The Mismatch - LaMelo Ball and the Instant Impact of NBA Rookies. Plus: Appreciating Dejounte Murray, Steph Curry, and De’Aaron Fox.

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

Verno and KOC take a tour around the league, starting with LaMelo Ball's success in Charlotte (3:00) and what factors play into the increasingly early success of young players over the past decade (11:00). Then they jet over to San Antonio, where Dejounte Murray led the Spurs to victory over the Warriors (28:36) and Steph Curry continued to make a fringe case for MVP (31:30). Finally, they hit Utah to discuss an underappreciated Jazz team (34:40), Boston to parse through trade whispers (37:45), and Sacramento to acknowledge De’Aaron Fox’s bona fide star power (51:15). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, this is Kevin O'Connor on today's episode of The Mismatch. Chris Vernon and I got into a lot. This was a really great show. We opened up talking about Lamello Ball. Then we got into some of the factors that are influencing young players to come into the league and make an impact right away. And then we got into a lot around the league that's been happening lately. Steph going off, DeJante Murray, and Deeran Fox making leaps with their respective teams and a whole lot

else. All that's coming up next. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And join him as he does every Tuesday from the ringer.com. Kevin O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O'Connor, A.K.K.O. Kavana O'Connor. Kevin O'Connor. Kevin O'Connor. Kevin O'Kandle. Kevin O'Kine. What up? Man, do we have a ton to get to today. I did not witness the biggest story of the night, but I did see something interestingly enough in person that you do not normally see, which was I saw a coach get thrown out of a game and then his team turn. all the way up as I was at the Memphis Toronto game last night. And Nick Nurse was mad about a non-call on Fred Van Fleet.

Goes absolutely nuts. They throw him out of the game. And from that point on, his team just, it was a mercy killing the rest of the way against the Grizzlies. And so shouts to Nick Nurse, you don't see it that often with the coach getting thrown out, especially these days. But his assistant Adrian Griffin took over. And in spot work did an unbelievable job. And it happened with Jonas Valenchutus getting 27 and 20.

But man, like the Raptors Seacom has been better. You know, Valdeat has had some remarkable games last night. Again, I had another good night, 32 points on 14 shots. They get some firepower, man. It feels like the Raptors are starting to turn their season around. Yeah. And when they go small, you know, they've got Bouchet's been very, very good for them this year. Love Boucher.

He's got a great story too. What is this? Baines? No, Kev. Like, he helped Phoenix last year. Yeah. I don't know what happened.

It's a shame. They left him in there. Valenutinus might have broke Wilt's record. It's a good of 50-50. Oh my God. Dude, like with Baines, are you familiar with the Twitter handle

a Baines fan club? Oh. Right. Yeah, right? You'd think so after John Morant defiled him last year. Yes, I'm aware. But now Baines fan club, you know, with Raptors fans, it's controlled by Raptors fans after being passed on from Sun's fans.

Now it's like nobody wants to be a part of James fan club. It's very sad. One too many transfers, right? Okay. Well, the story last night was not that game that I was at. It was every time I looked down at my phone, I was either getting. getting another text or I was seeing another tweet about Lamello ball. Lamello ball, it felt like last night was one of those nights.

It's a day after the Super Bowl. It's a Monday night. It's a good league past night. Hey, Lamello's starting. It felt like a massive amount of the NBA community was all logged in to watch that with Charlotte playing against Houston because there were two things. Obviously, Lamello and people going crazy over. that. Also, people going crazy over the Hornets announcer, who I was privy to earlier this year,

and I've watched them quite a bit. And he's, I mean, he's unlike what you hear in other markets, a level of energy that is undefined. He is so fun, so fun. I remember earlier this year, Beambos shot a three, and he yelled, oh my goodness. I remember the Terry Rozier dunk over Kevin Garnett where he had an amazing call. But anyway, yeah, so there's a lot of people Eric Collins, right? Yeah, Eric Collins. Right. Yeah, Eric Collins. Yeah, he's awesome. Yes. I love the thrill and the passion he brings in the game. He's so fun. He is fun. Because he's, it stands out when you're flipping around on league. He's the perfect voice for

Lamello, who is already one of the game's most exciting players to watch, whether, like, whether it's open court passes, like the transition pass he had to Cody Seller where he just passed him open at the perfect angle where he could catch it or stuff in the half court, man. Like Lamello, the number one concern with him entering the draft was, well, you know, how can he shoot from the perimeter? Is he going to be able to get to the basket? And rightfully so, seeing him perform in the past at lower levels in Australia and high school and Lithuania, that was a legitimate concern.

But him doing this already at 19 years old, he shot 7 of 12 from 10. three last 90, shooting over 50% from three for the month, averaging 24 points per game for the month this year, and overall for the full season, two and 36% from three at high 70s from the free throw line. Like, he looks for real.

That's the revelation, Kemp, because we knew that he had a lot of the other stuff, but there was a lot of is it Jason kid, is it Ray John Ranto? Is it like a guy that may end up having to develop his shot later down the road? But he's

not going to be a guy that you're too worried about. People are going to be going under screens for quite a while. You hit seven threes. You've got people paying attention, man. Seven is a big number to hit in the game, not just catch and shoot. Right. And so if that was the chink in the armor, as they say, look, man, he's bombing out. At 36% that's fine. Right. If he can, if he can be respected to where everybody just doesn't start guarding him at the free throw line extended or going under every screen, now you're unlocking a totally different player who can beat you from all over the court. And as of right now, Kiv, Lamello Ball, you know, people can,

I know that with somebody like him, especially given his level of celebrity since the time he was 12 years old, that people can, you know, think that it's hype. This is what's not hype. He is leading all rookies. This was Zach Cram from the ringers. Shout out of the day this morning. Lamello Ball leads all rookies in total points, rebounds, assists, steals, double doubles and triple doubles,

also turnovers, but the small price to pay for the rest of that production as he writes. I mean, to be leading in points, rebounds, assists, steals, all categories? Yeah. he's averaging more rebounds than James Wiseman? You know what I mean? Like what is happening here?

I mean, he impacts the game in so many different ways. And this is why with the mellow, it felt like before the draft, he had a baseline, a foundation to build upon with his playmaking, with his activity as a rebounder for his size. It's like six foot eight with his playmaking vision.

