fan, they went one for 16 in the first half from three or whatever. But like Detroit played a part. in them going one for 16 from three in the first half. Like their defense is just fantastic.

And Carly Anthony Towns, there are just certain possessions where you're watching the game. And I feel like I'm yelling at my team, like Carl, turn around. Like I'm just like, like he just completely loses his man sometimes. And next thing you know, B-Ball Paul is all by himself because he's on the weak side block.

And Carl's just like watching the ball. And they just, and they turns around. And there he is. B-B-B-Ball-Paul's just dunking. And when you're watching the game, you're like, you see it a second and a half before Carlson's Trey Town season. He's just always a little bit late to a rotation or whatever. And like, you know, that one big left-handed dunk that Kate had, the announcers were talking about

Carlity Teutown is kind of getting out of the way, which is fine. He's a little late on that rotation. But it's like he shouldn't be late. He should anticipate that. Like his, his offense wasn't good last night, but the defense thing is a real concern when it comes to playoffs. Okay. So you have the perfect New York media moment last night, too, because in the locker room afterwards, they ask him about basically in the absence of Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart,

were you surprised that the offense didn't go through you more? And he was like, our offense is our offense. It's been this way all year. He's been complaining all year. And then it becomes a thing. It becomes a thing, right? When you lose a big game to a opponent that is very likely a, you know, if you're going to reach your destiny, you're going to have to face.

And it's a third consecutive time that you've lost to them. And they're all by big margins. This is one of those like gut check things. And then you get to, then you get to the post game. And he's like, and now it's going to turn into my bro's offense and whether it's fault and should they play through cat, but cat is, I mean, oh my goodness. I love it. I love it.

He's just, he's so frustrating. He is so frustrating. Our offense is the offense has been the same all year. Yeah. You taking step back threes with your. with your seven foot ass. It has been the same all year. You getting the dumbest fouls,

at least two dumb fouls every game. It has been the same all year. Like, he was pretty dominant in that Celtic series. And even points in the Piston series last year in the playoffs. But, like, he doesn't feel as much as a go-to score this season than he did last year for whatever reason. Well, the reason we're talking about this one and the reason it is bigger is because,

not only was it two of the most highly ranked teams in the Eastern Conference, teams that met in the playoffs last year, but also, you know, it's one thing for Detroit to run over the Knicks in Detroit, which they had done twice already this year. The Knicks have this crazy home road split where they're 21 and 8 at home, and they're 13 and 13 on the road. So, I mean, they've been a okay team on the road, but they have been a dynamite team at home.

And so for the pistons to walk in without two of their big time players and do it in Madison Square Garden is a much bigger deal than it would normally be, especially when you're when you're talking about a team that has made their bones in their record this year, basically by being able to run over people. You know, it's a hard place to play Madison Square Garden. But I think across the slate last night, you did sort of some teams still kind of smelled like SPF 50. You know what I mean? Right. But there's a couple teams are just kind of like, you know, because you see the Allstar guys. You know, we know what they did last weekend. But there were some teams that there's this Russ versus rest thing that we always talk about in sports media.

And there's some teams that looked a little rusty, including the Knicks. Well, the one that we were watching while that one was going on on the other channel was we were both keeping up with the Rockets and the Hornets, because you had this perfect scenario of off the court stories that were going to bleed into a game that, where two opponents were playing against each other. So you had the Rockets, which have gone through the Kevin Durant story over the course of the past week. And the Hornets, who have had the Lamello car accident go over. It happened within the last couple of days. And also two, you know, Hornets have been one of the hottest teams in the entire NBA.

Rockets are a team that fancies themselves as a home court advantage team in the Western Conference. And they were going to be facing each other. and much like 90% of Hornets games that we have been texting about throughout the year, wildly entertaining. Oh, yeah. It's so fun to watch. Oh, God.

Eric Collins. Eric Collins just brings it. They're down five and Conniffel has an open three from the top. He's like, this one needs to go for con! And he misses it. The Hornets gets the rebound and kick it back to him. Again, wide open same spot. He goes, this one needs to go for con.

And then John hits it to making a two-point game. And Kevin Durant does Kevin Durant. Oh, when Kevin Durant, it is, it is like MIDI, he was like, Odo! Which time? It was like there's four-bos in the fourth quarter. It's so good. It's so good. It was a, is it, though, you know, the Rockets are probably a better team on paper, obviously.

You know, one is like the fourth and the Western Conference and one is the 10th in the Eastern Conference. But like the Hornets were down in that game and could have folded. and fought back and came back. And I mentioned this on the pod before. I texted you about it last night. I don't understand the Lamello fourth quarter substitution stuff. Like generally,

you kind of put your five guys in with like five minutes left and just like let them play it out. So I thought about this, especially when you texted last night, because I was like, it is weird that there's no Lamello ball and we're in a five point game with two minutes left, right?

And to be clear, it's not offense defense. This is not offense defense. Like that would make sense. But I think that's what it is. I think it is, I think generally these coaches go, these last whatever,

I've got to put my best defensive guys out there and I've got to get a stop. And then it doesn't work out. They give up point anyway. And they're like, I'm like, I really do. I know. This is not the first time it's happened.

This is like it's like a thing with them. But I feel like that's what it is where it's like, okay, I need to get, you know, my best five guys that I feel like can get a stop because that's how we're going to be able to win this game is by getting a stop. And then when they don't get a stop anyway, they're like, all right, well, we also can't score is easy without him on the court. So just get him back in there. And that's what happens. Lamello missed a couple of big shots too. I felt bad for him.

Lamello missed a couple of big shots. I did not feel bad for him, considering what has been on the internet. And I got to tell you. Boy, what a blessing it is to be in Charlotte. You have a mega, mega famous NBA athlete that gets into a car wreck and evidently runs away from it. It's all on video, like the Hummer, and then gets picked up by a Lamborghini, and everybody just kept like, they're like, oh, damn.

And then just that is the world we live in now. Like, that would have been the biggest deal ever, ever. Five, ten years ago. We are now so programmed to, like, We are just so inundated with crazy stories. And we're so attuned to like everything that's going on in the news that it was like, oh, wow, that's crazy. And then you just scroll to the next thing.

And you're like, oh, wow. Oh, he's okay. Everybody's okay. All right. Cool. Like, what just happened? Like, he could have killed somebody. This is what?

And then he was just like, then the headline was like, Lamello Ball, you know, what was it? Like did not suffer any injury. he's in his car accident that he had the other day. And it's like, oh, okay. I guess we're just back to playing basketball. And then the internet does the internet thing where, you know, your algorithm spits you the lamello balls, highlights of or low lights of driving, not to the

hole, like on the streets. And there's like four or five clips. He's like, well, that is, that's weird. Like, what are you doing? Super reckless. What do you do? It's like he plays. Like, there are no consequences.

Like, there's just no consequences. Like, no one's watching. Yeah. I'm glad nobody got hurt. but that was insane. And then Kevin Durant, who had the burner account become the topic of conversation

over the course of four or five days during All-Star. He was on his phone throughout the entire All-Star festivities. Yesterday he has asked about it in the shoot-around, and he says that he is not going to talk about any Twitter nonsense. Which is interesting because he has talked about Twitter nonsense for the last better part of 15 years.

