The Mismatch - Is Minnesota for Real? Plus, Scottie’s Emergence, the Bucks' Issues, and NBA Media Changes

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

Verno and KOC discuss the Bucks losing to the Pacers despite getting 54 points from Giannis, before discussing Adam Silver’s comments wishing that NBA media was more "NFL-like" (01:16). As the in-season tournament continues, Verno suggests an idea to help differentiate those games from the rest (21:40). Also, the most important game in podcast history: It’s the first "That’s True, That Might Be True, Or That’s Ridiculous" of the season (31:21). Was the Lakers' offseason overrated? Can Scottie Barnes be the best player on a championship team? Can the Timberwolves actually win the West? They debate these topics and more. Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theinger.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What would you do if you got scammed? Would you suffer in silence, or would you do something about it? Well, I got scammed once, and this is the story of what I did. I'm Justin Sales, the host of the Wedding Scammer, a true crime podcast from The Ringer. And for seven episodes, we're hunting a comment. A guy with a lot of aliases, a guy who's ruined a lot of weddings. And with the help of some friends, I just might be able to catch him. Listen to The Wedding Scammer on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every Thursday night from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Bonter, A.Keevanek, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'N's season, Kevin O'Fever. We got a game today. I saw your text. We do have a game.

It is our first edition of the 2023-24 season of That's True, That Might Be True. That's Ridiculous. and we will get to the game. We are recording after the Milwaukee, Indiana game that saw Janice have 54, when it looked like he might not play in tonight's game after his ridiculous ejection in the last game that he played. That was awful. He played.

And look, and I'm old enough to remember that when we started this podcast, eight years ago, eight seasons ago, I remember, I remember coming. and gone and saying, hey, Kev, you don't see a lot of 50s. That's how long we've been doing this podcast. At that time, we thought, I think it was Blake Griffin with Detroit, had a 50-point game. And we came out at the beginning and he's like, hey, you don't see a lot of 50s. And then there was like a barrage of them within like a couple of weeks. and obviously now it is not that rare to see a 50-point game.

But Yon has had 50. But this Pacer's team, boy, can they score? They put up a graphic at the end of this game saying that they have 20 plus threes, including tonight's game, in four games this season. The Dallas Mavericks have 20 plus threes in two games this season. nobody else in the league has done it more than once. And so they are certainly one of those high variance teams where if you catch them on the wrong night,

they may drop 25-3s on you and you are in a world of crap. And certainly Milwaukee ran into it tonight. And look, any team that's, who knows how many they're going to to end up with by the end of the season. It was nice also Ben Matherin, who has struggled to start this season. And I know you chronicled in your second year players column. It was nice to see him, you know, get going tonight and look like the Ben Matherin. And he had a big steal as well on Yonison in the final minute of the game.

And we got excited about him at the beginning of last year. Yeah. And then he just went to witness protection. Yeah. I mean, he went to witness protection the last half of the season. But it's good to see them getting him back going. And they got a lot of guys that can shoot it. And they shoot a lot of them.

And on those nights where they make a lot, they can really, they can really score. They sure can. Do you see that there's a, like, their numbers entering tonight's game, Indiana, like their top five most frequent three-point shooters. Buddy healed 40.6% from three on eight attempts per game. Tyree's caliber and 37.3% on 7. three attempts. Aaron Neesmith, 48.6% on 4.6 attempts.

Bruce Brown, 42.9% on 4.4 attempts. Miles Turner, 38.7% on 3.9 attempts for a game. Like, that is crazy volume and efficiency from all of those guys. Like you said, like the variance, the highs and the lows are absurd, but they've mostly had highs. And the bucks going under a lot of screens tonight, their defense, despite making some of the changes like we talked about on last week's podcast, still not so good. It's still pretty shaky.

It feels like they're definitely nowhere close. And from a game plan standpoint, from a prep standpoint, and never mind just from the results standpoint from what they've been in recent years. Well, and no coach can ever be happy. Like, it's very hard to go into the locker room and say, guys, we should have scored 127. Like, you're not just going to, giving up 126, you're not winning a lot of games. you're not winning a lot of games giving up 126 i mean and like they obviously they didn't have dame

tonight right um at the same time and and in fairness they were right there i mean they were right there i do i mean yannis had an unbelievable game he looked more like yannis the last minute though did show why he yannis himself said how dames the closer yonis had the horrible pass to brookelopez to sail out of bounds the turnover he got stripped by matherin And that's why Dame is so important for that team as a closer, is the guy who's actually initiating those possessions in the final two, three minutes of the game. Atlanta and Orlando are about to tip off. So obviously we won't be talking about that game.

This comes after Atlanta put out their porno video on Twitter today. That was strange. Which saw, now, where are you at on this? It got, is any good publicity, good publicity? it got over 20 million views I saw, but it was also shouted down by their two biggest stars, Trey Young and DeJante Murray, so I don't know. I don't know. And it's like a story everywhere.

They went to Mexico City and the social media manager went wild. You know, those are like the headlines everywhere for Atlanta. Did you laugh at it or did you think, what the hell? Well, I mean, at first I watched it and I was like, is this actually? produced by Hawk social? Or it was just like a something that like a prank video like a fake you know like the Timberwolves Brazil accounts

which is not run by the Timberwolves it's just a account on X but like I think with the Hawks one at first I was like this is real it is real. Wait they produced this they actually put this together it didn't make me laugh it was just and then you quoted Chris Brousard kidding

it was a it was a ridiculous It was a ridiculous video. I don't know what to make of it. It's semi-creepy. And obviously, like, here's what I know. You never want your players saying, get this crap down. I know, yeah.

Yeah, I'm not sure all publicity is good publicity necessarily. And in this case, it's one viral video that's going to be forgotten in a week. And it's just worth it. I'm not sure. No, I think I'll always remember the Harry the Hawk only fans video. Isn't that his name? Isn't it Harry? I have no idea.

I think it's Harry. Forgive me if I'm wrong. I can't imagine a day after Adam Silver goes on JJ Reddick's podcast. He's talking about how he wants like the NBA media to focus on analyzing the game and then Hawks put out an only fan's parody. I'm sure Adam Silver really love that. Oh, I bet he did.

