The Mismatch - Chuck Calls Out JJ, Finding Jimmy’s Joy, and the Loves and Loathes of the Week

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

Verno is back as he and Jacoby discuss Thursday night’s NBA action, beginning with Jimmy Butler’s comments after the Heat’s loss to the Pacers (01:03). They then discuss Anthony Edward’s performance in the Wolves' narrow loss to the Celtics before moving on to the Warriors' blowout win against the Sixers (16:59). Next, they discuss Charles Barkley calling out JJ Redick for his comments on NBA media a few weeks ago (33:20). Was JJ actually talking about the ‘Inside the NBA’ crew with his comments? Finally, the guys share the teams (40:33), players (57:58), and things (01:07:54) they love and loathe from the week that was. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey y'all, Syriot Sohey from The Ringer here, and I wanted to let you guys know about a new show that I'm hosting. The Ringer WNBA show. We're going to be talking about all the biggest personalities, breaking down and analyzing the latest happenings that make the W so fascinating, featuring some of the best guests and experts from around the league. Tap in with us on the brand new Ringer WNBA show feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Varnan and join him as he does every Friday from the Ringer.com. Jacobi, Jacobi. I'm not going to say it again.

I'm saying one time. Happy New Year, Burnham. Happy New Year to you. We have so much to get to. Let's start with some of the events of last evening. Who would have ever guessed that we'd have gotten so much news coming out on a Thursday night? Right. But let's start with Jimmy Butler.

So the heat lose a game to the Indiana Pacers. That's not that big of a deal. They got waxed. They got waxed. 128 to 115 and Tyrese Halliburton, you know, we do need to mention him first because I was reading this morning as I was getting ready for the show that he had 30 points, 15 assists, zero turnovers and five threes in a game. That is the second time that has happened in NBA history where a guy had 30, 15, and five made threes with no turnovers. Jason kid. Jason kid, that's my guess. Tyrese Halliburton last year.

Oh, there goes. He's the only guy that's ever done it, and he's done it twice. But the story outside of Halliburton and that great performance that came out of this game was that since New Year's, Jimmy Butler has played in two games. He has gone three for six for nine points and three for five for nine points. And has not looked like himself at all. and then he took to the podium last night after the game and got everybody in NBA circles talking.

I don't shoot the ball a lot, but we want to sit here and say that I don't play hard. What will fix it? What do you want to see happen to fix it? I want to see me get my joy back from playing basketball. And wherever that may be, we'll find out here pretty soon. But I want to get my joy back. I'm happy here.

off the court. But I want to be back to someone dominant. I want to hope and I want to help this team win right now. I'm not doing that. Can you get your joy back here on the court? Probably not.

Oh, boy. Yeah, that's not great. That's not great. I mean, one of the first things I thought of two things. One was imagine that that was your wife talking to you and saying, I just want to get my joy back in life.

Can you do that? I'm happy here outside of the home, but in the home, I'm very unhappy. And then you ask a fault of question, do you think you could ever get your joy back in this relationship? And she said, probably not. I mean, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is the next call is to the divorce lawyer. And the second thing I thought of is, is, this is habitual at this point. You remember the end of Chicago, quick history lesson. Him and Tibbs got along.

Him and Hoyberg didn't get a little. long. Him and Dwayne Wade said that the young players aren't playing hard enough. And then they got fined. And they got their starting privileges revoked. And then next thing you know, he's out of town. And we all know what happened in Minnesota with the practice and the calling out of the teammates again and the Rachel Nichols interview.

In Philadelphia, we know what happened there. Guess what? Didn't get along with the coach Brett Brown. Didn't love his role during the regular season. And then said, oh, now it's the playoffs. going to give me the ball. Also called out his teammates. And we're here now with him saying,

please trade me. He made a trade request to anywhere but here. Okay. Two things that need to be mentioned here. Number one, all of those teams won more. So the cost of dealing with the difficult personality or the benefit of dealing with the difficult personality. is you win.

Minnesota got worse. Chicago got worse. And Miami will get worse. All right. Jimmy Butler, for all his foils, has been a two, he's gotten them to the finals twice. He won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP. He's had three Eastern Conference Finals appearances. He's first in triple doubles in their franchise's history.

He's first in 40-point playoff games in the franchise's history, and he saved that franchise. Okay, and I know that there's going to be a lot of people that go back to last year in the playoffs where it's like, look, Jimmy's not available and Jimmy needs to shut up, that whole Pat Riley thing that took place. In the end, you can get past a guy telling you to shut up in a relationship maybe getting a little bad.

They didn't sign them to an extension. when they didn't sign him to an extension and the guy feels like after all I've done for this franchise, you didn't sign me to an extension. That's where it started to get really messy. And then you have the whole agent thing with Shams and that taking place. And you know that at that point,

you know, if I know anything about Pat Riley, when you saw that just unprecedented statement come out from the office of Pat Riley, We are not trading Jimmy Butler. And you also saw his agent going after Shams very publicly. To me, that told the story of an agent calling around, other guys leaking that to Shams saying, hey, man, this guy's calling around saying, hey, if you want him, he'll resign there. You know, this isn't like just a rental.

And so that's how he gets like the warriors and the Rock. and the Mabs and the Sons and all of these teams that came about. And then Pat Riley, old school guy, he calls and cusses that guy out up and down. Then that guy says, no, no, no, no, I'm not doing anything. So he goes after Shams publicly as to say, this guy comes up with his stories on Chad GPT, all this stuff, you know, all that he did. because Pat Riley, he doesn't play that. He's not playing that. And so that's why Pat Riley came over the top and said, we're not trading him.

And now you've got a player that's not even playing. I mean, come on, three for five, three for six. And obviously has, by all accounts, said, I want a trade. But this is a mess. I mean, a mess. And one thing I will say, you do win more. But boy, it does not, as you were talking about, as you chronicle, it never ends well.

It's never some kind of nice goodbye. I mean, I think I've used this metaphor before, but it's like he is like that girl you meet that is super, super hot, super cool, super funny, but has restraining orders on her last four boyfriends. And you're just like, I know how this is going to end. It's going to start great. It's going to start great.

I'm going to be the next guy that gets a restraining order or puts restraining order out on her. But jokes aside, it just this goes this way with him. And he had a great run with the heat. You are a net better bringing Jimmy Butler into your franchise. But to advance the conversation, I don't think that Jimmy Butler has another three good years, one bad year run in him. And I think other teams know that. And the trade request went from these four contenders to any team not Miami very quick.

and I'm looking up and down the list of teams. There are teams that could use Jimmy Butler, but is a team going to bring in Jimmy Butler knowing that he could opt into $52 million next year? Is a team going to bring in Jimmy Butler knowing that he won't be happy with an extension? And who

wants to extend Jimmy Butler three, four years now? Who? What timeline is that? Like, outside of the Warriors who could barely trade for them if they want. Yeah, I think that you're probably trying to get off of salary. Obviously, you're going to have to give up some assets.

And it has to be one of these teams whose timeline is, we're going to go for it for the next couple of years. That's it. But who's that work for, though? I mean, like, the Lakers can't do it.

