The Mismatch - Could Giannis Leave the Bucks? Plus: Monday Night Surprises, NBA Cup Pairings, and More Observations.

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

Verno and Jacoby debate Giannis Antetokounmpo’s decision to scrub anything Bucks related from his social media accounts and what this means for Giannis and the Bucks going forward. How much longer will Giannis remain in Milwaukee? They then recap the Monday night slate of NBA action before sharing six observations as we pass the quarter mark of the season. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch! (00:30) Giannis has scrubbed his socials; what happens next? (14:00) The Jazz beat the Rockets (17:05) The Mavs withstand Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets (24:13) Cade Cunningham turns it on late in the game as the Pistons beat the Hawks (26:51) Dillon Brooks and the Suns snap the Lakers' win streak (34:27) Desmond Bane lifts the Magic past the Bulls (37:48) Clippers lose fifth straight to the Heat (44:33) Verno and Jacoby’s first observation (52:31) Verno and Jacoby’s second observation (59:25) Verno and Jacoby’s third observation The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producers: Jessie Lopez, Stefan Anderson, and Brian Waters Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me see us every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Verno, right before the pod, we have discovered and lightly confirmed, lightly researched. Some tweets and Instagram posts have been deleted by Gannis Attentacompo. Gannis Attentacompo. What do you make of it? We got to start there.

Sometimes losses can be more devastating. than others. And I suppose a loss to the Washington Wizards last night was the final straw. Because you and I, before we are recording the show, see a post saying, Yannis has deleted his social media stuff. And I go and immediately check his Twitter feed. And all of his tweets going back to 2021 are gone. And it says like NBA player on his bio.

and then I went to his Instagram and it now has 12 posts total on his Instagram and the only bucks related thing is him holding up a trophy. Like what is going on? This new age in 2025, the passive aggressive,

I'm going to do this. I'm going to let you know how I feel on social media is so crazy. And the idea that they lost to C.J. McCollum, Chris Middleton, in the Wizards last night. And the fallout

is now so much greater than just that individual loss to the Wizards. Like, it does send a message. There's no way around it. And whether you want to say it's just him being frustrated,

but pretty extreme to go through the work, to go through your social media, and start, this is how people let you know nowadays. It seems like it would take a long time and be annoying. Like, I don't know.

I don't know. I don't. delete posts on my social media, but you have to delegate that. He's probably on the phone with somebody like, okay, from the year of the championship, everything from then until now, please delete it. So it has to go through and do all that. It just seems like an annoying task. The mismatch is presented by Bandoul.

Bandoul's got it all same game parlays, quick bets for jumping in live, and your way to build the bet that fits your play. Plus, don't miss out on the holiday offers and surprises all month. long. So download the Fandual app or head to fanduil.com slash mismatch to get started. Remember, you must be 21 and over and present in select states or 18 and over and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help dot com. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccg.org slash chat in Connecticut. I think that we can talk about this and weave into what happened in the game because there are some things that are significant.

Like, I don't know, Chris Middleton being the one down the stretch, getting a big and one and hitting a huge three. And the final play, which we texted about, which you love so much with Bilal getting a steal. And he goes down to contest, Bilal dunks and lands on his leg in a manner of which I can't even believe that his bow. bones are still connected to each other. And then Yonis immediately turns around and sort of gives like the, what the hell was that to a teammate? He seemed body language wise to be frustrated. And clearly this sort of social media weirdness, passive aggressive,

is a way of expressing that sort of frustration. And I didn't even, you know, you, that was a funny text exchange that we had last night where you said, did you see him stare down his teammate? I said, I was too busy rewinding the Kula Bali dunk. It was a hell of a poster, too. I mean, shout out to Balala. He got himself a great poster because the facial expression for Janus is terrible, too. Like, the whole thing, and he was high as hell.

And, like, landed into the stanchion. It was awesome. It was an awesome steel and an awesome dunk. And Janus has had it. He has had it so much that he ran straight to social media and started deleting everything post-championship. And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, Middleton, like sort of being the guy to win the game.

And then you look at Cal Kuzma, 20 minutes, 20 minutes of being out there, three points minus nine in a tight game. So think about that. If you're Yannis, you're looking at this like, didn't we trade, did we trade Middleton for this guy? Well, meanwhile, what a catastrophe. I mean, if you're the buck's brass, you've got to be sitting around going, I mean, we've done everything we possibly can, including making a dreadful decision to stretch Lillard,

just to try to sew this thing together so that this guy can have enough around him to be able to win and be happy. and then do the Miles Turner thing and then it still doesn't take. And so now you're looking up through a quarter of the season. He knows he can't win with them. He knows. Right.

And last night was just a punctuation of, okay, this is going to be my life. Me having, but Janus is literally having one of the greatest seasons in NBA history right now, statistically. and they're a losing operation. The pre-injured, there's sort of like,

there's three errors of the season's bucks. There's the pre-injury Janus, surrounding with shooters, they're winning games and looking good. Like, oh, this might, this might work. And then there's the Janus gets injured, the Bucs without Janus, which is, I mean,

it is what you would expect from this roster. Ryan Rollins, like, won them a couple games. And then this, and this, it's been a very short third stretch. of post-injury getting himself back, Janus. But without Janus at 100% working himself back, it's not look good. And last night, it really didn't look good.

I mean, shout to the Wizards, who played a great game, had a lot of energy. And, you know, McCollum had a crazy step back at the end. But this, the social media thing, plus the performance, plus don't forget the summer, he wants an opportunity to win a championship. This is not, that's not championship basketball. We watched last night against the Wizards. So you add it all together and it equals Ganesa Tentacupo.

But then it's like, what do we do from here? What do we do from here? No, I mean, now it is something that we monitor because that's real. Like, I mean, the social media thing is real. Like that. I haven't confirmed it. Like, I haven't seen it on like the Times or whatever. Oh, no.

I just went, but I looked at both of his accounts. This guy is an active social media guy. Yeah, yeah. And so all of it's gone. If you go look his first post now on Twitter is from 20, 21. His Instagram only has 12 posts. But what about a cute picture of his kid?

Like all the funny stuff he does off the court that's not related to the bucks. It's just all gone. So he's basically saying my entire life, not just my relationship with the books, my entire life has not existed since we won the Larry O'Brien championship. He's had kids. He's had some good funny posts, pictures of his vacations, him and his brothers. No, it's all gone. No, this is like when you all of a sudden,

you know, you see these people that are in relationships and you're like, oh, God, what happened? Because everything is just gone, right? Like, if I pulled up your social media and your wife and kids were just erased from the social media, I'd be like, what happened? My wife got my account and we got in a big fight. That's exactly what. She got my password and went to fight. That's what happened. I'll tell you right now.

