The Mismatch - Heliocentric Franz, Knecht on Fire, Inconsistent Wolves, and More Things We Loved and Loathed

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

Verno and Jacoby discuss the messy situation in Philadelphia with the Sixers (01:04), their thoughts on the new All-Star format, and Franz Wagner’s performance in last night's Magic win against the Lakers (19:02). They then dive into this week’s loved and loathed teams (31:07), players. (50:55) and things (01:03:25). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers here and we are back for another season of OffGuard. Me and my guy, Pasha Giggy, are hitting your podcast feeds every Monday and Thursday talking everything hoops. Austin is bringing that 11-year NBA veteran perspective and of course keeping you guys entertained throughout the season. Make sure you tap into OffGard with Austin Rivers on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to follow everything we've got going on social media. The OffGar podcast, Ringer NBA, and of course check us out on Ringer NBA's YouTube channel. Welcome to the Miss Bash. I'm Chris Vernon. And join me as he does every Friday from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby.

Jacoby. What's happening to, Berneau? We've got a lot of things we've got to get to from the week that was in the NBA, all of our loves and loads. But we got to start off with the big story in the NBA, the one that has gotten the most headlines, is the Philadelphia 76ers, who many people predicted to be one of the beasts of the East,

is actually the worst. They're 2 and 12 I got a chance to see them in person This week after Their big team meeting That took place They flew to Memphis to play against Memphis Grizzies and they lost that

Which dropped them to 2 and 12 And they had Maxie back in the lineup And they had Paul George back in the lineup And those guys have gotten virtually No minutes together Outside of what I saw The other night You flipped

on. I was there at the arena. The world was watching. And the buildup was so much because we have the information about the meeting. Okay. And then we have the next level to the story is, oh, Tyrese Maxie told him B not to be late. And then the next level of the story is everyone's mad that that information got out. Who put the information out? Now we're all sleuth trying to figure out who leaked the information. And then the next level of the story is podcast P. He goes on his podcast and is like, it was a very productive meeting. this happens all the time. There's nothing to see here.

Everybody move on. So let's just check in on these 76ers at full strength almost for the first time against a depleted Grizzlies team. After the meeting, that's a guaranteed win, right? That's a guaranteed win, right? Well, they're a favorite in the game, though, interestingly enough, they've only had two wins this season. Anybody can go look this up.

They're both in overtime. I mean, those are, they could really be very easily to zero and 14 so far this year. So I get to the arena before that gang and I get this text message. So there's a guy that I know that is in town and he's one of those like memorabilia guys. big in the sports memorabilia autograph world whatever one of those guys that every city has these they go to opposing teams hotels they know where the opposing team is staying

they'll go out there and they'll try to get them to sign this or this or whatever it may be right so anyways I get this text and the guy says I've never seen this before he says team buses leave it like five o'clock.

And then there's a second bus that leaves it like 515. That's how virtually all of these NBA teams work. And then there will be some guys like and I would say the majority of the team

is always on the first bus. And then a lot of the traveling party is on the second bus. And 515 is about the latest that that second one will leave from the hotel. So the guy says, he says, M.B. did not leave that hotel until 555. And I was like, what?

The game is at seven. And what's crazy about this, Jacoby? He warmed up super late and warmed up for about three to five minutes and then went and played in the game. And he ended up having maybe the least impressive 35 and 11 I've ever seen in my line. ever seen. And flopped on a free throw, tried to get a flopped all the way down the court against

Jared Jackson and then like almost purposely tripped over his feet. It was just bizarre. Let's talk about the body language during the game, but I want to wrap up this sort of like bus thing because as far as we know, he could be getting extra treatment. It could be part of the plan. It could be team approved. As far as we know, it could totally be just like that was he was getting extra. treatment in the hotel. This is part of his regular routine or whatever. But you got to remember

who the source of this is. Give him the circumstances, right? Who the source of this is also is this guy knows when teams are in town, knows where they're staying, and every single game sits outside the hotel. So he knows the rhythms of an NBA traveling party very well. And he found it very odd. And if you were going to get treatment, you would probably get treatment at the arena when you're in that environment before the game. And if everyone's talking about how you're late, Right. Don't be late to the next thing. Well, you know what I mean?

Everyone's on high alert because of that. Because of that, right? I mean, that story is everywhere. Everywhere. And so now it's like, all right, let's see how this team is interacting with each other. So the guy's waiting out there and he's like, Embed's not out. And Bede's not out. And Bid's not out.

And so it may be nothing. That may be way he conducts himself on a regular occasion. I will just tell you this guy said he'd never seen it. And by the way, that's an hour before. the game. And they usually get even warmups are usually like very patterned and they're staggered.

And you're out there warming up for 10, 15 minutes at least. And it's a routine that they do. It's not like all 12 players are out there shooting at the same time. Did you, I mean, I don't know if you watch that show on Netflix that LeBron and them put out the basketball show.

I can't even remember the name of it anymore. Yeah, starting five. He gets to a arena like two. Yeah. To start getting ready for the game. Right? I mean, it's just, it was crazy. It was crazy.

And then I saw him. He was the only person out there like mega late warming up and warmed up for like no amount of time. And then the body language throughout the game and then was obviously wild. Very pissed after the game because of the first time. So they tried to ask him the day before about the meeting. And he's like, we had a meeting and just kind of blew it off. I think you come to the reality of I'm not going to be able to blow this off. I'm going to have to talk about this.

And so then he went into this diatribe after the game about how it was bullshit and how that gets out. And, you know, it's happened a couple times where I've been late and I wasn't a retardi and I wasn't even playing. But I know that because it's Joe L. Embed, he went third person, by the way. I know you appreciate that. I know I have to be perfect. I know everything's my fault. And it's like, oh boy. Victimimim Bid.

He's being victim and Bid a few times. Remember his whole like, I've done too much for this city? Do you, remember he said he's got the quote? He said, quote, when I see people saying he doesn't want to play, I've done way too much for this city, putting myself at risk like that, I think it's bull bleep.

I've done way too much for this city, way too bleep and much for this city to be treated like this. Like, victim Mbibing. is a thing that he's doing now and it doesn't look good on him. No, and they just looked. I did not think Maxi should have played. I am a huge Maxi fan. He has not played very well even before he got injured this year,

not up to his standard. I know those guys have not played a lot of minutes together. I know there's not been a lot of time to get the continuity together. I've just, I watched it, and I'm like, I'm not sure about the continuity, even if they are able to play. Obviously, Paul George got hurt in the game. But I really felt like I wondered, as we were watching there, I said to the guy sitting next to me, I said, I bet he's not playing if that story doesn't come out.

Because it looked like, you know, he was questionable going in. And so it's like, is Maxie? Is this going to be the game he comes back? And so it's at least worth thinking, okay, that story comes out. names him by name, right? This wasn't like, here's, you know, the source gives this to Shams Sharania and it's one of those,

you know, different players spoke up in the meeting and said so-and-so. Like there's a name attached. Tyrese Maxie called out Joe L.M.B. And said this, this, and this. And that's what makes it, to me, the specifics and podcast P even brought this up.

Like now it was word for word. What was going on there? That to me makes it just this colossal breach of trust. Yeah. That to me makes it almost impossible to repair. Someone wanted to throw gas on that fire. Because you have to wonder, someone gave that information to Shamsapot.