The Warriors could technically do it, but it would be pretty bold, to say the least. They would lose a lot. People say the Rockets, the Rockets could use Jimmy Butler, but he doesn't match their timeline as a franchise, especially if you're going to dedicate 52 million to him next year,

or a little bit less for two or three years. I don't see it. I don't see it. I think there's a lot of teams right now. I think you can look up and down and you go, and you sit there and you go, can I compete for a Western Conference Finals or a title as I'm currently constructed?

And I think a lot of those teams outside of Oklahoma City all sit there and say, I'm not sure. Is that fair? Mabs don't say that. Grizzlies don't say that. I mean, the Grizzlies are starting two rookies. That's not, I mean, they're not trying to start two rookies.

That's because they've got five guys out every single game. I understand. But, I mean, they obviously went and tried to go get Dorian Finney Smith. P.S. I take Jimmy Butler. Of course. So, I take him, I mean, as a fan of him, a team that's trying to compete. Here's a better one.

When you sit back and you say, what team would want him? Like, what team do you not increase their chances of winning their conference if they attain Jimmy Butler? He makes so much money that to match salaries, you're going to deplete

your team. You're going to deplete your depth to bring in Jimmy Butler. And a team like the Rockets can do that. And I don't know how interested the heat are in a Grizzlies package. I don't even know why we're with the criticism. They're not going to trade for Jimmy Butler. But how interested are they in like Desmond Bain and a bunch of dudes?

You know what I mean? That are like contributors. Well, that's not happening anyway. Yeah, it's not. But that being said, you can. I'm saying there, one thing we have learned about NBA histories, we could sit here and we can say who would want this? Everybody can get traded. Everybody. The Warriors and the Rockets make some sense.

Those are two teams that make sense. There's always that everything is tradable. Everything. Ben Simmons got traded, bro. Ben Simmons got traded. Everything is tradable. Brad Beale got traded. Everything is tradable.

You know what I mean? Right when we think, oh man, that's a poison pill. That's an untradable deal. Everything is tradable. The question is, who is going to win this? epic alpha battle alpha president alpha player

how does this play out if you want to listen to a podcast where they break down the 15 scenarios go listen to Bill Simmons I'm sure he's going to have the trade machine open and he's doing all the contract first apron second apron

but my question for you is different my question for you is how does this play out in the immediate future because you've mentioned his last two games three five from the field and then three for six from the field one game he had four rebounds two assists another game he had four assists

two rebounds. He said, oh, I know I'm not shooting a lot but that doesn't mean I'm not playing hard. Zero steel, zero blocks. Zero, zero's one block. Four rebounds. Doesn't seem like you're trying that hard, Jimmy. So is this James Hardin in Houston?

You're not trying. Well, to be fair, he was sick for like five games. Stop. But five games is a long time to be sick, too. But how do you see? this playing out in the immediate future. How does this play out? I think you have to trade him for the health of your franchise.

But what happens next game in the game after that? Like, are they going to sit him? Do they send him home? Like, I don't know how this works after he says these things. I mean, you can't put this toothpaste back in the tube from what he did last night. You cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube. It's out. Well, look, this morning, there is an enormous.

cursing out that is taking place. And it's Pat Riley saying, listen to you son of a bitch, if you want to get moved somewhere, you dogging it, I will never trade you. Never. I always say your actions, your actions should support your goals. And I'd be like, Mr. Butler, if your goal is to get traded, your actions should be to play as hard as you can

and to score 30 and lead a comeback against the Pacers. Not be minus 27 and put up six shots against the Pacers. Right. Who aren't exactly the calves. It'd be funny if they suspended him or something. Just something. You know what I mean? It would also be funny if he's just like, I know what to do.

I'm going to get the last four guys on the bench and I'm going to practice against the stars. It's like it worked towards before. I'm going to text Rachel Nichols the next day. Just running back. Long sit down that makes you look like a good. Great guy. Run it back. Run it back again.

This is interesting because, listen, it's going to be messy and it's going to end. It's going to end soon. And it's going to be messy in the short term. And I love the drama. I love the petty. I'm here for it. But you are lying to yourself if there wasn't a part of you that said,

the quote unquote heat culture will fix this. This type of thing doesn't happen in Miami. The heat culture is so strong. It is a perfect match for Jimmy Butler. and that he's not going to be the old Jimmy Butler. He's older, he's mature. He's a perfect fit in Miami. He culture is going to be so strong that his old ways are going to be changed.

And now here we are. Okay. And let's be fair on one level to Jimmy Butler. Because as I said at the beginning, Jacoby, many times the most talented people are the most difficult people. And that is also true of Pat Riley. it is his way or the highway and by the way none of those relationships particularly went that great either right the shack one went the wrong way lebron the wade one went the wrong way the lebron one went the wrong way like over and over again right that like the first time those stars when it when it goes

bad it gets messy it gets messy because he's the guy in a world where now the players have power, it is one of the few places that the guy who runs the team and the coach run the show. You have to get in line in Miami. There's very few of those that go on throughout the league where the owner will back the management and the coach over the players. And it's truly a throwback but it also has led over the years a lot of those situations with stars

had ended up with guys walking out of the door saying F. Pat Riley. Yeah. And this is going to be no different. This is going to be no different. And if I could pick a destination for him, it would be the Rockets. Because I think the Rockets could put together three young

players and like a Van Vleet salary and that would be interesting. That would be mutually beneficial situation for both teams. Fair enough. If they can make the salaries work. He was not the only one that made post-game press conference news last night. As the Celtics won their game, despite not having Jalen Brown or Chris Sforzengis,

Jason Tatum went absolutely bonkers in the early TNT game. 338, 6, 3 steals, 6, 3-pointers made, and some big plays down the stretch. Oh, yeah. What? Before we get to what answered after the game, I just do want Rudy Gobert is frustrating. And Jason Taylor, he's the defensive player of the year. And at the end of the game, Jason Tatum is just like,

oh, you have Rudy Gobert on the floor. I want him on me. I'm going to score over him or past him and does it at will. And I don't understand how that's the defensive player of the year. He couldn't play. He couldn't finish the game. They took him off the court. You're talking to the wrong guy.

Not my. Not my cup of tea. He's not my cup of tea. Not mine either. I also like basketball players that catch passes and finish her in the room. That being said, the cost of building your team around a 23-year-old is sometimes that 23-year-old is going to go into a post-game press conference and keep it all too real. And last night he did after Minnesota dropped that game to Boston. Yeah, I don't know, man.

And that was a good brand of basketball, but it's not how I want to play. Of course, I mean, I'm only 23. I don't want to just be passing the ball all night. You feel me? You don't want to do my comedy? Yeah, at all. But the way they guarded me, I think I have to. I was going to say, how hard is it to just stay engaged?

Super hard. Yeah. Super hard. Super hard. Super hard. I mean, because I'm wired to score the ball. Oh, boy. Hmm.

I mean, obviously, if you continue to punish them for doubling you with the pass, they will stop doubling you. He just doesn't, like he basically told him, I don't want to pass. Like, that's not the fun part. The fun part is scoring. I don't want to just pass all night. And look, this is a maturity thing. This is, you know, Minnesota, this was my criticism of what they did last year. I mean, I guess I had egg on my face as they made it to the Western Conference finals,

but they tried to speed up their timeline in a massive way. Their best player is still a young player. And generally, over the course of NBA history, what we have learned is the best players are 26 and 27 years old before they ever win. Before they ever win a title, those guys, and we waited forever, it felt like, for Boston. But guess what? Those guys were 27, 26 years old when they ended up winning. And they tried to speed that up in Minnesota, that timeline.