Yeah, he goes on JJ's. He's like, I want. I want the coverage to be more like the NFL, more granular. How much of that is on Silver, you do think? Like the NFL really stomps their foot down and controls a lot of the broadcast decisions, broadcast pairings, halftime show, pregame show, configurations. Like how much do you think Adam Silver, as somebody who's been criticized over the years for being more player friendly, not having an iron fist like David Stern?

how much do you think he's to blame for not stomping his foot down and forcing ESPN and TNT to do things the way he thinks they should do it? I think probably a lot. I think you have seen him probably become more engaged in that, you know, with the changing of the biggest broadcast grouping. I think, I mean, that was a shock to all of us to no longer have Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. in the booth. I do believe he had something to do with those changes.

Look, I don't think... Something. That does not happen if the commissioner of the league does not want that to happen, is what I would say. I don't think it's a coincidence. He goes on JJ Redick's podcast who's elevated very quickly with his insightful, you know, commentary on X's and O's and all that either. I mean, like, they're definitely, there's like values what J.J. does in the sports media landscape with his style and rightfully so.

JJ does a great job analyzing the game. Yeah, and I also think that the show that we love the most and the one that is the most engaged with and the most inside the NBA. Yeah, is not that. Like, we love the fun of that. We don't mind that Charles Barkley has never seen this team before that night and has no, and is going to mess up a name. and is going to, like, you know, let's just say the Grizzlies are on TNT.

He's going to call him Tyler Jenkins. You know, and he might, he might call the, he might just say bane, bane, because he can't remember his last name. Or, you know, I mean, that's just the way it is. And then they play, you know, and they mock it with the who he played for a game. Yeah. You know, it's authentic, though. That's why people like anything is authenticity.

for those guys true to themselves and plus you still have Kenny running up to the board analyzing a play they have like sprinkles of what Silver's talking about with that XS and O style stuff but it's largely just it's a comedy show and it's funny and it's authentic

and they say whatever the hell is on their mind no matter how much it pisses people off on social media that's what I expect about them and they didn't like it on the ESPN front it's not like they like super engaged in the whole granular basketball talk

because I love I love Stephen A, but they added Stephen A to NBA countdown for the opinions. And for the, you know, that's not, he's not sitting there going, they need to do this. And this is why this team is winning. And this is why this team is losing. And all of that, like it's, it's almost like a debate show, you know, or some kind of like, hey, here's a thing, here's something that somebody's going to say that might get a rise out of people in the two minutes that they have for a half-time show. And so, I mean, I think, you know, part of it is the way those things are set up.

Now, look, not all of the NFL stuff is not granular either, right? Like, so I always liked that stuff a lot. Do you remember when I was a kid, there was always that, like, Ron Jaworsky show that was, like, the X's and O show that they did? But the thing was, like, buried on, like, early, like, Sunday morning or something, right? Like that kind of stuff. And you might see some guys doing like a film breakdown or that kind of stuff. But generally, that's not what those shows are either, right? Like, so you say that about the NFL.

But like, do you feel like you're watching NFL coverage all the time and it's breakdowns of what is happening in the games? Of course not. It's everything. No. It's everything. So that's why I was like, what? Terry Bradshaw is doing highlights at halftime for what reason no one knows.

Like they go, they got Sunday night football. They go to Maria Taylor and boring-ass Jason Garrett, like talking about who cares? Well, I mean, well, that's the thing. It's the type of thing where it's also the nature of the game.

With the NFL, there's literally, you know, tens of seconds of breaks between plays that allows you to go to, to old, or a Romo and do a full screen and look at the last play, you can't do that with basketball.

The game moves too fast. I mean, maybe you could with all the long reviews. Maybe that's a time you should have a package prepared where you look at a play instead of looking at the referee, flexing in front of the camera. But I think the NBA, it's also the nature of the game aspect. But I agree with you. The NFL has everything.

It's just, I'm sure, with Silver, maybe he'd like to see a little bit of more of the stuff that you see more in a local, level, you know, with some of the analysts that are out there. Like I used to do for Celtics blog or like someone like Joe Verides, now for the Warriors, like just like some of these granular breakdowns. Maybe what, maybe what Silver should push for is to hire some of those types of people into like high level production content creation positions. Like somebody like that could help you prepare like a Zach Lowe, three-minute voiceover,

whoever it might be from ESPN that runs between the first and second quarter preparing for something that is likely to happen early in the game a style of defense, whatever, stuff like that. I think that's where like maybe I thought that was a little overstated for sure

in terms of like comparing it to the NFL and in terms of like, well, we want everybody to care about all the teams in the same way they do with the NFL and that that's like. And yet who's on national TV all the time and the team like you don't have all these young teams on national TV either that's like their actions kind of speak loudly there right well the other thing and this is look I'm not saying anything to everybody knows this the NFL in large part take away fantasy football teams and take away gambling and see if people still care the same way about every team completely different those things are not engaged in the NBA in the same way I don't even play fantasy basketball right I don't I don't like playing fantasy basketball.

Like I like playing fantasy football. There's a rhythm to the week. You have your waivers on Wednesday. It also keeps me. I mean, look, I have a 13-year-old son. Me and him have Red Zone. We sit down and watch every week. And we love Red Zone.

And then we've got the boxes on the other TV. And we are because I am engaged in his team. Right? And so it's like, oh, AJ Brown caught one in there. Or, hey, Lamar just ran another one in. Don't you, or did you start, like, tonight? There's a reason my 13-year-old asks me, he, I swear to God, right before we were recording, he came up and asked me, he said, do you think I should start Colcomette tonight or wait till the weekend and start Evan Ingram?

Ingram's playing against the 49ers. Like, that is not a question that gets asked about the NBA. You know what I'm saying? And that's because fantasy basketball is just this. as engaging or as easily consumable for people as fantasy football. And that is such a driver of it. He loves the NBA. He loves the NBA probably just as much as the NFL.

It's just the fantasy aspect isn't the same. Correct. And I agree with you. That is such a massive draw that I think is often under, under accounted for when it comes to the dramatic difference and interest between the NFL and NBA for watching live games. For watching live games. Oh, for sure. Why does my son care about Bijon Robinson?

Oh, Arthur Smith keeping him out and saying he's good off all. Arthur Smith, go to hell. Right. But the only reason, or Colt, do you think my kid care? Cole could walk in our house right now and he wouldn't know who that is. Right? Yeah. So figure that part out.

