The Mismatch - NBA Cup Special: The Unbeatable Thunder, and Can the Knicks Get Over the Hump? Plus: Do the Spurs Need Giannis?

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

It’s NBA Cup week! Verno and Jacoby preview the upcoming games, starting with the Eastern Conference. Can the Magic keep it going against the Heat without Franz Wagner? Can the Knicks finally get past the Cup quarterfinals against the Raptors? Next, they dive into the matchups in the Western Conference. Do the Suns stand any chance at defeating the Thunder? Will Victor Wembanyama return to lead the Spurs against Luka, LeBron, and the Lakers? Also, they guys continue to debate whether the Bucks should trade Giannis Antetokounmpo, and if the teams most interested actually need him. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch! (07:29) NBA Cup preview: Heat vs. Magic (21:57) NBA Cup Preview: Knicks vs. Raptors (36:12) NBA Cup preview: Suns vs. Thunder (53:48) NBA Cup preview: Spurs vs. LakersThe 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: Jessie Lopez, Stefan Anderson, and Oscar De La LuzSocial: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And Jordan meets he does every week from The Ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Chicobey. So, Berno, we shot the first episode of Game Over with Max and Rich Paul, and it went swimmingly. But one of the things that was discussed was,

do you care about the NBA Cup? I do. I do. I do care. I do care. You taught me. I care if they care and they care. That's why.

The stakes. have mattered to the players. And as I always say, the stakes have mattered? Yeah, the money matters to them. The money. Yes. That's what I'm saying.

Yeah, I don't think they, no, I don't think they are about the championship or the banner. No, and I don't think there's going to be like 10 years later, they're welcoming back the cup team to whoever wins. But I do think. 50th anniversary of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA Cup championship. Right.

I'm out here. The mismatch is presented by Fandul. Fandul's got it all same game parlays, quick bets for jumping in live, and your way to build the bet that fits your play. Plus, don't miss out on the holiday offers and surprises all month long. So download the Fandul app or head to fandul.com slash mismatch to get started. Remember, you must be 21 and over and present in select states

or 18 and over and present in D.C. Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-88-78-98-9-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. But I do think that money matters and I do think that the competition, the fact that you are standalone with everyone watching you on national, television with two games on Tuesday night and two games on Wednesday night. You know, as well as I do, that we don't have, it used to be really like the Thursday

night games would be the only ones that you'd feel like there was like a community experience. Like maybe Christmas would be a community experience where you feel like everybody's kind of watching the same thing. What era are we talking about? Because when we were growing up Saturday, when we were growing up Saturday, the NBC Saturday game was like the Super Bowl. For sure. I'm talking about the way it is now.

The only ones that are special used to be, and we'll see how this goes, but that were special where everybody kind of went out of their way. And you felt like maybe Christmas, the Thursday night games, maybe like a big Sunday afternoon. Late season ABC Sundays, yeah. Yeah, after football's over. But these are, but on your average NBA night, seven, eight games going on, right?

you and I both have the same experience. We're trying to keep up with these. We've got league pass pulled up. We're seeing what's close so we can watch, you know, one game, but then catch the last five minutes of the others. And so the fact that it's just two standalone games that everybody, and there's nothing else going on, right? Football's done now.

I actually think that hopefully we get some good competition out of it, but I do like that it's, it is only additive, as we have mentioned. You didn't take anything away, and it's better than it was. And I think the players care in a weird way. I think the biggest experience for the four teams that make it there makes it feel unique and different for the players because they're not in an NBA city. Like, oh, where are we here?

And they're kind of like there just for the cup. And they know those games are going to be watched. Well, and the other thing is they make it feel big. So I didn't go last year, but I went to the first one. And the first one, when he went in, the thing that I remember talking about quite a bit at the time was, oh, wow, this is the Halliburton Ascent. Like, you were walking around and you were walking around Vegas and like huge building-sized billboards of Tyrese Halliburton. You're like, whoa, this is not like this is Indiana Pacers players.

Like, and they really got behind it. And then he had the big game against the bucks. And he's doing the dame time thing to Lillard. Like, it was a real deal when that happened. And I do think that when you get there, they have like all kinds of events going on with it. And they even like, between the games, they had like a huge party on the plaza where people, they had like artists that were playing out in the plaza. And then they had the TNT guys set up. like for a live show out of the play.

It just, it felt they make it feel big when you're there. And it reads, it reads like a championship when you watch it on television. Yeah. It feels like a championship. Like there is a celebration. The guys care and they're excited when they win. And I think that we always like talk about,

oh, $50 million for this person, $45 million for this person, whatever. But like the guys at the end of the bench, like, one, two million dollars. Like that salary bump is something for them. And the stars want to win it for them too. well and also we think about the NBA through the prism of guys with long careers when the majority have very short careers and they've got to figure out what is what's

going to be my income stream for the next 40 years of my life if I live to be you know I mean like in many cases you got 40 40 or 50 more years after you're done we always think about players that make a hundred million dollars most do not right yes and so it does matter a great deal, especially now, even more so in the past because of the way salaries have gone in the NBA, you've got your guys that are the 50, 40, 50, 60 million dollars players. You've got to fill out the rest of that roster and the rest of that roster is filled out with guys that are on minimum contracts. There's a huge gap in the contracts right now.

They're not too many like $15, $20 million a year player. And I would say virtually every single team now has more guys. that that winning it financially would have a profound impact than not. And also don't sleep on rich people still getting cited over $100,000. No question. Billionaires are out here saving money. Like you give someone $100,000, they're going to be excited. You know what I mean?

They're going to be excited. We are recording this show on Monday night. There are a couple of games that are going on while we are recording. The Pacers are about to finish off against the Kings, the Suns and the Timberwolves are playing as we are talking and the spurs are up by double digits on the pelicans. So we'll keep you up to date if those games end before we are done. But we have cup games that are about to be going on. We are going to give our thoughts of the eight teams that are playing in this Emirates Cup that starts tomorrow night.

The first game out is going to be the magic and the heat. So we got bad news right away, Jacoby, with Franz Wagner's MRI, which I guess was good news that it wasn't. I mean, it's not bad news if you thought it was a horrible injury, which it did look like at the time. Oh, wow, this could be very, very bad. So I guess it's all relative. He's going to miss probably a month with a high ankle sprain.

But it's a bummer because his team did make the cup and you would rather see these teams be able to be fully loaded when it comes to the NBA Cup. The magic, Franz got hurt, the scary knee injury. Paolo has just come back, so at least we got that. And he had been out for 10 games, but has only played 45 minutes in the two games he's been back and has been rusty and has basically just taking jump shots so far.

Interestingly enough, they are 11th in offensive rating, their fifth in defensive rating. that offensive number was a little higher than I thought it was going to be. But this magic team it's a fun watch if nothing else but the song.

Orlando Magic Orlando Magic. Well, they play defense. Because they played the Knicks, like, I don't know, seven times this year already. They played the Knicks every other night. But the Knicks got to win recently, but they they're a real tough, hardworking, defensive team.

They're a tough out. They don't have offensive talent that's going to wow you sort of outside of Palo and Franz. But they play defense and I absolutely love suck. And they also might, unprompted, throw a basketball 90 miles per hour. Can we talk about this? We have to talk about this. This is your guy, Desmond B. I can't explain.