You're going to be a quality rotation player at worst for a long time. It was just about everything else. I mean, the defensive aspect, there's still situations in which maybe he misses his assignment off ball and gets off track a little bit, loses, you know, positioning. But the activity overall on defense is highly impressive, I think. Like the fact that, like you said, leading in rebounds shows the instinct to chase the ball. He's not leading in blocks or steals, but I feel like he's always around the play and is getting his hands on balls with deflections and is, you know, disturbing what the

offense wants to do. So factor in the shooting improvement. on top of the fact that his defense is at least, you know, quality enough, where he's not anywhere close to being a liability. And then everything else that he brings, like, Lamello's already probably one of the top 100 guys in the league. I don't feel like, I feel like that's probably not even a hot thing to say, but like he's already in a league that's so deep right now. There's not a lot of guys that you look at and it's like, no, duh, this guy impact.

winning. And Lamello already as a 19-year-old rookie, it's pretty clear that this guy is helping the Hornets, you know, compete and you know, win some games. And, man, I'm highly impressed. It's pretty obvious he'd go number one in a redraft already today. Well,

and that's the crazy thing about what has happened over the course of the last, like, four or five years or so. You go back to even, and we don't have to go super far back, but even like with like Ben Simmons and, and, and, and Donovan Mitchell.

These guys were impacting winning as rookies. We see last year with John Morant, you see it with Zion, you see it with other guys. And we've seen it now over the course of these last four or five years, much more often than we ever saw before, like, unless they were like the transcendent player, like coming into a situation and affecting winning immediately, was just not, that wasn't in the cards. But now you see these guys, they are just, they are so much better, so much quicker than they have ever been.

Really? I mean, like they are ready made to be able, there is a, there used to be especially for point guards in the NBA, a huge learning curve. But now we see all these guys that handle the ball. Trey Young, Luca Dodgich, John, Jaya Moran. this kid, Donovan Mitchell, a couple of years ago, Ben Simmons, you know, I mean, like, these are all within the last five, six years. And to be this good immediately is just not something that was commonplace a decade ago. Sure. And I think this relates a little bit to or maybe a lot to the rule changes throughout the league, you know, removing hand checking years ago. It's opened up the perimeter and maybe it just took, you know, over a decade for the young generation to come in and have skills. perimeter-based skills to be able to take advantage of those, you know, to take advantage of that

space at a young age. It's sort of like in the NFL, how offenses have more of an advantage now, able to do more. You see more young quarterbacks get opportunities and oftentimes a lot of them produce at a younger age. And it's also extended older guys like we just saw with Tom Brady and, you know, even Drew Breeze and Aaron Rogers and so many others that play into their late 30s and continue to produce at least an above average or sometimes a great level. And I feel like it has to be that, but I wonder what other factors could be contributing to the fact that we do have so many of these young point guards that are able to come in right away and do that. I wonder if I don't know what it is. It's the YouTube generation kids growing up. You know, they're studying more.

Like, is it better coaching? It's probably a lot of different factors. Okay. This would be, and this, I wish I had thought about this more, but it was just kind of off the cuff that we got in this conversation. I would say two things that I have noticed significantly, and I've talked to you about this a lot over the last couple of years. The level of maturity of the kids that come in the league now is just different. It's different than it was 10 years ago, 15 years ago, maybe even five years ago. these kids are conditioned to celebrity now in a way that they were never conditioned to it before. If they had a crappy high school game, they heard about it, right? Like they were forced to grow.

It's almost like, you know, when you become famous, a lot of these guys, like, they didn't start getting criticism or they didn't start, everybody loved them until they were, you know, in the NBA. and it's the first time that they're really going through hard times, or they felt like they're on their own, or they felt like they're kind of off alone. I would say the guidance of these kids is so much better. I've talked about how many kids are coming from just great, great families. Over and over again, I see it. And the other thing is the guidance that they get on the business side, too.

You know, there are so many people steering these guys in the right direction to make the most out of there. And sometimes that can be dangerous because they're treated almost as an asset when they're, by the time they're 15 years old. But I will say the good of that is like a brand. Yeah, this level of maturity. Your Instagram page are ready, your YouTube highlights. It's about generating, yeah, followers and all that. Famous for six years. He's been under the gun.

People have been paying attention to what he is doing for the last six years of his life. So, I mean, in fact, I would say he's probably getting less attention being in Charlotte than he has gotten even when he was in like, like he didn't in like overseas as much. But like when he's at Chino Hills or something. Yeah. I mean, while Lonzo was entering the league. When Lonzo in the UCLA as a top pick, Lamello was, you know, really. People were aware. That's weird.

Especially when he scored the 100 points, which is ridiculous and all the stuff like that. So I would say maturity is one thing. And I think you're dead on about the way the game is played. There are not the, you can't grab and clutch these guys and you can't overwhelm them physically like you used to. It doesn't matter if you are the huge, you know, barrel-chested defender that like a guy. just can't get past. If he can't grab you and he can't use his arms and even with that freedom of motion, he can't even like really stay connected to you like he did. And I'm talking, you know, six, seven years ago. I mean, I just did during this quarantine. I did all of these like old,

you know, great playoff games in Grizzlies history. And one of the ones we did, me and Tony Allen, we sat down and we did the Warrior series. Bro, you could never defend the war. You Warriors like what Tony did in that series. Like, you would be, you, you fell out in the first quarter. And that's just what? Seven years ago, six, seven years ago. So I do think that you're, you're right. It's the, the fact that they have tried to make offense better.

But I also think these kids, you put them in front of a camera. They've been in front of a camera since the time they were 10. Like it's nothing to them. With their little, with phones, you know, people growing up with phones, growing up, with the internet. And I feel that too in my own way growing up as a child of the internet since I was 11, 12 years old. I was talking to people around the world. And as you were talking, I was thinking about how I remember years ago. And this is so random. There used to be a Stevie Ray Vaughn guitar lesson channel on YouTube. And the guy on there talked about how when he was growing up, he used to think

like he was the next Stevie Ray, how he was so good at playing guitar. and like the small club in his town that he thought he was the next big thing. But then when the internet came out, he realized, oh my God, there's great guitarists in every city, every town, every state or across the country. And he's like, I'm, you know, just one of many that are super talented at playing this instrument. And with basketball players, I wonder how much of it is with this generation is an awareness of how hard you need to work in order to move up those rankings, in order to make it into college basketball, in order to make it in the NBA, an awareness and a desire to then,

therefore, look at the things that you need to get better at on YouTube, you know, watching film with coaches, watching league pass at night, what you're going to work on with your trainer. I just wonder if it's all of these things adding up together. like you said, better, you know, guidance from parents or mentors in addition to the fact that you know what the competition is more than ever before because we're all interconnected because of the internet. You have all the information out there. Not only that, they play against each other like they didn't before. Even when they're young, I never, ever knew a kid. I knew a kid who was the best baseball player at my school growing up.

And he, like, made one of those junior USA teams that got to, like, travel over to Japan and play in it. Like, that was the only time I ever heard about any kid traveling to play anything. I'm not kidding. Like, it just wasn't, that wasn't what happened. It wasn't relevant. There are two kids on my son's team that regularly travel to tournaments all the time, Florida, Dallas, wherever. Like, they're going all around the country. Kevin, they're in fifth grade.

