The Mismatch - Can SGA Make the Leap Next Season? Plus, Admiring All the Talent at the World Cup and the Lost Art of Rebounding.

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Verno and KOC continue to share their excitement for the ongoing FIBA Basketball World Cup (01:00). They discuss Team USA’s roster, which is filled with rising young talent, as well as their lack of size before diving into the rebounding issue that could be trouble for future rosters in the World Cup. Also, they dive into their mailbag and answer more emails! They discuss if Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can make the superstar leap next season, Noah Lyles's "world champions" comments, what the Raptors can do to return to contention, and so much more (20:45). Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, this is Craig Horlebeck from the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Join me, Danny Hifetz and Danny Kelly every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to help you win your draft, win your league, and most importantly, avoid that last place punishment. Follow the Ringer Fantasy Football Show on Spotify. Welcome to The Misfatch. I'm Chris Vernon, and join me as he does every Tuesday from the Ringer.com. It's Kevin O'Connor, A.K.K.E.O.comer, Kevin O'O. Kavana, Kevin O'Champer, Kevin O'Comphele, Kevin O'Con. How are you doing, man? I'm doing great. We've had football begin.

Obviously, the NFL is going to be started later this week, but we have not been without basketball as the World Cup has been going on. Since we last spoke, we have seen the United States lose to Lithuania. And then this morning beat Italy. And so now they move on to the next round. They will play the winner of Germany and Latvia, which I cannot say I will get up for. It is going to take place at 3.45 a.m. And then I am for sure, though, going to get up tomorrow morning to watch Canada versus Slovenia, because that is going to be Lucidac versus SGA and the rest of his Canadian brethren.

I got to be honest, I going into this thought I would just kind of watch here and there. But the longer this has gone on, the more interested I have become. And it also gets me excited about international basketball in the biggest stage when the Olympics come around. Because as you're watching this, the quality of play is so high. And as we talked about a few weeks ago, I love to pay. of it. I love some of the rules. And so I got to be honest, I have, I've super enjoyed watching this. And this team USA is by no means a sure thing to win, which actually has made me even more interested than certainly if they were going and mauling people and maybe would have one or two

competitive games. And we kind of got to see that with the Lithuania thing over the weekend. But I'm pro World Cup. I am. I like this. Absolutely. I mean, it's like you said, we can repeat the same point we made a couple weeks ago, but it's just the quality of play,

the pace of play, the 40-minute runtime for the game, the lack of commercials, not rewarding, flopping, and flaring your arms around and drifting. The quality of play is something that the NBA should take note about. And I think the sediment that we share, listeners have said to us through the mailbag agreeing with us on points like that offering their thoughts.

I've seen people tweeting about it, talking about how the NBA needs to be taking note of everything happening with FBA. It feels like it's not like this is the first year anybody has ever watched FBA, but doesn't it feel like people are expressing that more than ever before? Do you think it's because the disparity is so wide at this point between the NBA and FBA that people are like, whoa, this is actually really nice to watch. I think that is certainly part of it. The other thing is even that the amount of guys that are involved in it,

so now Canada is stock full of guys that people they are familiar with, right? Generally, there are some of these teams where they've just got one or two guys on their team that you are familiar with. But in those cases, especially with the good team, it's like Luca. Like you may not be aware of everybody else for Slovenia, but you know

that one of the best players in the world is on their team. Or Latvia. You watch them and you know Davis Bertons. You may know one or two other guys. But for the most part,

I do think that there are fan bases that are involved and I do think it's Kind of a function of it being, they always talk about how it's a global game, it's a global game. And there's no better example of this because you're watching it. You're seeing NBA players on this stage. And I think that the young stars being involved in this and that they're so widespread. There's not a bunch of guys from the same teams or guys that you're bored with.

like the last World Cup or whenever that was that they ended seven. Like that was like Campbell Walker and Brooke Lopez and Chris Middleton. And yeah, they had some young guys at the time, which were like Tatum and Brown and those guys. But like this team is a bunch of guys that we think are kind of up next. And when you're watching Halliburton and you're watching Anthony Edwards and you're watching Jerry Jackson Jr. and you're watching Michael Bridges and these guys, they're kind of the ones that are up next. And so I think that just the interest in team you,

it's a fun team. It's a fun team rather than just a bunch of guys that aren't like the Olympic guys that are kind of, I think these guys move the needle in the NBA. And they're ones that you seek out and want to watch on league pass and they're fun. And when you juxtapose that against what I talked about, at the last time where they ended up seventh. They were kind of a disappointment. It's a lot different.

