The Mismatch - Nuggets on the Verge of Imploding, Paolo Drops 50, and D-Wade’s Statue, Plus: Overreactions, Surprises, and Who Should Be Panicking

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Verno and Jacoby go through last night’s slate of games, including Paolo Banchero dropping 50 points against the Pacers, the Nuggets almost blowing it against the Raptors, and Ryan Dunn’s defensive potential after the Suns handed the Lakers their first loss of the season (01:52). They then each give one big overreaction (24:10) and surprise (34:27), as well as what they are most panicked about so far this season (42:06). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visithttp://www.rg-help.com/ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Look, it's not that confusing. I'm Rob Harvilla, host of the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, except we did 120 songs. And now we're back with the 2000s. I refuse to say aughts. 2000 to 2009. The Strokes, Rihanna, Jalo, Kanye, sure. And now the show is called 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, colon the 2000s. Wow.

That's too long a title for me to say anything else right now. Just trust me. That's 60 songs that explain the 90s, in the 2000s, preferably on Spotify. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. At joining what he does every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. We are back. We are back and we have got a ton.

So much NBA basketball last night. How many times have your opinions changed over the last week? It's crazy. Every night I am watching these games and my opinions change dramatically. and that is the blessing and the curse of early season basketball is because all of these teams are figuring out who they are. Some of them are working in new personnel. And so a lot of them look drastically different from night to night.

And my opinion goes right with them looking drastically different. Well, it's also quarter to quarter. You know, I know you're at the, we'll be talking about that grizzly Bulls game, but second quarter it looks like, oh, look at the gris. They're cruising. cruising i i believe i texted you the bulls are ass that's a quote that's a direct quote yeah that didn't work out so well anyway let's get to a lot of the things that happened on monday night um first of all the big headline is the palo monster game

coming down the middle challenged by palo bandero and the shot no good he's doing it at both into the floor one against nimhart jump around its role nothing but net he's He says you can't stop me. And he wants the basketball. He knows. He just cannot miss. That is one of those. Every once in a while, something will happen.

So I was at a game last night and something will reverberate, meaning everybody that's like sitting around me starts chatterbox it around it and I start getting text about it. And when Palo had 37, 7 and 6 at halftime, That was certainly one of those things. When I first saw, the first text I got was Paolo has 37-7-6. It's halftime. And I was like, no way. Like, I figured somebody's app had a glitch or something.

But 37-7-6, and he ends up with the 50 piece last night. And just a monster game for Palo. I know you were very high on the magic going into the year. But, you know, you keep seeing all these stats going around. the only players in NBA history to record 50 plus points, 10 plus rebounds and 5 plus assist in a game before turning 22 years of age are now LeBron James and Palo Bancara. I mean, so a couple things about last night is you get those notifications so you immediately click over to the Magic game. And I was sitting back being like, all right, we're going to see 60. You know, I really, I had higher hopes for this one.

He kind of got a little tie tie in the second half. it sort of seemed like he really sort of exerted himself a lot to get to that 37 in the first half. The second half wasn't as impressive. But when someone scores 50 in this decade, we'll call it, usually it involves a lot of three-pointers. He only had three-threes. That's one of the things that I loved about this performance so much is the playmaking that he does for others and that he does it around the basket, floating towards the basket, back to the basket. It's not just someone who hits a bunch of threes and gets hot like Peyton Pritchard last night.

I also wonder, I do wonder if NBA players see a lot of things and I just want to live in a fantasy world where Palo Bancaro, I don't know if you saw this going around last night. This guy, Alex Caruso, not the Alex Caruso, but he gives out like picks and prop picks for the night. Oh, this was his big lock. it was Paulo Bencaro under 38.5 points, rebounds, and assist. He will get clamped by Siakum. Run up the hearts for another NBA play. Bencaro is under in six out of six career games versus Pascal Seacom. Time out.

Time out, Byno. Time out. 20 second timeout. Do you really want to trade in the currency of trashing people's bad predictions when it goes to NBA basketball? Because I don't know if I want to, I don't want to wade in those waters. I don't want to wait in those waters. I don't, but this is an all-timer.

Okay. When your best bet, you deserve this. Look, I'm one of those that I always say this. I dish it out, but I can take it. If you want to jump me, that's fine. No one's going to bat a thousand. But, I mean, come on, bro. Under 38 and a half is a lock.

and he had 37, 7 and 6 at halftime, and you wrote, he will get in all cap, clamped by past. I mean, that's tough. It's just a tough look. That's all I'm saying. Of course. But I think these magic, one of the reasons I was hired them,

was Palo sort of taking a next step. And it feels like he has. He had 33 against Miami, at 15, you know, 16 against your gris. And then last night, the 50. It was closer than it should have been, though. You know, when you have a performance like that, you don't expect the game to be that close,

but I want to give a shot to Jaylen Suggs, because obviously the last time we spoke about him was because of the extension, we celebrate his defense. But he's been hitting, he's been hitting threes, man. Like, he's been hitting threes. He was six for 15 last night. Like, he's been knocking down that shot.

And when you see someone get paid like that, it usually goes one of two ways. Like, sometimes it's like, all right, I got my bag. I'm a down shift. I'm going to mail it in a little bit. Or it's, I got my bag. I'm comfortable.

This organization wants me to be here. I'm going to be here for the unforeseen few So let me just settle in and find my role and be the best I can for his organization. It certainly feels like Jalen Suggs is going to the ladder. Well, and his three point numbers have gone up progressively every year. And now he's over five attempts a game. And he's been, I believe, over 40 percent so far this year right at it. So unbelievable return so far on Suggs.

And they've got to feel good about paying him long term because, I mean, on one side of the court, he is just an absolute force of nature. And now if he starts knocking down threes, and that's exactly what that Orlando team needs. They need guys that are able to space out the floor and knock down shots. All right, let's do a little fill me in here because you know I was at Grizzly's Bulls last night. And so there was a bunch of games going on. You were texting me, trying to keep me up to date on everything that was going on.

I had, I will say shout out to the NBA. I bought my league pass through Prime this year. It was on Prime. And it pulls up on my phone just absolutely perfectly, like even in the arena. And so I was bopping from game to game. Every time you would send me a text, I would try to catch the end of these games as they were closing out.

So you were flipping around trying to watch all of these. Give me a quick thoughts on all of these. Selts Bucks. Seltz Bucks. It's the Payne Pritchard night. Like Payne Pritchard is, if it's the end of the quarter, put two, on Pritchard.

