The Mismatch - Can Steph Curry and the Warriors Reach the Postseason?

Episode Date: January 5, 2021

Chris and Kevin go through all the big games and story lines in the NBA, kicking it off with a discussion about Tom Thibodeau’s 4-3 Knicks and their win over the Hawks on Monday (0:39). Then they get into Steph Curry’s incredible performance over the past couple of games and what the Warriors need to do to reach the postseason (15:30), the Kings’ abysmal start to the season (27:31), and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum’s tag-team takedown of the Raptors (36:16).  Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, this is Kevin O'Connor. On today's episode of The Mismatch, Chris Vernon and I got into a lot that's happening around the NBA, including the Knicks and their fast start. What's real and what's not? We got into the Warriors with Steph Curry going off and some of the adjustments Steve Kerr has made. The Raptor struggles. The Celtics young stars continuing to get better and better. We got into the Sixers, the Kings a whole bunch.

All that's coming up next. Welcome to The Misfatch. I'm Chris Vernon. and join as he does every Tuesday for the Ringer.com. It's Kevin O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Compenter, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Candekin'Kegh, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Candorne. Kevin O'Konekin'n O'Brien, Kevin O'Contin'clock already that has been played. As every week goes by, I find our opinion shifting on all manner of things. but let's go through big stories so far.

The first of which is last night, I am flipping around. It is the first Monday night that there is no Monday night football on. And so NBA really had center stage. And so I'm flipping around on League Pass. I land on the Knicks Hawks because the Knicks have been a good story recently. They've won a couple of games recently. I love listening to Mike Breen and Clutch Fraser anyway.

And so there I am watching it. And they put in, quickly. Oh, yeah. From Kentucky, who they got in this past year's draft, and you could feel the energy of the game, and you could feel the game flipping,

and sure enough, the Knicks get this awesome comeback win against Atlanta last night. And Tom Tidow, who had put quickly in the game, the game starts to flip. He rolls with him and plays him the entire fourth game.

quarter. I loved this because coaching to win. No, this is the moment, right, where okay, kid had a good run for us and now we're going to go back to our starter and we're going to let them finish the game out. Instead, that momentum had flipped that he

stuck with quickly and I will tell you that as I'm watching that game last night, and I even watched the post game interview that they did with quickly, I was really impressed that I tweeted this out. I think of your Nick's fan and you're watching that game, you know, there is nothing more fun than a rookie breaking out or a rookie, like watching a rookie and feeling like, oh, we might have nailed this.

And again, it's one game, but he was super impressive. You could tell he's an energy player. He was picking guys up off the floor. He was running around. And then he's not, he certainly is not swallowed up by the moment. I mean, this guy played with extreme confidence in that game. And so that was, that was the. The first thing that stood out last night as I was flipping around is watch it quickly.

The other thing is Lloyd Pierce better watch out. They spent a fortune in the offseason. They've blown a couple of games already this season like this, where they had big leads, and you know how tied the tension gets in an organization that spends a fortune in the off season with the expectation of winning. If you start blowing games, even a couple here and there that could cost you, then you're always going to be in danger. Anyway,

let's talk about the next first. Yeah, the quickly, you know, quickly, I mean, dude, this is somebody that in the drafts,

he's somebody who you watch his game and you like him a lot. But then you're like, oh, he's only six foot three. He's kind of lean, a bit skinny. He doesn't have the best playmaking chops for a player his size. But the fact is that this dude already is shown that he just plays a winning style with his energy that he brings on the court with his,

with his length. six foot 10 wingspan and activity on the defensive end of the floor. He can make up for some of the, the fact he's only six, three, the fact he's under, under 200 pounds because of his length and quickness and just this feel and the shooting ability, the shooting. It's so fun to watch this guy play. And for the Knicks, he kind of embodies what they're becoming overall this year. Well, the Knicks win a lot of games.

Will they be over 500? They're four and three right now. I don't know. I mean, like, opponents are shooting under 30% from three against them. So there's some shooting luck involved for their defensive success. But the fact is that quickly, R.J. Barrett, Julius Randall even, these guys are playing better team basketball. Julius Randall in particular has stuck out to me, Chris, because he's somebody I've been very critical of over the years with his play, his feel for the game,

some of his decision making. And he still has some sloppy turnovers, but he's averaging over seven assists the season. he's making quicker decisions on the floor. He's actually hitting his threes. He looks like the guy that people had hoped for when he was a young player. He's putting it together. And I'm impressed by the development where we're seeing from some of these next young players. For Tibbs, a guy that coaches, people say is a coach who isn't about development.

These young guys seem to be coming along pretty well underneath them. Well, and you remember a couple of months ago, I made the argument, the impassioned argument about them hiring him. I loved the hire of Tibido. And I said he had the youngest rookie of the year in the history of the NBA and Derek Rose. He developed Jimmy Butler. Joachim Noah was in the top three in MVP voting as a young player in the league. So that was all, that was just ridiculousness.

That being said, you know, there were some Knicks fans last night. Knicks fans really feeling themselves. Oh, yeah. We got tagged in a post. Tagged on a post about a, from a video that we did about their off season. which, you know, I didn't even respond because I was so confused about this. Like, I hated their offseason. And it is because I am of the mindset that you try to win games.

And that is what will entice players to want to come to a market like that. We saw this happen with the Los Angeles Clippers. We've seen this happen in other markets where the winning is what guys then, they see something being built. I saw that with the Clippers when they got Kauai, Paul George. And then they want to get attached to that, right? It's going on the right trajectory. And so this idea that, you know, they made these moves in the off season with the idea

of being bad in order to tank because it's a great year to tank, I'm always going to be against that. I'm always going to be against it. But so the idea, if they are winning, this plays into exactly what I like. You know what I mean? And they appear to be competitive thus far. And they've got a good. energy around that team.

You got a lot of their guys talking shit online, you know, and, and even quickly last night, talk about like, we know nobody thinks that were any good and whatever. And that can all just be. There's some buy-in. That can all be talk. But it does feel like there's a good chemistry on that team. And at least they're playing competitive basketball. That's all you do want from the Knicks this season.

Like for them, like I said, opponents are shooting under 30% from three against them. that's not going to continue. I mean, there's going to be nights where they get shredded under the defensive end of the floor. They're still allowing a fair amount of open shots, both behind the arc and inside. So for them, they're going to start dropping some games.