And more interesting is my opinion is, and I'll hear what you have to say. If that wasn't you, you just say no. Yeah, if you accuse me of murdering four second grade girls yesterday, and I didn't do it, I'm going to deny that behavior. Or if you just, how about let's forget. the violent. Jacoby. Ask me if I have a burner. Do you have a burner account?

No. No. Was it you? Were you the one who was tweeting about Mussolini and Kim John Ung in regards to the tweet of Sons? Was that you? No. And I don't have a burner. I've never had a burner account. Like it's very easy.

Yeah. I like your example much better than mine. Unless, I did too. Unless, of course, unless of course, then you would be, if you come out and like say, that ain't me, I am not get off my Dickerson. If you say that,

which is a great, honestly, if I had a burner, you would be get off my Dickerson too. Or, because one, it gets, you know, it's taken already. Yeah, I got you. You would be worried that if you came out and said,

that's not me, that then it leads to more exposure. Because whoever released the KD files is now like, oh, really? It's not you? Well, let me just prove, because people have already done the whole banner with the owl eyes and what I mean, the level of research that goes into figuring out whether or not this is so or not is pretty extreme. And so I think he was in quite the pickle where it's like, if I say it's not me, then they're really going to, you know what I mean?

This isn't going to get any better for me. So I'm just going to say, I'm not going to talk about this and then just pray it blows over. Is he in like a group chat? Because you know, you can like basically like people are talking about like the DMs, the DMs, the DMs. But in like, when the words DM have this like connotation, like it's kind of sneaky or whatever, but like you're essentially just texting your friends with a different app, not the messages app. So it feels like this is sort of like a private text group chat that he's on. And he's talking a little crazy, which is like things that people say, well, I don't want to get too into this.

But remember the Calangelo thing? Shout to my guy, Ben Dietrich. When that broke, it was like, I'm going to use this public Twitter account to sort of voice and defend things that I think are wrong in the public discourse about someone that's important to me. And I understand having a burner for that. But it seems like he's just got, if this is him, he's just got. he's just got this burner to use in private chats with people he knows which takes it takes a level of like all right whatever he's just talking crazy in a group chat you know what I mean it's not that no it's not just talking crazy in a group chat because it would

be like if a group chat of mine was exposed and I was trashing you I'd be shocked if you have it at least once oh stop yes you would you would be shocked what about your wife you never complain about your wife in a group chat before? I don't. Ever. I'm sure. I'm sure. Honestly. I'm sure. I don't want to give anybody advice. This is true. Hey, I'm intensely loyal. This is true of my friends and this is true of my wife.

I always tell them, I will complain to you, but I do not talk behind my back. I will never talk behind yours. Like, that is true. Oh, I'm pretty much the opposite. Of the people, of the people I care about, because I never want, because I, I do like I do hear people all the time like complaining about like their relationships or whatever and I think it's much more healthy to just hit the stuff head on and and that's just honestly that is how I operate with the people that I'm closest with. So I but again like I'm not saying he's closest with Alper and Shengoon and Jabbar and right. I got it right but I mean again

it would be super weird to deal with that in a locker room. Yes. And, well, it would not be weird if when he asked about it, he outright said, I am not get off my dickerson. I don't even know what you're talking about. That is not me. I learned when you learned. If he said that, then it's not awkward.

But now it might be awkward. And I'm sure he probably addressed the team. I was just like, look, like, I said some things. Let's go out and beat the hornets. You know what I mean? Like, what are we going to do? And then Jabari was like, did you really call me the R word? Yeah.

The dictator stuff was really weird to me. It's like now we're talking about Mussolini and like Devin Booker. Oh, no, come on. Like what are we doing? The headline is triple double cocaine back here. I mean, that's everything. I mean, that should be the cocaine bear sequel should be like, did you watch cocaine bear by the way? No.

Excellent film. Really? No. I need to watch it. But it's worth a watch. Yeah. Yeah, sit your son down and be like, you know what we're doing tonight? We're watching cocaine bear.

It's like 70 minutes long. And guess what it's about? It's about a bear that finds cocaine and goes on a rampage. Sounds good. Which is right up my alley. I can't believe I haven't seen it. Primate is good, too. It's about a chimpanzee that eats his family.

It's awesome. But I don't know, man. I don't know. I would say that I think there's a lot of discussion that people try to like, is this going to ruin the Rockets chemistry? I don't think this translates to on court stuff. I think the problem with the Rockets is losing. Stephen Adams. You know what I mean? Not not like this guy tweeting about cocaine bear. The Rockets also

they get to live in the Kevin Durant during controversy era because he is absolutely awesome. He is awesome. When this stuff comes around, he goes out and like turns up and he just, he ended the Hornets game last night. He was just, if you didn't see the game, they would just give him the ball. Yes. He would score. Yeah. He would just ride.

He would get to a spot, doubled, contested, whatever it was. And he would just rise up between 12 and 17 feet and hit a mid range and jog back. It got to the point they were basically like doubling him on the touch. No, you felt like he was at his best. One other one that was worth mentioning from a Thursday night when the NBA returned was the Clippers beating the nuggets by Jamal Murray getting fouled at it with 0.9 seconds left, going to the free throw line, making the first two. And then is a early reminder, oh, yeah, Ben Matherin.

Ben Matherin for the Clippers, who is the Canadian teammate of Jamal Murray, gets right up in his face before he's about to shoot the third free throw, says Lord knows what, because Ben Matherin is a total crash out. And Jamal Murray proceeds to miss the free throw in the, Clippers win. And then they, and then they scan the camera over and Steve Balmer's like, ah, ha, ha, ha. Steve Balmer was lit last night. And so anyways, uh, I guess we got to give credit to Ben Matherin, the biggest stop of the game. He had 38, dude. And he was his first home game, big, yeah, huge stop. Huge defensive stop on that free throw. Huge defensive stop on that

free throw. You can teaching tape right there. But it is, uh, it is, the psychology of the Clippers is so interesting to me right now because Kauai Leonard is like unstoppable all of a sudden. I mean, the All-Star game was another just example of just like, Kauai Leonard being the best player on the planet in spurts. Yes.

But they've also, they said James Hardin, we're going to sort of, you know, end that relationship and Zubots. We're going to end that relationship. And you look at the success the Clippers had last year. It was because of Hardin and Zubach and they don't have those guys anymore. It feels like they're sort of trying to age down

and have an eye towards the future. And they can win games right now. The odd thing is you watch them and you're like, they have pretty good players. Yeah. And if they get Garland back, you know, you bring Garland and Matherin and Kauai and so,

like John Collins, like you bring them to the party. It's like, you know what? I'd be kind of worried about having to play them. Well, Jones Jr. can play defense and right. You can play defense and,

you know, and I don't know. And they know they're going to be well coached. And they are one of those teams it like when Jeff Van Gundy is going to scout you out for a playoff series and take away the three things you like to do the best. Like that's what I'm saying. Like I'm not saying that they're going to be dangerous like they're going to out somebody, but dangerous like it's going to be a much harder series than you expected it to be. Well, you can see the thing about,

I would say the West even more so than the East, but it's true basically in all seasons of all playoffs. If you are that seven, eight seed, you're going to be playing a good team in the first round, right? So it's, you know, it's going to be an uphill climb. However, can't you see a world in which Kauai Leonard goes into Oklahoma City or Denver, scores 35 points? Right. You know, and then like, there's just nothing you can do. He's just the best player there and he wins the game.