You know, if there's going to be a buzzer, this, he's a guy like a Pavlovian response to the clock ticking down and the buzzer. He's going to get you one. You can tell, look at him. They're already diagram. Look at him. He's ready. Keep your eye on Pritchard.

Connetton hits them both. Five point game. Pritchard springs free. Here we go. This is his time. Richard fires. Oh, Richard Madder. The clock winding down and I think it was like six seconds left.

just to get to a spot and raise. You know, I kind of black out in those moments and just let it fly. Obviously, it works out a lot of the times for me. We all know what Tatum brings and Brown brings in that, but when you have a role player like that that just has a night like that, it really just opens up everything for everybody else.

You can tell that the team themselves absolutely loved it. Like, this was the Peyton Pritchard night. I was watching the game like the second quarter, he hit his fifth three. I think it was like, it was just like, the announcers just lost their mind and he hit his third three. It just went from there.

It was the Payton Pitcher night. I think that we're going to be discussing the Bucson much later because the bigger story isn't that Peyton Pitcher hits and threes. That's just what we're going to tease you with now. But there's a much larger discussion about what is happening in Milwaukee with the Bucks that we will have later. Well, and also, look, that is much more playoff-esque, where a team comes in with a game plan and here's what we want to stop.

And those other guys, if they kill you, now you've got. got a huge problem on your hand, right? We saw it last year, if you recall. Batum. Dallas moved on because of PJ Washington and Derek Jones Jr. were just alternating these big games for Dallas against Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City was like, look, if PJ Washington and Derek Jones Jr. beat us, then so be it. And then they did. And they did. Right. And so when you see these other Boston Celtics being able to step up, it certainly bodes well for the future. That reminds me of the Grant Williams game against the Bucks, the same matchup. Remember that game was just like, they have a game plan.

But you know what's not part of the game plan? Great Williams hitting seven threes. They had with Baton last year, I believe it was the playing game that the Sixers had. But moving on to the game that I had circled Knicks. The Knicks, I could go on for hours about this, but I won't. I'll just say that I'm an optimistic Knicks fan. They have lost two games to two undefeated teams, the Cavs and the Celtics. Last night it was the Cavs.

They beat the Pacers' handily in their second game. Caves came to town. It was a close game throughout. No one on the Knicks played particularly well. Kat didn't do much. Brunson didn't do much. Heart got hurt, a little worried about that. But this was, really, the story of this game is not about the New York Knicks.

It's about Darius Garland. Because when I think about the Cleveland Cavaliers, I think about Mitchell and I think about the two bigs. And Garland is often an afterthought. And last night, he was fantastic. He was 34 points, five for eight from three. and between it was Mitchell and Garland just sort of like they dominated the second half of that game

and just the two of them brought them the victory easily. So you left that game thinking more about the calves than necessarily about the Knicks. Absolutely, absolutely. You thought this is a function of the calves being awesome, not the Knicks being bad. Absolutely, absolutely. The Cavs, you know, I think both of us are pretty high on them preseason

and that is certainly borne out on the court. and the, I'm calling it the Atkinson diet. The Atkinson diet is looking good on the calves. Noah's Epic needed. The Nuggets, boy, they are not making a good first impression for anybody, Jacoby. And you texted me and you said the raps are going to beat the Nuggets. And then I think you were despondent. You know, as Resident Pistons fans, we've watched this where they've had fourth quarter leads.

And then it's like, oh, no. this is what bad teams do. The other team decides, okay, it's time to turn up for these last 12 minutes, and then they just take care of business. But they lure you in like, oh, my goodness, the pistons are going to win or, oh, my goodness, like last night, the Raptors are going to win against the Nuggets, and then it's turn up time and the Nuggets flip the game around. It took absolutely everything the Nuggets had to beat the Raptors in overtime.

I was going to say it again. It took absolutely, it took a last second. bucket by Jamal Maria, a good reverse layup, is a really tough shot. It took Scotty Barnes, I hope he's okay. He took a really, really tough elbow from Yokic. You know how Yokic always has those scratches on his arms? They can tell how he gets him because he throws those arms around.

And his arms are just huge and just powerful, and he nailed Scotty Barnes. And Scottie Barnes needed help walking over to the bench. And then when he got to the bench, he didn't sit in the chair. He kind of took like a bedside prayer motion thing, which made me think it wasn't just like a structural thing. It might have been a concussion. I'm not a doctor.

I don't know what happened. But, like, Scotty Barnes did not look good after that. I hope he is okay. But I can't lie. Earmuffs, everybody. I was rooting for the Raptors so hard. Because I love narratives, and I love, I've got a little Schadenfreude about me. Like, I like other people's sadness.

And the Nuggets won a championship a couple years ago. So I'm rooting for this to be a disaster. Because I really think they're wasting Nikola Yokic with how they constructed this. We will discuss this more later. But I was rooting for them to lose. And they should have lost that game. Like, the Raptors blew it more than anything else. I think they're up four with it.

with like, you know, 70 seconds left or something. Well, and you're already seeing all of the plus minus numbers being hovered around every single day. When you're only a week into the season and you're seeing all the plus minus numbers hovering around. And this has always been the case where they are radically different team with Yokic on the court than not. But it seems like we're going to go to the absolute extreme this year, where they are a good team when he is on the court and they can't survive a minute. without him on the court. Now, I will say, you know, Russ brought them a bunch of energy in the four.

Like, he has been, it's been a disgusting debut in the first couple of games for him in Denver. But it is one of those things where one of the things about Russ is he's going to keep trying every single night. Like, the thing that I've always honored about him is there's a lot of guys that the outcome of a game each night don't really matter. It matters to him every night. You can fault him for the way he plays, and you can fault him for where he is

within the context of the league now and that he tries to do things that he used to do, that he can't do at the rate that he used to do them, and all of those things. But he still cares, and I do think that that always has a profound effect on the guys that he is out on the court with. I just want to applaud you, Chris Vernon,

because in October 29th, the morning of October 29th, of Our Lord 2024, you fix your lips and celebrated Russell Westbrook for something he's done on a basketball court. I mean, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's a really, really good, really good turn of media work right there. That's a great zag. It's a great zag. I'm not, great zag. But I'm the rock guy. He sucks. He is bringing that team down. They are better without him than with him, not just on the floor. I mean, like, in the building. Like that, like, I wouldn't be surprised. We, you know what, put a pin in that, because we're just in the

catch you up on last night part. I've got a whole Nuggets thing later so we can get back to it. Other games I want to get to, the Wizards. The Wizards look kind of good. He sucks. I changed co-host and I thought I was going to get. No, no. No.