Right. And so, yeah, this is certainly worth monitoring. But good grief. Did we, we never expected the law. We were going to talk about the Wizards beating the bugs anyway. It's Tuesday morning. So it was Tuesday morning and like,

I literally just stumbled upon this on Reddit right before recording. But, you know, this is. It's real. It's confirmed and it's real. So let's talk about what happens next because this is sort of like, not breaking news. Who knows? It could have happened last night.

But that turns into a full 24 hours of, is you going to talk and you're going to see every single trade, fake trade in the world. Every, every, my algorithm is going to pump me so many Janus in this uniform, Yonis in that uniform, theory team trade that sends this to Milwaukee and this to the Warriors and this to the Knicks. It's just, it's going to break my brain today. My Tuesday is a whole different day now. Well, Anne, here is the most interesting is,

we had a lead-up where he said what he said about, I want to win and I want to win championships. And so he kind of gave me a little hint over the summer. We know there was this dalliance with the Knicks thing, and that all came out. And then you had that weirdness of the owner saying, he wants to be here and Yonah saying, I don't remember that conversation.

Not saying it didn't happen. So here's the deal. You knew that this was going to have to start well. You didn't know how long, especially with him being out for some amount of time. You didn't know how long before the frustration would set in. But the only thing that could happen for the bucks for this to be okay, especially after what we went through in the all season, was for them to start well and feel like they have a chance to be one of the top four teams

in the Eastern Conference. that has for sure not happened, not even close. And now the frustration has set in. Now he has taken step to let everybody know the frustration is set in. And so now we just wait and see if he's actually going to formally request the trade or if he's just doing the passive aggressive. I'm deleting everything. You know what I want type of deal.

But it, for no, it did start well. Like I'm looking at their results. Like, so Halloween night, which feels like a long time ago, it was a month ago, they're seven and two. And then Janus is hurt. The longer it is gone. Everything falls apart. But I think that he did establish the, I want to compete for championships.

Can you imagine? This is not that. I mean, really, can you imagine that within a year's time, we are going to have possibly Luke Adanjich and Yanosantzat Dekunpo in different uniforms. I mean, if there were ever two guys that you wanted to bank on will be in one uniform for their entire careers, like the Dirk's, like the,

and we figure Yokic will be as well. But like, those are, those were the guys, right? If you were to say, oh, yes, come on. Steph. Well, that's already happened. I mean, he's been in the league over 15 years. I'll say this is we don't have to compare the two, but Janus has been in trade rumors.

People have been monitoring what the team they put around him is since the championship, and they haven't been successful. You know, some flameouts in the playoffs, Luca was just out of nowhere. Like they just went to the finals. So it isn't apples to apples, but it's, you know, apples to pairs. Well, and he's also still directly in the middle of his prime.

As I said, he is having one of the best seasons in NBA history, statistically so far and he's on a losing operation I know he's been out it seems like he's always done the right thing publicly and given very considered answers to tough questions

and it just he feels like a mature person and this this does feel like a little bit of an immature way of expressing his frustration is that fair to say I don't want to be critical of Yana's because everybody loves the honest. Like, it feels a little unlike him. Of course.

Deleting. Yes. It feels unlike him. I mean, the only way you can get around that is saying I was hacked. And it's via, I don't know. It'd be a really strange thing for a hacker to do.

Of course it is. Come on. He didn't get hacked. I mean, I'm saying I don't know how you, I don't know how you explain. Do they sat there all night on the plane or in the hotel? Just be like,

select delete. He might have. You don't know. If you're a teammate looking over his shoulder, I don't know if they were traveled last night, but if you're a teammate looking over his shoulder on the plate and you're watching him do it, you've just got to be like, oh, this is bad.

This is bad. Well, you mean his brother? Maybe his brother's gone to his brother. He gave his phone to his brother and was like, okay, everything post-championship doesn't exist to me. Because all that matters in my life is championships. We did have other upsets last night, but I don't think we're going to have the

fallout from those. As far as I know, Yokin's just deleted. And Shengoon, right? So the Rockets lost to the jazz. Shengoon had like one of the most unbelievable box scores of the season with 31.14 assist, eight rebounds,

three block or five blocks in the game last night. But they did not have Stephen Adams last night. And one of the things you very, very rarely see is, is the Rockets get out rebounded in the game. And this felt like a, we're the good team, we're playing the bad team, we're playing them on the road,

we'll crank it up in the fourth quarter, and then they couldn't make threes. The Jazz are shooting 40% from three, and they got caught. Meanwhile, big rebound for Keonti George. I mean, if you were to search his name on Instagram,

it was a minefield yesterday. You can, anybody can go do it. Go look at it. It is hilarious. It's like, all the memes say like criminal, investigated. Terry Rozier on line one because of that game he had this weekend, which was like eight turnovers, no points. I mean, he's literally just from the field. So it's worth mention, these two teams just played.

Like they just played. And then the rockets waxed them. and there's like two completely different teams a day later. Well, Keiote George turned around and had 28 and 8 after all of the allegations of he must be gambling. Nobody is that bad. It's the world we live in. How the team's played.

The world we live in now is you're not, I mean, if you're going to have a totally dreadful, terrible, whatever you want to call that game, abhoric game, now you're going to get accused of BF, throwing it. I disagree.

I disagree. I think if you were going to throw it, you would at least be two for eight from the field instead of O for eight. Like, you know, there's a skill of the technique to this. But it used to just be, like, when you were Tony Snell, you could just suck and everybody would make fun of the box score. Now if you suck in a game, they're going to say that you're a criminal. And the feds need to investigate.

Yes, that you need to be investigated for your bad. play. This, this, there's one thing, this was a very like, Verno would be pissed off game. I was thinking about you at the end of this game. And the announces were so over it. I think I was watching the Rockets broadcast. 14 fouls in the last five minutes.

It's unwatchable. The Rockets went from like zero fouls to in the bonus in like two possessions. There's just, there was like a single offensive possession with multiple fouls. There was just so many foul shots. It was just such like a, and the game was kind of close at the end. Like it was a one possession game. Sangoon trapped.

I forget who he was trapping at mid court and did the dumbest foul. It sort of like ended the game. Other ones worth mentioning. And look, we have we have highlighted guys that have been given their opportunity all year. Whether it was Ryan Rollins, whether it was Danis Jenkins, we've got a new one to add to the list. No, two new ones from this game. Oh, Spencer Jones?

