The Mismatch - Grizzlies Aftermath and Six Players to Watch During the Playoff Stretch

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

Jacoby is back as he and Verno discuss the fallout from the Taylor Jenkins firing in Memphis and how the Grizzlies have responded in the two games since Jenkins dismissal (05:14). Did Ja Morant know or have any influence in the decision to let Jenkins go? Next, the guys discuss how the Clippers’ strong defense will be troublesome for any team that faces them in the playoffs, as well as their disappointment in Ime Udoka’s decision to bench Jalen Green toward the end of the game in a loss against the Lakers (24:05). Finally, as we enter the final two weeks of the season, the guys share six players to keep on eye on during that final playoff push (33:23). Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone] Walmart Express. Dinner, delivered in as fast as an hour. 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 Producers: Jessie Lopez and Tucker Tashjian Social: Kiera Givens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Remember, you must be 21 or over and present in select states. If you have a gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And Jordan Me as he does every week from The Ringer.com is Dave Jacob. Jacobi. I missed you, Verno. I missed you. I mean, I really missed you. I missed you as well. It was hard last week. Obviously, we got the news very early in the week. The baby was coming. And sure enough, the baby arrived. So look, we've talked about this on the show. You've talked about how kid number four was on the way. You also said you had absolutely no clue what you were going. going to do about naming said child. So walk me through it. What happened? Well, I basically just

gave in to my wife, which is always the right thing to do when it comes to these sort of things. My wife is known as Joey, but her real name is Joie, like Schwab, and her mom really like the French language. She has no French heritage, but we have a, she's Jamaican, so I don't know where that came from. But we have a daughter named Chloe, a daughter named Margot, and now now we have a daughter named Colette, Chris Vernon Jacoby. Oh, thank goodness. I'm glad I made it in there. I just wanted to solidify this partnership and just let you know that my commitment to the mismatch is forever, just like Colette's middle names.

So Colette is the name? Colette. I love it. We're going with a little Cole, get a little Coco in there, too. You know, a little Coco, Coco, Coco, been calling her. And everybody's healthy. Everything's fine? everybody's healthy.

I can't say everyone's happy, but everyone's healthy. What a week. What a week to be off the show. Like Stephen A. Smith is talking about swinging on LeBron. The Yankees have changed bats forever, hitting home runs. There's incest on the white lotus.

The Grizzlies. Something happened with the Grizzlies last week. Oh, stop. Hey, and you, God. You want to hear the other crazy thing that happened? So, I've been friends. with Zach Lowe for like 20 years, right? So all that stuff happened last week.

It's you, this is like on whatever it was, like Monday night late. You're like, yo, things are happening. Things are happening. We got to go. So I'm like, all right, we're either taking Tuesday off or I got to find somebody. So I'm like, who could I find? So I tech Zach and I'm like, look, bro, I know you haven't done anything in a long, long time. I was like, but Jacoby's about to have a baby.

Like, I need somebody to do the podcast with me. And he's like, I'm so sorry, Berno, I can't. Didn't say a word to me about coming to the ringer. Didn't say a word. Then I go on Bill's pod. The pod that he announces Zachlo. I texted him yesterday morning. I said, what the hell?

You didn't even tell me about the Zach? He's like, oh, man, sorry. I forgot. And I was like, what? What is happening? What? They kept that thing so under wraps. but obviously what a huge get.

And I'm so glad that we're going to have Zach Lowe here is our brethren. You're one-time Grantland co-worker. Of course. And Zach Lowe will admit this. So I'm not sharing any information out of school here. But Zach Lowe had absolutely zero interest in doing a podcast. He had none. He was a writer.

He had no interest in doing a pod. And we had to drag him, kick him. kicking and screaming in front of a microphone to start the low post once upon a time. And he would, he would, there was no regular schedule. He would do it like once a month. And he begrudgingly would do a podcast. And then it was like seven or eight years later, he sent me a random text out of nowhere and was like, I just want to thank you for making me do a podcast.

Because he is now a multimedia star. He's one of the best basketball minds. And, and I just want to just express. how honored I am to once again be a colleague of his because he is one of the best. So since we last spoke, of course, the Memphis Grizzlies did shockingly fire their coach, and then they have played two games since, Lakers and Celtics. I went down to the Grizzly Celtics game last night, and I would love to tell you, Jacoby, that I get to come here this morning, and I say, hey, and everything's changed, except,

Unfortunately, that is not the case. Why is Al Horford still good? He had 26 and 8. I mean, look, about a week and a half ago, I was at, or two weeks ago, I was at Tony Allen's Jersey retirement ceremony, and Derek Rose is there. And you see Derek Rose. And then afterwards, there's like an after party.

And guess who I'm there with? I'm name dropping. Guess who there? Guess who's there? Jokim Noah. Now, the reason I'm bringing both of these up is because Al Horford was the same draft class. Like, I just saw these guys. And now, fast forward two weeks, a guy that's in their draft class is dropping 26 and 8.

And I'm like, what is this? How, bro? How? How? It's one thing for Al Horford to be knocking down threes at his sort of advanced age in the league. But don't forget that Laker Celtics game when Luca was just kind of. constantly just asking for Al Horford and then clearing out, and Al Horford was just locking him up the entire game.

Like, it's one thing to hit threes when you're over 35. It's another thing to slide defensively and to have the impact he has on both sides. It's frustrating, to be honest with you. It's frustrating. Well, I will say, it was one of those nights where you watch them in person, and the math don't math, as they say. They take 96 shots. They take 62 threes.

