The Mismatch - Questioning Middleton’s All-Star Selection, Congrats to Fred VanVleet, and Reggie's "Skip-to-my-Lou" Game-Winner

Episode Date: February 4, 2022

Verno and KOC begin the show discussing the selection of the All-Star reserves (04:08). They discuss the surprising selection of Khris Middleton over players like Jarrett Allen and Jrue Holiday. Outside of the Middleton selection, the guys are in agreement that there were no real snubs this year (18:40). Trae Young went off last night against the Suns and has the Hawks rolling, winning eight of their past nine games. They debate whether Trae can be the best player in a playoff series before getting into potential deals with John Collins (22:46). Both give high praise to Fred VanVleet for making his first All-Star appearance before diving into the Raptors as a team and how they’ve been playing at a high level all season (32:20). Should the Nets chase a lower seed with Kyrie Irving playing only road games (44:46)? Despite the Lakers losing last night, Anthony Davis has looked dominant since returning from injury (39:06). They also discuss last night's Warriors win, as Klay Thompson had one of his better games since returning (49:48). Lastly, they briefly touch on the Shaq–Ben Simmons feud (56:10). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Top MMA voices, Ariel Hohani, Chuck Mindenhall, and Pizzie Carroll are live on the Spotify Greenroom app for every major MMA card with the Ringer MMA show. Hear the guys react to Wayans in real time and find out what they think of the fights the moment the final card ends. Plus, when breaking MMA news happens, they'll be live to talk to you about it. And if you miss the Green Room show, you can hear it as a podcast anytime on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, just a quick little disclaimer today that on today's episode of The Mismatch, I had some technical issues on my end. recording the pod. So we're using my Zoom audio instead. Shame, shame, shame. I know, I know. I made a big boo-boo. But we'll make sure next week we have full H-Q high-quality sound as we normally do. But for today, I got Zoom audio. Chris has high-quality audio. Thank you for listening to The Mismatch. It's a great episode, though, despite the audio. Fun episode. Good conversation. Welcome to The Mishmatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me see us every Friday from The Ringer.com. It's coming

O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Candek, Kevin O'Candellee, Kevin O'Contin, Kevin O'Contin, Kevin O'Connorne, how are you doing today? So the entire city of Memphis is iced over. I am down at my studio, but we have been without power at my house for now 22 hours. Not great, hopefully. This ice store will pass, things will thaw out, and the local power department could get everybody back up and running. But, you know, it reminds me of that, the old adage, a healthy man wants everything, a sick man only wants one thing. And it is one of those moments where it does put life into perspective,

because all I want, Kevin, is my power to come back on at my house. That's all I want. Like, you know, you can spend your time complaining about all better things, but would something as essential as that gets taken away when you have a family, it's like, please, just have the power come back on. So I have had better days, but go to power through. Thank God. It is a blessing, as I've mentioned before.

My parents, after they retired, moved very close to me. They did have power. So I was able to go over there last night. Beautiful. And me and my son huddled in a room on air mattresses and watched that Phoenix game. And then we're able to watch the Lakers game. And prior to that, watch the NFL skills competition. And so we're able to, you know, at least have a place we could go and be

warm and watch some of the sports that were going on last evening. Yesterday, when we were recording with the real ones, Raja Bell and Logan Murdo. That was fun. It was fun. That was a big change of pace. That's on the Rear NBA show feed. Yeah, I haven't listened back to it.

So I don't think it's probably even part of the pod. But in the middle of that podcast, that's when the power shut out completely. completely in my house. Everything went dark. And so I had no internet. I posted a photo of it on Twitter of your doctor. Yeah.

No internet, no computer, no power whatsoever. And thank God for technology in 2022. I was able to pull up Zoom on my phone. And that is how we were able to finish that podcast yesterday. But yeah, thanks to those guys for having us on. also last night the all-star reserves were announced and we really looked forward to this um i gave out the seven that i thought for each conference on tuesday's edition of the podcast and we talked about those and i thought the seven with wiggins starting i thought the seven in the western

conference became rather easy and it was exactly as you had thought, right? When you looked up and down, whether it was fan voting, player voting, media voting, I thought you could get the collection of guys and that those guys were all very deserving and probably no-brainers. There will inevitably be reserves because some of the guys are going to be out. But of those names, it was who we thought, Devin Booker and Chris Paul and Luca Donchich and Rudy Gobert and Draymond Green. and Donovan Mitchell and Carl Anthony Towns. All right.

Now, some of those will be replaced. But had those right. In the Eastern Conference, had Jimmy Butler on the list, had Darius Garland on the list, had James Hardin, had Zach Levine, had Jason Tatum, had Fred Van Vleet. I only missed one. And it was Chris Middleton. I'm a little surprised the coaches chose Chris Middleton over Jared Allen, or even Drew Holliday, his own teammate in that back court in Milwaukee.

I thought Holliday would have gotten the edge over Middleton, especially Jared Allen. You had Jared Allen on your team, right? Yes, I thought the Cavs were deserving of having two players there, given their level of success and the season that he has had. And also, look, man, Jared Allen was fifth in the player voting. He was sixth in the fan. voting, which is rather impressive, you know, because Cleveland is not a New York and L.A., a Golden State, like some of these teams that always get a bunch of votes for their players.

Jared Allen was sixth amongst fan voting. He was fifth in the players. Now, the big guys, the front court for the media, you mentioned on Tuesday's pod that you have a vote for that, and you only vote in the starters? Well, Janice and Durant and Embed, every single media member had those three. Those were no-brainer locks for the front court. So there are no media votes for anybody in the front court

in the Eastern Conference. And that was a little bit different than the way the Western Conference shook out. There was more debate and there was more people with votes in that. but because there are no media votes, so we can't take that into consideration. So all we have for the voting of who people thought was deserving was that Jared Allen was fifth in the player voting,

six in the fan voting. You take that in consideration. The game is in Cleveland. He's had a great season, and he got all those votes. I thought, okay, he's going to get in there. Chris Middleton was 32nd in player voting of front court players. 32nd. Okay?