Spencer Jones had 28 when he had 26 all season going into the game. But the Mavs upended the Nuggets. You had a great Anthony Davis game. And we talked about throughout the year when we were talking about some of these teams and most exclusively Dallas when I watched them. And I'm like, the Russell thing has gone like people thought it was going to go. and you can't, like the whole no point guard thing and having Cooper flag initiate offense for the first part of the season,

whatever, this is just so goofy. But coaches are always leery to install a two-way player. But finally, enough was enough. And Ryan Nemhart has been given his opportunity. and just a few days ago on the 28, he was given his opportunity and he only played 23 minutes, but he had 17, 4, and 2. And then last night, he gets his first 35-minute game

where it's like, all right, we're going to roll with this kid. 28, 10, and 3 on 12 of 14 from the field. Obviously, people have an awareness of his brother, Andrew, who has been fantastic for the Indiana Pacers. But Ryan Nemhard, I saw him earlier this year in person, and you can't believe how small he is. Like, it's jarring. And one of the things that I thought was, man,

I hope he's absolutely awesome because, as we have talked about over the course of the past couple of years, the league, you now see these SGAs and these Cades and these, Like the guys, if you're going to be small, you have to be amazing, right? Like, that's how it feels. Like Brunson or Trey or Morant or what any of these guys. You have to be just absolutely sensational because the days of the little guard have gone by. But I will say this on Nemhart's front.

He was a guy that was always considered like he was a Mount Verde guy. his high school team was just freakish. Like he was there. I went and looked it up. It's like Scotty Barnes, Preciousa Chiaueh, Cade Cunningham, Moses Moody, Jalen Durant. Like these are all those guys that all went to him.

And he was one of those guys. And then he went to Gonzaga and Mark Few called him the best passer he's ever coached, which is pretty unbelievable praise. and so who knows how it will go with them hard, but an interesting one where the kid immediately is given an opportunity and he's known as a great passer, like a set the table kind of point guard,

but then he gets 28 for you last night in this first start, and he's one to keep an eye on because guys like that that truly make people better, have an outsized impact on what a team can do. And I look at it and go, look what that did for Flag last night. Look what that did for Davis last night. Just having a guy that can control it and run the show and be that guy, like it might be too early.

If the kid is what he appears to be in one game against the Nuggets, that changes what the MAV's season can look like if Davis flag and the rest can stay in the lineup because guys like that can have an outsized impact on the rest of the group. No, if I'm not mistaken, I think the 28 points is great, the table setting is amazing, but 10 assists and zero turnovers.

I think it had zero turnovers in the game last night. So like, if you're watching this MAVs team when they were floundering earlier in the season, like, and you were to build a player in the lab, he would be Ryan M. Hard like three inches taller. I mean, that's basically it. And, you know, it looked great last night against one of the best teams in the league

of championship contending Nuggets team. They look sluggish, you know, and like Yokic had, I texted you this too. I'm watching the game in the first quarter. And it's the end of the first quarter, and they put up Yolkich's stats, 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists in the first quarter. There's like two minutes left in the first quarter.

Like that level of, production. I'm sure we're going to talk about Yolich later, but that level of production was shocking, just absolutely shocking. That's just dominance. And shout to the mass for sort of like weathering that storm and coming back. Great. And Spencer Jones deserves a little a little something too. Because he was not a guy who was like on my radar. Well, and he's one of those like, look, you know what the whiteboard says. And they're without Christian Brown. They're without Aaron Gordon. They're without Julian Strother. So the white board says, hey, here's what we're going to do.

And if we leave the Spencer Browns or the Peyton Watson's of the world open, we'll live with it, right? Like that's the way the game plan is going to go when you are going up against the nuggets. And those guys have to be able to step up and make you pay. And at least for a night, he did, though they got beat.

And one more thing I'll just say on the Nemhart. The reason I brought up the Mount Verde thing is because you've got to remember with some of these guys, it is different. And the reason I said that is because he has been playing with and against NBA players for longer than virtually anyone, right? When you are in that environment and you're at high school and every day at practice, you're playing against Jay LaDern and Kay Cunningham and Scotty Barnes and what I it's a different type of development. It just is when you are playing. You're also not scoring 40 points a game.

And you're the point guard for a team. with weapons like that, then you're used to, you turns you into a table setter because that's what's best for the team. And when you can navigate and you look around and your team is Moses, I mean, it was one of the greatest high school teams ever. And he was a part of it. And he got to start on that team. That tells you something, right?

His brother was a huge steal in the draft. This one may be even a bigger steal if he can hold down the four because he, I mean, that's his first chance. And look at what he did last night. the Nuggets, no less. He didn't do that against the wizard. He did that against a Nuggets. It was exactly what the Mavs needed. Exactly what

they needed. And let's hope for him and for the Mavs, let's hope it continues to be on last night. A couple other ones that we need to mention from last night. The Pistons win again. Pistons win again. Look, it was not the biggest of all Cade Cunningham Knights with the 188 and 8, but he did have

five steals. He did have three blocks and it gets to the end of the game. It's tuck and he just takes over, right? Like the game winning for all intents of purposes, lay up where he goes behind his back, then weaves through the entire defense and then reverses it. I was like, come on.

He split a double team with a crossover spin. He goes into the air, mid-air splits a double team and finishes on the other side of the basket. He's unbelievable. And it didn't even look like he was pressing that hard while he was doing it. It's like this, I thought this is a game I've almost watched the whole thing.

There's 27 lead changes and 14 ties. This was a, it was a Hoc's team, I believe we're on a back-to-back. But they, one thing I found interesting about this particular game was, what is, what is the one word that everyone uses

when describing sort of like the Hox roster? Length. Long, right? Yeah. You know what? Long went up against Strong last night. Oh, yeah. And Beef Stew and Duren were like,

yeah, yeah, yeah, You guys are long. You are all tall human beings, but we're going to push you around and out rebound you. And we're going to block your shots. And we're going to make it hard for you. And like, yeah, it's nice when you're long,

like get your arms and hands in the passing lanes and be disruptive on defense and get out and transition, which is something that they do really well. Nothing disparaging about the Hawks. But they ran into sort of strong. They ran into a brick wall. And it was, and there's a lot of,

it was like a, there was a lot of post-ups, like successful and unsuccessful. But it was a lot of just like, like Jalen Dern with his hand up demanding the ball and someone being like, oh, we're doing this? Like it's like like we're at the why? You know what I mean?

It's like, okay. Also, it didn't always work. But it was, it was, there was a definite difference between long and strong last night in that game. Well, the thing I love about watching those games on league pass is you see the in arena feed and it's down to the end of the game. There's like two minutes left and there's like a timeout. But they keep the camera in the arena.

Yeah. And I love on the Jumbotron, they're showing be. of the dogs, right? Like, that's a thing they put up, DAWGS, beware of the dog. They're playing like this ominous music and it's like, beware of the dogs. And I was like,

and there's like quotes of guys say, we just got a bunch of dogs and dogs and dogs. And it's like, okay. That's a great game. Great game. I thought the Hawks, like the Hawks played really well. Yep.

John John Johnson. Dylan Brooks refused to bow to the king. Oh, yeah. He had 33 and three quarters last. And he was letting everyone know. It was, this was like Dylan Brooks at his most Dylan Brooksian. This was just,

I mean, he's barking with LeBron. He's dunking. He did one of the strangest dunk celebrations that ever seen. He looked like Michael Phelps doing a butterfly stroke. Do you see that replay? I will say. It's just like,

what is it? He's lost his mind. He lost his mind. He couldn't miss. There's at one point where he just couldn't. not miss. Well, as someone who covered the first several years of Dylan Brooks career, I will tell you, the second Devin Booker hobbles off that floor, Dylan Brooks is like, go time. I mean, like he cares anyway, right? But he took 26 shots last night. He had 33 points. He took 26 shots.