Their percentages are not enormous. I mean, it's 41% from the field, 34% from three. Obviously, he hit a ton of fritos, 95% from the line. But meanwhile, they end up 34% from three, but they took 62 of them. So Memphis on the other side goes 11 for 44 from 3, 25%. And as they say, the math doesn't match. It doesn't even matter. They end up still scoring 117 points in the game.

game. And, you know, one of the things that Bill asked me about is he's like, you know, I see all these games in person. I'm down at the arena. And yesterday I was down early. And I was talking to a lot of the people that traveled with the Celtics, not, not, not team employees, not associated with the team, but rather the media that is always at those games. And I was like, so who's the, who's the team? And they're like, it's really not anybody in the game. And they're like, it's really not anybody in the east. Like, we're not scared of anybody in the east. Like, Oklahoma City's beating them twice, but they feel good about them, you know, if they can get to that level and play against Oklahoma City. But in terms of the Eastern Conference, there's nobody they particularly fear. I will tell you

this, Jacoby. I saw them last night without Jalen Brown. And I have seen almost every single team at this point, I think, come through town. And I would say fully healthy, I will be surprised if that team doesn't win the title. Really? Yes. I will be surprised if they don't win the title. Yeah, I will. I will be surprised if they don't win the title. If they are fully healthy, I don't think somebody's beaten them. Well, I think, well, first of all, I don't want to nitpick here, But it's one thing to say their title favorites. Another thing to say, I would be surprised if they don't. Would you really be surprised if the Oklahoma City Thunder, this historic team that is with 27 and 1 against the Eastern Conference?

Would you really be surprised if the Thunder won the championship this year? Yes. It's the talent. It's the talent. Like you look up there and you're like, geez, Louise, they've always got somebody. Like last night, they made a thing out of Derek White. set the record. Derek White,

now, I don't know where you want to put Derek White on the team. Maybe you think he's third, maybe you think he's fourth, maybe you think, I don't know, but I mean,

they got Drew Holiday, they got Porzingum. They got the doubt. Derek White set the franchise record for most threes in a season, okay? Which is pretty incredible. And in fact,

the record he broke was Isaiah Thomas's in 2017. But he has hit now 246 threes for the season. for the season. Okay? And that was, that moved them ahead

of Isaiah Thomas's 2017 year. So I don't know where you want to put Derek White on their list of options, but it's like, we always talk about

the other guys on teams being the ones that's like, okay, who are you leaving? If Howard's going to knock down threes and if Derek White's going to knock down threes

and then guys come off the bench the Sam Housers and the Peyton Pritchers and whoever, and they're knocking down. Like there's, it's too much shooting. It's too much shooting. There's nobody to leave.

Like all these teams have guys that you want to filter the shots to. Who do you want to filter shots to? Who do you want to filter shots to on that team? Because you can try. Like, I've seen it, right? Like even the other night, it's like, okay, I'm watching against the Lakers. And it was odd to see those two teams juxtaposed against each other. because I had just seen the Lakers.

And it's like, all right, you know, look, you're trying to, if Rui Ochoamura is going to take open threes, he's going to take open threes. And if Gabe Vincent's going to take open threes, taking open threes. And if you're going to, right, but there's not somebody to, or to naturally filter the shots to on that Celtics team like there are every other team. And then when you say the Oklahoma City thing, I mean, look, again, Oklahoma City is absolutely incredible. But we know it's going to come down.

Or Lou Dort or Andrew Wiggins or I'm not Andrew. Aaron Wiggins or Caruso or Casano Wallace. Like those are the guys that the shots are going to end up getting filtered to because everybody's going to clamp down on SGA. I just watched them last night and go. And I say this, I did feel that way about Cleveland, you know, at points where it was like, Who are you trying to make sure they shoot the ball? Like, because that's the way the playoffs go.

You're dictating who is taking the shots for the other team as much as you can. And that was when last night there was that moment where I was like, well, who the hell? Like, somebody's going to be open. Like, who the hell are you supposed to leave open here? Because if the answer is out Horford. The answer is out of Horford. Fine.

Okay. Okay. But, right. Like, I mean, so what's the option? Like, there's no great options. P.S. That Derek White thing. When they said he had become the all-time Celtics three-point leader for makes in a season,

I went and looked it up. I'm like, I mean, they shoot a million. And he's already got 246. I'm like, I don't even know what the record is for the most three-pointers in a season is. I was like, but that seems like a awful lot of three. to make 246. I wonder where that ranks. And then I went and looked it up.

I know what you found. The record is Steph Curry in 1516, 402. But what second? Who's second? Who's third? No, no. James Hardin is 378, one of the years in Houston. But then it goes Curry Hardin.

Curry. Curry, Curry, Curry. Clay Thompson, James Hardin. And then, much to my surprise, one of the top 10, three-point shooting seasons in terms of makes. In the history of the league, number nine, 2000, 24, 25, Malik Beasley. Oh, I love it. He is ninth all time, and he's got what? I mean, we got another week and a half of the season or two weeks of the season left.

So he may be able to get all the way up to, he's not going to get to the Curry range, but he could probably surpass. He could probably get to seventh and knock Thompson down a peg. But, I mean, I had no idea. By the way, you go down a little bit further. Anthony Edwards this season is 12th all. is 12 all time in terms of three-pointer makes. Crazy.

So, I mean, like, I thought, I thought I, I'm watching it. And I'm like, I thought the Derek White number was huge. That's wild. I didn't know if Beasley was that high this year. I mean, I know. Beasley's got 292. Well, Bruno, I made the mistake of listening to you and Bill and Ryan yesterday. Oh, no.

And I just want to say. that I felt that they were rude to my co-host, Chris Vernon. I felt that they were disrespectful. And I felt like they were talking about your Memphis Grizzlies, like they're the wizards. Like, it was like they were talking about your Memphis Grizzlies. Like, they've never won anything or done anything. And they're a completely disaster of a franchise. And there's a couple of things that I wanted to discuss with you about this firing or whatever we're calling it of Taylor Jenkins.

Okay. One thing that's been discussed a lot, and it's nice to have this conversation sort of like, you know, 72 hours after it's all kind of happened is there's so much discussion about this new offense. And earlier this season, we discussed how they don't really run pick and roll like they used to. And they just completely don't run pick and roll like the rest of the league does. But it's also not like they're whipping the ball around either. And like in some sort of like warrior style player movement, ball movement. Pace and space manner either. So one of the questions I wanted to ask you

wasn't about necessarily the firing itself, but is more how dramatically different has the Grizzly's offense philosophy been from last year to this year? And how is that manifested on the court? Massively different. Like the whole thing was changed. The whole thing was changed.