He was 14th in fan voting. As I said, there's no media votes. So the only thing we have to go by is who did other people think were deserving? And Jared Allen, it's a bloodbath between him and Middleton. And so that was legitimately shocking to me. It was the only thing last night. I was like, Chris Middleton. And no offense to Chris Middleton, he is, like they should just give him like a ribbon or something when he makes the all-star game.

Because nobody wants to watch him play in an all-star game anyway. he has the least all-star game game that there is. Like, really, he's churchly. No, he's a great, he's a great, he's a great player. He's a, he's up below the rim, you know, like nothing the least bit spectacular. There's never been a Chris Middleton highlight that went viral. You know, like, he's not, he's not a. exciting. There's nothing exciting about Chris Middleton. I'm sorry. Nothing.

I'm surprised the coach is given the chance to vote for, you know, Middleton or Holliday. They chose Middleton. Because those wild card, I mean, assuming that they counted as a wild card spot. But I don't know, man, like the All-Star game, but there might be other guys dropping out. Jared Allen might end up making it and Drew Holliday could end up making it. We'll see what ends up happening. potential replacements by Adam Silver. But, yeah, I mean, other than that, I'm not surprised by anybody. I don't think there were any snubs in the West. I know Draymond Green had brought up DeJonte Murray with Spurs.

I'm sure you have some Grizzlies fans who are like, Jared Jackson Jr. should make it, but, I mean, there's not, there's no snubs, really, besides Jared Allen or Drew Holliday instead of Chris Middleton. I'll bring them back. Not much to argue, really. There were a ton of guys that were tied at 32nd in player rank, okay, in terms of front court players. Like the players voted and they cast their ballots. And in fact, if you just went by the players, if you let them decide this, it would have been Miles Bridges.

He was fourth in player voting this year amongst front court players. which was rather impressive for him to be fourth on that list. And he was higher. He got more votes amongst the players than Jared Allen and Jason Tatum and Jimmy Butler and Bam out of bio and other guys. Amongst the guys that were tied with Middleton for 32nd, Kelly Ubre was tied for 32nd, Montrez-Herald was tied for 32nd, Montrez-Herald was tied for 32nd, Mo Bamba. Bamba with this many

most Middleton? Are you kidding me? What the hell's going on here? Kessler Edwards, Chris Boucher, Sadiq Bay, Davis Bertans. Isn't that crazy? I mean, like, there's all kinds of names.

But isn't that wild, though, the players have Middleton down there and coaches are like, oh, you're on the all start. Damn. Listen to these other names that are tied with him. Troy Brown Jr. Mason Plumley.

Robin Lopez. Wancho Hernan Gomez. Dwayne Deadbin. I mean, it's... He got the same in terms of player votes. He's with those guys. That's where he is. It is shocking.

I thought Middleton was always like a player's player. Right? Like, he's a guy that. that players respect more than maybe fans in media. But at least in this All-Star voting, that was not so. And by the way, the Bucks have not been some kind of great story this year that they won the championship and they came back and now they're just beating the hell out of everybody. And we're talking like, ooh, could this be a dynasty?

How many can you honest win? Like that hasn't even been a conversation this year because they've been pretty good. They've been pretty good and not as good as we thought they'd be, at least up to this part of the season. And I'm a Bucks guy. I like the Bucks.

I love Yannis. Yonnas has been great. John Horace runs the team. My best friend. Can't wait to see him at the All-Star game. We're probably going to go get coffee together at Machine Gun Kelly's coffee place. He was a coffee place?

I saw that online the other day. I was like, okay, I have to go. there. Yes. Machine Gun Kelly has a coffee place. 27 Club coffee. Yeah, maybe I'll run

into him and Megan. Club coffee. Let's check out the reviews of this. 4.5 stars on Google. There you go. Over 500 ratings. Four stars on Yale. Not pretty good.

That seems like Machine Gun Kelly is good coffee. Yeah, I think that's what we're going to do. It is. Sensational taste. It's great taste. Machine Gun. Kelly.

I think it's going to be me, Horst, Colson, which is his real name, and Megan. I think we're all going to get together for coffee at 27 Club over All-Star Week. Colson's got great taste, that's in sure.

So anyway, yeah, boo on Chris Middleton making the All-Star team. I'm sorry. I like those Middleton five. It sucks. You're in Machine Gang, Kelly's City, apparently. I mean, you're going to give them two All-Stars. it's not right.

Well, and hopefully he'll be named a replacement. Did you know that? Colson? Colson was his real name before the pod or did you look it up because I didn't know

to top of my head. Of course I knew his name was Colson. I didn't know that. My brain doesn't retain that information. I see it in a news article once machine gun killing making Fox get engaged. And the real real name Colson.

My brain doesn't keep that inside. Is yours? I've known. who's a real name for a long, long time. Oh, you're a fan? Yeah, but he, when he first came up, he was like a YouTube guy. You know what I mean?

Like, he had, like, he was underground. And so it was like, hey, there's this dude in Cleveland. He had that whole EST thing and whatever. And so I remember it from way back. You know what I mean? I've been aware of him for a long time. He actually just dropped a new song today with Will Smith's daughter. It's not any good, but I listen.

it. Yeah. I heard it this morning. Willow? I always just go through whatever came out that was new in the morning and just kind of click through them all. And so it's called Emo Girl. It's not. Willow. Willow has this great song called Meet Me at Our Spot. Yeah. She's a great, great, great track. I think it's a collaboration with a couple others. That was a big TikTok sensation. Oh, that was a TikTok song. I know. That song's a bang. It's a great song. Great song. Cut a vibe.