It's just a matter of the fact that this is a competitive team. The effort that they're playing with is high. So even if they finish, you know, under 500 with one of the bottom five records, you can still look like a competent franchise. Well, and that's what the next.

so far are and you would hope that this effort level continues and with tibbs at coach like you said he finished that game with quickly he finished it with austin rivers the guy that helped bring them back into that game he's coaching to win so to me this is a team that even if they do start dropping games which they will they're going to remain competitive and that's where i feel confident with this team taking a step forward this year resembling something that a star might look at yeah and it's like hey well i like what they're building and here's a thing, and well, and Leon Rose and William Wesley, if there's anything they have, it is tremendous relationships throughout the league and the ability to get players.

Well, what you busted them up for. It was like doing agent favors and whatnot with some of the contracts. Well, that's, you know, that's part of the game. Well, yeah, but that was their offseason. That was not, that was not to get. That was not to get other players. That was just every Kentucky alum come here and we'll give you $100,000 for showing up. that being said

you know it's just simple stuff like and Tibbs is having a the damnedest time with this face mask you know having to wear that thing because he's just got to pull it down to scream because he loves screaming the entire time I mean it's funny like using a face max like it doesn't stop the

the sound coming out of your mouth like you slowly heard through the phone he doesn't care when you're on the phone so I'm telling you this it's just about when you do some stupid stuff when you take terrible shots, when you make terrible

plays that passes and don't read and react correctly, it is about there being consequences to that. There's so many guys right now, and especially on a team that's not competitive. You would be amazed at just how competitive you can be by getting the bad habits out of guys,

right? Yeah. This is a bad shot. We don't live with that. And there's going to come a time when we're good, and that shit doesn't fly, so don't do that now, right? And it seems like basic stuff, but it is the type of stuff that Tibbs installs into a young team. You can see his level of disdain towards ridiculous plays or bad shots or what, and just

at their being. Or when other teams do stuff. Did you see when Tray Young drew one of his files and Tibbs did like his impersonation of it? Hey. He's a hoops junkie. I love Tibbs. I love watching him coach.

Trace falling into Hardin level on this stuff. And I know you talked about the whole, and Steve Nash, who it's a little different coming from him. It's a little different coming from him as a former MVP. You know, he came out and said after their game, that's not basketball, right? When you are, when you're trying to get somebody to run up your back. And this is the thing I argued about Harden for so long. it's like I his scoring ability is exquisite I hate the idea of playing for the foul right you're not playing to make the shot you're not playing to get a good shot you're playing

to get the foul and that's the thing that drives me crazy and obviously you are seeing other coaches get irate by this no doubt about it and understandably so that you get pissed off about it to me like the way I look at it is the same way I do with James Harden if they're going I'm going to call it? If that's the way that the game is going to be, then it's something that you should exploit as a player if you have that in your capabilities. And for Trey Young, until this becomes something that they're taking that out of the game, it's all fair game to me for him to do that. The real question is, do you want this type of foul where he has a defender on his back and he makes a non-move for a real attempt at a shot? It's a move only to draw a foul. Do you want that

in the game if you're the NBA? I would probably lean towards no, because of the conversation that we're having here because of the fact that it's not necessarily as Steve Nash, should a basketball play. The NFL did a good job this year of having less offensive holding penalties. Of course, it's just as much offensive holding as there's always been, but nobody likes watching offensive holding. It's about making the game fair, but also the fact is that you do need to make it as entertaining as possible for people watching at home or in the stands and limited social distancing amounts right now. But still, you got to make entertaining for everybody. That's a Kurt Goldberry

has talked about with his book Sprawball. That's what he's been on for years. With the NBA, they need to make choices with rules, with, you know, the length of the three point line, with, you know, the width of the paint to make the game

as beautiful as possible. Because that's what leads to more eyeballs on a game and hardcore fans. This is what they did with the rip through. This is what they did with the rip through, right? There was that, there was that time where a guy would have the ball down low, like he was about to make the move,

a guy would have his hand out, and so you started to act like you were shooting from... Like you're shooting... Nobody shoots from their knees. You know what I mean? Like, they said, that's not the natural shooting motion, but they got rid of that, right?

You can't do that anymore. They could do the same thing with this play that Tray Young is exploiting now, as he should exploit. Like, you should do it. If it's there, you should do it. No, he shouldn't. He should do it.

If it's allowed, you should do it. You should do anything you could possibly do to help your team win. That's the way I look at it. That comes from me growing up a Patriots fan and seeing them exploit formations. Oh, I know where you're going. I'm talking not SpyGator to Flakey.

I'm talking more. You grow up an Astros fan too? They ran against the Ravens and then the playoffs. Let me guess you loved the Astros. I mean, if they're not, They're going to have a TV in the dugout. The play gate is the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. All right.

Just on a quick side note, Lloyd Pierce can't be blowing 15 point leads. You know what I mean? He's not in a spot. Lloyd Pierce, who I like a great deal. He can't be blown 15 point leads because they spent too much money in this off season and their expectation is to be a playoff team this year.

He's going to give some credit to the Knicks for that comeback though, too. I mean, sometimes there's only so much. can do, you know, as the head coach of the opposing team when your team is. Let me just go out on a limb. If you are the Atlanta Hawks and you fancy yourself being a playoff team, you can't be blowing 15 point leads to the Knicks. It happens.

It has already happened multiple times this year to the Atlanta. I'm with you. I'm with you. And this is why for, you know, with Atlanta, again, like, they're a good team. I don't consider them yet still one of the top six teams in the East. I look at them more in that 7-8 range, which is fine. That's really good for a team with Trey Young as young as he is. Cam Riders coming along.

DeAndre Hunter looks really, really impressive. He's had some big games for Atlanta. Things seem to be clicking for him on the offensive end of the floor. So with this team, Atlanta, like, you know, they're going to have some bad games. They're going to have some blown leads because their defense isn't great. Well, they haven't learned how to win. And that's what they're going to be doing. That's what this year is about.

