The Mismatch - How Christian Wood, Jerami Grant, and Mikal Bridges Are Lifting Up Their Teams

Episode Date: January 29, 2021

On this Friday, Chris and Kevin get into the new-look, defensively minded Rockets after the James Harden trade brought them Victor Oladipo (8:00), how good Jerami Grant looks on the "giant killer" Pistons (15:25), and what Mikal Bridges brings to the bright-now Suns (21:35). Then Chris shows us his diamond hands in a game of Do Not Sell, where he invites KOC to buy low on some of the players whose stock is going straight to the moon (30:30).  Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O'Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, this is Kevin O'Connor on today's episode of The Mismatch with me and Chris Fern, and we talked about a whole bunch from Thursday's games with the Suns having a big win over the Warriors, the Rockets, having the number two defense in the NBA ever since the James Harden, Draid. And then with all the news of the week with the stock market and cryptocurrency, Chris shared some NBA player stocks that he's holding on to and said, hey, Kevin, want to buy low with me or are you out? All that coming up next.

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. Join me as he does every Friday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, a.k. Kevin O'Connor, A.K., Kevin O'Candee, Kevin O'Candekindness, Kevin O'Compuy, shout out to Mina Kimes. Hello! Burdo! What up!

What a fun week. We all became professional investors. Yeah. Who knew? It was one of the things during the quarantine that I did not expect that we would all become Wall Street magnets. It's the weirdest thing, the weirdest thing to see everybody tweeting about the stock market this week. It's wild. It's unbelievable. It's wild. And when it opens, everybody's like on their phones, like looking to see what the numbers are. Yeah.

All of a sudden, there is a, there's a greater interest in Wall Street's thanks to Wall Street bets and the guys over at Reddit than ever before. And in crypto too, crypto currencies. We got Dogecoin going up, nearing a dollar. I know. It's going to the moon, Chris. It's going to the moon. Doge coin. And now.

For anybody who wants to check it out. It is crazy what has happened with all of this. And it does feel, you know, we're going to get into all things basketball. But it does feel like the financial system we have is going to change forever because of what is taking place now. And we've talked about so many things that, you know, people have time on their hands. and they have things that they are eager to invest their time, their money, their energy towards things now, given the state of not being able to go out and do and live your normal life as usual.

And I do think that whether it was, you know, we talked about NBA Top Shot a few weeks ago and we saw that thing explode. We've seen the sports card market explode. We have seen. And now with stocks and the world of stocks and the world of stocks and the, and the, Wall Street stuff. It is, it's crazy because all of the things that have taken place over the course of the last year are things I would have never particularly expected, but it has, it has helped make things exciting. There's no way around that. Yeah. People, it's been cool to

read some of the stories of people who like bought Game stock, GameStop, GameStop stock. And they've been able to pay off medical bills or, you know, you know, invest it into, like, you know, college fund or whatever. And, you know, it's sad to see what happened yesterday, you know, with stuff getting shut down, shows that the man wants to keep you down. That's the true enemy. That's the true enemy. They don't want you to win. They don't want us to win. They don't want us to win. They want us to leap losing and they want to only win. They're the enemy here. And ultimately, it's cool to see real normal people winning this week and being able to take home some of the reward. But ultimately, stuff to be careful out there.

as well, considering the amount of power, Wall Street, and these corporations and everything, all the rich and powerful have on our society, still need to be careful out there with your own money. I just want to, I just want to say that. Like, you know, sometimes people like invest their last paycheck still have to be very careful out there. I'm going to give you a really, really funny story before we get into everything. Okay. So, uh, there's a guy that was a guy that was listening to our show about a month ago. All right. His name's Kellan Browning. Kellyn writes for the New York Times. They reached out to me about a story that he was going to do about PlayStation 5 and about my quest to attain that. And so many of our listeners were invested in my quest, right? And so I kind of told the story and whatever to him.

which included me being in a game stop for four hours and coming up short, right? And so anyways, I did this whole interview, whatever. The article's actually in the New York Times today, which is something I'll have on the wall forever because, you know, my son's in it, which is cool. But anyway, the guy was listening to the show. He wanted me to tell a story. So anyways, I do that interview, right? All this stuff happens over the course of the last, like, week.

And so I reach out, I'm like, hey, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, do not get these GameStop people on top of me, right? You know what I mean? Look, I'm just telling an innocent story about something that took place. I had no idea that GameStop was going to be in the news in this kind of way. And, I mean, you know, it could just be a retail store as far as I consider. Like, just do not give me a ball because I am pro GameStop and all this stuff happening with the stop. and everything. It's a shame that it actually, I'm like, that's part of my story. What happened and all that? And I'm like, yo, yeah, yo. I was like, cool out on the game stop slander I might

have said. That was before all this happened. I didn't know. I didn't know this was going to happen. One Saturday in mid-December, Chris Vernon was driving as fast as he could to a game stop in Memphis. He had spent weeks combing the internet. for a new PlayStation 5 consoles. And had just heard about our new shipments arrival at a store nearby. It was the only present as 10-year-old son William wanted for Christmas.

The problem was, lots of other children around the country were asking for a new video console, video game console too. Mr. Vernon. We call you Mr. Vernon in it. A local sports radio host. That's what people call me.

Father Ringer. That's us, Chris. That's us. That's us. look, it's an innocent story about me trying to. It had nothing to do with, you know, it's so funny that GameStop is not due to the room. Hey, maybe. Here's my hope.