I know. Cot of a vibe. She sounds like she seems like she's British or something. I'm like, did Wilson move to London for a while? I know, right? Is this the I whipped my hair back and forth, girl? Wow, she's all grown up.

Yeah, I think, yeah, no, exactly. I think she didn't do that song years ago, right? Yeah. With my hair. Yeah, that was her, right? That was her. All grown up. 11 years ago that song came out.

Wow, it's a long time ago. Time goes by quick. All right. So we did get the All-Star Reserves. There will be some guys that get to fill in. Hopefully Jared Allen at that point. If any of the other guys drop out, you know, there's Lamello Ball.

As you mentioned, Drew Holiday. I guess for a big, it'd probably be sub bonus after Allen, two guys needed to be replaced. placements. Jalen, Kyle Lowry, maybe. I mean, but that I thought, honestly, like I thought that Jared Allen was the only one that I think absolutely should have been there

that's not going to be there. I don't think those are massive snubs by any means. And in the Western Conference, I didn't think anybody was, I don't think snub is a fair word. Dremont Green was, you know, He said he's not going to play in it. He's hopeful he could come back in a month. That's what it sounded like on the broadcast last night.

And so that's certainly worth monitoring. It seemed as if, and tell me if I'm wrong at this, nobody was really fighting that Anthony Davis should have been on. Obviously, there were grizzly fans that thought Jared Jackson, Jr., just because of the team's success, should have gotten a look. Aiton and Bridges, if your son's fan. Anthony Edwards, if you're a Minnesota fan, those guys on all of those things. But I felt like overall that this year, the one I saw the most of was Dejante Murray.

Yeah, that's the one Draymond mentions. Yeah, it feels very Shea Gilgis-Alexandery. You know what I mean? Remember, like he was having that outstanding season. They had played much better than anybody expected them to be playing last year. And Gildes Alexander had really good numbers. And so this one feels like that one, where you are having a great individual statistical season and you are penalized for your lack of team success.

But it felt like Murray was the one that people thought, Dejante Murray should be on there. But, I mean, I always think about snubs this way. Who are you taking off? Okay, fine. You think Dejante Murray should be on? Fine. I agree.

I wish he could be an all-star. Who you booting? You booting Booker? You booting Paul? You booting Luca? Chase Sirono out of nowhere. Get out of here, this ball. I mean, who is undeserving?

like a true snub? You have to tell me that another guy is undeserving. I have nothing to add. There's no subs this year. All-Star was pretty straight. It wasn't that complicated this year. The coach has got one spot wrong in Chris Middleton. But other than that, it was easy this year.

Chris Middleton will sell zero All-Star jerseys. Zero! I mean, hell, they're not going to sell that many of those anyway. They're terrible. Why do they do that? Can you let me design the All-Star jerseys NBA? Why do they look mesh? Yeah, those jerseys are gross.

Who said the mesh look is a good look? I like the logo on it. I like the stars. I like the big logo. They had those in the 80s, you know, back in the day. But then you screwed the whole damn thing up with goofy colors and mesh. Yeah, I'm a little confused here by some of the choices there. I don't know.

You think for the 75th anniversary, there would be some. cooler ways to throw back to old areas. Oh, yeah, you could even have vintage-looking ones, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Old school vintage ones. You could have players be able to choose, like, which decade they want to have, which decade of style they want to have their choosing from.

Oh, that's cool. And like the red ones, you know, for the home or away and the white ones for, you know, home or away, like the different styles within that same color base. But I don't know. Instead you get some mesh. jerseys, which are not cool looking at all. No, they look like, they look like something that your coach throws out to you at gym class. Yeah.

You know, I mean? You're on red and you're on yellow. They probably, they probably hired some, like, super famous designer to do the jerseys. And everybody just poops on them on Twitter and that's now in the pod right now. By the way, in fairness, I always loved when the coach brought out, like, the bag of the mesh jerseys and would throw it to you, I was like, oh, thank God. Because you know what that signified when they threw out the mesh jerseys? It signified that you weren't going to go shirts and skins.

Because I swear to God, every time they put me on skins, I was like, oh, no. I was a chubby kid. I did not want to be skins. I was like, come on. Let me wear my shirt. Can I be on shirts, please? You'd rather have the 2022 All-Star game. Every time.

Every time. This is NBA.com. The NBA.com wrote this. The uniform's typography is inspired by the architecture of the city's bridges and gives homage to classic all-star uniforms of the late 80s and early 90s. The colors are drawn from the silver, prismatic shine of the diamonds of the NBA logo. And the celebration of the league's season. 75th anniversary season.

I don't know. Just choose a cool looking jersey. I don't think it needs to be that deep. You know, not everything needs to be deep for having a meaning about society or symbolism. It could just be cool. It could just be fun. Not everything has to be super serious.

Just chill out, relax. It stinks because I know exactly what's going to happen. I'm going to take a picture when I'm there. I'm going to go to like the team store. And I'm going to take a picture. picture of the Morant jersey and my son's going to be like, just give me a bobblehead. Or do they have a basketball? Or do they have like some kind of maybe a beach towel or something?

