The Mismatch - Jayson Tatum’s Season Debut, SGA’s Coat, and Loves and Loathes

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Verno and Jacoby discuss a couple of anticipated debuts as Jayson Tatum gets ready to suit up for the Celtics and Trae Young finally steps on the floor for the Wizards. They also get into SGA's fashion choice for a warm day in NYC.(00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch!(2:34) Thursday’s games: Spurs are great with 71 points in the first half(7:45) Loves and loathes(7:54) Verno loves: Tatum returns and makes his 2025-26 debut(15:14) Jacoby loves: Trae Young debuts with the Wizards(18:33) Verno loathes: Jokic’s dirty play(22:32) Jacoby loathes: Doc Rivers's retirement(24:19) Verno loves: NBC's throwback and storyteller era(31:23) Jacoby loves: The dangerous teams of the Eastern Conference(34:17) Verno loathes: Marcus Smart’s ugly shots at Memphis(38:29) Jacoby loathes: SGA covered in fur from the nose to the toes(41:31) Verno loves: Two-way success stories(47:21) Jacoby loves: The Hawks’ win streak heating up(50:33) Verno loathes: Scoot's struggles in the Grizzlies-Blazers game(56:19) Jacoby loathes: Sad-watching the Celtics lose with Bill SimmonsThe Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available.Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone]Hosts: Chris Vernon and David JacobyProducers:  Brian H. Waters and Jeff ShearinSocial: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Misfatch. I'm Chris Varnan and joining me to see us every week from the Ringer.com. Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Right now, I'm here in the West Coast, still in Los Angeles. Like, the games being on at 4 o'clock is such a game changer. It is such a game changing. Like, I stay up until one in the morning watching these games. I just don't understand how people do it, right? Like, do they not have to sit in carpools?

Do they do their kids not have after school activities? I feel like I would miss everything. I need the games being later because I have to do something after the kids get out of school so like I wouldn't be able to watch games if they were on at 4 o'clock in my life counterpoint

like the games are so mobile now that you can just have it on your phone you can be in a carpool driving and just have it on your phone oh come on that is so reckless it's unbelievable I'm not even going to I'm not even going to acknowledge that driving around watching the pistons

and the spurs on my phone I have a theory about Bill Simmons that he's, I don't know how this dude, like, watches every game, watches every movie at an expert level, like watches every single TV series at an expert level, and is also watching, like, heated rivalers and, like, you know, love story. My theory is this. No, let me, let me finish my theory. I was just, let me, can I give you real quick? I'm in the middle of my theory.

Okay. I was at the punch. No, now I'm out. I'm out. Good. Identical triplets. There's three Bill Simmons. Divvies up the labor.

That's my theory. The better theory is he is disgustingly rich. Let's just move on. That wasn't always the case. That wasn't always the case. But he can do whatever he wants. He hires people to watch games. He's got a bunch of people watching games in the guest

house just giving him notes about heated rivals. No, if you're that rich, you can just be like, you know what? I'm going to watch a movie at 10 a.m. Sure, sure. I'd love to. Right. It's great. Yeah, he's got the life. All right.

Pistons and Spurs is on as we're reporting this on Thursday night. I just watched the entire first half. The Spurs are running them out. They're up 16 at half. It will either be a great second half comeback by the Pistons or the Spurs will to strangle them out. But what was interesting is we think about these a lot of times, especially like with outstanding teams like this,

they only see each other twice. And we say that, and we talked about this when the Spurs played against Oklahoma City, you're going to make the adjustments based upon what you have seen in previous matchups with said team, being that these teams only see each other twice, but it is in pretty close proximity, because we just talked about their game.

like a week and a half ago. Yeah. This one felt like, okay, all those other guys, like Julian Champany and Devin Vassell and all these guys that just were shooting fish in a barrel on us in the last game, that's not going to be so anymore. And so this is when you know the spurs are legitimately great. Here's my first take of the show.

the way you know the spurs are legitimately great is because it was pretty clear to me the Pistons are doing a little of the pick your poison thing and they said, all right, we were selling out on Fox. We're selling out because Fox struggled big time in the Detroit game, big time. He's like four of 17 or something.

So we're going to make him see two. We're going to give Wembe all this attention. Now we're giving up these open corner threes. We're giving up these wing threes. Now Champennie's banging everything down. Now Vessel is bringing everything down. So I just watched this first half. Guess who killed him?

Fox and Wemby. The whole half, it was Fox and Wemby. They've got two thirds of their points in the game. And so that's what I'm saying. That's when you know a team is legitimately great because now we have made our adjustments. We're saying, all right, this is what killed us when we played you the last time.

So now we're going to go about this differently. And now when they just, you know, when they are going to pay less attention to and Wemby, and obviously that's not taking anything away from the games that they're having tonight. But I was, I was blown away. I mean, that was 71 in a first half against Detroit is a huge number. And I'm starting to get super worried that I'm going to have to do tons of playoff podcast with you talking about Victor Wembe Niamma. And given what you said, yeah, given what you said in the last episode, you know, it's just, you know, I'm feeling.

in some kind of way because I'm like, dude, we're going to be talking about Wemby for like a long, long time. Like already this playoff. Are you breaking up with me? No, just on like for the next decade, we're going to be talking about this guy. I mean, it is going to be a little bit awkward. I just want to say like his first had the first quarter was wild. It was, he got two fouls on Dern like quick. So, so, you know, here we go.

You know, it comes beef stew and, you know, and in, in, in. he was getting threes. He was getting to the basket. If he missed, he got his own rebound and dunked it with an N1. It was just like he was doing absolutely everything. And I want to say, while I want bad things to happen to Victor Wimid Yam, and I want him to lose games, I root against him every time he's on the floor. I recognize the unique basketball ability and exactly how good and how young he is.

We also have a couple other games that are going on as we are recording. Cooper Flagg made his return. And he's going to need a couple games to get warmed up. seems because it's having a tough shooting night tonight, even though it's a Clay Thompson resurgent, but they're in a barn burner against the Orlando Magic who certainly need, you know, the magic are in a win as many games as we possibly can down the stretch of this thing. And the Mavs are not. They're in the exact opposite situation to try to keep pace with the other teams that are vying for draft picks.

I think one of the thing I want to, I think it's interesting. Cooper Flagg makes his debut, tonight, right? Thursday night against the magic. They fly to Boston for Friday night, national TV, Tatum return. Where's Cooper Flagg from? Oh, yeah, Maine. Do you think once he returns, he's playing back to back? I would hope so.