And I think that, look, they had one of the best offenses and the highest scoring offenses in the entire list. league. The trick was, as you know, because you became invested by watching a lot of the games that you knew I was going to be watching this season, that it did not manifest itself against the good teams. If you look, those statistics, like they've scored in their franchise history, they have scored six 140 point games. This season, they have scored over 147 times all right now but if you go and look like it most recently against Utah last week and it's fine when it's Utah and it's Brooklyn and it's Phoenix and it's like you know all these teams that they have built their record by beating but the trick was it didn't work when they played against the good teams that's the problem that they got to this point and you look and they are now six and 17 against

against teams in the top eight in the Western Conference. So they play 23 games against top eight teams, which, as we know, Jacoby, those are the teams you have to play when it comes to the playoffs. Right. That works. That's how works. That's how it works. And they win one out of every three of those.

The math doesn't math when it comes to a playoff series, right? And so, yes, the offensive philosophy changed dramatically this year. And it was hard because the results would be enormous against the bad teams or against the subpar teams or against the under 500 teams. But then when you would get into these big spots when you're playing against the good teams, the results were not the same. And so and I also think that then frustration mounts. It keeps on. And then I look, Ramona Shelburne's got a really good article about the whole situation like that. that came out today.

And it talks about how they made these changes during the offseason. They flipped out Taylor Jenkins staff. Taylor Jenkins had to go and fire five assistants. And he had not met these other guys. And one of the quotes in there was, players aren't stupid. Like, they look around. They're like, wait, what?

And then you got two new guys that are teaching the offense. And it's like, okay. And I do think so, you know, if you want. want to say that that cut his legs out from under him in terms of being able to have the voice that you need to have as the head coach, right? Then I do think that there is, there's a, that's something that's certainly fair to question. That being said, they made the decision. They've gone the way they've gone. And it was not what was best for Moran. We talked about that on this show all year. And anybody could go back and listen to it.

But, you know, even after you and I went to that Knicks game, said the trick is going to be figuring out how you can maximize your best player while still doing what you're trying to do now. Because it was great for players four through 10. But was, and it was great for player maybe two or three, right? If you're talking about Jared Jackson Jr. But it wasn't great for Bain and it wasn't great for Moran. You know. it almost felt like this change in offensive philosophy was a safeguard against John Morant's lack of availability because the Grizzlies are famously so good without their best player.

Right. And it did feel like this was an offensive philosophy that didn't maximize John Morant. And when these sort of decisions are made by franchises, I don't believe the words that I hear from those in power. When Adrian Griffin gets fired, I believe that Janice knew about it. And when Luca gets traded to the Lakers, I believe LeBron knew about it. And when Zach Kleiman says that nobody on the roster had any idea that this decision was going to be made, I do not believe it. Do you think John Moran knew or influenced this decision?

I don't think that, how do I say this? I would not be surprised if climate did not talk to Jai about it. Really? Yeah. And the reason I say that is because you didn't need to. We've watched him all year long. We've listened to his postgame quotes all year long. This is not a conversation.

Like, I mean, you know what I'm saying? It would be like if you were mopey every time we did. an episode and me be like, all right, I mean, do I need to, like, something's obviously wrong. Like, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't need to investigate this, right? The guy obviously, right? He obviously can't stand this job anymore, right? And so it's like, I don't, and so it was like, I don't, I don't think that, I think John Morant liked Taylor Jenkins.

And I think, but I think he hated the offense. And so it was like, all right, you've got this yin, yang, and that's what I said. I think he liked Taylor, and I think he does like Taylor. I think he did not like the way he was used this year. And I don't think there had to be some kind of backdoor conversations in order to figure that out. You can go find quotes from after the year. There's one of them in Ramona's this morning. One of her quotes was him basically saying, like, I just do what coach tells me to do.

You know, because people were like, why are you standing in the corner? that's what I was like. Right. I'm watching the Grizzlies. Like what the hell is John Moran doing in the corner with his hands on his hips? Right. And I also think you make a good point? So do you think Zach climate needs to go be like, hey, Joe, how are he?

You don't have to go to John Moray and say, hey, we're going to make a huge change that's going to maximize you, make you happy, and put the emphasis on you having the ball more and scoring more and controlling the offense more. You know, you say that to any star player, they're going to be down. You know, they are. They just are. And, you know, I think that there is, if it is inevitable that he is not going to coach the team next year, then I kind of understand the timing of it all. It's like, why not? Like, why not?

If he's not going to be here next year, then why not? No, if you've already made your mind up, it's just, the truth is, it's never happened. Literally, Mark Stein texted me yesterday. He went and looked. a winning team has never done it with less than 15 games left. I mean, there's a long history of the NBA. It's just never happened. So it's honestly, it's the timing.

It's not the fact that because commonplace has always been, even when your team tumbles towards the end of the season, you make an off season change. And then you start fresh, you start fresh the next year, right? What you don't do is say, all right, look, we're just going to try to save this season. And they are trying to save this season.

And obviously, look, they have a monstrous game tonight in terms of NBA standings because they were playing against the Golden State Warriors on the second night of a back-to-back. And so that will be a big one. Let's get to some of the other games that have gone on. Obviously, that's been a big story since you and I last spoke. So we needed to broach it. The Pacers have been mega hot.

and came back from down double digits to get a win over the Sacramento Kings, who are, you know, the Kings are one of these teams that's trying to just make sure they could stay in the play-in spot to at least have a chance in hell of getting a playoff spot. And we'll get a little bit more to the Pacers, kind of what they've done more recently. What do you think of Clippers' magic? Palo had been on a real heater. He was named Easter Conference Player of the Week. But there was a couple of these teams from last night's games that I felt like, okay, now we're getting a little more playoff environmenty and playing against these teams that are really locking down and playing in a way that will.

And there's a couple of them. And we'll get to Houston a little bit later where it's like, you're. lack of scoring and lack of guy to just throw the ball to stop it and get me a bucket is it shows up when you're playing teams like the clippers. And for Orlando's case, once upon a time, we were singing the song and we felt good about them. Like if there is somebody that could upset the apple card, it's them. It doesn't feel like them. No. No.