And I think one of the things that comes along with that is there's still always going to be a level of immaturity. And that is your best player. And he's not going to sound like that when he's 26 or 27 years old. But for right now, and by the way, he got a button-neigh. naked three look to tie the game. I can't believe the look he got at the end of that game. And I know he's frustrated. He's been frustrated all year long,

but not great. Not great to be like, hey, I don't feel like pass at all game. Listen, you do have to give him space and grace because he is 23 years old. And we celebrate him for saying into microphones exactly how he feels and being candid.

So I'm not going to sit here and criticize him for the exact same thing. But after he said this, I was like, all right, let me just look at his game. You know what I mean? Let me just, let me see. Because I have it in my head, and I was like, let me look at what he did during that game.

And a lot of the times is they doubled him and he did not react appropriately. Like, watch Nikola Yokic, even in B, you bring a double and they'll smile at you. Like, what are you doing? Because I'm going to, I'm not either like look off the help defender and pass the second option, or I'm going to hit the first option so fast

and he's going to swing, swing to an open corner three. Like double teaming, even watch Luca, you know, he knows what to do when you double him. And Anthony Edwards would get doubled and like kind of dribble to the corner and try to throw a jump pass to the obvious first option where the double team came from. And the Celtics are good enough on defense

and they're schemed up well enough that that's going to turn into a stealer or deflection or something. And it felt like, yeah, you'd rather shoot them pass, but you have to prove that you can't, that doubling you won't be successful. And that's one of the things that makes Yokic so great. And it's hard to compare him to the grades player that we have on the planet right now. But when you double Yokic, he has a counter for that immediately to the point where you kind of can't double him.

And if you don't double him, then it's just barbecue chicken. And Anthony Edwards needs to handle what happens on the court. What gets thrown at him on the court? He needs to be a little more cerebral about instead of like, I just want to shoot more. That's not fun. because he wants to split double teams. He said the quiet part out loud. Like none of us.

This was Devin Booker in that pickup game with joking Noah. Yes. This isn't fun. Like, we're just playing pickup. There ain't no doubling. Throw a double. But he's like standing in the corner. And every point game, I'm going to double.

This is the right thing to do. But that's how Anthony Edwards wants it to be, though. Like, come on, man. Yeah. This isn't fun. It's two to fend. It was also another game. It was a game last night where he was the only wolf not hitting shots. Like everybody else was hitting like four for five and three, two for four from three, two for, you know, three for three for, you know, three for five from three.

Like, McDougain was hitting shots. Randall was hitting shots. Like everyone's hitting shots. Devinza was hitting shots. Give these guys the opportunity to score and then they'll leave you alone. Like there's an easy counter this and it feels like he needs to he needs to come up with it on his own. or get coached into a position better. But I'm not going to criticize him for what he said because I love everything he says and I love him as a personality in the league for years ago. How about we get Jimmy back there?

Oh, no. That would be awesome. It's just a Spider-Man meme. Like him and Ann Edwards just, it's just a Spider-Man meme. It's just not only they're redundant on what they want to do offensively. It's just like they're just like the same person at different ages of their life. Oh, man. The Warriors played the late game.

Look, Steph Curry at his best is still as electric as there is on the planet. And last night pulled off something he had not before, which is his most made threes without a miss. Eight for eight in their game last night. Just he's otherworldly, man. I think it was a good sequence to have the watch the Timberwolves offense and then watch the Warriors offense. Because the Timberwolves offense is, I'm going to get myself a shot. Anthony Edwards going to go between the legs twice

and then take a step back and miss it. Or Julius Randall's going to do some weird back down, up, fake, fade away, lefty shot and miss it. And there's no passing, there's no motion, there's no assisting. In the Warriors game, there are 13 field goals in the first quarter, 13 assisted field goals. Whipping the ball around.

Swing, swing, swing, swing, swing, swing, swing, swing, swing, swing, open three. Swing, swing, swing, swing, swing, swing, swing, Steve Curry. Oh, somebody misses a shot. They get the rebound. Kick it out to Steph Curry. The way they move without the ball, the way they play with each other, the way they play off each other has been well documented.

But the juxtaposition between what the Timberwolves were doing offensively and what they were doing offensively was night and day. And the shrewder thing started to look good. And also, and they are, look, if this is, if this is project trade value, the Kamenga thing has been fantastic over the course of the past week. He had 34 against the Clippers. He had 34 against Phoenix, 18 against Cleveland. and then turned around with 20 last night on 8 of 11, 2 for 3. And so if you're trying to bolster up, if you've decided, hey, we're probably not going to be in the commingo long-term business. He's at least, this is going the exact opposite way of what's going on in Miami,

which is if we are trying to make people want this guy, this is going about as well as it can over the course of the last two weeks where we've, had a couple of 30-point games at a 20-point game off the bench where if some opposing GM is watching be like, you know what? This comminga thing could really work. It's the exact opposite of the Miami thing. It is funny that like, you know, Golden State needs to make a trade. Why do they need to make a trade? They really need a second player that can get their own shot. They need sort of a second playmaker, like a second shot creator, someone athletic, like a wing that they can just pass the ball to at the end of the shot clock. And Cominga, who they're trying to

trade, is being exactly that. At the moment, like, that is the sort of answer is right there in front of you, but for whatever reason, they know a lot more about Jonathan Camiga than I do. They've decided that that's not the direction they want to go. Well, and I think he's probably balling out hoping. Oh, yeah.

Right? I don't think anyone has spoken about it. I don't think Steve Kerr's ever spoken to him about it out loud, but everybody knows what's happening because the quiet part is very loud. Yeah, he's balling out, hoping that he can land somewhere that wants to give him the fortune that he desires. Because I think he realizes the fortune that he desires is not happening there. So the better I play, and that's why I say, it's a complete juxtaposition of what's going on with Jimmy.

Jimmy is not playing in order to get the fortune that he desires. Caminga's looking at it and going, hey, man, I need to find a landing spot. I want all these teams to want me because I'm about to come up for a contract extension and it appears as if that contract extension that I want isn't happening in Golden State. So let me go ahead and impress everybody else and maybe I can land somewhere where I can get my $200 million. And it might be one of those scenarios where a good franchise and a good player just aren't on the same page and it's no one's fault. I've been a Kaminga doubter, but he's played well this year. And if you're the Golden State Warriors, you're saying, listen, I've got Draymond Green and his gray beard.

I've got Steph Curry already talking about the end of his career. That is my timeline. I'm making a final run with this group. And what I don't want to do is be locked into Jonathan Kaminga as the franchise player. the sun that all the other plans revolve around in the 2028 season, because that's not going to do me any good at all. Well, and if we're being fair, Jacoby, and I know they wallop the Sixers last night.

He's the sixth man on an average basketball team. I think they're, where are they in the States? Literally, like, in the middle of the Western Conference. The Western Conference is so grouped up there that, like, they're trending closer to a play-in game than they are a playoff spot at the moment. Right. And he's the sixth man on an average basketball team. That's where he is right now.