I don't need the jersey. I think the jerseys would be much better without the mesh. It's the mesh that's the main problem. Horrendous. I don't know. Lerendous thing. I mean, I don't understand. A couple of games that went on last night.

we have talked a couple times over the course of the past few episodes about the Hawks kind of getting going. When Ursillo joined us, you guys talked about them as a dangerous team that is lowly ranked right now, but that, you know, there's a limit to how high they're probably going to get in the standings, given the amount of games left, and the pace in which they would have to play to really, climb the standing. So they're going to be playing either. Most likely they're going to be playing. They're not going to get the top six. So they're going to be playing for a spot. And then they're going on the road to play against somebody. And they really could be very dangerous for somebody. They are, I agreed with you guys, that they are to that team that is now lowly ranked,

they could pull an upset. And there was probably no better example of watching them play against Phoenix last night, Trey going off, getting good contributions, you know, a couple of guys in double digits off their bench. You know, you said yesterday when we were on the real ones that there's a lot of John Collins chatter that is out there. So it's not only a team that is getting back to looking a lot more like they looked last. year when they were a surprise team, but also a team that has the goods to be able to really improve if they need to. And so let's start with that performance last night against Phoenix and kind of sometimes

there are regular season games that feel bigger. And to me, that did. It did feel bigger. I mean, Phoenix was on 11 game 1street. Yeah. They're rolling again. And then he snapped. that. Atlanta continues to look realer and realer and I don't know, but like ultimately

games like last night's more than anything else. It's just like damn, Tray Young. But Tray Young is 23 years old. I mean, he's able to just control the game at such a high level. And I mean, last night, he had certain moments like in the first quarter where he attacked Elaine and kind of like, you know, zigzagged between into the pain and relocated for three like Steph like to the corner after making a pass of the penetrating inside it's just like this is

those are the unstoppable moments when Trey can do that stuff off the ball never mind all his on ball brilliance he did everything last night and that that win to me was about Trey's greatness more than anything else like some of the other games I think there's like you can talk about

Kevin Hurter or Kong Lu or Bogdanovich or Hunter like we talked about DeAndre Hunter on Tuesday I believe, or maybe last Thursday, last Friday's episode. But Trey last night was just absolutely sensational. Well, and you know that when it gets to the playoffs, you sit there and you go, all right, what are the chances that this guy is the best player in the series? And he has the opportunity to be the best player in any series. He really does.

Like, he's on that level where he could be the best player in a series, no matter who you're playing against. You know, he could be that. guy. Let me ask you about the Collins stuff. Where is this coming from? So there's a lot of stuff out there about teams like the Kings, the Blazers, among others, going after John Collins. And thus far, Atlanta hasn't gotten anything that's pleased them enough to accept any trade. But it's also unclear exactly what they're looking for because some of the stuff that's out there are some pretty good names that could potentially go back for John.

Collins. But we'll see what it ends up with. We'll see if they decide to keep John Collins. They might decide to keep them. I mean, he's 24 years old, and he can scream for Trey Young and throw down lob dunks. He can spot up from three. He can rebound. He can do a heck of a lot for your team.

But for the Hawks, it seems like they are targeting some type of wing defenders. So whether it's a Dallas, a Portland, to Sacramento, whoever it might be. It seems that is what Atlanta's looking for. It's three and D type of guys. Boy, I wonder if Dallas,

you know, they've got that, Dorian Finney Smith. And Maxie Cleveland. Right? They've got that, you know, they got to make a decision on that

in terms of if you're going to, if you're going to pay up. Are you paying up for Brunson? Are you paying up for Smith? And it's a choice they're going to have to make. But, I mean, Colin's got a big contract,

too. You know, he just signed. So, I mean, you're taking on a big contract. And they're probably not in the most desirable spot. It feels a lot like last year when Eric Gordon's name was getting tossed around a bunch and he got hurt. I feel like they probably would have done something with Hardaway Jr. But now that's probably off the table because of his injury.

And that's one of those that you never know what's going to happen. But that was something that could be used in a deal. if you're trying to improve your team and have a better chance. I'm a Collins fan, man. Every time I see him in person, I end up leaving the game. Like, damn, man, that guy is really good. Like, he doesn't get a lot of chatter. And great nickname that is not used very much.

The John the Baptist, when he cracks on people, you know, I always think about it in terms of those old 80-style, you know, posters. It would have made it amazing. amazing posting. Oh, yeah. He has some great ones. Right. But yeah, I'm a fan of his. I don't, geez, if I was Atlanta, I don't think I'd be looking to move John Collins. I'm not sure, I'm not sure that you have a great opportunity to get a lot better by moving him. Well, I mean, also let's just, this, what I reported before, now we are in theoretical mode. let's say theoretically the kings are for you something around harris barns or the mabs are for you something around dorian finney smith and maxicleva if those things are offered to you are you interested if you're the hawks there chris i'm still giving up the best player yeah no i see that's what i mean i i don't i don't love some of the john collins stuff that could be assembled with some of the teams that you know are reportedly interested um so So I don't know.

We'll see. They can end up keeping them. College strikes me as the kind of guy that could haunt them. Giving him up. Just, I think he could go elsewhere and put up some really big numbers and make the All-Star team. And people look back and like, and then I don't know. I just foresee a circumstance where it's like, wow, yeah, but he would have never done that here. And it wasn't as good as fit with Trey.

And, you know, you know, you try to validate it in your mind instead. of accepting that, hey, you probably should have just tried to make it work as much as you can with the more talented player. I don't know. It's tough. It's tough. I need better names than what you mentioned. That's what I'd say. I need better names than what you mentioned.

Yeah. And I think it's kind of problem with Joe's the same way. You know, you can't be giving him up for Harrison Barnes. I mean, come on. John Collins got, I mean, even if you just go by the counting numbers. Unless you do. I mean, like, let's just say they did. You got Capella at the five, Hunter and Barnes at the three and the four, the versatility they provide.

And then you get, like, whether it's Herder or Gallo or Wright or Gallo or Bogdanovich next to tray. I mean, you can put different types of lineups together. That have versatility, you can switch more screens. But you lose, like, the rim running. that John Collins provides. Like he is a lob thread. He's such a nice lob threat, man. Stretches the floor.