Why? And what is their motivation? What's their agenda? What do they want? I don't know the answer to those questions because I don't know who did it. But whoever did that knew that it would turn into a thing. And one thing that it's also done, this whole like Maxie calls him late thing, it's breezed over the part where Joel and Beat is like,

I don't really understand what we're doing on offense. What's my role in the offense? Bro, you've played like 60 minutes. What do you mean? You don't know what your role is. You brought in like a Hall of Famer and he doesn't really play that much. Max doesn't play that much. You guys, the three of you have been on the court together for like seven minutes

And you said there being like, I don't understand what we're doing on offense. I don't understand what you're doing ever. Yeah. And they're getting way behind the eight ball. Even in the disgusting East, I just, you know, I talked to you about this earlier this year when I saw the bucks in person. And it's like, man, I just don't know about the mix. I don't know about the vibes. You see a lot of teams come to town.

And you see the way that those teams interact with each other. And sometimes they can even be bad teams. but you're like, you know, I kind of like the way. Remember I told you about this about Charlotte when I saw him in the preseason. You laughed me off and then said, oh, yeah, Charles Lee. And then just right on the bandwagon. I'm like, but I like the way that those guys interacted with each other. I like the way that they interacted the coach.

By the way, totally allowed Charles Lee to get away with holding his best player accountable. Oh, we'll talk about that later. We're going to talk about that later. We got a whole Hornet section later. But one thing I want to ask you is I'm watching the 76ers in that game. And I believe it was the end of the half. It was the end of the half. And then B takes like a buzzer shot, misses it, slumps his shoulders,

doesn't interact with a single other person. This is just me watching on television. Doesn't interact with a single other person and just slowly hobbles his way to the tunnel. I just haven't seen that that much. And when you're in the arena, like tell me about take me to the half time. the timeouts, the bench, the anything. Yeah, I mean, the first thing that stands out is obviously the way he moves. The second thing that stands out is that he's got what appears to be 40 pounds.

I sent you a pitcher during the game. I'm like, look at this leg. His left leg, it's like, you remember when Barry Bonds used to wear that armor on his front elbow? It's like that times a million. It's like, is there a leg under there somewhere? It goes from his hip to his ankle. And it's all these pads. He falls down all the time.

All the time. He's been doing after years. And then just the interaction between all of those players, as I told you, about the togetherness with these teams. And it just looks like, it looks like five guys going separate ways. And I really think that when you are, are, I mean, geez, you just watch the way they even interact on the court. And it's like, okay, here we go with another high pick and roll.

And Joel Embedd hits another elbow jumper. Like, he had, honestly, the most unimpressive 35 and 11 game. I would challenge anybody to watch it. And you're like, how did he didn't see the game? If you didn't see the game, you look at the boss score, you're like, Embed's back. MVP candidate. And because it wasn't really in service of anything else good happening. Yeah.

It was just kind of he is individually getting these numbers and they're running this high pick and roll and he can hit these elbow jumpers all day. Also, he has not missed a free throw the entire season. And he goes to the line like crazy. Yeah. He is not. So, I mean, that's impressive. But he is, he's certainly, and then on defense, he's just, I mean, I don't, what is the opposite of a force? Like, I mean, I see it.

I don't know. I don't know. No. I mean, it's unnatural to see rebounds, Karim towards him and him not just engulf them like he used to. Like, he lets defensive rebounders are sort of targeting it. I'll give you one play that people might have missed. I'll give you one play that people might have missed. And this was one of those where it was like, this, this tells you a lot.

So they end up running this, like, Memphis runs this like high screen roll. The end result is Desmond Bain comes off a screen. Now it's a switch. All right. So now it's Desmond Bain and it's Joel Aibede and Joel Abed's at like the three point line. Bain's kind of like dribbling like, okay, what am I going to do here? How am I going to set this up? Which way am I going to drive?

How are we going to handle this? Should I find a cutter because there's no big guy under the basket? Or am I just going to bust this guy's ass, right? So he like takes a couple like dribbles and there's this moment right there. and it's like, oh, this is going to be fun. Joel and B takes one step towards Desmond Bain and just slaps him on the side. So that they call a foul.

Didn't want to go with it. And then just walk straight back down to the paint. And it's like, I'm not doing this. His body language was just so hot. What? I was like, bro, it's one possession. All you have to do it? He's like, I'm not guarding the little guy.

Just back up and contest. You're seven foot three. Just back up. When he rises up, just contest. You're not going to block the shot. It's contest. Make him sure to contest in three. It was wild to watch.

Very rarely do you see somebody just bow out of a play? I mean, he just bowed out of it. He's like, I'm not doing this. I'm not, what are you going to do? Tear my knee again? No. It was a very, it was a very strange watch. It was not a response to a team meeting game.

No, no. They didn't have the team meeting bump. That did not happen. And he was pissed. He was pissed. So that's whoever league. it out. Maybe you never know.

I guess the goal is, hey, we're going to need this guy. We need this guy to be an MVP. We need this guy to have the care factor. We need this guy to take all of this very seriously. And we're only going to go as far as our best player is going to take us. And so hopefully this will be a bump. Hopefully this will motivate him. But to me, obviously the,

opposite was true, which was just he resents this. He resents the fact that someone leaked that. He resents the fact that it was so detailed. And so it ends up not having the effect, which makes me then go into pop psychology and wonder, whoever wanted this out, whoever leaked this out, maybe they just don't care anymore. They don't care. Or maybe they want to know. Like not a, I'm doing this to inspire him, but rather a, F this guy.

The world should know what we're dealing with here with this guy. Correct. That's kind of what it is. They're frustrated. This is my, again, pop psychology. Yeah. This person wants the world to know just how hard it is to be Joel Embed's teammate. I think that's what it's more frustration.

It's not an agenda. It's not like they want them off the team to get traded. But I think that, listen, your memorabilia friend, again, could be excused, Could be totally normal, could be protocol. We don't know. But it is interesting that he's mad at the team, thinks there's somewhere there's a sort of snitch in the locker room, and he doesn't sit on the bus with the team.

Individually goes to the arena by himself. That cannot be protocol. That is not normal for an NBA traveling party. And it's notable. It's notable. Sometimes in basketball, 30 points could be worth more than 30 points. And now you can get a 30% profit boost from the ringer with Fandals 30 on 30,

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Restrictions apply, including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Helph.com. A couple other news and those that we need to get to from the week that was. All-Star game format came out. I heard Bill talking about this, about how, like, they screwed this up. Like, it's a good idea in theory, but they should have done it a different way that they're doing it. I mean, I lamented the fact a couple of weeks ago.

I even used it as one of the things that I load. Here we go again with the, what are we going to do with the All-Star game? And I'm really at the point of, I don't really care. As long as it's not, as long as the players care, if you can find a way to get them to care,

and that it's not like it has been. And there have been, the last time I could remember enjoying it and them caring was after, the year after Kobe passed away and they did that first target score. I was there. That was close, though. In Chicago, that was right before COVID hit.

And that was the last one that I can remember. And I've been at the other ones and they are duds. I mean, absolute duds. So, I mean, I have, honestly, I've found myself really liking that target score, rising stars format. and this feels a lot more like that. And so I'll give it a chance. Sure.

I mean, a couple things. Number one, I've played a lot of pickup basketball with Bill, and he's a great pickup GM. He's a great, he knows how to form a team, he knows how to recognize talent, he knows to evaluate players, he's never even seen play. He's a great pickup GM,

so I'm surprised that I'm not surprised that he has sort of some notes on how this should go. We're taking a quick time out because this is great. Everybody, I've been a Bill Simmons fan, I mean, since I can remember caring about sports, reading on the internet, as many have. I have heard Bill mention you and pick up basketball and talk about pickup basketball hundreds of times over the years.