No. And this is, I just want to apologize. to Saruti in advance as one of the preeminent Orlando Magic fans and Kevin Clark. But silver lining on this magic season is the oblique injuries happened. And when Palo originally returned, he had like one good game. And then he kind of swooned for a couple weeks. But he has gotten back to where he was when he started the season. And I feel that a healthy Palo next season will give this.

magic franchise and fan base sort of like what the leap they expected to see this year. I expect big things for Palo next year. They are also the team that has tumbled down so dramatically. And that's the interesting thing. If we were to if we were to just compare it, I wonder what Orlando fans would think if Orlando came out today and we're like, you know what, we're moving off to Mall mostly. Like I don't think they care.

I'm not kidding. I don't think so either. Right? But it's the same thing where it's like, look, I will just tell you, people in Memphis, when you drove to the, I said this to my buddies yesterday. I said at least when I drove to the arena on Saturday, I didn't. There was the unknown gives you some level of hope. Like maybe it'll be different. Now, of course it wasn't, but maybe it'll be different.

But once you become resigned to, I'm driving to go watch a law. I know what's going to happen. Get their ass kicked by the Lakers and they're going to get their ass kicked by, you know what I'm saying? And it's like at least the unknown is something that could make you hopeful. Maybe it can be different. And again, I don't know. Like I think people would look and they would go,

Jamal Mosley's done a great job, whatever. But I mean, that team has tumbled dramatically, you know, this second half of the season. And so that's what makes it so odd that, you see the Jenkins thing, and that would be the other, like that, they're kind of peers where it's like, these teams were looked at much, much differently two months ago than they are today. Yeah, I think that's fair. And I also think, like, well, they're different in this sense where if you're the magic,

you know what the problem is. Jamal Mosley is the best shooter on the team. You know what I mean? Like, that's the problem. Like, they just don't have shooting. They don't have any shooting. if you, there is hope in that sense that there's such a blaring problem that you can fix it. Whereas the Grizzlies, it's hard to really put your finger on exactly what's going wrong there.

You know, and there's a lot of speculation about Jaws' future in Memphis and, you know, as the preeminent Memphis voice. I don't understand that. Is that because Krennrich Perkins went on the air and been like, John Morant is auditioning for every, like auditioning for what? What is he talking about? There was a weird rumor. I think it was our collie Beck, I want to say, cited an executive that said, if the Grizzlies losing the first round,

keep an eye on John Morant. And that's kind of true for everybody, though. You know what I mean? But then you saw the case. But then you saw the Zach Klyman, quote, said, I'm sure there are a lot of GMs that would love to have job. Moran. We are not trading him.

Yeah. Like that's, it's nonsense. In fact, he said it's nonsense. I can't even believe I'm having to talk about this nonsense, right? I can't believe it. Um, anyways, let's get to Lakers Rockets. Okay. So this was a very interesting one. And I will say that I saw the Lakers game obviously in person against Memphis on Saturday night than this game last night against Houston. I text you, I had gotten home early because the game was on TNT. So I was able to see this one. Was it 1616 at the end of the first?

16. I was like, hey, glad I raced home for this. I was like, good 16 to 16. What is happening? This is crazy. And also these late games. Sometimes I'm rooting for someone to go up by 20 so I can just go to sleep. But again, this one went down to the end.

And this is not the first time where IMA Yudoka has just decided that either Schengun or Jalen Green is not going to finish the game in the clutch, period. He's just, this happens like every other game when they're in a tight game. He'll just decide whichever one of those two is having an off-night or he's unhappy with that he just benches in the end. Last night it was Jalen Green. I just, you know, we've said the whole time, and a lot of people have said that they don't have a go-to crunch time player

that most teams do. Like most teams have a go-to-play, a go-to-player when they need a bucket at the end, and the Rockets do not. And I didn't think it was that big a deal until you're watching games like last night, where it's just right there in front of you. And you wonder about playoff success with this team. This episode is brought to you by Walmart. Life gets busy and we could all use an extra hour or save one.

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Now, I believe the Memphis Grizzlies. After all the drama of the past week, we'll finally get it together and get a win against the Warriors and all of this discussion about John Moran and his involvement in the firing or not involvement in the firing and the offense. They're going to run pick and rolls. Or they're going to run more pick and rolls. I think that will all lead to him having a big game and the Grizzlies to win against the Warriors. And whether you want to ride with my pick or make your own, Fandual is giving all customers a profit boost exclusively for these. bets on Tuesday. Get it?

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outlined three different players that we really are keeping an eye on through this last stretch. as we get to the playoffs, right? The number one guy on my list was Jalen Green. And a part of it is what you just mentioned from last night. So keep in mind, Jacoby, Jalen Green, and this is going to, they're in the second spot right now in the Western Conference. And so he's going to be getting a spotlight on him that he has never had in his NBA career. This is not a team that's featured on national TV all that much. and he's going to have a different spotlight on him than he's ever had before.

Going into this game last night, his last four, he scored 33 points, 21 points, 32 points, 30 points. And then he played against the Lakers last night, and he had nine. And he was minus 11 in the box score, and his coach didn't bring him back in at the end of the game, much to the surprise of the announcing crew. They were like, I'm kind of odd that Jalen Green's not coming back in the game. And the crazy thing is, it's like he is the guy that can, you could just throw it to him. And theoretically, he could go create his own shot. But he doesn't do it all that efficiently as we have chronicled, right?

He's 43% field goal guy and 35% from three. And this is the concern. And it's going to be interesting to see what Jalen Green does when it comes to the playoffs. It's also going to be interesting to see what that Rockets team does when it gets to the playoffs. Because as we have talked about, they are feisty team. They play hard. They are a fantastic defensive team that can fly around. But they are offensively well below their peers.

Like when you shorten out those lineups as you do. And they played eight guys last night, right? their top eight guys. Green shoots 43%. Van Vleet is a 38% field goal guy. Okay. Brooks is 42%. Jabari even is 44%.