This has been a fun, young team to watch and kind of think about how they're going to grow and also take their lumps. That Lithuania team, I tweeted out, we have one guy with muscles, and he was the one Anthony Edwards. It's like the rest of them is like getting pushed around out there. Over and over, they were strong. Those were grown-ass men that knew exactly. kind of offense they wanted to run, trying to find every mismatch, throwing

Jerry Jackson around, throwing, putting Austin Reeves in the basket every other possession, finding mismatches, hitting every three. Like, they just played unbelievable basketball. And I think it's fun to watch all the, like, young next up stars go through that. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, you know, for Team USA specifically, I mean, obviously in their lot of, They just didn't have beef.

They have Jaron Jackson Jr. playing center. They have Paolo Ben-Caro playing center. But through an NBA lens watching these guys, especially Banerero, him playing center, something he barely did it at all for the magic and something that he really can't do, considering their amount of bigs that they have on their roster, Wendell Carter in the front court, among others, seeing him do it for Team USA. Like, he had a play against Italy today in the second half, where he was like rotating around on defense, read the pass,

deflected it, next possession, he has a block. It was like this amazing defensive sequence on back-to-back possessions where you're like, oh, my goodness, if he were playing this style in the NBA, he's one of those guys, like all everybody else are talking about, he's up next. So I think we're seeing some of these players, again, through an NBA lens in a different environment

in a different system that's exciting. Like it makes me feel more excited about the future of the NBA watching some of these guys Tyrese Halliburton. We already know what he can do, but seeing these guys together on the court with their high basketball IQ, the style of play, I hope they get a

rematch and I want to see how they end up going against the size of some potential opponents in the next round. So I'm very excited. That's what I think is really going to lock in and it's like I'm going to want to watch every game even if it's not live. It's going to have to be something where it's like first thing

in the morning. Like, you just, you got to, you got to find a way to be up for it. Well, it's got, it's paralyzed.

We're not going to get to see a play Lithuania, because Lithuania got, picked off. Now, right before we started recording this, and they lost to Serbia. That's right. And,

I mean, do you want to talk about physical? So, Serbia, I don't know, this Simenac guy, who's one of their best players, they had,

like, the jersey, like, laid out on the bench. for him because I think it was South Sudan that they were playing. Anyway, the guy got elbowed in the kidney and was injured so badly that they ended up doing like a surgery on him. And then as of Sunday, they had to go do another surgery and extract the damn kidney. Oh, my God.

I mean, I never heard of such a thing. He got elbowed in the kidney and he lost his kidney. So they came out and it was like, you know, Lithuania, who's like riding high as can be one of the greatest moments in Lithuania basketball history that emphatic win that they had against the United States, they just run into an absolute buzzsaw. And again, one of those teams that we're talking about, like they got a couple of guys. They've got Bogdanovich. They've got Jovich who's playing, you know, the young guy for the heat. And they got some other players. Marco Guderich, who was once a Grizzly's draft pick.

But, man, there's some hard-nosed basketball going on out there. And to your point about having to play against some of these big guys, these grown-ass men, you know, Italy couldn't do it. Number one, Italy can't shoot threes. It took a bunch of open ones. They couldn't make them. and they also don't have like big size. They were a perfect matchup for the United States to run out on. You got to be able to shoot because you're not going to make your way on Tuesday against the United States.

But the size thing is real and I don't know. You know, it's easy to just put all the blame on Bancaro, Jackson, and the rest. But that's kind of how they've built this roster. and you do wonder going forward. Mark Stein in his newsletter had something that shocked me. He said, he was talking about the rebounding issue with the United States. It's a newsletter he put out today. And it said, Anthony Davis averaged 12.5 rebounds in 56 games last season.