All right, this is one I'm just never going to. I'm just, I'm never going to, you know what? It's come to me. I'm never going to find anybody that's on my side. No. His kids are like, Dad, you want to spend more time around the house? Sure. No.

Rocket Spurs. Rocket Spurs, you know. I like it. It's getting feisty. It got a little feisty. Wemby hit a shot that kind of looked like it was going to be the game winner. And then Van Vleet is just like wide open from the top of the key. And it just, you know, it kind of reminded me of that, that, you know, that run when they beat the Warriors is like, Fred Van Vleet?

Is he like, he's one of the top five point cards in the league? Like, he's still there. He's hitting shots. Slow down. Slow down. I mean, in the moment, it felt like it. Jalen Green is, you know, he's been a little bit of a tear. You know, you had a great game last night as well.

I love that from him. And one thing that we wanted to touch on was the Mavs Jazz. Obviously, the Mabs won. I wanted to give a shout out to my guy Clay Thompson, who continues just to get wide open threes from Luca. And it's just, Clay Thompson's like, I should have left the Warriors years ago. So easy. This is great.

And obviously, there's a terrible injury from the Jazz. Yeah, Taylor Hendricks, that was awful. super high draft pick last year. A guy I saw in college a couple of different times because he played for UCF. And by all accounts, leading up to the draft, one of the things that I kept hearing about Taylor Handrix is what a great kid he was

and how that was helping his draft stock at the time. You know, last year only played 20 games in the season, or 40 games, rather. He played 40 games, so half a season. And now, you know, he's only 20 years old. and three games into the year, it's ripped away from him. And if you see the injury, I mean, one of the most freakish ones I've ever seen. No one is around him.

He is just running. And then it's like his whole ankle just completely buckles. And then they say it's a dislocation. It was just a horrendous injury, horrendous injury. I think it was Kessler who was next to him. And you can always tell by the reaction. of the players closest to the incident. Yeah. If they, if they, like, if they immediately come over to the, to the bench and

take it out here, and Kessler couldn't even look at it. He had to turn away. He had to turn away. Didn't, you know, didn't go over and put a hand on the guy's back and, you know, and wait until the staff got there. Kessler was sort of disgusted and had to turn his face away from it, which is, if you didn't see it, don't look it up, because you can, you can, you can imagine it. I don't know if I've ever seen something like this happened, where it was non-contact. Like, usually you see it, and someone, you can, you can't. Somebody, you know, it's off of somebody diving for something maybe, like maybe in the stands or something. Rolling it on somebody.

Rolling it on something. But he was just running down the court. And it sat on his leg, kind of. Like, he sat on it. It was, he buckled underneath him. It was just a very, very awkward way. I mean, we've all seen non-contact injuries. Like, Steph had two non-contact injuries this weekend.

We sort of rolled his ankle. But that's sort of like more normal in the natural flow of basketball. This was just a very, very sort of freakish unique thing. And we wish him the best. Yeah. And hopefully that kid can make it all the way back because this is a killer for a developmental year for him within the context of the jazz as well, where he was going to get a ton of minutes. It doesn't matter. He was going to get to play it out.

If you are the jazz, one of the things you want is the opportunity for someone like this to go out there and get experiences while losing basketball games. Right. Like that is that is sort of the point. You know what I mean? Like you don't need your vets to go out there and learn and develop. You need something like he does. We hope he gets back. finally last one had me up late was the uh the sun's lakers great game yeah great game

kept me awake it was it was great it's going back and forth at the end there's a couple possessions with gay vincent was covering kevin durant and went exactly as you expected like those are huge possessions but one of the things that stood out to me was um ryan done like the rook he plays defense man yeah like listen there's you know some some things like when you're a rookie it's like the speed of the game and you know getting offenses and sort of getting fooled when you're playing defense, but like just staying in front of a ball handler is just something that you're just going to have or you don't. And he's got it, man. Like, like, I think they might have found something in him. I think he might be like a little bit of a steal. Well, and that's

one thing about the Virginia guys. And obviously, Virginia is going to be not producing the same maybe level of player or type of player, but now that Tony Bennett has walked away. But you know very well that anybody that played in Virginia, they weren't playing unless they defend like crazy. That's their way on the court. It was very, you know what it's very reminiscent of? Years ago, I read this article, and it was Luke Richard and Bamhute. And he was being asked about how the early success of UCLA players. That's one of the things he was talking about.

And he was saying the reason, and I thought this was so wise, he said the reason UCLA players in that whole like era, whether it was Russ, whether it was Kevin Love, there was a bunch of them, Darren Collison, a bunch of them. And he said, the reason UCLA players are able to get on the court and have this success early is because there is nothing better than playing in games in order to progress. And the reason coaches will play us is because Ben Howland made us defend. Coaches will not take you out for your offensive screw-ups nearly as fast as they will. but if you miss one defensive assignment, you're out. And so a lot of these kids that come from schools that play boring styles

that are defense first, like the Ben Howland, UCLA teams, like the Tony Bennett, Virginia teams, have found their way to get on a court at a young age because the coach is able to trust them, even as rookies. And I think Dunn is another example of that. What he brings out offense will be a bonus. But if the kid can get out there and he's long, can defend.

You can. That's another one of those late, late first round picks that could really pay huge dividends for a team that needs as many players that will know, as many players that can be cheap and contribute as possible. Yeah. Yeah, because their, their salary is such that if they can even get a B out of Ryan Dunn, that changes their next three years.

Absolutely. It really does because they're so, they're so top heavy with their salary, and we obviously know why. The mismatch is presented by Fanduel. If you're in need of a midweek boost, Fandul, America's number one sportsbook has you covered with the NBA

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Call 1-800 gambler or visit R.G. dash help.com. Let's get to overreactions. So we're going to do an overreaction, a surprise, and a panic. I'll start with my overreaction. Your overreaction. I should have picked Cleveland as the one to deal with the Knicks. Again, you're saying overreaction.

I mean, in the end, most of the time when we get to the highest levels of the playoffs, It comes down to stars. And they got three stars. If you're going to say, if Mobley becomes what we think he's going to become. We call Mobile a Star? I think Mobley is absolutely, I don't think anybody is going to debate that Mobley has had all-star potential. Yeah, but that's just that last word, though, potential. Okay, well, fine.