And then you figured out why it's not the same, why we're not on even ground here. I do understand that, like, as a commissioner, wanting people to be more focused on the games than the drama of things. But I do think that there is a reason. They're extenuating circumstances as to why there are much less games and those two factors play a massive role in those. The scheduling aspect is another big part of it. Literally, every single game matters. If you lose a game in a week two, it can ruin your chances at a buy. It could ruin your chances at winning your division, whatever.

it might be, every single game in the NFL matters. And where there's the NBA, I mean, look, the games matter, but they matter a heck of a lot less when there's 82 of them over the course of the season. So if the NBA ever wants to take a leap and trim the schedule for a year, I'll tell you what, one of my favorite years ever watching basketball was the lockout year with the 66 game schedule. Granted that year, it was so condensed. There was games every night. there was back to back the back the backs and all that if it were like i think i think there was also the aspect of there were just not as many games that year and everyone did matter more that year i felt that for the rooting for the celtics that year it was like every game really really mattered

it felt like a lot more than a full 82 game season so the i think the enemy needs uh even if they just try that out for one or two years and if it ends up they hemorrhage money and it screws them it's it's only one year you don't have to commit to it for 10 years you could do it for a year and see how it goes. I just, I don't see why you can't experiment like that. You can also tell that there, you know, as time goes on,

and this was all new a couple years ago, they are really diving in on the gambling thing. Because even the other night, even the other night I was watching that NBA crunch time, like their wraparound show. But Jared Greenberg hosting it. Yeah. Jared Greenberg was like,

he's like, ooh, if you have the Sixers minus four and a half, you know, on Caesar Sportsbook, whatever. And I was like, wait, what? And this is NBA TV.

NBA TV was referencing all the games in conjunction with the lines, with the number, with the over under number, where they are within the context of this, all this. And I was like, well, you don't even get that in the NFL. Like, you still get the weird, like, you know, Al Michaels like, that matter to some people, you know, that kind of thing. But that's why the NBA, they know, they know they probably, can't get a share of the fantasy basketball market in the same way that fantasy football has

just wide interest to masses of people who barely watch the NFL. Yeah. But with gambling, I hear my friends sometimes in states where it's legal to gamble, they're like, oh, I took this team. I did this. I did like a small parlay. Oh, I won 50 bucks off of this. I have hearing them say that increasingly.

So clearly there's interest when it comes to basketball there. But as we know, like, Fandall is a, I literally just read a ad for Fandall before we started this podcast. Because there's interest from our listeners and joining the Fandall sports book using code mismatch.

One of my, you know, it's the truth. That's right. One of my buddies, one of my buddies just went to, and obviously our buddy house is there on regular occasion, but one of my buddies just went to D.C.

He told me, you know, they have a sports book now in the, arena. Huge. And he said it's unbelievable. I would not be surprised within a couple of years. We got kiosks to make bets.

I wouldn't shock me at all. Like you know what I mean? All kinds of bets. You know what I mean? Like that kind of stuff. Totally. I'm with you. Cash in on this NBA season with Fandul, America's number one

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First online real money wager only. $5. Pre-game money-line wager required. First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is non-addrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after a seat. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com. Before we get into the game, and I got some good ones today to throw at you.

And to be clear, I don't know any. of them, I don't know, any of the topics, any of the teams, nothing. All you said was we're playing our games tonight. Playing the game tonight. Before we get to that, I'm going to leave this out of the game because I don't think it necessarily applies because it's really just a statement of fact. So I have thought a lot about this since we talked about the in-season tournament. They, of course, put out that thing, the clip of it and whatever.

And I was trying to think about what would make me care more. right and like simple thing not like anything complex you know we've talked about a draft pick we've talked about you know how it could affect the playoffs we've talked about like you know different things and I don't know why I didn't just think of this right immediately and I think I have something that I'm going to bring to you that you will as a lover of the in season tournament anyway you will come completely endorse. Okay?

Will Adam Silver like it? If he's listening. Adam, will you think Adam will like it? Okay. I think so. Okay. And again, I still want stakes. Okay?

I still want stakes. I still want a reason for fans to care. But in the interim, we'll figure out the stakes down the road. That's a job for now, Andre Iguodala. But in the meantime, and the reason I'm bringing this up is because we've got in-season tournament games again tomorrow night. We're going to see all the crazy courts. We're going to see the jerseys. We're going to see all that stuff. It's going to be the second go-round of in-season tournament games tomorrow night.

I'm very excited. I'm not going out. No dates, no dinners. I'm staying home all night, watching the in-season tournament. Three, and I'm actually, I'll be going to one because I'll be going to Memphis, Utah, tomorrow night. A battle of one in seven and two in seven teams. This is a showdown for the ages. Anyways, you're going to endorse this too. Okay. In-season tournament games should all be target score, Elamending games.

Make it 115, make it 120, make it whatever. But if you want me to care more than I normally would, that's the way to do it. I do think that would be so so much more interesting to me that if I knew these in-season tournament games, even if you wanted to make a, we can make it one-tan. I don't care. I don't care what you make. How about just 100?

Fine. First to 100. I'm fine with that. Now, the reason I was going to make it a little higher is because if you just took like, you know, you could do the research, you figure out the average score. that way you're not screwing around with stats, right? Like if that's a thing, you don't want to, if you're only playing to 100,

then there's a finite amount of stats. But if you're playing to what is the average score of these games, whatever the average score of these games is. So we'll find a spot right around there. What is it, 120, whatever. And you're playing to that target score. And if that takes you three quarters, that takes you three quarters.

Did that take you more? And I know there's always going to be details that you've got to work out. But in the interim, if you wanted to make me more interested in something, if I knew there was a target score for said game, you would grab my interest in a much greater way and for much longer for the teams that I don't particularly care about the outcome. You've got two teams that I don't really care about the game all that much, doesn't interest me all that much. If I look at it and you tell me it's, you know, 108 to 104, and I know they've got to get to 120, now I'm in. Now there's like, there's like real drama at the end of all of that. Why not make every game have a target score?

Just out of curiosity, are you, would you be in favor of that? for all games? Do you like the target score that much that you think all games? I'm trying to make this different. I'm trying to differentiate this. Why is this in-season tournament different than, you know, because you're telling me it's different. You've got the different court.

You've got the different jerseys. You know what I would like? And you got all the fans going, And what does this mean? So what happens if you win this game or if you lose? You know what I mean? Like your casual fan doesn't care about it. Yeah, but yeah, sure.