He has to be honored. Yeah, he has to be honored. Exactly. That kind of space that you could just provide for Trey makes a massive difference. I think the benefits, I think from Atlanta's standpoint, the benefits would be felt on defense

in that type of potential situation where offensively they don't feel like they lose that much. Defensively is where they feel like they might experience those games. I don't know. I mean, when you're flanked by D'Andre Hunter and Clint Capella, you should be all right. You shouldn't have to have, you know, an all-defensive guy. It's okay.

You can make up for it, right? You can make up for having Trey and Collins, both out there when you're flanking them with other guys because you, geez, what he brings offensively can be big time. And he's a matchup problem. You know, he's, I don't know, I'm a Collins fan. I am. He can post a little bit, too. We talk about him, you know, being a guy who gets faced the floor for Trey or catch passes and throw down Lovs from Trey.

But he can also post up sometimes. I mean, he's a wear cutter on the room. I don't know. Yeah, good player. A big congratulations. And what an amazing story that deserves to be chronicled. in Fred Van Vleet, making the All-Star team an amazing player at Wichita.

I knew one of his coaches, who is now actually the current head coach at Wake Forest, Steve Forbes. He was there with Greg Marshall with those Wichita teams. And I remember him telling me years and years ago, just, I mean, just effusive in praise on this point card that they have. Fred Van Vleet. And, of course, had an amazing college career, had big moments, NCAA tournament teams that ran up against some teams that they probably shouldn't have most exclusively.

Like that team, I really think that Wichita team would add a chance of winning the national title. They ran up against a Kentucky team that was seated. entirely too low and not the typical type of team that you should see in the second round of an NCAA tournament. But anyways, Van Fleet, great at Wichita, goes undrafted. Interestingly enough, that same guy, Forbes grew up with and is best buddies with Nick Nurse, who is the coach at Toronto, who now, of course, has Fred Van Fleet. but just the whole story of, you know, really great in college, but a bunch of knocks against him, fights his way up.

You know, he gets drafted, undrafted, goes there, and he flat out beat Dillon Wright. Like, they had Dallon Wright. Dillon Wright was drafted, what, in the top 20? I mean, they had a backup point guard at the time for Kyle Lowry. and heads up, he just, he won his spot. He earned every damn thing. He wasn't like an undrafted guy who played pretty well. And then, hey, we need a backup point card.

They had a backup point card. He just beat him outright. And then, you know, as time went on, he's a guy that comes off their bench. And then he's part of that title team. And now Kyle Lowry moved on and he has given his opportunity. and in his first year, and I know they ran them out there together last year, but kind of his deal now, his show to run,

not only a leader, but having an outstanding season. And I was so happy that he made the All-Star team and part of the reserves, and we parlay that into last night's game. Man, that Raptors team, I mean, it's a good overtime win, and you go look at that box score, And you want to talk about balance, Kevin. Good grief.

Up and down the line. Every player, like 10 to 20 points, it felt like. Yeah, I mean, they got a lot of guys who can beat you, man. I mean, we talked about snubs earlier. I'm sure Raptors fans are like, what about Pats Kelsey Hacker? Why are people not talking about him as a snub? 21 points, nine rebounds, five assists. ever since he came back in late December,

he's been at like 24 points, 7 assists, 9 rebounds, and he was putting up big time numbers. But the way in which Nick Nurse is utilizing his guys, some nights, it depends on the advantageous matchup. It could be Siakum as a primary creator. It could be Van Blee. It could be Scotty Barnes. O.G. and Obie got his opportunities as a creator earlier in the season.

They're experimenting and also winning games at the same time. It's kind of cool. And then last night, as you said, see, Akken with 25, OG with 21, Barnes with 21, Ben Bleu Klee with 21, Trent with 16, Boucher with 16. They can beat you even like that too. Well, and I need to mention because he finally cooled off last night with the five for 13, 16 points for Gary Trent Jr. But my God, what a run he was on. I mean, starting January 25th, he's 32, 32, 33, 31, 33. I mean, that is just a five-game stretch that is just freaky. You know, and all the percentages, it's like 11 for 21, 11 for 22, 13 for 28, 10 for 22, 11 for 20.

and then he's knocking down four and five threes. He hit nine. Nine, nine threes against Atlanta. And earlier this weekend, nine threes. And that speaks to it, though. I think with Toronto, Nick Nurse, he did, sometimes when you watch basketball, I don't feel like guy, role players,

stars always get fed the ball. But I don't feel like role players always get fed touches. With the Toronto Rappers, I feel like they ride their guys who have the matchout advantage or a scheme advantage or just are flat out hot. They always feed the ball to the player in those situations. And I think the recent stretch right there, we're talking about Gary Trent Jr. speaks to that, but they're also experimenting too. Like I said, O'GN and Obie was getting a lot more on ball touches than earlier in the season than he is right now.

He's still playing a significant role, to be clear, but they're going with different guys and different stages of the season. And I don't know, it just makes them fun to watch. It's like different versions of the same team throughout the season for the rappers, but I'm like watching them. I like them before the season, Chris.

Then they have their slow start, but they're looking way, way better since late December. That's really when they started to get healthy for the first time this season. And you mentioned earlier that it might be hard for Atlanta to get a locked-in plan end spot. But they're only four behind Brooklyn right now. Toronto's only a game and a half behind Brooklyn right now. The Nets have lost six games in a row. Katie's not going to be back

for a while now. Kyrie's a part-time player. Hardin, he's been in and out of the lineup. I think it's possible that we see Brooklyn slide into the play-in in one of these teams that they're so close together where there's Toronto, Charlotte, Boston, or Atlanta, that one of them could slide into a top six spot. Oh, my God. Could you imagine? Could you imagine if Brooklyn's playing in the play in? Well, I mean, being in a way team is better for Brooklyn, though.