If I could give him another quote, I would say, maybe next year, GameStop will be flooded with all kinds of stuff I can buy. I don't have to sit in there because surely their business should be great now. Yeah, they'll still give you only a couple bucks for like a game you just bought that. That is the funniest thing. All anybody has done is made fun of GameStop forever. Right? You buy 2K and like, then you get it as a Christmas gift. And so you take back the copy that you had and they're like, you got it yesterday for 90 bucks. $4.30. I always always look at $4.30. Like, where's the 30 cents? Like, where's the 30 cents come from? I don't have trading in games when I was young. That is a day. How was their stock not through the roof already? They are the ultimate short seller.

Yeah. Oh, boy. It's the irony of all of this. And then, of course, the, irony of friggin' robin hood you know give to the rich and or steal from the rich and give to the poor and that being totally backwards unreal i downloaded that app this week just to see what the app was like because i haven't used robin hood ever in the past and like i'm amazed at how much like that app is gamified it feels like it feels like a an app made for a teenager you know what i mean with the way you swipe up to buy stocks and all that it's like what and i thought i thought stocks were supposed be boring.

Like fidelity. Made it all fun. All right. So let's get to everything that's going on in the world of the NBA. There were some games on last night. I saw you tweeting about the extremely fun Houston Rockets. Oh, yeah. This has been a fun team to watch.

And I'm happy for Stephen Silas. You know, that's my overwhelming thought. You know, there's cool stories on there. obviously Wall coming back from injury, cousins coming back from injury. Victor Oladipo can save it with everybody counted me out. Like, stop all that.

We don't need a pity party for Victorola Depot. Whatever works, Chris. Whatever. I'm a huge Ola Depot fan. The post game interview, like, come on, bro. But anyway, there's cool stories on that. But the coolest one of all is Silas. Because this is a guy that was very highly regarded.

young African-American coach that was going to get his chance and then walked into a hellish situation, right, where your best player isn't there before the season, shows up when he wants to, shows up out of shape, and is, it does not want to be there, is not pulling the same rope as everybody else. And it's like, geez, man, like, how are you going to be able to get this team to play how you want them to play? How are you going to be able to have a locker room that is, you know, pulling the same rope? And it feels like things went behind them. They were able to attain Oladipo. So it's a downgrade, but it's certainly something that might fit better for what you're trying to do and your team and certainly will fit better because he is eager to be.

there and prove himself. And just all the way around, it has been a really good story of a team that traded a superstar, but certainly has looked better since. Sure. And they're doing it with defense.

They have the number two defensive rating in the NBA only behind the clippers ever since the Harden Trade, which happened on January 14th. So we're a little bit over the two week mark now for that deal, which by the way, it feels like that happened two months ago, not two weeks ago. Yeah. That's crazy.

It was only two weeks ago. But in this team, there were moments in that game last night against the Blazers. And by the way, Blazers right now, they're fairly depleted. They're leaning so much on Damian Miller and Gary Trent Jr. right now. But regardless, Houston's defense has consistently just really locked in. They're clamping up the opponent. Eric Gordon last night was only two of 11 from the floor. But I came away impressed by his defense.

He had some possessions where he was just grinding. and so freaking hard on the defensive end of the floor. And that whole team seems to be bought into that mentality. Everybody is. Everybody's hustling. John Wall and Victor Oladipo and Christian Wood, the three best players included. They all are. And when you have that, you can win games when you're not scoring a lot of points.

I mean, they're still their bottom 10 in offensive rating ever since the Hardin Trade. So they're not getting a lot of buckets. But, you know, they've also had some guys in and out of the lineup themselves too. I'm impressed by that team and the way Silas has. them playing and I think I look back to the conversation we had before the season, Chris. And I'm like, I hope Hardin gives it a chance here because I think Silas with the tweaks of the system, with the tweaks to the lineup having Christian Wood there that this team could be really good.

Well, we're seeing that they can be really good without James Hardin. Just imagine if Hardin had bought in with what this team could have been. But ultimately, you know, what is it? What happened happened and where they are now, it's pretty clear. they have a good coach who can motivate this team and get them to play connected basketball. And that's encouraging. And you got to give credit to their guys, though. I mean, you wish, or I guess there was the hope that he could buy him.

But he's never going to be that energy tenacious defender that everybody feeds off of, right? And you do need your best player bought in to be able to pull that off. You really do. Like everybody has to be connected and everybody has to be bringing. that on a regular basis. It's, what's super odd is it is almost the exact opposite of how that team has functioned for so long, which is defense, you know, they always say defense travels. And if you bring a level of defensive intensity, you give yourself a chance to win every

night. Your offense is going to come and go. Now, on the flip side, they were not a great defensive team for so many years. but offensively so potent that most nights. They had some good defenses, though. They did over the years. But they're not like this. Their offense took care of business, right?

Like that was not a team that won games because of their defense. And now they are. You know, generally that team was some nights, look, they're shooting 53s. Some nights they're hitting 22 of them. And then some nights they're hitting 13 of them. And the nights they hit 13, they lose. And the nights they hit 22, they blow you out. just looking back at their defenses.