Because this is the second time this season he's done it under the basket. And I was thinking to myself, maybe he was like falling out of bounds. So he wanted to be off the Knicks. that's not what happened. He just threw the ball at OG. I think he wanted. Now, again, I'm not explaining this away. No, no, no.

Your job is to explain this away. This is your guy. I think he wanted to throw a basketball at OG and an OB. Now, why? For what reason? I think frustrated for some reason. He has crashed out a couple different times. Because the ball is saved.

There's no reason to throw. But I first saw it. I was like, he must have been falling out of bounds. You know when your momentum is taking you out of balance? You're like, oh, I got to do something. But he's standing there flat-footed and just throws the ball at the guy. And he's done this twice this season now. It's odd.

It's like Mike Tyson biting ears or something. It's like, what is going through your mind? He's done it twice. He did against the Hawks. But the OG had an Obi-1. And I, of course, I've seen it from every different angle. And it gets more preposterous every different angle. Like, there really does.

You don't have to do this. You're not saving the ball. And then he looks to the ref and he's like, our ball. It's like, yeah, we know it's off OG and O'Nobi. That's not the discussion right now, Mr. Bain. The discussion is why did you just hurl a ball at the opposing player and expect nothing to happen? I can't, I can't explain why he did it other than to say he wanted to throw a ball at O.G. And Adobe.

I don't, now, why did he want to? My only, my only reason would be frustration, right? Yes. But in the Hawks game, it seemed like he was frustrated. But this one just didn't really make sense. And there's a lot that I love about this. The first thing I want to say I loved about this exchange is the two of them were laughing about it, like, 45 seconds later.

You know what I mean? Like, it really showed that it was just sort of like a momentary loss of sanity. And they were kind of giggling about it later. OG's like, did you really just throw the ball at me like that? And they were laughing about it. But also, OG's push was, what was that? Like, are you going to push somebody or not? And then Bain does always the point thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is the high elbow point. You did it right. It's always a high elbow point because he's kind of little. You know what I mean? So you can't point like that. That was just an insane exchange. But like, I think that without Franz,

it's going to be very tough to be beat. You think so. Yeah. I mean, with Powell looking like he's looked, and I'm going to give him some grace, you just need some time to get back. And without Franz, like, where is the offense? is Bain going to take 30 shots?

Well, no, I think it's one of those where you just grind it down. That's what it is. Because the heat offense has been not as good. It either looks unbelievable or it could look pretty messy.

And they've lost three straight going into this, including to the Mavs and the Kings. And Heroes been out for a couple with the toe injury. And there are, to that point, a super wild stat that was in

John Schumann's article today, when I said it either looks really good or it looks like crap, they are, they have the weirdest stat when it comes to figuring out whether or not this is going to go their way or not tonight.

They are 13 and 2 if they're winning at halftime. What? they are 13 and 2 if they're winning at halftime. They are 1 and 8 if they aren't. So if it's working, it's working. If it's not, it's not. Like they only have 14.

They are 14 and 10 so far this season. 13 of those games, they've been winning at halftime. So keep an eye on that tomorrow night whenever we're watching the magic and the heat. Because when it's cracking, it's cracking. Do you think Vandal knows about that? I'm unsure. I would imagine they probably have somebody. They probably put that in the algorithm.

Yeah, they probably have somebody that knows about that. If I were to say to you last year, what's the major problem with the magic outside of health, obviously, what would you say? It's obvious. The magic last year? Yeah. Oh, I thought Suggs not being in the playoffs was the-

No, I mean, outside of hell. It's shooting. They don't have shooting. It's shooting. They just don't have shooting. Right. They're shooting like 34% from three, which is like,

great, but it's like it's not the problem, a glaring problem with their offense like it was last. Yeah. And the other thing is I can see, you know, we have seen Fronds be really good without Paulo Bancaro. We have seen Paulo be really good without Fron. And Jalen Suggs be really good without both of them. Right, without both of them. And so, and I am, I got to be honest with you, totally perplexed by the.

Polo questions. You know, is Paulo, can he be a big time winning player? Is Paulo this? You know, could they be better with it? Paulo Banerro is 23. And our memories are just so short. Paulo Bay and Cairo is 23 years old. I mean, when he was 20, two years ago,

when they played in a game seven, in a game seven against Cleveland two years ago, the guy had 38 and 16. And don't forget, right after that, the beginning of last season before the oblique injury, he was on fire, on absolute fire. When he's right, he's right. He's just not physically right.

We haven't seen him physically right since the oblique injury. I think that's fair to say. I think that's fair to say as well. And, I mean, we've seen him in the playoffs twice. One year he averaged 27, the other year he average 29, right? Like, the guy's been like 28. In losses. A lot of those were lost.

I got it, but that's what happens when you're young. This guy is 23 years old. Like he's nowhere near a finished product. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown, we just went through this, didn't we? We just went through it with these guys. It's like, are they going to be able to do it? Are they going to be able to win? Which ones did you trade?

Are they going to be able to play together? It's like, geez, wheeze, if you got this kind of level of talent, let it play out. He's 23 years old. when Paolo is right and he's operating from the free throw line off a short roll, like he can do everything, everything. He can shoot it. He can spread to shooters and he can get to the basket. He can do everything.

Well, and you could see a game between, I hope this isn't so. You could see it, especially given both of their defensive metrics, because they've both been, they're like five and six in defense, and then they're both middle of the pack offense. That's how it happens for the magic. It turns into a rock fight that you win 96 to 92 or some crap. Well, they always say styles make fights. And one thing that's so interesting about this is this is two completely different approaches to the game of NBA basketball. Yes.

One team wants to grind out possessions, you know, pick you up full court and make you use four seconds to get to half court and then 10 seconds to get into your offense and just make everything difficult for you. And the heat just want to run. There's like, we don't even want to pass the ball three times to get a shot up. And one thing about the heat I found interesting as we were preparing for this program, the mismatch. Thank you for listening. Now, you've pointed out this in the past, and I think you're kind of right about that.

The sheer number of assists that your team operates with is not the greatest metric in terms of like ball movement. But we think about the heat offense under your guy LaRoche as this, we don't pass ISO, get past your man, and then make things happen. They're second in assist in the entire league. Oh, no. They still pass.

They just don't set screens for each other. Yeah, they get past your man, draw a double, and then pass. Yeah. You are driving kick, driving kick, driving kick, right? You know what I mean? You are just, what you're not doing is bringing that extra defender on the guys. Yes, but when you think about a philosophically, you think about a Carmelo Anthony ISO score, they're playing ISO basketball, but they're moving the ball after they create an advantage.

Well, and a lot of that, too, is because. out of bio is really good to keep the ball moving and they've got like and they've got guys that are team basketball players they don't have guys like not everybody on their team in fact very few of the guys on their team has to have the ball to be effective no right a lot of them and certainly it's been a super revelation

with norm Powell that that was just like that wasn't just getting to be you know the third or fourth guy on a team. Like he's gone there and he's had 20 points in 14 of their 19 games. I have to admit that I was wrong about this. I thought that Norm Powell's sort of like ascension last year, late in his career, was a function of the Clippers offense and James Harden sort of creating for him.