You can argue that maybe he should be more than that. They've tried to put him in the starting lineup. They've moved him back to the bench. You know, it's obviously he's had his say on that where he doesn't feel like that has done him. You know, there's been a disservice to him. And it's had a high cost mentally on him to try to be the best version of. of himself while he's getting yanked back and forth from the starting line up to the bench,

the starting line up to the bench. But at least for right now in the last couple of weeks, he has been playing very well. You know what? I forgot. You just reminded me when he said to paraphrase, like most people would have folded in my shoes. Oh, yeah.

Most people can't handle this. They would have quit. They would have quit. Yeah. I mean, would have quit. I understand, you know, everyone's fighting a battle. everyone's fighting a battle and everyone's a hero in their own movie,

but like Jonathan Comingo, like there's more adversity in the world than scoring 20 points as an NBA player and make it like $20 million. Are you going to, I don't think either of us we're going to mention the Sixers later, but I mean,

post Christmas, what the hell? Like, we all jumped on the, after Christmas. They were so good. Hey, got all three of them. together. They beat the Celtics. Hey, there's still a lot of time left in the season. Here they go. And then my God, this West Coast road trip.

I thought they were going to make a run in the game last night. I swear to God, like around halftime, I was like, I'm like, oh, 13, like 15. I was like, they got a run in them. They're going to figure this out. And here's one thing I want to say about the Sixers. We'll do this briefly because we have other things to get to. Joel M. They didn't play.

They're in a back-to-back. They look kind of sluggish. Joel M. didn't play the previous night. So why does he come out of halftime after a 15 minute break, plays for two minutes, and looks like he just ran

a marathon is going to pass out? What is going on with this man? What is it? He's never going to be right again. We know this. If you're not going to play back to back, that don't look like you played a back to back. You know, they have five,

they have five back to backs in the month of January. Five. Most of and more than any team in the league. Joel and B is going to miss five games this month. And the crazy thing is that night before, when they played against Sacramento, they got a 15-0 run put on them at the end of the game. Ridiculous.

In order to lose that game. They looked like the nets. Like, we're going to get two later. It's like, are they tanking? I mean, they won that Boston game. And then they had those two games where, you know, they won by three against Utah, which is not all that impressive.

and then they beat Portland, right? And everybody beats Portland. But then, like we said, right after New Year's, they played Sacramento and had this just horrendous loss where they were up huge and then just got run out at the end of the game. It's insane. And then last night it'd be by 30. The Sacramento game felt like the generals against the Globetrotters.

Yep. It felt like they were trying to lose them. Now, their schedule does lighten up a lot. They've got at Brooklyn, then they play a Phoenix team who's been reeling, then they play Washington, then they play New Orleans. So we may look in a week's time, and we're talking about, hey, the Sixers have gotten going again. Because, I mean, their schedule is these next four games, they're all certainly extremely winnable games. And I would imagine, at worst, you should go three and one over your next four. Yeah, so maybe next Friday show we'll say some nice things about them, but I'm telling you, when you have five,

back to backs in a month more than any other team and you've got your star player who's only played with the other star players in nine games I think they only finished seven of those games together is he really going to miss five games this month because he doesn't play back to backs I don't even know if he can play back to backs or it's a good idea it's a mess I just because I want to stay positive about six for a second there's a couple possessions when joll and bide set a screen for Paul George at the top of the key, and it worked. There's one where it's just like a perfect little pass to Mbita finished. Another one where it didn't really look great, but it sucked enough defense in the middle,

and they passed to Maxi, who had an open drive. Maxi missed like seven layups last night, too. There's flashes when you see it like Christmas, where you're like, I don't want to play this team in a playoff series. If I'm the Knicks, I don't want to play that team. The other great media moment that we had last year, night was out of nowhere. I guess word had gotten back to Charles Barkley a few weeks late because this felt like delayed reaction. A few weeks ago, you know, JJ Reddick is asked

about state of the game and JJ Reddick goes on to talk about how people aren't positive about the game and we don't accentuate what's great about our game, etc. In fact, just as a little refresh, this is a few weeks ago that this happened where JJ Reddick is in the middle of the ongoing dialogue about what's wrong with the NBA. And here's what JJ had to say. I don't think we as, and by we, I was part of it, we as the sort of national partners, have done a good job of storytelling, of celebrating. the game. If I'm a casual fan

and you tell me every time I turn on the television that the product sucks, well, I'm not going to watch the product. Well, a couple of things I want to say about that. There are two national partners. There's ESPN and TNT. Right. So, he said we,

but he never says Charles Barkley's name or inside the NBA. But he does imply it somewhat because if you were to ask which one of those two groups of people or those networks, is more critical of the way the game is played.

It's very clearly inside the NBA. Everybody knew what he was talking about. That was not lost on Charles Barkley, and he responded. One thing I want you to listen to during this is Ernie trying so hard to do this highlight of the first half between the Timberwolves and the Celtics.

Ernie Johnson is trying so hard that his colleagues are having absolutely none of it. Here it is. That J.J.J. Reddick says, something about me. JJ, you better calm down so when you come for the king, you better not miss. I don't, did he name you specifically or did he just talking about folks on TV? He said something about what the reason people aren't watching this crappy product we got.

That's Jay, yeah, it's like we out there jacking up a hundred and three tonight. Jay J.J. I don't know Jason Monroe, I don't know who that is, but JJ, you come for the king, you better not miss it. Because I can get you brother, because I got, remember, I got the Lakers games. You can't hide them flaws they got. You're just a dead man walking. They got rid of Frank Vogel who did a good job. They got rid of Darbinham who did a good job.

You came out there thinking you were going to change things with that same ugly girl you went on the big with. 64-51 was your half-time score. We get back to the highlights. Rudy Gaubert. He went on to say that him and Shaq would be the third and fourth best players on the Lakers. Right now. Not at their prime. Not the end of the career.

You meant right now. laughing so hard. Oh, my God. I mean, it's just so strange because it's like someone told Chuck within like the last week. Like, hey, did you hear what JJ said about you three weeks ago? I think it's also fair to say that he's not the most online person. You know what I mean? Yeah, right. I don't think he's just scrolling Instagram and TikTok all day long to catch up on the latest of what's being said about him. Everybody said, did you hear what JJ said about you? and he didn't listen to it. And he just went in and decided

he was going to say, come at the king, you best not miss. And I think he's talking about Jason McIntyre. He is talking about Jason McIntyre. He's like, I don't know who that is.

I was watching, I was like, I don't know who that is either. Why are you worried about Jason Monroe? So I go on Twitter or whatever, and I search Jason Monroe NBA, and there's no one. Like,

no one comes up. Oh, because Jason McIntyre, I guess said on Cowherd that inside the NBA is the worst thing that's happened to NDA viewing or whatever. To be fair to him, I think he prefaced it by saying like,

listen, I know this is going to be like a controversial hot take, but here's just like something I've been, I've been feeling, which is whatever. You know what I mean? I don't do a lot of like media, media.

It's just, I mean, look down, it's an amazing hot take, I guess. Yeah, but he's just talking. He's got a four hour show every day. He's just saying stuff.

I mean, the funniest part to me, was he was talking about like, we're not out there shooting a hundred threes or whatever. And Kenny Smith, I don't know how many people caught this. Oh, I know what he said. Kitty Smith goes,

we're on an hour a week. Also, Kenny Smith is like, Kenny Smith, who is a three-point shooter is just like, he's got this feeling like a lot of ex-players have. That, you know, they got paid.