That would have topped Demontas Sabonis' league leading 12.3 rebounds per game. But he didn't qualify. No American as that result officially placed higher than ninth in rebounds per game. And that was Julius Randall, who was the lone American in the top 11. In each of the past three seasons, in fact, only one American has cracked the top 10 in rebounds per game. before Randall last year, Wendell Carter Jr. at number nine for the magic in 21-22

at 10 and a half rebounds and Russell Westbrook when he played for the Wizards. Averaged 11.5 rebounds per game. I mean, and you think about it like when you're on the international stage, like Janice is going to be playing and, and uh, uh, Nicolioch is going to be playing. And you better like convince Embed to play for you instead of France or something. Like it's like there's these teams and Subonis wasn't even playing for Lithuania.

And they got every rebound against you. And it's like, it's kind of shocking to think about like, bam out of bio, hopefully we'll play in the next one. But the fact that there have not been American. that have been, like the guys that are in the tops and rebounding aren't American-born players. And I don't know if you really can use it as an advantage

with your, you know, slight, you know, small ball. Like, America has to play small ball. That's what they decided to do after they took the lugs last time around and got smoked. They tried Brooke Lopez and plumbull. in that group and they got trashed.

So I don't know. And I don't know. I guess it's, you know, I know you're going to sound like an old, old man, but like, anybody that's worked their salt that from a very young age is facing up to the basket. Like, we don't have bigs, like traditional bigs. And on that international stage, boy, it could show up big time. Sure could use a, like a. Roy Hibbert.

Roy Hibbert. Need somebody. What I mean? I mean? Jared Allen? All right? Mowbly, maybe. Yeah.

You know, one of the other guys, Stein brought up as, I mean, Isaiah Stewart. Or maybe Kevon Loney, even. Oh, Looney's a good one.

I mean, we just don't have, yeah, Looney at least could get down there, bang with whoever's big, but it's going to be interesting to see if that shows up because they got absolutely smoked Montenegro and Lithuania outrebounded them 92 to 58.

Kevin, 39 to 5 on second chance points in those two games. United States has got to keep everybody off the board. But I hope like hell we get a Canada game. Yeah, that'd be awesome. And that wouldn't be until the final, though. That's right. but then they got Slovenia

and Dennis Schroeder is the best player in the world and he plays for Germany he's got to take on the Latvian laser but that Canada team was dead to right and Gildes Alexander either scored or assisted on every single point down the stretch and then Dylan Brooks hit just one of the biggest shots of Canadian

basketball history I know yeah crazy the SGA at the end of that game was absolutely sensational and not to just to like insert a quick mailbag question we got here Chris. Yeah. We did get it. We got an SGA related question

and thought from Ethan. He was talking about how great he's been in the tournament and how SGA stood out to him and he said, do you guys see OKC becoming a championship team with SGA as their number one guy? I do. I think SGA's capable of being a number one.

I think he could be the best player on a title team. I agree with you completely. And this could be the year that he thrusts himself into that conversation. Last year was like, oh, yeah, well, who's going to be fifth on MVP ballots? He's an all-N-B-A guy. I think this is the year he establishes himself as the number one guy on a championship hopeful. OK, so he's not there yet as a young team, but SGA can be number one. Yeah, and so we're clear, I mean, if you are, if you're going to be the best player on a title team,

history tells us that in order to tell you got to have like one of the best five guys, six guys in the league. Yep. Like that Pistons team is the extreme outlier. Even when Dirk did it, Dirk was one of the best five, six guys in the league. Like you got to have one of those guys.

So that's very, very high praise that we're making for SGA. But could we look up and SGA is one of those guys? Again, it's different to say. they will win one, then could they? And just the idea that he even has a chance of being one of the, you know, five, ten best players in the league.

We could look up at one of the five best players in the league for a season was Gilgis Alexander. I don't think it's completely out of the realm of possibility. He is awesome. And he just took over that game completely like a superstar would. like he's special talent for sure um so i think he could yeah i think you probably i don't know if you'd win it but could you get there with him being your best player you'd have a chance he's awesome when we get sGA versus luka wednesday morning in the wee hours of the morning

i wonder depending on how this game goes will it be a discussion point is sGA better than Luca. Will that be something that happens? This week? Could it be something during the season? Could it be come during the season,

Chris? I mean, I think if he plays like he did last year, and they're going to be on TV a lot more and his team's a lot better, that certainly he's going to get into all manner of conversations. I mean, this guy,

what are we talking about? He's like a first team all NBA player already, you know, But you start getting into best player conversations when your team's awesome. And so he has not had that type of success yet. But the team's success, once he gets on that playoff stage and delivers on that playoff stage, then it's a different deal. And that's when you really vault.