I would hope so. He's 19, you know what I mean? Yeah, that would be a show. Yeah, I don't want to see him street clothes in his first game back with his family there. You know what I mean? a national TV. Right.

Everyone's watching Tatum. It just feels like a game. Maybe he's treating this as like a warm-up game because that feels like a big flag game. You know, again, they're not going to win, but that just feels like a lot of eyes on him, a lot of his friends and family in the crowd team that they, you know, rooted for growing up.

Yeah, other other big one that's going on is the Rockets of the Warriors. And they're there in a tight game. It's like the Warriors are up, right? Warriors are up? Well, no, no. They're down one going into the fourth. So another good Reed Shepard game so far for them. So anyways,

there's a couple of things that have happened tonight. But we've got to get to our loves and loads from the NBA week that we have just experienced. I will start because we're going to hit a lot of news in this. My first love is the Tatum return. Like Bill said this on his pot on Sunday with Zach Lowe. And it got aggregated. It got picked up. And he was obviously on to something.

He obviously did. On to something. Yeah. This was the target date for a. Jason Tatum, but Jason Tatum is going to make his debut. And I understand that there is a insane amount of conversation around this. There is a legitimate fear from spectators as well as former players about, you know, whether he's coming back too soon, should he just sit this out and get ready for next year,

is what's it going to do to one of the great stories in the NBA this year that has learned to function without him at a very high level. but I will say add all of that together. When we get to this part of the season, this is the dog days, man. Some of like Jason Tatum coming back into a lineup is instant interest. Like who's not interested in what is going to happen?

And I know that there's been a bunch of articles about guys coming back from Achilles and how they've returned and whatever else. I went and looked it up earlier. And what I've like, it's going to be, you know, less than 10 months removed from, from him tearing it. Yeah. West Matthews came back in seven and a half months. That was the fastest.

Kobe came back in 8 slash 9. Dominique Wilkins was 10. Dominic Wilkins is the one you should hold on it. He was 10 months, which is close to this. He tore it in January of 1992. He came back in November of 1992, and he averaged. nearly 30 points a game afterwards. Like he was known as the great success story.

Obviously, Durant was out for 18 months. Clay Thompson dealt with two different injuries. So that one doesn't really count. He was out for 14 months when he was, because he dealt with the, he was recovering from an ACL as well when that all happened. DeMarcus Cousins was a year.

But I mean, your average recovery is usually, you know, 10 to 12 months. They were kind of close to that window. Yeah, it's on the shorter side for sure. Nobody wants the guy to get hurt. One of the things that I have not heard people talk about that I'm interested in your take on.

If they're not in second place, does he come back? Do you think that this is a function of the fact that you look and you go, you know what? We could win the Easter conference. And if Jason Tatum comes back into the fold, like that if they're sitting in play in position right now. I'll say this. Yeah, I think that's a better question because I don't think how there's been no

rumors of Halliburton playing with the G League team. You know what I mean? Or Dan Lillard practicing for the the Blazers, you know, you don't hear any. There's no like there's, they're not watching this the same way. But it hasn't even been a conversation. Yeah, it hasn't.

It's just none. He's out for the year. And I think that's because the paces are where they are on the state. So I think that's a factor in it. But about the timing of him coming back, and that was great research that you did there. The spiral notebook, you know, once again comes through. But I will say, like, let's just take time out of it, right?

Robert Williams has deleted time from all of our existence. There are medical professionals that understand the stakes in this, and they're with him every single day. They went to college for years. And they've had years of experience on dealing with this stuff and rehab. the right way to bring someone back and when someone is ready. As far as I'm concerned, if they say he's ready, then he's ready. And if he says he's ready, then he's ready.

And I also think that I'm more focused on minutes restriction, role. Like, yeah, it's not going to be in the same role he was. He was one of the top five players in the league, and he was doing everything for his team. It's more to me about how much can he get closer to his role last year in 20 games of the regular season, missing back-to-backs on a minute's restriction. You know what I mean? Like there's about 20, what, 21 games left for them? I don't know.

But is he going to be the same guy on March 6th that he could be in the second round of the playoffs? Because I think that's a decent amount of ramp-up time. Well, and the other thing is, and I think this is something that we're just going to have to see. It is a decent amount of ramp-up time. How is he Robin? Is he the guy?

That's not even the question. One of the guys. He may not even be Robin. He might be like Robin's sister, whatever her name was. Didn't he, wasn't there some female Robin at some point? So you think Jalen Brown's, it's not a question. Shot attempts, usage rate does not plummet.

No, I think it stays almost the exact same. It's good. You got to remember, he's on a misrestriction. He's coming off at ACL and like, you know. Achilles. Achilles. I'm sorry. Yeah, you're right.

But still, like, what are we talking about? Like, he's going to come in. They've discussed this. They've roadmap that. There's assistant coaches. There's Joe Missoula. There's Tatum himself. There's his teammates.

Like they've discussed all of this and they have a plan. You think he's going to come in and be Batman? What's going to drive and dunk on people and take pull up three? Like, no. Right. Look, it certainly makes it super fascinating. We're into this real weird part of the schedule where we're not to the stretch run where every game feels bigger because of the seeding situation.

And so and we're kind of post all-star break. this is a great infusion to have happened at the end of the season where it's like, okay, they become infinitely more interesting and also we would be or missed. We have never taken them seriously as a title contender without him. And so now there's going to be the evaluation of are they now right in that mix with the rest of them? I understand their record. They've never been without him.

I think everybody looks at it, goes, Brown has been a supernatural, and this is a regular season, outstanding story, but playoff basketball when they're selling out on one guy, like you don't trust it for playoff level basketball. But now with that, with that being your valve,

you know what I mean? Like with him coming onto the bench, or with him coming onto the court, now all of a sudden we get this evaluation period of like you could absolutely foresee a circumstance where we're a week away from the playoffs and you go yeah I wouldn't bet against them do you remember right like when you were talking about a first round hornets piston series yes uh i don't know if you saw what happened with the hornet Celtics that would be interesting because the hornet just looked like a younger better cooler version of Celtics

in that game. I mean, it was one game. But that was, whoa. It was a tough watch. I know you're going to get to that a little bit later. All right, what's your first love? My first love is just on the theme, I'm going to go with Trey Young's debut

for the Wizards. You know what I mean? It's like, it's not as, we're not going to discuss of what he's going to bring and what his role is going to be and, you know, whether or not he's going to be on a misrestriction the same way that we discuss the implications of Tatum