Their only top 10 defense was in the 2017-18 season when they ranked seventh in defense first in offense. And they were also first in the league in net rating the year that they won 65 games. So that was their best team. Yeah, that was the year they had a great, great defense. But yeah, I mean, it's it's like you just said that this team is locked in and they're winning games of their defense. And I think, you know, you look at Houston,

they're getting a all-star calendar. season from Christian Wood. He has been on both ends of the floor, fantastic for them. And they're getting contributions from a guy like Jay Sean Tate, who was coming off the bench now in the starting lineup, who is bringing that energy, consistency.

Shout out to my... I love that, dude. He's fun to watch. Shout out to my guy, Chris Pongrass. I hope he's listening. He is the guy that runs the Sydney Kings. And that is, like, there's nothing more fun for the fans at Australia and fans of the Sydney Kings.

the Jay Chante. What a story he is. Really? He's so fun. He came out of that. It came out of that Australian league. He gives you a spark anytime he's out there. It's so fun to watch those guys. And even a no Waba coming, you know, deep off the bench, like their ninth or tenth guy, Sterling Brown. Like they, it's not like they don't have bad players. It's like you're saying like don't play guys who suck.

They don't have many guys who suck. They have a lot of guys who bring a strong, tough mentality of the court. and they play with consistency and with their heart and that doesn't waver too much and ultimately if John Wall and Victor LaDipo and Christian Wood are bringing

that consistency the whole team is going to bring it as well those guys are set in the tone and I don't know man like they're near 500 since the deal and I wouldn't expect them to be much better than that you know moving forward but they're a fun

yeah they're competitive and they're fun and you can see that that is a team that plays together right It's not one guy just dribbling out the shot clock and every once in a while a guy takes a shot here and there. And also bringing them to the Western Conference finals, but that's beside the point. Yeah, and the Nets have gotten worse. Another thing that took place last night, well, I find it interesting.

James Hardin went to the Nets and somehow the Nets have gotten worse and the rockets have gotten better. It's odd. The Pistons of all the teams of the NBA, they are one of the few that we outlined as like, okay, not going to be a playoff team. But Kevin, it is the craziest thing. When you look at their record so far this year, what are they like? Five and 14. Five and 14.

These are their five wins. Boston, Phoenix, Miami, Philly, the Lakers. Unreal. They are the giant killers. How on earth do they, I guess Detroit just gets up for the big game, right? Unreal. Their five wins are against like five of the best teams in the whole. league. What in the hell?

I think with some of those games, the opponent was missing one of their best players or one of their better rotation players and like the Lakers last night obviously didn't have AD, end of a long road trip, second end of a back to back. But still, I mean, to have all those teams strung together for their Ws

when they have 14 losses. It's pretty insane. How are those the wins? Like they are, I would love to see somebody chronicle. If you just if you took them on the money line in those five games, how profitable you would have been. I mean,

there's no telling. They had to have been like double-digit underdogs almost. I get all those games, I would think. I was just looking at the three point win versus Boston, five point Phoenix, 20 points, Miami, 15 points, Philly.

And then last night, 15 against the legers. And they've had some blowouts as well. So their margin of victory. If you got extra credit for, beating the good teams. Yeah. If you did like Pistons minus seven.

Oh my God. Plus a million on the money line. What is that? Yeah. Pistons minus seven alternate line. Yeah. Pistons minus seven over Philly. Knowing that Joe Allen Bede wasn't playing that game, right?

Yeah. Or over the Lakers. Over the Lakers last night. Yes. I cannot, I cannot fath them. I wonder what the line would have been. I'm curious.

We just need to keep a lookout when they're playing. like just outlined when they're playing. We need to keep track of this. Like, it's going to be hilarious if they end up with 15 wins this season and all of them are against the best teams. Because they've got five wins so far. And they're pretty much all against the best team. Are you buying Jeremy Grant, 24 points per game?

What are your thoughts on his level of improvement right now? I think that Jeremy Grant has improved greatly. He is the rare guy that, bet on himself and thought I am capable of more and he's right. He is capable of more. Now, that being said, I think there is somewhere probably in the middle between what he was when he was, I think you could fairly say now probably underutilized, even given their circumstances, probably underutilized.

He can bring more to the table than what he, what was on his plate when he was Denver. But is he the guy that averages 20 plus and is your go-to guy? He is on a crappy team. If Jeremy Grant's your best player, your team stinks. That being said, he's probably somewhere in the middle, which is the guy that, yes, can give you more than what we saw in Denver. but as much as he's giving you right now, probably not. You know what I mean? Like probably not.

Like, I mean, this is probably in conjunction with, you know, you're going to lose a lot of games. He can't be your best player, but he can be your, maybe now he could be your second or third. I think that's what the conversation you get into,

right? Because he is their best player, but they stink. You and I are on the same page. And I couldn't help but watch that game last night and think, Boy, how good he would he look on Denver right now? How good would this guy look on Denver? You know, even Michael Porter Jr. has been solid with them.

Jeremy Grant's defense on some of the possessions last night was just exquisite. It was beautiful to watch. How much more competitive are they if they keep Christian Wood? Big difference. Big difference if they had been able to keep him. Because that's another, you know, a guy that obviously was capable of doing more. And it's been really hard to figure out like where Detroit is

in like where where they are in terms of franchise. Are they rebuilding? Are they trying to win now? Are they trying to augment this to be able to win? I think I think this is a good year to lose games and get high draft odds. Yeah, but they're kind of caught in the middle of, right?