They're in fifth grade. They go all around the country playing against other AAU teams. It's crazy. It's crazy. They're going to experience traveling and having a prep on the road, like in a hotel room and all that. But you didn't know how good some kid from another city was. You didn't know how your city stacked up. I mean, Stephen Jackson held a tournament in this town, like an Iverson tournament.

A couple of weeks ago, there were. were teams from all over the country and college coaches from all over the country. They're in the gym just to watch it. I mean, and so you knew, like, is the best team from St. Louis as good as this team? Is this? I mean, it's just, it's a different world. You know what I mean? Like, you think about these stories that we grew up with.

Think about the Tom Brady story that we're just going through right now. Think about the Jordan story about being cut by JV. You know, my son right now has been. been inspired by a video that he saw last week. He is, it's been 30 degrees and he's been out shooting every day because he watched a video where Kobe Bryant said he played his eighth grade summer and he did not score one point, not one. And he was, and the guy, the interviewer is like, what?

What do you talk about? He was like, because I sucked. And he's like, but my father told me the most important thing you could tell a kid is that, I love you whether you score zero or whether you score 60. I love you either way. And I'll support you either way. And he goes, and that made me want to score 60. And so I went and worked and worked and worked.

But I mean, you think about that. Like, think eighth grade. And then someday you might score 81, right? Right. But I mean, you hear these stories and it's like of Kobe and of Jordan and of Brady and of like all these guys. Like, that's just not kids now. kids now, like there are going to be some that get good in eighth grade.

But I mean, the majority of these kids, they start playing when they're old enough to play. And they start traveling if they're really good. It's crazy. It is. By the way, just one of a thought on this. You just mentioned Kobe brings to mind the fact that I feel like when it comes to some of the heights, the great athletes today are reaching, Tom Brady at 43, LeBron at 36, Kobe, you know, producing late into his 30s. I mean, you have all these great athletes, Serena Williams and Roger Federer at 39.

I feel like regardless of the sport that you play, there are a lot of great examples that are influencing the youth. Absolutely. Showing the way and what you need to do in order to maximize your performance and, you know, reach your potential. And I wonder how much of it is that. Again, like tying into just the, it's not like there weren't great examples in any other decade. It's just with information today and how accessible it is. To see a clip of Kobe Bryant talking on YouTube and get that lesson, that wisdom, that is something that may have been inaccessible in the past to kids because of now the information that's out there with YouTube and Twitter and everything else.

There's not a bad with the internet, but I feel like there's a lot of good that can be had, especially for kids. Absolutely. Like the only thing I remember when I was a kid, no lie. I had this video of Ozzy Smith, who was my favorite baseball player, and Ozzie Smith showed this thing. When he was a kid, he didn't have a glove. He used to, in order to get his hands good and become a good fielder, he wore a paper bag on his left hand, and he threw a tennis ball up against a wall every day. And he would catch it with the paper sack, you know, and imagine, I mean, that's me as eight years old. I'm outside throwing a ball against my wall with a paper sack.

But that was the only thing I knew of was this one video I had of this guy. At least it was something I could glean like, oh, that's why he's awesome. Well, I could do that too, right? It didn't work out the same way as Ozzy Smith. But I can't field if you need me to. I just didn't read Ozzy Smith. Close, though. You got close.

You're right. You're right, though. Now there is so much more access. They're better. They are just better. I see these kids now. I mean, the way they play and like because the curry thing helped a different way to. Kids shoot threes now.

In fourth grade, they shoot threes. No one ever shot a three when I was a kid. Like, I mean, it was unfathomable. So on this week on Ringarindia University, I have Cyritz-Sohy. from Yahoo Sports is a guest on the show that comes out on Wednesday. And we kind of touch on exactly what you just said about how everybody's

shooting three now, because we talked about kind of the evolution of bigs and how today's league you see so many perimeter based bigs that can be playmakers for you or shooters for you that bring the ball up the court. Basketball has truly become a positionless game. And she

brought up the point about how, you know, when players were younger like generations ago or even just 10 years ago, if you were big, you know, it's kind of a self-fulfulfilling prophecy, she said, for those bigs to be told, play near the room, post up, you know, rebound, not dribble the ball, not shoot. And nowadays, it's everybody, regardless of sides, regardless of your shape of your body, they're all shooting.

And that has created the influx of young bigs in the league today that can all pass and shoot and dribble and do all the things that small guys have always been able to. It just has made for a really beautiful game, I think. I don't know if this is necessarily a proud father video or what, but I mean, I think you can even hear me on the video. The first shot of the season, my kid is 11. The first shot of the season, they threw it to him at the top of the key. He pulled a three.

And I said, what the hell? What are you doing? Like, are you trying to get thrown out? And he made it. Yeah. He made the three. I mean, I'm thinking, like, this coach is going to pull you immediately. What are you doing?

Like, why? Why are you, but that's just, it's how they play. It's how they play now. You know what I mean? One thing we do need to touch on before we get everything around the league is we spent a lot of time on Lamello. But I do think this bears noting. One of the things about being so good, so quickly is I think it's instructive when we look at Luca, who was able to come in the league and immediately be as fantastic as he was.

And Lamello, too, because we say. this in conjunction. That G League is starting this week. And there's a lot of kids on that Ignite team that decided not to go to college but rather take their talents to the G League and play against grown men.

Take their talents to Disney World. Well, we said that Lamello was going to be incredibly significant. That maybe it doesn't mean that they go over and they play in Australia or New Zealand or wherever

else. We really haven't seen R.J. Hampton yet. And that's just because Saturday. Saturday was pretty good. He's pretty good. But only one game. It's not a big sample yet for RJ. But with Lamello, it was, he went and he took this

odd route. And he went to Lithuania. And he went and played Australia. And so we needed, if there were going to be more guys that decide, I don't need college basketball necessarily in order to get where I want to get and maybe the best prep for me is to play against, you know, grown men. Yeah.

The Lamello thing is very helpful towards that. Now, we're going to see with Jalen Green and those other kids that are playing for this Ignite team with the G League, but at least so far, I mean, I think it's hard to, I think it's hard to argue that Lamello wasn't maybe a little more prepared for what he was getting into by going and struggling in some cases how he did last year. Absolutely, 100%. I think playing up a level, whether you're six years old,

I'm facing seven and eight-year-old kids or whether you're 17-18 facing some 27-year-old, 30-year-old people for La Mello Ball. I would imagine that that was valuable in ways that we really can't measure, especially in that league. The NBL, I mean, it is not the same level as like the Euro League. It's not the same level as the Spanish League, you know, it's, but it is a league full of grown men who are playing hard and who a lot of the time, you know, are, like, for some of them, those contracts come after, you know, a contract in the Euro League.