I mean, they got four of their major guys that would be shot takers that are less than 45% from the field. And now you're talking about teams loading up on one guy to one guy completely out, right? Maybe it would be Shen Goon, maybe it'll be green, maybe it'll be whoever. But I thought instructive, you're playing against a big team, you're playing against a team with vets on it last night against the Lakers. And I thought that that was super disappointing.

Those are the kind of games that you want Jalen Green to be able to pop off in to make you feel good about the playoff chances because if you're looking around, you're going, who can I really count on offensively tonight? Game one NBA playoffs. And I'm not saying that it can't happen. But what I am saying is we've got to watch them because here's the deal, Jacoby. We talked about this when you mentioned them a week ago. Their last, they go through a five-game stretch here that is absolutely brutal.

Yep. Brutal. Like, you could for sure lose four or five of them and still be a good team. Like it's just a really, really hard schedule. But it's going to be fascinating to see what happens with him, what happens with Udoka, and what happens with that team going on the last week and a half of the season as they are heading into these playoffs.

Are they able to hold on to that two spot? And also, who are the guys that, like, step up against these good teams? Because all of these teams that they're playing outside of maybe Oklahoma City who is just on a war path, but they all want to win. They're all playing for positioning as well. And so I thought that that was a bit troubling, seeing Jalen Green struggle like he did and then get benched at the end of the game because he is the natural candidate to be the, okay, we're in a tight game.

Go get a shot, brother. Well, not just that. There's also, as you mentioned earlier there, you know, when you get into playoffs, So you're game playing against the same guys night after night. And you talk about filtering shots toward players. Jalen Green is one of those guys. You know what I mean? Like you're worried about him slashing and kicking.

You're worried about him slashing and finishing or getting the line or whatever. But you can leave him alone to shoot. Tar Easton, you can let him shoot too. You know, they've got a couple guys that are great athletes but don't have the touch, the shooting touch and the scoring power that you need. Like you mentioned the Celtics. There's no one you can really just leave alone. but the Rockets have a couple guys that you can kind of leave alone,

and they will be doing that. And Jalen Green, if he's knocking him down, they'll play well. But if he ain't, it's a world to trouble. And I think the reason I was so effusive in my praise about the Celtics. Bro, I saw the Celtics without Jailan Brown. The guy won't final MVP. Oh, hold on. I saw him without him.

Great transition. Okay. Because I went with a different list. My guy's a little more like role player, X-Factor. kind of guys, right? Do you know who else the Celtics were out last night? Cornett?

Cornett. Cornett is another one of my guys to keep an eye on with the Celtics because, first of all, I want to give a shout to Chris Forsberg, who wrote a cornet piece that I completely just plagiarized to get the stats for my Cornette

my Cornett speech here. So shout to Chris Forsberg, but he is fourth in the NBA and net rating at 14.4 per 100 possessions. Now, I don't love the per 36 minutes per 100 possessions. Sometimes, like, there's a reason he's not playing 36 minutes. Right. So we can say per 36 minutes, but if he was better, he would play 36 minutes. You know, it's like when they used to do that and Bobon would average 50 and 20. Yeah, exactly. But he only played four minutes. Put him out there for 36 minutes and see what

happens. He played four minutes. They're like, if you extrapolate it, if you put Bobon out there, rated a 50 and 20 in the end. There's been some discussion recently. And you saw the team we just discussed, the Rockets have been toying with the too big lineup, but keeping Adams out there with Sangoon. And there's obviously Chet and IHeart, you know, sort of that too big.

And the Cornette and KP combination, 141 minutes, has a net rating of 22.7. Huh, it's not nothing. And 141 is not a huge sample size, but that's something. And when Cornette plays more than 16 minutes, the Celtics are 31 and 6. And listen, I'm not going to sit here and say into a microphone

that Luke Cornett is going to be the future of the Celtics franchise and that he's an all-star or whatever, because he's just a very interesting X-factor player that the Celtics can rely on. And we also know that Chris Taps Porzingis does a lot for them, but he's not always available for them. And I think that with Cornette and Horford, as we saw last year,

losing Porzingis does not take them out of it. The way that you kind of feel about the bucks without Dane, who might come back. But like, it just feels like with KP's lack of availability historically and Cornett's ascension this season, he's an important player for the Celtics that you would not think about.

For sure. All right. Next player on my list. and we had mentioned earlier this come from behind win for the Pacers against the Kings, but it is Tyrese Halliburton, and don't look now, but Tyrese Halliburton, while everybody's head was turned one way, has decided since the All-Star break in 16 games, he has shot 54% from the field, 45% from three, 93% from the line, and has given them 21, 11, and 3 with basically no turnovers every night.

He has been absolutely awesome. And it is kind of the craziest thing that we would look at a team that did not have massive changes from what took place last year. And many disregarded the fact that they made it to the Eastern conference finals. Oh, the Knicks were all banked up and this is what happened, whatever else. But if you look at this team and now, they've even got like last year, Matherin, they lost him for the end of the season. And he's like a big piece of what they've got going. They are deep. They have been great recently. And it's like, I think we have wherever there was

that moment about a year and a half ago where if you were ranking the top 10 players in the league, the top 20 players in the league. Tyrese haliburton, we were talking about that leading into the in season tournament, right? Oh, yeah. In Vegas. Like, I remember, I showed up in Vegas and there was Halliburton like billboards everywhere, the in-season tournament.

And it was like, this is the coming out party, right? This is the ascension to superstar that people have been thinking. about could take place with him. And then he got hurt. And then he tried to play through it so he could get to the 65 game mark last year. And then he was never, he was never that guy that we saw leading up to December, right? Those first two months of the season, he was one of the best players in the entire league. And then after post post-injury, he was nowhere close to that.

And now it's like, don't look now. But Tyrese Halliburton has been playing like one of the best players in the entire NBA. And we're headed towards playoff time. And they got a hot team and a star that is playing out of his mind. It is. It's easy to forget just how highly regarded Halliburton was at that time. Like at that moment in time during the in season tournament last year. And I swear to God, if you said list 10 players.

that you would want to sort of like, if you had an expansion team, if you were the Seattle Sonics, list 10 players that you would just like start to build a franchise around, Halliburton would be on that list with the Janus's and the Yokages and everything. We all know what happened. And he also like, they beat the Knicks in that series, but he did not have a great series against the Knicks.