I need an evaluation of Bill Simmons as a basketball player. He brings up how you guys played. Where did you guys play all with this pickup basketball? Grant Land started in Los Angeles in 2011. And this is when I was playing a lot of basketball. It was sort of like my main source of exercise in joy. in happiness. I had no children. And we would, and the Grantland offices were downtown Los Angeles.

A quick little, little ride down, Figueroa to the USC campus. And at the USC campus, you can just kind of saunter into the gym and play, right? Like, yeah, they're not checking IDs. Like, I think I had something that I showed them at some point, but I didn't pay for anything. And neither did build. We just kind of got to know the people behind the desk or whatever. They were kind of apathetic about it. it's on campus.

I don't know. It just worked. And it's just available? We would just play there. Locker rooms, showers, three courts next to each other. I don't want to take too long with this. Let's get back to the NBA.

But I'll say this, that it was clearly, like, he was getting back into playing pick up something that he enjoyed as a kid. So it sort of like brought, sort of resurfaced for him. And we had a really good run of like three years

of playing once or twice a week. And his game is he's got a good jump shot. And if he finds his spot, right? He's not an athlete. You know what I mean? He's not going to, like, jump up and block shots and grab it off the rim. He's also, like, 45 at this point or whatever. But he's got a spot 13 feet from the baseline.

And it's like, I don't even go in for the rebound if he shoots from there. I just start running back. It's automatic. Cat, quick hands, really good hands on defense. If it's a, if he's the one on a two-in-one, I guarantee you he's slapping the ball out of someone's hands before they get it above the shoulders. 100% of the time. 100% of the time.

love to hear it. Yeah. And he'll do the stuff. You know what I mean? He'll do the dirty work. Give you some notes. You know what I mean? He'll be like,

bro, you haven't touched the ball in five possessions, but he'll tell me what I need to do differently. It's like you haven't touched it in five possessions. All right. Outside of you who was the best player at Grantley. It wasn't, Grantland had a lot of great basketball thinkers. Jalen was probably number one.

I'd hope so. I think Jim, Jayley was probably number one. I was probably number two. Basketball. Rem could play. Ram can play a little bit. Ram can play a little bit. And I'm sure there's some people that I'm forgetting that I apologize to right now.

But there was no duds. Like, everyone could play. Yeah. USC. Watch the, by next week that USC Jim is going to be filled with guys going to play pickup being like, I heard this June was open. We had so much fun.

We had so much fun. But there's also that we had to have that. Who told you that this gym was just available? There's three courts, and we called it the garden in Meadowlands. You know what I mean? Because there's definitely like an A court, a B court, and a C court in terms of competition. So we kind of like look at the gym and somebody like, I think it's a Meadowlands date today, Bill. All right.

So this originally started with you talking about playing a ton of pickup. Yes. Now the All-Star game format. All-Star format is whatever. I'll say this. If it's the thing about the old format, it wasn't broken. It was just if there was a 20-25 point lead at the. end, they would just mail in the rest of the game. But that, like you mentioned in Chicago,

it was close. So they're like, all, we got to get this win. They all want to win, but sometimes just because of the sort of exhibition nature of the first three quarters of the game, one team's got a double-digit lead and it's insurmountable. And then there's kind of like, calling it, throwing the towel essentially and then play through it. I don't mind the All-Star game because I don't have expectations that it's going to be the Michael Jordan 1992 sort of like, let's play our hardest type of game anymore. I want to see the dunks. I want to see the threes.

I want to see, you know, you could shoot 30 footers. And I don't mind the thing, but I think with a 25-point championship, essentially, it will be competitive. It will be competitive. Because it's 25 points.

Now, the problem with the All-Star game is one team is down 25 points with 10 minutes left. But now it's just first to 25. So I think we will get more competitive games. But it is also hard for me to not listen to Bill, be like, what are the rising stars doing here? And why are there eight or whatever 12 players per team, whatever it is? Here's what I will say about the rising stars, though.

Their entry into it is going to make the other guys care. Because the rising stars guys will care about winning. Oh, yeah. They are going to try to prove them. And then, right. And then the other guys will be like, no, hell, no, we're not trying to, we're not trying to lose to them. Right. We don't want to be embarrassed.

And so now maybe those guys play with a little more heightened, you know. It'll be something. But I think that it's also a good transition to talking about downtown Los Angeles is what happened downtown Los Angeles last night from the Lakers and the Magic. Oh, my gosh. I need to go to sleep before 1 o'clock. And this game would not let me go to sleep. This game would not let me go to sleep.

Free throws. And before that, before the free throws, LeBron James was dominant in the fourth quarter. How about when he pulled like the 45 footer? That was ridiculous. And he caught a full court pass. He caught a defensive rebound, landed on two feet, and then threw a 70-foot pass on the money to AD without moving his feet. Seriously, if someone was like, throw this basketball 70 feet, I'd probably have to take four steps and throw it like a baseball. He threw a chess pass

70 feet over Suggs who like Jalen Suggs does was trying so hard to get it jumps in the air as high as he can flailing his arms perfectly right to AD for a dunk And at that point you're thinking LeBron just took over this game and it is over And all they had to do was make free throws And once A.D missed the first one of two

I was like uh oh Look at that score It's gonna be interesting And then Franz Who you shouted out last week Franz was just a monster shot. He was crazy. Let me just tell you,

he took a shot before that, right before that, which was basically the same thing. I don't know if he got a switch on a pick, but I remember the announcers saying, like, they're like, ugh, a little too heliocentric. They literally used that term

on the previous possession. Oh, wow. They were like, a little too heliocentric. I don't know about that. Kind of being like, oh, that sort of philosophy could have cost them the game. And it was like France heard them. It was honestly like Franz heard them.

It was like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to do it again for the win. Huge shot. Oh, and he has been amazing since Bankero went out. I mean, they have needed a guy to carry the water each and every night and he has been available to carry the water each and every night. They have been one of the great stories in the NBA that's kind of flown under the radar because we truly lamented the fact that they had lost this budding superstar, a guy who looks at like he was on an ascension to one of the best, you know, five to ten players in the league possibly in Bancaro. It's like, oh, here he comes. The time is now. And it's like, geez, you know, they're going to lose this guy. He's the, he's the one that carries the water each

and every night. And for them to lose him and then have Franz step up in the way that he stepped up and their record post losing Bancaro has been truly incredible. I mean, truly incredible. And Franz Wagner but last night I didn't know that Mo Wagner still had feelings about the Lakers franchise because if you remember

he played there before, but he was like screaming at the crowd and hitting threes and dunks and dunking on people. I was like, he had 19 and 12 in the first half and I was like, is this a Mo Wagner revenge game? Does he have, does he have do harbor feelings deep down inside about

the Laker franchise? I kind of feel my my experience with Beau Wagner is that he seems to have deep feelings about a lot of things. Good for him. He's always, yeah, he's always fired up. Good for him, but that was he was a huge part of that win. And when you have, when you have a defense like the magic, you're just like,

if you're, you're down 8, 10, like, you're kind of not out of it. You know what I mean? They look, they look really good. And they and here's the thing. We talked about them last week because we'll give them another special shout out. They do it because there are these times where they can just get stops. Yes.