This is, this is like a league for them to fight to get back. Just like for the G League, it's a league to get into the NBA. The NBA is full of players that are trying to prove themselves, and they're doing everything possible to do that. And, you know, I'm sure that level of competition for Lamello, even though it's a small sample, I'm sure that's very, very helpful. That's a very talented league. Well, and you just wonder, and we'll see what happens with R.J. Hampton, too,

is his story plays out. But you wonder about college basketball and what kind of effect that this is going to have, because we're not far away from kids being able to go straight to the NBA. And so there will be a group of those that choose that path every year. And then the other ones that are really good. Are they more apt to do the G League route? And again, we'll find out what happens with Jalen Green and all those, right? Do they help their stock by playing there?

Do they hurt their stock by playing there? But, I mean, they're going, go look at those G League rosters. I mean, there's a lot of guys with NBA experience or that are going to have. have NBA experience, you know, on that team. I think they said last night when I was at the game that the Raptors have like, I think it was 10, 10 guys or something like that that have played in the G League. Yeah. Not the least of which are Seaccom and Van Vleet.

They're two best players right now, right? But like, they're playing against real players that Ignite team is. And so we're going to find out. But Lamello, the speed of the game, the physicality of the game, like, he doesn't look overwhelmed at all, at all. Not one bit. Not one bit. All right. Let's talk about everything else that's been going on. That's a fun discussion, Chris. I enjoyed that.

Yeah. Draymond Green had, what do you call it, the best smart, dumb play ever? Oh, yeah. Where he thought he was going to get fouled at the end of the game. And so he chucked up a three that bats off the backboard with eight seconds left in a game. And it kind of overshadowed, you know, the goofiness of that last. play overshadowed Dejante Murray hitting a monster shot. Oh, yeah.

And having just a all-timer game. I think it ended up with eight steals. Eight steals. I mean, that's a crazy number. That's like, yeah, I remember when I was a kid, I used to read these books about, like, you know, guys like Alvin Robertson have all these steals.

Or like, you know, Nate McMillan, that was a big steals guy. He was amazing. Eight steals. Yeah, it's very rare to have guys that are capable of doing that. And like, Murray, this season, there was a two-game stretch against the Celtics and then against the Nuggets,

consecutive games where he picked, you know, the pocket of Kemper Walker in the closing minute of a game against the Celtics, man-to-man, one-on-one defense from the perimeter. And then the next game against Denver with like three minutes left and a pivotal possession, he did the same thing to Jamal, Murray. I mean, it's not like he's just jumping passing lanes

or coming up with some steals where it's kind of a loose ball, and you grab it and you get credit for the steel. He's doing this in situations in which, like, it is just completely flubbing up what the opponent wants to do. Like, he's just always in there with his arms and he moves so quick laterally. He's a truly outstanding defender. But what we saw in that game against the Warriors, as you mentioned, he hit that big shot.

The question with him has always been, what level can he reach as a score? Can he develop a reliable jump shot? And we saw what happens when the jump shot, is reliable. I mean, he's not going to shoot 10 of 19 from the field, 2 of 5 from 3 every night to score 27 points. But if maybe 5 years from now, 4 years from now, 6 years from now, in his prime years, he's able to be a more consistent shooter like we've seen other players do as they get into the late 20s. This guy has a chance to be an elite player because he already has the elite defense.

He's already a really good playmaker. If that's scoring can become consistent, we saw an elite player in that one game last night against Golden State. And it's interesting because it's guys like him that we think the ship is sailed on what they're going to become. And we've made that mistake so many times in the past, right? Like the ship, we don't know what he's going to look like in two years. And he might be even possibly a much different player than he is right now. Sure. I mean, he's 24 for what it's worth.

But he's a young 24 in terms of what I think his developmental traditional. director. Well, he lost a year. Yeah, they did lose a year. Yep. Yeah, you know what I mean? So that's nice for him to get back to, you know, you, that's what I mean. Like he had the injury and also he was raw coming in, like so many factors. He's still young in development. That was a bump in the road rather than a detour for your career, right? On the flip side, I said at the beginning of the season, you were real high on the

Warriors and I said, yo, Kiv, Curry's going to have to average like 35 a game for them to be able to get to be a playoff team. Well, since the new year, Steph Curry has averaged 30 points per game, six rebounds and six assists while shooting 50% from the field, 45% from three, 93% from the free throw line. What the hell? He's something, man. And they're like 500. Yeah, they're 12 and 12. 12. So I wrote this yesterday on the ringer for my new power rankings. Where is his name in the MVP discussion? And let me make this clear. I mean, he's having nearly identical stats to his 15, 16th season when he was the unanimous MVP.

And I understand there are a lot of MVP candidates this season. But I just have a hard time understanding why Steph's name is so rarely mentioned when Yokic, who rightfully is considered a serious contender to win MVP, is playing on a team as one more, you know, win, well, actually one last loss than the Warriors are 12 and 11. The Warriors are 12 and 12. It's just, if we're talking about people say, oh, well, the Warriors have a 500 record. That's why Steph's not included in the discussion. It doesn't make sense to me that Yokic, whose team is 12 and 11 is featured predominantly as a favorite in the discussion.

To me, Steph belongs in it because without this guy, oh, God, they would win in the teens. Yeah, they would win in the teens. Like, seriously. If you just extracted him and you rolled out a team, look at their bench, and then like you're counting on, you know, Wiggins, Ubre, you know, a rookie Wiseman who's hurt now. Bradwatermaker running your offense. No. Like he is making that thing go, to say the least, and doing it at this crazy efficient clip because. Filed.

Look, who else are you super worried? about if you're the opponent. You sit there and you say if Ubrey beats me, beats me, if Wiggins beats me, beats me, if Draymo beats me, beats me, but like this guy, this guy's not destroying me tonight. And the problem is he shoots the ship from 60 feet away. What do you? You know, be like, you're not bringing a double at me. That one that he shot over the weekend with 20 seconds on the shot clock from the friggin logo.

Oh, man. But what is that? Yeah. He said to look. I looked at the, I was like, was at the end of the, not the end of the quarter, not the end of a game, not the end of a shot clock. 20 seconds left on a shot clock. He shoots it from the friggin' logo. You are not bringing two guys out at me.