Jared Allen's been an all-star. Donovan Mitchell's been an all-star. Darius Garland's been an all-star. Like, that's already happened. if Mobley is an all-star caliber player, that's four, they're doing it without Max Truce. They've got the six-man heater guy in Keras Lavert. They've got a couple other pieces that I like,

and they're on the Atkinson diet, as you said. And it's just, it's a talent thing. And one of the things we wondered coming into the season was they've got the new coach. There's too much overlap with this team. But I'm going to tell you this. The Garland thing last night that you mentioned earlier, that matters to me greatly. He was on a real trajectory two years ago. And then it was like, oh, well, the him and Donovan thing don't work really well.

You remember he had the weird broken jaw injury? Like, he had the season from hell last year and was just never himself. But he was always on this trajectory to be an outstanding NBA player. And I'm always one of those that I pay very close attention to who other NBA players. vouch for. And two years ago, I went in hard on Darius Garland because I read this interview because after working out throughout the summer, you know who was all in on Darius Garland being a potential superstar in the league? Steph Curry. Huh. And I'm like, look, man, Steph Curry don't get a lot of this wrong. Like he knows. And if he's been working out with

this guy. And so all I'm saying is, again, you ask for an overreaction. Talent-wise, it's a different type of talent, then, you know, everybody's going to for the Celtics and they are the prohibitive favorite. But if we're looking for somebody that could match it in this weird way, it's different. And they probably need a little bit more wing defense. But Atkinson being able to figure out how to simultaneously get big time performances out of all four of these guys. Like, you know, Alan last night's got 15 and 15. Mowgli's had big games already. Garland's had a 32.

Mitchell's already had big games. It's like, man, if you can figure out a way to mix and match this thing to be able to maximize or at least close to maximize what these guys would be, but do it as a unit, then I think you've got a chance to be really special because nobody will deny that level of talent. I mean, those top four guys are those are big time guys. And Alan is like the greatest role player in the world. Like he doesn't need the ball. He's not taking shots.

He hasn't dribbled in four years. Right. He does what he does. Yeah. And I've always loved Alan even since he was with the Nets. But one of the things that just to support you here with this Cavs thing is you think, oh, well, the Cavs, they kind of got boat raised by the Celtics last year in the playoffs. Like, yeah, but they had six guys in street clothes.

And Donovan Mitchell had to stand on his head and score 50 points for them to even be in it. in the fourth quarter and they would eventually lose. Like that, to me, is kind of just a scratch off if you take that. But I will say they do have for... The coach is different. Of course. We have to evaluate it on the coach is different. We watch what that guy did in Brooklyn.

Oh, yeah. With not much talent. No. He had that cares for he has now. It's like DeAngelo Russell, Jared Allen, who he has now. Probably got fired over Jared Allen because he's playing him instead of DeAndre Jordan. As he should have.

but there's one piece to this that I just want to put on top is Donovan Mitchell has the potential to go nuclear in any game, especially in the postseason. We've seen it ever since the bubble with him and Murray going back and forth. Like, Donovan Mitchell is, I would say that there's Garland, Mowbly, and Allen. You call them all all-stars or all-star potential or whatever. It's like, sure. But they don't have that. I can be the best guy on the floor and score 50 and get through double teams and slide through pick and roll blitzes and just, be sort of a superstar the way

that Donovan Mitchell can, and you kind of need someone like that if you're going to make the NBA finals. What's your overreaction? No, hold a second. When you say my overreaction is, I should have picked the calves. Dot, dot, dot. I thought you were going to say to come out of the east. And you said, to deal with the Knicks?

To deal with the Knicks. No, I know what I said. That's exactly what you said. We're recording this. No, no, no, no. I said to deal with the Celtics. That's not what you said. That is what I said.

said. Okay. Well, your thing these were being recorded, I think being broadcast. Well, Jesse,

if I didn't say that, edit it. No, no, no. Edit in what I meant to say. We can't go backwards and edit in what you meant to say. That's not how this works.

That's not how this works. Send me your Venmo. And if I misspoke earlier in the podcast, we're changing that. That's what I meant as an East Finals team. Okay.

We'll see. I have an reaction. And this is in stark contrast to my preseason Western Conference rankings. My overreaction is the Los Angeles Lakers are title contenders. Oh gosh. Here we go. It's called an overreaction.

Okay. But so listen, I had the Lakers, I think I had in like the 10 spot or something or maybe even like missing the playing tournament this year. Because if you look at them last year, not that good and a lot of health from AD and LeBron and they did absolutely nothing to change their roster into this year and they just changed J.J. Reddick. And the early results are there's an actual change there. Like, LeBron and A.D. have been great. LeBron wasn't that great last night. And he really was. He was first sort of like, oh, okay, maybe he is 39 game last night. But the Rui Aachamora of it all,

like, I've been waiting for Rui Aachamora to be Rudy Acha more since he was like on the Wizards. Swing, Swing, M.F. Swing, Swing, Fernhoef, you don't know. During the Kings game, LeBron James was absolutely just like, couldn't miss a shot, could not miss a shot in the fourth quarter,

and Ruey took a contested two instead of swinging two. And LeBron, it was caught by the mic saying, Swing, swing, swing, MFer. One of the best moments of the season so far. But Rui has gone one for four from three, two for four from three, and three for three for three. He's made his last five, three-pointers,

like over two games. And Austin Reeves, you remember when they were running through Austin Reeves two seasons ago in the playoffs? It was like, is like, what is like, LeBron would be like in the corner and they'd be using Austin Reeves. And I was like, what is happening? How is this even a thing? And last year, Austin Reeves sort of had a down year.

But he's been, he's been excellent. Like the Lakers, the Lakers look together. They look like cohesive. And I'm going to give J.J. Reddick some credit. They look different than last year. And it's the exact same players. They do look different than last year. Okay.

I'm already. a little fatigued of the JJ Reddick locker room speeches, JJ Reddick in the huddle, you know, look at how different this is than Darvinham. Let me explain to you something about JJ Redick. I'm not dissing. The guy, the reviews are good thus far. No way around it, okay?

And they do look different as a team. But JJ Reddick did not have to do something extraordinary to be in this spot. He just had to not deal with the foolishness that was last year. They made the West finals. And Darvindham came in and said, ah, yeah, we're not playing Russell and Reeves together. Oh, yeah, I'm playing Doreen Prince until the wheels come off.