They're the best player in the league. I paid $6 million a year or whatever. and now, you know, Jimmy Butler's getting paid 50 and, like, putting up nine points. There's a part of Kenny Smith, who was like, in the background was like, I was in the wrong generation.

He's like, if I was putting up 15, 3s a game, I'd make 10 of them. Well, and the funniest thing, too, was that first game, the Minnesota Boston game ended, so they just had, it felt like a half an hour to kill.

Yeah, which is what makes that show good because they have the time in the room to breathe. But it also, they were on at halftime when this happened. And the first half of that game featured a lot of threes. And they were going in for the Celtics, but they were not going in for the wolves. And it did feel like the wolves needed to make some adjustments offensively,

which is sort of one of the things that they said. Yeah. It was super funny to watch last night, for sure. And I like the whole JJ Reddick, Charles Bark. and now inevitably. Now we're going to hear from Oh yeah, now we're going to hear from JJ Reddick. And he's going to say I wasn't talking specifically about Chuck.

I just talk about the, you know, wow, you know, the way it's going to work. You know the way it's going to work. Because you don't see ESPN. You can be critical of ESPN's NBA coverage, but it's not because they're sitting there trash in the league left and right.

That is more of an inside the NBA thing. Yes. Yeah. But people love the old haters. That's how it comes off like old haters a lot of times. And they're also so, like, non-serious about it, right? Where, like, people, who sits there and watches inside the NBA? You watch it to be entertained, to laugh.

And have fun. And I don't sit there. I mean, the idea that people are sitting there going, you know what, these guys are right, this does suck. Like, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. No one watches inside the channel. NBA. It was like, you know what? Chuck and Shaq are right. I'm changing the channel. What are the Buffalo Sabres doing right now? All right. Let's get to Love and Loat from the week that was.

I'll start, team that I loved. And I was glad to see, we have talked about them several times throughout this year and the amazing season that they have had. But it felt like on a wide scale. I saw more of it on social media. The calves needed to go out to the West Coast and people needed to see them in order for them to gain the proper respect because as soon as they beat up the Lakers, it was like, ooh, the calves are for real. The calves are for real now. Okay. They're 29 and 4. They're on a 72 win page. Just say the record again. 29 and 4

29 and 4 okay Jacoby the 96 bulls at this point were 30 and 3 so they're one they're one game off that they have an 11.6 net rating which is the same as the

2016 Warriors they've won 21 of their games by double digits and some of the crazy stats that I saw from Fear the Sword.com.

If you want to keep up with all your cab stuff, you could check out Fear the Sword. But they had this article that chronicled some of the unbelievable things that have gone on this year for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They have a 121.9 offensive rating. To wit, the best offensive rating by an NBA team ever is last year's Boston team.

which was 123.2. So the calves are 121.9. They are 1.3 behind that. And beyond that, like their mid-range stats are crazy. And then this one was wild. This was on Fear of the Sword. Not every game has been a blowout. The NBA defines clutch games as ones that are within five points in the final five minutes.

Cleveland has been, has had the best clutch winning percentage. and has the most clutch wins, 12, despite ranking 21st in total games that reach clutch minutes. The Cavs are blowing teams off the floor in this situation. They have registered an outrageous 51.5 net rating and 155.5 offensive rating in 39 clutch minutes. Jesus. In 39 clutch minutes, they have a net rating of plus 51.5. If you take those 39 minutes to extrapolate that out to 100 possessions, they would score 50 more points than their opponent.

Yes. I mean, it's a small sample size, but it's something. You know what I mean? It's something. And then Kenny Atkinson's offense has improved the most in the half. They went from having the 18th ranked offensive rating in the half court last year to having the best. They also are the best offense in transition. So they're the best transition offense.

They're the best half court offense. I saw that. They're the best in clutch situations. It's like this is seriously one of the greatest team basketball seasons ever through 33 games. ever. It's right there at the very top of the best seasons we have ever seen. And it's going on in Cleveland, Ohio. You would think that the Cavs and the Celtics would have swapped records at this point. And the narrative that Celtics have had some bad losses, and that's been covered. You know, they didn't win two in a row until last night in the last 10 games.

They're five, five in the last 10 games. They're losing to the Pacers and the Hawks and whoever, right? And the narrative there is, oh, they're getting everybody's best game. They've won so many games. They've been through so many playoff battles that these games don't mean that much to them. Okay, but they're still losing them. And we still act like the Celtics are far and away the best team in the Eastern Conference, even though all of this Cavs numbers and eye-test stuff is in our face.

And it's, it's, I'm like, I'm like a month away from swapping. They've got to, they've got to flex this team into national TV games second half of the season. They have to. Yeah. They have to. they do. So this is going to be very chalky. Because the team I love just so happens to be

the team with the best record in the Western Commons. That is the Oklahoma City Thunder. But I wanted to pick them for a couple of reasons. One, because they waxed your grizzlies. And I knew that before we toss the voicemail on Tuesday's show, I knew that it was going to be, oh, guess what? All of our guys were hurt. And they were.

They were. they got waxed. Like, not competitive. Not a competitive basketball. I'm going to shock you when I tell you this. They are absolutely awesome. Oh,

yeah. Now, I have said many times that I think people are ahead of themselves, where it's them and everybody else. Because they've taken one scar. And that's when they got beat by Dallas last year, right? You were going to play a guy. against a bunch of teams that have playoff experience, a bunch of teams of full grown men on

their team. And I think that for a team that has not proven itself as an elite playoff performer yet, the history of the NBA tells us that you have to do that first. Maybe in the end, I will end up being wrong, but I will say this. As a regular season incarnation, they are absolutely devastating. And what they did to the Grizzlies in the second quarter of that game is what they did last night in the third quarter of that game. That's exactly what I was going to get to. Because I want, we all know about this team and SGA MVP candidate this and that, but I want to talk about their defense because the Clippers were winning the game. I think they're up like 20 something in the first half. And in the third quarter, it was probably three out of four possessions. They just turned the ball over at half court and got a dunk. Like just stuvers. the ball from the ball handler. Like these weren't like someone threw a bad pass against deflected and all of a sudden we grab it. Like they were stealing the ball

from the ball handler and turning them over last night. And that was really impressive for their third quarter what they did. They ended up getting run out dunk after run out dunk after run out dunk. And I've done some research for them. They've got a 103.4 defensive rating, right? Best in the league.

The second best in the league is 106. That's a huge gap. Huge. Their opponents turn the ball over 16.6% of the time, which doesn't sound like a large percentage. But that's like one out of six times. That's like one out of every six times down the floor. They're forcing it.

Not a miss shot. They're forcing a turnover. Opponents shoot 42.6% against them. Lowest in the league. But here's one thing I find interesting. So their opponents field goal percentage. is 42.6. Lowest in the league.

However, opposing teams shoot 45% from three against them, which is the second highs in the league. And it's not like they have some like Rudy Gobert-ish rim protection down there. Right.

It's, I can't really like make those two numbers make sense outside of the fact that they have a ton of really hardworking defenders who are between 6-6 and 6-8 and just fucking swore. Well, and you also had to take into consideration two of their better defenders on the perimeter and in the post

are Holmgren and Caruso. And they've been doing it without those guys. So, I mean, you throw those guys into the mix. I mean, look, they've been devastating. And the other Jalen Williams that no one talks about, the bigger Jalen Williams, not J-Dubb, you know, J-Will, like, he's been out.