But what he has done this year with the heat, like this is absolutely real. Like the idea, I'm not going to break it down as simple as Norm Powell left the Clippers and now they're terrible and like, you know, falling apart and, you know, Chris Paul's getting angry and, you know, they're planting trees. But I did not see this level of success. And I think another person that everybody forgets, Andrew Wiggins. Everybody who's forgets Andrew Wiggins.

I love Davion Mitchell, too. I've always loved Davy on Mitchell. If you remember last year in the playing, like Mitchell had these huge games. Because the thing about him is you couldn't shoot threes, but he was hitting last year and he's played well this year, too. Yeah. So it would be fun. It's two Florida teams playing against each other. Do think of these two teams, one of the things that we talk about when it comes to the NBA Cup is, is it possible for this to end up being a finals preview?

And, you know, at the beginning of the season, I had the Knicks and the Thunder. Okay. I will say, of the teams that are involved in this, in the East, I could foresee a circumstance where the magic could get to the finals, I do not believe there is a circumstance where the Raptors or the heat will get to the finals. Well, the problem with this, with all of these eight teams is there's some serious injuries

up and down, up and down almost all of these teams. But I could see that, I'm saying, of the two East teams. Without Wagner, you can see them getting to the finals. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm assuming they're going to have Wagner back in a month. I'm saying if... Oh, do you mean the finals finals? The finals finals.

Oh, I think you meant the cup? final. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, the finals finals. I'm saying if we're looking at this and going, could the finals in the NBA Cup be an NBA finals preview to me

the only circumstances of which that could apply are if the Knicks or the Magic were to make it. I don't see a world to the Magic win the Eastern Conference. I do not see that. I'm saying they're the only other one with a chance. I don't think the key or the, but

Again, what about when the heat had Janus? Also, could be total foolishness. If we were talking about this December 8th last year, no one would have been. They were a losing operation. They're a losing team. It would be the equivalent of

here, let me go find somebody right now. It would be the equivalent. Let me find somebody with like a losing record at Chicago. He's 9 and 14. And then we look back and like, nobody was talking about the Bulls. Like, yeah. Watching starting 5, which has since been canceled, like, Tyrese Halliburton was like,

should I take like a mental health break? That's how bad they were. Right. They were terrible. Yeah, they're terrible. So anything can happen. But in this particular game, I got the heat. All right.

I'll go magic because I want the song. Nicks and Raptors, the other one. in the Easter conference, because the Easter conference has center stage on Tuesday night. Knicks are third offense, 14th defense, 16 and 7 so far. They've won seven of eight games. They killed the Jazz and started the game up 23 to nothing. That was unbelievable. You see real hard to yelling at the team?

Well, that was in the next game. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, he's had enough of this. I'm tired of telling you guys to play all. Every night. every night. It's like play hard work. It's like me talking to my kids.

It's like, be better. Is this the time where the Knicks can finally get over the NBA Cup quarterfinals hump? This is their third trip to the quarter vitals. They lost to the magic last year, right? They always lose to the magic for some reason.

It's their third trip to the quarter finals. Yeah, they played Toronto a little over a week ago, beat it by 22. Yeah, they look good in that one. The Toronto's, Toronto without RJ Barrett, It feels like a very different team. They've cooled off so much. They lost the Hornets in Toronto.

They lost the Hornets. They lost the Lakers. They beat Portland and they lost the Knicks before that. They lost the South – they've lost four or five games. No, no, no. They've lost five of six and two to the Hornets. Ew. Twice.

Yeah. It's plummeted offensively. And that's because the percentages are down. The free throw numbers are down. there's a couple of these things that are absolutely applicable to not having RJ. RJ Barrett, as you mentioned him, has proven to be a massive, massive piece. Exactly. His usage rate is high.

He goes to the free throw line. He shoots a good percentage and replacing him with, sorry, Jacoby Walter. Oh, man. It, you're just, as we say, we talk about how players, sometimes it's not the individual player. It's how the individual player affects the group. The other thing is how does, what's the drop off to whatever, right? Who's the next guy in line, right?

So to your point about, you know, Norm Powell, it was like, well, Norm Powell was giving you 80% of Kauai Leonard last year. Like, people were talking about him as an all star, right? So it was like, okay, Kauai Leonard's out, but the guy that's going to be catching the extra usage rate, that guy can do it. Well, that has proven to not be so with Jacoby Walter. Like, they really need R.J. Barrett. The baseball stat value over replacement player. Right.

Right. This is a little bit different. This is like actual the person that replaces you instead of some idea of what a replacement player looks like. But the R.J. Barrett difference in the offense is very noticeable. very noticeable. They really, really need him back because,

I mean, he stretches the floor. Like I said, during this losing five of six, the percentages have plummeted, the free throw rate is down, and the turnovers are up. And otherwise,

it just gets so packed in, you know, that he's just a very unique player, especially as a perimeter guy, because Scotty Barnes and, and, Ingram are not like, stretch the floor.

floor out spacing guys. You know that they shoot the fourth least amount of threes in the entire league? Oh, I'm unsurprised just because... If you look at their team outside of like dick, yeah. Are you really afraid of someone shooting a three on that team? Right. No.

Not really. Quickly. I mean... Yeah, quickly can shoot. RJ can shoot. But like those guys, I don't have in front of me, but those guys are 36%, 35%. It's not like I'm going to shooting 43% from three.

You need, but you need them for the spacing. They do at least have to be guarded 28 feet away from the basket. Absolutely. Whereas when your two best players are Barnes and Ingram, it shrinks the floor because neither of them. The Celtics have a good defense. And I was watching that game this on Sunday. The Celtics have a good defense, but they really, the Raptors just did not have answers. They did not have answers offensively.

If it wasn't a contested mid-range from Ingram, it wasn't happening. Yeah, this one's turned into a little bit of a bummer just because it would have been nice to see R.J. And quickly going up against the Knicks and the R&R. Or you want to see a hot team. Like when the Raptors were hot, now they lost five or six. They're limping into this thing. They're limping into it. And the Knicks just demolished them eight days ago.

Yeah. And they've won four or five. the Knicks made it look easy. However, I don't know how serious this is, but Cat was listed as questionable. I think he's going to play, but he's got something, and Deuce is out. I don't know if you guys saw it,

but Deuce McBride got hurt. And Deuce is an important player for the Knicks rotation. He's an important, he does a lot of good things for them. The Knicks aren't exactly full of, um, on-ball stoppers. You know what I mean? Because they've got OG and bridges are their defenders,

but they're more wing defenders. like, Deuce is a true on ball defender. If I'm not mistaken, when I was looking through, I was looking through all the stats for all of these different teams, if I'm not mistaken, the second highest net rating on the Knicks, like just play 100 possessions, here's the offense, here's the defense, here's what's happened on average, the second highest was Deuce McBride. When he's hitting threes, there's no reason to take him up the floor.

There's no reason. When I tell you who number one is, it's going to make sense to you, but the number is just freakish, like truly. When O.G. and O.B. is on the court for the Knicks, they have outscored their opponents on average by 18 points per 100 possessions. His net rating is 17.7. When he is on the court, they have had what is equivalent to the second best offense in the NBA at 123 points per 100 possessions.

They have also had a defensive rating of 105, which would be second in the NBA. Now keep in mind, they're 14th. They're like middle of the pack defensively. When OGN and OB is on the floor for the Knicks this year, they have had a top two offense and a top two defense. statistically. We got to bring Tibbs back, play OG 47 minutes a game.