He was the best player on the floor. I know. I know. Luke had 20 in the first quarter. Oh. The Lakers looked, they looked very lethargical. They just looked like they came out flat. They came out flat.

And they had tons of turnovers, some of which were great defense from the Suns. And some of which were just like, whoops, dribbled it up my foot. LeBron James just threw it out of bounds with his left hand one time. Suns have been a great story thus far this year, a surprise for sure already without

Jay LaGrean, it is something for sure to keep an eye on on the Booker deal. Like how long, Grayson Allen's been out as well. It's like some of these teams, there's like something can,

there's a straw that breaks the camel's back eventually, right? And so they were able to get by last night. But if Booker is out for a long time, it's going to be super interesting to watch Dylan Brooks take 55 shots at night. Oh, yeah.

Because that's happening. Get ready. Last night all the time. Get ready. One of the things I liked about this son's team is you could look at their roster and be like, oh, this is Dylan Brooks scores 40 or we don't win. But that's not how it's actually played out. Right.

But when you remove Dylan, I'm sorry, Devin Booker scores 40 or we don't win. But if you remove Devin Booker from the equation, while you're not 100% relied on him, he he he you're you're losing sort of a the the offense right there also the LeBron streak was in peril in the fourth quarter but then stayed alive his consecutive 10 points in a game streak do you know about the all right yeah it's it's it's almost a 1300 games well he worked I think he worked he worked he worked a little bit to get there last night yeah well it's 1297, that streak started on January 6th, 2007. I mean, this one never gets brought up.

This is the most unbreakable ever. Like, by the way, it's almost 1,300 games. Take a stab at what is second place in terms of consecutive 10-point games. 10-point games? Yeah. What the number is or who the person is? I can't, oh, God. I'll tell you it's Jordan.

Oh, it's Jordan? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he took three years off. So I'll put it in 900. 866? Okay. But that's 500 less. Yeah.

This, uh, there's a, 400. 400 and whatever. Something happened after this game. want to talk to you. I'm here. So the Lakers, like the big had the big sort of like quote to come out of the game was Dylan Brooks saying like LeBron likes people that bow to him and I don't bow.

Perfect Dylan Brooks quote. Perfect. Of course. Someone asked Luca, they're like, you guys are playing the Raptors. He's like, what do you think about what they've been able to do this season? He goes, to be honest, I don't watch a lot of NBA. And that's what blew my mind. He's just like, I don't know.

I don't have league pass. I'm not watching this stuff on my free time. There's a lot of guys that are like that. I've found it interesting. I could make a great case both ways of why that's a great approach. And also, like, I do want to acknowledge, like, they do have a scout team. They do show and film. So he's basically just not on the couch.

Like, it's not like he doesn't know who he's playing against or just sort of like shows up like many Ramirez. But, like, I found it interesting that he's not just watching games. when he's by himself. Two things I'll say about Dylan. Number one, did you see him high five Luca after his made free throw? No. Oh, so little.

Luca made the free throw and Dilbrooks went out there and slapped him five like he was his teammate. And Luca looks at him like, because you know, your instinct is to just slap the hand. Yeah, of course. You see.

Your nine parents' attention is in your peripheral. I was like, sure. The other thing is, I think they had like 16 steals last night. It is absolutely so that Dylan Brooks changes the way the rest of your team plays. As someone who had my loving moments and my frustrations with Dylan Brooks, there's no question that there are certain guys within the NBA that raise the collective level of play of everybody else. And this is not just true in basketball.

This is true in life, right? If there is some guy, if you are working in sales and there's some guy in the cubicle next to you, who's making 10 sales a day, you're either going to try to, you're either going to not be humiliated, or you're going to raise your level to try to be like him, right? And what happens, because he is so likable,

guys do try to raise their level to be like him. Like they look and they see a guy giving it everything he's got, and they start giving it everything they've got. And I do think that matters a great deal for teams. Well, he's likable. as a teammate, but absolutely hateable as a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's not, I wouldn't say likable.

Exactly. No, amongst his team. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, his teammates love him. Of course. And you know, let's not forget, like, what was the number one defense last year? Houston. Yeah.

Telling Brooks is there. Yeah. The one thing I do want to say, Luke is great to watch. Love it so much. There's just, he's, he's trying to get fouled on at least 50% of it. of his shot attempts, at least. He works that into his shot attempts, at least 50% of the time.

And I find it frustrating. And if he doesn't get the call, which he's trying to get, he freaks out with the referees. Does he really expect him to get all these calls? And then there's one play where he's like talking to the referee, and guess what happens? Dylan Brooks runs past him,

you know, over the top pass. And then Dylan Brooks is hanging on the rim while Lucas sitting there jogging back after. after arguing with the referee. It's frustrating. It's frustrating. A couple others worth mentioning.

Desmond Bain with 37, 6, and 5, the magic walked down the polls. Great, great, great night for former Grizzlies. Yeah, he walked. Look, they just walked them down in the fourth quarter. And I don't know if you had it on, but on Peacock, Scalabrini was on there. Yeah, Scalabry and McGrady. He said that's the, he said that is the best team in the Eastern Conference.

conference. Disagree. The magic. He said they are doing this without Palo, and you're a great player that's watching this team do that. And now when you come back in and you're fitting within the mix of this. And so it's just interesting. He's like, he's like, they sold out the way with the four first round picks to get Desmond Payne, whatever.

He's like, they've got size. They've got toughness. They've got a star that's on the bench right now that this is the team. He's like, look around the Eastern Conference and look. look at what we've got. I thought it was interesting, right? I thought it was interesting, right? I thought it was. Yeah, yes. And I think you could say,

we just haven't seen it all at once. And I think Suggs is like, Suggs is just so impactful on both ends of the floor. I love Jalen Suss. You know who I love? I love him. Anthony Black. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. He's enormous, too, for a card. Oh, yeah. And he's also with all the hair, it's just so easy to spot.

You know what? You know what? I'm going to tell you a fun fact that will make sense when you watch them. Suggs and Black, both amazing football players. Huh. Both. Like, amazing football. Is Black's receiver, I imagine? And it makes sense. He was a quarterback as well.

Both. And Suggs is a middle lineback. Oh, no. He was a recruited quarterback. Really? Oh, yeah. Suggs was a big time, big time high school football player. and Anthony Black was as well.

He took up basketball late, actually. It was when, like, and then he, like, kind of fell through the cracks during COVID and all this kind of stuff. Let me see. Oh, I'm sorry. He was a receiver. He was a receiver. It's journalism. We come to the mismatch for journalism.