I mean, that is the next step. He has to do that. He has to get to the playoffs and be the guy. and Luke has already done that. He's been the guy in the playoffs and has put the fear of God into teams that he's lost to and teams that they've beaten has been a huge problem. So he ain't got a bunch of guys with him for Slovenia.

And that Canada team should be able to throw Dylan Brooks at him and then dorn at him and like just a revolving door of guys making his life hail making other guys on Slovenia be awesome but yeah I think so I don't think it's necessarily fair

on this level but once that's the next step for SGA like not just be the great regular season guy but be the best player on a team that's winning in the playoffs right? True. Yeah, That's where you prove yourself. But I do think he's,

I think we both think he's capable of that. And that's where, like last year, Yokic, to me, took the best player in the world title during the postseason. That's where you truly prove yourself

is April to June. And it's why everybody is down on envy. Yes. And Luca's been to Western Conference finals. He has proven himself despite having some shoddy supporting castes. He has performed at the biggest of stages. He's gone toe to toe

with Kauai Leonard. He has had the biggest performances in the biggest games. SGA needs to do that. That's when he can thrust himself into that discussion. Yeah, we can move on to the mailback. That's a good question. I do think, I mean, we're both very, very high on Gildes-Alexander.

And anybody, you can roll your eyes, anybody that watched that watch that Canada game in the last like five minutes when they're down nine. I mean, I don't know how you could not think this, this, this, he's easily one of the best players in the world. He's just got to deliver on the biggest stage, as you said.

Simon from Australia had a World Cup related question. We didn't talk about this last week when it was a topic of the week, but he said interested in, interested to hear your thoughts on Noah Lyle's recent comments about how the NBA uses the term world champions. The one thing

I have taken issue with this whole debate question is the NBA doesn't use the term world champions. If you listen back to Adam Silver introducing the Nuggets after they won the finals, handing them over the Larry O'Brien trophy. He says they are, you are the 2023 NBA champions. If you go back any year to Mark Tatum introducing the Warriors the year prior, he says,

you are the 2022 NBA champions. It's the teams or media that will say world champions or players you might say we're world champions, but the NBA doesn't call you world champions. They call you NBA champions. They do author. I mean, look, it's their shirt. Their shirts. the shirts that say world champions.

Maybe there are shirts with the NBA logo, but regardless. Yeah. It is the best league in the world. This is the international league where all the best players in the world do go to. You kind of are world champions. You are. You're playing all the best players. In the world.

In the world. It is a global sport. Yes, it just takes place in America. But. With a team in Canada. and occasionally a game overseas. Yeah, it's not like you're just playing against a bunch of

Americans. Yeah. You're playing against everybody. In fact, the best five guys in the league are from overseas. I think it's totally valid to call it world champions when it is the best league in the world with the best players

in the world. It just so happens that 29 of 30 teams are in America. Yeah. Shame. for Noah Liles, right? I mean, like, for everybody to be, did, I didn't know him, did you know him? Like, now, that's all anybody knows. Is it Noah Liles is the guy that made all the NBA players mad?

And like, had Damian Lillard tweeting out, you know, was this dude on or whatever he tweeted? Get him some help, whatever, yeah. You know, and Traymond tweeting out when being smart goes wrong. I mean, I don't understand picking a fight over that anyway. I know, it's goofy. Are. You know what I'm saying? Like, why wouldn't you, I don't know.

Do you really care? Do you really care if they call themselves world champions? Does it matter at all. Do you think that somebody else is entitled to that? I mean, okay. So I guess if you win the Olympics, you're the world champion. Is that what? Is that the way you say it?

I mean, which is, I don't know. Carmelo Anthony, three-time world champion then. Good for him. I think he's got three golds. so who knew? A question from a player who has yet to win an NBA finals. Jonathan had said he's a Utah Jazz fan. He watched Donovan Mitchell get better over the years.