And then you're looking at game too, being like, now we've got a must win at home. And we have, right. And right, you know, where he's won a couple games and you have a veteran coaching staff that has been in a lot of different playoff series. And you also have like a vet-laden team that can. And one of the things is you can have the best game plan, but can your guys enact said game plan? When you got a bunch of vets on your team,

like they're going to have like, here's what we're doing. And then those guys can actually go and execute that. And it might not be enough, but you know they're going to have their chance. And so, yeah, they're kind of interesting, especially because it looked like they went the opposite way. They did not get better at the truth of line.

No, well, and they were like they had won like, 17 of 21 games or whatever. It was all just so bizarre the way it all went down. But yeah, totally different team. A couple other things that we need to mention. Adam Silver addressed tanking. Not only did he do it at All Star Weekend, but we have done this show recently.

I told you, I think it was maybe even the last episode. I said, the one thing I am very confident of, and it was the morning when we came on the air, and I said there's a USA Today headline, there's a Yahoo headline, there's all these headlines and it says and it's all about the NBA tanking and it all lists Adam Silver in the headline. Adam Silver has to do something.

Now is the time for Adam Silver to step up. Now this is a guy that has a keen awareness of everything that is being written, said or bandied about on the internet with his league. And so I said the soon as I saw those headlines, I was like, I promise you, this will be the last time. Because there's too many articles that are calling. him out. And so this, and you have this crazy, uh, situation where you have not only this super deep and great draft with a historically great freshman class in terms of production and college basketball. You also have a couple of teams that were not expected to be bad

teams that have already decided they're going to be bad teams. So now you have almost a third of the league. And so rather than get into all of the different, there's a million podcasts that get into everybody's great ideas of what to happen. You saw the list. Look, I understand the holes that can get punched in every idea. I understand all the theories of what should be done going forward. I think we are just safe in saying something and more than likely something drastic will take place after this season. It has already started with him finding people already this year. So he's going to try to quell the rest of this season ended happening as much as he can. And then by next year, we're going to be done with being highly incentivized to lose. That's all I'll say. Yeah, it's,

this isn't the first time that this has been addressed. Like the flattening of the lottery odds was supposed to do this. This has been a discussion for decades. I was jealous of Bill. on his podcast, but he was like, this is the first time where every single person is like, don't worry,

I can fix this. I have an idea because I totally feel the same way. Oh, I know. The NBA does do this, though, because you play ghost tension like I do, oftentimes when there's a policy change

or there's going to be a big announcement, they kind of like float out ideas to see what sticks. Yes. And this Shams thing was very much that. It was just like, it's like a menu of like seven bullet points of what they could do just to sort of like read the room. and see what they're going to end up doing.

You are open sourcing so that then everybody could say, no, the reason that's stupid is because of. Yeah, it's kind of what you're doing. It's just throwing out ideas and then people chew on them and then like listening to what the feedback is. Like it's actually a pretty smart tactic, but they're doing it under the guise of like transparency. But I don't want to get into all of it.

But to me, I think you guys have to keep it stupid and simple. And at the very end, they said, flatten odds for all lottery teams. And I'm just like, yeah, do that one. Right? Like, oh, the protections are only between this and that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't be consecutive years at first.

Or if you finish in the conference finals, you can't get a what? Like, all of that is just so nonsense. Just flatten the lottery odds. Like, okay, that one makes sense to me. I can explain that to my kids. It doesn't behooth you to lose more. Yeah, you're already losing.

We're trying to figure out how we're not, You're right. And I got to be honest with you, of all of the theories, some goofy, some not that have been thrown out there, the one you were talking about being jealous, oh, this is what I was jealous of from Bill's Mailbag episode. The guy that, and forgive me, I don't remember the night. The guy with the bat. No. The guy with the baseball bat. No, the guy that emailed in and called for the ping pong ball of death.

That would be. So what he said is basically. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Too complicated. The ping pong ball of death. I'm just thinking we're talking about for a TV product that when we do the lottery, right? Because these are the teams that are involved in the lottery. And then we're all watching to see who get the top four picks.

That's the lottery. Okay. But that one of the balls is the ping pong ball of death and you get the 30 second pick. And so is it worth it? if you know that there's a possibility that you won't even get a first round pick. Oh, just the idea of the... And he said, you'd have like a little skull

and crossbowls on it. And it'd be amazing. The ping pong ball of death where you don't get a first round pick. But then you get like the Cleveland Cavs owner's son who's like 10 years old and he starts crying at the... Yes, that's what I want. He just starts crying, apologizing.

was dad or whatever or he's got like George Gervin there. Yes. Like what the hell is this? They're like and then like the red lights come down. I like I could see the whole thing that that is made for TV amazing. You know what I mean? Oh no. He like falls down a trap door.

The ping pong ball of dad. You know, you your team won 17. Your team went 17 and 16. It's like traders, like guys in hoods come out and just walk you off the stage. And you don't even get a first round pick. Oh, no. Anyways, it's very evident that this is going to be the last time. All right.

We are headed into this stretch run of the NBA season. And so as we head into this stretch run post all star break, we're going to give the three things we are looking forward to the most, the rest of the way. I will start and I will tell you there are two teams that are included in the play in situation right now that I am most looking forward to how they finish out the season. And that is the Portland Trailblazers and the Charlotte Hornets. Two teams that are, because these are going to be the new blood, right? Like this is the first time through. So what we need is for them to be involved in the play-in and then may be able to win it and go and take their lumps for the first time of the playoffs. If we're looking for new blood because Charlotte represents, we've had like the same damn play.

Every year in the play in, it's Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, and it's the same teams every time around, right? And so Charlotte getting there, and I will tell you, Portland is one to super look out for. they have the easiest schedule remaining in the NBA. And you remember this happened post All Star Break last year when Portland really went on that run and it was like, hold on now. Are they going to be able to get to the 10 seat? And then they didn't. But they have the 30th, they have the easiest schedule left the rest of the way.

Also Charlotte is 24th in terms of schedule strength the rest of the way. And so both of these teams are well set up during these last, you know, 20 to 25 to 30 games of the season to get in a good position where we could see them not only in a play in, but hopefully those are the reason I'm monitoring those is because we need some new blood and they represent like teams that we have never seen before in the high leverage situations, teams that can be involved in the playoffs that were not used to. because virtually every one of those teams, when you look up and down, they've been consistent playoff performers or we've seen them in that spot before.

There's one huge omission that we're going to talk about, which is the San Antonio Spurs, but we're going to put a pain in them and get there because we're already treating them with their contenders, but they did not. They haven't been in the playoffs in this sort of a current iteration, but they're just so good that we don't consider them in this way. Well, and there's also no question about whether or not they're going to be in, whereas Portland and Charlotte, like they might not be.

in the playoffs. But like the way they finish the season has a good chance of putting them in a position to where the playoffs become infinitely more likely. I also think there's reason to be optimistic if you're one of these fan bases. For the Blazers, as you mentioned, their remaining schedule, they've got 26 games left. And 16 of those games are teams that are sort of like outside of the playing. Right. Think about that. So like, again, as we mentioned second ago, there's a lot of these teams are motivated to lose. So you kind of, like you kind of have 500 with your 26 games if you just handle business. You know what I mean? And there's an opportunity. I think that people talk about the playing like all four spots are the same.