But like you you get a casual, you turn a casual fan into a hardcore fan by improving the product of the game by eliminating five minute reviews with 30 seconds left in the game. If you told me tomorrow, that's how you're improved. You know what? This is actually perfect.

I'm going to Memphis, Utah tomorrow night. Okay? Mm-hmm. I would be so much more excited if I knew there was a target score at the end. I really would. Like that would be different. That would be fun.

That would not be the usual thing that I go to. And I would be more interested immediately. So I think there's some logic to it. Personally, I would love to see regular season games. I know like that could remove it could remove the potential of a three-over-time thriller like we had with the King. and Clippers last year, but a target score during overtime would be very interesting as well. They do it in the G League, and I love it.

Yes, I agree. I think target score during the overtime and the regular season would be really, really cool. And then for the, I'd be cool with it for the in-season tournament. It's not going to make me care more necessarily. It would be, it would make me, I don't want to use the word care. It wouldn't make

me care more because I think the tournament alone over the course of time will gain that tradition over the years to come simply by winning it. However, let's remove my personal opinion there, I would be more intrigued by the games if it were different and included the target score during regulation because that would then also serve as an experimentation for the NBA to see what these high-stakes games look like

when there's a target score. And I think that that in and of itself could be something worth looking into in future years. And I also think that it has a, it has a psychological effect on the players. It does. Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. No doubt about it.

There's a target score. It has a psychological effect on the players, right? With that in mind. And knowing that's the number we need to get to. That's the number we need to keep our opponent from getting to. And so, you know, if you're looking at it, you, you've made it look different. You've made it look different. There'll be a different court.

There'll be a different jersey. You're telling me it's different. But tomorrow night, I'm just going to watch the Grizzlies and the Jazz, you know? And also, those are two teams. Also, you guys aren't, you guys like it, all likelihood, aren't playing to go to Vegas. No, both teams stink. Yeah, exactly. So I think both teams don't feel like they have a chance to get to Vegas.

Both fan bases, it's like, okay, this is just a little slightly different type of game. It's just, yeah, we're not going to Vegas. And all the likelihood, you're not going to Vegas. Thanks for rubbing it in, bro. I know. Well, I hope you can come to Vegas to the live show on Wednesday, December 6th, live Bill Simmons podcast. I believe there's still some tickets available on Ticketmaster.

I'm not coming. There's no way I'm coming. I'm letting you get eaten alive by the real ones. It's you and the real woods, right? I believe it's, I think it's just me, Raja, and Logan. I'm not sure Howard Beck, who's the new thing. third member of real ones is going to be part of that show. So you're taking Howard Beck's spot?

I don't know. I'm not, oh, yeah. So I see they still have general admission preferred seating available on ticket master. I'm not sure how many tickets are available. But if you are going to be in Vegas or want to be in Vegas, Wednesday, December 6th, Bill Simmons podcast, Bill, Ryan, special guests, me, Logan Murdoch, Rajah Bell. I'm not sure who else

off the top of my head but it'll be a good thing. If I can fly out there, I will fly out there. I will. Yeah, okay. That's the one part I don't like either

about that way the NBA did this because you know I am at the mercy of whether there's a home game or not. And, you know, on the off nights, I'd rather they have just blocked it off and made it the thing. All the other teams are going to be playing in non-season tournament games on the two alternating nights.

I agree. I agree. They should have blocked it off and just made it. This is like the focus. The schedule shouldn't be 82 games. That's the bottom line here. I'm fine with that. Shouldn't be 82.

All right. All right. It's time for the game. We have made people wait long enough. It is time for the most important game in podcast history. That's true. That might be true. That's ridiculous.

Are you ready? I'm ready. All right. Let's start off flaming. The Lakers off season was overrated. That might be true. You couldn't do it. You couldn't bring yourself to do it.

You got to walk around. It's too early to say that's true. Is it? LeBron's playing 39 minutes because they can't survive one minute without him on the court without getting blasted? I mean, listen, listen, Chris, Austin Reeves is off to a horrific start of the season. It looks like he lost his superpowers.

Oh, okay. Here, 20 second timeout on him. I've talked about this a million times, and I know, look, once you hit that dry erase board, you get to do it one time through. And once the word's out, now you are scouted in a different way. Now your name is written down.

And also Reeves still has all of those talents. There is a figuring out process. And a lot of times we have seen guys go through this in what is technically their second year after they've made a name for themselves. Because now everybody knows, okay, there's like a full scouting report on you. And that's when the real ones were going to figure it out going forward. But we saw Edwards have some struggles. We see Barnes have some struggles. We've seen, you know, Mowgli had some struggles.

And, you know, sometimes it even happens to guys that are not drafted at the very top of the draft. It can happen to the Austin Reeves of the world where it's like, hey, man, there's like a real scouting report on you now. And you're not like just one of the other guys. Like, you're somebody that they've got a full book on. And so he'll figure it out. he's going to be fine. That's a talented guy. But he's getting an attention that he simply did not get,

that you're going to put a better defender on him than you used to. You're going to have four eyeballs instead of two eyeballs, you know? But this is why it might be true. Because if he doesn't fix it at the dollar value they got him for, suddenly it doesn't feel like a bargain. Gabe Vincent also has missed four games. He apparently wasn't healthy in the four games that he did play. Toreen Prince missed a couple of games as well.

Christian Wood has been very good when playing with AD and LeBron, but not so good when he's been out there without those guys. Cam Reddish, I mean, the experiment's not working out. I mean, so some of these guys, DeAngelo Russell, getting him with the dollar value you did around 20 million. To me, it's like, okay, well, we'll give this a shot. And if it doesn't work out, then you can flip that salary for somebody else. So I think like the DeLo asset, some of these guys could turn into very tradable contracts on short-term deals. So I'm not, I wouldn't say it was overrated. It might be true.

That might turn out to be true. But it's also still so early and guys have been injured that I'm not ready to to say that is true. And they haven't been able to build up the chemistry yet. They have had injuries. But it. Ruby had some time too. On the surface, they start the season.

You know, the two things that we heard going into the season was we want LeBron to play less than 30 minutes. He's playing 39 minutes a game. That's crazy. That's crazy. Technically he's at 34.8, but he was at like 37 or something after the first game. When Darbenham was like, oh, he's only going to play 20 to 30 minutes. After that, it's like, nope, nope, just kidding.