He always felt like when Mitchell was in Utah that he'd be at his best if he were the point guard of a team surrounded by a bunch of length, at guard, at wing, at Ford. And now he watches Mitchell on the Cavs. He's still a fan of Mitchell, he says. But the Cavs have Darius Garland, so that isn't likely to happen anytime soon in Cleveland. even like a tenant in Utah.

Is there a world in which Mitchell becomes the point guard of a team and takes his team to the next level? Phrasing that a little bit of a different way, Chris. Do you think Mitchell on this Cavs roster is presently constructed can be a leader on a championship team, or does this Cavs roster have limited upside as presently constructed? It has limited upside because of the way it's built with the two bigs that neither of them can shoot.

I agree. Too easy to defend. It's too easy to defend. Too much overlap. Two small guards. Two bigs who don't shoot threes. That's got limited ceiling. You got to space it out. Right?

I get it. They had a lot of success. But, I mean, you saw when a team just could dedicate to game planning them. Didn't work. Moby wasn't any good. Allen was atrocious. And it's like, okay. Now, what's the, you know,

You blame the coach if you want, but I don't think it's Bickersstaff's fault. Like, what was he going to go to? He's not the bench. Yeah. And it's like, I know that, you know, they've tried a couple different guys at three. You know, they gave Kevin Love away for nothing. Kevin Love could at least spaced it out for him, you know, where he played one big. And then Mitchell is an impossible one-on-one guard.

truly. And I think Garland is that way either. But they got to space that thing out. They've got to find somebody at three and four that has to be honored a way to even get the full potential of probably both of those guys. I think Mitchell is absolutely awesome. And I do think that, yes, he could be a guy that. a guy that delivers like, you go look at his playoff numbers. That guy has delivered in the playoffs. He is one of the highest points per game of anybody. But they've got some roster stuff to figure out to not be so so easy to game plan against because it is different. Regular season is one thing.

But once they got against a good coach like Tibbs that could just decide, okay, we're going to take away this, this, and this, then now you've got problems on your hands. I don't think he has to be a point guard either. I think you can play off the ball. Yeah, I think you just need size. If you can find a big ball handler who can share the creation responsibilities, that's the ideal.

Mitchell Garland in the back court has a limited ceiling. Alan Mowgli in the front court has a limited ceiling, and they need to, in some way, shape, or form flip one of those guys on the back court, Mitchell or Garland, and then in the front court, they need Mowbly to extend his range to three. It's a must. It has to happen. And if it doesn't, they're just not going to be anything more than maybe a East Finals team. And you want to be much more than that. Well, and even if he's not going to cap, then have your center, a guy that can at least face it up. Well, that's how that's easier than said the Dundda to find. That's really tough. Like I've said to you a hundred times,

is only one Brooke Lopez. There's not a lot of bigs that can shoot threes unless you're a superstar level talent. Or MoBomba. Or MoBamba. MoBamba, definitely. Or Christian Wood, the unsigned Christian Wood. Oh, God.

I wonder if he's playing in China next year or if he's waiting for something to shake out with the heat or the Lakers or something like that. We'll find out in the months to come. seasons in what eight weeks not months and weeks to come question from Marvin has there ever been a time when you're on-air arguments carried over to outside the podcast like you couldn't resolve the debate while recording and ended up exchanging words after or over text message I don't remember one I don't think so either no like where there was a like something basketball wise that we don't think so no ever I mean I think that's the good thing about us is we just we we love talking and debate in basketball. It's not ever anything personal. Like it's never has been.

I mean, like maybe like goofs, but not like no, we didn't settle it. Like more like, yeah, more like goofs. Like if like maybe he would send me like same way people would see like on Twitter. Like if Killian Hayes went off, he would rub it in my face or if. somebody, or if the Grizzlies lost, he'd rub it in my face or I would rub it in his face if somebody got cut. But yeah, no, no like, no like debate where it was like, oh, I'm not letting this go. Like we're pretty well, I think that's why we're still together. The people that would, I would tell you this, pairings that you think would fight off the air on TV or radio or podcast,

ones that would fight like off the air would not be together for seasons or whatever we've been together I mean this is gonna be this is our eight season come out seriously that you can't let it go

whereas I mean I we're gonna get done recording this I'm gonna move on with my day I'm not I'm gonna go get my I'm gonna go get my haircut and get ready for Vegas this week for the G League night games against Perth I'm excited We certainly goofed with each other, but not, no, no debate that I can ever remember.