When they need to get stops. They're winning with defense, and there are a couple of teams, especially early in this season, one of which I'm going to mention with my team that I loved this week, that that's the way they are able to get by because we're going to start with these love and loat from the week. My team... Wait, hold on. I just want to mention that I think as a journalist, we do have to say the Lakers did lose,

but we have to mention that brawny wasn't available because of a heel bruise. Oh, so that's a factor. So it is, there's an asterisk in that win. There's an asterisk on that win for the magic because they're missing Bancaro, Lakers are missing Bronny.

So I guess that does cancel, cancel out. I just want to make sure it's a journalist. But obviously, yeah. I saw him in streetclothes and I was like, oh, are you allowed to go? Are you like a band? Like are you on the team? It's poor, poor analysis by us for that not to be.

That's obviously the headline. That's why I'm here. I want to cover all the bases. Bronny James, not available. So if you're a Laker fan, yeah, we lost, but if we had Brony, things would have been different. In fact, I saw the headline, now that I'm looking at, the headline in the L.A. Times,

Lakers lose without Brony. Yeah. So obviously that was a big deal. Team that I love. So I mentioned that Orlando has been one of these teams that has done it with defense. And I've told you that especially at the beginning of the season, so many of the teams that we mentioned are going to be repeat performers as the year goes on.

So I'm trying to find teams that might not get mentioned as much throughout the year. And I feel this is a good time, a good week, to mention the Los Angeles Clippers. Absolutely shocking that they are 9 and 7, even at this point in the season. And 9 and 7 with James Hardin shooting less than 40% from the field and less than 35% from 3. If you told me that if this 40% from the field? Less than. What? Yes.

And it's 9 and 7. If you would have told me the clippers are 9 and 7, I would have told you, oh, heliocentric hardin is a, you know, he's probably going off. He's probably got big numbers. and he's getting kind of everybody involved. I certainly wouldn't have guessed they're doing it on the backs of Norm Powell, Ivakazubat, and a defense that's the sixth best defense in the NBA so far. Like these Amir coffees and Derek Jones Jr. And like all these guys, they are able to stop you from scoring.

Their offense has been 24th so far this year, Jacoby. If you're 24th in offense and you're 24th in offense and you're, You're 9 and 7. It speaks to. And this is the week I'm mentioning them because it's one thing to be able to be, to have a over 500 record and keep yourself in the mix. If you're not playing anybody and the schedule is just light, their wins were against the Warriors and against Orlando.

And they held the Warriors to 99, which is no small feet. And then they held Orlando to 93. So look. If you're giving up 99 to 93, you're going to be able to win a whole lot of basketball games. They only scored 102 and 104 in those games. And so these two games are emblematic of the fact that they have been better than what we would have expected. And why they have been better than what we would have expected because their offense is crap. But their defense, if you can give up 90,000.

these point totals, especially with the way the NBA has played right now, you're going to be able to win your share of games. And so the fact that they're even, not only did they get over 500, they did it by beating, maybe the two best stories in the NBA or the two bigger surprises in the NBA this year, the Warriors with their incredible depth and Orlando and what they've proven to be, even in the absence of Bankera. It's wild because the whole plan was have Kauai, PG, Hardin, open up the new arena. I'm Steve Bomber.

I'll overpay. Don't worry about it. And now we've got Kauai on the bench with a blank look on his face. Who knows what's going on with him? I have no idea. No updates. Norm Powell literally being like, I've been waiting for this opportunity my entire career. I've always been this guy.

I've just never had an opportunity. And I was just like, I was kind of giggling at that when he first said that. It was like three weeks ago. And now I'm like, he might be right. He might be right. Jacoby. Like, we're not, they're, they've played 16 games, okay? And I know there's going to be some regression to the mean.

Norm Powell is shooting 49% from three. Nuts. Yeah. And that's 20% of the season. It's 20% of the season. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. It's shot to them.

All right, we got to move this along. We've got too long. I'm going quick on these. Team, team I love. And this one's easy because I love them from the preseason. This is the team that you earmarked early on as a great chemistry team

with a new coach, and that's the Charlotte Hornets. And what I love about the Hornets since our last pod is the journey that they have been on. As you hinted at earlier, they played the Nets, and they were ahead, they started losing the lead, and I'm watching the game, and it was after a reclady game, and it was after the Celtics and Cavs had concluded, I believe, and I'm seeing La Mello Ball on the bench for like the last four or five minutes. I looked at my buddy, and I go, he must have fouled out. Oh, the Mellow Ball fouled out.

Come to find out. He didn't foul out. And it was a very close game with a lot of opportunity to put him back in the game. And then after the game, your guy, Coach Lee, says, stop the Trey Man, gave us a little bit more on each side of the, each side of the,

the, uh, you know, the floor. And they had a game last night with the Pistons, which I was locked in on. And I'm just going to start with Trey Man. He dunked all

over Clowny on the Nets. And no one that didn't see the game will know this, but he tried to do it again. And I don't remember exactly, who it was. It wasn't like beef stew. It was like one of their wings. It was like, I want to say Holland or somebody, but someone was,

he gets past his man. And Trey Man is like 6'2. And he launches off two feet and cocks it all the way back behind his head. He's not trying to sneak it over the rim from in front of a help defender. He goes chest to chest and tries to dunk almost

does, but does not. Trey Man will dunk on you. But the story of this game is this time the Mellow Ball actually did foul out and Brandon Miller and La Mello Ball, which was out of control. Brandon Miller in overtime was unconscious, absolutely unconscious. He had, what do you have, eight points in overtime. He had 38 on the game.

He's eight for 12 from three. And the most impressive thing he did is a two-on-one break. And unlike Bill Simmons, who will smack out of your hands on the way up, he kind of like jab steps at the ball carrier and then launches in the air. and just absolutely swallows this lob pass in between the two defenders. He's equidistant from the aloeu thrower and catcher. So the ball is, in theory,

you're going to be at its peak at that point. And he reaches up, it doesn't just tap it out of the way. He engulfs it, swallows it with his right hand. And the replays look unreal. Like the replays look like he's like a go-go gadget. Green and Morton playing together. Pass stolen away by Moore.

What a suss! The anticipation, the defense, it just felt like he was in a zone last night. And it was just so, so impressive. They had, LeMello had 35 and Miller had 38. It's the first time in Hornets history that two players have had 35 points. Unbelievable. Before we move on, I'd have to give a shout out to, you know, you talked about how Embedes 35 was the least impressive 35. Luzidiovate had one point in the game.

and he was their third best player. I swear to God. I think it was his first start of his life. He had one point. Yeah, no Miles Bridges. So their front court was Diabate and Grant Williams. Yes. Both have got a lot of,

there's a lot of Great Williams out there. And Diabate had 16 boards, seven offensive rebounds. One point. He got fouled at the end of the game. He didn't even try to make the prethrowns. It was just a formality. He was like, I'm just going to toss it up there towards the basket.

Maybe we'll get a rebound. But regardless, I'll keep wrecking this game. It was a really, really impressive week for them. I love the, I love the loss. I love the bench. I love Trey Man trying to just absolutely obliterate people in each game. And I love Miller sort of really stepping up and being the prospect and the pro that we thought he would be when he was a prospect.

And Lamella Ball is continuing to his march through the league. It was a really, really good week for the horns. And real quick, just to add on to what you're saying, look, at the beginning, of the season, everybody always says there'll be some like Dallas Phoenix game and it'll go to overtime and Luke will hit a game winner and then everybody would be like, ooh, like immediately everybody runs to Twitter or something. They'll be like, man, sign me up for seven of those. Man, I hope these teams, I would love to watch these teams, but I would watch, if you want to talk box office, both of those teams last night, the Hornets and the Pistons, I swear to God,

Every night it feels like they are playing in some kind of unbelievable down the stretch. I've got to flip it on game. Like they're both. And so give me seven of those. If I could somehow get Hornets pistons. It's great. Because it's both teams every night. It feels like I'm like, okay, what game should I flip on?