How crazy is that, though? So here's what I want to talk to about. Does it feel like that as someone who watches this games all the top? Because he was out for 10 days. It feels like that. Probably missed three or four games. And they just don't have true defenders.

They have bridges and OG and heart does his best. And Mitchell Robinson can rim protect. But they don't have guys who are great on the defensive end. outside of OG. And OG doesn't, he doesn't get, he's not a highlight defender, he's not going to get, you know, seven steals and big blocks or whatever, but he makes your best player pass up offensive opportunities because he's in front of them and shutting them down. One, he's also, while he is not the tallest guy, he has this totally freakish wing span that

allows him to guard one through five. And strength. Like when he's got an arm bar on somebody, they're going nowhere. They're going absolutely nowhere. when he's got his forearm on you. Yeah, there are the guys like that that have the wingspan. And look no further. You remember going into the draft, it was one of those, he was one of those names that came

up when we were talking about Cedric Coward. Oh, yeah. I was like, because it's like, yeah, they're this height, but their wingspan is that of someone way taller than them. Yes. So when they put their hands over their head or by their side, they might as well be 610, but they're 6.6. Right.

And so these guys, it just translates, and they really do, they really can't wreck it offense because they're so switchable all the way through the lineup, as long as they're, you know, fleet of foot. OG is a very stoic human being, sort of like his facial expressions and his emotions. But when he, he gets this look sometimes, he gets in a defensive stance and he's on ball, where it's just like, I would just, I'd be like, no, thank you. No, thank you. He just gets locked in sometimes. So here's what I want to talk to you about, Verno regarding the Knicks. Jake Fisher has reported and confirmed that Janice has a preferred destination

with the New York Knicks. There's also been reports of like some trade discussions over the summer that were proposed or whatever. I've made it very clear on our last pod. I don't have to repeat my whole thing that I don't think they should do this. But what do you think?

I... It depends on the price. But... I mean Cat plus deuce Cat plus OG Cat plus something plus I think if you could get

Yadas onto Ticumpo I think you get Yada Sata Ticcoupo The one thing Two Two things here Number one We know that history tells us You need to have a top five guy in the league

Jalen Brooks Okay There's not one human being On planet Earth Outside of possibly his father that would have him in the top five. And maybe, and you know what? And maybe that would apply to Tatum as well a few years ago.

Maybe Tatum blew that. But even then, Tatum's nowhere. He's not outside the top 10, right? Like he was one of the- And I say Jaylen's right there in the top. And also Tatum was routinely all-N-B-A. And you also have a Brunson-Cat duo, which are both very, very high-quality offensive players to complement each.

And very, very deficiently defensively. Yes, that is an issue. The second thing is, and this is more important, who would I rather have if I'm walking in to have to play The Thunder? Well, and that answer. Now we're talking NBA Cup, Bruno, because I remember a year ago in the Thunder Bucks game, the Bucks just big brothered the Thunder. Right.

They just bossed them around. They just made it physical. and mucked it up and they were kind of bigger at every position. And it was like a, that was the way to beat the thunder. That game was not particularly competitive, if you remember. Like the bucks just looked like backyard basketball. I'm 12, you're 10, you're not going to beat me. So I'm just talking about winning a title.

We have this bea myth right now that looks totally unbeatable. And I want to speak on that. We're going to talk about that for a second, but I saw them losing a game seven at home. before Halliburton got hurt. Right. So it's like this, the idea that they're unbeatable is sort of insane to me. They went, they went seven twice in the playoffs. I'm so the way they look right now.

We will get to them. But the way they look right now. Jacoby, they're 23 and or 20, 23 and one. And the one, they were up 22. Asterisk's all over it. Yeah. Number one, they were up 22. Number two.

Back to back on the road. No Chet. No J-Dubb. No Dort. No Jalen Williams. No Caruso. And they were up 22 and they, and like the blazer shot 45% from three or something. And diddyovnia turned into, you know, 96 Jordan.

Like that's the only game they've lost. This is not the same as last year. It's not. What's happening with the thunder is not the same. So back to the next thing. I would rather, I would rather bring y'all. to a finals party then you

you would give OG and cat in a pick I don't know if I if you're the bucks what are you doing with Carl Anthony Townton O'Donobie anyway I don't want to give up OG and Odie Odie O'Dooke and Cat

No I mean I think Yeah I think it has to be bridges right Ew I know But again It's Yonis You'd be the best player on your team immediately

I know you guys are all married to Brunson and you love Brunson, but I mean, like, come on. Are Brunson and Janus a good match? Should they be on the same team? Why not? I mean, you can turn Yonness into like a pick and roll guy? No. How much pick and roll?

I mean, Brunton's kind of a, he's a heater himself. Brunton is not like your consummate pat. He's not Mark Jackson, bro. No, no, no. You know what I mean? He ain't looking to pass it to your ass. I don't think I've ever seen Brunson call a play.

Yeah. I've ever seen like point. Like you go over there. We're going to run this. Yeah. That's how he does. Now, now you could say though it didn't work with Lillard.

And so that was a better, you know, that is more Brunson E. Yeah. You know, with the Lillard thing. But I don't know. I think if you could have Yadis, you get Yadis. If that is his preferred destination and I can put together. Honestly, I think what you would probably find is you'd have to rope in a bunch of other teams to make it happen. It's also the price.

Like if my wife said my preferred destination for vacation this summer is Santropay at a fancy hotel. That's also my preferred destination, but it costs too much. Yes. We're not going there. All right. Let's get to the thunder because that's the team that I mentioned that you have to look at. The reason I said it was different this year is because they've won 15 straight now, ho-home. they're 23 and 1

they have not had their top seven available for a game they have had six of their top seven for eight games of the 24 who are you calling six and seven because they could have

you could put probably I'm talking about in terms of minutes their top of down okay because I was going to say if I was going to rank the thunder we could have arguments all day about six and seven that's fine but hard to Einstein's missed the last five games. Caruso's missed the last four games.

Lou Dorts missed the last three games. No one has noticed, right? No. They, um, and the net rating of everyone on their team is between 15 and 20, outside of one player who is a plus 29 per 100 possessions. That is Alex Caruso.

He's plus 29. Um, no chat, no Dort, no Jalen, no Caruso in their one loss that I mentioned they were up 22. But here is the most absurd of all of it. Last year, the Oklahoma City Thunder set the record, NBA record, for the best point differential in NBA history. It was plus 12.87.

I don't want to know what it is this year. That was last year. That defeated the 71, 72 Lakers, the 7071 bucks, the 96 Bulls, and the 1617 Warriors. Those were the teams that had the highest point differentials in NBA history prior to last year. That was 16.8 is what they, or I'm sorry, that was 12.8. It broke the record. So far this year through 24 games, they're probably. point differential is plus 16.1.

Jesus. So the NBA record is 12.8 held by last year's Oklahoma City Thunder through the first. And they haven't even had their players. They haven't had anybody. Against the jazz, against the jazz, they were missing. What? SGA didn't play. Hardinstein didn't play.

Caruso didn't play, Dork didn't play, Isaiah Joe didn't play, and Chad and J. Dub didn't have to play in the fourth quarter because they were blowing out the jazz. Brandon Carlson hit three threes in the first quarter. Brandon Carlson. Oh, yeah, and then you're watching it's like Brooks Barnheiser. That guy, that's not fair. I think they made him up. He's AI.