Like if you're trying to build towards the future, why would you not keep Christian Wood, especially if you're taming Jeremy Grant? I know. And just kind of augment around that. You know, on the other hand, if you're trying to just lose, then why spend $70 million on Jeremy Grant? Like, I don't know. That's what I don't get. Interesting spot therein.

I mean, I guess, look, his value's super high. So if you did want to, you know, if somebody out there, a contender sitting there like, the price for Jeremy Grant, his stock has gone up greatly. We can agree on that. Yeah. Right. He bet on himself and his stock has gone up greatly and he makes that contract not look so goofy anymore. You know, I don't know. I don't know what his career arc will be.

But I mean, we're getting pretty deep into this and he's, he's been awesome. He's been awesome. He has nearly doubled his points per game, doubled his shots per game. He's playing 10 plus more minutes. It's insane. It's insane. And I'm buying that he's better. And he's the shot, by the way.

one quick note on him. The jumper improvement from when he was at Syracuse to what he is now, traumatic difference. I buy that with him. All right, we need to speak on the bright future sons, the bright now sons. They were without one of their Kekoggs, Devin Booker last night,

but we're able to get a really impressive win over the Warriors. You did a whole video about sons and most importantly, Mikkel Bridges. Yeah. Interviewed him for it. another guy that has kind of been doing more and has shown capable of more. And that includes last night. So it was all very well-timed this week.

He did you a solid by, he really did. But, you know, that comes out. And if it's the Kevin O. Curse, he's like one for 11 for four points last night. But instead, he ends up going for 20 points and five assists. on Steph too. And five assists and a big win for them. So tell me what you're thinking on Bridges, why that was the guy that you wanted to profile.

Like what, what interested you about the plight of Bridges? I just think you look at any team that has stars, Devin Booker, Chris Paul, in the case of Phoenix. And those guys are what raise your ceiling and raise your floor too. Like they make you a great team, but you need to have that supporting cast.

And I look at McKell Bridges right now only in his 30. season and he's already one of the best supporting players in the league right now because of his versatile defense's ability to defend not just you know guys his size not just wings but also speedy guards as well and we saw him get put on step curry last night we've seen him get put on bigger guys we've seen him on kawai leonard we've seen him on james hard and we've seen in the past we've seen him on every type of score all different shapes and sizes and he's been equally effective against all of them. And his developing offense, when he was at Villanova, he was a knockdown shooter.

And Sun's fans, of course, remember this, but early in Bridges' career, he developed a weird hitch in his shot that screwed up his three. And suddenly it's like, oh, God, is this like an all defense guy, not a lot of offense? He's improved that shot again back from the same level he was at Villanova, while also improving off the dribble to be able to get to the basket and finish and throw a little nice passes inside. he is, you know, not a go-to option, but he is somebody who can do everything on the court for you, who's trustworthy and constantly plays hard.

And he's exactly the type of player that every team, all 30 teams in the NBA would want McKell Bridges, all 30 of them, because he could fit anywhere and enhance any group and especially enhance and support superstars like Devin Booker and Chris Paul. So that's why I wanted to look at him with the, know, the sun's ascending this year. I'm looking at one of the other guys,

Mikkel Burgess. Well, one, look, first, credit to Phoenix management for that deal. And what a just a colossal gaff on the other end. Oh, yeah. I mean, his mom works at the sixers. Yeah, yeah, right.

Used to work for the Sixers. I mean, that was, and he played a Villanova. It was, everything about that was perfect. him getting drafted to the Philadelphia 76ers. And he would fit in perfect with Philadelphia right now. Oh, man. Like you say, he would fit in perfectly with anybody. You know, I told you last year, when I saw Bridges in person, I came on here and people

started said to be all these like pictures and whatever. And I say, Kevin, I saw a kid last night. I have never seen arms like this in my life. Like he has the biggest wingspan I have ever seen. He is so long. And it did happen. I forgot to mention this on the pot. It's happened one time this year where I thought to myself, my God, what a wingspan for that frame.

And you know who it was? It was Maxie from Philly when I saw him this year. I'm like, good grief. What is this guy's wingspan? And I went and looked it up and it's not crazy. but his arms on his frame, you know, and Bridges is like nothing I've ever seen in my life, right? And so it speaks to obviously defensively, like what we were talking about. But the other thing is when he's getting that shot off, Kev.

High release. I mean, he's like a, it's like trying to block a seven footer because his arms are so long. It's a different deal with him than it would be a typical just wing guy that shoots. So he's got a real advantage there too. He seems like just an awesome team basketball player. And he is kind of just fit in that role, which has been doing more. And that's the other reason why I wanted to talk to him for the videos because, you know, Chris Paul said he was his, you know, one of his favorite teammates ever.

Monty Williams said we should call him every day as a nickname because he brings it every day. On the call, always in the gym, always nice to people. He's just steady. And, you know, I just think a guy. like that should be recognized and that's why I want to do the video and it's fun it was great talking to him he's a really cool guy and um used to play war zone I told him that I'm trying to get him on your team he said he said he doesn't play quite as often anymore he's on to other games right now but uh also wanted to talk about that but yeah it was it was fun talking to him he's a good dude

and it's cool to see his success because like you said he's had some high scoring games he's got 34 points earlier the season against the Pacers 20 last night. He's popped and flashed a little bit off the dribble that he had in in the past. And I wonder if there's more there to his game that could develop over the next four, five, six years. You'd imagine so. He's in year three. Yeah.