Oh, yeah, like, what the hell are you doing? Like, in retrospect, it's like, hey, here was a Western, a team that just made the Western Conference Finals. Here's the starting lineup that had that level of success. Now I'm going to put frigging taurine prints in there instead. There's a quote from Rui Etrami. This isn't rocket science. Rui Etchamor said, quote,

we have a system now to kind of play and build around AD and LeBron. And quote, I mean, this isn't rocket science. Like, if you got that job. We have a system now to build. the round LeBron in 18. Hey, if you were good, like if you got that job and he said, okay, let me look at,

because you know, they say, Reddick's a big analytics guy, right? Say, hmm, let me look at the analytics. When were we good? Well, it actually says when we have these five players on the go,

oh, you mean the starting lineup from the Western Conference finals? That we abandoned completely last year? It's a great counterpoint. Genius. Have you seen this, Ferno? Have you seen the JJ Redick at the car wash thing?

No. He's, I don't even, this might be AI or something, but he's at the car wash with a laptop grinding tape as he's going through the car wash. That's too much. That's too much. I don't want my coach doing that. Where do we draw the lot?

Enjoy the car wash, coach. Let's chill out. Work-life balance, coach. Just chill out. It's Los Angeles. Smoke a joy. Relax. All right, here.

Let's get to our. surprises. All right, I'm going to say so far, one of the things that has stood out to me is a lot of these young players playing so well at the beginning of the season. And what has stood out to me is I look and I go, hold on now, I feel like routinely so far this season, I'm looking back at these guys that are in these first contracts that are like becoming guys already in the league. And so I went back and looked, the 2021 draft, okay? Now, you might say, it shouldn't be surprising to you that Cade Cunningham is good or Jalen Green is good or Evan Mobley is good. But you look up and down that 2021 draft.

Number one was Cade Cunningham. Number two was Jalen Green. Number three was Evan Mobley. Number four was Scotty Barnes. number five was the aforementioned Jalen Suggs. Number six was Josh Giddy, who I saw in person last night. And that Bulls team, I'll say this. They don't, like, they're not going to be.

You said they were ass, Verno. You said they were ass in the first half. But, man, they started bopping the ball around like crazy. I think they had 39 assists last night. Like, they passed the ball and play at a much higher pace. And they've got guys that can knock that shot. I swear to God, I have a higher opinion of Zach Levine than maybe anybody, and it's all framed because I, I, it's like seven times I've watched this guy just go absolutely off to scoring at this

crazy rate and hitting like hard shots. Like, I don't know. I feel like I always see the best of Zach Levine. I don't see. I rarely see the bad ones. And I feel like I'm always seeing every time he's just like. Hot fire. Anyway.

You and Russell Westbrook and Zach Levine can have a little group chat and enjoy yourselves there because I'm good. I'm good on all that. Giddy Six. Caminga seven, who was like holding out for $200 million. Good for him. Franz Wagner, who's already got the max. I mean, that's the top eight guys in the draft. Top eight and none.

Eight for eight. Outside of Caminga, I would say Camiga is the only question mark. Everybody else, eight for eight. That's insane. to have eight for eight and then you go down. I mean, 16 was Shengoon, 17 was Trey Murphy, 18 was Trey Man. Like you look back in this. 20 was Jalen Johnson.

Like the top 20 of the 2021 draft is absolutely freakish, truly, already this year. And then, so that's like young guys that are already proving themselves. Let me just fast forward to 2022, and we talked about Palo and how crazy he was last night. Number one was Palo. Number two was Chet, who's been great so far. Three, Jabari Smith Jr., who's on his way to being, nobody's selling off their Jabari stock yet. No. Keegan Murray, who's proven to be a solid NBA player.

Jaden Ivy, who's back on the right track. Ben Matherin, Shaden Sharp. Dice and Daniels had a big game for the Hawks the other night. Like, I mean, there's not like, it's kind of crazy. It's not the same as 2021. 2021 has like stars, like all stars. I agree. I agree.

Yeah, yeah. But one of the things it's been very easy in draft analysis is like, okay, you know one of these guys is going to absolutely suck. Which one is it? And none of them. I mean, that's 16 players. And none of them are not going to have long. like $100 million NBA careers probably. I don't think we'll be singing the same song about this year's draft in a couple years.

I don't think we'll be like, Saar, Risa, Shea? No, no. I'm just saying we had two, we had a two year run of some real talent to where these teams did not mess these up. You can argue they might have taken one guy instead of another guy. but eight for eight and then eight for eight in terms of getting a player that can be like a at worst those guys are all eight-man rotation guys

and that's just not the draft that's not how this goes typically yeah usually they're no usually they're all rotation guys but some of them are in a different country wearing a uniform that they can't reach usually that's how it works Shout out Frank Nilakina. Shout to shout to Frankie Smokes. My biggest surprise is,

even prepping for this, I was surprised. The Los Angeles Clippers. Like, Big Zoo. Zubach is on an absolute tear. Tear. Do you? I don't know.

I brought this up before. Remember game one last year against the Mavs when Zubach? It was like that was the strategy. It was just dump it down to Zubach and let him dominate. And he did. Yes. And they won. And now it's like,

James Harden. do you remember Sixers James Harden where he was like, I'm just going to facilitate, I'm going to be a true point guard. Like, I don't need to dribble the air out of the ball and make it all about me. That wasn't the real him. We're getting James Harden in his James Hardin form

where he's like, I'm just going to be the system. I am the offense and everyone else work off of me. Zubot has been dominant. Norm Powell has been fantastic. And listen, I'm not going to throw out like plus minus and defensive efficiency stats too early in the season because it's a very small. size, but they're third in defensive rating right now.

Third. In the NBA. This team. Like, and I'm watching the game, and this is the one that I should have, I should have known they were going to be good because I was watching the game. And who was in the huddle, barking out orders, getting involved, tapping people, touching people, Jeff Van Gundy. I forgot.

I forgot that. that Jeff Van Gundy was part of this program. The architect. You know how there's certain assistant coaches are kind of standing in the background? They're sort of passive, and they might whisper in the head coach's ear once in a while. Not Jeff Van Gundy.

His voice is being heard. And I'm not going to give him too much credit, but I just sort of forgot about that element of him on the team. Now, they lost to the sons in overtime. They've beaten the nuggets and they've beaten the Warriors. And James Harden has 29 and 8, 23, and 16, and 23 and 11. and he doesn't hit threes either. He's not hitting any threes.

He's just doing it. He's just orchestrating. Like this play hard-nosed defense. Boring. With good role players. Boring. Yeah, I've watched it. Boring.

I'm into it. I'm into it. I've always had a little place in my heart for James Hardin. Of course you have. I always have. Always have. You'll see. Jeff Van Gundy is going to take them.