No, what's going to happen is someone in order to beat them, you're going to have to drag them into the mud. That's it. You've got to drag them into the mud, and you're going to have to, like what Milwaukee did during that, the N season tournament. And hope they miss a bunch of threes.

And try to play them in a game that's played in the 90s or the low 100s. That's your chance. Because if you want to try to fly up and down with that group and you want to just play, you want to play an all-star game, you're smoked. And it just the amount They turned the other team over 17% of the time It's nuts

It's nuts and they were down by they were down a ton to the clippers They come at a half time And they just picked up their defensive intensity And it was it was really impressive And I understand you're a grizzlies guy And I understand you're like well my team He's got so much playoff experience Okay and I don't remember them being in the finals

But I think that I would pick them over I'd pick them over the Grizzlies Say that much Real quick We know you would. I picked them over the maps. I picked them over anybody in the seven game series in the Western Conflicts. Team I loathed, the Phoenix Suns.

So after I had sent you the voice message, and then on New Year's Eve, I posted a picture of John Conchard, who had an and one to ice the game. I got a lot of Oklahoma City fans saying, oh, this one matters. Like, bro, of course it matters. Memphis had nine guys out in the game.

And the reason it mattered is because it was, maybe one of the most embarrassing losses I've ever seen in my life for a franchise. Phoenix losing to Memphis while nine guys were in the Oklahoma City game Yuki Kawamura played the last nine minutes of the game

and then in the Phoenix game was on the injury report with a bum shoulder They, Yuki couldn't, Yuki played nine minutes. They didn't even have Yuki in this game. They had at one point, they had a lineup on the court that had Colin Castleton and Jay Huff, both former Laker G League players. I don't know who Colin Castleton is.

He was on a son of NBA basketball. I do not know who that man is. He was on the court. Okay. And Phoenix, by the way, had Kevin. Devin Durant, Devin Booker, and Brad Beale, and then Brad Beale went out because he got hurt because Brad Beal gets hurt a lot. They've lost six of seven. Durant, Booker, and Beal have now played 197 minutes in unison.

They've got a minus four net rating with those guys on the court. So they haven't been good with those guys on the court. Remember last year they had that clutch stat? They're like the worst clutch team in the league? That's right. Well, this year... They just don't add up and make sense. Well, their defense is horrible.

You know, cleaning the glass... I think they're like 21st, but cleaning the glass extrapolates like non-garbage time. It gets down to 24th, Jacoby, on defense in the league. And you look, and I know it should not matter that much that Yusuf Nurkich and Royce O'Neill are out, but, like, that's the situation that you're in.

Well, they're not... No one big out... Were they starting plumbly? Right. And nobody that... that can perimeter defend at an elite level, right? That's one of the things that take place. And so they are in a bad way.

And it's hard to see how, I mean, I think they're 11th right now in the standing. So, I mean, you're on the outside looking in. And I get it. They've had some injuries this year. But when you look at their payroll and what they're paying for that team and the expectations that they brought in a new coach, this is, this has gone the wrong way very, very quickly for Phoenix. I'll say this before you're

to the team that I loathe is preseason. Oh, this is going to be different this year. Coach Bud. Everyone's healthy. It's going to be different this year. Then they start pretty well. And then it was, well, KD's been hurt.

Without KD, they're 1 and 8. But with KD, they're 12 and 3. Yep. And you got, it was just like, then I told myself, this is all going to change but KD gets back because they're so good with KD. Well, Katie's been back for a little bit now, Chris Vernon. And still doesn't look right.

Still doesn't feel right. Don't love it. Devin Booker. Remember Devin Booker? The MVP? Remember the MVP top five finished Evan Booker was going to have this year? They have no, I mean, especially, look, I guess I don't know if they can even move NERC, but. Can't move NERC.

They have no big guys. And look, you're in the way. Western Conference, and you look at the best teams in the Western Conference right now, if you just go through down the list, right? With Oklahoma City, you're going to be dealing with Chet and you're going to be dealing with Iheart. With Memphis, you're going to be dealing with Jared Jackson Jr. Who destroyed them, destroyed them.

And Zach Edy and Brandon Clark and those guys. Lively and Gafford. Lively and Gafford. Houston's going to throw Stephen Adams and Shengoon and Shibari at you. and then Denver's going to throw yoke at you and even the Lakers are going to throw Anthony Davis at you. It's like, what do you have to deal with? Even the clippers have Zubot, right? And it's like something to deal with.

Minnesota's got their group of bigs. It's like you got no big guys. You're too little. You too little. And Nurgich has been disappointing. And literally when Plumley gets on the floor, I'm like, oh, a little juice. It's Plumly. I know.

All right. Timmy Lothed. I loat this team for so many reasons. Last night, the Nets were playing the Bucks, and they led by 24. They were up 111 to 90, with less than seven minutes left,

and the Bucs scored 20 straight points. Dame Lillard missed a three. They turned the ball over again on the rebound, and Dave Lillard missed another three. and I am not watching it because I was going to cave last night and pay for the fucking Brooklyn Nets. No, you weren't. There's this thing called Gotham Sports,

and I paid $30 a month to watch the Knicks. And I was like, you know what? I really want to see what's going to happen in this Bucks Nets game. I bet it's probably just like upgrading, you know, from a medium fry to a large fry. It's got to be an extra $5 or $6 a month. I couldn't even find how much it costs, but I think it's another $30 bucks a month.

And I refuse to pay that for the Brooklyn Nets, whether I can write it off or whether I can get to Spotify Swedes to pay for it. I don't care. Just on principle, I'm not paying to watch Nets games. And I don't know if they're actively tanking at the end of this game or they're just that bad. They gave up a 20-0 run to finish a game and then two potential game-winning shots from Dame. I don't even know what happened because I can't see it because I refuse to pay for it.

Wait, didn't you say it was 30? I think so. I paid 30 bucks for the Knicks a month. So from what I was told, if you do watch the net, They give you a $5 rebate. So it's actually just 25 if you take the Nets games too. Maybe that's my trouble finding the ad on. It's not an add-on.

It's a rebate. They will give you five bucks if you'll watch the Nets too. I just hate this. They just trade Cam Johnson, Camp Thomas already. Just go just tank. Send Jory Fernandez on a month-long Sahara vacations and Safari. like just just stop winning games in the words of cj mccallum i'm trying jennifer it gave up 20 straight points what do you want to be too i was i was fascinated by

this occurrence and i wanted to watch it and i couldn't even watch it because i refuse to pay to see this team i just hate the nets just be bad or don't were they trying to lose like i don't even know what this looked like were they passing it to the other team it's one of their biggest wins all season and you're trashing them. Of course I am. I think I think they were, I don't know what happened. I just, I just hate the fact that I can't see the games. I hate

the fact that they're blatantly tanking. They've traded two of their most productive players. So just trade the other ones already. I love Cam Johnson. Trade them. Player I loved amidst all of the mess that has gone on

in Sacramento with the firing of Mike Brown and all the stuff circulating about De Aaron Fox. De Aaron Fox has responded by having two just unbelievable games back to back this week. First against Dallas, he had 33, 6, and 6, and then help lead them to that win against Philadelphia where he has 35, 13 of 16 from the field. And they end that game on a 15-0 run versus the Sixers. And Fox, who, you know, has had to go out on social media and say like, hey, this isn't on me, right? Like, I'm not a coach killer.