I'll shoot that shit from right here. Yeah. Like that's crazy. Man, it's crazy. watching it never never gets old either we've seen him do it before it never gets old it's so fun to watch my old buddy john hollinger he tried to throw another name in that MVP race did you see it yeah rudy go bear come on john rudy go bear i mean i get it i get it because gobert not only is he the the center of utah's defense and the the center of their solar system with what they do

but he also is on offense too because of what he's does with his rim running with his rolling and how he sucks the defense in towards the pink because he's so dominant on rolls to the rim that that what opens up passes for the perimeter to get the defense into rotation. So like he's like I say that to say people act like he's a one way player like Shaquille O'Neal act like Gobert's impact isn't felt beyond points per game. But Gobert makes a massive impact beyond points per game. But with that said, I have a hard time like taking seriously the idea of Gobert as an MVP candidate over some of the other great bigs we're seeing now like Yokch or like Embed or LeBron as we talked about last week among

others but um because because the raw points and scored and assist generated still do matter a heck of a lot and you know more so but gobert is insanely important and and should be in an all NBA team but MVP I don't know Chris but the jazz are they are they legit is this a finals 19 and five are they a finals contender a jazz fans fans were very angry with me this week, Chris. They should be. Yeah, I had a sixth on my power rankings. That's terrible.

That's terrible. Why? Why? Because I feel like to do. Maybe, maybe I misunderstand what power rankings are. You do. My power rankings, like, the way I have them is like teams that you wouldn't want to face on any given night.

And with Utah, it's like, they're 19 and five. I know. Who do you want to face? I just, want to see them this next stretch, Chris. This next stretch is going to show who they really are in terms of their championship hopes and what their upside can be. Like that, like that, like that, like that's the way I look at the power rankings.

Maybe the way I need to do the power rankings is the way other power rankings are, which is recent performance dictating where they are in the rankings. Maybe that's what it should be. Because then you tell it would be number one. And if not number one, two or three. By the way I'm doing it, it's a little funky. I'm figuring it out. It's my first year in every

power rankings. Chill out jazz fans. They suck. Your power ranking, your power rating. I'm with the jazz fans here. Because look, right now,

24 games is, I mean, it's the exact one third mark. We've played a third of the season. Great. And they're 19 and five. Yeah, you like that?

Yeah, really good. Do you do that at the top of your head? A lot of years of gambling. So I credit all of my, my mask skills. The game of like, but it's,

it's a third of the way through the season. They're 19 and 5 and they lost Mike Conley and they keep trucking. You know, they do need, they obviously want to get him back,

need to get him back. But with a hamstring injury. Yeah, but they are. Hopefully he's back. You know, he's Tuesday night versus Celtics tonight. That's a big game.

Big game. What is going on with them? I mean, I feel like they've also had guys out. Jalen Brown has not. not been in there until, you know, most recent game. But ultimately, they've had guys in and out of the lineup too. And with Boston watching them, they feel like a team that's so close, so close with Tatum

and Brown performing at the level they are. But there's some missing pieces. So let's talk about this, Kevin, because I saw over the weekend you saying that there was a flurry of activity, at least via phone calls from the boss of cell. people around the league think they're up to something. Have you been able to, uh, to advance that anymore, figure out like kind of what they're up to? No, not, not precisely in terms of names or targets exactly, but, you know, Saturday night,

I got like a number of texts, you know, within like an hour from different people saying, hey, the Celtics are up to something. Then you check with other people who say, yeah, you know, they're after something. One person got back to me saying, today's the day that Tristan Thompson became trade eligible. So, you know, maybe could be exploring stuff using salaries and try to find upgrades. And honestly, like, I report that and it gets picked up and we talk about it on podcasts and all that.

But like Danny H himself said on a local Boston radio station last week, he's like, yeah, I would love to find big guys who can shoot. Like, Danny H himself said that on the radio. And that is the vibe around the league is that they are targeting. some bigger guys, whether it's a wing spot, or whether it's the actual big man position, who can shoot for you and provide, you know, better defense. And you look around the league, I'm not sure who that could be.

I think of a guy like a Thadius Young, who's having a great year with the Chicago Bulls. He would make a lot of sense. Hindsight's 2020. If they were going to get this Miles Turner, they should have done that. I know. I agree. In retrospect, they should have done that.

Because this Miles Turner is an absolute bitch to deal with around the rim. And he makes shots too. He could stretch the floor like he, you can't just leave your center in front of the basket if he's going to stand at the top of the key. You know, this version of Miles Turner is something that would have been, that have been dynamite for the Celtics. He's a defensive player of the year candidate.

I wouldn't have him win it right now. that Goberra would be my choice at the moment. But Turner's a candidate, and he should be in consideration for all defensive team. He's leveled up, like the way in which he's performing. And also, I think offensively, Bjorkeran's offense has helped bring out more dimensions of Turner with what he can do when he's not being asked to shoot deep twos and shooting threes instead. But with the Celtics, one name that I came up with myself, Chris, by looking back towards the past. And this is not anything I've heard from any executives as a trade target.

but I was thinking about what about Justice Winslow? Your guy down in Memphis who hasn't played yet this season. But Danny Aange, remember years back, tried to trade 100 first round graphics to trade up for Justice Winslow. He has long loved Winslow.

Winslow would check the box of a guy who is, he's not a big, but like he is a switchable, versatile big who's become a solid enough shooter who can do stuff for you off the dribble. Like to me, I think Memphis should be hoping Winslow can stay healthy to keep him. But in Boston, it's like, he makes sense.

That would be super hilarious because I'm not sure how many people out there, you know, know, know this or keep up. They traded for Winslow, went to the bubble. I got unbelievable reports. He was like Jimmy Butler-esque in practice, like that kind of like dog leader, all that kind of stuff. They loved him. he has never worn a grizzly uniform. It's crazy. Ever.

He's never played it. He got hurt. He got a hip injury in practice in the bubble and has never played for the Grizzlies. And he's been on the team almost a year now. Now he did for the first time get in front of a microphone last week and said he would be back by the end of this month. I hope so. I love that guy's game. I mean, I love Winslow, man.

I used to love him. I just haven't seen him in so long. I remember what I remember a long time ago, what it looked like. I mean, he's been an inconsistent shooter throughout his career, you know, these 34% for his entire career. But I think what he brings is a playmaker for you with size, what he brings as a versatile defender against guys bigger than him. He's only 6 foot 6, 222 pounds, but he can defend bigger guys.

He can defend quicker guys on the perimeter. the versatility, the shot creation, the way you can plug and play into different places in your lineup. I think all that outweighs the fact that he's like a slightly below average shooter for his career. There's nothing in Boston to trade for him, though.

I mean, they do have all their future picks. So it's really a matter of what Memphis would prioritize. And by the way, my impression is Memphis likes Justice Winslow. And that's why I trade for him. I mean, because. Oh, yeah, 100%. 100%. I mean, that's just a name that came to mind in terms of like somebody I would go after if I were the Celtics GM.