Because then you get Kyrie for. I'm sorry. It's just the truth. Oh, you think they should, hey, you think they should angle, you think they should angle to not be a home court advantage team? They should not, they should not go for home court. No, they should have. We want to play on the road the entire, the entire playoffs.

The nets should, no, I have 100% feel it. First team, whoever angle to be the lowest possible seed they can be. Yes, the nets should angle for the five or six seed, of course. You don't want the seven, eight, and you don't want the nine or ten, but you'd rather, you'd rather be the seven than the four. Oh, that is hilarious. Because you don't know if the New York City mayor Eric Adams is going to change that law. Vaccine mandates for state workers or to go into arenas.

If that changes like it is in Connecticut, the surrounding state, by April, May, or June, then yes, fight for the number one seat of your pro-Mets. But there's a chance that doesn't change. And Kyrie's a part-time player for April, May, and June. And we're talking about this then. There's a chance. Like, that could be a thing. So you want them for four games instead of three games. It would be so funny if they minotanked at the end of the season.

They're doing it right now. I don't. But no, they're not trying to, though. But if they were like sitting at four and then they just like sit there guys for the last two weeks so that they don't have to play at home. But not to mention, when they play at home, everybody's champion an MVP for the other team anyway. Oh, God. You know what I mean?

It's not like they have the home court advantage. Like, you know, you're playing at some of these other arenas necessarily. You know, it's too bad for the Nets, though, because, you know, this three game, they've had three games on the road of a five-game road street here. And Kyrie Irving, it's nice to have him, but like the team just has not been good. Like, you would have thought this would be for being Kari every night. but they're still dropping names, man. I don't know.

But Joe Harris news earlier, really scary, too, with a potential setback. I don't know, man. This Brooklyn team, they're on thin ice. And we very well, I mean,

there's a real possibility. We look back at it, and it's just what might have been story. Because we just never see it the way it was supposed to be. Like, especially with all that hardened crap and who knows what happens in the off season, and you got the whole Kyrie thing,

and KD is out and he's hurt and you've got this Joe Harris second ankle surgery. I mean, so not going to see him. And, you know, as of last week, you had Marcus Alder's walking around in a boot. Blake Griffin turned into a pumpkin. I mean, it just may never be what it was supposed to be. He said, I mean, like he actually did turn into a pumpkin. He said that so seriously. Yeah.

He did turn into a pumpkin. That's what he's turned into. Actually turned into one. First time that's ever happened. I can't remember. So maybe I'm just being, it's possible to be prisoner of the moment. Have you ever seen someone skipping up the court ready to go hit a game more? winner. I mean, the level of confidence exuded from Reggie Jackson's literally skipping

up the court against the Lakers last night, and then this crazy-ass spin move, and then he makes it to do him in, I got to tip my cap to him because Reggie Jackson looked like a guy, that was the most excited you could possibly be to go get the opportunity to go down the Lakers. And then he hits the shot to beat him. And I'm like, this is wild, man. The skipping was hilarious. Alarious. As he crosses, he's like, I'm going to hit the game winner.

He knew it. He knew it. He couldn't hold his excitement for what was about to happen. he saw no time out and he's like tyloo you're not drawing up a fly here no I got this I got this I think at one point he was calling for a screen

like as he's skipping you can see him calling for Terrence man to set a little rump screen and that's when he got the ISO on Austin Reeves and the Westbrook help wasn't enough I don't know man that that whole thing it's like he has rust on him from behind

Reeves kind of in front of him won't get help. But AD, they'll wear it out on the spin move by Reggie Jackson. I'm not blaming AD here, but also like Sergi Baca was a no man's land. And I think that help would have went a long way and preventing that crazy spin moves that Roger Jackson. That was fun. That was a cool moment. It is worth noting that since his return, Davis has been unbelievable.

Oh, yeah. That's not a lot of against him. He's been great. He is, but I mean, look at the. numbers, Kev. Just if they get this Anthony Davis, I mean, it's, you know, he came back and only played 24 minutes in that first night and only took eight shots. And then what has followed is 31 at Philly, 27 at Atlanta, 30 against Portland, 30 last night against the clippers to go along with 17 rebounds, you know, we're going to still do the wait and see on LeBron and see what he comes back.

But, you know, AD kind of got knocked around a little bit for his play early in the season since he has returned. You know, he was out from December 17th all the way until January 25th, that game at Brooklyn where he didn't play all that much. And only took eight shots. It was just kind of feeling his way into the mix. But since that, these last four games, he has been outstanding. them and looks like the Anthony Davis that is one of the top five, ten players in the world. Yeah, and I think that's why with this Lakers team, I'm not burying that yet despite some of the issues.

If 80 can be his peak self, if LeBron James is able to be LeBron James as we saw this season with him kind of carrying the team to stay afloat at the five. And if for us can make some little tweaks in his game, just little tweaks, not asking for a lot. I think it's reasonable to ask for some little tweets when you're playing next to LeBron and AD. If all of those things can happen by the cable, they can win some series and they can run. I think you have those guys.

We'll see. Long way to go. Long way to go, though. Long way to go. And they lost to the freaking clippers. Yeah, exactly. They lost, too. Exactly.

And with the clippers, I mean, like, they're in kind of just feel good mode in the sense that Kauai might not come back. Tailu hinted that it might not come back. Paul George might end up undergoing the surgery. This year for the Clippers is about figuring out who are your keepers. How are you going to

reshuffle the deck around Kauai Leonard and Fall George? But there's no pressure or disappointment about the fact that your team is 500. Like there is pressure and disappointment the fact that the Lakers are under 500 right now. Like it's just totally different circumstances.