I don't care if they're the five-seat or the seven. and see this year is about learning how to win and taking steps forward. And we're already seeing that happen. This is growing pains what happened on Monday night. All right. Let's move to Curry. I read your article about Curry and the Warriors. They got another win last night, an oppressive win against a team that I think is,

they are in a very precarious situation right now are the Sacramento Kings. But before we get to the Kings, let's focus on the Warriors. and I found it incredibly fascinating. In your article, you chronicled how little. I think the number was, it was in the 80s of guys that had had more half-court time with the ball than Steph Curry through their first four games of the season. Through the first five games, Curry possessed, touched the ball fewer times in the half-court than 80-plus guys in the league, including his own brother, Seth Curry. That is unbelievable.

and obviously not the way you want to be playing if you are the Golden State Warriors because there is Steph Curry and there is a Grand Canyon size golf to whoever is the second best player on that team. Now, one of the things that you mentioned was...

Traymond's pretty damn good though. He is. At his age, you probably don't want him carrying that James Hardin, Trey Young, you know, extreme usage mode, which the usage, the 90 scored 6,000, was obviously extreme.

But I'm going to tell you, I read the article and I took it all in. I would have him take as much of the load as he possibly can is what I would do. I understand that you don't want to get extreme like that, where it's all him all the time and four guys just playing off of him. That being said, this team is going to have to be extremely curry heavy in order to win games. games in my opinion. Absolutely. And that was ultimately the underlying point of the article that if the Warriors, if they want to win games this year, they need to adapt to the personnel that they have. Losing Clay Thompson is significant. He's your best wing defender. He's one of the greatest

shooters in the history of basketball. He's a smart playmaker off the dribble for you. He knows where to be in the court. He has chemistry with Steph. So with all these other guys, like, you know, Andre Goodalal is not walking through that door. you know, Sean Livingston is not walking through that door. Andrew Bogus not walking through that door. David West is walking through that door. This is new personnel. And with Steve Kerr, you know, over the weekend after one of the losses, I tweeted that he's

made zero adjustments, that he's going to make some changes here. And I felt like with that tweet, you know, I was just repeating what he himself said. You know, Kerr himself said, you know, maybe we need to simplify things from what we did before to fit what we have now. Like, that's what he's done. the last two games. And the reason is you guys. And I think it was Draybond's quote in your article that was talking about all those different guys and the ability to read and react all the time and that their offense was based so much on reading and reacting.

And that's not Wiggins and that's not Ubrey and that's not these guys. You think about all those guys you named off, Iguodala, David West, Sean Livingston, Clay Thompson. Like the highest of high basketball IQs. Like, they can play like that. But when you're giving that, but if you're asking all these guys to read and react when most of them, and look, I mean, I hate to come back to this.

Most of them have all been in losing situations. You know what I mean? They haven't been playing winning basketball. And I think you end up catching a lot of bad traits coming up when you've lost an immense amount of games. And that's been the case with Wiggins and Ubrae for the most part. the majority of their careers have been spent losing. And so this is a whole new deal playing in a different system with a different culture.

Hard. Yeah. It's really hard. Especially Steph, like there's no other player like Steph on the planet. If you're stepping on a basketball court with Steph Curry, you're playing with somebody who's unlike anybody else you've ever played with before. And that takes time to get used to.

Same with Draymond. Draymond is an amazing basketball player. Yeah. Yeah. And he's very quirky on the court with his style. hell of play. So, you know, with both of those guys, it's hard to get adjusted. And that's why, you know, they're not going to go full rockets and run pick and roll in isolations with Curry. That would be ludicrous to suggest that. What I hope for and what I think we're starting

to see the last two games, Curry's touches are up. He's averaging 39 front court touches per game, 24.5 shots per game up from 20 over the first five games. They're feeding him the ball more often, still in the same old situations before, running around the corner, off screens and handoffs. You still see plenty of that. But they're also running a bit more pick and roll and they're just letting him create for himself with some ISOs more often. Because Curry is the guy who he's always been the number one reason why they've had the success that they've had because of what he does off ball with his gravity, drawing defensive attention, creating driving lanes, cutting lanes, passing windows for his teammates. Now he can be that same gravity with the ball in his

hands. He can be that guy. We saw that at the end of Sunday's win against Portland. He had a pick and roll. He went down the lane and the help defense came over because they're worried about Steph pulling up for a floater. They're worried about him getting to the basket. And Andrew Wiggins had a wide open corner three to really extend the lead and ice it for the Warriors with a couple minutes left. Cary needs to be the creator for that team. It's about blending what's worked with Clay, with Draymond, with KD, with what needs to work now with this new personnel. And I'm encouraged because the Warriors had a shortened off season right after a surprise and clay injury that nobody could have expected or, you know, it's still shocking to me that it happened with

training camp with a shortened preseason and then four road games to start the year. As soon as they got home and as soon as Dremont got back, this is why I was high on the Warriors before the season even without Clay because I feel like there's something there blending the new with the old and Kerr, Kerr got to give him credit, man. He seems to be figuring out that blend at a really, really nice level and the players are executing nicely the last two nights. And Steph,

you got to ride this guy, man. Yeah, well, this is Davidson, Steph Curry, and he's going to start getting the Davidson Steph Curry treatment. Sooner enough. Sooner than later. Or the 2019 NBA finals treatment that Nick Nurse gave.

And we have seen a little bit. We haven't seen Boxing 1, But in the 2019 finals, the Raptors also do the thing where, you know, Steph would bring the ball up the court and they'd have a second defender like near the logo ready to pick him up, ready to pressure him. And we're going to see a lot more of that. We're already seeing overhelp and pick and roll situations. More pressure is going to come his way. But ultimately, I think that's a good thing for the Warriors because that means more is going to, because Wiggins is at a slouch. He can make a play off the dribble for you.

It's just you're going to simplify it, drive and kick. straight line drives slashing those are the situations you want uber a and wiggins in and they can thrive in that situation not as much the reyne reacts situation i just don't think they have enough i i just don't think he has enough with him um and that that's where we break ways i mean i'm not dream on dream on dame on looks awesome though dude like draymond's way better on defense now than he was the last couple of years he looks like jriminated is a is a fantastic player who i am a huge fan of. I'm talking about when it's night after night after

night. Steph Curry's going to have to average 35 or more points a game for this team to be over 500. He's averaging 32 right now. I know there's an outlier, a 62 point game in there but, you know, the fact is that if he can produce at a level

comparable to his unanimous MVP season, which he is right now, it's 32 points per game on a 65 true shooting percentage during his unanimous MVP season. It was 30 points per game with a 67 true shooting percentage. It's only seven games. There's one outlier, 62 point game,

but that's what Steph is. He has those outlier games. He has those high scoring nights. And if he can continue this, man, like I'm telling you, like I had Warriors as a top six seed in the West, the sixth seed in the West, I believe I had them. I still

want to rule it out. I think Dramon, we kind of got, we distorted what this team was without Dremont because I say we, the collectively media fans, whoever, because we thought, oh, the Warriors might be getting back to Draymond. They've had the last couple of years who didn't really care for the regular season, who was coasting, who was quite frankly out of shape and overweight at times.