returning to the Celtics. because it does not matter. This team is motivated to lose games or doing a great job of it. But it is, regardless of what you think of Trey Young, he's fun to watch. And he's going to inject life into your offense. And he does, as much as he shoots, like, you know,

walk up 30-foot-3s sometimes, he sprays the ball around and is a great distributor and gets guys into positions to score. And he ejects a little life into the franchise and the fan base and most importantly, the Joe House implications. the Joe House implications of just what this means for Joe House's life are one of the things I love that Trey Young is coming back I don't know why he's coming back but he is my blessing okay I will say opponent notwithstanding so like let's say I wanted to see the hornets and so I

turned it on this is the first night that I have purposely turned on the wizards I'm trying to think that's true no that is true I'm telling you that happened no I'm trying to think if it's true for me too. I mean, yeah, I watch Wizards games because of the opponents. Yes. Yeah. Like if I stumble upon them, right,

because they're playing somebody else. But I purposely went to go check out the Wizards tonight because Trey Young was playing in the game. And it sounds like, you know, everybody's so scared of Adam Silver coming to their town and letting his doctors out of the van to go check you out to make sure you're really injured, that Anthony Davis,

we may get a little Trey Young Anthony Davis. I don't think so. I'm not really sure because if someone comes in, if you trade for someone that is injured, there's plenty of reason to keep them out. Like,

I don't think that would even, I don't even think the doctors would get let out of the van on this one. I think they're doing it like just because he wants to play. And like, why not, dude? Go out there and play. Get the people what they want. And again,

if Trey Young and Anthony Davis, if you tell me they're going to be starting for the Wizards one night, I'll turn it on again. Yeah, dude. I mean, I'm telling you. Like, that's the way this works.

I'm getting a little tired of being like, if Fancy Davis is healthy, look at this roster, look at what they can do because I did that for, you know, two years. They did that for sometimes with the Lakers and like pretty much this whole time

at the Mavericks. And there is a world in which like, we're in October doing our season preview. And you're looking at the Wizards and you're like, huh, this starting five. It's pretty interesting. You know what I mean?

It's certainly, as I said, when the trade deadline happened, I remember telling you, what an unbelievable, NBA jam team. Like it is perfect. And that will get me to tune in.

Your NBA jam team will get me to tune in as long as they play. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's always. I mean, that's a. Uh, on Anthony Davis. Yeah.

All right. My first load. Okay. I got to do this. Yokic, you're killing me, bro. Okay.

So. I did this whole bit. about Lou Dord. And then, you know, I know it kind of turns it. I even, I even couched by saying this isn't about Yokich, but obviously people have positive feelings. Dirty Dorrit. You had a whole, you had like a whole case against Dord.

Yeah. Yeah, it was a very passionate, very passionate pod last pod. And then the next night, Yokic like collapses Kishon Chors like let's his arms out and just, I mean, it feels like he could have just squished him completely. And I was like, oh, really? Like, we just gave you the benefit of the doubt, you know, because people will say, yeah, he's dirty too. He does dirty stuff himself.

And he's not Mr. innocent, whatever. And so, like, literally right after we recorded that pod, I turned on that game. And I'm like, are you serious, bro? Like, what are you doing? You're just trying to literally flatten another human being and just lay on top of him. It was, look, if that was, fair is. fair as I always say that was draymond green would be like come on yeah well what is

here's the thing about that here's what this made me think about that do you remember is early this season this preseason the referees visit like every training camp and there's this footage of yokic after the referees are done with their presentation of like here's the new emphasis or whatever yokic is like talking to them about um you know like for 20 minutes going like my new details on all of the rules and like you know how he does this sort of like foul baiting and flopping and he communicate the ref. Remember he used to try to like inbound it really quickly? You remember that stuff? And he's

very in tune with what the rules are. And I think in his head, in his mind, he's like, there is no rule that says I can't lean against someone boxing me out. Like I think that in his mind, he did nothing wrong. And that should not be a foul. Right. And a normal human being looked at it and goes, oh my God, you're going to break that guy back. What are you trying to do to that guy? That's like me

trying to get a piggyback. ride from my 10 year old daughter. You know what I mean? It's just like, what are you doing? You're going to hurt this guy. What are you doing? Yeah, this looks like, you're going to fold him in half. I know.

He was like folded. And I was like, oh my God. Imagine if you're George, you're like, dude, I've been playing basketball like for 17 years straight. No one's ever tried to just like flatten me with their chest. All I was doing, all I was doing was boxing out. I could hear my, I could hear my grade school coach yelling in my sub. Got just box out.

Shock goes up, find a body. That's what he did. Now I, yeah, now I got a 300 pounder that's going to break my vertebra. Yeah, exactly. Bet you won't box him out again. You know one thing I love about this is how you brought it back to you. You're like, I went hard after Dort. I need you to not do the same thing the next time.

And he did say, he was like, that was an unnecessary play that has like no, no place on a basketball court. Need I remind you, Mr. Yokage, that you kind of took out a Morris twin for like a month. You know what I mean? He did that. And in the middle court off the ball. So like, sometimes people get excited. Also, did you see Lou Dorts quote? It was interesting.

He's like, yeah, I play. There are limits to physicality. And I went beyond the limit. It's like, okay. Yes, you did. I guess I can't argue with that. This is my first. That is somebody sent him a picture of the brother.

Yeah, Straanya. We haven't done a single Straanya update forever. We haven't seen it. I know. I know. I'm out of sight out of mind. Every once in a while, I do like Astronia, uh, Yokic and then click news. And it's nothing.

There's nothing new. Well, you, well, I mean, unless you have Ludoort's ring camera, you probably aren't a if you listen to the mismatch and you're a good hacker, get us some of the Lundra ring camera footage, please. All right. This one is pretty simple. I think it was Stephen A that actually said it, that Doc is going to retire after this year.

And there's something about Doc Rivers that, like, the end of his career here is just a little like, you know, like the Clippers. He was sort of, he had this Clippers team great, and there's, you know, there's playoff meltdowns and injuries and the Sixers ended very strange. The Bucks started middle, and this year is certainly strange.

And there's the 3-1 lead stuff. And I think it's just like, I don't know. It's just like, this guy is a great coach. He's an NBA champion. You know, he coached the Magic well, the Celtics well, the Clippers well. It's a weird thing with the Sixers, weird thing with the Bucks. I just feel like, I feel, I don't like it because I feel his reputation right now at this point is sort of like, oh, that guy loses playoff series.