He's just still just a baby in NBA terms. And it's a little like the whole Jeremy Grant thing, honestly, to, you know, to bring it back, where it's like, okay, here's a, here's a raw wing guy that people could say he's just the role playing, you know, hopefully 3 and D guy, right? And I think that's what you were hoping for McKell Bridges, but it appears, you know, so far this year, we are seeing glimpses that he's more than just that pigeonhold, you know, he can hit a corner three and he can defend and help your team out, right? And, you know, that's part of it.

It's like, you know, when we call a shooter 3&D, and he had a quote with Spencer Davies from basketball news.com previous, you know, before the video, I think it was last week that article went up. And he like he doesn't like the term three and D. And he doesn't think like it does a good job of, you know, capturing what an actual quote unquote three and D player does. And, you know, with the video, uh, on the void, which you can check out on the ringers YouTube channel, we looked at like some of the little things that might often go overlooked that a spot up shooter will do like just when to attack off the catch, when to cut, you know, how to how do, you know, tack a closeout and spot an open shooter or the or the guy in the dunker spot and all these

little things that go beyond just catching and shooting all these things that add up and contribute towards winning and I thought it was fun it was really fun talking to him for the video and you know breaking down plays with him it was like a lot of fun to put together with our team this week I think um I think it's probably our one of our best videos like that we've done for the void and you know going back to last summer during the bubble yeah one last thing it's interesting you talk about how much Chris Paul loves him. Chris Paul has been great for him. Yeah.

Great. Right. Like there are always guys that he gets the most out of, right? By just being a solid-ass, run-the-offense point guard. And the other thing is Bridges, he's kind of built for both. If you want to run up and down the court, he's great to have, but he can also play half-court offense. You can play any way you need them.

Which is what they do now because their pace is slow. Yeah. All right, Kevin. So earlier we were talking about the stock. market and how everybody has now become invested in the stock market. Today, I'm going to tell you four players that I am holding. I'm holding the stock, much like people are holding the line. So you're holding, is there stock down right now? Like, there's a dip. Oh, these, there's a lot of people that are shorting these. Yes. Okay. So also with these, you're saying, buy the dip. Yes.

Okay. I'm telling you, I'm holding my stock. I have stocking these guys and I am holding it because right now I can either bail on this and I'm going to take a little bit of a loss, but I believe that the stock is going to go back up and maybe go up in a huge way. Okay. Okay. I will allow you to buy in with me.

Okay. You decide. All right. The first stock, you've got to know who this is. Marvin Bagley. Oh, I'm not in. I'm out. Good luck, Chris.

Hold on now. 92 games. That's how many games Marvin Bagley has played in the NBA so far. 92. In those 92 games, he has started 27 games in his entire career. He has played 25 and a half minutes per game, 49% from the field, 31% from three, even though this year he is shooting 35% from three. 14.8 rebounds in 25 minutes a game.

To me, the fundamentals are there. This is the absolute perfect guy. Like, I will die on Bagley Hill, and I might. I might die. But the stock is so depressed right now. And I think that people were, you know, this year, it was like, okay, now he's finally healthy. Now he'll get going. And that has not taken so far, you know.

I mean, he's still just a 25 minute per game guy who the numbers are good. I mean, like, you know, he's not like he's got bad percentages. The dad getting involved and wanting him traded is not, is not great. That didn't help my stock at all. But look, I bought the stock high, obviously. when he was the number two pick of the draft. The stock has gone down dramatically. But I will not sell this stock.

I am holding this stock. And me and Marvin Bagley to the moon. To the moon, Kevin. Replace Marvin Bagley with Mo Baba and everything you just said, I feel exactly the same. The fundamentals are not good on Baba. We're using stock lingo. the fundamentals are great on Bagley.

I don't know stocklingo too much, but I do know Mo Baba was solid last season when provided minutes when Steve Clifford wasn't feeding minutes to Kim Birch, who has no long-term future with the Orlando Magic, necessarily. I don't understand why you wouldn't invest as the head coach of the team into the number six pick in the draft. It doesn't make much sense to me.

It's pretty odd. It's pretty dysfunctional of being totally frank here. Here's what we're doing, Kevin, too. like I when I would write the article about guys that will not fail, this is what I always said. I always said, look, if I'm wrong about these guys, I'm going to blame the coach in the situation. That's it.

And Marvin Bagley's in Sacramento. I blame the front office. I blame the coach. I blame everything. Right? And so I am holding on to that stock. You will not join me in that. Yeah.

I guess you can't blame the fact he has nearly, double the turnovers that he does assist. How dare you? It's okay. Coach's fault, organization's fault, Steve Clifford's fault, whoever.

I'm blaming everybody else except for Marvin. By the way, to your point, that doesn't help. It doesn't help. I mean, you know, he goes from Yeager to Walton.

No. Front office changes, you know, from Devach to now McNair. I mean, it's been a lot of changing pieces around. He's on a team where people like, I don't want to be there.

Like, You bring in Harrison Barnes gets paid a fortune, but then bloody healed's like, hates everything and wants to be somewhere else. But then now he's back and he's with the team, but Bogdanovich is off somewhere else. And all the while, Deer & Fox just got a huge bag of money. Right? Like I mean, put it this way. Bagley is a good buy low.

That's the way I would look at it, a buy low. But I wouldn't feel great about holding a long term with him. I'd sell the moment. It feels good to sell. No, no, no, I have to say it. I'm just saying from my perspective. I'm not in. All right.