That guy's not real. I've seen him come in the game. I'm like, I don't know who this person is. And then he knocks down a three and just like, what is happening here? Well, and even more embarrassing. They have the Clippers pick and Topich is going through his Sorber bout with testicular cancer and they don't have Sorber this year. So the last two first round picks are not even available.

If you did a split squad with them, like sort of like when like Michigan does like the the Mazen Blue game or whatever, you know what I mean? If you did that with this team, like where would they end up in the Western Conference? Oh, that's a good one. If they didn't have, it could their... You split squad. Could you say, just say, you have two coaches draft players? No, no, no.

Could their second five be a playoff team? Oh, no. I don't think they're second five to be a playoff team. I mean, they don't lose. But you're not going to get Chet or Hartenstein. That's a little too, that's a little too much. But if you had two coaches draft players from the Thunder, I think both of those teams would be playoff teams.

But what if AJ Mitchell's like? Harding or something like he is. We look back and it's like Oh my God. It's just like it's ridiculous. They don't have anybody. So yeah, I'm just saying that's what you have to. I think when you look and go, that's the team that we have to beat to win the NBA finals.

That's what would make me think longer about trading for Yonnas. And it was Yonis in the bucks that just bodied them last year in this cup game. Well, and they're playing. I bet on the thunder. I remember this game. I was like, what is happening here? They're playing the suns and... Well, one thing I want to say before we move on from the Thunder is like,

what was their sort of Achilles' hero last year? Same as the magic. Shoot it. If they got cold from three, they can lose games. It happened a couple times in the Nugget series. Also, also, if they didn't turn you over an extreme amount, it gave you a chance because they scored literally a quarter of their points off of turnovers and that was way easier said

than done like they turned everybody over. Well a lot of those led to transition because they say points after turnover but sometimes you get a turnover and turns into a half-core possession right. They turn turnovers into transition baskets all the time. Run out. All the time. And right now

they're shooting 37.5% from three. That's not bad. Like that's not, it's not a weakness for them anymore. Okay. One caveat. have played the easiest schedule in the NBA thus far. Okay, fair.

No, I'm just, I'm just mentioning that as a, maybe they won't be 24, 23 and 1 every 24 segment. Yeah, you know, they're going to be 48 and 2? Maybe, maybe somebody can catch them. I also think, in terms of like the historical record stuff, I think they're going to be so far ahead of the number two in the Western Conference. It's going to be a little bit like those NFL teams that don't play week 17 and 18 or whatever. I don't think they're going to win 78 games. They're going to have to downship at some point. They just won the title and they've come back more locked in than ever.

I can't believe how locked in they are for a team that, you know, there is a sentiment of after you win the title, you're a made man then, right? Oh, yeah. And so it's just the championship hangover. The disease of me. It's happened so many times in the history. None of that seems applicable. Not at all.

The thing that really scared me was the Lakers game. Remember there's a prime time game. I forget what night of the week it was. But it was like a national game. And they just, the Lakers could not do anything against them offensive. Well, we might get that again.

All right. So they are playing against Phoenix. Phoenix is middle of the pack offense, middle of the pack defense. Now no Booker. That's the thing. No green, no Booker. It's going to have to lean on

Dylan Brooks to take 40 shot attempts. And he will. He will. In fact, I'm just going to, Yeah. Because you've had a full Dylan Brooks experience. And he's sort of having a moment here.

Oh, they won tonight. They ended up beating Minnesota. Deverewolves. I didn't see that happening. They ended up beating and Brooks was seven for 20. He was their leading shot taker. Wow. God bless.

Is that the, so. Do you know he leads the team in field goal attempts? Of course he does. Wouldn't you think Devin Booker would do that? Look, if you're Jordan Ott. Wouldn't you just look at that and be like, hey, Dylan, maybe Devin Booker should be taking more shots than you. Just an idea. We're just spitball in here.

No bad ideas in a brainstorm. I mean, I told everybody three years ago, the year he was done in Memphis, and of course, nobody paid attention to the Grizzlies until they made the playoffs. And then he pissed off LeBron and then it all ended horribly, right? That whole I poke bears and all that stuff, right? And then also, he did not show up to the year-end media thing. and he did not talk after the, I mean, it was just, it was a bad ending, bad thing, right?

He did not, quote, stand on business. He has grown up since, so I'm told. That season, though, that season though, not one human being in the NBA took more shots and made less than Dylan Brooks. And not one player took more three-pointers and made less than Dylan Brooks. and that was on the team that had John Morant,

Jaron, Jaron Jackson, Jr. and the rest on that team. So, like, there is no, there's no stopping this train, bro. He is taking the shots. I didn't want to say that he's a much better offensive player than he was that season in Memphis. The mid-range thing has come along, for sure. Yeah.

He's averaging 22 points a game. Like, he's having a career year. He still takes a lot of bad shots. A lot. Yes. Minnesota, you know, they went on that little run last weekend where they beat Boston and they beat San Antonio.

And I was like, oh, well, that was at the end of November. And I was like, you know, we talked about how they hadn't gotten wins against any winning teams. There's a couple. But then again, tonight they played a team with a winning record and they lost to them in Phoenix. This Minnesota record is a very weird wood band. They have just, we got to keep

bit eye on them because they're 15 and 8 and they lose everybody good generally and and and and and and beat everybody bad generally. Now they did get those wins against Boston San Antonio. So we got to we got to set that aside.

That was two good ones. Where it was like heads up. I mean, they were he, you know, that that was Jalen Brown and and, and, and Edwards going band for band in what was a really good game.

Last week. But anyways, yeah. We have to talk about Con. Gillespie for a second. Because I just love these stories. Like he was a G-Leat player. He was like on the Nuggets, he's on the Nuggets

G-Leat team. Yes. And then he just shows up and now he's like starting for the sons and like hitting all his shots. Oh yeah. Awesome. Oh, look, I'm doing, I've got one here in Memphis in Cam Spencer, Pat Spencer's little brother. Oh, the Spencer brothers had a weekend. You've seen the Spencer brothers. I mean, look, you know what that means. You just got to wait for

Tyler Colick's time. Oh, yeah. It's coming for you too. I don't think I don't have my eye on it. There's something that all these players have in common for a note. I just can't, I can't put my finger on it. The return of the white guy.

But also like true white guys. Like Tyler Hero is not nearly as white as Tyler Colick is. You know what I mean? This is real cockacity. They played lacrosse. That's how white they are. They play lacrosse. What's happening in the Spencer household?

They must have just beat the shit out of each other all the time. They're so intense and competitive. All right. This is, I'm going to tell you a crazy story. So they didn't beat the shit out of each other all the time because you know where dad takes them in the, when they're not playing sport, you know what they do during the summers?

It must be like a Khabib in the UFC. Like do they wrestle bears in Bosnia or something? No, you're going to laugh hysterically. Where does he take them in the summer? They play golf. Oh. And there is a FedEx St. Jude playoff PGA golf tournament that is in Memphis, okay, where the 70 best players in the PGA come and play. And so the head of security for the Grizzlies takes Cam Spencer out to the golf tournament.