And that guy kind of ruined the Sixers and the Bucks. And I just feel like the fourth quarter of his coaching career didn't go well. And it's sort of, there's a little bit of erasure of the first, second, third quarter of his coaching career. You know what I mean? It is going to all be forgotten a year from now when he is on the ringer. Yeah. Oh, that's who's going to replace me on the mismatch. They're like, because he's awesome on podcast.

No, it'll be Steve Kerr and Doc Rivers. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's a no-brainer. That's a no-brainer. Because they're both buddies with Bill, so he'll be able to just get them. He'll get them both in the fold. Yeah. And they'll both get paid 20 times what we get paid.

Oh, 100 times. A hundred times. Come on. It's Steve Curran. Exactly. Yeah. All right. My next love.

So I'm going to give credit where credit is due because the game was horrendous. But that NBC throwback was exactly. I said, I loved it a week ago. I loved the idea. Of course, I tuned it in on Tuesday night. I loved the graphics. I loved the opening with Bob Costas. I love seeing Doug Collins and Mike Firtello again.

The game was atrocious. I liked the music. I liked the scorebug. I liked them going down to the court to talk to Jim Gray. And one of the things that I noticed in this, this broadcast is something that. So I talked last week about how much I like Bob Costas, but let me just set aside my love for Bob Costas and just say,

there is a method of which guys from that Costas era and before. And I don't know if it's because of doing a lot of baseball games and having the extra time, or if it's just the way they prepared and the way they thought about broadcasting a game, where they're always trying to tell you more about the people that are involved in what you're watching. And the attachment then becomes it's like I know more about this person now than I did before this broadcast. Now I have somewhat of a personal connection to them. Maybe it's some way. Just that I know something about them, right?

The kind of idea that like if I ran into this guy, now I know. something about him that I didn't know before. And guys from that era are so brilliant at weaving that stuff in. And they actually, even more so than just broadcasting the X's and O's of it. Yeah. It's an era of storytellers. And I'll give you an example that stood out to me. After the example, I'll tell exactly why that is.

I kept it on at the end of the game, just so I could see Jim Gray. So many other good games on. No, no, no. Jim Gray was going to interview Victor Wenbiniama, and I wanted to see how NBC was going to handle. I was watching for the broadcast.

I wasn't watching. Yeah, yeah. So Jim Gray is going to interview Victor Wenimaniama, whatever. And then they show this clip. They show this clip of Mitch Johnson. Okay? And Bob Kossis is like,

and there you see, Mitch Johnson, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, super proud of his team tonight, his father, John Johnson, member of the 1979 Seattle Supersonics Championship team. And I was like, that's it.

That's exactly what I'm talking about, right? Like, I've never heard anybody mention that Mitch Johnson's dad was an NBA champion. I didn't know that. For the Sonics. Didn't know that. There you know.

Again, and guys like that, guys like Kostas and guys from that era, they weave in, it's not out of the, ordinary. It's just part of how they're telling you the story of what you're watching. And I wrote down that particular tidbit because I was like, I was trying to think of like, but that is exactly what I'm talking about, where it's like now I feel like I know more about Mitch Johnson than I did before I watch this broadcast. And I love that type of broadcasting.

I really do because I've always been of the opinion that people do love sports, but they really do care about the stories of people. And that's what's most interesting is the people involved. And those guys are masters at making you interested in the people involved. I have a couple things on that. And that is sort of the results. And I think I have some of the reasons why it is that way, right? There's a couple of things you mentioned.

These are the boring reasons. When you do golf or you do baseball, you have to fill time. There is not too much action. and a lot of breaks, long breaks, between the action. Like, if you're doing a marathon, you know everyone's middle name. You know what I mean? Like, because they're just running around, right? So, like, that's one reason, which is the boring reason.

But it changed in my life. And this is NBC specific, is when they started doing a simple thing during the Olympics. Because the Olympics are sports that you don't follow until every four years. And who broadcasts the Olympics? NBC. And who was sort of the main face, Bob Costas. and they introduced something called up close and personal. Remember those?

Where they were just before the ski jump, they would take you to the ski jump guys hometown and you would learn about his mom and they learned about that his dad runs a pizzeria that's been there for a hundred years and he also works at the pizzeria. And then he goes and does the ski jump and comes in eighth place, but you know his name now.

And it was just like the storytelling of that type of thing. And he was so related to that. And I think those two things, because he is sort of NBC, and the Olympics and the human connection to it all is generational a little bit as well preparation as you mentioned as well

but I really think that NBC in particular because of the Olympics and other reasons focused on that and Costas shout to him was excellent at it and a shout to another guy Aaron Cohen who worked hand in hand with Costas and was sort of like his writer because that guy is excellent

and my wife my wife produced gymnastics for the Olympics one year and she flew to China to like, you know, do the upclosals for the Chinese team, and she did the American team. And it wasn't about like what vault are you going to do at the Olympics. You know what I mean? It was every question, everything was give us something to get attached to this person for. Why do we root for them?

What struggles have they been through? Like give me something to buy into. And sometimes informational tidbits like, you know, Ms. Johnson's dad won a championship with the sotics. But a lot of times it's just like humanizes people. Yes. And I just thought to myself, like nobody else even says that sentence.

Like literally, they're just watching him go off the court. And it might have just passed, but he's like, that's Mitch Johnson, his father, member of the 1979. I'm like, really? I like him looking it up on Wikipedia.

Do you play? I'm like, really? His dad was on the... He was a two-time All-Star. Sorry, Mr. Johnson. He's dead. Johnson Jr. Again, I didn't know, but I just, I so respect that.

And I miss the, I miss the age of storytellers, right? That guys that are just built like that. And you actually, that was really good insight. That it, it probably is an Olympics influence as well. And like you said, a baseball thing, too. Like you're filling time. You need the research. You need all of that.

You know what I mean? Just to kill the time. This is my second love. Yep. I always think back on the preseason pods that we do and what our expectations were for these teams. And this is going to be like the expectations for like a conference. And like the Eastern Conference was like, well,

two horse race, cabs and nicks. You know what I mean? And now with the emergence of the Hornets and sort of, you know, the Sixers strength and the Pistons. And then the cabs being like rejuvenating. with Schrooter and Ellis and Hardin, it just feels like there's so many teams that, I'm not going to reduct it to can win the conference,

but there are so many teams that you see could win the conference. And then like, you know, I don't want to just, not even mention the Raptors, you know what I mean? And like, and it's just like the conference is so different than I thought it would be when, not just the beginning of the season,

but also at certain points during the season. Remember when the calves were down low, they were like an afterthought. And, you know, the Hornets were 10, 10 games below 500. And it's just been a wire-to-wire. You're right. You're right. No, you're right about this. Infinitely less predictable than what we would have ever imagined.