The second thing that we heard is we want Anthony Davis to take eight threes a game. He's taking like one. Dude. Yeah, he literally won per game. Wasn't it eight? Didn't they say eight? I think they said four. No, I think it was eight threes a game.

I don't know. Whatever they said. I wouldn't have eight threes a game. Whatever they said, it's not one per game. And he hasn't taken one for three straight games either. Whatever they said, it wasn't one. He really should take more. The shot looks pretty good right now.

It's just he's not taking enough shots. I hope they'd be able to win like a five minute stretch every once in a while. It's like they can't have LeBron. not on the court. It's crazy. LeBron's still great, man. Of course he is. He's still great.

It's just, you're asking a lot of a guy with that many miles. I know. Right? And I thought they had built. I liked their offseason. I did. I liked it. It don't look real good through the first seven, eight games.

Still need time. I mean, we'll see if these guys can get back and actually stay healthy. All right. The Clippers Harden thing ain't going to work. that might be true. And here's why I'm not going to go all the way to say that's true. What are the things that you and I talked about at the time of the trade? A, we talked about Hardin needing to adapt to playing next to other stars.

I said how he's a 39.8% shooter on catch-and-shoot threes in his career. But what have we seen this week? Catches the ball wide open behind the arc. Doesn't take open threes. He stops the ball, takes side dribbles into contested shots. It throws it to I and Eagle. Oh, my God. Like some really terrible decisions by Hard.

And while he was asked after that game the other night against the Nets about that. And he kind of like shook his head and was like, I know, I know, I know. Like I had some looks tonight. I didn't take him. I had the one in the corner. I had the other one. And he's like, it's weird for me because for eight or nine years, I've done everything for the offense. It's weird for me to receive the ball open like that.

It's weird. He said it's weird like four times during the answer. And that's what I said to you. He needs to break those habits and get into the habits that he had when he was younger in OKC, where he did launch three attempts or four attempts per game off the catch. That's what he needs to get back into doing. Will he be able to do that? I don't know.

And is that even the biggest thing, the biggest problem here? Not necessarily. Their defense looks weaker. Zubots does not look like he's going to be the center of a championship team right now. He's also dealing with a back injury. And they lost Plumley. Plumley behind him hurt right now. PJ Tucker is not the same small ball five that he was once before, even though he can still do it.

They have a lot of concerns on their team. It all starts with Hardin after the investment that they made in him. Hardin needs to adapt. And if Hardin does adapt, well, then Russ has to slide into a new rule. There's a lot of question marks with the clippers that I have. And, I mean, I had them before the trade. I think they raised their ceiling, also lowered their floor. They're more of a high variance team at this point.

but largely more than anything else, it's going to come down to James Hardin's ability to completely adapt his game and embrace being a hybrid version of his old self and the guy that we've seen the last 10 years, the scorer, the guy who dominates the ball. He can do both. I believe Hardin can do both,

but will he? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. Well, and he was obviously like super distraught over their game. I saw that video going around of him partying after. the net's loss. Obviously, he was really rattled by it.

I mean, there's 82 of them, so. It's good to know. He's taking care of himself. I'm sure the Clippers brass was thrilled. How's their video going around? All right, let's be positive. We're the first ones who make it. Scotty Barnes is worth building around as a best player on a team.

That might be true. I think best player on a championship team is, if you were to ask me, is what he's doing, is what we're seeing from him right now for real, my answer would have been said, would have been, yes, that's true. That's true because this kind of follows the trajectory you were just talking about earlier. Sometimes guys go through a second year sophomore slump, like I wrote about earlier this week with certain players. And then third year, they end up taking a leap. That's what I believe is happening with Scotty Barnes.

He looks quick off the dribble, the three-pointer, like smooth. He looks like he's right back on track to what we saw when he won rookie of the year. The best player on a championship team, I mean, that's like seven or eight guys. That's right. How many, how many players actually deserve that title? You can be the best player on a championship team. But there's like eight, right? Like, how many are there really?

Really, like, how many? I just think that's like really a high bar. Yeah. I don't know. It might have changed, too. There's so much more parody now. You're watching these games, and you also have to remember that we just saw Miami was five minutes away from not being a playoff team and they were in the NBA finals. Yeah, that's true. That's true. You know, and I don't think if you were making that list that there's a ton of people that would be lining up to say Jimmy Butler, but Jimmy Butler, you know, a shot away from being in three of the last four. four finals. And also, Jimmy Butler is a different type of case

because the way he elevates his play in the post seasons. Regular season, Jimmy Butler is not the best player on a championship team, but playoff Jimmy Butler, should playoff Jimmy Butler is for sure the way he changes his style.

It's like playoff Jamal Murray is like the best two guard in the history of the world. There's really not many, though. It's like Yokic, Steph, Yannis, Luca, and Bede.

that's five. And the history of the NBA tells you, you generally have to have one of the best five to ten players in the league. And so do we look at it and say, Scotty Barnes, we could look up at Scottie Barnes is one of the best five to ten players in the NBA?

Could he be at 27? It's not insane. Maybe. It's not insane. He could definitely be a top ten player in the league. Sure. I think so. I think so. Yeah. So I think that might be true. which is incredibly high praise that you can say that about any player that it might be true.

Here's a good one. Lamello still has superstar potential. That's true. Yeah, he does. I thought you were out. I felt like you were out last time we talked about Lamello. No, I just have my concerns. The fact that it feels like he stagnated last season.

Granted he was dealing with injury. He only played 30-something games. And this year he's been off to an absolutely. horrible start until his last two games when he had 30 and 13 against the Mavericks and 34 points against the very lowly sad Wizards and the Hornets also lost that game too. They gave up 132. So I mean with Charlotte it's not all hot there necessarily despite LaMello having two good games and two losses.

But I still think Lamello's creativity off the dribble, the scoring upside, the the size at his position. There's still that level of upside. I just, I don't, I don't like Steve Clifford. And I don't like what he did in Orlando. I don't love what's happening in Charlotte.

He probably doesn't. He probably doesn't. He thinks you're a third bag. He probably does. He's like, he's like, yeah, he's like,

that's a guy that bitched about me not playing Mo Bamba. How's that working out? Maybe things would, maybe things would be different. Steve Clifford said, is that the, asshole that said, I should be playing

Mo Bamba? Okay. That's why he doesn't like me? Maybe things would be different from Mo Bamba if Steve Clifford did play him in Orlando in the early days instead of of freaking Darmineham too. Said a freaking Kim Burch.