But there's a huge difference in being in the seven, eight spot or the nine and ten spot. You got to win one game or two games. You know what I mean? So that's really the target for me for the the Blazers is can they, you know, leapfrog the warriors? Do the suns fall? Because above them right now are Clippers, warriors and sons. you know, I think I could see the Warriors falling a bit and I could see the suns going on and run, but. Clipper schedule is easy the rest of the way as well.

But the reason that I brought up these two in particular is because it would be first time through like where we get to see this iteration of them competing, you know, in playoff basketball. And also because of the schedule, the rest of the way, we know how important that is. both of these teams could end the season super hot, where you look up and they've got these great records and a lot of confidence heading into the playoffs and look a lot more dangerous than I think that we have perceived them to be. Scoot Henderson coming back, Drew Holiday coming back,

you know, Jeremy Grant being available, Klingin being available, like they're, they've had, they're just the Blazers so people don't really pay attention, but they've had guys out, they're coming back. So there is a world in which they're at full strength. They've gotten easy schedule and they go on a run. They have a big test tonight against the nuggets.

The nuggets, you know, we just spoke about there in L.A. last night. They're flying up to Portland to play. And in advance of this matchup over the weekend, a guy who we talked about all summer, which just has not been a factor, Young Hanson, Hanson, Hanson, Hanson, Young, Young, Young, Hanson, Hanson, Hanson, Young, Young, Young, Young, Hanson, and Hanson, however you say it. He has sort of been compared to Yokic,

and he has given some interesting quotes. But again, remember, they play tonight. And over the weekend at the Rising Stars, Yang Hansen, Hansen Yang was asked about the comparison to Yokic and the matchup coming up. And here is what he said through his interpreter. Last night,

to the last time, you're the most the most of the moment. The most of the last time to last night to land to land. I think, I'm going to have been able to ask him. I think, I might see Nikola Yokic somewhere, so I wish I can see him.

Like, I would just, I can't, I can wait to, I can't wait to, like, chat with him. Yeah. I couldn't kiss him. Yeah, yeah. Translate her. I can't wait. I can't wait to kiss him.

Yeah. The translator wanted to say, I can't wait to chat with him. And Yang is like, that's not what I said, translator. That's not what I said. And the translator had to change it to kiss him. That was an amazing moment. I love it so much. I don't even know what to say about it.

It just makes me laugh. He was like, because the translator was trying to clean it up for him. And Yang was like, no, that's not what I said, sir. You have an obligation, you have a duty to translate my words. That's not what I said. How frustrating it must be. How frustrating it must be, right? When you can't, like, you know what I mean?

It's like, no, bro, that's not. It's not. Like, you're really, there's an immense amount of trust that you were putting into a translator. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's just funny. I think it's just messing around. But now I'm like, now I'm going to be watching when Young Hanson checks into the game.

And Yonk is on the floor. You're going to lay one on him? He might not check in. Yes, fair. That's fair. I watched the last pick of the draft plays for the Grizzlies. Jemai Meshack and he's a two-way player. And they, of course, because of the way the season's going, they started him at center.

He was guarding John Hanson. he had like six steals in the game. Like it was like, he's just ripping the ball away from him. I was like, oh my God. This guy, he's a,

he's a novelty. Well, I remember when I was talking about Youngheads in the summer, I did a very, very late, late research dive on his highlights. I was like, I don't know, man.

I don't know. I don't really see it. He looked good in Summer League. Next, first thing you look forward to the rest of the way. A small sample size, but I'm excited about it. The cabs really,

seem like they're ready to sort of make a run after a pretty disappointing up to this point regular season. I think that James Harden, when you watch the Cavs in the playoffs or during the season or during certain games, even in big wins, it just feels like there's just so much on Donovan Mitchell to do offensively for them to operate. Like it just seems like every possession is just like, hey, Donovan, drive and kick. Or hey, Donovan, send, gives throw up a lob to one of the big men and just having james hardin there to take off some of that pressure to stagger the two of them james hardin you don't need me to explain to anybody sort of like what he brings offensively and you know the competition has not been great but they do have some

big games coming up you know they're playing the hornets tonight it's like i just think that the calves as is are poised to make a run and um and i think that with the lower expectations that they had this year than last year, you know, they're, they're one of the teams that could come out of the East. Well, and also they've been, you know, they've been having to play without Darrys Garland this year. Sometimes it's just the, it's, it's not necessarily just plugging in James Harden. It's plugging to James Harden for what has not been available. I mean, that was a team that won 60-something games with Darrys Garland, like just anybody to take a little bit of the pressure off for Mitchell. And you'll be happy to know this. You have.

have a real chance of, there's going to be this combination where people are going to say, hey, I think they're three and oh with Hardin already. Yeah. But again, it's like, yeah, it's against. Right. But they're going to credit, like the trade and Hardin, whatever, when part of it is going to be when I was just talking to you about schedule strength, there's this 26th the rest of the way. So it's light for them.

There's all, it's something everybody always has to pay attention to. is were your hard games, was the hard part of your schedule front-loaded, was it in the middle of the season, or was it at the end? And there are some of these teams that took their lumps early in the season, i.e. the clippers, i.e. the blazers, right? Like, that's when they're super hard part of their schedule took place, and it's part of the reason we talked about them being such a colossal disappointment. And at one point, we're doing an episode fearing, oh, my God,

the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to get a top. five pick from the freaking clippers because they're so bad. But their schedule was murder at the beginning and that lightens up. Cavaliers, same way. Not only have they been through the injuries and everything else,

their schedule is light the rest of the way. They got one of the five easiest schedules the rest of the way. And so to your point, like you look at those standings and there's going to be very few games that are separating those seeds when it comes down to it, right?

And so they have a real chance to move up those standings. And then what looked like a major step back from last season, 60 wins, number one seed is not so. The other thing is, I don't know if you saw the James Harden, you know, some of these guys just need a little, my buddy David Thorpe used to call it Royal Jelly, right? Like the positive reinforcement that they get.

And James Hardin last night saying, Jared Allen is way better than I even thought he was. I'm paraphrasing, but it was something that effect. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, nobody needs to hear good things about themselves more than Jared Allen, because I feel like Jared Allen never hears anything positive and is always the blame and is always the guy that like, oh, he got pushed around. Oh, the lights were too big for him, all whatever.

How great must that feel for a 20-time All-Star to come in and be like, this guy's awesome? Well, it was also nice, again, to have some, you know, cream puff opponents. Yeah. And it was also nice for Mowgli to be out. Because when Mowgli was out, it was like the Jared Allen show. I mean, in the three games, again, it's only been three games. But he's averaging 24 points and 10.7 rebounds in those games. And he is the perfect prototype for Hardin.