Yes. The Pistons running away with it and many points having up a five, six-game first place lead. The Celtics being the team that's right behind them. I'm not even mention that. It was the most impossible thing to predict ever. I thought the Celtics would look like the wizards. You know what I mean? Nobody except for Joe Missoula.

I literally was like, should they win games this year? Seriously. You have to like admit when you're wrong. I was thinking like this team probably shouldn't win games this year and sort of do what the Warriors did when when Steph Curry was out, get a good draft pick, bring in a great rookie on a rookie on a rookie minimum or whatever, rookie scale. And now they're, now I'm like, they might win the finals.

You know what I mean? It's crazy. Oh, no. I saw the Celtics in person during the preseason and left the game and been like, well, you know what I mean? Because obviously there's no Porzengis, there's no true holiday. And I'm like, bro, they're really going to do this with Luca Garza? Okay.

Yeah. Remember Derek White couldn't hit a shot? Derek White couldn't hit a shot for like a month. It was crazy. And now look at them. Same with Pritchard at the beginning of the year. Yeah. Couldn't make anything.

I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the Hornets. I'll be talking about a little later. but like, you know, anyone who's covered or listened to, yeah, listened to in the last 36 hours. But like it just seems like there's a lot of live, dangerous teams in the Western, in the Eastern Conference. In fairness, we were on the horn. It's very, very early.

Yeah, yeah. We'll get to that later. I have them. I have them on my list, don't I? Yeah, I do. So intensely fun. My next one, my next load. Marcus Smart taking shots at Memphis.

Okay. So Marcus Smart is asked on a, an interview about the ugliest fans. And he says Memphis, right? That's not. That's not. No, no. He didn't.

Number one. Yes, he did. Number one, it's not true. Okay. Number one, it's not true. Like, all anybody does is they go, they come down here for college football Saturdays in the South, right? And then they go down to Old Miss and they're like,

oh my God, I didn't even know there were women like that. And then they go down to Starkville, Mississippi. I totally did that. I've totally done that. Yeah. Then they go to Auburn. Then they go to Tuscaloosa. Guilty.

Then they go to Baton Rouge. Guilty. Then they go to these places. Hey. Hold on. They're wearing cocktail dresses and the cowboy boots and they know what a Tampa 2 is and like who the backup linebacker is. The other team, I'm like, I did not know there were women like that.

Okay. So let me just take a quick time out and explain to you. Where do you think they came from? They didn't grow up in Oxford. They didn't grow up in Tuscaloosa. They didn't grow up in Boston. They didn't grow up in Starfield. They didn't grow.

And guess who, guess whose moms are all here? Their mom. So I refuse to believe. There is no southern town. I've been to the Northeast. In fact, I stayed a week at your house and text you and I said, is there a blonde girl in the city? No. No.

You said, no. Nope. They don't exist. Right. And I was like, okay. So number one. it's goofy. It's not true. That's fine. You're allowed to have your opinion. But more importantly, it's just sour grapes. Yes. Because this is what's happening. And then, so you have Marcus

Smart and then you have Chandler Parsons on his, you know, who takes a shot at Memphis every day on his fan duels show. Those two guys have some in common. And what I think to myself, I'm like, bro, all right. I feel some kind of way towards previous. employers as do you, right? What? But, but we also, like, it's not like we got done mega wrong by those places, like, you know, you end up moving off. Chandler Parsons got paid $90 million to do nothing.

If you paid $92 million to do literally nothing, except ruin the end. of the Gritten Grindrera because of your contract, I would just be thankful. I would, you have made me whole. You have made future Parsons generations whole. Instead, every chance he gets to take a shot. And this one came, and Mark is smart as well. Marcus Smart left his heart in Boston and his game and his weight.

He showed up to the second year of the Grizzlies, and his jersey looked like a leotard. And it's like, bro, of course fans crapped on you. Both of those guys. Memphis is like the most loving fan base for, like, players that you could ever have, unless you contribute literally nothing, and they feel like you're just either sitting out and or robbing them. And so those guys took a brunt from, you know,

they were both beloved in their former. stops, then came to Memphis, contributed less than Dick. And so guess what? People didn't love them. And so now they're just on the train of like, let's just take shots. Yeah, yeah. Right. Also, this is on the back of the hotel thing from Memphis.

It's just like taking a lot of shots here. And also, I don't know who asked the question, but like, what, you know, what are you trying to get it? You know, like, who's got the ugliest fan base? Like, all right. All right. All right. Great job.

Shout to Memphis. I've been there. It's beautiful women in Memphis. This is an easy one. The Knicks Thunder game was a couple nights ago. We don't have to go into it. It was a wonderful watch. I thought it was a great comeback for the Knicks.

I don't take too much away from that game. I just love electricity of Madison Square Garden. The champs come into town and putting on a good performance and looking like the champs. You know, because I think like a lot of people would be reductive and be like, the Knicks missed a three at the end to take it overtime. Like, you know, the Thunder were ahead the entire time and the Knicks made a little comeback. But in the post game, I saw SGA wearing this jacket.

And I'm sure you've seen it. I'm not letting you do this. And I said to myself, this must be AI. I was like, this must be AI. Allow me to finish before you retort, Mr. Vernon. All right, all right. So I had to confirm that he actually wore a fur jacket with a fur like cuff, I think it is,

that went above his chin down to his neck. And I can't see his move lips in the post-game press conference. And it's like, I'm an old man. I dress like a dad. I admit that. There are things that younger people are doing with fashion that I will not understand. But here's the kicker on this one, Vernon.

It was 50 degrees outside. 50 degrees and you're covered in fur from your nose to your toes 50 degrees you're not going to let me do that I'm not because

pretty well documented not exactly a big thunder SGA guy we're in a tough spot the next 10 years we're a tough spot but I love we're real tough

I loved that jacket I thought that jacket yes I did I thought it was amazing. I was jealous of it. I want it. I want the thing that goes in front of my face. I can't wait till T-Moo comes out with a version of it so I can order it.

I'll buy it for you. Please. And I will wear it. I'll put in the same package as the matching pajamas for the family. Please send me Haley and Williams's eyes. Yes. And I will wear it on the show. God bless you.