Kim Burch. Come on now. Who can't even play right now in the league. Where is Mo? He's, uh, Mo Bamba is with the Sixers. Oh, he is? Mm-hmm. Oh, I didn't know that. So is it his fault? I guess it's Nick Nurse's fault, too?

No, it's not Nick Nurse's fault. Oh, it's not? No, no. And it was Darvinham? Yeah, I still think, I still think Lamello has star potential, super star potential. Star potential, I don't know, whatever you ask, but I believe he still has star potential. Too many flashes, and he's still young. It's a weird situation there.

Joe Missoula ain't built for it. That might be true. What a weird Did you see That's why the question is available With Gary, so Gary Washburn Longtime Boston Globe columnist He apparently seven years ago

According to Joe Manizula Gary Washburn asked him as the team shooting Too Many threes Because Missoula likes to aim for like 40 plus 53s per game And Gary asked that question And Missoula comes out And he goes

Gary I saw your article seven years ago in 2016 you were writing about how are the Celtics taking too many threes how's that going and it was like whoa dude

like really aggressive here for no reason at all like citing an article from seven years ago that's really weird you prepped this in the mirror right I'm thinking of myself

watching that you were like rehearsed this it's just strange for an NBA head coach to go at a media member in that way a guy in that way

whatever you think about Gary Gair's been covered that team for a long, long time. For decades. Obviously. For decades. And it's like, where did you even find this? Like somebody had to bring that to his attention or you're maniacally Googling.

Like, I don't. Just strange. I think it shows that he's very thin-skinned. Because he did this multiple times last year, too, where he like left his presser. He's like, worst coach ever. And it's like, okay. What? Dude, what are you?

12? Yeah. What the hell are you doing? That Gary Washburn thing tripped me out. It was just strange. I call them from seven years ago. Weird. Really weird.

I was like, maybe they did. I don't know what the call was about, but maybe they didn't shoot too many threes. I don't know. It's weird. Do you have some kind of, what were the 16 Celtics? Were they like,

were they awesome? That might have been the Isaiah. That might have been the Isaiah Thomas. I don't even remember. I don't know what month of the year of 2016 it was, but it was definitely the year Isaiah Thomas was going wild, either his first All-Star appearance or the year he was top five MVP. Well, Gary Walshford's over 50 years old,

and I promise you this. Go to an NBA game, Joe Missoula. There ain't one person in the crowd under the age of 50 that is not saying, just go to the basket more. Everybody that watch basketball their whole life, sits there and like I Go to the basket Even as well look

And I and I watch the team that's taking 40 something 3s a night and like Driving with the intention Of kicking out Instead of driving with the intention Of scoring Totally And it happens all the time

And you're like just friggin lay it in Or get to the free throw line Like what are you doing. And it's like sometimes. That's what I grew up with with Tommy Heinson. All my ears were on the Celtics watching up. He's like, run.

Run. And I hear him moaning about Antoine about Antoine Walker taking 40 foot threes. Oh, it's just like you hear him groaning into the mic. I grew up with that. Get some points in the pain. Like I had seen, I see it all the time in NBA games.

Guys will come off a screen, turn the corner, go to the basket. Kick out. They could just make a lay up. And they kick out. And it's like swing, swing, now another three. Like they pass up twos for threes all the time. And it's like, I think that if you've been covering the league for a long time, you sit there and go, all right, bro, this is like extreme. Somewhere along the way, the math got a hold of this in an extreme way to where it's like, hey, sometimes going to the free throw line, sometimes getting

in the groove, sometimes just winning points in the paint and making some shots and getting the other guy in foul trouble, right? Like, are we just plaguing to whip this thing around until somebody can take another three? And a lot of teams that you watch don't need to be taking 40-something threes. Now, that is not applicable for the Celtics. But again, what the hell are you doing? Bring it up a column from seven years ago. Well, and that's the interesting thing about it.

It's like you could argue that Gary's question was completely off base. There was more reasons why the Celtics lost that game. Bill Simmons, our boss, respond to that on Twitter. He said, better post-game questions than too many threes. Your bench blew the last two games, what needs to change? Two, Jalen has 819 assists and seven turnovers in season. Thoughts. Why don't you run more offense through Derek White?

You realize you have seven timeouts a game, right? It's like with Missoula, there's still some of those concerns that were lingering from the postseason last year that are still there today. And Jalen Brown looking like a worse version of himself right now is probably problem number one, which is out of Missoula's control. Let me tell you this. Boston has some other issues to kind of work through at the moment. Let me give you the list of people that love Derek White the most.

Number one, Bill Simmons. Number two, Derek White's family. Number three, Derek White's wife. number four The wife doesn't count his family They're gonna get a kid Okay fine I was talking about his parents

Fine His parents Number three is white Parents do love their babies And number four Well I guess his newborn child Isn't old enough to really know But like

But the point is Simmons is number one Yes Didn't Derek White take 18 chats In the Sixers game Like how many How much offense You want to run through Derek right do we have a do we have yeah he did take 18 shots do we have a sixers that's true that might be true

that's ridiculous question the sixers are championship contenders that's true oh you're in love yeah i think they're for all it took is him beating the southics no no no i what was i saying to you before this earlier in the season dick nurse changes tyrese maxie taking a leap joel and Lombie looking even better this year than he did last season. The role players all fitting together. This is like my, my, I had to, oh no, I did have a, you know what, I crossed that out because we've had too much Ubrey talk, but I did have Kelly Ubrey was the best value signing of the off season.

Well, right now, sure, yeah, that's true. But yeah, the Sixers. Grant Williams has been. I'm, I'm a big time believer. I've been a believer since really preseason when we first started seeing this system. and the fact that it's translating so far early this season Tyrese Maxie looks awesome, awesome, looks like an all-star for sure.

Joelle LeBeed even better than his MVP season. I'm a believer in the Sixers, and the interesting thing about Sixers right now, all the talk after they trade Hardin was about, well, what star are they going to go out and get? We were talking about like Zach Levine or like Jeremy Grant, somebody like that. What about like an Alex Caruso from Chicago?

somebody like that, a higher level role player to fit into this good ecosystem you have going right now. Somebody like that might actually be the best target for Philadelphia rather than a B level or a C level star. I thought maybe one of those super role players. OG and Adobe, right? Yeah, I still like the Grant thing. Grant has been fantastic for Portland.