Or by the way, if I were the Nets GM too, but they don't have enough assets. But I feel like I think Justice Winslow, Justice Winslow to me is one of those guys that if I were GM, I'd have them like near the top of my list of like guys I'd want to get on my team. Because I think Winslow and Aaron Gordon too playing, you know, a small ball role, small ball four or five role for 10, 15 minutes a game in a postseason setting. could be really, really diamite. He's a huge asset if he could play because he's on a team option. Yeah, that too. You know what I mean for next year?

And his contract's low. Like if he's a starting caliber, extremely good player, he's, he's on a great contract. But 13 million dollars next year. That's good, that's good money from the team side for, you know, what you could get out of, what you can get out of them. theoretically. And still, by the way, only 24 years old.

I know. He's been in the league forever, doesn't it? Some of these guys come in so young. I've seen every outfit this son of a bitch ass. I'm ready to see him in a uniform. Yeah. That Joker, there's no telling how much he's had to spend on clothes.

Man. Because they got, you know, he had a wild outfit on last night. I mean, he is a fashionista. style. Yeah.

He does. Yeah. He does. He is style. I love Justice Winslow, man. I do too. I was so, I was so excited. And then I've never seen to play basketball.

I hope he played soon. End of the month, like he said. Yep. Real quickly, we need to get through a couple other guys that do deserve attention. You are doing this podcast every week, every other week, Ringer University. And one of the things you guys do is highlight younger players and their development. and how they're coming up in the league. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that while you highlighted Ludoort last week,

another player on his team probably deserves some notice for really improving. And that's Hamadu Diyala, who was kind of known as the dunk contest guy and was not an extremely high draft pick coming out of Kentucky. He did not have some kind of great Kentucky career. but he is now starting to look like a real player. And, you know, in terms of player development in Oklahoma City, the numbers he's been putting up recently have been very good. And he's also, you know, he's got that athletic frame

where he can be a hell of a defender in the future. And so what are you seeing with this Diallo and do you think he really can be a player? you're seeing development for sure. You're seeing better decisions off the dribble, especially driving to the rim. I mean, in the past, I think OKC fans probably at times got infuriated with some of the decisions he would make off the dribble,

but he's making smarter, quicker decisions with the ball on his hands. He's averaging 20 points per 36 minutes. I mean, so obviously, like per 36 minutes can be, you know, iffy statistic. But the point is, is that when you extrapolate out what he's doing to a greater workload, like 20, points per game with four assists per game and eight rebounds per game for a guy who's only six foot five playing the guard wing spot like those are really impressive numbers and it reflects

the product from the core too in a more limited sample in reality it's funny you bring up that per 36 because i don't know if you've seen this or not but you see uh my man sam vasini's tweet about diallo samsa sam the uh hamadu diallo might be the most underrated player in the mba right now Listen to this. His numbers are actually insane on a per minute basis. Like his best comps for his age are Kauai, Shy Gilders Alexander, and Tyler Hero. For like per 36, like a,

22? Wow. Okay. We might need to slow down, Sam. But no, when he's got this pulled up on, that's wind shares. Okay. All right. Well, regardless, I mean. But yeah, on the per 36 numbers, they're impressive. I mean, it's unusual to see 20 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, two steals for somebody who's 22 years old and only 6 foot 5. Those are abnormal numbers.

And it speaks to his abnormal game. That's what he was in high school and college. Like you said, this athletic raw talent that you didn't know, you know, if the skills were going to develop. But I do think what we're seeing with Oklahoma City, they did a really nice job. And, you know, I had a blurb in my power rankings this week about OKC. And I think they stand as an example of the focus and the importance of investing in development. Like Mark Dagnall, their coach, used to be their G League coach. He was their player development specialists for one year under Billy Donovan. Previously was an assistant with him at Florida.

He's always been focused on player development. They hired the player development guy to be, you know, their head coach of their big league score. on after he already coached Diallo for the OKC Blue. And I feel like this is a team that is giving Dort minutes to handle the ball. They threw Pokershevsky out there early on, now putting him in the G League. They're giving Diallo more chances and opportunity to fail and get better from it. And I feel like we are seeing that type of progress all across their roster from the younger guys. And obviously, like you mentioned, Shegildes-S Alexander, nobody has made more progress than him with the opportunity,

And he provided both with the clippers as a rookie. And then last two years in this current season with Oklahoma City, I mean, he had this layup last night against the Lakers where like it's like there's not many guys that could make a layup out of this position. Awkward contorting his body and getting it around a rim protector around the room. Gildas Alexander does some really weird stuff on the court that other guys just can't with his body. They have fun players, dude. And I think OKC deserves respect and credit for their player development over the years. and especially this year during a transition season. And evidently they got like a million coaches.

If you ever see their bench, they've got like 15 guys over there. So I mean, they really, they invest in that in a major way. And look, like we said, third of the way.

And other teams, and other teams like they're the player that drafted the sixth pick a couple years ago, drops 14 points and the fourth quarter of a game and dominates on both ends of the core. And then he's right back behind the bench and, and the big red dog. house of Steve Clifford.

We had we, Fri. Doggads. We got him freed for one night. We got him freed. I felt like our podcast

had a profound effect on the NBA over the weekend. We got Mo Bomba freed. K.P. Porzzi. He went off. He showed a pulse

for the first time. You know what I mean? It was like, people were tweeting me. They're like, yo, is Porzengis a mismatch listener?

And I'm like, probably, like, who wouldn't be? what else he what else he listened to kp looked a lot like kp over the weekend and last night

six or seven blocks last night granted it was minnesota but still like he looked like kp no impressive yeah and even saturday night that game with dallas and golden state step having 57 and luke having 42 i thought dallas is defensive intensity that and i was really good it's like they woke up all right so here is

and I'm saving this for last because I think this guy deserves a tremendous amount of attention. And when we talk about young players and we say, you know, that they're taking a leap or there's an assent to a different player than they've been before, one of the guys that we probably have not mentioned enough on this show is Deerrin Fox. and Kevin he has vaulted from really good possible all-star caliber on the cusp of all-star caliber player to Bonafide Star. You watch him this season and on regular occasion, you realize he is the best player on the floor at any given time. that is different than it has been in the past. That is a kid that had all the tools. He's got this crazy amount of speed,

but now he's hitting stepbacks. He's running a team. He is the best player on that team, and he's one of the best players in the league so far this year. He's been really good, and the jump shot has been one of the differentiators for him this year, shooting 36% overall from three. You know, again, like in the power rank,

this week I hit Fox's step back. And I believe I have a video clip in there of him shooting if people want a visual of it, but like the shot is just quicker. He looks so much more fluid this season shooting off the dribble than he has in the past. And we'll see how the numbers, you know,

sustain over the course of the season. But if that shot's able to fall for him, that opens everything up, where it activates his speed in the half court to get to the rim for his own basket opportunities or creating for others. And this feels like a year

where we're starting to see him break through a plateau and turn into something more. I hope it continues because, you know, if he reaches a level of stardom, it's kind of like we were talking about with Dejante Murray earlier. Like,

there's such a clear lane for him to just be one of the league's funnest, most dynamic players. He should be an all-star too. He should be an all-star. Yeah. It's arguable. I mean, it's tough.