It'd be like, oh, the pistons are coming down to the wire or the Hornets are coming down to the wire. These teams play thrillers. Like every other game it feels like. And then, of course, they played each other and went to overtime. And in overtime, Taj Gibson. Yeah. Get subbed in at Brooklyn's own, Todd Gibson gets a key rebound in a loose ball. That's the team I love this week.

Easily is the whole. All right. Team I loathe, I'm just good about the jazz. I mean, again, this is like just, okay, I know they're going to end up just shutting down marking and they gave him his money. They did the SGA thing that Oklahoma City did a couple of years ago. Hey, we're going to pay you a bazillion dollars. We're going to max you out.

Just be cool because you kind of know the score here, right? And so go out and have your, you know, you're not going to resent us if you don't get a bunch of awards and everything. If you don't play 65 games because you kind of know the deal here. I thought they would at least wait until later in the season. And so it's like the funniest thing ever. was Will Hardy might have had the press conference line of the year. I don't know if you saw this where he was talking about Dalton Connect and he said everybody. There's a few people.

There's very few people in the world that didn't know Dalton Connect was going to take the next shot. Unfortunately, those few people play for our team. It seemed like everybody in the gym knew that Dalton Connect was going to shoot the next shot with the exception of a few people. The problem was that those few people were on our team. I mean, and that was the Lakers game where they allowed Dalton Connect to turn into the greatest player to ever touch a basketball court. They also played the Spurs who started. This was the Spurs starting lineup.

Chris Paul, Zach Collins, Harrison Barnes, Julian Chimponier and Stefan Castle, with Charles Bassie being the big difference maker office. the bench. She was. He was. Like, okay, Danny, just find a place to move John Collins to find a place, please free Colin Sexton and let him go play for somebody that could win something and then just shut down marketing because I really don't even know like what the point is. It's not like I can tune you in to watch the development of Keante, George and Cody Williams. Like, I don't care. And so I don't even understand. I get it. You're going to. going to try to lose a billion games. But I wish there was just a way that a team could just say, you know what, we're going

to forfeit. We're just not even going to play these. We're just not even going to play. Can you just mark us down for a loss every night? They led for the majority of that game. And I'm sitting there being like, are they going to win this? No. I don't believe, I don't believe that they make coaching decisions or the players make

cognizant decisions to lose basketball games, right? I think you can shut players down. but I don't think anyone is, I don't think they call time out and get in the huddle with six minutes left when they've got a lead and say, for our draft position, we have to lose this.

I just don't think that they could possibly do that. I just don't see it happening, especially if you're a coach or a player. Obviously, there's certain things you can do when it gets later in the season and all of a sudden your star player is like, oh, guess what? He's no longer with the team.

We've seen that happen a few times. But if you have the jazz on your schedule, you have to win the game. And I assume you're going to. And that transitions right into the team that I loathe, I was locked in on the Pistons Hornets game, not because it was good, because the other games on the docket were the aforementioned Spurs and Jazz, which I assume the Spurs are going to win.

There's no Wimbunima to watch, Castle's Fun or whatever. And then there's the Wolves Raptors. And I'm keeping an eye on it. I'm like, are they going to lose this game? Are the Timberwolves going to lose this game? So the team that I loathe is the Timberwolves. We spoke about them last. They actually got in your cross-hast.

last week when they had those two games to the Blazers. And they beat the Kings, and they beat the Sons. They had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off. Okay? And Minnesota, Toronto was not some long trip. So remember, Monday, Tuesday, three days off, you're playing the Raptors, who got Scotty Barnes back.

And they gave up 56 paint points to the Raptors. And everyone's talking about this, Julius Randall didn't pass it to Rudy Goberra thing. I don't even think that's a big deal. It was objectively hilarious. I'm going to say not that big a deal. If you're Julius Randall, you should probably give him the ball. If you're Rudy Gober, you should probably get out of the key.

If you're Anthony Edwards, you should probably not be yelling at everybody on national television. Okay? I think all of them are kind of in the wrong, but it's just kind of, and then you see a couple possessions later, Randall did throw him the ball under the basket, and the ball bounces off his hands for a turn over. It was insignificant. There's like, there's five-point game with like 10 seconds. How do you, as a Knicks fan, feel about the R.J. Barrett ascension?

It's a great question. R.J. Barrett showed a lot of potential with the Knicks, right? And he had certain games that looked like he looked last night. But I'm, I keep hearing about how great R.J. Barrett's playing and how great Yacob Pertl's playing. But there's a part of me, it's like, they're going to score 90 points. You know what I mean? It's like someone's going to do it, right? I also think, look, over the years, I've talked to hundreds of NBA players. Routinely, if you talk about their favorite cities to go to, Toronto comes up. Oh, yeah. They love, and so if Toronto's got a good enough team, I've always thought about this with Toronto and Atlanta. If they've got a good enough team and, but they're not like, they're not some kind of great team. and so you know you have to lock in.

But good enough and have good enough players to beat you, they end up catching a bunch of wins at home simply because these guys love going out in Toronto and they love going out in Atlanta. And then they show up to that game. And next thing you know, they got RJ Barrett or Scotty Barnes or quickly or whoever. You know, they didn't go out the night before.

They're ready to bust your ass. And so they just have to have a good enough team because Miami, Atlanta, Toronto are three that particularly stand out as road games that teams will many times, especially if those teams' records aren't that good, will not take as seriously as they need to, i.e. go have fun, and then they get caught. I mean, that could be very much what happened. There's a lot of stories about the Toronto nightlife. It feels that way because there was a lot of irritability on the court.

It felt like. It did. It felt like a lot of it. And just Google, Google New York Times, Raptors, Nightlife Fixer. And you'll find a 4,000-word article that details the NBA visiting players and joining themselves in Toronto. And that's by the New York Times. That's not like some guy on Twitter with an egg. Like that's the New York Times and an investigative report on this.

And another thing I know is as a Knicks band, a day game, that's a win. That is a win. Oh, yeah. It's a Saturday at 1 o'clock. Oh, that's a win. The Martin Luther King, they have a game every Martin Luther King day at like noon. The garden doesn't even wake up until the third quarter. Like people don't even feel like to sleep in their seats, but that's always a win.

That's the team that I load this week. I look forward to them getting back together. I also want to say that I don't think that that Rudy Gover, Anthony Edwards, Julius Randall thing, was a big deal to me at all. Not a big deal to me. I think Joel Embed, they got real chemistry problems there. But I don't think that one possession was like indicative of some like deeper problem that they have with this team. I mean, I for one was absolutely shocked that Julius Randall doesn't love passing. Yeah.

I did listen to his postgame comments to see if there's anything there. And he said all the right things. He took accountability. Not about that play. He's like, we need to decide who we are. I put it on myself. I had four turnovers. He said all the right things.

I expected him to say something stupid, but he didn't. He should have said, I didn't throw it to him because the guy sucks. Because he sucks, because you can't hit a hook shot. He's seven foot five. What's he going to do? He's being covered by a shooting guard. What do you want? And he can't hit a turnaround hook.

If it's not a dunk that's been hand delivered to him, it's not going in the basket. This is the way where to go bar is. It's just the way it is. You know what? I didn't think I would, but they got me. I loved the NBA Cup. I love the. Courts, and I especially love that it seems like the players care.