Jeff Van Gundy. I miss him on TV. I miss him on TV. Stop. I miss him on TV. Me too. I do. ESPN's made a lot of bad decisions.

That's such a shame. I'll just leave it at that. A lot. A lot. A lot. A lot of bad decisions. Panic time. I can't believe you let me have this one.

I mean, there's two obvious ones. Like, there's two just like just sitting right there. It's the box. One A and one B. It's the bucks. God. Start off one and three. Bro, they got 63, 17, and 13 combined from Janice and Dane

and still lost by double digits to the Celtics. 67, 17, and 13. Because they couldn't guard Peyton Pritchard. They can't guard anyone that's not standing in the middle of the paint. If you can dribble a basketball three consecutive times, You will get past their defenders. That's it. They can't guard anybody in the perimeter.

Who's going to do it? And don't tell me Chris Middleton's going to be the savior. He's not. 67, I'm sorry, 63, 17 and 13. Like, if you would have told me that those are the numbers for Dame and Janus combined, I would have thought, oh, that's a route. That's a route. You got both of them simultaneously being great.

Like, that's what you want. Both of them simultaneously being great. Unfortunately, nobody else does anything. You know what I mean? And it's all like it just feels like it's old. Yeah. The aforementioned Toreen prince. That's when you've got to worry.

When those guys can still be that. When those guys can play at that level, when Janus can be that great and you can't win games. When the honest, I think he's leading the league in scoring. It's like maybe if it's not a total, it might be right now. No, he's dropped back. He's dropped back. He's dropped back.

He's seven. But he's averaging 29, 6, and 12 right now. And then obviously Damien Lillard's 12th in the league in scoring. So far he's got 28, 6 and 6. You're getting 28, 6 and 6. from... It's not the problem. From Lillard and 29, 12, and 6

from Janus, and you can't win basketball games. Because Gary Trent, Jr., Tori and Prince, Brooke Lopez, like, where else are Bobby Portis? Like, where else are the buckets coming from on that team? And when they brought in Trent Jr. and Tori and Prince, I was like, oh, nice. Those will be like little role players. They'll play with the second unit and, like,

maybe get 10 minutes a game. But no, they're like relied upon. And there's just, it's, I don't even want to talk about offense anymore. They can't stop anybody, Chris. They cannot stop anybody. Literally anybody, considering anybody. They're lost before the Celtics game was the Nets. It's really bad, bad, bad.

So here's my thing. Doc Rivers, former colleague of ours here at the ringer. You and him went to some sort of ringer function to exchange numbers. No, we did. We were supposed to. Doc Rivers calls your phone. Yeah. Chris.

I don't stock. Uh, I have some trouble here in Milwaukee. Uh, what should I do? What do you say? Quit. I know, that's it. I don't even know what to say. I don't know.

Like, Chris Middleton is not going to change this defensively. Like, I don't know what to say. I really know. There's not, there's not really a solve for this thing. And I did convince myself. I know you're saying defense, but I mean, the numbers they've been giving up are not crazy numbers, right? They're not. They're not crazy numbers.

It's an offensively, you should be able to, you should be able to put up enough to beat some of these numbers that you've given up. But you have no chance. Brooke Lopez being 36% from the field. he's bananas. When he's eight feet tall. I mean, that's bananas. Right? So look, here's devil's advocate.

Brooke Lopez is not going to be 36% from the field of 24% from three. Like, that's just, it's not sustainable. Now, the rest of it, if you want me to tell you that some of these other guys are going to be much better, it's going to be hard for me to do that. I do think, I know you are rolling your eyes at the Middleton thing, But I do think that will help in a huge way, simply because you've always got to consider what is the drop off to the next guy. So even if you don't think Middleton is what Middleton used to be, it keeps you from having to start Gary Trent or Tarring Prince. Yeah, yeah.

You know? Yeah. I was shocked when I saw them in the starting lineup. I was like, wait, well, what? Well, that's just the absence of Middleton. So if they were able to get, but, but I mean, who knows if Middleton's ever going to be able to sustain being healthy at this point. everything that Drew Holiday has brought to the Celtics he took from the bucks. That's the concern.

That's the concern. Point of attack. Yes, they have Dame Lillard, and Dame Lillard can do amazing things offensively. But he is not Drew Holiday defensively. And Janus might be enough to get you over the hump offensive alone. And that's one of the concerns. And the Doc Rivers thing was like, oh, last year, I didn't have a training camp. I didn't have the team.

I had to adopt this situation. It all kind of fell apart. And, you know, we had some injury issues and whatever. This year, it's like, what's the problem now, Doc? This is all yours. You did the shopping. You bought the ingredients. Got the recipe.

This is your work. Let's see it turn around. And again, we're three games into the season. But it's not good. Well, you saw how much success Darwin Ham had with Tarring Prince. Exactly. Exactly. He might, Tartian Prince, my document, my, Dr.

Darwin Ham. Torrean Prince and Doc Rivers might be on a yacht in the Mediterranean this summer, just laughing. Just laughing. I just got an alert on my phone that Rudy Gay retired. So, hey, Doc, call. Convince Rudy Gay not to retire. That team needs to get older and slower. That's probably why.

All right, what's your panic? It's obvious. I spoke about it last week, and it's still there. And it was so evident last night. The Denver Nuggets are wasting Nikola Yokic. They're wasting the best player on the planet. Like, it is, it is, this is now, this is not an overreaction. This is bad, bad, bad.

Like, Nikola Yokic has to do every single thing for them on offense, for them to get a single bucket. Like, even the final basket that Murray got was because Yokic gave him the ball. And they run everything through Yokic. We all know the numbers and there's nothing on the floor. I'm not even going to start the Russell Westbrook thing. We've already, I've already slandered him enough for us to go back. back and forth. But Michael Porter, Jr.

This is him from three on the season. Three for 10, 0 for six, one for four. Jamal Murray. Can you give me a little credit for saying I watched an Instagram video of him interviewing a guy of whether or not Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide? It might be related. I told you it's a warning sign. You know what I mean?

If that, when the video I see of you has nothing to do with basketball, And everything to do with conspiracy theories. I'm starting to worry about you a little bit. Yeah, maybe, I would, you know what? I always hate those, like, Instagram videos of guys just knocking down threes. It's edited. Like, you don't even see, like, one shot. But I'd probably see that than him talking about Jeffrey.