It's like these spots are going to be really hard to fill out. But, um, And we need to give Luke Walton some credit too because that started out terribly. And we were really worried about that old situation, especially with all that,

that crap that was going on with Bagley and the dad tweeting and, you know, Deerrin Fox and that buddy healed. You know, is he upset again? And like, he has rallied the troops that they're in the mix, right? They're going to be there with the chance to be fighting for, you know, probably not five. A playing tournament spot.

Yeah, that's seven through 10 slots. Sacramento is going to be in the mix for that in a big way. I mean, we've talked about a bunch, but this is why those playing tournament spots are a no brainer. Like, yes. I want to have Sacramento towards the end of the season have something to play for. Like, this makes the league

so much better. Well, look, we're a third of the way through. I would say Minnesota is out of it and Detroit is out of it. That's it. Yeah. That's it.

Seriously. Like if somebody else said, like whoever's running those teams that we think we can get 10. And if we get 10, then we got a chance. But we think we can get up to 10. Like, I wouldn't think they're insane. I mean, Oklahoma City, that would feel like a stretch. And maybe, you know, Cleveland's obviously had the downturn. They've got the Nance injury now.

You know, it might not be in the, cards for them. But it's not unfathomable, you know, that they could be there. Same with the Knicks or even with the Wizards. Like if, you know, with Beal, if Westbrook continues to have some good games, you know, after the early season of struggles. But I mean, like even with Minnesota, like, I think they're likely going to be out of it too. But I'm just saying, let's say cat comes back and goes on an absolute tier. Average is like 30 points and 14 rebounds plays the best defense of his life, highly unlikely. But the point is, is that by having those two extra spots, you at least, you know, keep the door open a crack for those types of

stories to occur over the course of a season. You know what I mean? Yeah. What I'm getting at, it's unlikely. But the fact that you have that, I mean, it just makes things a lot more interesting for every team in the league instead of being like, oh, we're a third through and our season's over. you know, I don't care about watching anymore. Now there's something to fight for for the players and for fans to watch and root for. I mentioned briefly the Rose thing. Have you?

What an odd trade, huh? No, but have you packed up your stuff? Are you vacating Frankie Island? Oh. He wasn't traded in it. No, I know. But now he's really never going to get on the court. What are you talking about?

He's really. Let's relax here, Chris. What? Maybe, maybe this, only means that now he'll be pushed out of New York to a place that'll give him an opportunity. I would think Tibbs, a guy who loves defense would love Frick Delakina. So that worries me a little bit. But Tibbs also, you know, he loves his veterans.

He can't find minutes for quickly, much less. I mean, now, now. Dude, can we hit that for real quick, real, really quick hair? Go ahead. Like, you got to play quickly, man. But you got to play quickly. You can't play all these veterans ahead of them. There's a lot of times, man.

I've seen it a million times. Coaches, like, you just need an injury. You need something to go to your way for them to see the light. Like, really, truly. I know it sucks, but, like, sometimes, look what happened with Lamello. How long does it take Lamello to get in that starting lineup if it's not for some, you know, guys being out? Like, coaches play their veterans. It's hard for a young guy to get in the mix and really get a,

unless they're like a really really high pick and even lamello he was a really high pick but they were going to like make him earn his way to the starting lineup whatever but i mean you see like now you can't take lamello out of that starting lineup you can't you can't there's no way he's there he's there he's there for a long time right and quickly is obviously made the most of his opportunities i will i must tell you that of course the whole tibs reunion with rose is sweet and it's probably going to like they're clearly going to try to squeeze out every win of this season even if that means playing Derek Rose and Austin Rivers and Alfred Payton 35 minutes a game that being said I had to chuckle because how I became aware and how I knew first ran across

Leon Rose and World Wide West were the. old was the 2008 Final Four Memphis Tiger team. Omnipresent. Worldwide West was like, you know, Cal Perry's guy. And so they were around all of the time, all of the time. And, you know, the expectation was kids are going to go to Memphis. They're going to get shielded from all these hangers on, these agents and everybody else. And then when they get out of college, you know, they'll sign with the

those guys, right? They'll be with them. And so Derek Rose gets out of college and he doesn't sign with Leon Rose and them and, and, and, and, and, and it was like, hold on now. What is going on? And as the story went, Reggie, who was Derek's brother, was going back and forth. He was around, but he was going back and forth to Chicago. When in Chicago, he was getting, you know, whined and dined. and persuaded by B.J. Armstrong. And B.J. Armstrong got him. He got the brother. He got Reggie. And then he, so then he got Derek.

It's the one thing that couldn't be shielded, right, was the brother. And B.J, great job. I mean, that's inside agency stuff. But like, BJ got him and still is his agent today. BJ Armstrong doesn't represent a lot of guys. But I couldn't help. laugh when I saw Leon Rose and

World Wide West getting their guy after all these years. For sure. There he is. He's back. I think I think BJ's still Derek's agent, isn't he? Is he not still involved? I believe so. Yeah. Yeah. I believe so. He been a long time. I don't think he

has got many rookies in recent years. If I remember correctly off the top of my bed, but he still has a lot of the same guys that he's had for for many years now. Yeah. Javel McGee looking at the list now, Bismack Beyondbo, Josh Jackson,

Emmanuel Moodye. There you go. All right. Last thing before we get out of here, the emotions of Tom Brady winning that Super Bowl on Sunday, Kev and I have talked about this a great deal. I've heard Patriot fans that,

you know, were just melancholy about it, right? Like, kind of sad that it's not happening in a Patriots uniform. others that are die hard, they're happy for Brady, right, no matter what. And, you know, those memories meant a lot. They love him.

And so they like to see him succeed, even if it's not for their favorite team. Where did you fall? As it actually played out and you saw him winning the Super Bowl in a different uniform. I mean, as soon as he signed in Tampa Bay, I was rooting for him to win a Super Bowl. As soon as he signed in Tampa Bay, I mean, I'm still a Patriots fan. but I'm a Brady fan number one, I suppose. And it was incredible. First of all, Brady was amazing seeing those Brady to crock touchdowns twice.

Like the gronk spike, it just made me scream. It made me so excited. I loved watching it finally a totally healthy bucks defense just make Mahomes missing two tackles on the offensive line scramble all the game long. It was just fun to watch. It was an amazing game. Number seven for Brady. I couldn't be happier.