We all know that he gets around the screen, the role, and the lob. It's just, it is interesting about this team. Like, I remember listening to you and KOC like 40 years ago, talk about that, like they've got the two bigs and the two guards, but is it a core row? You know what I mean? And now it's like Dean Wade started last night. It's like here we are four years later,

just looking at that same spot on the roster. I mean, like, is it Sam Merrill? Is it Dean Wade? Max Trues. Yeah, is it Max Trues? It's sort of like they've had this blind spot. DeAndre Hunter, they tried. Yeah, Hunter.

Remember trying out of here. It looked good for like two weeks. It was like, oh, they fixed it. And it's just always just been this like weird little spot in the rotation that they can't show up. And maybe it is Dean Wade, who knows? But like, I don't know. I think the calves are really poised to put themselves into the conversation

with the Nixon Celtics and Pistons, obviously. All right. My next one, can San Antonio snag the number one seed? This is immense. And this is, this will determine who comes out of the Western Conference. I don't want to step on you here, but I just want to say, to me, this is, the biggest thing of the entire conversation about the NBA, both conferences moving forward

until the end of the season. Well, because here is the deal. The reason that this will be determinative of who is going to make it is because sometimes you look at teams and you go, it doesn't matter what seed they are. They're going to be just fine, right? And then other times you look and the difference is so great. If we all accept that even if San Antonio right now, right, like it might not be, The believers may come late, but they've won seven games in a row.

And here's the deal. This is absolutely on the table. As I have talked to you, and we have brought up Portland, and we brought up the Clippers, and we've brought up the calves, and we've said, keep a lookout for these Hornets, too. These teams have easy schedules the rest of the way. Do you know who have the two hardest schedules the rest of the way? Denver and Oklahoma City.

You know who else? You know who's next? Minnesota. So you've got San Antonio here on the seven-game win streak, cracking. And if you're two, three, you're facing each other in the semis. Right? And there's a very real possibility we look up. And Denver and Oklahoma City have to play each other before we even get to a Western

Conference finals. Whereas San Antonio is sitting there with one and they're facing either Minnesota or the Lakers or whoever. I'm not saying it's light work by any means, but the difference is immense, immense. And right now when you've got SGA and A.J. Mitchell at least one more week. Revaluated in a week. There's getting revaluated. Yeah, at least one more. Then you've got Jalen Williams at least two more. with the hamstring, and they've gone through their injuries, and you've teamed that up with one of the hardest schedules the rest of the way.

You know, Denver's at least going to be getting their guys back for this home stretch and tough schedule. Oklahoma City's losing their guys as the schedule gets much tougher the rest of the way. And obviously they're great, so they should be able to withstand and still win their share of games. but San Antonio leaping them and getting the number one seed is so enormous because, and especially even if you're San Antonio, because if you can get past that first, you know what I mean?

If you can, if you can get past that first round, you're not having to face either Oklahoma City or Denver. They're having to face each other if they end up two and three in this deal before you ever get to a conference finals. And that changes things dramatically in terms of your capabilities of getting to, you know, an NBA finals. It's huge.

And I think the health of the thunder is right now, they're two and a half games back. They've got a much easier schedule, as you pointed out. They're much healthier, as you pointed out. And the thunder have been, the thunder every single time the thunder take the floor, one or two of their key guys have been out all year. Whether it's Hartenstein or whether it's J-dub, now it's SGA.

And in the beginning of the year, they look great. And we say, look, they're doing all this without J-dub, but like it hasn't looked great recently. And when you start looking at the playoffs, imagine your road to the finals is I'm just going to put teams places. Blazers, Timberwolves, thunder, right? Or it's like warriors, nuggets, spurs.

Yep. You know what I mean? Like that is the difference between the number one and the number two seed potentially. And it also determines everything. It determines how you handle your off seasons and determines how, you know, whether your season,

you know, ended earlier than it should have. Like, I really do think that this, them, if they can leap this and they're really close and they're on a seven game win streak. Yep.

It's going to, it's going to change the Western Conference, uh, playoffs in a way that, that we would not have necessarily expected it to change the Western Conference playoffs. Here's my concern for you, Chris Vernon. Oh.

I had to be your partner, your brother, through an entire month, month after month of you questioning the thunder for their lack of battle scars. Oh, that's right. Oh, and San Antonio. And then this is going to be a repeat of last summer where I sit in the same seat

and I have to hear you again and again say they're not going to win because the lack of battle scars. This team has not been to the playoffs. Victor Winogianna has not played in-game in his career. See, you haven't read my entire manifesto, my battle scar manifesto. Oh, Darren Fox. No. Bringing the scars? No, no, no.

One of the key point is if you get down, you got to read a long way. Is it on your substack or something to pay for it? Can you send it to me? My blog, my blog spot. Okay, good, good. But is none of the battle scar argument, it'll say like there's a little footnote at the bottom and it says none of this is relevant

if you have a seven foot five alien. Okay, fair, fair. I didn't see that part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the battle scars argument still remains, but it is rendered. moot in the case that a team has a seven

foot five alien. That is the one. It's interesting because it does feel thunderish because like not only, they do have Barnes and Fox right. Those guys have, you know, we've seen what they've done in the playoffs. Obviously more Barnes than Fox, but whatever. They've been to the playoffs. They've been in, you know, big games, game sevens, and la, la, la. But this

sort of feels like because the coach is also an experience. Like diagonal, like Mitch Johnson hasn't coached a playing game or a playoff game in his entire career and who knows about how he's going to you know, make the adjustments that are necessary and things of that nature. Well, I've thought about this a lot. That it's,

are we going to find that this is what is commonplace? That the way, that that is actually the way to have an awesome thing. Your awesome team is going to have to be young. Oh, I like this. Because of salary structure. Because by the time they're 23, you're paying them $200 million, right?

You know what I'm saying? No, I like this. And now the rest of your team can't be good enough. And so it's almost like the rookie cheap and or rookie scale quarterback, right? And we've seen that take place where teams have had because now, okay, now I've got the money to have a 53 man roster that's actually really good. And so I have wondered if what we're seeing is two of their best players were on rookie deals last year for Oklahoma City. And two of the best players on the spurs are on rookie deals, rookies of the year. Also, that will be the case with Detroit, right?

Where Jalen Duren, this is a perfect example. Jalen Duren is probably going to make all NBA. He should, okay? You're going to be paying Jailen Duren the full five-year Rose Rule max. He is no longer a bargain. He's a $200-something million player. he's getting 30% of your cap or whatever. And it's like that's a different world.

It's a different world. And so because after four years, that's where they're, we used to always say that like guys, there was a reason guys always won their first title at 26, 27, 28. But the landscape has changed so greatly and the salary structures have changed so greatly that I do wonder if your chance to win it

is going to be with a young team. this is interesting, Bruno. I don't know if you planned on talking about this or stumbled into it, but this is actually really interesting because when you look at Jalen Dern and right now, breakout year could be most improved.

You see, him and Cade like spent a week in the woods last summer and built this chemistry, this pick and roll thing, which is going great. And you look at Jalen Dern as a basketball player, and you're like, man, that's amazing. What a find, what a great draft. What a great development story for the Detroit. Pistons. However, if he's making $50 million a year, you're like, well, he can't shoot.