It's a nice buy low. Oh, so you are in. I mean, it's a buy low, but like I'm ready to press sell on that. All right. Let me tell you this. Let me, here's a real buy low. And much like, much to your point about Mo Bomba, wouldn't you just, you used a top seven pick on the guy.

Why don't you friggin't develop him, right? Oh, it's perfect. It's perfect. And this guy, low. Kevin. Who we got? Who we got? Jared Culver.

Wow. That's a good one. I am holding my Jared Culver stock. I still believe in him. And that is a, I think I can, I can justify in my mind. It's not his fault.

That is a dreadful, dreadful situation for a young guy. And then they draft you know, Anthony Edwards, and they're trying to figure that out. And, you know, you're going to a locker room with, you know, the leaders are DeAngelo Russell and towns. You got a coach that I don't feel like holds anybody accountable. These guys play however the hell they want to play when they're out there. You never know if Anthony Edwards is going to play a bunch of minutes or he might not play that much that game.

And then in the midst of all of this is the guy they drafted highly a couple years ago. And in fact, you know, moved up, right, to be able to do this. That was the beating. they got on with the sixth pick. Yeah, but that was the Phoenix deal, the Sorich deal, right? Yeah. And then they just, like, I don't even know, like, he doesn't really have a position there.

He, I don't get it. And there's many games where he's just buried completely. And so we need to get him the hell out of there, but I am holding on to that stock because I still think he's a player, and he's just in a miserable situation for development. And by the way, just, you know, everything you're saying, it just makes me think about this thought right here. With Culver or any young player who's off to a slow start,

if somebody out there bought like his, you know, a rookie card or like a top shot or whatever it else might be or like a dynasty fantasy league, that type of thing. I think with a guy like Culver, like you shouldn't panic sell necessarily for all the reasons that you're stating. Like I have legitimate concerns about a shot.

He shoots a low percentage from the free throw line. His three point shooting has not gotten, better on the court, even though before the season there was all this hype about how he fixed his shot that hasn't happened. So there's legitimate concern, but there's no denying that he has skill. There's no denying he has the potential to be a quality defender, you know, a secondary playmaker who can create a little bit for you. He's a smart player, a good kid who works hard, checks a lot of boxes. Like, Culver is not somebody that I would sell, you know, stock on. And for you, I'm with you. I think with Culver, I'd be happy to get in on Jared Culver.

All right. There we go. Another by low. Another by low. We just need him going elsewhere. You know, sometimes these guys, they get buried on teams and,

you know, like you can go and attain them. Right? Like, I mean, what do you? Like, I mean,

they're not going to sell low on him either, though, Minnesota won. So they just drafted him last, you know, draft 2019. Yeah, I know, but why aren't they investing in it?

I mean, he's peaceful. playing 22 minutes a game, 21 minutes a game. You use the top eight pick and the draft and your team stinks. I know, I'd like to see him play more too. You know what I mean? Like, why? I don't understand.

And, by the way, not only did they draft Anthony Edwards, they also had Malik Beasley. They spent a bunch of money on, right? They brought him back in free agency. So you just got, the kid got pinched in this deal. Four that's worth, he's eighth on the team in minutes per game. Yeah. It's a low.

Yeah. Yeah, that's low. All right. Here is a deep cut. A deep cut, Kevin. A guy that I did think has a place in the league, but is not even in the league right now. And that is the number one pick of the G-League draft. I'm holding my stock in.

Admiral Schofield. Admiral Schofield I don't know you go this deep He got He got pinched to All right So he was in this deal Where they

Washington Who could by the way Use Admiral Schofield Right now Especially because of I mean their team's dreadful Anyways OkC

Traded You know Did the deal for him And then just waived him Immediately It was the deal that ended up, Wizards were able to get Cassius Winston, and I think like a second round pick.

So they traded Admiral Schofield to Oklahoma City, and I was like, hey, that's actually a good team for him to go and play with. And then they waived him. And so then he got drafted first in the G-League draft and is going to go to the Greensboro Swarm. If we're talking about the whole fundamentals, you know, look, he didn't get to play a ton in, you know, at his debut, season. But, you know, you go back to college and he shot 39% from three and then he shot 40%

from three. And then his last year at Tennessee, he shot 42% from three. And he is a dog. And obviously, if he can hit threes at a good rate, like that's that kind of the Jay Crowder-esque, you know, like the second round pick that just kind of finds his way into the league as a role player. He's not going to be the level of Crowder, but he's got a place in the league, and for him to be out of the league completely is kind of shocking

to me. I'm not that shocked that he was the number one pick in the G League draft, but his stock is nothing right now. And I think you will hear from him. I do. I think we'll hear from him. I don't expect to be talking Admiral Schofield today. It sounds like something for Ringer NBA University, doesn't I? I don't know.

It's just like it's a deep cut. Look, we're looking for, we're looking for investment opportunities. Exactly. We're looking for the doge coin right here. That's right. Admiral Schofield is Dogecoin. Get them up to a buck and share price. That's who he is. How do you like a ring around B.A University, Chris? You enjoy the show? Have you listened? I do. Yes. Of course. Thank you. Of course. I like it. And it's, I wish it was every week. I mean, that's just by I know. I hope we get to every week, too. I thought this week's episode was really good. I'd fun with Charks and Kyle.