This Draymond right now looks a lot more like the prime level Draymond Green on the defensive end of the floor. And if they have that guy, it changes everything for your defense. It changes everything that you have in terms of having a secondary shot creator who can deliver Curry the ball in those positions where he's running off screens and handoffs. I don't know, dude. Like even without Clay, I still think this team is really, really good because of how I value Curry is a top five guy in the league and how I view Draymond as a top 15, 20 player in the

league. You have two guys that good. No matter what you have around them, they're going to be competitive. I still think Wiggins and Newbray in the right role are good. And they have some other quality talent on that roster. Eric Pascal has his moments as the five off the bench. They're figuring things out on the fly with new personnel. I like what they got going on despite the slow start.

We will see what takes place. We certainly have a different opinion on that team, despite the, look, I love Curry. I love him. And I love Draymond. These are two of my favorite guys in the league. I think the guys around them are not good enough. That being said, that team across from them. Wait a minute, though, not good enough to win a title, but it's not always about the title, though.

You know, over the time, we talked about over the course, of course, I'm talking over the course of the season. To even make the playoffs? I think it, they will be in the play in if they're there. If they're there. Yeah. I mean, I just, I think I would, I would put a lot of money on them being a top 10 team in the West. I'm saying that they would be a, they would be in the play in if they're there. If they're there. But I'm saying they will be there. That's where we differ. Yeah. I say they will be there. You say if they'll be there. They will be. I mean, look, Curry's got. How can you bet against Steph and Dremont, though? Because he hasn't been able to play a whole season, Kevin.

He hasn't been able to, not even close. You're betting on the missing games, and that's what hurts then. You're betting on the missing games, which I understand that. Why would I not bet on him missing games? That's fair, but, you know. I mean, he's missed an immense amount of games. That's fair. You know what I mean?

Over the time. And I also think that just over the course of a season, I think he has to average over 35 points a game for them to be good. Like these games that we're talking about. about that he's had. That's pretty extreme, Kevin. Oh, yeah. He scored 62 points in the damn game. I know. The rest of the team made like three shots. And I pointed out on the article. They weren't good. That's not a recipe for winning night in and night out.

The thing is, though, is Ubre also was two for 25, I believe from three to start the year, four for six last night and the winning against the Kings. Some of the other guys on the team, Wiggins included Ubrey, are going to shoot better than they did over the first week. I feel like it's a mixture of things with this team that I'm looking at like this is why I didn't bump them down too much of my power rankings but when they go to their bench I like Pascal and that's where it is pass was good pass is good I mean we'll see how Kent Bazesmore comes along for them and you know

yeah I guess we will I'm not saying they're a great team I'm saying they're a good team and they're going to be a top 10 in the west I have them six in the west still the team across from them has got problems on their hands. Oh, they got big problems. Okay. So Marvin Bagley, who I have been holding out hope for, who I still am a fan of, has not gotten off to a good start. Obviously, he had COVID at the beginning of this. Chris Vernon Bagley is Kevin O'Connor is to killing and Hayes, potentially. I think that's fair. I still would rather have Marvin Bagley right now. You're wild. But

his father is already a better defender, but that's beside the point. His, he'll make a basket. at some point too. So, so Marvin Bagley's dad comes out and says trade Marvin Bagley. Where's the trade market?

Okay. So look, number one, this is not what you want your father doing. Number two, like, bro, I am your son's Biggest fan.

Second biggest fan in the world. Possibly. He has not played. He hasn't played. He has gotten paid to not play. For the better part of his first two seasons in the league, there are less than 10 games into this next season. You don't need your dad out there saying trade him, right?

No matter, like you aren't allowed to complain. about the way things are going until you are bawling out and until you prove your availability for 50 games in the season. I think that is a reasonable request. You don't get to say anything about your position on the team and how you're used and everything else until you can prove that you could be a functioning member of this team for 50 games. You're not who we need the complaining from. Now, you have Deerrin Fox's dad coming out. and saying, yeah, trade them. This is terrible for a locker room.

It really is. It's terrible for a locker room. And, you know, we talk a lot about culture. And sometimes, you know, every time a coach gets fired, the next coach comes in and he says, I want to establish a culture, right? And it is easier said than done, right? So David Fisdale goes into New York and he says, we're going to establish a culture. culture and they never did and Tom Tibido comes in and he actually is establishing a culture,

right? Like it is easier said than done. And for whatever reason, Kings players are always pissed off. Like, this has been a thing. And now to have two guys that you would hope are the future, you already had the whole buddy healed problem, right, going on all of last year, where he wants. out of there, right? And now, and that was a thing that hovered over them all of last season.

And now you come into this season, you're less than 10 games into the year. And Marvin Bagley's dad is out there saying, hey, trade him, right? And it is something that a player cannot say hope that you don't know whether he agrees or disagrees with his father. And I'm not saying what he'll say to the media. I'm saying what he really feels, right? and then you've got the Deeran Fox dad, right? Like, I don't know why these players' dads are out there speaking on these things,

but it becomes news, and that has to make for an incredibly uncomfortable situation in the locker room, and they have played like shit since. Has to. And Dearen Fox, Dearen Fox said last night, quote, I don't think anybody's out there playing basketball worried about two tweets. And if you are, this ain't what you should be doing, because mother effer is going to tweet you every day of your life while you're playing in this league. and it's like I get it but it's different it's not the dads it's not it's not it's

totally because you know like you know for a fact like you know families talk you know and like bag is bagels bagley's family's talking about how he needs an opportunity away fox's family is probably talking about how marvin bagley stinks how much of a mistake they made not taking lucca and like it's a constant reminder seeing him turn the ball over play horrific defense Bagley's been bad for the Kings. And it's partially because he hasn't been healthy, but he has not been a quality player at all. Did you see the play last week, Chris?