Like, this isn't about me. Like, the job is, and he has been so reliable, the guy has played every single night. And interestingly enough, do you know in the NBA, if you're going by total point scored, Shea Gilders-Alexander is number one. This would be unsurprising to you. He has 1,029 points so far this season. Number two is Deerrin Fox. Don't you think they should give the scoring title to the play?

that scored the most points. Rather than the per game? Yeah. That to me is you scored the most points. It should be rewarded for playing more games than your peers. Kind of like in the Kareem, the Kareem record ideal. We were right.

We celebrated LeBron James for breaking the career scoring record rather than some points per game. Okay. Fox is two, Yokic is three, Tatum is four. That just speaks to how reliable. and consistently great Fox has been. And I know that this has been a hollacious week for being him. The team is disappointed.

The coach gets fired. Everybody turns to you as a reason that the coach gets fired. And so the job then is to be able to respond. And he threw the team on his back, him and Subonis in two straight games, got two really great wins and he was unbelievable. So I'm a huge Fox fan. and, you know, it can't be easy when they get rid of your coach. Everybody turns to you.

Everybody talks about your trade value and whether or not you are going to end up moving elsewhere. And so it's a professional thing to do is to go out and be as amazing as he's been into what are two really great wins. Dallas and Philly back to back are really good wins. It's good for you to celebrate him because when Coach Brown got fired, you know, we all heard Steve Kerr said. We all heard Mike Malone said. And when a coach gets fired under those sorts of circumstances, the first thing that you look at, like we did with Janus last year is, well, the best player must have had a hand in this. The best player, well, they wouldn't do it without at least notifying the best player.

I don't know what conversations were had behind the scenes. And maybe he didn't stand on a table and say, if Mike Brown is gone, then I'm gone. But who knows what those conversations were like? And who knows what influence he had and what knowledge you had or didn't have. but in terms of perception being reality, the perception was that Deerrin Fox had something to do with this, or they were doing this to appease Deer and Fox, and that can be hard to deal with as a young professional basketball player

in the spotlight, and that can affect the way you perform on the court. And as you mentioned, it's a very professional thing to do is under those circumstances to go out and ball out and carry your team to win. So I think that's a good player you love this week. Player you loved. Mine is someone I've been very critical of in the past.

So I just wanted to give them a little tip of the cap. You gave them a tip of the cap earlier, and that is Tyrese Halliburton. Not my favorite NBA basketball player, but I will say this. Last thing against the heat, 33 points, 12, 13 for 21, 6 for 13 from 3, 15 assists in zero turnovers. Against the bucks on New Year's Eve, he wasn't the best.

But against Boston, 31 points, only one for six from three but then went 10 for 13 from twos seven assists in a win against Boston Halliburton last two and three games has played really well I'm very critical of him so I just wanted to say just give him a tip of the cap and a salute for especially what he did last night

but we did previously against Boston get them a big way you know when I watched them earlier this year in person one of the things that I thought because at Netmart had the ball a bunch and there were other guys that like brought the ball the way they were doing things. I thought, you know, it's better for him. You get the best out of it.

Just keep the ball in his hands. He does nothing off the ball. He does nothing off the ball. But it feels like when he's got the ball in his hands and they do the heliocentric thing, like he creates a lot for himself and for others. And it felt like they went less to that. When I saw them earlier this year,

I was like, why is he not out of the ball? Like, you know what I mean? It's like the multiple ball handler things or whatever. Like, yeah, but this guy's kind of useless. He just kind of fades into the background if he doesn't have the ball in his hands. And I know that you should be able to, you know, that's part of maturing is being able to be good when you don't have the ball. But some guys are just like that. So for years with like the Hardin type.

Of course. It's like, okay, now he's off the ball. And it's like, what does he do when he's off the ball? Watch Luke off the ball. Yeah, right. Any of these guys who have like super high uses rate ball in the hand all the time, like Trey Young, like just kind of don't know what to do. without it. And Halliburton is good enough and has enough skills and a good enough shot that he should be working off the ball.

But he's been playing well lately. I'm going to keep this. I'm going to keep this fast because I do look. Deep down, I really like this guy. But I've got to put him on my play there I loathed this week. And that is, it's been a tough week for the heat. It's Tyler Hero. Bro, you cannot. You cannot get chucked like that. Oh, oh. No. I disagree. I disagree on this. You cannot. I agree on this one. No. Ahmed Thompson has not been in the league.

It's not like, you know, Isaiah Stewart chucked you. No. No. You cannot get chucked like. No. You can't get chucked. I'm going to give you a chance to take this back. You cannot get ragdled by Amman Thompson.

I'm sorry. This is not Stephen Adams. This is not, no. Like, in fact, in fact, how about this? I would rank Ah man Thompson Not even in the top six Acceptable

Houston Rockets to ragdoll you Is email Don't come up him Of course We see it's Dylan Fitt Dylan Adams Stephen Adam

Stephen Adam Shangoon Yeah we can get to six pretty quick Sure Tarry Eason Uh Tell me we're We're

We're Dad Jay Tate. I'd rather you get ragged off by Jayshon Tate. At least he's got like some kind of mega edge. But I mean, you can't get ragdolled like that, bro. You got shocked. No, no. So let me, let me make the counterpoint here. When you put, there is no counter. There is no power point. There's anybody want to just move on and just accept whatever you say as gospel. That's not how this works. You can't get ragdoll like that. Here's what Tyler Hero is expecting in that moment.

There is an unwritten rule that we don't want to get suspended. We don't want to lose our money. We don't want to throw punches. We don't, we don't really want to fight. We want to act like we want to fight and then get held back. That is the dance that everyone dances in the NBA. Tyler Hero was expecting the familiar to happen. I get in your face. You're getting my face. Referees and teammates get between us. And then we start pointing our fingers at each other and start talking acting like we want to fight, even though we don't really want to fight, and we don't want to end up on the floor. And that's what Tyler Hero was walking into. And what Ahmed Thompson, who clearly has taken some judo, put the foot behind him.

And just tossed him. No. It was a chudo. It was a chudo toss. It looked like he was throwing a dummy. Because Tyler, Tyler Hero's not ready for that. He thought,

we're going to act like we want to fight. We're not going to actually do anything to each other. Look, there's been a lot of guys in that situation that aren't ready for it. You still don't get ragdolled like that. Oh, how did your whole body just go limp and you went flying? I excuse Tyler Hero for that. No way.

What do you think about the post game? awesome. I did love that. Scoring a bunch, throwing a bunch of dives. I'd be mad at me too. Get some stupid sunglasses. I love Tyler here so much. No, I do love him, but I mean, you can't get chucked like that, bro.

All right. I'm going to do mine very quickly. Do you know who mine is? It hurts me to say it. Chavano. What? Chavano is Icarus, man. He flew too close to the sun early in the season.

I don't know if you've noticed, but here's his last five games. Two for six from three, two for eight from three, O for seven from three, one for eight from three, and last night, one for five from three. And after he hit it last night, he put his arms out and looked to the sky like, thank you, Lord, for allowing me to make a three-point shot in an NBA basketball game.