Did I get it right? He did not. He was not a quarterback. He was a, he was a, he was. He was a receiver. During, he played wide receiver and had 78 catches for 1,327 yards and 16 touchdowns. Wait a second. 78 catches for 1,300 yards.

Yeah, that was over, over his two varsity seasons. Okay. Hold on. Let me just do some quick math here. That's Anthony Black. 1,300 divided by 78. Yeah, that's a 17 yards catch. One quick game I wanted to mention before we move on was I'm watching Clippers.

Jalen Suggs was offered by Ohio State, Georgia, and Michigan State. Damn. I've heard of those football programs. Yeah. Yeah. They got football guys playing frigging point guard for the magic. One game I want to mention, you know, the passing. clippers heat.

Oh my God. The second quarter. The heat. The clippers look like they quit. The heat go on a 30 to 2 run. 30 to 2 run. You don't see that very often. We see big runs, stuff like that, but 30 to 2, Verno.

30 to 2. Remember their defense last year? No. And it's like one team is playing hard. and the other one is not. It is not. It is just a appalling lack of effort. And then you've seen like the postgame stuff. And it's like, you know, Kauai's like,

we need better players, Hardens like everything's wrong. That's weird. Like everything, it's, it is toxic right now. And I told you, I thought that the off the court,

beyond what they've got rostered way, I thought what they have going on, all the stuff with the owner, all the stuff with the coach, all this, you know, it's just bad, it was all bad going into the whole deal, right? And it just leads to this totally bizarre feeling around a building. And you've got, when you're, when it's like media day and your GM, like, is worried most about answering aspiration questions, it just. there's a tone that's set that's off.

And then you've got these vets and they're all old as crap. And they obviously are not best buddies. And I don't know. The whole thing is just falling apart. It fell apart. And then just think about the quotes we're getting the Quai Leonard. It was a while ago. So you were breaking down with him.

Him just going after game, he's like, we need more talent. He's like, we, but Kauai, like, you're a Hall of Famer champion. Well, here's the other thing. The collective NBA is watching that game last night where Ty Lou pulls a starters in the third quarter. Like it's just this is gone haywire now.

Like I even saw somebody, they redid the meme. And it was like a corner three. And it was like Chris Paul cuts the lead to 33. Because, you know, there's that one. So it happened again. right yeah it happened again Chris Paul cuts the lead to 33 anyways

the whole NBA fandom front offices everyone is like no no because the worst they are

and the more this falls apart the better that Oklahoma City pick becomes and it is a catastrophe this team's about to win 80 frigging games and has the number one pick in the draft.

You know what are we doing here? Seriously? You're going to go 80 and two and get the number one pick in the draft. David Stern would never let this happen. It's so. Stern would never let this happen. I mean, seriously.

We've investigated, we've investigated aspiration and we've decided that they're cleared and not we're not going to punish them. We're going to bolster their team. I mean, I know. Yonis is going to the clipper. It's the only thing they can happen.

That's what we've decided as the outcome of this investigation. No more questions. Yes. Yonis has to go to the Clippers because, look, we cannot let this happen. We cannot let the Thunder have a top five pick in the draft. This is, by the way, they've got three first round picked. It's. But the idea that they have the Clippers pick and the Clippers pick is like now it gets better by the day is a catastrophe.

Truly. Tyloo is his uh oh it's like yeah right next man up when the guy gets hurt it's getting paid 60 million dollars the next man up getting paid 500,000 they're like oof all right also want to give a quick shout out to uh the brooklyn nets won their first home game michael porter junior with 35 but a big shout out to who they're calling Brooklyn shengoon Danny wolf oh you saw junk Brooklyn Shengoon that's his name And then, yeah, Danny Wolf. By the way, when he had to dunk last night, the announcer going,

I was like, come on. Are we going to Wolf out when Danny Wolf does something now? And then who was the dunk I sent you? Who was that? It was on cop-runner. It was, oh, God, dog it. I can't even remember who it was now. I mean, there's an all-time bench celebration.

Oh, it's Clowny. Noah Clowny. Oh, yeah. Like the swing, swing, and then Noah Clowny takes two steps. And I said, oh, not Cork, Brenner. Our guy. Just spiked it. They, they, like, had three huge posters last night.

Oh, my God. It was crazy. Dude, if you're, listen, I understand if you are not watching Nets games. I don't know this. I'm thinking of a different game. Oh, you are? Carry on. Yeah.

Okay. Do you know I had to say, because I was thinking about good dunks from last night, if you're not watching Wizards games, Cam Whitmore will dunk on you. Assaults that room. If he gets a step, it doesn't matter if someone is there or not. And it doesn't matter if it goes in or not. He is going to attempt it with Sean Kempian force. And he did it on two back-to-back possessions last night in that Wizards, that Wizards game.

Also, he's got to screw loose, so it's extra violent. It's nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, some of these guys that's like, you know, I don't know. Like, I feel like he's not smiling. I feel like he's, like, wanting to yell at you after he does it. Right?

There's some guys that like, woo, you know, impressed by themselves. Yeah. He's like, he's like, and now I'm going to stomp you in the nuts, you know, like that kind of guy. You know, like the guys with the dunk on the road that start yelling at the 20,000 pants. Yes. I'm just like, what do you have against them,

dude? Showing up to cheer their team. It's a good night. And a lot of stuff came out of it. All right. We are a quarter of way through the season. We're going to give three things that have stood out to us thus far.

I will start. We started the podcast talking about Janus and the social media deletion and all that kind of crap. Okay. So just a moment to highlight that you don't know the way this stuff going to play out over the course of 82 games,

but through the first 20 or 20-some games of the season, a quarter of the way through the season, John Hollinger once upon a time developed P.E.R. Player efficiency rating. And though there are those that can poke holes in player efficiency rating, what you are typically going to find over the course of a single season and a career is you're going to find it's not too far off from who the best players are and who you think the best players are, okay?

The highest ever P.E.R season is 21, 22, Nicolioch, with a 32.8.5, right? So an average player is like 15. That's average. That's like we're placing. That's MVP number one, I want to say. Okay. And so that is the best player efficiency rating year of all time was Yokic 21, 22. to wit, the second best ever is 61, 62, Wilk Chamber.

Okay, so it all, when you're going to look and you're going to find a Jordan year and a LeBron year, again, you can poke holes in it, but what you're going to find is a lot of these best seasons stand up to what you think are the best seasons. The reason I'm bringing this up is because right now, as of last night, the three greatest player efficiency rating years in league history are all happening. Now, again, we'll see the way it bears out over the year. Right now, I told you the best season that's ever happened is 32.8. That's the Yokic year 21, 22.

As of this morning, Yokic is 35.8. Janus is 34.9. And Gilgis Alexander is 33.0. Each one of them, if it stopped right now, would have the greatest player efficiency rating year of all time. They're one, two, and three. Go look at it right now. Best career player efficiency rating by a single season.