You know what I mean? Like, you're like, oh, can't shoot. So it's like you look at him completely differently if he's 50, if you got a $50 million price tag. You know what he's playing for? I think he's playing for like six. Yeah. He's going to restricted free agency. It's because when you have to put down these, these max extensions on players that you drafted and developed, it's almost like he's amazing for us. He's absolutely more than we could ever, ever ask for right now. But if someone said, like, all right, do we sign them up? I don't know if the numbers are like 242 for five years.

I'd be like, uh, let's give me a second. I'm going to have a meeting. Let's look at some numbers and some tape and sort of like really look at it. Because if you dedicate 30% of your cap to someone like Jalen Duren, who's excellent, like maybe that's not a recipe for success. And the Thunder did have two guys on rookie deals that were, you know, two of their four best players. The Spurs have two guys in the rookie deal. They're two of their four best players.

And that might be what you need. Because it used to be you need a superstar. You need two superstars because you need to have the best bet player in the series. No one's ever won a championship without a superstar, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Things may all be changing. You might just need some rookies. Right. Because they come in at 18 or 19.

And then by the time they're, right? Like, what are the chances? Cooper Flagg? And we look up at four years isn't getting a. $200-something million-dollar contract, like probably zero, outside of injury, zero percent, right? He could lose a leg. I'm still giving him $250 million.

Yeah, but he's still just $23 or $24, right? Which is not when you typically are, but it's almost like. No, I like this. Let me interrupt. I'm sorry. I like this because now, let's use Cooper Flagg as an example because he is sort of, in my opinion, a Wemba-Yama level talent.

And you think about the timeline. It's all right, like, Kyrie Irby doesn't fit the timeline. Anthony Davis doesn't fit the timeline. And I'm like, oh, man, like he's going to be like three or four years. They get the right people around him. He's going to be right in there. And maybe the timeline is faster than that. Like, maybe you need to have a 20-year-old be the best player on your team.

You know, and you know what makes teams are already on this, Jacoby. That's why the tanking problem is so bad for a great draft. Yeah, really. Teams are already on this. They're going, this is the value. The value is getting Victor Wimbunyama. playing for 11 million. I can have an awesome team around him.

And Harper and Castle and like they got a bunch of guys on rookie contracts. It will not shock me if we see teams playing at the highest level that have a bunch of guys on on rookie deals. You know what I mean? And in a way that was just not even like when I first started, I remember one year I was covering the playoffs and Grizzlies fans were going to crazy because Dave Yeager was not playing Jordan Adams, who they had drafted in the first round and somebody else. And I went and looked up. And that particular year in the playoffs, there was one rookie getting like more than 15 minutes on a playoff team. Think about that. There's one rookie. That's not that long ago. I'm old, but it's like, it's not that long ago.

that's probably like whatever, 2016, 2015, something like that. So 10 years ago. And when I did the thing, I was like, look, I know Grizzlies fans are mad that he's, but nobody's playing rookies.

Like, the whole league. A, a lot of rookies were on bad teams, but B, of the rookies that are on playoff teams, none of them are getting minutes. And the league has evolved massively since that, massively. You'll see, we're going to see all kinds of rookies. that are playing in the playoffs this year

in a way that was just not true 10 years ago. This is fascinating. Your next thing that you are looking forward to. First of all, I thought you stumbled into a really good NBA conversation there. Great job by you, Verno. So on the back of that, I'm going to plagiarize a question that you've asked me earlier this season. This is a straight Verno rip-off.

I do this all the time where I just take your opinions and just use them in bar conversations. That's kind of the point of listening to your podcast. Anyway, so why not? just do it right back to you. And this is the, I was on a like a group chat with, you know, the game over crew, some of the producers and Rich and Max on that one. And this is not a violation of any privacy.

It's not about, you know, Mussolini. And it was like, you know, we're talking about who's a contender and who's not or whatever. And I wrote a text, which is a pure thought of mine that I have to remind myself often when we're putting teams in this contender pile. I said, I often have to remind myself that this time last. year I was not even considering the Pacers in any way, shape, or form for title contention. Just not at all. And you asked me this question earlier this season, and I'm sort of like reiterated is one of the

things that I'm looking at is like, who could potentially be the Pacers this season? Teams that you are not considering contenders right now that could sort of like go on a run, get healthy, things break their way, injury luck, whatever it is. And I'm going to throw out just some for consideration. And then you answer the question. Okay. Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns,

the Christaps Porzingis Golden State Warriors. Okay, so the team that you did not mention. Grizzlies. No, that deserves to be in there. Because the Pacers thing really started at the beginning of January. And we just didn't catch on until February. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Hold on now. They're winning all the time. That is the Hornet. That is the Hornets where you look at it and you're going, they're winning all the time. And I think you could look up in those two teams I named early, Portland or the Hornets. And again,

I'm not telling you they're this year's Pacers. I'm saying if we're trying to look at somebody that is most like those, right? It where hold on now, go look at the Hornets record since January 1st. It's been well covered here. everywhere. Right. And that's the thing. It's like you look up and you're like, damn, man, their last 40 games, they were 28 and 12 or something. It's like, okay. They've been playing at this

level for a long time now. I have to push back there a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because if you look at a team like Orlando, which is underperformed, but you get Franz back, you got Paulo who played well last night. He's had a tough year. Frantz ain't coming back. They're done with Frantz. No, it's not over over for Franz. The ankle thing. Is it season? ending? It's season ending? He's not, I mean, he's done. He's out for a long time, right? I think he can't come back. I remember reading that article and being like, oh, God.

Yeah, it's bad. Let's see, Franz Wagner News, out with injury, ruled out. But it's not, nothing says season ending. The ankle. No, high ankle sprain avoided more serious injury. We'll miss multiple weeks. Yeah, but a high ankle. That's from the separate 20,000.

Come on, bro. And then look at the one. from this week. The Shams one. It's brutal. Look at the Shams. Yeah, out due to ankle soreness. Yeah. Out indefinitely rehabbing. Yeah. Anyway.

End up having to get surgery on that day. Point being, when you look at Franz and Palo and Bain, you got to look at those players differently in a playoff scenario than like con con canipal lamello ball and Brennan Miller, right? Don't you? Yeah. Yeah. But I could see it more with the Raptors and the match.

I can see it with the horns as a while. Oh, that's fair. because they have, but the Raptors have been good all year. So the whole Pacers thing is they were bad. The calendar turned and they were under 500. Dude, I think I brought some before. So the thought process is who was under 500 that then just flipped the whole damn thing around? And to me, those are the ones that like have a chance at that because and the Clippers were one too.

Clippers? Yeah, I mean, again, that was, we may never see that. that again where it's that rare where a team just looked like a nothing just a totally average basketball team and then next thing you know they're in a freaking NBA finals

I'm watching the starting five thing that Halliburton was in because I forgot about that part of the season for the Pacers I think I brought some before he was going to go on a sabbatical to like find himself he was going to go on like a walk through the outback you know to go on like a spirit animal journey.

I know. To like, and just because he was playing so poorly, they were losing so much. So it is interesting. It's just when we, the point being is when you pile teams in the contenders or non-contenders, remind yourself last year,

the Pacers were not in that pile, and they almost won the championship. Okay. The last thing I'm looking forward to, and this is going to play into the conversation that we stumbled on a little bit earlier, because this is very, very relevant. I mentioned Duren as a guy that has a great chance at all NBA.