He has never been out to the course, to the golf tournament. As a, just as a patron. Yeah, just watching. He's watching it. And he's like, yeah, he's like, yeah, he's like, I put. golf too. And he's like, oh, okay, cool. He's like, hey, well, we have a group that plays out here. He's like, maybe I'll bring you out here with me. And Cam Spencer was like, I'd love that. And so anyways, they go out. And so this is, this is the security guy telling me this.

He goes, so the tournament is on Sunday. And Justin Rose wins the tournament. We stayed to the end, whatever, had a great time. Two days later, a guy I know has a tea time out there. He's like, so I call Spencer. And I'm like, hey, come on out with us. Okay. They said, Ken Spencer shows up, brings out his clubs. He shoots two over, two over from the tips where the PGA players play. What? He shoots two over.

That probably would have put him in like middle of the pack. Look, he said he never misses a fair way. I'm like, hold on. So anyways, I run into Spencer and I'm like, yo, dude told me you shot a two over out at TPC Southwind. And he's like, yeah.

He's like, you want to play sometime? I'll take your money too. And I was like, what? And I was like, wait, do you play golf like all year round? Like, what is the deal here? I was like, do you have a handicap? He's like, I'm a two. I'm like, you're a two handicapped.

He's like, yeah. And I was like, do you play like when you guys go on the road. He goes, no. He goes, I only play golf in the off season. I put the clubs up two weeks before training camp. They are in my closet. They do not come out until after the season. That's it. And I was like, so you won't play until the, he's like, no, I don't play. And I was like, how many times did you play like during the off season? He was like, probably like 40. And I was like 40. And I was like 40. 40. For you play every. That's a lot. No, 40's a lot.

No, he plays constantly. It's all he does. And then he gets right back to basketball. Oh, look, I've got to get this guy on my show because he is, they're one of one. Like the Pat Spencer thing that's going so big right now, my buddy sent me a video yesterday. Memphis played against the Portland Trailblazers yesterday at 5 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, right?

I usually go down to the arena. me and I took my daughter yesterday, we went down around 3.30, something like that. My buddy text me a video at 1.30. And Cam Spencer is the only one in the forum. Lose yourself by Eminem is playing over the speakers and he's in a full sweat. Did it just play once or is it lose yourself on repeat?

I'm sure it's on a repeat. It's at 1.30. The game's at 5. That's too much. He goes and works out for like two hours. These guys are maniacs, Coby, is the whole point. And they're evidently, so the dad, the brother, Pat, that plays for the Warriors and Cam all play golf with each other.

Yeah, and they're all awesome. We've already talked about this for too long, but I do have one follow-up question I want to ask you. Yeah. So remember the U.S. open was at Beth Page Black last year, right? Mm-hmm. And, like, you know, that's in New York. It's not like people think it's like in the city.

It's, you know, it takes an hour to get there, whatever. But a lot of people I know went there. Yeah. And they're like, do you want to go? And I thought to myself, what is the experience of going to... Oh, it's awesome. Like, what is awesome about it? A party.

It's just for the part. No, it's people seeing in a party. Yeah. And like, watching people hit golf ball because that doesn't sound fun to me. Do you mill about from hole to hole or do you stay in one spot? So, yeah, we have spent too much time. the best thing I ever did with your kid, if you could take your kids.

Now, if you're with your... My kids have no interest. That would be awful. That would be awful. They'd just be complaining 40 minutes into it. You'd think so, but what we did... I know so. We know my kids.

When I bring the kids, I take lawn chairs and we set up at one hole and then we watch every single player come through. And a lot of times, they'll throw the ball to my daughter, they'll high five or whatever. So she loves that. She doesn't care about golf. She cares about that.

She's up close with the athletes, right? Like, it's fun. When I go with my buddies, I just bop around and go watch the best players. It's a drinking thing, though, isn't it? I mean, can be, for sure. Can be. I'm not going to. I can leave my whole life and never go to a golf tournament.

I'm fine with that. All right. Anyways, so we got Thunder and the Suns. Then we have Spurs Lakers. Spurs. Guess who we're picking in the Thunder Suns game. Yeah. I mean, I'm picking,

since we're not picking who's going to win, let's go over under on Brookshots. Oh, that's great. I'm sending you over under 23.5. Oh, I'm over. No Booker? I think he took 25 in their last game, if I'm not mistaken, not tonight's game before that.

I mean, it's wild. I'm over 23 and a half. half on shot attempts for sure. Okay. Yeah. Kobe. Spurs. Eighth offense, 16th defense. Maybe could get a Wembe or a castle back. You should they're 16th defense?

Huh? You sure there's 16th defense? Yep. All right. Well, my research was wrong. Numbers? Am I wrong on that? What'd you have? I had 12. No, I had 16 on. Yeah, you're probably right. I mean, they're 7 and 3 without Wembe. Their numbers defensively with Wemby versus without Wemby are unbelievable. We know that they've had a bunch of clutch games,

and you know that they've been outstanding of those. They've got veteran guys that get good shots, and Fox has been great down the stress of games. Fox has been really good. It's been great. Fox has been the darned Fox that they traded for, and Wemby, the latest is Wemby and Castle will full participants in practice. It also makes you feel much differently about them,

makes you feel much differently about them, the fact that they were able to go seven, and three in the absence of Wenbenyama. They've gotten Dylan Harper back and they've gotten him back and then they'll get Castle back. So that just speaks to strength of team. Luke Cornett's been really good for him. Fox's been really good for them.

They got a bunch of guys that have contributed. And so now, you know, when you're plugging in who many people think is one of the top five players in the NBA, when you're plugging him into a mix of a team that's already figured out how to win games in his absence. I think you look at the spurs much differently now, that that's just not totally Wembeyanap. They are much better than we thought without Wembeiyama. And so now when you add him,

the idea that he can be additive is what is insane. That's what's insane, right? They're winning and he can be additive to this because they can already win without him. And I think it makes them, I would say I would I've

What are you about to say Verno Going into this Tell me if you agree I feel as good about them As I do anybody Outside of Thunder,

Rocket, Nuggets I absolutely put them in the class With the Lakers and the Wolves Um Interesting The thing about A lot of the teams that you've named is I expect

Right? That would be the class right? That would be the class. I expect Some deadline moves to be made. But am I forgetting anybody? That's the That's the class of teams right? In the Western Conference. Yeah, I'm saying I'm saying look Thunder, Rockets and Nuggets There's them. And then I would put them alongside

Lakers and and and wolves. And then there's a drop and then there's like suns and Grizzlies and all those. whatever. Yeah. Sneak the grizzlies in there. That's fine.

It's cute. But, um, I mean, no, I'm saying, that's the standings, dummies. Yes.

No. I'm not. I'm putting them in there. I didn't just, I didn't insert them in there. That's where they are. Um, I did,

oh, warriors, warriors. I forgot warrior. And, but again, I would put them ahead of the warriors right now. Yes. I would as well.

Yeah. Um, especially when you consider age with these teams. And just like the, the, the warriors, we can have a discussion in a different time. There's one thing about a lot of these teams that are in this tournament

is there's a couple like Janus rumor teams. And the Spurs are a Janus rumor team. The Knicks are a Janus rumor team. And I'm going to ask you a similar question. Eventually you can't just be like, here's Vassell and Barnes and some picks. You know what I mean? Like, would you give up Stefan Castle?

in a yonest deal. How interested would you be in a yonest deal if you're the Spurs? Um, I mean, I would view that as like, he's a great culture guy. Like, you know what I mean? He is a different thing to bring him in because then you're winning now and winning later because you're still going to be fine. Well, he's going to eat up a large amount of the salary cap. I got it.