And what you're going to see is three names all. in one season and then 21, 22, Yokic. And again, we'll see how it plays out over the course of the season. But through a quarter of a season, we are seeing three of the greatest offensive years ever played. That is insane. That's shocking. Also, it speaks to the Yonah season. He's having literally one of the greatest seasons. And they lost to the Wizards. And he said, delete, delete all my social media since I won the championship. Also, we were talking about LeBron Street. SGA, who's on that list that I just mentioned,

he kept that 20-point street going over the weekend. And the most 20-point games consecutively is 126 by Wilk Chamberlain. Keep an eye on it because SGA is at 93. Really? Right now. Yeah. So when I'm at a bar or like talking to my friends after a basketball, a rec league thing, and they want to talk to me about SGA,

and someone will call him a foul merchant, or someone will say like this or that criticizing him or whatever, or like, you know, it's a team thing. I'm always just like, here's what I want you to notice about SGA. Consistency. Oh, yeah. It doesn't go from 20 to 40 on night to night. It is right around 27 to 35 every single night.

No, no, no. It's so consistent. Like literally. I know. Every single night. Like, not like he does it all the time. It's like the number one guy is wilt. And he was playing again.

I mean, he was dominating everybody. And SGA is second. By the way, third place on 20 point games consecutively. Wilt. Oh, that makes sense. Hey, hey, fourth place. Wilts. Oscar Robert.

I mean, we don't have, in fact, of a modern era player, the most we've ever had is Durant was 72. SGA's at 93 already. How many players will it be? Jason Tatum had 19, you know, someone else was cooking, but he had 10 assists and he played a great defense and there was a win for the Celtics. It happens all the time. But with SGA, and he doesn't even play in the fourth quarter often, remember that too, because he does it. He gets to his 30 points so consistently. It's unbelievable.

Unbelievable. I mean, to have 20 points, 93 straight games is crazy. That's crazy. Do you think? He probably knows. Of course he knows. He knows. Yes.

Well, I wonder if they'll do like a LeBron thing. Well, they'll be up by 25 in the fourth quarter and he'll have 18. Oh, no. It happened. And the reason I'm mentioning is because it was a deal over the weekend. He did it late. He did it late. He got to 20 late.

Okay. Yeah. Bad game for SGA. Yeah. My first one is this. These are observations from court within season. The NBA Cup has a lot of detractors. But the knockout round has set up for some potential really good matchups in Vegas.

Like the way it is broken this year is we've got. magic and heat Raptors and Nix so obviously a big draw would be Knicks there but even if the Rafters win is you get

you get sort of like three of these new challenging teams in the Eastern Conference and one of them will go through and that's sort of like the appetizer the Western

Wemby's probably not playing so that is something to keep in mind but Suns and Thunder I want to see that. It sucks at Booker got hurt. I'm not going to speculate in how long he'll be out. But I mean, you went out of the game. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we've seen this soft tissue stuff. I mean, it's over and over again. Yeah. And then you get Lakers Spurs. But some sort of like Luka, Lakers' thunder matchup. The West is not as good as the East because of the injuries. If Booker's out and Whemby's out, it puts a damn. Okay, counterpoint, Booker's out and Wembees out, you get Lakers Thunder.

But I remember, I'm old enough to remember the Lakers Thunder game from earlier this season, but I was so excited to watch. And they made the Lakers look like the JVT. They could not get anything done on offense. But hopefully it'll be different. I've enjoyed that. I'm a cup guy. I like the cup.

It's additive. I have liked it, too. I'm all for anything with stakes. And again, it doesn't hurt anything. My option is I'm just watching regular season game. So at least you've made them worth something. And I do think teams play them differently. I do.

I think they matter more to them. I think so too. I have some notes about some of the courts, but that's a small thing. Oh, and some of the courts and Jersey combos. What are we doing? Yeah. Some of them are truly heinous. All right. Next one.

So through a quarter of the season, I do think it's worth mentioning that so much of it depends on how your schedule has broken, right? That this stuff all evens out in the end. And some of the teams, the first 20 games of the season, it's something that we don't always pay attention to. And then we go, oh, they've really gotten going. Well, they really have they gotten going or did they just not have to play good teams every night, right? Here's the easiest schedule so far. And you just tell me, and the easiest schedule, interestingly enough,

had been Oklahoma City. The Thunder, yeah. Like it matters. Okay. But here's ones that have played the easiest schedule so far. And this is going into last night. Oklahoma City, Toronto, Dallas, the Lakers,

Denver, Phoenix, Minnesota, the Knicks, the Pistons. And so you look at those. And you go, okay, how much, which of those are a function of the light schedule? Which of those are a function of? Right. Well, there's one outlier that we have to discuss right off the bat is you're telling me that Dallas Mavericks have the third easiest schedule so far. And these have been the results.

Right. I know. I don't care if there's no Kyrie or no AD. I know. If you've got the third easiest schedule. That's right. And you're wild. But I mean, I think the surprise.

teams are the ones to take the biggest look at, right? I.E. Toronto and Phoenix. They've been the biggest surprises in both of the conferences. So how much of that is a function of schedule and how much of that is a function of, hey, this team is actually for real. And when things even out schedule-wise, they're not going to fall back to the pack. And then obviously with like the Lakers or Denver or Minnesota, any of these teams, right? I'm just saying if the next 20 games aren't as good as the first 20 games, that's a reason. We can look back and go, you know, their schedule through the first quarter of the season wasn't that hard. And now they've had to start playing a much more difficult schedule.

On the flip side, here are some teams that if they end up playing much better and they start stacking together some wins. Oh, I like this better. It wouldn't be so. surprising. Portland, Miami, Orlando. I mean, that speaks to how good they have been because their schedules have been hard. Houston 2, Cleveland and Memphis.

So there's a group of teams that when you look and you go, they've had really hard schedules so far. Obviously, it started for Memphis. They're 5 and 2 in their last 7 because they don't, they haven't had to play hard teams, right? When you play a bunch of hard ones, And so it's worth mentioning with those teams, with those groups of teams,

that there's some of those that we're going to look at and we're going to go, oh, well, they started off hot, but it hasn't. Well, I mean, yeah, they did start off hot, but a lot of it was a function of schedule. Meanwhile, I think that speaks very well for the Portland's and the Clevelands of the world and makes you think even more of Miami, Orlando and Houston. Absolutely. Because they've already been good with their schedule. What happens when their schedule lightens up?

Well, you say one of the biggest surprises in each conference, I think one of the biggest surprises in the Easter conference is that the Cavaliers have underperformed. But what is the reason everyone says the Cavaliers have underperformed? Injuries. Yeah, that's right. Garland's not back. The Struis is now in San Merrill.

And that probably is the number one reason. But if you look at reason number two, it might just be that they're playing the second hardest schedule so far. Because Mitchell has been other world. Yeah, it's almost concerning. It's almost concerning how other world has been because it feels like he has to.