And Nikias Duncan? Nikaius was really good. Nakaius was really good. I like Kyle too. I think Kyle's good. Good on pods, man. He's good. He's got a wonderful voice.

All right. Are you with me on Admiral Schofield? Yeah, sure. I'll buy some Dogecoin. I'm going to go watch him. I'm going to go watch him play in the G League too. Or not watch him. I watch them on TV.

They're playing in Orlando, right? Oh, by the way, this actually wraps around back to the McKell Bridges thing. So these teams put out their rosters the other day, the team, the G-League team for the Grizzlies, the Memphis Hustle, guess who's on that roster? Zaire Smith. Oh, geez. Oh, my goodness.

He is. I saw him on that roster and I was like, I'll be damn. That's the McKell Bridges deal, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Sixers' fans are turning off the pot right now. Oh, sorry. Sorry, guys. Sorry, guys.

The Zyar Smith stuff is insane, man. Like the Sixers, like his allergic reaction to peanut butter. Come on. After everything they've been through with injuries and Colangelo's burners and everything. Adam Silver. They believe he kicked out in Hinky and all that. It's like Sixers fans have been through it. They've been through it.

Right now they get the best record in the East. So good for them now. Yeah. Dyer Smith. Memphis Hustle. You can watch him. I couldn't believe it. I'm like,

I'll be damned. I didn't know what happened to that guy. And obviously, you know, the Bridges thing is, it's not worked out. Yeah. Not at all.

The deal hasn't worked out. I had a Philly radio hit earlier this week on WIP. And, like, yeah, I brought up Bridges. It's like, it would be great.

They're like, we had them. All right. Last one. And I'm doing this. Now, here is one. Bagley, you said, meh. Amherl Schofield, yeah, whatever. The stock is so low. I'll join you. Culver, you were all in with me on that one, right? The last one, I have never been more confident in anything ever than you saying to hell with that stock. Okay. You ready?

All right. I'm ready. I'm ready. Stock is at an all-time low right now, but I am holding. Okay. Russell Westbrook. Join me, Kevin. I'm not going to join you.

I'm not going to join you. When you're 37%, 30%, 30% 30% percent from three. Brad Beale is pouting. It is an all-time low. Everybody is on your head and that team stinks, right? Like the stock is just, I mean, this is, as a long time Westbrook stockholder, we are, I mean, I'm holding on for dear life here. Because, I mean, it is, we're at the bottom of the barrel right now.

we really are. But that stock, it's so, it's so depleted. It's so deflated right now that I'm holding because there's just, there's no, it can only go up. There's no way this stock can go down. He's going to hit some checkpoints, you know, retirement, you know, at some point in his career, Hall of Fame at some point in his career. Yeah.

So the stock with Westbrook. Oh, no, I'm talking as a player. I'm not talking about his. pre-retirement here. Yes. I'm talking him playing. Okay. Look, he's played nine games. And it feels like he's played like

the whole season. He's played nine games. Now, Washington has been dreadful. By the way, there's a lot of other factors that go on to. Their coach stinks. Chris, in this case, I'm out. In this case, I'm out. In this case, I'm out.

How dare you? I was speaking from a perspective. Davis-Byrton's fault. It's Davis, but they didn't spend $100 million on a guy that doesn't do anything anymore. That was a,

oh, yuck. I knew that contract would be terrible immediately. You know what I found funny? So the local newspaper, the Brockton Enterprise did a little story on me this week. And the picture they chose for it

is Russell Westbrook was in there. Like, sidelying me. You saw that? Did you see that? I thought it was the funniest thing, man. Oh, that's good.

Yeah, they chose a photo of, me getting side-eyed by Russell Westbrook. It was hilarious when I first saw that. I'm holding because it has never gotten lower. Never. This is a depleted stock. It is so depleted.

I don't think anybody's going to join me. I might be the last guy holding this. I think everybody's... You're going to have a lot of rust stands. I don't know. I feel like everybody's sold off. You know, but look, this happened a year ago. Now, again, this team stinks.

He's not playing with James Hardin anymore. But this happened a year ago. It really did. And it was Russell Westbrook is done. Russell Wexbrook stinks. Russell Westbrook is not a great fit with James Hardin and whatever. And then come January, February, he was one of the best five players in the league and was an offensive juggernaut. Like this has happened before.

I mean, this happened a year ago. And all of that was relevant where everybody was, you know, they were putting them in the grave. already. And so I think he's got another act. I think where he turned up again. Here's what I expect, Chris. If you listen to Wednesday's episode of Ringer NBA University on the Ringer NBA show podcast feed, our old home, I played a game of Beal or No Beal. Bill or No Bill. And, you know, we played a little game of that. Would they nuggets do this trade, this and that? Bill had his whole pod with House out today, you know, talking about like 10 or 11, Beal trades.

I expect more of that in the coming weeks and months than I do. A Russell Westbrook resurgence that brings the Wizards to life and makes them a highly competitive team good enough to keep bail. That's just, that's where I fall on. Hey, to go back a week. Hey, to go back, uh, whenever that was, maybe a week ago that we did the pod. How about that in a Middleton deal? I still think there's more to get out of Middleton.

He ain't going to be Brad Beal. I know, 34 points per game. You think Brad Beal could get you think you could net a better player than Middleton? Trading Chris Middleton's not the right thing for them. And I don't think that would appeal to the Wizards as much as like a draft picks based package anyway. So I don't see it as a realistic scenario. That's exactly the kind of guy I was talking about, though. I don't think it will work though.