He got the ball in the post and he waved off, you know, his teammates. And then he immediately turned the ball over. Do you see him as a turnstile on defense? I wouldn't want to play with that guy. I want him traded. He's been horrible. And here's the problem. And I liken this to the situation, obviously, that I'm around all the time.

uh, Jaron Jackson, who is hurt right now and is not able to play. If his father came out and said, trade Jaron Jaron's dad, tweeted out, yeah, get rid of him.

I mean, it would be horrible. Yeah. Horrible for the organization. Horrible. Yeah. This kind of stuff can't happen. Especially to,

you know, picks, high top 10 picks that you invested in, that you want to be part of your future. Bagley still, only 21 years old here. Still only 21, still only his third year, has suffered injuries, like you said.

I don't think he's as good as you think he is or can be, but the fact is we both can agree he has not been good, especially this season. He's been good when he has played up until this season. This season, he's been horrible. Yeah, the first seven games a year. Been very bad. For the Kings here, you know, they started 2 and O,

and Tyrese Hallibur, and before he had this wrist injury, was unfreekin believable. I mean, the plays he was making on defense,

he looked just like the guy that everybody watched at Iowa State, making win in plays, deflecting the ball on defense, making smart rotations,

making just gorgeous passes to create for others, hitting his threes, playing with confidence. He didn't look nothing like a rookie. He looked like a 10-year veteran. And for the Kings,

they looked competent with him on the floor. And without him, they suddenly start, looking like the Kings again. And for them, I don't feel super confident that

Halliburton's inevitable return is going to solve everything. He's still just a rookie at the end of the day. The Sacramento Kings, there may need to be coaching changes this season. There needs to be personnel changes. They need to find a mix with more guys like Tyrese Halliburton.

It's a simple thing to say, but it's the truth. They need more winning players who play for the team. And right now a guy like Marvin Bagley, with everything going on, to me doesn't seem like that guy. They need to make some type of adjustments here

to shake things up with this roster. And by the way, speaking of the Luca decision passing on him, part of that reason why Devac did that, biggest mistake in franchise history, was because they didn't want two guys, you know, handling the ball. They didn't know if Luca and Fox would fit.

Hallibur and Fox looked great together, dude. Those guys sharing the ball, they complemented each other nicely. Maybe there would have been some difficulties of Luca because of a star power. But the fact is that I think it has shown it can work. Fox can play off of somebody else too. And that's something they should take in mind when building this thing out. Yep. I am of the opinion that you try to work this out and you try to get bagley into the fold

rather than reacting to this and trying to make a change and getting robbed of it. There's no value. There's no value. for him anywhere. No, no, no. You would get robbed right now. Yeah, exactly. I mean, when I say needs to make a change, I'm not even sure what that change is, because you're not trading bagley for nothing. That would be stupid.

No. He's still 21 years old. That's right. But maybe it's coaching that needs to be changed here. All I know is you had a lot of disgruntled players over the course of the last couple of years, right? Like, you know, like major players. Major.

You've now had, you know, all right, if you consider at one point we looked at their roster and we said the future of this franchise is going to be De Aaron Fox, Buddy Heald, and Marvin Bagley. Two of those three have already won it out. And the other one signed for $190 million. Yeah.

So he might be okay right now. Let's move to the Raptors. They have been the most shocking of the bad starts, I believe. You know, most of these teams around the league have shown themselves to be competitive outside of Detroit, who is probably going to have a very bad record at the end of the year. The only other team with one win is the Raptors, and they now are 1 in 5 after they got demoralized last night,

126 to 114 to an underman Boston Celtics team. Traymond Waters in the starting 5. Yeah, and they start off the game 18 to 5. And it looks kind of dicey for the Celtics, and then they came storming back and ran off on them. Nick Nurse said, we're having a tough time. Like, we miss so many layups and we cannot make an A-N-1 either. Some of those fouls are real early.

You're continuing to a wide-open lab. They're just rolling off, so just finishing General really hurt us. And he talks about getting to the free throw line because they have the league's lowest free throw attempt rate and the 29th ranked off. offense and Kyle Lowry says we don't have our, we need to regain our swagger. What do we make of this just shockingly bad start for a Toronto team who I do feel bad for because they are the one that has been displaced from, you know, their homes and their home

arena as they are playing out of Tampa right now. But this has gotten off to a very bad start and kind of shocking how bad their offense has been. thus far in six games now. Everything's worse. It's the offense. It's the fact that you don't have a consistent high volume shot creator. Seacom's falling off. He seems to have been

figured out. Teams know that spin moves coming and he's had a hard time adjusting. Fred Van Vleet had a great scoring night against the Celtics last night, but he's not going to do that every night for you. And he's not a top tier creator anyway. And I feel like the loss of Ibaka

and Gasol, with the replacement of Aaron Baines. I underrated that. And I feel like Baines, he's a good, solid player. But he can't create offense for you like his soul did. Gassol, there are so many times the last two years,

the Raptors would just toss him the ball with 10 seconds off from the shot clock, and he could either hit three for you, shot 36% from three in his two years with Toronto, or he'd make a play for somebody. He'd find a cutter. He dribble in and kick it out to a shooter. you know watching a soul and Memphis all those years how much of a creator he can be from the center position or from the high post.

And Ibaka, the spacing that he provided and the aggression that he brought on the defensive end of the floor, Baines has not been able to replicate even close either of those factors. And there's no communication on defense, no shot creation on offense. This team right now, do they get it back together? Do you have hope that they could get it back together? And it's just a bad start? That's what I'm not sure about. This team right now, I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure, Chris.

And that's a rapid change from how we talked about them. Just a couple months ago in the bubble, from how we talked about them a couple weeks ago before the season. There's something missing. There's something missing here with this team. And it feels a lot to me like it's Gasol and Ibaka are missing. They were glue guys. and the fact is that Ciacom is not taking the leap

that they need him to take to have the shot creator that they need. Yeah, because now it is guys like Terrence Davis were a luxury rather than a necessity for a team like that, right? Chris Bruchet, Chris Boucher, and they've done a very good job of player development at Toronto, but Chris Boucher, a luxury rather than a necessity. And these guys now are necessities for that team, right?

for that matter. Yeah. You could live with some of his, some of his bad nights before. But right now, I mean, he was bad last night in that game, one for six and 16 minutes.

He's really had some off nights for the Raptors. And they can't deal with that right now. And like Laurie said, they lost their swagger. There's something missing here. And like I said, I keep coming back to Gasol and Ibaka, losing both those guys.