I've seen in jail. Oh, by the way, let me, let me be clear. I don't want to, you know, knock him for conspiracy theory. That's not fair because everybody knows that guy didn't get, you got killed himself. That's not even a theory. It's not even a conspiracy. It's just a conspiracy. He might be

he might be cookey, but that's not the reason he's Cookey. That's fair. That's fair. Everybody believes that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. We all know. We know. But, so they've committed money. And again, like, they were the champions two seasons ago. Wait, hey, aren't

these a little, a little similar, the two teams we're talking about? Anlegis? Yes. One, the title and then start. that core. Yeah, yeah, the ones that we stuck with. And then obviously Milwaukee's tried to make a swing with the Damien Lillard thing, you know, after a disappointing season two years ago.

But both of these teams won the title and then re-uped with those same guys. And what I wonder is, are you ever going to get that same level of play from those guys that won the title with you? If you're ever going to be able to get that back. Oh, no, no, you will. You are going to get that same, you'll get that same level of play from Nicola Yokic, but nobody else. Right.

And that's it. Yolkich is bringing that same level of play. Look at Murray. Since the title, Murray has just been non-existed. He's four for 13, seven for 14, and six for 20 on the season.

30%, 50% and 30% on the season. Porter can't hit a three. Aaron Gordon, listen, like, they won the title two years ago, and last year they went seven, right?

and it was a great series and it could have gone either way, right? They were on their way. Don't forget, they felt like at one point during the playoffs, it sort of felt like they were going to be the Western Conference champions until things happened, obviously.

You know, they ran into the Timberwolves. But Aaron Gordon in that dunker spot was such a huge, it was like a hack. It was like when you play Madden and someone figures out like a fullback dive and get your four yards every time, it felt like a hack. It was like short roll,

Nikola Yokic, if you come to him, he's going to throw it over the top and Aaron Gordon's going to dunk it. So he might even reverse it. Stunk it. It happened over and over and over again, and it was unstoppable. This year, Aaron Gordon has 12, 10, and 16 points. Can't hit a three. It just doesn't seem as effective anymore. He got paid. Murray, we've documented already how he is not who he was and he is not helping Yokic

at all. He got paid. Yolkich obviously got paid. And then you got Michael Porter can't hit a three. This don't, we, I feel like we spent all summer talking about the young guys on the Nuggets. Watson, Strother, Brown. Do they pop off? Do they pop off the screen when you watch the tape? You watch Nuggets? Not at all. I think Watson had a nice block one time when I was watching.

Yeah, yeah. Watson looks like he could be a, he's got the potential to be a high-level defender. Yeah, but like the Nuggets. No, I mean, you have one of those. You look, I've covered guys like this. I covered Mike Firtello years ago, that you'll find one of these guys every once in a while,

like they did with Christian Brown, that the coach will actually fancy and will start playing. But the rest of them, they don't want to play young guys. They don't want to play young guys. And so I'm not so sure in terms of development. Like you look at other guys that have been there. Like they draft these guys. And again, maybe these guys were never going to be,

maybe they just missed on them talent-wise, whether it was, you know, Bull, Bull, or whether it was R.J. Hampton or whether it was right, all these guys. But a lot of these coaches, they don't want to play these young guys. And then what happens is there becomes this strain between the front office and the coach. And I'm not saying that there's a strain there, but I'm just telling you I've seen this happen before, where there becomes this strain because the front office wants the young guys to play and the young guys to develop because then they can turn to the owner and they can say, look at my genius. I drafted him and I drafted him and here's another hit and here's another

hit. And so they they mix these guys in to truly get them on the court and develop them. And then what happens is you finally come to a point where they just say, you know what, we're taking your options away. We're taking your options away. We're not going to sign the Tarin princes of the world. We're not going to sign the Malcolm Brogden's of the world. We're not going to sign these young guys. We're going to, or older vets, these Jeff Greens, you know, that you've had and this kind of stuff. Like, you have no choice but to play these young guys that we've drafted. You have no choice.

And the coach usually doesn't want to do it. And the coach usually isn't accentuating what's best. They're trying to just, all those kids are just scared to screw up all the time, I'm sure, because the rope has always been short for them. And so I'm not sure. Like, he is a great. he's more of the old school guy. Those old school guys are great for winning now.

But I've never thought they're great for developing the guys that you have for the future. And what they have right now does not work. And the Russell Wesleyan thing is just an absolute disaster. And this is panic time. His heart and soul pushed them over the line against the Raptors last night. I watched this game last night. They lost to the Raptors. They lost.

Like they might have won the game. They might have ended up scoring more points in the Raptors. But the Raptors had the game in the fourth quarter. Scotty Barnes got his face exploded by Yokic, so he wasn't in the game. And they just kind of freaked out at the end of the game and lost it. But this should be an 0-and-3 Nuggets team that lost to the Raptors in Toronto. Like this is not the juggernaut they were two years ago. This is not even the team they were last year.

This is panicked up. They can't shoot. Yokic even said himself, he said, we can't shoot. What's crazy is, on our panics, we could. very well be talking about arguable, but the two best players in the world being a combined one and six.

Yes. With losses, if they lost last night, they'd have been a combined one and six with losses to the Raptors and the nets between them. It did feel like a loss last night. I know that the Nuggets won the game in overtime, but it took every single thing that they had

to beat a Scotty Barnes' list Raptors team down the stretch. That's what it's what it's, took. And I get, this is very early, but you see a world in which these are your two representatives of the Eastern and Western Conference in the finals. I can't see it. I can't see this turning around. No way. I cannot see this turning around because it is not like these are new problems we didn't foresee coming this offseason. Think about that. It's not like we didn't raise a hand and say, well, what about the Nuggets depth and shooting? It's not like we didn't raise a hand and say, but what about the Bucks perimeter defense? Like, it's right there in front of you. And it was

right there all summer. Last thing before we get out of here, the Wade statue. God. Do you watch his comments about it? Of course. It's not supposed to look like me. That might be the craziest quote I've ever seen about it. It's supposed to be an artistic rendering of a moment.

The social media world is about opinions. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone use all opinions. Please talk more about us. Talk more about our statue. Come out and see it. I'll take some photos, send some memes. We don't care.

I don't know a lot of people with a statue, do you? Anybody here? Y'all know anything about the process of a statue? No one out there do neither. And so, you know, it's an unbelievable process to be a part of, and it's a complicated process. If I wanted to look like me, I'll just stand outside of the arena, y'all and take photos.

You don't need to look like me. It's an artistic version of a moment that happened that we're trying to cement. we're trying to cement. Yeah, I mean, it's a moment of time, for sure. But if it was going to, if his expression was going to make him look nothing like himself, then, yeah, I don't think. His expression looks like someone's taking out his big toenail with pliers. That's what it looks like.