And that was actually on the list, both Grant and Kuzma, those contracts that everybody I kind of widely mocked. And we talked about this. We were ahead of the curve on this. And I said, look, that Jeremy Grant contract looks crazy on the surface. That is asset retention. And this is what's going to happen. He's going to put up the numbers. They're going to get later in the season. And you watch, they're going to turn that thing. There's going to be a team out there that's ready to give up some expirings and some firsts. And they're going to go, this guy can take me over the top. So Dallas

looks at it and they go, we'll give you Tim Hardaway and some, you know what I mean? We'll give you some picks. Whoever it might be. Or Philly goes, hey, we'll give you, you know, a Tobias or it was actually been very good. Like, he's, he's been on, he's got a new lease on life post doc, who just had him running up and down the court. He's obviously capable of more.

But like the grant thing and maybe even Kuzma for that matter, right? Like, he's, he's scoring. I mean, obviously it's a terrible team. but he's scoring and he's scoring at a pretty high rate. And I think that, you know, that asset retention of those teams that are obviously in rebuild mode, you know, where it's like, why would they? What do you? Why are you paying this guy? Like, what are you doing?

And it's like, hey, this is, that was a little chess, not checkers, because I bet they're going to get some pretty great return when it all comes around. round. I bet they're going to get a pretty great return for him. They definitely could. Because Grant could. He could swing something for somebody. I agree with you. He averaged like 25 a game so far. I know somebody's got a score, but still. Him and OG Ann and Obie. Those two guys, I think. Well, the problem with Don't know, it's five first rounders.

Get him. Oh, you're going to like this one. Minnesota can win the West. That's true. But they need to trade Carl and Lowe's. Anthony Towns. I don't think so. I think they got it.

It's actually going well with him. I think you got to trade cat in order to win the West. Why? I still believe that because he's not the reason why you have an elite defense. The reason why you have an elite defense is because you have the world's best interior defender and Rudy Gobert and the world's best perimeter defender and Jada McDaniels together on the same team. What they're able to do, we saw it against.

Boston the other night. We saw it against Denver with Jamal Murray when McDaniels clamped up on the perimeter against the opponent's best perimeter creator. We saw it against Tatum making things hard on him all night long. It's like in football when you have a shutdown

corner defending the opponent's best wide receiver and you get a Pro Bowl safety helping over the top shading their coverage towards that receiver to just take them out of the game. Let me play devil's advocate on this. But that's what it feels like, that's what it feels like Minnesota does with McDaniels and Gobert combination together. So with Kat, I just want to finish

this thought. So with Kat, as talented as he is offensively, you have Nas Reid off the bench right now who seems ready for a bigger role. He was ready for it last year when Kat was out at times when Gobert was out. He flourished offensively. He can play a bigger role. What the sons did with the Andre Aiton, agree with it or not. They felt it was in their best interest. to turn a guy that they didn't think was a championship piece into multiple other pieces. You get Grayson Allen, who's been a good role player for them. Nurkich has had some highs and some lows, and you get into a sear a little, a versatile wing. Yeah, I like how you showed up out of the bushes when he had a good game against Nicola Vosovic.

Come on. So the sun's logic, I think, applies to Minnesota with Kat, where if you could turn Kat into multiple pieces that restore some of your assets that were lost, and the Gobert trade and help your roster with those really good supportive pieces or a guy that adds like a star level talent in return for him, whatever the type of configuration is for Kat. I think that makes more sense for Minnesota's roster and raises their ceiling and doesn't really lower their floor at all.

If anything, I just think Cat is the odd fit alongside Gobert, Nasre, McDaniels, Edwards, those core pieces. I think he's the guy you trade. And I would say that's true if they move him, if they move him. All right. Hold on. Let me put devil's advocate here. Go ahead.

Two things. Number one, we know the problems with Gobert when it gets to the playoffs. And this now gives you the ability to play both weights if you have him in tow. Also, much. I get to interject. But you have Nasreid for that. You have the Nasreed. Nasree can play five for you.

He's not 10. Come on. Come on. I love Nasree. He's not. Okay. But this is my point. Even if even if you say Nasri isn't Kat, which he's not, do the other pieces you get for Kat overcome that? Do the pieces you get for Kat allow you to play small ball five? Look, I covered a playoff series that saw Kat being such a issue that they, the Memphis, a bank. and playing Stephen Adams. Couldn't have him on the court because the guy is just, I mean,

and it's a problem, especially when you get to the playoff. When these teams go small ball and a lot of teams love to go small ball, Kat provides something that other guys don't. And I've never been a town's fan, but I understand what he can bring to the table and the advantage he can give you. The other thing is, if you don't move him, you got insurance on this. you know, Gobert goes down or somebody else goes down like you got another guy that can see like your season is not wrecked if, you know, because you got somebody right

there that can play or if somebody has to miss a month for some reason. Like that it's it's a, it is an embarrassment of riches to be able to have both of them and be able to go both different, two different styles of play when you need to. and and also like their numbers together have not been bad like they were last year they've done they've done a good job together and that's and that's despite cat not performing well offensively at this season he's shooting 30% from three and he's the best three point shooting big man of all time according to him i just he said that i just think cat is not quite the same guy that he was even in that memphis series what was that three years ago two years ago how long ago was that

at this point two years ago. I think there's been a decline. Well, look, he was crappy in the series, but I'm telling you he just, it's a matchup thing. I know. He can, he's a problem for the,

for the big men on other teams. So is Nazaree. People will let Nasreid stand at the three point line. Dasry doesn't take you out of drop coverage, Kevin. He doesn't. This year is. Given the opportunities, they'll still drop.

Whereas that's, that's the difference on the cat. thing. And it just opens up so much space for Edwards. Last one. We'll end with the big guy. Oh, this is going to be good. Alperin Shengoon would go top five in a 2021 redraft. All right. So back in January on the Winger's NBA draft show,

Kyle Mann and I did a 2021 redraft. And we had Shengoon going eighth. So I selected Shengoon eight at the time. A couple of guys have head of him, or Trey Murphy, Jalen Green, Scotty Barnes, Franz, Frens, Wagner, Cade Cunningham, Josh Giddy, Evan Mobley. Of those guys ahead of him, Giddy has shot since then, has fallen off a cliff. He was at the time shooting extremely well for the thunder that's fallen off a cliff. So that's something to note. Scotty Barnes has gotten better. Jalen Green has not.