I think will be all NBA. But I'm going to go through this list and you tell me this is last year. The reason this is so relevant is because we are going to have a massive turnover and said turnover greatly affects teams, team building contracts that are able to be signed going forward because your appearance as one of the 15 players on an all NBA team changes, dramatically the amount of money that you can make for somebody like jaron jackson junior who was even traded though his 50 million is kicking in next year he that he was like i think it was shengoon and then jackson were the two that like were the most votes without getting all NBA last year

and jackson signed his extension it was a hundred million dollars difference jacobo yeah it was a hundred million dollars difference so anyways all right look think about this so yokech is going to be close. These are guys. He's not getting there. Okay. All right. So listen to this. SGA, I don't know if he's... So far, I think he's missed seven or eight games. So he's got another 10 games to miss. He'll miss

at least another week. So it's like two weeks. Let's type six on top of that. We're going to put a question mark next to it, right? Yeah, he's going to be close. He's going to be close to the 65 limit. Okay. Yokitz, you say no. No chance. Yonis, you say no. No chance. We know. Okay.

Tatum's a no. No chance. Okay. So you got a question mark next to SGA and Donovan Mitchell is the other one who will be there again. Okay. He's the only one. I'm going to say it's unlikely. I'm going to say it's unlikely that SGA gets to 65 games. Okay, but I'm saying that believe Mitchell is the only one.

I'm going through last year's all NBA teams. Okay. Yes. Mitchell would be the only one first team. Mitchell's in. Second team, Brunson will say yes. And. Mowbly, no.

No. And yes. Yes. Currie? No. It was 10 games. No, he's yes. though. But again, we're assuming he

Well, yeah, of course we're assuming health, but there are just like back to back. I understand. That happens from time and time. But I also think it's important. He knows it's important. I think he'll make 65 if he's available. Okay, we'll say yes. Curry, no, LeBron, no. So there's two more. Okay. So now we're at, we've only got

three guys if we're including Donovan Mitchell, Brunton, and A.N. So far, of 15. We'll get to the third. Yeah, of 10. Here we go. Yeah, no, no, no, because all right. Halliburton, no. I don't think he's going to make it. Towns?

Oh, no. I'm in a bad place with Carlton Towns right now. Okay, Cade 100%. Yes, yes. Hardin? Probably not, but... I don't know. Okay, we'll do a question of...

He's missed eight games. He could lead the calves on a surge. I could see him making all in 30. Okay, and then Jalen Williams. No. No. Okay. So look. That's a lot of turnover. Oh my God, is it a lot? I mean, you have at least three spots on every team. Now, you would say, okay, well, who was right on the outside looking in last year? Who were guys that got votes for all NBA, but didn't make it? And this is going to shock you even more. Shengoon. We'll give him a question mark.

We'll give him a question mark, right, for this year. Okay. Jared Jackson, Jr., no. Zubot, no. Garland, no. Sabonis, no. Seacum, no. Bam out of bio, no.

Trey Young, no. No. Booker. No, probably because of the injury. Question mark. We'll do a question. He's missed 12 up to this point. Right. It'd be unlikely, it'd be unlikely.

But again, I think like Ante Edwards, If you're available and you're close, you get yourself there. Okay. So I just listed nine, those were the nine players that got all NBA votes last year. Two of them are question mark sevens are absolute crossoffs. So we're not even to like the next. Where was Jalen Brown in all this? He was not on.

I guess it was games missed last year. It must have been. Yeah. And obviously, look, we've got some sure things this year. Luca, Jalen Brown. Yeah. Jalen Duren. And like there's a group, but the turn, Maxi, the turnover is going to be crazy on these teams.

And the fact that that affects contracts going forward. I mean, it's just like all NBA is completely up in the air with 20 something games left to go. You know, and there are going to be guys that make all NBA that were not either not on the team last year. and a lot of guys that were either not on the team or not even considered. Oh, Denny Advia? On the team. Not even considered. Denny Obvia was not considered.

Right. Shalen Johnson was not considered. Right. Dern, not considered. Right. This is interesting. And it's also interesting because if you have this much turnover, that means you have more players in the league that have the all-MBA tag,

which means there are more players in the league that can get that $60 million. a year thing, which means there's more front offices in the league saying, is this guy great? Or is he so great we need to pay him $60 million a year to keep him in our uniform? Right. And there's a lot of these guys, like the Jalen Dern example, a lot of these guys, the answer is, we have to have a long conversation about this. We love this player. He's an excellent player.

We have to have a long conversation before we pay them $60 million a year. Well, and here's the deal, Jacoby. For nine years, you've been able to say, for nine years you've been able to say, okay, one spot's taken, because that's the honestest. And for seven years, you've been able to say, Yokic's a spot taken. For 21 years, you've been able to say there's only 14 spots available because LeBron's getting one of them. But now I'm saying nine, at least nine spots are going to be changed over.

That's at minimum. Nine spots. And to your point, like it used to be like kind of locked in, right? It's almost like when we were kids, I used to love the Major League Baseball All-Star game. And I knew Fred McGriff was going to be playing first. And I knew Ozzy Smith was the shortstop. Nolan Ryan's going to start the game. Cal Ripkin Jr. is playing shortstop for the American League.

And I knew. Of course, Wayne Boggs is on third. Right. Yep. And Matt Williams from the National League. It's like, but it's the same guy as Eric Davis. It's all, Tony Gwyn, he was all the same guys, like virtually every year. And that has been the case with all NBA, but now because of the 65 game rule and everything else,

that is one of the unintended consequences. So here's the thing. Oh, we've got the 65 day rule, but we're going to look up. And there's 75 guys in the NBA that have made all NBA. Well, NBA, because it's like whack a mole. Like, we've got a problem. All right. Guys aren't playing.

You know, we've got these, these broadcast companies are paying. us billions of dollars guys are missing games this is bad everyone hates load management oh problem problem let's fix it cool we'll make this 65 game rule right also we want parity we want to sort of like um make it harder for star players to move around as much and let's let's let's let's tighten up the cba and we'll attach we'll make sure that only the best players get paid by attaching the their their salary to the all-mba award well those two things are odds with each other now because as you mentioned there could be 16 guys that have an all MBA tag in their career and now there's teams that are sort of gonna they're they're gonna end up with a ton

of those sort of like jaron jackson junior decisions yep you know like the oh no it's been going around you may have seen this it's been very fascinating to me the palo thing the palo theory yes that it is better to just draft a bust than it is a second tier star yes because the bust at least you correct it fast, whereas the second tier star locks you into a guy that you can't win big with. And it's like, that's, we saw it sucks for it to be called. I don't think it's fair to call it the palo theory. He's still, yeah, but I think. Tray Young is a good example of that.

Trey Young is a good example of that. We're like, draft a guy and you're like, this, he's amazing. He's an offense all to himself. We went to the conference finals, pay him whatever it takes, keep in a hawks uniform. And then over time, you're like, all right, well, we can only sort of have one or two of these guys on the roster. Is he the right guy? And then Jalen Johnson comes along. Right.