That's what the look on his face is basically. And how many, it's the neck and the eye area, they just put too many wrinkles on there. Like, it's just too many wrinkles on the face. And I want to give a big shout. to my friend Reggie Hooks, Reg the ledge. He pointed this out to me in a group text. He's like, so if you watch like the original Terminator film with your kids, right, there's part of them that sort of rejects it because it's sort of like old looking.

You know what I mean? It's like, this just looks old. Like, and you're like, even if you watch Jaws, like my kid is like, that's not a real shark. Because we have gotten better at this over time, the medium of making films. Statues have been around since prehistoric. historic time, like the pharaohs. And think about like, I went to Italy and like looked at these statues. Like the statue of David is fantastic. We've been getting statues right for thousands of years. This is not new to our species. Why now after 4,000 years of making statues, why are we this bad

at it now when we were good at it 2,000 years ago? I mean, look, I tweeted this out of PSA to kids, any kids that might be following me on Twitter. I said, look, dear kids, some of you all become statue makers. I mean, like, you know, hang up the, forget the liberal arts degree or the gender politics degree. Everybody's going to have those. So I promise, there's a lane for this. What I don't get is go find the guy that did the Dirk statue. That's the guy that did the Dwayne Wade statue.

It's the same guy, Chris. No, it's not. Same, bro, I swear to God, the guy that did the dirt statue is the, Because that's ridiculous. There's no way it's the same guy. Or he's lost vision. I think he did the Kobe statue too. Oh, my God.

This is the guy. Okay. Then you did this off. Oh. Oh. He hates Swain Wade. Because of that stolen title where Cuban got fined all that money. Oh.

Oh. If he made the Dirk statue amazing and the Wade statute, he's mad about, what was it, game five or game six with all the fouls? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where people feel like it's like, you know, that one and the Kings Lakers are the ones that are held up as the most egregious officiating ever. It was Dwayne Wade that did in the maps. so he makes an amazing maverick statue and then this horrendous this is payback

it's did you see Bam and Asia Wilson their reaction to it like they have to change it right they have to except Dwayne Wade acted like you was cool about it I know what else is he supposed to do what else he's supposed to do but how much does the statue

cost a 200 grand I have no idea I honestly say I can tell you, I've never, I've never, it could cost $200 or $2 million. I have no idea. But if it's somewhere in between that, just pay the money, Miami Heat. No one wants to see that. And put him on the scorers table. Right.

Have the scorers table be underneath his feet. So it sort of like really hits home in the moment. I'm so upset about that statue. Dwayne Wade. Well, it's better. You know what? And I just feel like the percentage chance of a statue unveiling with everybody going, oh, that's awesome.

Like we did the Dirk. The Dirk one. That feels like one in 10. Seriously. You remember when they did the, they did the Iverson one? It was like the size of a Bottlehead. Yeah.

It was great. It's like this mini, this tiny statue. And I was like, oh, come on. Well, I think the,

the Rinaldo one has been making the rounds based on this Dwayne Wade thing, but they replaced that one. They had the internet reacted a certain way, and they replaced, they need to replace this statue. Just do it. Doing the off-season.

Just replace the statue. Dwayne Wade's saying it's not supposed to look like me. It's like the, I love that. It's a great pivot. See, that's why he's in media now. That's why he's in media now. He knows how to spin. He knows how to zag.

Oh, and then he turned it into all of us that are criticized. This is what you know. How many statues do you have? Yeah. This reminds me of guys telling me how to play basketball. They can't do what I do. Just like they can't sculpt like he sculpts. That's like, bro.

My racist sculptor, stature. Statuist, what do you call them? Sculptor. Yeah, I'm for sure allowed to have an opinion on whether or not something's good or not. I freely admit. I would say, like, just given AI now, I bet I could actually make a better statue. Like, if you gave me the funds, I think I could probably. Two months.

Two months. Yeah. No problem. I'm not telling you I could not sculpt it. I agree. But I could certainly through like AI or something, go find a guy that could just mimic something perfectly. Look at NBA 2K. You can make digital people that run around like that.

Why can't we just make a statue? And again, I can't say this enough time. They were making lifelike down to the eyelash statues. BC. With weeners. B.C. With weeners. Lifelike weeners.

Yes. Like this is again 3,000 years ago, before they had like irrigation. You know what I mean? They were throwing their feces onto the street next to a perfect lifelike statue.

And here we are in 2024. And Dwayne Wade looks like someone's ripping his toenail out with pliers. That's right. How is this even possible? How is this even possible? Yeah. With BC next to the year number,

they have full on unbelievable statues. With sticking berries on the front. Yes, of course. I am so excited for Friday's show because I'm just going to apologize profuse about Russell Westbrook because he's going to turn the Nuggett season around. Friday show, Russell Westbrook, he's going to be averaging 25.

They're going to put him in the starting lineup. No, he for sure won't. He's been throwing lobs to Yokic and Yokic is going to dunk them. It's going to be amazing. Off the backboard. I have moved straight to Russ the inspiration. That's what I'm going to move. It is more likely that he gets cut than it is.

is that he turns this around. It's more likely. Wow, you just got sad. Oh, my God. Sadd bra. I just don't think it's a cool way to end the show. Oh, you know what I mean?

I mean, I felt like this was pretty upbeat. I feel like we were real happy about stuff. And now you're talking about a guy's career ending. I mean, come on. You're trying to send him to China. He'll get, no, he'll get picked up by the Wizards.

Does it last time he was effective. It's true. Why not us? It's true. I think they got a win last night, by the, We didn't shut them out. Didn't they get a win? I feel like,

I feel like Washington got a win. Oh, they did. And we didn't even... You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. Kuzma went off. Kuzma and Poole. Five for nine from three,

six for eight from three. Against your hawks. Chris, Kirstbert, four for nine from three. Some of the Hawks were like, who are these guys? Chris, Bert. Come on.

Kisper. Whatever. Against your beloved Hawks. Wow. Yeah, the hawks definitely were like, oh, Trey Young, two, 15. That's a tough night. That's a tough night. Yeah, Trey Young, you're not going to win if you're the Hawks.

If Trey Young goes two for 15. Wow. Yeah. Who needs Russell Westbrook in Washington? They're getting dubs. Yeah, some of the Hawks were like, wait a second. We had this down as a win. All right. It's always a pleasure, Jacoby. We will catch up on Friday. Thank you to our producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. And I'll talk to you later this week.

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