Like they won that series, but he made a lot of mistakes in the end of games. And he just really wasn't himself coming back from that injury. And I also think that there's a little bit of a pair of, between the Lakers and the Pacers, and I'll map it out for you, is with the Lakers, you say, oh, well, they got Luca and that has re-energized the team. But really what it is, Gabe Benson's playing better, and DFS, they got him to. And I think you could say the same thing about the Pacers, where there's a lot of focus on Halliburton

because he has turned around. He has returned to form. But Neesmith, Mathuron, Nemhard, it's not just Halliburton sort of like carrying this team, with an individual effort, it's all the other players returning to form or returning from injury and them peaking at the right time. As someone who supports the Knicks, I don't want to see them. I don't want to see them in Route 1. And by the way, why it doesn't appear like you're going to get to anyway, right?

It doesn't look like unless the Knicks like really falter here at the end of the year. The other thing is like their leading score and the guy that like is the most consistent is Pascal Seaccom, but nobody even thinks about Pascal Seaccombe. No. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's no highlights, right? Like, he's not a highlight player. And so he's just like one of those like, you know, lunch pale guys. He's going to do his 10 spin moves a game.

And he's going to get you 20 and 10 and like, and he's going to be good at it. And it transitioned. Like people always talk about like Janus and like Christian Brown or Josh Harton transition. Pascal Seyakum is also just he's getting you a bucket in transition. And you did a great job transitioning me to my next. player because when you say no highlights, I literally don't think this player has had a highlight in his entire career.

Wait, he's been in the lead for like seven years. Wait, did you do the wrong list? Because your first guy was Luke Cornett. Did you do the no highlight? No, this guy's a little bit more, a little bit more established than Luke Cornet. And that is Zubach. And we've celebrated Zubach season already on this. pod. But in the Clippers win just last night, 18 points and 20 rebounds and five assists in 38 minutes,

he's had 52 double doubles in 73 games. He's got 16.5 points a game, 62% from the floor. And again, it's not pretty. There's no fancy passes like Yokic. There's no 40 point games, but it's just jump hook after jump hook. post-ups, picks, picks and pops, picking rolls, and he's slow, and he's just good enough on defense that he's not a liability, that he is an absolute perfect player for this team right now with the way that Powell has gotten better, with the way that Hardin is running the offense. And if you get the Kauai that we've discussed,

if you get the Kauai that we've seen flashes of in the last couple weeks, with Zubach, Powell, Hardin. That's a tough out, man. That's a real tough out. I mean, look, I've been high on the clippers, and I'll tell you this, after watching the Lakers on Saturday night, after watching the Lakers last night,

let me tell you something. The last thing you want to see if you're them is that team coming in sixth. Mm-hmm. If you get three and you got them playing you, and they're the six seed, it's like Zubach could, I mean, They have nothing inside.

They have no big guy. Who are you coming? Vando? Right. Jackson A's. There's nobody. Yeah, there's nobody to deal with him. And it's like, so he can, he can create a real advantage against some of these teams, a real advantage.

I mean, he would destroy. He does destroy Memphis. Destroyes them. Destroyes it. And it's like, this is the thing. It's like, okay, in the absence of Ant, Ant, Anthony Davis. Like that was,

that's a deal when you watch the Lakers. It's like, man, what? Who's that last line of defense when they drive by Austin Reeves or Luca? And who's that guy that's going to deal with another awesome big guy? I mean, look, Zach Edie has not, like, Zach Edie had probably his best game of the year against, you know, against L.A.

on Saturday night. And that, that is more about L.A. than it is about Zach Eadie. No offense. And I think, I think we, obviously the Clippers will go as Kauai goes, but I think it's a forgotten game. I think I have this right.

Game one, Clippers Mabbs last year. Zubach absolutely dominated Gafferden Lively. And the story of the postseason was Gafferden Lively, breakout, what great moves from the Maverick's front office to bring these bigs in and lobbed for Luka and all. of that. But game one, Zubach absolutely ate their lunch. And then Kauai goes down and the series doesn't even be competitive. But that Zubach has, he's got some playoff scars and he's just so consistent because you think about Jalen Green and how inconsistent he is, unreliable he is.

And that's what we love about Yokic, SGA, Tatum, always available, always consistent. And that's that's Zubach too. He's just consistent. Like Sabonis. He's just, he's going to get you a double, Well, and this is going to be perfect because my last player is Anthony Davis, who is actually about to face those clippers twice. They play them back to back. That does Dallas. And so that group that you were talking about, and it's like they have what was supposed to be the easiest of the schedules between Dallas,

Sacramento, and Phoenix. You know, they got three teams trying to get two spots. that included Brooklyn and they smoked that game last night. Losing to the Nets at that point of the season. That's like the one that you'll look back on and be like, Jesus. Why? Why?

Like, what? Like, I mean, we got, because they've got, they needed that Brooklyn win. Well, because now they've got,

tell me you've seen it. Tell me you've seen what they're doing. Yeah, the South Park thing. Yeah. Timmy. I love it. That is wild.

That is wild. Timmy! I can't believe they're playing that sound clip when he scores. I love it. It is crazy. Yeah, I mean, I guess if you're Brooklyn, who gives a crap. Anyways, look, now the, the Mavs have hawks, clippers, clippers. So, like, part of that having a easier schedule down the stretch was because you had Brooklyn last night, and they smoked the game.

And so now it's like, geez, I don't know what's going to happen against the Hawks and the Clippers and the Clippers. But the reason I'm saying Anthony Davis is because he has come back. He hasn't been great, you know, and Lord knows they don't want him to get hurt again. But he is the one guy that when you look, especially with Durant having the ankle thing and who knows what's going to happen with him, he is the one guy that to me of that group down there at the bottom, which very well may include Memphis and Minnesota or one of those, and then you talk about Sacramento, whatever. He is the one guy that I look at and they've got,

you know, they've got, and their whole team's like basically feds. But if he can round into form and be like dominant, Anthony Davis, best player on the court, Anthony Davis, he is the one guy in that group that I think you truly like would fear in just a two game set. Like you're playing him one game. Like the idea that Anthony Davis could be the most dominant player on the court for two straight games and them get into the playoffs is not crazy to me at all.