If anything, you and I are due for like a big basketball argument. I feel like there's been over this past season and a lot of... Too much agreement. Yeah, but that's what makes our show so enjoyable is there's no manufactured. There never has been any manufactured disagreements or debates. It's always just been natural. So I think in that case... All right, I'll decide to.

I'll decide something. Oh, yeah. I mean, I know the next one will be natural. Yeah. It would be manufactured if I took the side of, no, the cavaliers can be champions with Mitchell and Garland in the back court. So for everybody out there that wants an argument, this is the year. You'll be able to get there. I think it will.

When Mark is smart is thriving for the Grizzlies and Porzengis is sitting with a boot on his foot. and I'm rubbing it in. He's going to get super salty and then it'll ignite. I think this is going to be the year. This year when I kind of review, like when I think I had our articles I want to write and whatnot, and I think about my thoughts on teams, I think this is the year where we're going to find some strong disagreements.

There are a lot of divisive teams that I'm excited to talk about in the months to come. Armin is from Iran, and he's working as a manager for a Division I college basketball team here in the U.S. and he asked, do you have any advice for me who hasn't played basketball at a high level but wants to work in an NBA front office? How do I make that leap? I think he's doing it already, Chris.

As a manager on a college basketball team, you're doing it. That's step one, right? Yeah. A lot of ones that I know that have made it to front offices, go get a law degree. A lot of lawyers in these places now. That's true.

A law degree certainly helps. Number one, Be a good guy, an honest guy, and a friendly guy. True to yourself and kind of others. Somebody that people want to be around. That sounds crazy, but that is advice for anybody in any walk of life. I don't care if you're trying to get in an NBA front office or you're trying to get to any job. If you are somebody that people like to be around, and that sometimes can take effort, that means that you aren't.

you're not always wearing your emotions on your sleeve. Sometimes you have bad days, but you can't let that permeate your workplace, especially if you have some level of influence on it, right? There's plenty of days where I may have a million things going on, but if I allow that to affect this show, if I allow that to affect the people I'm working with on a daily basis, then I don't want to be a drain, right? And that doesn't mean the whole thing. it all in. But what that does mean is that you have a responsibility to, you're part of something. When you're part of whether it's a college team or an NBA team or whatever, I have seen so many guys over the years that maybe not or who would be the best at their jobs or the most capable or the most talented. But they are somebody that people love. having as part of the team. It is the trick to being the 14th and 15th man on an NBA roster. That guy cannot be a dickhead.

He can't. And there are a million of them that are overseas or having the G League or whatever that are better basketball players. But they don't like their plight. They were an attitude issue. They didn't want to come to practice, whatever. And so I don't think it's any different in the NBA than it is in most businesses or most things in life. I would, you know, work the hardest.

And I would attempt to be a great teammate that people want to be around. And qualifications-wise, there are going to be people that are more capable, more qualified, smarter, all that kind of stuff. But whatever job you are asked to do, if you do that, you know, as hard as you possibly can, if you give everything you've got and you make sure that people around you enjoy working with you, I think you can go a long way and virtually anything. You know, once upon a time, and it doesn't matter that you didn't play basketball. Bill Belichick didn't play football. Eric's Bolstra What NBA team was he on? Right?

I mean, he was once upon a time He was in a video room And I think that's another great place to be too You know, video room Yeah, scouting You're way up Yes And you do have to be patient

You have to be patient That's right And you're getting in on the bottom level And trying to soak up as much knowledge As you possibly can I have been stunned over the years at the amount, the willingness of executives in the NBA and in the NFL to help young people that profess a great interest. There's a lot of people in front offices now that started off as interns a lot. One of them, one of the best and the most highly regarded in the league with Sai U Jerry.

he is born in England. He grows up in Nigeria. He's playing soccer until he's like 13, 14. He never was an NBA player either, right? Like he never was. And I think with Maasai, that's a great example of the heights you can reach. And we had a question about Maasai Ujiri as well from Adam in Bolivia.