But that's a, that's, that's, that's, that's very enlightening. And it also, um, it transitions nicely into my, my second observation here. The Eastern Conference is starting to make more sense. And, and this is what I mean by like,

like I'm old enough to remember when the Bulls were the hottest team in the league. Did you remember? You called your shot on that. Yeah. You were like, do we have to take the Bull seriously? I was like, no, no, we do not. And like a, and the Raptors were the two seed a couple of weeks ago. And the Cavaliers are outside of the play in.

Like it's just like, and the Hawks and Magic, who we all sort of like loved their off season. We're so excited to see them improve did not start that way. Desmond Bain couldn't hit a shot. We thought that he fell victim to the Orlando curse. And it's like the last couple of weeks, things have started to make more sense. You know what I mean? Like,

like Bain is exploded in the past few games. And the magic looked like a team that's done that. The Hawks, all the talk is Trey Young, this and that, fine. But they're playing great on both ends of the floor. And they're getting great wins. Even in a loss last night in Detroit, that's a great performance on a back-to-back. for a very young team.

Well, and Johnson has become a star star. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And you can see it when you, when you watch them. Like, there's, there's, there's no way he doesn't threaten you when he has the basketball. There's no way he does not threaten you. Like he can shoot, he can pass, and he can get to the mid-range.

He can get, oh, I love Johnson. He assists numbers too. That's what I'm saying. And like, it's just like, like the sixers, like watching him be, be back. and sort of like lumber around and like outside of the maxi explosion, you know, Paul George is in street clothes. The things that were sort of felt out of whack in the Eastern Conference

are sort of like coming back to Earth a little bit. There are outliers like the Pistons being, you know, best team in the conference and the cabs with all of their struggles. But it just sort of seems like Toronto being in the top four. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like things are sort of like balancing themselves in the Eastern Conference after sort of a wacky first 10-11 games.

Yeah, and then the, I mean, now, obviously, we started the podcast with it. All eyes are going to be on the bucks. And, like, what becomes of that? I haven't wrapped my head around the implications of the social media thing quite yet because we just notice it like seconds before pushing record. But, like, he's got to say something. He's going to be in front microphones. Yeah.

There's going to be all sorts of speculation. Oh, yeah. It's going to be a big deal. There's no way around that. All right. Last observation. So we had the Willie Green thing. And like, I mean, as I said at the time, like, I don't care who's coaching the Pelicans.

Like, you're not, you can blame Willie Green if you want to, but get your own guy in there. But what does that matter? So he was gone and he was gone pretty fast into the season. I'm not sure. If there is any hot seat right now. Well, you fired Doug Christie. I tried to. Do you remember when you fired Doug Christie?

I tried to. And they turned around and like, and then they went two games. Yeah, I think they beat. They were good wins too. I think they beat the nuggets in there. They did beat the nuggets. And then I watched them play the other night against Memphis.

And I was like, how did they beat the nuggets? Team is so lame. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. But again, he may be owner's buddy or whatever. Like the fact that he didn't get fired after they had an eight-game losing streak,

their worst start since 1990 and lost by 40 in Memphis is still unbelievable to me. But if you can hang on through that, then maybe they're just not firing the guy, right? Like, if you're not firing him then, then I guess you're just sticking with him as your coach. I don't know.

But you look and like the teams that suck, like the biggest disappointment by far is the clippers. Like they're not going to, you think they'd ever fire Ty Lou? No. And right. I think a lot of times people say like, oh, fire blank blank. Well, then what is the plan? You know, because the, Brago was there in New Orleans.

So it kind of felt like, you know, you used to coach the Hornets, we can have a succession plan that makes sense. And so there's nobody else really in the Western conference. Oh, Jeff Pink. But I'm saying Dallas isn't getting rid of. I mean, Christy would be the one. If you don't think Ty Lou is going to be gone and you don't think Jason Kidd's going to be gone. In the East, the biggest disappointments are Milwaukee.

Well, they got fired Doc. I guess they could. They've got other conversations to have right now. Right. And then, I mean, Charlotte, I wouldn't think they fired Charles Lee. And then those other teams, like Charlotte, Brooklyn, Indiana's got Carlisle and Washington. Like, they all want to be bad.

So what's the point? It does feel like, yeah. It feels like the teams that it's, it's, it's expectations. It's being short of expectations. You know, you're going to bring Jordy Fernandez in the office and be like, I thought we'd be, I thought we'd be one of the top 16th these by now. No, if Jordy Fernandez gets fired, it's going to be for winning. Yeah.

That is not what we're here to do. Yes. Do you understand the aside? This wolf fact thing. Yeah. We've got ears we're going to hand out. Oh, no. In fact, he got a very

terse phone call last night after their win over Charlotte. It's like, do you not understand? Yes. You don't understand the assignment, man. What are we doing here? And so, yeah, if he gets fired. Also, an honorable mention to

Zakeel Edie, Zach Edie, who I and many others wondered, Is this going to take in the NBA? Can a 7 foot three big man who is not with the new fly up and down the court NBA, how is this going to work? And turns out at least through seven games, he's been back.

He has been unbelievable. Furno. I want just tell, we're not watching Grizzlies games. I know. So tell us what we're missing. Tell him how he's getting to 30 points. He had 32. and blocks. Like, what is happening on the floor?

He had 32 and 17 the other night. I'll just, look, I'm not going to get too adept at it. Let me just explain you. I went and extracted the seven games he's played, one of which was his first game that he's played all season in Cleveland, and one of which he only played three minutes because he got a migraine when he was playing against the nuggets. But in the games that he has played,

and though the schedule has not been the hardest, in the games he's played, when he's been on the court, Memphis has been, has had a net rating of plus 26. They have destroyed people with him on the court, and they have been the number one rebounding team in the league in the last seven games. They get offensive rebounds.

He gets everything. And if he doesn't get it, he like clears everything out. It's been, it's been unbelievable. to behold, honestly. And then it all culminated with a 32 and 17 the other night against the Kings. I mean, oh my God, he has changed everything, like literally changed everything. And I would say it is worth tuning it in just to see it. You, he is, it is, it is Wembe-esque in the

sense that you watch it. And you're like, bro, he is so much bigger than everyone on the floor. The other night, they were playing in the game, and Preciousa, Chuo was standing there. He looked like a kid. He literally looked like a child. And Precious is no, like, small guy. And he looked like a kid. He is so much bigger than everyone that it's jarring to watch. It's fun, though.

It's like a circus. It's like, dude, is this real? Well, it's also, it's a, so you know, I love to go to the body. Like, when I see something like that, let me go. go to the boss or click on his field goal attempts. He's just like, see how this happens, right? And one of the things that I noticed when I did that was it's a, it's not just an individual effort.