I will wear it on the show. But, dude, I love the jacket. I thought that was awesome. I love when guys, it's almost like they're dressing up in costumes. Yes, that's what that is. That is a costume. And he clearly picked it for the MSG game, like thinking it was going to be cold. He thought that's what they do.

They play in their outfits, whatever. This is like a thing. But like he thought it was going to be like 20 degrees. But it's like 50. It was like nice out. I'm sure that day walking around Manhattan, people were in like short sleeves and sweatshirts. Like no one had a jacket because it's been freezing cold all winter.

And here's SGA looking like he's Luke Skywalker sleeping. inside of a ton ton. Yeah, no, I wanted that. I wanted that jacket. All right, quick love. I want to just give a shout out to the guys that are earning the two-way conversions. This was the week where guys were going to get converted to real contracts. And there's always a bunch of good stories.

Obviously, the team I cover converted OMAX Prosper, who's a former first round pick. And then he got a real contract. Quick timeout. I'm so sorry to interrupt. One of my loads that wasn't planned, what are you doing, Donovan Klingan. Oh, he almost knocked out, Oh, Max.

Yeah. Literally almost knocked him out. He elbowed him once and, like, didn't connect, and then elbowed him again as hard as he came in the face. It was like R-Test-esque. Real flagrant, too. It was bad. I was like, what did it?

Dude, that was violent and, like, dangerous. I could not believe he didn't get knocked out, like literally knocked out. He could take a punch now. You know that. It's all about, like, where you get hit and whatever. Yeah. Nemhard's little brother, Ryan, Ryan Nemhard. So what they do is they sign these guys.

And Shams keeps saying, you know, this guy signed, got signed to a two-year contract. Like, they get an NBA contract. And basically it's like the rest of this year. And then there's a team option for next year. But it's an unbelievable achievement, right? You work your way up. You get the two way. You earned your way.

Your 50 days are up. And then this stretch run of the season, you get converted. And you probably, when they do that, they have made the decision like, hey, there's great likelihood that you're either going to get that, you're going to get that team option picked up and or we're going to get to the offseason, rip that team option up and sign you up for your three year, $15 million deal or whatever it is. But like, I love all these stories. Quentin Jackson got one in Indiana.

Bryce McGowan's got one for the Pelicans. But the best one was the, Jamaray Bouillet, who has been a really good bench player for the Sons, who have been the great story in the NBA. This is six teams in three years, whoa, filled with two ways and 10-day deals. It's like this is a kid, a children's book, like truth.

And I hope he gets, I hope he gets his option picked up next year, or it gets ripped up and they sign up. him going forward. But that's a guy that just like he's just traveling around probably apartment to apartment. Like six teams in three years. And he's just consistently like you're just playing for your career every time you step on the floor and you get another 10 day.

And then you get another 10 day. And then you get a two way contract. And then you get another two way contract. And it's like and then you just keep bouncing around, bouncing around. And then you found your knit. right. You found the right team and then it takes. And I love, love, love. Like, we focus so much on the, like, all the stars of the league. But, but it is so hard to have a career in the NBA. You know, we talk about this all the time. You know, there's 400 and something jobs. There's

going to be 60 new ones plus undrafted, plus the guys that come over from your, I mean, every year, it's filtering through. And it's so hard to ever get to wear an NBA. uniform. And when I see guys like this that just grind it out and then like I can't imagine what that phone call was like, right? Like when he got that phone call that he was getting converted. He's like he's getting his first real NBA contract. You're not on a two way. You're not on a 10 day. You're in. You're in the mix. And you've got a team option for next year because we want you to be a part of this. Like it's like, you know, obviously the work is not done and you want to be able to extend that and have a real career.

But I love these guys that fight for it like that and then get rewarded. A couple of things come to mind. Like we were talking earlier about like storytelling and sports, right? One property that tells these fringe stories so well is hard knocks because they're at training camp and they have to make those cuts. And they, they go behind the scenes and into the lives of those fringe guys. And you see just how important it is to stay on the team.

and how hard it is when the assistant coach comes over and is like, burning, you know, coach wants to see you and you know exactly what that means. And then you have to leave the building and you can't go back in tomorrow and you've got a duffel bag of stuff. And then those, like with Bouillet, what you're saying is like,

he had to have that happen to him five times. You had to get knocked down like that, get back up, go to another team, have that conversation with the second team, go to another team, have that conversation with that team and stay mentally strong and not give up and then stick with the sons. Like we don't tell those stories that much in this league because we are so star-focused. And, you know, that's what people want to hear.

And that's what we talk about. But like, those like hard knocks the stories are awesome. That's a really good love. I'm jealous of that one for now. I'm going to take that one next year. I'm going to put it in my calendar. When you're doing the show with Dr. March.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, with me and Doc, you know, we're not even going to be here. They're going to be, those are the guys that hated the Thunder and Victor Women Yama. We have things of terrible. Yeah, they're like the next 10 years. It looks like, I don't know, it looks like Thunder and Spurs are going to be in this for a while. Seems like the two most important teams in the NBA. Those guys have pissed off their fan bases. Oh, God.

All right. A terrible career. I'm going to update my resume after this show. I'm going to put a caveat on that, on this. my final my final love um i understand that this is completely for gasey but i'm enjoying and i want to shed a light on a team that was one of the teams in preseason that we were like look out this team could could be at the top of the east and like they've just kind of been okay and there's been injuries and there's been one player that could celebrate it a lot but they're in a

five-game Fagasy win streak. If you look down at your paper, do you don't know who it is? The Atlanta Hawks. They had a great win against the Bucks last night. Now, I say five-game win streak. It is important to point out, Nets, Wizards, Wizards, Blazers that were missing guys. And then Bucks.

But Janus was back last night. It was a great game. They switched, he was, Yonis was absolutely great, but they put Dyson Daniels on him, and he did a great job on him. and they got like six players and double figures. Camingo wasn't there, but he's been playing well. And I don't know.