It seems like there's a little more competition. And another thing I love is the point differential makes every basket count. So it can be an 18-point game, and these guys are playing out the buzzer. I love it. They got me. I was skeptical. I'm in. And you know what makes the NBA Cup even better?

A ringer profit boost token on Bandw. We told Fansul we wanted to celebrate the NBA Cup and give out some profit boost, and thus we created the 30-on-30 ringer. PBT. Guess what? Boost any 30 point score or 30 on 30 special bet on this Friday's NBA Cup slate. Here's the thing that I love to bet players that will go for 30. Let me just give you a list of them that I do often. Lamello ball. I love looting for him. Yonis Attentacin Campo. He needs to score 30 or the bucks lose. I also love to bet on Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson. Sometimes they'll both do it in the same game.

Those are just players that I root for, but you can always bet on Anthony Davis to go over 30. Those are the players that I often will bet to score 30 points. So, we hope you love the Ringer profit boosts. We will be doing it each Friday during the NBA Cup. Just look for 30 on 30 in the Fandul Sportsbook app. All right, Bruno. Now, let's get back to what we love and loat. Player I loved.

We can go through this quick. It goes without saying don't connect. I mean, it started over the weekend Saturday. He had a huge game. And then on Tuesday night had 37. And then last night followed that up with 17 and 4. I mean, just this week, he's been 19 of 30 from the field, 12 of 19 from 3. And for the year, 52% from the field, 46% from 3.

92% from the line. We are, you know, not yet a quarter of the way through the season, but he's a 50, 40, 90 guys in the first, you know, 15, 16 games of his career, which is crazy. He got a corner three last night. Then the arena was just already erupting before he caught the ball. It was just like there's a hush over the crowd. There's just this anticipation that it's going to go in.

He's going to have one of these nights. He's really captured everybody on the team. I have one note for Donaldson Connect, which is going to be very helpful for me and for others watching. You cannot have the same height, same build, same hair color, same skin tone, and also have a one-legged black compression pant like Florence Griffith Joyner because Austin Reeves also has all of those things.

My TV is not that big. So I'm watching it. They both have one-legal. compression. And it's not like, oh, they're both white guys. They both have pretty much the same hairstyle because I don't get the details because of like, you know, Daltons are a little curlier or whatever. But they've got the same build, the same weight, same height, same game, same uniform.

And they both have one black compression leg on. It's too much. I need something. It's like, it's like when you have twin babies. Yeah, when you have twin babies, you like tie a string around one's wrist or something. It's like, they need to do something. Like Tyler Hero is probably the same height. and he's also white. I'll never get Tyler Hero and Dalton Connect confused.

But Austin Rivers and Donald Connect, they're just too identical on the court. Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves. He said Austin Rivers. Oh, Austin Reeves, yeah. The ringers, Austin Rivers. By the way, I just want to say, I've seen now three of these guys, no, three of these guys in person, one of them I saw in Summer League. There was a run in this last year's draft, something you shouted out a couple weeks ago about how some of these rookies have been better than you thought. there was a run from 14 to 17

that looks pretty damn great right now. Bub Carrington, who I shouted out who I like, Khalil Ware, who has not gotten run for Miami, but I think it's going to be a real player, and I loved what I saw from him at Summer League as an athletic big for this style of NBA. And then McCain and then connect. And McCain is the most effective player on a team

that has Paul George Tyrese Maxwell Beach. I mean, 14 through 17s, pretty damn good from last year's draft for sure. All right, player you loved. Player I loved and this is happiness is a function of expectations like I always said. And obviously I went through

a gamut of emotions with the Carl Anthony Towns trade. I was not sad to see Julius Randall go. I loved Dante Divencenzo, but I had questions about cat fitting in. I had faith that Tibbs having worked with them for years before, had a plan for this.

And I was concerned about defense. I was concerned about his personality. I was concerned about the Knicks having this hard nose identity, sort of like your grit and grind grislies, and I didn't feel that Cat necessarily fit into that. I had concerns about his personality, sort of authenticity, for lack of a better word,

and his toughness on the basketball court. And I have been so happy with Carl Anthony Towns on the New York Knicks. like he Brunson has not been gangbusters to start off the year but just that game against the Suns this week is everyone talks about

he's shooting right every talks about how oh is it stretches the floor he's shooting 50% from three again like Dalton Connect like it won't last it'll come back to Earth but he's shooting 50% from three

like that's on 5.3 attempts per game not like two attempts per game 50% from three right but with Nurkich like they kind of like mid post him and he'll back someone down like three dribbles and then turn over his shoulder, get to the hoop or turn over his shoulder

and hit a fade away. If you cannot put a small on him because he will punish that and he could pick and pop and he can pick and roll. But with Nurkich, there's a couple times he went through him. There's a couple times he went around him. Now again, Nurkich isn't exactly

you know, defensive player of the year candidate. But like he's a big man and Carlythe Towns was aggressive and he was getting his shoulder into him. And he was doing it from inside now. And he was, I think it was like three for eight from three, which he didn't light it up. But he either like took threes or took really,

really good sort of eight footers or he was at the rim. And he did it with strength. And my guy, Tim Bondamps, former colleague, love that dude. He had the stat like a week ago. You saw the stat. It was like, you know, he, he's shooting 100% against him. Yeah, they're shooting 150%. He might as well just like,

not be there. It's hard to argue with like an objective number. But I follow a bunch of like Nix accounts and that that number has come back down to earth a little bit. Something tells me that that, you know, that found his, his mentions. But again, like it's easy to say like, oh, the player I love was the guy who scores 30 points a game for my favorite team. But it's really about what I expected versus what I'm getting and it is still a work in progress. Well, and I do think if you're a Knicks fan, what you hold on to is it's a Tibbs team. the defense will come around.

We certainly expected them to be a defensive team. Right now, the Cavs are the best offense in the NBA. Nicks are two. Well, let's not also forget, and again, this is a bit delusional because I have a lot of reservations about how effective Mitchell Robinson is as a center in the NBA. But I'll say this. Remember, the former team that Carlity Towns was on when he was the center,

they traded the farm, the barn, and like one of their kids to bring in Rudy Gobert because they needed Rudy Gobert next to Kat to get their defense to the next level, right? And I feel like when Mitchell Robinson comes back in spells, they'll have that kind of like twin tower duo that can cover up for a lot of things that Kat doesn't do on defense against certain matchups. Player that I loathed, Tyrese Halliburton.

Two games this week. They lost by 11 to Toronto on Monday. Then they went and got their ass kicked by Houston by 17. He was a combined 6 for 25, 3 for 14 from 3. For the season, he is shooting 38% from the field,

28% from 3, and we're only like 15, 16 games in. He's had a 0, 4, 6, and 9 point games. This guy was all NBA last year. Like, what happened? This time last year, he was like the best player in the league. Oh. Look, we went to Vegas for the in-season tournament.

Every damn billboard had Tyrese Halliburton on it. Oh, do you know, I don't know if you've seen it yet, but they're going to edit him out of the NBA Hise commercial. Somehow, if he's AI, they're going to edit him out of it. They're going to put, they're going to put Dalton Connect in. I don't know how they're going to do it, but they're going to do it. Just totally bizarre. Totally bizarre. It's not because it felt like last year there was very much a pre-imposed injury Halliburton, right?