I got it, but you don't have guys. Who has a big salary there? Harrison Barnes. Yeah. Fox. Fox is the only one with a big salary. Yeah. I wouldn't want to give up Fox. No, I don't think he's part of it. Well, I mean, it kind of has to be. I haven't done the math on this.

Yeah, you got to put together some big salaries. So, I mean, look, as I said, you need to have a top five player to be able to win it. And when Minyama very well could be a top five player, like even this year. He could. that's not out of the question. That's the difference that I would say about the, when you tell me, if you're telling me would I trade for Janus, my first question is,

do you have a top five player? Because I know the history of the NBA tells me that you need one of those guys. Jonas will give you one. You need an MVP level player. No, no, no, but I'm saying that is the difference between when you're asking me, like the spurs might. They might have a top five player.

Obviously, Oklahoma City already does. Look, whether he is this year or next year, you know Wemby's going to be one of the top five players in the league. Come on. When they had Coach Bud and the Bucs were doing this like packet in defense thing with Lopez and Janus and no one could score around the rim, it won them a championship. Right.

And imagine. Janus and Wembe. It'd be a nightmare. Around the rim. Yes. You cannot score. No, it'd be a nightmare. I mean,

I don't even know what your approach to scoring would be. The other thing, the other thing, and as that point, do you look at it and go, okay, we have just extended this timeline where we can win right now. But look, generally they have been one of those like, all right, we're going to do this on a timeline. Like the Fox thing is so we can be super competitive and get playoff experience right now. No, I'm saying, we can get playoff experience right now. I'm sorry. Yeah, with Wemby right now. And then we're going to look up in the three years, Castle and Harper and these guys.

They're all ready to win, right? Like, you don't have to win. You don't have to win the thing right now. Like, you got, you got time. You got time and you got to let the, and you can also have these guys all grow together and maybe have your next, you know, figure out what are the best guys to build out around Wemby? what's the best way to build out around him? What are the best type of guys to have around him?

They've got a lot of them on the roster. They're just young. Yeah. So you just let it play out. And sometimes it happens faster we think. Look at what just happened in Oklahoma City. Look like the right guys to have around Mbittiama. Right.

Like they do. Like I think they've crafted this in a way that they don't need to do this. The more I think about potentially Janus trades, the less any of them seem like perfect. partners. I think there's a reason why when we talked about this earlier in the week, the odds were that the best odds when they posted them on these sites were that Yannis plays the most amount of minutes for the bucks post trade deadline. I think that's the reasoning. It's like if it's not the next, because the other thing is you've got to remember, this stuff is always player dependent as well. We can opine and we can say, well if you're the spurs would you want when Janus may say hey I don't want to be there and those messages get through quickly

you know these guys dictate where they go hell Jimmy Butler was telling everybody where he wanted to go and finally just ends up in Golden State like it does depend on where Janus wants to go and I do think that's why it's being Lee that he wants so I mean if you're the Knicks do you go

you know you get beaten either the East Finals or the NBA finals and then you pull the trigger in the off season. So you play this out and then you... That's sort of what I said last Friday is I want to see this team play a season under this new coach

and then we can reevaluate it. Totally, totally logical. Right? Totally logical. Spurs are playing against the Lakers by the way. You said LeBron would be back. You said it wasn't Willie May stumbling in the outfit. I did. I did. He looked really good.

I think after after not getting to 10 points he wanted to remind everybody I'm not dead yet and however I do have scored on the last four possession I do have some notes in that LeBron performance and I was watching it

I don't think you can put the crown on yourself you can't self-crown I think you need to be crowned no he's no I don't think you can self-crown it doesn't hit the same I want someone else to put the crown on me in the cell I don't want to self-crown. And then he tried to go into his,

the push-down, knee-up celebration thing. He spammed it all. He spammed every celebration. He hit all the buttons. He just mashed all the buttons on the celebration joystick. It was poorly executed.

I was not happy with it. I loved the finish of the game. He had the three, and then he had the MIDI. And it was like, all right, this is a great performance from LeBron. And a typical LeBron form, he ruined it with one of the weirdest mash celebrations I've ever seen.

It was sort of like a DJ trying to make a mashup of two songs that should not be together. And his teammates wouldn't even let him do it. He's put the crown on himself. He didn't even get to finish this stupid pushdown thing. What is the pushdown knee up, smash your chest thing? Where did that come from? What is it? What are you telling me when you do that?

He just, he did it 20 years ago. I remember the first time he did it. I think he just kind of like tweaked out. It gets called stomping bugs. No. Is that a real thing? That's how I stomp bugs. That's how I do it.

You're very aggressive with your bug stomping. I do not like that celebration. I love the performance. It was great. It was great because I was watching the games. Close game. He just took over. He took over like the Bronjian.

Andy were watching it with Rich Ball. No, I was not watching Rich Ball. I was not. All right. Look, here's something that keep in mind. Would you say this? Especially if Wemby can play. Laker Spurs is number one on this list in terms of the best game.

If Wimby's involved. I don't know if he's going to play. He just started getting, you know, full. participation in practice. You're really put them out there. If we're ranking these, though, we'd say Spurs Lakers, even if he doesn't play, it's still the best, most competitive. This is, I mean, like, your most Adam Silver, this, this, the,

these matchups, we spoke about like a week ago, were so fun, but they're just riddled with injured guys now. Like, Booker out. I'd say, Fron's out. Farns out, exactly. So, but I would say Spurs Lakers, then Magic Heat, then Nick's Raptors, and then probably Thunder Suns, for ranking the four games.

in terms of interest level. Yeah, but there is a looming Thunder Lakers game that could really be interesting. Really be interesting. Now let me get, as I told you about how if it's working with the heat, we usually know by halftime.

I hope, I am hopeful that Lakers spurs goes down to the very end because the Lakers in clutch games where the score has been within five points with five minutes to go, they are eight and oh this year. They have not lost the game when it's become a nip-tuck game. And I just told you that the spurs have been awesome as well.

So what we want is two teams that are really, have been outstanding in those spots, playing a close game with five minutes left to go in the game. So that's a really interesting set. Yeah. I've not, I didn't know that about the Lakers, but I'm looking back. I mean, Rui hit that three.

No. That was pretty nip-and-tuck there. Yep. What broadcast teams do we have on Tuesday and Wednesday? I don't know. It's Amazon, right? Didn't Amazon get the cup? I don't know. Jesse, producer Jesse's nodding, so it's Amazon. Yeah, it's Amazon.

Okay, that'll be fun. I like that. And, you know, when I was prepping for this, I'm looking up what's happening with the Lakers and everything, because I've watched the last couple games. What do you think about a Herb Jones addition to the Lakers? It'd be awesome. It's just like a... You know who's been impactful for them? It's Marga Smart. Yeah, he's been out. He's been out.

I'm saying it gives you another one. They need defense, man. Their defense is not going to be good enough. They just don't have a human that can get you a stop. Well, it's also hard... It's also hard to play your three best players together defensively. Yeah. Two white guys and LeBron.