He now lives in Toronto. He's a Raptors fan. And he believes in Maasai we trust thing that Raptors fans have. but he feels concerned with the state of the team. So his question is, what are your takes on where the team should go moving forward, and do you see a path back to contention? It does seem like with the Raptors,

people around the league, I've said this on this pod, others have reported it. People around the league don't really know what they're doing, what direction they're doing. They sense disagreement within the Raptors front office on what direction to go. That's old news at this point.

but they seem to be kind of straddling that middle purposely. It's as if they're waiting for which path to go, whether that's making a big splash acquisition, they were one of the teams that were kind of flirting with the idea of Kevin Durant a year ago. And now it's at the point that they're the team that can be flirting with trading guys away, Pascal Seackem or OG and Anobi,

and they just haven't chosen a path yet. normally I would say that you should choose and pick either blowing it up and being a younger team and rebuilding or going all in contending. But with the position they're in, I don't exactly mind this strategy. I would love to see what the team looks like this coming season.

If Scotty Barnes can get better from his sophomore slump that he had, if he can continue on the trajectory he seemed to be on as a rookie, I'd love to see this team with Jacob Pertel with a full training camp with what he could provide defensively as a center. I'd just be curious to see these guys before I choose the direction

and determine who I want to keep moving forward whether it's with the hopes of contending in the near term or whether it's going really young and building for the future. Yeah, I think didn't they hire my guy Darko to be the coach there? They sure did, yes. Yeah, that signals to me where they're going.

Young. Darko is Oh, he's an amazing player development guy. And people are going to love him in Toronto. You listen to guys within the Grizzlies organization, like Desmond Bain, like Jaron Jackson Jr., I mean, integral role in their development into the players that they have become. And another guy going back to the other thing, everybody loves, right? Loves being around, you know, if you ask somebody, there's not one person you could find that would say a false word. about Darko.

But Darko is, I don't think, sometimes you hire like a win now coach, like what they're trying to do in Phoenix with Frank Vogel, right? Like that's a team that they, it's ready to win. And so go get a guy that, you go. And when you hire somebody like Darko, I think that that shows that you're probably closer to a youth movement than you are a,

let's go try to win this thing right now. You know, like when they had Nick Nurse, for that matter. I think you build out around Barnes. I'm still all in on Scotty Barnes and kind of what he can be in this league. It's never been ideal fit with him in Siakum. And so I would think that a Pascal Seaccombe deal, like he very well may be best player available for an amount of time. And that you could get a, you might be able to get a King's Ransom for

And whether that is, doesn't necessarily have to be rebuild materials, or whether that's young players and some picks and kind of stocking up and building towards the Barnes, you know, the Barnes timeline and when he'll be able to win big as an awesome player in the league. And so I, yeah, I think you're, you're kind of in the middle right now. But you got assets for sure. And you could either, I would just kind of. You don't have to bottom out at all. Just kind of more of a youth movement and get it more towards the the Barnes timeline and building out around that.

Because I do think you can get good value. Maybe not what Messiah wants, which is, you know, 17 first round draft picks for OG and and OB. But you probably get something. Last thing from the mailbag today from David. He's a high school math teacher in the Bay Area. He doesn't have a question. He just wanted to let us know that your bit, that's true, that might be true, that's ridiculous. It's making its way into his classroom next week.

He says, I'm going to be putting geometry problems and statements on my whiteboard, and students are going to need to answer if that statement is true, that might be true, or that's ridiculous. I just, I mean, you came up with that, Chris, just had to share the. that, that you are indirectly educating the masses, making us a smarter population, helping kids become adults. It's just wonderful the things you do, Chris. Into the classroom, huh? What an impact.

It is a great bit. It's a really great bit. We've made it into a math classroom in San Francisco. Should have trademarked it. It could have made some money off it. I don't think they pay anybody for doing something at a math class. Are they doing in person in San Francisco yet? I'm kidding.

Come on. I'm kidding. More Zoom. Hell, I'll teach your math class. Right. Come on, come on screen. All right. Always.

pleasure, Kevin. I'm super looking forward to the end of this World Cup. It's going to, we'll get the semifinals, and then we're going to, hopefully the United States will be in the finals, which would be on Sunday. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always, and Kevin, I'll talk to you next week. Have a good week.