And it was a stark difference. And what I said to myself is someone who rooted very hard. hard against this man. And he's not my favorite personality in the National Basketball Association. I'll just say that. It is crazy. The one great game he's had this year was probably the Knicks game. Yeah, it was. But I really felt like given the offseason and the, and the Olympus experience that he would come back to form from a year ago. But instead he has come back to form by that post-injury Halliburton. And I don't really see any answers. He seems healthy. Right?

I mean, yeah, but again, you know, post Olympics, we saw them with the three white chicks at five in the morning, congratulating 50 cent. We just got in from the club. That's just not a, I mean, I don't think, I think it's tough to have a video out there going, we just got back from the club. Congratulations.

Thanks, 50 cents. You've always been down with me. And then go out and like the first quarter of the season, and shoot less than 40% and 30% from three, I think people are going to rightfully question your commitment. It's interesting. I don't have a fix. Like if you look at someone like Maxie,

we talk about Maxie and Bede and George, like they're all kind of coming back from injury, new teams, this and that. Like their roster's been pretty consistent from last year to this year. He had a whole summer to get right. The one thing I'll say as an excuse for them is, their schedule is wrong. If you go look at it, I mean,

there's not a lot of, there's not a lot of Portland, San Antonio, Utah, no Washington trips. It's like, you look at their schedule and it's like Orlando

and like at Charlotte or something will be like one of those where it's like, oh, okay, that's probably winnable, but then it'll be like the Knicks and the Celtics and the Cavs. You're like,

damn, man, their schedule at the beginning of this has been tough. So maybe it'll come around, but they better hope so. But this guy was supposed to be a superstar. are all NBA level performer and he has been a dud.

It's been weird. It's been weird for them this year, man. I don't see them turning it around. Player you loath. Okay. So this is, I've always, this is personal a little bit. I've always kind of not like this guy.

I don't know why. His last three games is one for three from three, oh for four from three, one for seven from three. one of the sort of like key points to his turnaround, the team's turnaround, is him losing his starting job.

And the last time he was in the news is he was in the news because J.J. Reddick was giving him credit for Dalton Kinex scoring 37 points. And I'm talking about DeAngelo Russell. Oh, wow. Last night, I'm watching this game.

He's one for seven from three. right? And I was like, there's something in my heart where I was like, he is wrong tonight. So I went back and you can watch all of his three point attempts on, you know, NBA.com. It's a very nice feature. The first one is wide open at the buzzer. Naked, missed. Second one on the wing.

Again, swing, swing, naked. Like not even a hand in the air around him. Missed. Then he takes a contested step back, hits that one. Now he's opening the corner, missed. And this is when it gets weird. he ball-fakes the defender away from him air ball short the next one airball long and then the last one was just short two straight airballs in a tight game at home on open threes this is the guy that j j reddick said he talked to the most yeah in the off season to get ready to this year well because he wants to talk to him a lot now because he's not going to be able to talk to him after they trade it so you

He wants to get it all in early. Okay. How about another theory? Bro, don't evaluate DeAngelo Russell until post-trade deadline. He just plays like this until he knows he's not going to get traded. And then once the trade deadline passes, he turns into a different player. That's what happened last year. Yeah.

It's interesting because if you were trying to trade someone, I don't know if taking them out of the starting rotation is a way to feature them. Right. No, I know. but I don't think that's what the agenda is for J.J. Redick, I think he's trying to get all right. Thing that I love I already mentioned the Will Hardy Press conference, so I'm going to scratch that.

Raptors Court. Oh yeah. It needs to be full time. Oh, yeah. That is maybe the best basketball court you could ever imagine. Like, and we've obviously had a million new courts, and people have received those

in different ways. certainly during the Emirates Cup, people see all the new courts and they have their opinion on those courts. I think this is one that I think very rarely would you find a situation where NBA fans

would be absolutely unanimous. If I said, do you like this court? I think 100% yes. I cannot fathom somebody not liking that Raptors court with the dinosaur in the middle. It might be the best

court ever. And the uniforms the whole look. Like the San Antonio one last night just didn't feel right. There's no gray, no black. You're like, what are we doing here? But like that, the lake show court was cool. That court, that court is the best court in the NBA. I wish I could disagree. You're right.

You know, sometimes you're in a relationship, a romantic relationship and it ends, but it doesn't end bad. Maybe just move to a different city or something. and you just kind of want, you wish you're with that person, still have feelings for that person, but you just want what's best for them.

And then you see on social media that they're thriving, they've got a new job, they've got in shape, you know, they're dating some, like, handsome guy. Talk it out, Jacoby. Talk it out.

You're just happy for him. You know what I mean? You're just happy for him. And that is how I felt watching Isaiah Hartenstein in his debut with the Thunder. Oh, I am so pleased. by this because I really thought the ending was that was going to be that's how I felt looking at

Jenny's Instagram. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm kidding. I've been to say, girl for like 22 years. I always give dating advice. I haven't given him a date, like three decades, but sure, I'll tell you what to go on a date. Hardstein, because we, like, Joel Embed's first time on the court, I mean, again, a totally different injury, totally different situation, but it's like you got to play yourself back

in a shape or whatever. like hardstein had a hand thing which i think he's clearly over he was so quintessentially hartinsteinian in that game you see the possession with the two behind the back passes and they and they and they blew both of them both and he's on a brand new team in his debut after the second one he was he had to put his hands up like come on y'all but he had the alleyute block and then beat everybody down the court for an alleyute finish 13 points 14 rebounds five offensive rebounds three assists should have been four assists, four blocks. Dude, I love him.

I've loved him since he was with the Clippers. I don't think people even know he played with the Clippers. But I loved him on the Clippers. Obviously, on the Knicks, he got a lot of opportunity and made the most of it. But I think that, you know, I watched a lot of Hartnstein. I think that people will see a lot more of him now being on the Thunder.

He's a playmaker. He can operate. There's one possession he had. I swear to God, it was like two dribble handoffs, four passes, dives for a loose ball at the end of the shot clock, and hits a shooter for a three, which I guess will be like an assist in the box score,

but it was, I'm going to try to make this happen for my teammate, I'm trying to make this happen for my teammate, try to make this happen for my teammate. I'm going to save the possession by diving on the floor, even though I'm seven feet tall, and then I'm going to get an assist. It's just, it was such a great quintessential Hartensteinian performance

from a team that needs a center so bad, they were starting Lou Dort at the center position. Jacoby, he's one of those guys that it makes absolutely no difference what team he's on. You could plug him in on any team. He's got no reps. It's all new guys he's playing with, no game reps, and you just plug him in, and he's immediately effective. And I feel like you could take Hartnstein and you could put him on every team in the NBA, and he could be effective tomorrow night.

and that is a talent. If you look at like Chet and Wemby and you call them playmakers and they also make plays themselves. Like Chet will like cross you up. You know what I mean? And Tate was man to like Hardinstein's not going to do that.

And Wembe will shoot a step back three. Maybe he'll shoot one for eight for them in the game. But Hartinstein is a playmaker in the sense that if you cut around him, he'll find, he'll get you the ball. And if he has a dribble handoff and his man follows the cutter, he'll get to the hoop.

He's got a weird little push shot from eight feet, which is like 90% effective before he gets into the help defense. I'm just so happy that he's on this team. You know what I mean? Because a lot of times you see like the Jeremy Grants of the world who we've spoken about where it's like, I'm going to go get the bag. You guys won't offer me what I think I'm going to get the bag. You know, I'll be on Detroit.