For some reason, I don't count the foreigners as white guys. I think you have to be domestic United States to be a true white guy. in my head. Tell me I'm wrong, but in my head. Luca defends like a white guy. He defends like a white guy. Caruso not. Caruso not withstanding.

Caruso notwithstanding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Caruso, again, there's levels to the Caucasianity. He's more Doug McDermott than Kirk Heinrich. Yes, yes. But I think a, you know, I think, I don't think they can put together something for Trey Murphy has something they have enough. But Herb Jones would be a real nice fit here.

He got LeBron James on the last year of his deal. Like, do what you have to do. Yeah. Cash it in. Cash it in. Do it. All right. Last thing before we get out of here.

I want to hear, all right, number one, I want an L.A. review. Okay. So do you haven't been there in a while? Mm-hmm. And number two, I want to hear about Kellerman and Rich Paul of what I'm going to get to hear. L.A. review. It cannot be understated how much better it is to be a sports fan in the Pacific time zone. It's just a better experience.

What? Football Sundays? The night game ends at like eight. You can go out to dinner after the night game. And the football's on, like you eat breakfast and it's like the pregame show is on. Waiting for 1 p.m. on Sundays, it's awful. just everything's earlier but not NBA

wise right the games are on a your a Knicks game would be on at four that's nice nice I've got to be a carpool they not have the same kind of life experience it's much better you're just wrong on this

you know what Chris sometimes you just have to say I am wrong I made a mistake football Sunday starts at 10 a.m. and ends at eight that is better It's much better Much much much much better And everything being earlier is better I don't like 830 is when like the money

At football game out here it starts at 530 Like right after work It's awesome If you're a Knicks fan How could you ever watch a game with kids Your phone? I watch games The hell wants to watch games on their phone

I watch games on my phone all the time Because I'm busy I'm going around doing stuff Central time zone is the one Central times. Oh, stop. Yes, it is. No. So football starts for you at noon?

Yeah, which is great. Great. It's better. Noon is great. Also, my games start at 6 o'clock for the East Coast games, 7 o'clock on the Central Time Zone, and 9 o'clock for the West Coast.

It's perfect. Because I actually have things to do after, like I got kids. We got practices. We got school. We got whatever. I can't have, I can't watch games if it's at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. What?

And I'm not going to be watching them on my phone. That's asinine. What? I love watching them on my phone. So Monday night football, like tonight, you like that it comes on

at five o'clock? Yes. Oh, God. Absolutely. Get a job. I mean, these people got to get jobs. Can we take people behind the curtain?

We wrapped a show like three shows ago and you're like, you try to be like, what do you do with your life, Jacoby? Like, what do you have to do today? Like I'm just fucking sun tanning or like at the bar all day long. Like what do you think? What do you think of my life is, oh, I've got to do my local show.

You bullshit with Dev for an hour about nothing. Oh, by the way. You were like, what do you mean? What do I have to do? I've got to go to therapy, then I've got to go to the gym, that I've got to go to lunch. And I'm like, get a job. That was not my answer. That was not my answer.

I've spent a day with you in Memphis. You don't do the rundown for your show. there is no rundown for your show. You just sit down and bullshit. Oh, when does it start? Noon, when does it end? Oh, whenever we feel like it. I got three jobs.

It ends whatever we feel like it. That's what it ends. Oh, okay. Oh, that's tough. It's got to be hard. It's got to be real hard. Tough one. Pays of bills.

Tough one. That got under your skin. You don't like it. I like, yeah, you were like, because I didn't like the perception that like my life is just like free time. I'm just like reading novels and just like learning hobbies.

Like now I can whittle sticks or something. Like I'm learning how to play the drums on like Tuesday for four hours. Like I don't know what you think this is around here, buddy. I've got a baby. It's awful. You haven't had a baby for like 12 years. You haven't had a baby for 12 years. You forgot.

They suck. What I don't? It's impossible. A horrible pullout game. It's impossible. Hold on. Let me tell you about Rich. Paul and Max.

Yeah, please. Max is an excellent broadcaster. He's been doing it forever. And Rich Paul just knows things that you don't know. You know what I mean? One thing I find very interesting about this combo is we've been doing this for a long time in sports media. You're either, like us two jerks, guys that follow sports very closely and are semi-intertaining about speaking about them, or you're a former athlete. Right?

Yep. And or you pair the two together, right? which we've seen a million times over. But we haven't had, or you're an insider reporter like the Wojus or the Shams, right? We haven't had sort of an insider like Rich Paul with a platform like this. You know what I mean? He's not a reporter. He's not a former player.

Right. But he has information that we don't have. He knows how things work in a way that we do not, which makes him sort of unique in the landscape, which makes this show sort of excited. and he is willing to say said thing. Yeah. I mean, that's what matters. Are you willing to say them into a microphone that is broadcasted?

And he's not afraid to like, I think everyone thinks he's going to like use his agenda or like talk positively about LeBron. He literally said today on the show, he was like the Lakers are not championship contenders. That is not a championship contending team in any way shape. Well, I mean, they kind of told us that in the memo before the season. They're like, he ain't got long and he wants to win now. And he's cool and he's funny and he knows. stuff. Yeah.

And I'll also end it with this. I'm not a huge fan, but I didn't realize this. Adele was there. No. In like, she's in like a room watching the show and in the middle of a taping and in a break. She's like, I've got a go. I've got a go, Rich.

I've got a thing. I've got to go to class. Boy. And I was like, oh, that's Adele. And then she walked out. Oh, I would have freaked out. I've got to go. I don't think I can name an Adele song right now.

I like a couple of them, but I can't like name them. I could name, what's her biggest hit? I could name 20. Someone like you. Oh, that's a good one. That's a good song. I love Adele. She's very talented.

Oh, I would have freaked out if I saw Adele. Oh, go. I'm sorry, Rich. I'll call you later. She's got a real thick accent. I was turned around. I was like, who is that? Oh, go, go.

She was at the studio? Yeah, but she was tucked away. But they wouldn't let the gen pop like myself sort of get exposed. I understand. I heard she was there, but I was like, and then she just, I call go! That's awesome. Yeah. All right.

I guess that show launches, what, tomorrow? Pretty much, yeah. The thing is, is, like, why would you ever drop your first album the same day and time that the mismatch comes out? Big mistake. Big mistake. No one's going to talk about it. Big mistake. When you drop at the same time as the mismatch, what are you doing?

What an error in judgment? What are you doing? Especially, especially our NBA Cup special. Our NBA Cup special. You guys stupid? What are you? What are you mad? This is just terrible, terrible business decisions.

They called from Sweden. We did. I just, I didn't even, I don't speak Swedish, but someone was yelling on the phone. That's right. Why would you ever put this head to head against the mismatch NBA, MBA, MBA Cup special? Why would you do that? And he said, because I'm Muhammad Kellerman. And they were like, still, that's a mistake.

It's the Cup special. We know how big that's going to be. Exactly. I just want to apologize to everyone that spent all their day today working hard on that show that no one's going to see because they get overshadowed by the mismatch NBA Cup special. Yep. We've got to go! We've got to go! Thanks to our executive producer Jesse Lopez, as always.

And Jacoby, I'll talk to you later this week. Must be 21 or over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino. Or 18 and over and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-G-Help.com. Call 1-888-78-78-7-7-7 or visit CCPg.org slash chat in Connecticut

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