It was just like it just feels like a nice little story. It's a team that we don't really think about too much at all. Like even like the magic we talk about how they should be better. But the Hawks are just kind of like, eh, you know. And it was just like a nice little story. They've coming up, they've got a homestand, five game homestands, Sixers, Mavs, Nets, bucks, magic. Like there could be some wins in there, you know?

you also, you know, they're always part of the play in invitational. Yeah. But when you think about like what level of dangerous are they, like they got all those wings healthy and you're playing a one game set. You know they got a good coach. So he's game planned out for you for the one game. And, you know, comminga goes off for 20 something or Jaila Johnson just does a little bit of everything and triple doubles you or like, I mean,

And also, do you forget, do you forget, they have a coach that'll coach you up and they have a coach on the floor, C.J. McCollum. You know what I mean? Like, you think of them as a young team, but like C.J. McCollum played played well last night. He's still scoring the rock. And like, in a playoff and playing environment, he's a nice floor general for all of those young athletic wings. They have been much more fun to watch recently. Yes. The comming a thing is, like, oh, look. Oh, I know. And I mean, you know, the Warriors fan, say it. It, it. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. Everybody's like, I mean, Steve Kerr obviously has his preferences on players, but it's like, what? McCain and Caminga and you're like, McCain and Caminga is just like, what is going on? Like, what is going on? This is about, this is about a coach that didn't like you. It's obviously not that the guy can't play. That's fine, right?

The coach, the coach doesn't like you, but like, do you get back Chris Daps, Porsingas? Yeah. Like. And then you, you like, actually, I mean, if you ever get him back. What a bizarre thing that is. Yeah, that's, you know what? I'm just a tack on that's on my loads as well. God, I wish he was like, this is just a weird.

It's one thing if you're injured, but this is just weird. Really weird. It is weird. All right. Oh, boy, I don't like to do this on my loads, but I text to you guys all this last night. I was at that game, the Grizzlies players. I know everybody in our audience was watching it.

We don't have an audience anymore after Tuesday's show. Bro, scoot. Yo, Jacoby. Watching it in person was jarring. I loved him coming into the draft. I went in track. I went down to go watch him play against the Memphis hustle when he played that year for the G League Ignite.

And I was like, oh, my God, this guy is a truck. They made up a game in Vegas. They made up an entire game in Vegas. It did not exist. There was no reason for it to happen for him to play against Wemby. It was like the two most important prospects going ahead to head, who's better? And he was electric. Absolutely.

And he's still like a tank and the old thing. I watched him last night, bro. He couldn't make an entry pass. He couldn't make a shot. Oh, my God. Like, I watched him, like, Drew Holiday went nuclear last night. It was like old school Drew Holiday. Like, he made eight threes, had 35 points.

He was awesome. But you watched Drew, like, it's almost like it was worse. I'm watching Drew Holiday, and then I'm watching Scoot, and I'm like, oh, my God. Like this, he just, it was so bad. I didn't watch the game. And I was, and I was, tell me more about what he did. And I was a guy with a little bit of Scoot stock left. But, bro, I mean, again, maybe I saw him on a bad night, but it was atrocious.

Like, honestly, I was like, yeah, this isn't it. This is not it. Because he's still young, and he's still young. He can still develop, you know. But I was worried last night. I mean, like, you know, Donovan Klingen is literally sealing Walter Clayton Jr. Or somebody that's like six, three. And he can't even like, he just doesn't have like that innate thing.

And I'm just left going, what do you do? What do you do that's awesome? What do you do? that's awesome. That's the problem. This guy was a very, very high draft pick. And I was, and I thought he was just going to be so dynamic. I watched that game and go, what do you do that is awesome? And the answer was nothing.

Nothing. You don't do anything awesome. There's nothing exemplary about what you do. And I hope that, I hope that I'm wrong. I'm hope that it changes. I'm hoping that he becomes, you know, he's just young. And so maybe sometimes, you know, you never know the trajectory of these guys, right? Sometimes it's four or five years before it takes. But just watching them last night and like wanting a glimpse of something special, you know,

they don't have Shadenny Obdia. They don't have guys right now, right? Like they're big guys last night were Drew Holiday and Jeremy Grant. That's who they're getting by with. And Klingan got kicked out of the game. For good reason. And then time lord became Bill Russell. You know.

but I'm sitting there. I intently watched him. Yeah. And I was like, yeah. I know why you were watching. You wanted the exact opposite to happen. You wanted to come on the show today. And one of your loves was it's finally starting to work for Scoot.

Yes. Yes. And it's not. I watched it and go, what do you do? Like, you're not a good shooter. And you don't really get to the basket at will.

And you're not really good at getting your other teammates good shot. Like, what do you do that's awesome? You got to find a niche, bro. Bruno. Jaden Ivy. It's another one of your guys. I know, and they're kind of similar, too.

You know what I mean? That's tough. But they were explosive. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, and he ain't explosive no more. Maybe it's. Maybe it'll come back after the injury. Maybe it's a Verno curse.

Oh, stop that. That's not fair. It's not fair at all. I'm no Danhausen. I apologize. I don't know that story. Have you seen Danhausen? No.

Oh, Danhausen's this guy. Wrestling fans got furious last week at the pay-per-view because they built up this whole thing where they're opening up a box. And so everybody's been waiting for the box. And then they open up the box. And this guy comes out and there's all this chick, these chicks in like this face paint.

And they're like, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. What are he talking about? No. And he's like a, he's like a vampire, like a funny vampire. and his name Dan Housen, and wrestling fans were all like, boom, they're so mad about it. But the guy is hilarious. And his bit is- A vampire comedian with a harem.

Yes, but his bit is, you are curse. He curses people. And that's what you're saying. When you say, I'm no Dan Houser. The idea. The idea that you think that I would get the reference from the paper of you. wrestling match with the comedian vampire that has you think i would get that reference it was a big thing online you might have seen it on instagram okay that's the algorithm you know my algorithm bro

and you will see him now you will see him now he's damn house it's unbelievable instagram's always listening no i got headphones on so my phone can't hear me right now so i'm good but's and basketball that's my algorithm i don't get the dan housing that's not in there all right here's my last one And, you know, it's Bill-centric. I'm going to tell a story from his home, but I'm not violating any privacy. But he was like, we were at work hanging out here at this beautiful new studio in Los Angeles. He was like, you want to come over and watch some basketball? I'm like, totally.

Yeah, cool, watch the basketball. So we come out, you know, go over the house and we're hanging out, watch basketball. And I'm done with work. And, you know, his wife is the best, Carrie. And she had a friend over Krista. And, like, hey, you know, Jacoby, do you want a drink? I'm like, yeah, I have a drink. So we're hanging out with Carrie and Krista and we're laughing, having a great time.

And again, the games come on in the afternoon. So we're watching the Knicks Spurs game, great game. And of course, we're also watching like the Bill Simmons Bull, his son Connipple and the Hornets against his team. I don't know if you've heard. He's a Celtics fan, right? Yeah, yeah. I heard that.