I'll score 25 a game and that'll be fine. Maybe I'll make the All-Star team. But like he's on a great team making money that he's, should be paid and he's going to have real playoff moments deep into the Western Conference. I could not be happier for him. Loved it. The thing I loathed this week, I am, I

swear, this happens five times a season where I see the headline and it's about NBA ratings are down. And so this one was NBA ratings are down and Adam Silver blames the World Series and the election. And then there's this whole story

about how here's the NBA ratings and how they compare to it. I don't care. I don't. Why should I care? Why? I love watching the NBA. They signed an $11 billion TV deal.

And like to me, this, all this like ratings talk of like, here's what their TV ratings are. What's going on with their TV ratings? And to me, it is not indicative of the health of the lead. I think for the majority of you in my lifetime,

if you said, hey, here's what the TV ratings are, that would then lead us to believe, like, what the interest is in that sport, right? Say, oh, this used to be super popular, but it's not popular anymore. In this day and age with streaming and with iPads, and I mean, I've chronicled this for many years on this show. I have now a 14-year-old son who has been an NBA fan since he was born.

And obviously, I know all of his friends and his peer group and everything else. Okay. And the way that now that whole generation of kids takes in, My son does not know one thing on television. Not one. He might be able to tell you when Sunday night football is on, when Monday night football is on. He would know Monday Night Raw just because it's in the name.

He doesn't watch the rookie. He watches none of it live. So again, you can say that this is a problem and this is going to be a problem going forward, that, you know, there's a whole generation of people that don't watch sports live. et cetera, et cetera. I get it, right? The product is going to change. But to me, it is always this doom and gloom, and it just doesn't match up. It doesn't match up with the interest. If you want to tell me that this is indicative of the interest in the league, I don't believe you. I host an NBA podcast. This podcast will be one of the top 20 to 30 sports podcast that comes out this week.

How? How? It's, it's, uh, the New York Times doesn't sell as many newspapers. People don't read the newspaper in me because we all have phones. It's, it's, it's all, it's analogous. People are not tuning in to their televisions and saying, what time is the game on anymore. And again, it's also November in the regular season. The league, the ratings are down. Relevancy impact is up.

And if you, I just know that just from being on the subway train. It seems like every other conversation is about the NBA that I'm either dropping. It seems like every other conversation about the NBA when I walk down the street. There are so many more people wearing NBA logos on their clothes than NFL logos on their clothes. The NFL is always going to have television ratings because it's a once a week event. There's 16 games and the playoffs and every game feels so important, feels like a huge event. but I understand the ratings are down, but that doesn't mean the league is not thriving.

I just don't understand. Why should I care? I mean, we just always are talking about what's wrong and always talking about, oh yeah, I don't believe that people are now not watching basketball. I understand that your TV ratings, right?

But to me, I don't care about TV ratings much anymore. and you scroll social media, you see all the stuff. You know what I mean? So people don't want to like grind regular season games the way that we do, but they're going to, they're still involved in the league.

They still know who's playing well, who's playing poorly, who don't, who didn't, who had 35, who had 37. You don't have to see Dalton Connect scored 37 to know Dalton Connect scored 37. I just think it's always used as a, okay, if we're doing the,

here is the point, and here's what this means, okay? So you're saying, hey, NBA ratings down. And I say, okay, what does that mean? If your answer is that means interest is down in the NBA, I don't believe you. I don't believe you either. And also, if you're the NBA, you're like, we're still getting, you know,

our value is apparently $11 billion. So people that are broadcasting the games want to pay us that. So we'll take that. And the basketball-related revenue is not going anywhere. The league's not going anywhere. It's like it's like the argument that the WMBA is like losing money or something. It's like I don't know. That might be true.

But I don't know. It seems like WNBA was kind of popping this season. Seems like it's doing a lot better than it was. I don't know. Call me crazy. Seems like it's kind of a thing this year. But yeah, I agree with you on that one.

And again, I like that you're sort of like your perspective on it's like, what does that mean to me? You know what I mean? It doesn't change my life one bit if they've doubled or they've have. I'm still going to do my thing. And that's a good perspective to have. I'm going to go quickly.

mind. This is like an actual like old guy get off my lawn thing. I hate the gun celebrations. Your guy, Desmond Bain, did one. And who was it? It was a Martin. He's like, I understand like, you know, Wesley Matthews used to do like the bow and arrow thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of different when you make a gun gesture and point it at the guy who contested the three. Caleb Martin hated it too. Yeah. And Scotty Barnes did it in the, in the game. It was just kind of like. I don't like it.

And even if you're not pointing at the guy. I'm with you on this. And the reason I'm with you on this is because I'm in gyms and soccer fields all the time with the kids. Mm-hmm. And they do mimic what they see. Of course. And that's what I don't like about it. That's what I don't like about it.

Yeah. It's like I don't want to do like a whole gun control conversation, gun violence thing. No, no, no. But it's just like, don't, I don't want kids to like, I don't want to go to the game. And then my kid hits a shot next thing. You know, he's pointing guns and people. That's right. Let's just not do it.

I'm with you. Maybe I'm an old man, get off my lawn guy. No, you're not. Other ways to celebrate besides pointing a gun at the opponent who was probably not even your matchup and was like helping somebody else out. You know what I mean? I mean, again, I see it all the time. They do what my. I'll tell you this.

The other night, my daughter scored a goal in the soccer game and she saw somewhere. She ran back down the field and looked over at me. and did the shush. I saw eight girls wearing compression tights. I'm like, you're eight, bro. Bro.

Jacoby, she's 11. All right. All the other parents are like, is she shushing? And I'm like, I don't know. And I'm like,

I'm like, hey, what are you doing? Is the opposing crowd? She saw it. Yes. She saw it somewhere. The opposing parents.

So to your point, I just experienced this as a parent where I'm like, it was out of nowhere. She's running down the sideline, going shush. And I'm like, where did you see that?

She's like, she saw it on YouTube. Somebody did it. No, this is the one that I really love that we're going to end on. I love LeBron James. Just as a pure basketball player, right?

I love what he does. But sometimes he makes it so hard to like him. Like this week with the, the Adulgent Connect. I watch a lot of Tennessee. I was all over him. I've been said it. I watched him.

I watched Tennessee a lot. I did not think he was going to fall to us. I thought it would be impossible. I have no idea how that happened. But I'm very grateful and very happy that he is here. I knew exactly what was getting when he fell to 17. They didn't find D.K. The other 16 teams fucked it up.

Did anybody watch him? I knew this was coming. I saw Dalton Connect 14 years ago. I've been tracking his whole career. I'm the one who marked him to get drafted for the Lakers. This is all me. You guys finally caught up to this. I can't believe he slid to us because I knew that Dalton Connect was this guy the whole time.

And I know you're going to say I'm lying because you always say I'm lying. And then he said the internet says I'm lies. Then he reacted to that already. And then this dude shot to Rich Climman who like wrote like a nice perspective on sort of voices and information. that you let inside yourself and LeBron retweeted it. And then he announces that he's off social media. It's like, bro, you can just do that. You know what I mean?

You don't have to announce it to get the points for being off social media. You know, it's like I love LeBron so much, but I loathe that certain things he does off the court just make him seem a little corny and make me like him a little less. And I'm really trying to be 100% down in LeBron, but it's every day I'm like a little less and less and less. Which would have been better. Him saying I'm leaving social media for a while or find me at Blue Sky.

All right. That's going to do it for another episode of The Mispatch. Thank you, our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always, and Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week. Find me on Blue Sky. Must be 21 and over in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino.

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