And like I was 11. When Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl, Chris, 11 years old, I'm 30 now. It's just crazy. But I got to say, man, like, I mean, it's not the same watching without my dad. It's just, it's not. And I couldn't help but think about it on Sunday night. And like last week was his birthday would have been 67. And this week on the 11th will be the one year anniversary since he passed away from cancer.

And, you know, it's so emotional time. So, you know, on Sunday night especially, I just was thinking a lot about the past. You know, I was thinking about when I was. I was a teenager. My friends would always ask me to go watch Patriots games of them. And I would always say no because I wanted to watch from home with my dad. I was just thinking about like little things like at halftime during like Sunday 1 p.m. games sometimes he'd go outside to rake leaves at half time.

And as the game was coming back, I'd go bang on the window and yell, the game's back, you know, to get his attention. And he'd run back in, grab some pretzels from the kitchen and say hi to my mom. And, you know, we watched the game. He'd always be to my right. I'd always be to his left. We'd be wearing our bootleg Brady jerseys. And, yeah, I found myself really missing those moments all season long, watching the NFL and watching the NBA.

But I really especially felt it on a Super Bowl Sunday, just not being able to celebrate those moments with him. But, you know, ultimately, I still have a fun time. But is there the, is there the age gap in terms of the way you guys thought about football? would he have been? No, I don't think so. Thrilled for Brady? No chance.

Like, no, no, sorry, let me let me, let me state that. Like, no, there would be no chance that there would be an age gap. He would have 100% rooted for Tom Brady as well. He would have. 100% because we've talked about that over the years. Because you know there is the, right? Like, I mean, I, like, there's no chance he would have rooted against Brady. None.

Like, there's just, we talked about it over the years. But not like, been. passionate about it either way. No, I think, you know, my dad and I talked about that a lot. Yeah, like over the last three Super Bowls. Yeah. You know, it's, like, it's, I'm not sure like it's something that I truly understand myself, but I feel like it became more about Brady's legacy than it did about, like,

the Patriots actually winning a game. I know those things are connected and intertwined, but like, it became about what can Brady do to add to his greatness? almost just as much as like the Patriots actually winning. Whereas the early 2000s with those three Super Bowls and even some of the runs they had, you know, in the years to follow. When they didn't win,

it felt like it was more about just the overall team that had Tom Brady. But then it became like Tom Brady as on the Patriots. And I think that's also reflected from some of the players on the roster too. Over the years, Gronk and Julian Edelman and so many others used to talk about playing for him and playing with his mentality. and, you know, I think that for me as a fan was also reflected, too. It just became about, you know, Brady winning more and more and more.

And I don't know, man. No, I would always say that with players, it comes to an end. I've been through it the last several years. I mean, as you know, I'm a Cowboys fan, but I was happy for DeMarcus where, when I saw him holding up a Super Bowl trophy for the Broncos. Like, I wanted, I loved him. I wanted, I was so happy for him, right? because I was invested in his career and it wasn't going to happen.

You know what I mean? But now he's he got to win one. And so it's like here, he got, that's on that resume now, right? And it might not have been before. And you know, I went through this, what, a year and a half ago with Marcosol. I've rooted for Marcosaw since he was a literally a kid. You know what I mean? A kid.

I've been watching Marcus off by basketball. I went to his games at Los Angeles. school. I mean, when his brother was playing for the Grizzlies. And I mean, yeah, to see him like riding down the street, you know, in a Raptors parade, you know, you know, turning up a bottle of wine. I was, I was thrilled for. I was happy for him. It's great. And I mean, I felt the same with Grong, too. It's just great players who have helped, you know, author amazing memories in my life. And I don't know, I just feel like, you know, not to like be all somber and sad and emotional. I don't look at it like that. I just think, you know, the way I've felt this

past year just really does show that experiences are best shared with people that you love. No matter what it is. It can be sports. Like you've had a relationship with your dad watching sports all these years. Do now with your son, whether it's sports or going to a concert or binge watching, like your favorite Netflix show, whatever it is. Like there's something, you know, in my life right now that's missing right now in that sense. But I feel like, I feel like I feel like I'm in a really good place mentally. Like, I'm so thankful to have had all those great memories. And Chris, I feel like, you know, I think with me in the year since his passing, like the hole in my heart, I feel like hasn't been filled by sadness, but it's been filled by desire.

Like, I find myself trying to chase even more moments that I know would make him happy. I want to deepen, you know, friendships with people I know already and seek new ones. I think it'd be great to find a loving relationship with a life partner and maybe someday be fortunate enough to get the chance to become a dad as great as he was because then like, you know, if that happens, then maybe someday I'll know what it's like to be on the other side of it and be the one who's racing back in the house when, you know, a kid's knocking on the window saying, hey, the game's back. Get back inside.

So I don't know. I just find myself kind of desiring. Well, from the very beginning with all this, man, you have turned a negative into a positive. So I'm unsurprised by that. man i think i think i tell you what comes away you got to do that i look up to your uh your father's example for raking leaves because that ain't that ain't that ain't me my guy but i i i promise you this and this is there is nobody outside of me i'm roughly tom brady's age and i would say because well no we're throwing breeze out he broke the ribs and everything i would say and i'm not kidding for a guy

roughly our age, Mia Tau Brady. He is the only person in the world that threw more football passes than me in this last calendar year. Easily. Because that's my son. My son,

I don't get to go rape the league. I have to go throw. I have to go throw. I have to throw. I have to throw. I have to throw. I know the listeners are asking now, Who looks younger?

You were Tom Brady. I mean, I think I do. I think I've got him. Hey, I think I've got Tom Brady. I think you might too. By the way, it's a good thing. That's a compliment. I want to drink from the same fountain of youth that you do, Chris.

I know it's shaving my beer to be required to make myself look younger, but I want to drink from that same fountain youth, whatever you're doing, like, tell me no. I mean, I would tell you, go throw football. you had to throw football every day because I Lord knows I've done that 100,000 times Kevin is always a pleasure

should be another great week now kind of this is the time now the football's over we've got All NBA baby Yeah center stage center stage It's a great year of basketball

and with the talent on the court right now It's a little challenging with the coronavirus stuff happening but strictly speaking about the basketball, it's very, very good this year. I'm loving the NBA. It's been very good. We will reconvene on Friday.

I guess you'll have a new episode on Thursday on the NBA show feed, right? So Wednesday, Wednesday on the Ringer NBA show feed with me and Jay Kyle, man, this week, Charks will be out this week. And then to bring on talk with Siritt Sohi on the latter half of the podcast, we talked about the Lakers young guys. We talked about the NBA Biggs evolving and just, about, you know, how great the game is right now. I love the conversation with Syrin

and I'll be recording with Kyle in the morning. So I look forward to having that out Wednesday. Check it out. And then we will reconvene on Friday. Thank you to producer, Sasha, as always. And we will talk to you later this week. Have a good day, everybody.