And first of all, one game is a blowout. And one game is like a really good game with two title contenders. And it's just like, can we get the big TV for the Nick Spurs, please? Like, no, of course not. The Hornets are hitting everything. And Bill goes from like laughing hosty, bubbly guy. And like you can see like as the hornets start to pull away, it's like less, less comments from Bill. You know what I mean?

Like a little less energy. And I'm like, oh, his team is losing. Even though it was the Hornet? Even though it was the Hornets. You know what I mean? Even though. And the hornets dagger after. The hornets looked so good.

Dude, it was wild. If you just watch this game. you'd think this was like the globe-trotters. Like, it was crazy. The clip of Lamello hitting that 40-footer off one left. But that was like a shot clock thing, but like they were just hitting everything. The con goes around a screen, bang.

Brandon Miller dunks. And then con goes around the screen bang. They just doing everything. Miller 3, Lamello 3. It was just like Diabate. It was like they were an absolute buzzsaw. It is this thing. Yeah, the moose.

The moose. And then the saddest part, the Nick Spurs is going to. the end. So like the, you know, the Celtics are on the little tiny like iPad in front of them. And like, I don't know, like Hugo hits a three to bring it to within 17 with like seven minutes left. And he was like doing the calculations of like how the Celtics could come back and win. And I'm sitting there like, this guy is such a fan. There's no way. After seeing what I've watched for the last like three and a half quarters that the Celtics could come back.

it was just like the hope in his eyes and like that guy's like I love that guy and he was like legit sad and what else is cool is like he's such a fan you know what I mean it was just like and then the vibes changed like after the game I'm like all right I gotta go you know it's just like

sad you know there's nothing right but it really made me happy it made me happy like how invested this dude is into Celtic success in the highs and the lows because like you know the Knicks get blown out it doesn't really, like, bother me. You know what I mean? I just don't have that level of investment in the team, you know?

So he is, but he's pretty invested in these Hornets now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, at least, at least it was couched a little bit because it was them. Yeah, but it was like, it was a really great hang, and it was just like, oh, man, I wish the Celtics won. The second half of this hang would have been more fun. Just two other things I want to mention before we get out of here. I loved Stephen A and the Pelicans going back and forth at it on, on social media. them posting like his horrible first pitch

and airballing threes and whatever. You know, like at least entertain me. One thing I loved about that so much is it came from absolutely nowhere. He was like, I heard that Zion likes to like eat food. And then they do this.

You know, that's like where it started. You know what I mean? He's like everybody in New Orleans, no Zion knows food. Yeah, it's just like, dude. I've been to New Orleans for like three days and gained like 30 pounds.

Like it's great. But like what I love to think about is the social means. media team because they don't hire people our age to like run the social media team. It's always kind of like fresh out of college, super online, like, you know, TikTok is their life. And like they put together these edits and like they post these posts and they just sit there and look at the engagement and look at the comments. Because it's literally their job to like create these things. And like they went out that night to the bar and toasted champagne because like we rained him in.

We got him. We got Stevie Day to talk about us. And then tell you got to continue the story about how Stephen A responds to the video. Well, no, first, the first, the whole rant, look, Stephen A is a master. The whole rant of like, I talk to people in New Orleans and everybody in New Orleans knows that Zion loves food. And then tell the story of Zion hiding food under his bed. Who's he hiding it from, number one. Number two is why would you put it under the bed?

do you have cabinets it's ridiculous does someone come to his hotel room do they do they do check-ins for like for curfee check-ins and stuff they do like make sure he didn't get room service like what is it how is that possible but it's also so specific that it might be true

you know what I mean because Stephen A is a lot of things but he's pretty responsible with the things he says like he's not just making that up at a thing there someone has told him that yes and then but

But then he responds, responds, and he's like, he responds to the video and he's just like, the Pelicans, you are nothing. I am bigger than you, pelicans. And I'm sitting there being like, I don't even know how to compare these things. You know what I mean? It's like, it's like, I don't even like a bigger, like I don't even know, I don't even know, like, what the measuring stick is to use of whether Stephen A is bigger than the Pelicans, like a, a full on franchise in the NBA.

So I can't even like fathom doing the mental gymnastics to figure out if he's right. But like he is a master of what he does. And his response to the Pelicans was like, you are nothing. I squash you pelicans. He basically is like the Straunya Yokit route. Yes. Of like verbal judo.

I didn't even know how to wrap my head around it. I think he won. I guess I don't know. I think he won. But look, I just want them to go back and forth on the thing. Yes. And so do the Pelicans.

Like if you're a social media manager for the Pelicans, He's like, all right, they had a meeting. Like, what's the agenda on today's meeting? Like, how do we get Stephen Day to keep engaging with us? Like, anybody got any ideas? Also, last thing I want to mention, our favorite, Janice Adj de Kumpo, who has been in the news since the preseason of this year.

He was happy to be back out there in his interview that he did with Vanessa Richardson, Sidesa reporter. But she did a report saying he's happy to be back out there, called it, one of the toughest seasons of his career. Quote, I've had injuries. We're not playing well as a team. Something feels off about this season. I wonder what it could be.

Do you have anything that could have made this season feel off going back to last July where the stories were coming out about the addition of Camp Thomas made? maybe maybe that's what it yeah maybe maybe it's the whole like you know Kevin Porter yeah you know ride rods I just that the chemistry's just been a little off you know with everybody this year or whatever yeah no book Lopez kind of no book Lopez so like the defensive schemes need to change and adjust my addition of miles Turner that would you know it's a lot of turnover kind of roster yeah just it is kind of weird how things have just kind of felt awful here for the buck yeah it's honestly it's like it's like my wife really pinpointed my wife finding out I've had an affair and then like the next day me being like Joey are are we are we okay

you know what I mean it seems like we're a little off you're communicating differently do we need to talk about something I can't really put my finger on it exactly something feels something just feels off about this season do you need me to take out the trash I mean it's It's just a hilarious quote. Jonas has been so perplexing this year with some of the things he says. He's literally trying to play seven sides of the fence on this thing. It's so weird. I hope he figures out why this season's off.

Yeah, yeah. We should launch. You know what? I've got Pablo's number. I'm like, you need to investigate what has been off with the bucks this season. Get the whole team on it and report back in a month. Unbelievable. All right.

Thanks to our crew as always. Thanks to Brian. Thank you, Jeff. Thanks to Tom for making it all happen. Kobe. I'll talk you next week.