That was unexpected. Pretty much everybody around the league expected Ibaka to head back to Toronto. Maybe that was an, unfair thing to do to have that assumption, but a lot of people thought he was going back and losing that guy replacing him with Baines and losing Gasol too.

That can't be overlooked with how much Gasol helped that offense with some bailout possessions late in the clock because it's not like they were masters of shot creation last year without Kauai either. But to be 29th is shocking. It's shocking. They still have good enough players to not be 29.

They should be much better than that. and they will be better than that. But I don't feel as good about them as I did before the season as a real competitive team in the East. Interesting. All right. Let's move on to the team that they were playing against to we talked about how they've got these two young stars and these two young stars. Like there's going to be so much on them because you look up and down the roster. And once you get past Marcus Smart, it's like, all right, who else are you counting on on a night to night basis?

and say you need Tatum and Brown to both be awesome. And my God, they have both been simultaneously awesome so far this year. And that has enabled Boston to be better than I thought because I looked at it going into this season saying, okay, you lost Hayward, you lost Kimball Walker. Now, you know, really you've got Tatum, you got Brown, you got Marcus Smart, and then whatever. A lot of un-known. Yeah, a lot of them, no. But one night they'll get a good Teague night,

and one night they'll get a decent Tristan night or maybe a Tice night, whatever it may be. But it really comes down to those two guys being great, and they have been great. Both of them at the same time. You have seen Tatum be, again, just last night, unbelievable. And Brown, I mean, look, he could have made the all-star team last year.

He was on the cusp of being an all-star caliber player. But there's no question. Jalen Brown this year has been an all-star caliber player through the first seven, eight games at the season. I mean, Jaylon Brown, you know, he has the, you know, hard work pays off as his mantra. He embodies that. He lives it. He practices what he preaches.

His improvement from what he was in high school, what he was at Cal, what he was as a rookie. I mean, it blows me away to see him fluidly handling the ball and creating offense for himself and for others when before he was quite robotic. And sometimes, I mean, like, you kind of got the idea he knew what he wanted to do, but he didn't have the ability to do it.

He didn't have the reliable jumper. He didn't have the slick handles. The work he's put into his game is really remarkable. And we're seeing, and we saw flashes of it over the years, we saw the steady improvement, but things this season for him to be averaging 27 points per game, five rebounds, three assists with the efficiency, efficiency that he is next to Jason Tatum.

Those two guys, man, like we've talked a lot about what is Boston do? Should they get into the heart and conversation? Like, what is this team right now? Maybe they're not the favorites in the East, even if Kemba comes back healthy. But would you have Tatum and Brown both under 25 years old playing at this level already? there's a long path.

A lot of years ahead for these two guys that will be part of contending teams. And what they are today, like they should still only get better. Tatum should only get better at drawing files with the rim and finishing inside. Brown is not proven that he's done getting better. These guys are special, dude.

I watched Brown last week. I mean, he had whatever was his career high. I think it was 43 in three quarters against Memphis. And it was no like, if you would not have told somebody that Jalen Brown's not a superstar, they would never have known because it was superstar-esque. He was that. The way he shot all over the court.

Oh, my God. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Everything. He was unstoppable. And I'm like, what? It's one thing to be like a, you know, get your 23 points and have a good night here and there.

It's another, like that is like what COVID. used to do where you'd see 43 points through three quarters with the with the chance to have 60 if he keeps going off in the in the in the fourth quarter like that has not been jaylen brown and i i've got to ask you about this because we've been on a group text about it with bill bill mentioned it yesterday on his pod his whole life is consumed with not having boston trade for James Harden. He's losing his mind. Like, truly. He doesn't even care if it means they would win more.

He wants to root for Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. And so now, this is out there, right, as a possibility, has the way Jalen Brown's has started the season altered your thought process on whether or not, you would advise Danny Aange to go try to get James Harden if it means giving up Jalen Brown.

Yeah, I mean, you know me. I would never in a million years. You know, I know you wouldn't. Yeah. It definitely has because with Jaylen, you know, think about Jaylen last year. Still a really good player. So a really good player. But not necessarily someone that you looked at as a superstar.

And James Hardin is a superstar. And with Jaylen's progression this year, obviously it's early, but this is not an outlier necessarily for him. This is a steady progression. Every year he's gotten a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better. And only 24 years old right now, depending on what else would be in that deal, like you wouldn't get James Hardin for just Janeland Brown. You'd have to give more than that. And I'm not sure how much more I'd be willing to give.

Well, Marcus Smart is the name that's come up. Yeah, I don't think they'd give Bob Marcus Smart. you wouldn't give both Marcus Smart and Jalen Brown. It'd be like, it'd be probably more like the type of deal I outlined in my preseason power rankings, like a Kemper Walker and Jalen Brown for James Hardin and more, like a PJ Tucker coming back your way too. I don't see Boston doing it.

I don't. And I wouldn't imagine that they will be part of any serious James Hardin discussions. Danny Aange, as far as I understand, is not the biggest Hardin fan out there. So I wouldn't expect that to happen. To me, like I still look at, Who were the other surprise teams that could come out of nowhere?

I don't think Boston will be in Toronto. I'll just have tied this to them earlier. You know, there's some Raptors fans that would love to trade Seacom for Hardin. Well, Seacom, his value has diminished. Browns has gone up. Seacombs has gone down. And I can't foresee Houston on that side of things trading for Pascal Seacom. To me, it's going to be a team that we're not really talking about right now.

Oh, really? He gets traded at all. If he gets traded at all. Yeah, who knows? I mean, because now at least he is playing it out, right? Like, it seems as if they're just going to, he's going to go, he's going to keep playing basketball, he's going to keep playing basketball well. And then, right, like, if that was the message to him, like, yo, you're killing us here.

Like, help us, help you. Just be a good soldier. Show up. We know you don't want to be here. We know you don't like the situation. But can we please stop talking about this in the media? Just play basketball and then we'll figure it out. And by the way, if you're the Celtics, why do you know, why do you know,

do you need James Hardin when you have Peyton Pritchard? Oh. What's the, what is it? No, P. Bunny? No, what is? P. Rabbit. That's, Kendrick Perkins' nickname.

His nickname is 8 Mile. Huh? That's the nickname Tatum gave him. Eight mile? Oh, I thought they were calling him P. Rabbit. That's what I think Perkins calls him that. I love P. Rabbit. No, P. Rabbit's a great name.