The Clippers are just a feel good mode. Well, and I'm going to tell you that You know, we had the great story of Milwaukee winning it last year, that this whole, you know, banding together or forcing your way into different situations, the snapshot right now, this is all going very poorly and it's a, you know, it's becoming a cautionary tale. And we look at three different situations that we just talked about in a row that are all hurtling towards. what might have been. We may never see what it was meant to be. Now, we saw the LeBron AD thing in the bubble and they won that title. But last year, didn't play out like they wanted to.

This year, it certainly doesn't look like. Nobody would consider them a title favorite or even anything close to what we thought they had the opportunity to do coming in. Brooklyn, same way. Clippers, same way. you know, the story of Paul George at Gai Leonard is probably the worst, you know, gag of a team in playoff history, you know, where we didn't get to see the Clippers versus the Lakers in the Western finals that year in the bubble.

And it's not right now. And who knows, you know, George gets that surgery. Who knows when Kauai comes back, you know, there were reports a couple of, you know, less a month ago where it was promising about Kauai Leonard. And now it's not promising about Kauai Lederd. And so you have George and Kauai band together. You have LeBron and AD band together. You have those guys at Brooklyn band together.

And it just hasn't gone well. You know, those teams have not been what they thought, we thought they were going to be. And it looks like, at least for the meantime, a cautionary tale. It'd be different if it's just one of them, but all three of them, you know, know, that we thought could be devastating, just aren't.

They're not even close to devastating. And we just may never even see what it, what we thought it was going to look like when they all got together in all those situations. You still have a chance with the Lakers. I guess you still have a chance with the Clippers, but, I mean, it'll be next year. And by that point, you're paying those two guys $100 billion just for two of them. All of those teams, all of those teams, they still got a shot. Warriors, last night, that was old school Clay Thompson.

I felt like the first time, you know, he's 23 points in 23 minutes, 8 of 11 from the field, 7 of 9 from 3, 7 assists, 5 rebounds. I mean, it was nice to see, and we've been hopeful that he can reclaim what he was. It's certainly going to take some time. But last night was a big step forward where it's like, okay, this is the devastating guy that flies around and every time he shoots it, you're like, oh, shit. You know, like, that's how it felt last night. And you got him and Steph going off in conjunction.

It was one of Steph's lower nights, but they didn't, you know, points wise, but they didn't need it. And boy, Kaminga, Keff. Yeah, I was about to say, we can't, we can't forget Jonathan Kamenga. He is, he has been so good, so good. And I watched them play in that game. It was him and Moody, Jordan Poole was playing the star role. That game on the road against the Spurs earlier in the week, and they sat literally everybody.

It was like Poole and Damian Lee and Chris Chioza and Cominga, Moody, and that whole group that came back, had a 23 to 5 run late in that game. and then upbeating San Antonio. Not the greatest of officiating against the Spurs. I will admit that. But still, I wonder if that hurt Dejante Murray's case, honestly. That was embarrassing. Like, yo, they couldn't get a bucket to save their life.

And you got Curry and the crew, like flying up and down the sidelines, waving towels and stuff. You know, I guess it spoke to the kind of culture they have there. Everybody cheering on everybody and even their bench guys were able to pull off something rather incredible earlier in the week. And it feels like they are getting Kaminga Booty, who's been very good in the G League recently and some other guys, some real clock that could pay real dividends, you know, even in the playoffs where you got to put a guy into the mix and he can really help you. And I think each of them in their respective ways of learning how to play this warrior's style. It's very unique playing with Seth Curry and Clay Thompson. It's like last night I'm thinking about end of the third quarter, Camingo sets a screen for Clay Thompson, like at the top of the three-point arc,

for Clay to take a three, like right straight ahead, buddy heels, trailing him. Damien Jones steps up to prevent Clay from taking the three-pointer. and Kaminga just perfect at times his roll to the rim, Clay leaves it down, and Kaminga athletically lays the ball up inside. And it's like this guy might not be the traditional size of a center, but they use him like the center and he excels in these situations. He's learning the rhythm with clay and step, and it's just cool to see these young guys get opportunities, and you're seeing the potential.

You're seeing why when Kaminga isos, when he rolls off a screen that he's sets whatever it is within the flow of their offense. It's looking good, man. It's very impressive for his age right now to be doing what he's doing. 19 years old, Chris. He doesn't turn 20 until October. 20 until October. He's so young.

And you know what's crazy? You know who he reminds me of, like frame-wise when you see him out there? Yourself, me, both of us. Can we please get serious? No. His teammate, he reminds me of a young Iguodala. I'm being serious. They have the same kind of frame where it's like this full grown ass man, 6,6, 215, 220.

You know, they really do have the same kind of frame. And Iguodala mega athlete. I mean, Iguodal is an old man now. But Cominga really does. Like when I see him out. out there, it's like, oh, damn, did they just find a young version of Iguodala? Like, he's not, obviously, he doesn't have the veteran savvy that Iguodala does, but that young version, that old Philly Iguodala, I just, I see that when I watch him.

I do. And it's fascinating that they're both on the same team now and he could hopefully learn from Iguodala. But Comingas kind of got that almost identical friend. that I feel like he's going to grow into and he's going to be like a Hulk like Iguodala became. Yeah, I mean, he could.

I mean, look, they're already, they're already utilizing him like a center right now. And from to grow into that igloidala type of role, more perimeter playmaking and all that. He's also a good start. He's often a good start.

I'm impressed early on, but like the role they use him in is right. It's appropriate for the time being. But over the course of time, We'll see. Only 19 years old. No, and it's the best kind of thing. It's the best kind of thing like last night,

where you can, you can develop young players and win games and serve two masters, right? Perfect. Yeah, exactly. And they've done that this past week, but with Moses Moody playing 25 plus minutes a night. I love Moody. That's cool.