It's interesting. All right, your last one. This sort of ties in with what we've been discussing, but like, you know, I mentioned on the show, I don't watch a ton of college hoops, but I watched that BYU, Y, Kansas game that Darren Peterson played in, and he was great. AJ DeBanza was, it wasn't even, he was unremarkable, I'll say, during that game. But then Peterson, obviously, in the game, didn't sort of play in the second half. He had a great first half.

You're wondering what's going on. And now it's completely blown up because he played against Oklahoma State. And we all know what happened. He's got, you know, he's like killing it in the first half. He's six for ten from three. And he hits a three and he turns to Bill's self and checks out of the game and never comes back in. And it's been a sort of mix of cramping, illness, ankle soreness. And it's just fascinating because I've never seen anything like this before.

No, nobody else. And like when you see someone... Well, wow, well, hold on. There are people that bring up the Kyrie thing, but Kyrie had a very real injury and only played seven games. The most common one that's brought up is Ben Simmons, who dicked around at LSU and kind of flaked a lot. And, you know,

I think there's more going on with the Ben Simmons thing. Actually, you know, people that did a documentary in that year at LSU. It's just odd. That's why that's one of the things I'm keeping an eye on. Like, Oh, yeah. He's so good. He looks so natural out there.

He's NBA ready. I've obviously talked, I've watched an immense amount and talked about this a lot on my local show for very good reason because the Grizzlies are going to have a very high pick in this draft. And so you have a, I have to have a keen awareness of all of these prospects. And it is just absolutely crazy. And what is more crazy to me is something that we talked about yesterday on, on my show was that. that all I'm hearing is everybody talk about this and how they would stay away and how are you going to explain this to NBA general managers

because it's either one of two things. It's either you are constantly hurt or you are faking it. Like there is no great option for why this was happening, right? Like one option is I get hurt constantly and one option is, yeah, I was just doing that on purpose. So I don't know how you really explain it away, whatever, or I was just protecting myself my body.

And then when they say, well, doesn't that, you know, what about your team? And then you have to answer it. It's just all. But then there's all kinds of talk about it. There's all kinds of videos about it. There's Stephen A. Smith talking about how this guy, I wouldn't touch him with the number one pick.

And there's this guy saying whatever. And then I would just alert anybody. Go to any mock draft in the world. Go to any of them today. Any of them. And he's number one on a number one. all of them. So not one human being, as far as I can tell, has dropped him. He has done all of this, has played when he wants to, checks himself out when he wants to, against the flu, his hurt,

sits out big games, and whatever. He's never hurt. He never pulls up with a cramp. He never gets stretched out by the trainer. He never, like, you never see him grab his head. Writing a bike or, yeah, yeah. It's like, it's nothing. No. Weird. Of course. it's weird and but yet that tells you how amazing he is he is so amazing that he can do all of this and still it still be the number one pick sometimes your talent is just so immense that it like people will put up with anything to wit i was watching a video early this morning mike mayyak was on a podcast and was like look man he's like he's talking about signing Antonio Brown. And he said, so he comes and he shows up with his Pittsburgh Steelers helmet and is

like telling our equipment guys, you have to paint this. I'm not. And they're like, it's this. Hey, and it's this old helmet that is totally illegal in the NFL. And he refuses to choose a different helmet. So we won't even practice because he can't wear his old bike helmet. Okay. Then he says he shows up to practice on in a hot air balloon he shows up to practice and then gets out of the hot air balloon and is not wearing shoes because his feet have frozen his feet off burn it and no frozen frozen burned similar yeah he froze his feet off in a crowd chamber and then and but then they say you know then he's on the field and they're like oh my god this guy is unbelievable and so what i'm telling you is it's funny that we're talking about this and I just saw that video this morning.

And it was P.S. Antonio Brown played for other team, Patriots and the Bucks after this, right? Like it wasn't like his career ended after he refused to not wear the real helmet, showed up in a hot air balloon with frozen feet. It's like, if you're that awesome, people put up with anything. And Darren Peterson is testing it is what I'm saying. Well, it's not because also those are sort of like what people, I don't really love this word, but think those are like character issues or like behavioral or field issues or things of that nature. We're like, oh, is it worth it?

You know what I mean? But then with Peterson, it's like there isn't even questions like that. You know, he seems like a pretty solid kid. Well, because even in that game, the Ogoma State game where you're like, what the hell? And his coach is like, what the hell? He had 23 points in 18 minutes. And self afterwards, in the press, I feel bad for him because he can't find the right words. He can't find the right words.

He's like, we've learned to play without him. It is concerning. But like, if it's cramping, how come he's never getting stretched or like eating a banana? You know what I mean? Like, come. Come on. Everybody knows what's going. Everybody knows what's going on.

He's the first load management college player we've ever had. But he's just going out and being like, look what I can do. I've shown you enough. This is all an audition anyway. so I don't need to audition anymore. Is that what he's doing? Yes. Is it that?

I mean, weird. Oh, look, I will tell you the first video I ever posted about this from our show, the first comment on it was Matt Barnett, who I've known for many of me, obviously, has his deal with Stephen Jackson. And he commented on it and said, agent,

that's what's going on. He's getting terrible advice is what's happening. The kid is getting, the idea that he is doing this all on his own. is goofy. He's getting terrible advice. And that happens all the time. There's all kinds of people that get terrible advice. Right. But it's, there's something about

playing really well in the first half, in the first three minutes in the second half and then be like, no. It's one thing to be like, I've got a hamstring issue. I don't want to jeopardize the future of my NBA career. I'm no longer going to play for the Kansas Jayhawks. I'll be at every single game rooting on my teammates who I love those are my brothers. And I'm just, I'm going to shut it down for the rest of the year. That makes more sense to me than I'm just going to play 18 minutes

and be absolutely dominant and then just sit down. It would be the equivalent of like if Marvin Harrison, you know, Jr. was in like at Ohio State, right? He was like the best receiver of the country. And he went out in the first half, he had 120 yards and three touchdowns. He's like, all right, you've seen what you need to see. It's kind of gangster in a way. Just to be like, look what I can do.

Now I want to get the spotlight to some of my teammates. so maybe they can get drafted too. It's weird. It is weird. There's no way. I got my eye on it. Oh, I know. Like you say,

you see something you've never seen before. I've never seen this before. I just haven't. Oh, trust me. I'm going to see something I've never seen before tonight as we wrap this up. I'm going to see the Memphis Grizzlies play against the Utah Jazz. And there's no telling who will be out on that court.

I might play tonight. Well, eat a banana. Hey, I might be playing against the jazz tonight. If they, if they release one more injury report, it's going to be, we're down to Chris Vernon's going to be played. No, no, I know exactly. And I will tell you this, I will accomplish your goal. I will lose and get hurt. Yes.

Here's what's going to happen is Tuomaz is going to look into the crowd, go, Vernon, get in here. And you're going to stand up. He's going to be like, no, no, no. I meant Haley, Vernon. on Jerry Jackson Jr.'s return, no less. Oh, no. Oh, Utah's probably going to roll him out in a wheelchair tonight. He's for real hurt.

How's the video production? We're going to stop the game. We're going to raise a band. Oh, not a dry eye. Not a dry eye. Is Haley going to the game? Hell no. All right.

It's going to do it for this episode. the mismatch. Thank you to our crew as always. Jesse, Jeff and Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week.