P. Rabbit? It's good. I called him. I called it P. Bunny. That's like, that's like what like the New York Post would put on after he goes like O for 13. P. More like P. Bunny.

P. rabbit. P. Bunny has a better floato with him P. Rabbit. All right. A couple more before we get out of here. Pritchard, by the way, though, like Pritchard. You love him. Really good. Really good. I have the whole time with guys like him in the draft. Because it's like if you're ranking players by

who will, who. do you feel confident we'll have a 10 plus year career? Pritcher would be a top 10 pick. But, but like do you feel confident of him ever being an all star? Probably not as much. But he's a rock solid player who gets buckets for you, who stabilizes the offense,

who energizes your team, who plays hard-nosed defense. We saw him lock down, Killing Hayes. Oh, we saw, we saw him pull the chair out from underneath Pascal, see Yakim and cause a turnover.

Like, this guy just knows how to poop, dude. he's good he's already good i remember joking on draft night that danny ains just drafted himself when they drafted baten britchard i'll tell you what though danny has a thing dany a inch has a thing for those type of spark plug guards going back to like eddie house what he is with the oh 708 yeah that's what i'm saying like he's always had spark plug guards of the roster kind of feisty yeah yeah a man he'll get in the mix always yeah a couple other things before we get out of here We have had our first COVID-19 star loss, and that is Kevin Durant, who is going to have to quarantine

to be out for four games for the Brooklyn Nets. Look, this is significant in a season when you're only playing 72, right? Missing four games can be greatly significant at the end, especially when so many of these teams are so bunched up, right? And we will see how much your seating matters at the end of the year. but they're going to have to do it without Kevin Durant for at least the next four games. And this was a strange one because when the story came across yesterday, I was like, isn't he the, like, wasn't he like the second reported guy, right?

Like I remember there was the Gobert thing. And then it felt like very early in everything Kevin Durant talked about having having COVID. Yeah. And so I think that just goes to show that, right, here's a guy that had. it we know had it at the beginning of all of this and yet the song remains the same in terms of contact with people and the fact that he is going to be out for what is it seven days at minimum right for four games he is going to miss so i think it gives us a little clarity as to it it doesn't necessarily matter if we knew you had it a long time ago as to the way they're they're

attempting to be very very strict about this stuff yeah because we don't know everything about COVID-19 yet. If somebody who's already had it, you know, can they pass a carrier? And we don't know that with the vaccine yet either for that matter. We'll learn this in the coming years. But for the NBA, they're just being cautious in a situation like this. And for the Nets, games coming up against Utah, Philadelphia,

and Memphis and Oklahoma City this next week, there's some toughies in there, especially Utah and Philly with the way the Sixers are playing. They've been awesome. Yeah, Sixers have been fantastic. and we should have, look, they were my pick to make the finals from the Easter conference, but the unlocking of Tobias Harris to be what they acquired

has been the major Doc Rivers impact because Tobias Harris played this best basketball ever when he was playing for Doc Rivers in L.A. And then, which enabled them to make that deal, right? he was that good. And then he re-signed for a King's Ransom with Philadelphia, but was not unlocked to full potential, certainly under Brett Brown. He knows how to get the most out of Tobias Harris,

and that makes that a different team, for sure, because M.B's been fantastic as we expected so far. Better than ever, arguably. The passing out of the double teams in the post has been beautiful to watch. But the big thing is if you can get an awesome Tobias Harris, it's a different deal. It is a different deal. And that is one thing that Doc was going to bring to the table. You know, you like the spacing of the shooting with Seth Curry and others that they brought in.

But the Tobias Harris being extremely good and being that version of Tobias, that's what can really move them into a different class than they were last season. Yeah, he's been there leading a score a handful of times already this season. and you know you're not going to get that from get that from him every single night but you got to get it sometimes and doc did a great job of that in l a l a thus far doing a very good job of it with philadelphia but overall you know credit to doc credit to darrell morey for a shuffle in the deck the way he did the pieces just seem to fit so much better now it just fits so much better and a lot of that has to do with getting a guy like a set curry you know tobias harris new role and all that but i think it also has a lot to do with ben simmons

too. In the half court, he's done a better job and he's still learning, still adjusting of being that screener on ball and picking rolls and off ball creating for others. Because Ben Simmons impact, number one, it's his defense. He's one of the best defensive players in all of basketball. He's one of the best open floor playmakers in all of basketball. The trouble and the challenge has always been about in the half court. That's always been my issue with him. It's always been about, you know, why I've said, Brett Brown needed to change that offense and how they do things and why Ben Simmons needed to buy in. He seems to be buying in right now. And that's helping everything around him in those

half court situations click. And so for the Sixers, it's a bit of the new guys and the changes made by Doc and Darrell. But it's also one of both of their stars and Bede playing at a high level and Ben Simmons adapting that has made the Sixers as great as they've been so far this season. Two other things real quickly. I flipped over. and I watched the end of Pacer's Pelicans, who the Pelicans were up by six points with a minute left to go and still lost that game. And this was something that befelled them last year, Kevin.

They were just miserable in close games. And you hoped that that would be one of the things that would get to change under Stan Van Gundy. And yet there they were last night with a six-point lead with under a minute left to go and just vomited all over themselves. And threw the ball away, Miles Turner hits a huge three that sends it into overtime. And the Pacers just kept playing.

They just kept playing. And the Pelicans, and they play with heart too, the Pacers do, right? They're scrapping and fighting to try to win that game. And he felt like the Pelicans are very laissez-faire down the stretch. Zion, you know, look, there are sometimes where he just, he just bales out of the place completely on defense. It's crazy to be. He needs to get so much better on that.

It's crazy. It's like, the lack of aggression, because he could be swat and stuff. It's like he doesn't want to get the fouls because then he'll have to sit or whatever. I don't know. But, I mean,

he'll just let guys hit layups where he could be a dominant force meeting people at the rim. And he just, you know, and lets him go to the rim. Weak, lazy close outs. Yeah. You know, lack of attentiveness off ball.

I mean, he just says, you know, he's got a lot of problems on the defensive end of the floor that needs solving for him to be the player that he can be. And that's frustrating to watch because he's already so dynamic on offense. And their spacing is, I mean, look, you could throw him the ball in the half corn and he can go get you a bucket. And that's the end of that. But their spacing is, boy, they need some more shooters there. I mean, they've got when they roll out like Blenzo and Lonzo and like Ingram's the only guy and people don't like. Lonzo is a better shooter now than he was before. Yeah, no, but they don't respect him in the, they don't play him all the way out to the line.