Chavano, love your name, love your start to the season. I believe this is what regression to the mean is that, work here. Tell me you saw the Draymond Green get caught on the mic the other night screaming at him. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get your head in the effing game or get the F off a year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all good when you're going six for eight from three,

Draymond doesn't yell you about that. But when you go 0 for seven from three and you're missing defensive assignments and you're messing up the offense, yeah, man, Chavano, Chavano, I'm rooting for you. All right, thing that I love. Nicola Yokic being the leading vote getter. I have very little faith in the fan voting. And we did see some goofy stuff take place in the fan voting. But I was in absolute shock to see Yokic be the leading vote getter in the Western Conference.

Because generally, what takes place when it comes to all-star voting is it's a popularity contest. That's what it is. This is not necessarily you get it on merit, right? It's not merit, but fan voting is not necessarily merit. But this guy is having one of the greatest seasons in NBA history, maybe the greatest offensive season in NBA history. And I think it speaks well to NBA fandom that he has that amount of votes because I think we can all agree he is deserving and is the best player in the NBA right now.

I did not in any way feel that that would be reflected in the voting. In fact, the reason it stands out to me is because you saw the amount of votes Lamello Paul got. And that's popularity. It's very popular amongst people that discuss the NBA in depth to complain about fan voting. And I've never felt that way. Because my thing is, when you look at the end up, if you end up looking at the all-star teams,

it's not, it's, it's, it's not like Tari Isan is going to make it because the fans love them. You know what I mean? Like, it always ends up being the right team. So I just want to caution everybody not to get too worked up about this. Well, I appreciate you. Except for when Andrew Wiggins got to start the game because of that K-pop guy. I did forget about that. The K-pop guy got Andrew Wiggins.

And he just disproved everything I said. I completely forgot about that year. That did happen. Andrew Wiggins still gets votes. Did you see him on that thing? I don't even look at it. One of the things is I don't vote. Like, I'm just too lazy.

Yeah, like, just too lazy. I get, I'll open the app and they push the thing right at me. I'm like, oh, maybe this is the year that I'm going to vote. I've never voted on it, ever. I was just, I just couldn't believe. It's good. Yeah. And you know what?

I think that's good. Let's keep it positive. That's a thing that you love, and I love that. And I'm going to wrap the pod. soon so I get through this quickly. A couple of things I love. I never believe this is about the New York Knicks. I love that they're playing the Thunder tonight.

And that's my plans for the evening. We got a 13-game win streak, if we don't count the finals of the Cup. And a nine-game win streak going head-to-head tonight at 7.30. And one thing I love about the Knicks broadcast recently is Mike Breen calling the Jazz Knicks game. Now, I don't want you get the wrong idea. Jordan Clarkson wasn't that bad in this game. But listen to Mike Breen's commentary throughout the game on Jordan Clarkson shot attempts.

Clarkson on sham it. Some very questionable shots from Jordan Clarkson. This is the largest lead for the next. Clarkson, gets it and shoots it. Ball poked away. Clarkson just heaved him up there. He has taken some bad shots here in the first half. He has.

Clarkson's going to shoot no question about it comes up short part of the rebound and fourth of the season and the crowd aware of it Clarkson steps back throws up a brick

Markson missed a lot of dribbling tonight just a lot of dribbling tonight by the way we did not mention this guy and I hate that we went through the whole pot

of that message you on that on that highlight you're in a rebound by heart Hart with the back to back triple doubles oh yeah first time of Nick's done it since 1981 and Michael Ray Richardson.

Back to back, triple doubles. And I saw that, you see that stack going around that he's got like the third most rebounds over the course of the past month. I don't even want to talk about the Knicks they've been playing so well recently. But I love that from Mike Green because he didn't wake up in the morning and say I'm to trash Jordan Clarkson. And again, I looked up the game. Jordan Clarkson did not play that bad.

Let me see, I got it in front of me here. He was eight for 19 from the floor, three for six from three. like that's not that bad you know it's really not that bad all right thing that I loat at the beginning of the season I gave you my breakout player and that was Jake Nivey oh no he was well on he was well on his way he's well on his way and in fact even in that game was playing one of his best games

and that team is so fun and you can see the signs of them becoming something in the future, and especially Ivy, you know, who had a really rough first couple of years with the whole coaching and getting yanked around or whatever, and he was starting to fulfill said promise and just a gruesome injury as Cole Anthony barreled into him and he broke his leg.

And the other crazy thing, this is on the, you know, this could be viewed as bad or actually maybe a blackout. blessing and disguise, but I still follow his mom, Nail Ivey is the head coach at Notre Dame and I still follow her on Instagram and right before this happened, I saw her post. She was at the game.

She was getting to go to his game and was so excited to be there. And so on one hand, awful that your mom has to be there to see that. On the other hand, maybe a blessing that your mom was there through one of your most trying moment of your career. And

here's hoping that he can make a full recovery and fulfill the promise that I know that that kid has. Great kid, great player, and was really coming into his own. And I give anything if we could turn injuries off. But that was, you don't see stretchers on a basketball court. That was daunting to see that. Absolutely. And then wishing him a speedy recovery. And I think that he was having a season that made you feel like last year was a personality clash and a bad head coaching decision.

instead of him playing poorly and turning around as an athlete and a basketball player. I think this is more who he really was. He was showing that. There is no upside, but they say that broken bones heal quicker and you come back stronger than sort of ligament damage and things of that nature. You're absolutely right. The thing that I load is very simple. And I'm going to hurt some feelings of people listening to this podcast,

but sometimes there are certain things you need to hear. And if you're listening to this podcast and you still have a, Rusty, dry Christmas tree up in your home. Take that thing down now. It is way too far from Christmas to still have a Christmas tree up. You are just being lazy. What's acceptable? Take all the lights off.

Take all the ornaments off. Put them in the boxes. Put them in the basement. Put them in the attic. Put them in the closet. Get the Christmas tree out of the house. Get it out the house. You think if it's, it has to be done by New Year's?

You think that's the latest? For me, I want it out before New Year's. I didn't even like the holidays a month ago. And I'm done with them now. I couldn't get that tree out of my house fast enough. And it's so dry and gross. Where do you take it? Because you do the live tree.

Oh, we did the live tree. But here's the thing about New York. You can just take that thing to throw it right in the sidewalk outside. That's what you do. No, I walked down the street this morning with my daughter. There's 10 trees outside, just sitting on the sidewalk. If this place is chaos It's Armageddon

But here's another thing about It's unique about being in New York Is I can see in all my neighbors windows Because they're big They're big of tall apartment buildings And where do people put the tree Right next to the window And I'm just yesterday last night

I'm looking out my window At all these trees in the windows And I'm like, what is wrong with you people? Why do you care? What is because I don't want to see it. Why? Because it bothers me. I have moved on

It's 2025. New beginnings, new life, turn a page, resolutions, change. Everything for 2024 is out, including that tree, which is dry and gross, and you're just being lazy. If you're listening to this podcast right now and you still have a Christmas tree up, be better. Be better. I still love you. Thank you for listening to Miss. Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez, as always.

And Jacoby, I'll talk to you next week. All right. Must be 21 and over in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 over and present in D.C. Got a gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-88-88-789-7777 or visit CCPPG.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. visit gambling helpline.m.m.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts,

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