No. It's not crazy to me against these teams. when Kyrie got hurt. And remember, you know, because at the time, Gafford's out, Wiley's out, I did not expect to see Anthony Davis again this season. And I think that he deserves to be celebrated for coming back. And because everything that's happened with that franchise,

that fan base, the front office, it's been an absolute disaster and a mess. And Anthony Davis says, this season's not over. We're in the plane. And then we have a puncher's chance. Like you said, Anthony Davis can give you 35 and 15 and drive you to a couple victories and then you lose in the first round, whatever. But just for that fan base and just for momentum for next season and just for everything for Dallas,

I really commend him for coming back because when Kyrie went down, I did not expect to see Anthony Davis again. I kind of wrote up. Like you see what the Pelicans did. The Pelicans are like, yeah, Zion's out, CJ's out. I just felt like it would be one of those. We might not see Durant again, but I fully expected to not see him again and for him to come back and play and keep them competitive. I think it's really important for that franchise.

I mean, we're going to keep an eye on him over these last two weeks because if he could round into form of B. Anthony Davis again, that's all I'd say. That is not the team you want to see when it comes to just one game set. You got to beat them to get to go to the playoffs because he could just win the game. by himself. Yeah. Yeah. Who's your last one? This is a bit of recency bias.

Okay. And I did sort of mention it earlier. But I think with the Lakers, there's so much of they trade for Luca. LeBron is re-energized. Luca doesn't even take the floor, but LeBron

has completely changed the player just because Lucas is around in street clothes on the bench. But it is, last night was a great, a great example of what we're talking about when it gets to the playoffs is they're going to filter shots to DFS and they're going to filter shots to Gabe Benson

and Gabe Benson on the Lakers has just been disastrous disastrous. Like you remember him on the heat? Remember those playoff runs? Like it was like, who is this guy? He was like a star on the heat and then when he was added to Lakers I expected that Gabe Vincent

to be there and he just has not but he has been hot recently. It was very it was very Bryn Forbesy. Remember when you would watch this? Yes. You'd watch this project, print form. I can't completely forgot our print forms.

I know, I know, but then like you never saw him again. Yeah, exactly. But so, again, I'm doing a little research because I picked Gabe Vincent to highlight. And Lake Show Life, that's like a Laker blog or whatever, on December 11. I would have never guessed that. That's a, that's a Laker blog. I would have never guessed. Lake Show Life.

Lake Shillard. Yeah. It's not about lakes. They have a blog post titled on December 11th. Gabe Vincent is becoming unplayable. That's not that long ago. And he was. He was becoming unplayable.

And last night, he knocks down six threes. And listen, I'm not going to sit here and act like he's Lou Dort on defense. But for a team that does not have a lot of defensive stoppers, he can stay in front of a guard. You know? And again, you may. mentioned there's no help in the back line. So you need somebody that can stand in front of somebody. I think that Gabe,

Gabe Benson's going to have a lot of opportunity to knock down open threes and to make a difference in these playoffs. And he's someone to keep an eye. Well, I'll tell you this. We cursed his name quite a bit on Saturday night because it's like, as I say, you come out, you got these game players, oh, you're facing Luca, LeBron, he's what you want to do. And now, oh, Austin Reeves.

And then I'm like, when did Gabe Vincent turned into Clay Thompson. If you go back and watch the beginning of that Memphis game, they scored 39 points in the first quarter and Gabe Vincent was like NBA jam. It was crazy. I'm like, really? Gabe Vincent, like, this is the guy you theoretically want to be taking the shots. Like, that's what we talked about. Exactly. You know, like, all right. If somebody's got to be open, we're going to leave that guy open. And that's it. He's, you know, he's shooting 36% from three, which is kind of like, it's good for him, but it's not great. But in the last 10 games, it's 46.7%.

And you're kind of like we saw the Mavs last year. You just got hot at the right times. Like a hockey goalie in the playoffs. Like, well, if you're shooting 50% from three in the playoffs, you're Gabe Benson, that changes everything for the Lakers. For sure, because here's the deal. You're going to be wide open. Mm-hmm.

And that's what happened. Sometimes when these guys are wide-ass open, all of a sudden, they're not, whatever their statistics are, that doesn't apply to them being wide open. Like, I remember my son probably five or six years ago now. We're at the very end of his season. And he was all in. And we went to a game early.

He came to the game with me. And he was at the very end of the season. There was a bunch of guys that were out. So you were having to, like, fill out the roster with like 10 day guys. Okay. So one of the 10-day guys they called, and they called him literally off his couch was Tyler Zeller. Okay? Tyler Zeller. So Tyler Zeller shows up and me and my son go to the game and we're there like an hour early. So we're there to watch the warm-ups. And Tyler Zeller comes out. And when I tell you Jacoby, this is in March, he has not played in the NBA all year. we watch this guy hit like 25 top of the key threes in a row and my son is like is he the

best year i'm like this dude was literally on a couch all year i'm like and for sure he's not i was like but this is what you need to understand william this is what NBA players are if you're going to take him out to a court and just leave him wide ass open even a guy that's been on his couch for the last nine months can knock down 20 of them in a row like it's nothing and so that's what I always think about when it's like oh wow I can't believe Derek Jones Jr like shot the thunder out of it it's like I mean there was nobody within 40 yards of him like I mean I don't like if you can't make those then you're unplayable right you're going to get your opportunities because Luca and LeBron they can pass the ball they're going to

get you the ball right you're going to be one. You're going to get the ball. And it's going to land, right? That's one thing I love about LeBron James is his accuracy passing. It's going to be right on the hip, right on the right side, right where you want it. You're going to be naked open. I was looking at games and business stats. And I think that 82% of his threes are assisted or 82% of his buckets.