Same with Ingram. They still don't play. He doesn't stretch the floor. They got JJ. And that's really I mean, because Stephen Adams clogs it up too. Like they don't have much, they don't have much spacing. I mean, in an ideal world, you know,

as New Orleans builds this thing out, in an ideal world, your center, Stephen Adams would also be a good three-point shooter. That's hard to find. Yeah. But having an enforcer who can also shoot threes, it's sort of like you would want something like Miles Turner blended with Stephen Adams. You would want that player.

I don't know where that player is or how are you going to find that guy. Dwayne Deadman. He's available. I think I think Stephen Adams mixed with Miles Turner is like AD and that's like the closest comparable. But for New Orleans, there's still a good team, man.

Despite that, blown lead. That was, that was weird. Everything happened, some of the turnovers they had down the stretch of that game. And also got to give credit to Indiana too, though. Indiana, they scrab and Victor Oladipo is looking a lot more like Victor Oladipo, isn't he? Yes. I had some swag last night too. And Malcolm Brogdon's really good. Malcolm is the one. Subonis is a problem. I mean, it's a bonus man. He's like vaulted into like one of the top 20 guys in

the league. Seriously. I mean, he keeps getting better. He does everything well. I believe we talked about him on last week's show, so we don't want to repeat ourselves too much here. But he is just a gamer, man. Like he really is. He can create for you. He's hitting threes.

He's good on defense. He rebounds at a high level. I mean, he does it all. He does it all, really. It's hard to find a total package like that out of your center. Last thing before we get out of here, I read Brian Winhorse article that went up this morning, and it was about expansion. And the reason to keep this just in mind as we get out of here today is this seems to me to be an extremely realistic proposition, Kevin.

And it is because of the things that Brian Winhorst brings up, which is given the losses, the extreme losses that so many of these franchises are taking. Because I will tell you that most of these franchises, like there have been there have been, there have been, firings around the league. But these places are, have been paying. I mean, these organizations employ, you know, 300 people at some points, right? And there's no fans in the stanza. So that income's not coming in. And so the losses, not like anybody's going to cry for billionaires, but the losses that have mounted up are real all across the NBA. And what he explains in the article regarding expansion because Adam Silver for the first time about a month ago, like was open to saying they were discussing this.

It's because of the financial straits that somebody of these franchises have gotten into during COVID-19 that the different, when they bring on a new franchise, that the franchises would have to pay so much to get involved in the NBA, that it would basically be about 160 million to every franchise across the league. Which that becomes a, you know, do you want short term or long term here, right? That would be a band-aid over their losses right now. And I kind of feel like there was a lot of franchises that vote for that. Now, obviously, splitting the money till the end of time.

Like, the way Mark Cuban explained it was like, this is just like getting a loan, right? Like, and then, you know, for the rest of time, you're going to be splitting this, you know, 32 ways. But given the finances, like, I think we do need to put this, like, right on our radar because the difference with they, when they expand the league, if they had two new teams, they don't have to split that money with the players. Yep. What Norris reported was that according to his sources in the league office that, let's say

if there were an expansion team, two expansion teams, each of them, would be worth about $2.5 billion. And all of that money gets split. It doesn't get included with the players, like you said, which would mean about $160 million to the other 30 million, the other 30 teams in the league. And as he said, quote, $160 million per team,

a windfall that could wipe out the massive debt load that's piling up. And that alone has perked interest in the expansion path. That's what Wendy wrote on ESPN. And you know what, man? Like, I'm a big supporter of expansion. have been for years and with everything else going on now. To me, it makes even more sense, man. You know how awesome it would be to have a team back in Seattle?

You know how special that would be to have that happen? Let's do this, man. Let's make this happen. That'll be dope. The other thing that I thought was super interesting from that because I have not kept up a lot with it. The whole article is really based on the Minnesota deal. Like Glenn Taylor, it sounds like there was a deal.

He's backed out of two before, but there was a deal. then all this crap hit, and then that deal was not going to be the same deal anymore. And so they still haven't been able to come to terms over that one, but that he had been approached several times by people that he wanted to find local, he could never find local. He wanted to find somebody that had the assurance that basketball would stay in Minnesota, but that he had been approached several times by people were interested in buying the Timberwolves and moving them, and that that was a non-starter. And so for as much as people could bang on Glenn Taylor,

and obviously it has not gone well with Kevin Garnett, if you want to take sides in that one, look, that guy's saving them. You could do what a lot of guys have done before, which is just sell to anybody that's willing to move that team, and then he just wipes his hand of it. He obviously cares about that franchise, being in the hands of somebody that's going to keep it in Minnesota.

And I applaud that. I applaud that because it'd be an easy thing to do, you know, to just get the money and say, It's your team now. You can do whatever you want to do with it because that's how teams do get moved. But as Windhorst did write about, though, that people around the league do view the wolves as a potential team that could relocate. He noted that their 2016 lease amendment with the city-owned Target Center calls for a $50 million bio. And that's a heck of a lot of money.

But ultimately, it might not be enough for a new owner to be like, hey, you know what, we're going to move. So no guarantees here. but it does seem like with Glenn Taylor that anybody he would sell to would be somebody that would keep the team there in Minnesota. And I hope so too. Minnesota has great fans there. It would be a shame if they lost a team. I'd rather just add two teams,

add a Seattle franchise for sure. And then one more, maybe in Vegas, maybe Louisville, you know, a handful of areas that would make some sense. Even Vancouver. I know you'd added two Northwest teams,

you know, Seattle and Vancouver, Vancouver obviously in Canada. But I think that is the other one. Vegas is the other national. Vegas would be cool too. Yes. Vegas would be cool.

But I also like Vegas as the spot for Summer League. I like it as the spot for the G League showcase. I think it's your tournament place. It still would be. It's also cool to have as like your, you know, NBA fan city without a team there. But it's where everybody goes for these big events. Like you could, you could have like the playing tournament there theoretically, you know. Kevin, it is always a pleasure.

we will have a ton happen before Friday. I guarantee that. And we will chop it up then. Thank you to producer, Sasha, as always, and we will talk to you on Friday.