It's a team effort. He's sealing and guys are finding him. And they're finding him on roles. He's getting, he's getting entry passes. Like, they're, they're feeding the monster. They're feeding lurch from, from Wednesday. The one it reminds me, honestly, the one it reminds me of is Yao Ming. That's what it reminds me.

where it's like you watched him and you're like, bro, this dude is just so much bigger than everyone. Yeah. And Wembe is so graceful and he's tripling between his legs and everything. So here's, here was I was thinking, it's like this could either be yaming or Taco Fall. Because don't forget Taco Fall.

But he's much more yami. I mean, that's the concern when you draft someone like that. But he's 32 and 17. That happened. I don't care who you're playing. 32 and 17 and missing. two shots.

He's crazy. Well, and also in college he had that jump hook thing that was just unstoppable. It was just unstoppable. And he breaks out a little bit. And I saw one in his last game, but it was deep. It was like from like nine,

10 feet away. And he's sort of like got that like long range jump hook thing going. He's great. It's fun to watch. It is. You guys need something to cheer about. I know what I mean? You need something to cheer about.

It's been fun to watch for sure. All right. What's your last one? You said that was your honorable mention? It was. Okay. I've got two. Because I did the no coaches on a hot seat.

That was right. I've got an honorable mention myself. And I don't want to get too into it because we'll get them back. But like, week after week, I miss inside the NBA. I love watching the new stuff. Oh, it's back soon. But like, I miss it. I miss it.

I really missed that aspect of my basketball watching experience. You know what I mean? Because they gave us a taste at the beginning of the year. Yes. And then they just disappeared. And then they took it away. We'll see you in 2026. It'll be post-courable.

Christmas morning, but I'm going to show up like Santa Claus. And then my other one is, is this is just, and I'm not saying by the trade deadline, but the list of high profile, high salary stars, because remember the discussion after the new CBA was like, well, you just can't move these like big contracts anymore. You just can't, you just not going to see sort of like superstar movement like you have in the past. It's going to be built around the margins because everyone's so careful about salary. I'm going to, this is my list of don't know if he's going to be there next year guys.

And I didn't put hours of thought into this. I thought about it on the train on my way into the studio here. Ready? Number one, these aren't listed in any order. Gonesa Tentacompo. Got to put him on the list and fold and circle him now. Gones. You just tell, you stop me when you think like, there's no chance this player gets moved.

I don't think they're getting, I, I'm going to bet I disagree with. Most all. No, I'm saying next year. So this offseason, they could move. Okay. So not, this isn't by the trade deadline. If they're going to be in this uniform next year, Anthony Davis. Okay.

Trey Young, James Hardin. LeBron James. Lamello Ball. Sabona's is gone. Marketing gone. Well, you got, I mean, any king, like Levine and Derozen. Yeah. They don't count, though.

Are you counting the other ones like the McCollums in the Middletons of the world too? No, no. So I mean like hard, you know how to max contract, I said, John Moran. Morant. You can put him in there? I said stop me. You didn't stop me. Oh, no.

I don't think you'll, I don't think it'll be elsewhere. I don't think you'll be elsewhere. Well, I didn't say, I just, I don't know if he's going to be there next year. It's a question. It's a question. It's a fair question. I know you're a good guy, but it's a fair question to ask. after this all plays out.

Yeah. And you know, you did just trade Desmond Bain. But you also want to see it with. Now you have Zach Eadie. You want to see it. You want to see it first. You place the scoring production and the superstar draw with Zach Eadie.

No, no, no, no. I'm saying you want to see it with them. Yeah, of course, of course. Before you make any decisions like that. You might have gone too long, right? No, no, no. Soon. Yeah.

And here's an idea. Here's one that's unlikely. Paolo. 0% chance 0% chance That's fair He's gonna be it Orlando magic

Orlando magic Orlando magic Orlando magic Oh We do have to finish We can Song Wars over the weekend Song Wars was unbelievable

Detroit Pistons And Orlando We do have to finish With a little bit of yon of speculation Just a little something He could He could just douse water all over this fire

with a press conference. Like, I was frustrated. I'm committed to this team. I love my teammates. We're going to go out and beat whoever we're playing next. Can we go ahead to give the biggest catastrophe

in the world? Biggest catastrophe in the world. The biggest catastrophe in the world would be, hey, that Clippers pick is unbelievable. I've always said

if you really wanted the best return, if you wanted the best return for you. I know. Think about it. If you're like John Horst, right? You're like, I want, I want the best return for Janus.

What team can offer you the best return? I know. Answer the question. I know. I mean, you put some salaries together. Can you imagine? God. I mean,

please tell me they can't like, there has to be a one for one trade and they can't like just put it in Caruso and Hartstein and four first round picks. And next thing you know, it's like SGA and Janice and J. Dub. Oh, my God. I quit. I quit. We're counting on you, hey, we're counting on you, my best friend, John Horst. So for years on this podcast, I used to call him, I always called him my best friend, John Horst, and we need him more than ever because I guess it was probably like, I don't

know, eight, nine years ago, long time mismatch listeners will remember. I was at the All-Star game in Charlotte. it. And one of my long time buddies, Sonny Vicaro, the godfather of grassroots basketball, he was in the lobby and we went down to meet him and his wife, Pam, and all these like NBA people, whatever, they come up, kiss the ring and whatever. So we're all sitting around. We're hanging out with Sonny. He's holding court. And I'm sitting there talking to this young guy next to me. And we're just talking about players, a basketball, and whatever else. And finally, after like 20 minutes, I was like, so what do you do, John? And he's like, I'm the,

GM of the bucks and I was like what? And I had no idea. I was like, what do you do, Chris? Will I do these master's update? Let me tell you about them. I walked away and I was like and I was like GM of the bucks. He had gotten the job like it was all the,

it was after all that weird circumstance where the owners thought about who was going to be. And they're like, hey, John's around. Let him run it. And then they like, gave it to this really young guy. And he ended up winning a title and everything. But here's the deal. My best friend John Horst,

we need you now more than ever. You cannot trade him to the thunder. To save us. I mean, it's, it makes so much sense. It makes so much sense. Who'd be the worst?

Just the worst. Seriously. It makes so much sense. And that clippers pick, freaking clippers. They ruin everything. Go look at, oh my God.

Do you know who's, you know what this is? If that happens, it's Pablo Tori's fault. It is Pablo Tori's fault. If Janus ends up on the thunder, there's one person to blame, and it's Pablo Tori.

And they should probably have to shut down that podcast. Yep. I'll send him a text. Huh? If it happens, I'll send him a text. He needs to bow. No, they just change it from Pablo Tori finds out to Pablo Tori ruins everything.

Ruins everything he talks about. Just do the bird watching one, Pablo. Stick the bird, watch it. Don't ruin the NBA. All right. For today, thanks our executive producer,

Jesse Lopez, as always. Jacoby, I'll talk to you later this week. Must be 21 or over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino

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