It's not realistic. I can be wrong. I could be wrong when we saw a couple years ago when the Pacers traded Paul George, they did it for Victor Oladipo and DeMontas subonis. And granted, you know, even then though, Milwaukee doesn't have a subonis to offer in that type of deal. They don't have a first round draft first round draft picks to offer, but like theoretically, it could make sense, but they don't have that piece. That's second piece for a deal.

of Dante DiVincenzo and DJ Wilson. I'm not a fan of, you know, I think it was Yannis first trying to give DeVincenzo the nickname White Chocolate. That nickname's been taken. No, that's taken. Many years ago. But give Yonis a pass.

He's from Greece and he's young. He might not know Jason Williams, you're saying. I think there was a really good possibility he didn't know Jason Williams. It's possible. It is very possible. How would he? He was like seven. Yeah, it's true. He was a kid.

He was a kid. You know what I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I will say this. You remember the stories about Jason Kidd when he was coached the Bucks? And he made all of them do like NBA history quizzes. Like that was a real thing. People can go look that up.

He made the team like learn NBA history. So Yonis might have learned a lot of NBA history when he was playing for Jason Kidd once upon a time. That was like I remember that being a story. I remember thinking how cool that was. They had like a young team, but Jason Kid was like going to make sure that these guys were not ignorant to at the past, the NBA, that they were going to know about their forefathers in the NBA. So I say that. Maybe Yonest did, but maybe if Jason Williams wasn't in the Jason Kid curriculum, it wouldn't surprise me either. That might not have been a chapter in the history book.

We don't have a lot of great nicknames in the NBA today. No We really don't Not like No Not like the round Round mound of rebound and the mailman And you think about

The Matrix Yeah The Charmary and And I'm trying Like most stars It's always like their names now It's like PG or PG 13

And it's CP3 And it's I can't even Even Devin Booker He's like Yeah, I don't want to be known. I don't want to be called Dev and I want to be called Dibook or Booker. It's our book.

It's like just book, D-Book. That's the nickname. Yeah, I'm trying to take it. And these other guys go by like one name, right? So it's like Luca. Zion. Or it's Janus. Yeah.

Greek freak. Yeah, Greek freak. He's the, he's probably the biggest player. Or like even, I think even King James or the King. Yeah, King James. Is a good nickname. The brow. The brow, yeah.

The beard. But, but, like, there's not a lot of nicknames, though. There's no mailman, no ice man, no magic. Yeah. And sometimes they try to force them on people, but yeah, it felt like. Well, like Slim Reaper or Kevin Duran a couple years, right? I was trying to force upon him. And he was like, oh, I don't want that.

And also I didn't like the nickname either. We need some good nicknames. Especially for young players. Right? Yeah. I mean, because, like, Trey Young, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown. Like some of these guys that are now, you know, becoming the stars in the league, Colin Sexton, even Zion, like a lot of those guys, like,

Yeah, you're right. The nickname is not gone by. I'll say there was a, it really needs to start like in high school. I agree. I saw one, I saw one the other day. This guy sent me this, because I had been talking about how crazy it is that there, there's not like junior highs, no lie, that recruit. for like they recruit kids to go to the junior high so that they will have them in the private school

once they become playing like you would not believe because I live in a basketball city like recruiting starts in like sixth grade it's insanity and so anyway there was a guy local guy he had a press conference for where his kid was going to middle school like they they set up like a fake press conference for where the kid was going to middle school. Okay. That's wild. That's wild.

And the guy sent me this video and the, the kid was called, you know, he's called Mr. Stepback. And I was like, this is unbelievable. Mr. Step Back. Yeah. Mr. Step Back. Oh, Mr. Step Back. And it was a video of him, like, hitting a stepback jumper. He's like 12.

It's unbelievable. These dads are off the hook now. Sounds like an alternate James Hardin nickname. Mr. Stepback. I hope Mr. Stepback becomes like an unbelievable phenomenon. It reminds me of this kid. There was a kid like years ago, and he ended up getting in trouble himself and never really made it.

I don't even think he ever played in college. I think he just ended up having to go overseas. But he had one of the greatest mixtapes of all time. He was a kid from Baltimore, and his name was Akeel Carr, Tiny. tiny guy, like almost looked like Earl Boykins out there, right? He was unbelievable. Like he was, especially in this day and age, like the ball is life, house of highlights, whatever. But he played in Baltimore.

And his nickname was the crime stopper. The crime stopper. Yes, because his games became so huge that the entire community would go to the gym and watch the game. And they called him the crime stop. I'm not kidding. The crime stopper, which is an amazing name. Yeah. It's an amazing nickname.

He is so popular and everybody wants to watch him play so much that they call him the crime stop. No crime in the community during a kill car games. Oh my God. Because everybody was there being cool and being friends. Yeah. A kill car. It's amazing. People can look him up on YouTube.

It is the most. It might be the most fun you will have watching a highlight video of a high school kid. I don't know whatever happened to the dude. I guess really for good nicknames, apparently we have to look to the youth. That's where the good nicknames are now. Mr. Stepback. Mr. Step back, the crime stopper. Unbelievable.

Sounds like comic book characters. Yeah, I know. For sure. That's great. All right. Kevin, have a great weekend. I will talk to you on Tuesday. Thank you to producer Sasha as always.

and we'll talk to everybody next week. Have a beautiful weekend, everybody.