Trey Murphy has been out. I think he's on the borderline of top five. I'm not as high on Mowbly as other people are. I'd consider Shen Gung ahead of Mowgli personally. How about if I gave you a rocket? What do you mean? Is he the guy you take?

Oh, yes, he's ahead of Jalen Green, for sure. Yeah, no doubt. And Jambari. You think Shengun has the highest ceiling of the rocket? I mean, offensively, yes, defensively, he still has his limitations. I mean, that's ridiculous. Come on. He does not have the highest ceiling.

He does not have the highest ceiling. No, that's why I just said offensively, yes. But defensively, you factor that in with Jabari Smith. Jabari Smith is the highest ceiling because he can be a defensive, versatile piece. I think he's probably number six. He's still behind Cade. He's behind Mowgli because the defense.

defense. He's behind Franz. He's behind Scardy Barnes. He might be ahead of Giddy, but like we'll give Giddy the benefit of the doubt right now and keep him fifth. I'd keep, I'd have Schengun's sixth at the moment. He has been awesome. Well, then what about Cominga? Cominga'd be higher in a redraft too right now. I mean, he went seven. Yeah, in a region. It wouldn't be that much higher. At the time we had him 10. A Kyle took Quentin Grimes ahead of Jonathan Cominga at the time. Oh, no. Isn't it funny how quickly things can change with young players? I was talking with my friend John about this.

We had lunch the other day. He's a musician and kind of like he has a different perspective view in the game of basketball. And he was saying how like when it comes to scouting, it's so hard to figure out which 18, 19, 19, 20 year old players are going to develop in the NBA. And I said to him, like, it's hard with Desmond Bain who comes out at 23. And just because he's older doesn't mean he can't get way better. And then he's like, well, it's even hard with the guys who were 23 years old in the NBA already with knowing like how they're going to develop. And that's the case with some of these guys.

Like with Shengoon, I mean, this is his third season at this point. And he's still only 21 years old. And he's looking like he's, so far this season, he's been better than DeMontasabonis, who is a playoff player. a All-NBA guy and All-Star just a couple months ago. So, like, the trajectory of these players can be, like, it's not a linear thing ever. It's a rocky road a lot of the time, and it's very hard to know. Here's all you need to know. There are, all right, so let's say, like, even when you were talking about, like, best players earlier, right?

So Donchitz and MB, notwithstanding, who we knew, like, you could tell immediately, like, okay. the two best players in the NBA, without question, I think, according to most observers, would be Janus and Yokic, right? Are you sure it's not Steph as one of those two? Okay, okay, that's fine. Just curious. Okay, you know what? Perfect. Add him in.

A big three. Yokich won, for sure. Then Yonis and Steph. If I would have told you that any of. those three would be the best player in the NBA, even three years into their career, you would have laughed me off the planet, off the planet, even three years into their career. It would have been insane. Steph played 26 games in his third year.

He averaged 14.7 points per game in his third year. Yokic in his third season he averaged 18.5 points this is where things kind of began to turn with him 10.7 rebounds 6.1 assist but best player in the league you still wouldn't have went that far you still wouldn't have because he was still

chubby then and not the best player in the NBA Janus after his third season 16.9 points per game up from 12.7 his second year up from 6.8 his first year so the trajectory was there but after his third year, he still wasn't best player in the league type guy. No, after his third season.

Those aren't Scotty Barnes numbers right now. For sure. It was really the fourth season for these guys where you're like, oh, they could be really good for a really long time for us. Maybe we could win some special games. It was really the fourth season for a lot for those three guys. Right. where things kind of took another leap.

And those are the best three. Yes. Right. And those are the best three in the league. Yep. Yeah. And it's like two, three years. So, I mean, you always got to think about that when we're talking about guys that are two,

three years into their career. It's like, man, you don't know. You really don't. It's so hard. What if I had told you after. I mean, look, that's why it enabled the warriors to have that run they did is because the kid had ankle injuries. He was good.

Really good. but he had ankle injuries, but it wasn't like, this guy is going to revolutionize the game and be the best player on a title team. Or ruin the game, as Mark Jackson would say, right? Yeah, right. But, you know, I mean, it's hard, man. Like, you don't know. It's tough.

That's what makes it so fun, though. That's right. Like, there's all these surprises that happen. There's all these busts and steals and guys who come out of nowhere and exceed Xx and guys who start fast. Like Adam Morrison looked like Larry Bird his first 20 games of his career and then just fell off.

And you also don't know which way it's going to go, right? Like we could look up and it's crazy that we were talking about Scotty Barnes could have maybe been the best player on team or maybe he is the best player on an awesome team. And maybe Alperin Shengoon has the Yokic level trajectory. And we look up and it's like, oh my God. This guy is like dominating everybody, right?

I know. It's the type of thing where like with some of these guys, I think some you can say, no, like there's not that level of upside. But with some of them, sure, there's a there's a percent chance that Shengun is a first team, all NBA guy because he becomes so dominant offensively, his three-pointer, he goes from average to knock down. And he becomes such an unstoppable force on offense that he's, that he's a guy getting first team, first team votes for all NBA at some number of years

from now. You can't roll that on Scotty Barnes, like you said. Maybe by the end of the season, this hot shooting streak falls off and it proves to be just a hot streak and that's it. And he's back to shooting 25, 30 percent from three. And it's like, well, yeah, he's a really good player, but he's, but he hasn't changed the course of his career by becoming a major perimeter threat that opens up everything for him in a way that turns him into a superstar MVP level.

potential player. Lamello, we talked about the ups and downs with his career. If he can get himself back on track and turn some of those high moments into a more regular thing, then great. Like, he'll be right back on that train as a potential superstar. But right now, it's, it's unknown with so many of these guys, despite how much we have seen from them. That's what makes it fun.

Yep. Kevin, it is always a pleasure. I know that you are going to have your pants off during the in-season tournament tomorrow night, like Harry the Hawk. watching all the games. I'm home. Why would jeans or pants be on anyway? Thank you to our executive producer.

Jesse Lopez, as always. And Kevin, I will talk to you next week. I'm very much looking forward to it. Have fun now. Have to give it back. Must be 21 plus in President Select States. Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC.

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