I like me too. I loved him at Arkansas. You can shoot it, man. Loved him come out of the draft. That wing span is just freakish. truly, truly freakish. Very McKell Bridges-y,

you know, when you see him. That's what they're hoping for. Yeah. That's what they're hoping for. When he's been killing it in the G League recently, Moody has. So he's getting, he's getting some clock too. And he looks bigger to me than he did at Arkansas already.

He looks like he's filled out a little already. Moody does. A couple of notes. Last night. Shaq would not reveal what was said. I guess he had talked about this on his podcast, and then they asked him about it on TNT last night. He said, you know, we talked about a week ago how he just trashed Simmons.

And did you hear him say last night? He got a DM? Yeah, I watched the podcast clip earlier in the back where he mentioned doing it. Yeah, he said, he said, Ben Simmons just pissed off about his criticism of him saying that he stops and all that. But Shaq in the podcast, kind of doubled down. Shaq didn't say, oh, I learned something new. I haven't understood him now. He kind of just doubled him.

Yeah, it kind of sounded like I'm going to leave this guy alone. I said what I said. And I believe what I said. And that's the end of that. Like they asked him, did you give him your phone number? And he's like, for what? When you got nothing to talk about? Maybe I mean, obviously, look, we know very little about Ben Simmons as a person.

You know, I don't have a great gauge of his personality. I was surprised, though, that he DMed Shaq pissed off. He feels like the kind of guy that would just, you know, just ignore it or not care or whatever. But, you know, to go out of your way to DM him and express, you know, that you were legit mad about this criticism. I don't know. I just, that's not what I would have expected would happen. It does show that he does care, you know, it shows that he cares because I'm sure his phone blew up with his buddies telling him that Shaq is just, you know, defecating on his head on national television. didn't even call him by name.

And it was weird that he kind of used the LSU brother thing. I was going to say that. That was so bizarre. I don't even think of, I don't even think of Ben Simmons as an LSU player.

Oh, please. It's ridiculous. It's such a joke. There's a whole documentary about how you don't want to be there. It didn't even play out the whole season. The team stunk. Like,

my LSU, brother? What? Oh my God, it's so funny seeing that. And then Shaq, Shaq spent three years there. Anyway, that... Like, that would matter at all

in terms of like, oh, yeah, you know what? I forgot he was my LSU brother. Like, right? What? I was supposed to have loyalty towards him because he went to LSU? Please. What, like, we're both going to show up

on alumni day? I know Ben Simmons are showing up. No, he will never step food in Baton Rouge again, ever. I don't know. He got there in the first place. It's bizarre, very, very bizarre. But yeah, I was surprised that he DMed him. Yeah, it is, it is surprising.

It's surprising. And I think I find an interesting to Jack out of the whole. I find that part of interesting. but Shaak. Chris Shaq has changed his mind before. In this case, he's like, not feel the way I feel. I can't wait to see how that it results.

We're less than a week to go until the trade been by there, Chris. Less than a point out. We're almost there. Do you think we're going to get anything massive? Are we going to get a Simmons trade? Would you bet on a Simmons trade? Yes.

How about us? Unless, just because that guy talked about not wanting to suck, even though this team does suck. You know what I mean? Yeah. I think that they would not get the return for some bonus that they would want. Is that fair?

Yeah. You know, I think that they, their goals, a lot of times if you're moving off a player like that, you want like a, you're building for the future, right? And I don't know if they would get the return that they think would serve them well to not, you know, take a massive step backwards, you know, to sometimes that's what you got to be willing to do. You guys just say, okay, I'm going to reset. And so I want to get a bunch of assets for, you know, the future that I could build with, some expirings and, you know, some things that give me some opportunity to build out a team, build out a roster. And it felt like every, you know,

everybody there from the owner to the head coach and nobody wants to do like a restart or rebuild. That's what makes it hard. You know, when everybody's not on that page, then it's like, okay, does this serve us well to move him? I hope he gets moved somewhere. I just, I do think Simmons will because I think you got to win. I got a chance at winning the title. You got a chance at winning the title right now. It's pretty clear he ain't playing for that team.

So that's off the table. He's already sacrificed a bunch of money. He ain't playing for them. Yeah, he probably won't. We'll say that where there was the report that Ben Simmons and coach sports will meet with the Sixers if he's still on the team

after the jury deadline. So we'll see. Yeah, to try to get some of that money back. That money's gone, man. He's 19 million bucks. He's going to try to take that thing. He's going to do. He's going to be a lot.

try to take it to arbitration, guaranteed. That's what they're going to try to do. I don't know if it'll win it. I don't know if it'll win it. And that stuff takes a long time. It's going to be hung up a long time. You know, either way, he sacrificed a lot. Last thing before we get out of here,

I did think the NBA, while we did trash them for the NBA All-Star jerseys, really nice touch with the Kobe trophy. Really nice. Oh, it's great. Yeah, sensational. Outstanding. And I think What a cool trophy to win.

Guys are going to want to win that. You know what I mean? Especially this inaugural one. I think it can make for even a better All-Star game with guys really wanting to show out because that is a, it's fantastic, truly. And it's a good homage to one of the great players

of the past. And so I liked it. I liked it a lot. It's a good change. I like the way the trophy looks. I'd keep it forever. I'm a hoarder. I'd keep it forever.

Yeah, that's a beautiful trophy, though. Yeah, I love it. It is. It's almost like, it's like the classiest of the trophies. Absolutely. Hey, look. You screwed up, you screwed up the jerseys, but you got the trophy, right? Yeah, I know.

Good on that. The jerseys get passed out in your church league. This trophy here. Yep. My goodness. Be careful with that. All right. Thanks to our executive host, Jesse Lopez, as always, Kevin.

I will talk to you next Tuesday. I'm looking forward to a deadline date, baby.