Of course, he's not taking stepbacks. He's not, he's not isoing his man and asking for a pick and getting a mismatch and creating his own bucket. He's knocking down open shots, and Luke and LeBron will get him those open shots. I think you'll be important to them. Two years ago, this would be good because we started the show talking about Taylor Jenkins. And two years ago, Memphis played against L.A. in the playoffs. And if you go back, game one, Austin Reeves ended up having like the beat the chest, game winner, whatever.

But that whole series, Ruey Hachamuro was unbelievable. He turned into the best three-point shooter in the world. And Taylor Jenkins, to his credit, it was basically like, that's who we want to shoot. Like, yeah. We did a good job on LeBron. We did a good job on Anthony Davis. Like, that is who we want. theoretically, that's who we want to take the shots.

Like, it's not working out. It is. It's not working out. I remember that series, and I remember Rui, and I was thinking to myself, he's turned a corner. That guy, that guy from Gonzaga, that high draft pick, you know, and the Wizards and, and he's turned the corner. He's turned into the person that we always thought he was going to be.

And it never, didn't happen again. Did not happen again. And I do want to bookend this with one of my thoughts about Taylor Jenkins when he was hired by Memphis. I was shocked that there was a white guy with the last name Jenkins. That was just shocked. I've never, I've never seen this before my whole entire life.

I was shocked. Lord. But I saw his picture. See, that guy's last name is Jenkins? Leroy. All right, we have one special voicemail that we've got to get to before we get out of here today. I hope I'm not catching Jesse off guard. But he had told me last week when I was going to play a voicemail.

He said, hey, I've got a voicemail for when Jacobi comes back. Oh, oh. And I was like, well, so do I need to hold it? And he's like, yes. And I was like, well, can I hear it? And he said, no. No. Let's give it the number if people want to call.

I don't know the number. Hit us in the chat, Jesse. And he said it was a song. He said it was a song that somebody called in our voicemail line and sang a song. And you can leave us a voicemail at 323, 389, 5091. 323, 389, 5091. All right. So we've been holding on to this.

this. I have no idea what it is, but Jesse told me, we've got to wait until Jacobi comes back because he loves songs too. I was like, all right, let's hear it. I saw him play ball down in Chino Hills. He sunk a half-court shot and it gave me the chills from the logo. L-O-G-O-L-O-L-G-O-L-O-G. Well, I'm not dumb, but I can't understand why he fell the third behind his words and wise man That's La Mello Miello Mello La La La La Melle

He can shoot, he can pass He's got the height Some say he could be Jason Kittlight Tapry through the season It was clear La Mello deserved rookie of the year I'm not the world's most emotional

guy but when he broke his wrist You know I almost cried for La Mello Any yellow Melo. La La, la, la, la, mello. Talent. La Var almost ruined Lanzo's career.

A third verse. Melo said, look, dad, this stopped here. And Jay smiled and took him by the hand. He said, come on, little ball, I'm going to make you a man. Well, I'm not the world's biggest hornets fan, but I know what I am, and that's a La Mello fan. La Mello. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. La La La mellow.

Wow. I mean, that's... Did the guy even... Wait, hold on. Did the guy even give his name? Didn't even give his name or anything. Just broke out into song. He just...

When he said Chino Hills, you knew exactly. You knew exactly what he was going to sing about. The second he said Chino Hills. Wait, the guy called... The guy called her voicemail line and just sang that and hung up. Just hang that and hung up. He doesn't see that. You know, he's about the team.

He just wants the mismatchezing. to be great. He doesn't want his own personal brand. Didn't drop his Instagram handle or anything. He is just a true a true musician, a true talent. Shout to him. Shout to him for calling 3-2-3-38-9-5-0-1. I hope he started a thing. We need more songs.

Call the voicemail line and sing your song. Can you top Lamello? Let me ask you a quick question, Vernon, before we go. Because I've always been a Lamello fan for a long time. I've always liked his game, right? and I was high on him before the draft. Okay. My question is this is,

can he be like a second option on a really good playoff team, or is he just perfect for the horrence because there's no stakes and he can kind of do whatever he wants? I honestly don't know the answer. I'm still undecided. Me too. I don't know the answer. I'm still undecided.

He is mega talented, man. Of course. And I wish they would have had their guys. year with him and Miller and Grant Williams. Again, they would not have been great, but I mean, they would have been a reasonable team. They got destroyed by injury this year. I think he's still young and I think you could still,

I think it's, I got it. People are going to say, well, he's been in the league for five years. We've been in the leap. I mean, guys change at different times. You know what I mean? I just had this discussion when I was having to be Scott Jennings on CNN against Ryan and Bill. I mean, you know, I, look, I don't give up on talent.

I don't. I don't give up on or what talent could be capable of. In the years that we know, the hard part is being that awesome. That's the hard part. Yes. The hard part is being that awesome. So if you're that awesome, I'll still hold out hope that there's a chance, right? Yeah.

at the time, I totally understand why the Warriors picked Wiseman. And in theory, what he was supposed to be is exactly what the Warriors needed. But man, if we could just go back, I would love to see Lamello. I do. I do worry. I do worry that he has played so much losing basketball that it will just affect them for the rest of time. That because, you know, and I'm talking about losing basketball with no concept. right that that's not that you can get away with so much that was my criticism of watching charlotte

earlier this year even if you're going to be terrible there still has to be accountability you still can't just take any kind of shot and you still can't just not play defense and you still can't just like you know there still has to be an accountability you still have to try to play the right way and play winning basketball and be accountable and I feel like accountability went out of the window long, long, long, long time ago with that squad. You know, it's just like, all right. Hopefully get Cooper flag. Yeah.

What a song. God, what a talented mismatch listener that is. I love that he didn't leave his voicemail. That was great. It was Ed Shearing. It was Ed Shearing. All right. Thank you to Jesse Lopez as always and Jacoby.

I'll talk to you next week. Later this week. Friday. about. Yeah, I'll talk to me for Friday. Must be 21 and over in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 over and present in

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