The Mismatch - Team USA Dominant, Jayson Tatum’s Controversy, and Why Tyus Jones Will Succeed in Phoenix

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

Verno and KOC open up the show by discussing the U.S. men’s basketball team’s win over Nikola Jokic and Serbia (03:50). They dive into why Jayson Tatum's lack of play doesn't matter, the incredible performances we’re seeing from Kevin Durant and LeBron James, why Derrick White was the right choice for this team, and a brief outlook for the promising French team that features Victor Wembanyama. Next, they discuss their excitement over the Suns' signing of Tyus Jones, why the Nuggets should be concerned about Jamal Murray, and the new NBA rights deal (30:53). Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get all your NFL and fantasy football needs at the Ringer Fantasy Football Show on Spotify. Is it kind of lame? All your need... Fantasy football needs. I need fantasy football. Have all your fantasy football and NFL and all other types of needs met at the Ringer Fantasy Football Show on Spotify? Yeah, that's it. Have needs? We got you at the Ringer Fantasy Football Show on Spotify.

Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And Jordan Meese, he does every Monday night from the Ringer. ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, A.K.A. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Confl, Kevin O'Confl, Kevin O'Conflin, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien. How are you doing today, man? Good. I thought of you this past weekend. I went to St. Louis and went to a baseball game. I took my son, and when you're walking around the stadium, there's ads everywhere for a big concert

that's going to be going on. I think it's Billy Joel and Sting. And the participants are not that. That's not why I'm talking about this. Though that does sound like it probably be a great concert. But I was thinking to myself, nope, can't see a concert in a baseball stadium. Kevin just told me. Now, maybe Bush Stadium in St. Louis would be better than Fenway. But it was the first thing that ran through my mind as I saw these ads everywhere.

I was like, oh, man, of all the places, I'd love to go see Billy Joel and Sting. But I don't know if I want to see him outdoors at a baseball. baseball stadium. Yeah, see him at like Madison Square Garden in New York. That's where I want to see Billy Joel is like in one of the New York venues home for him. Like that's where that's where he's always playing his biggest and best shows. It's one of the first concerts I ever went to as a kid. Billy Joel. Yeah. In New York. No, in St. Louis. Okay. Not at a baseball stadium though. It was in an arena like whatever the keel center is what it was called at the time. Okay. But yeah. My, my, It was like one of the very few I can remember my whole family going.

It was like a family affair. It was my mom, my dad, my sister, and me. And we all went to Billy Joel. And he was amazing, amazing. My first two shows were Pink Floyd's bass player Roger Waters at TD Garden in Boston. And then my dad and I drove up to New Hampshire for this Hendricks tribute show, Experience Hendricks. And it had like former members of the band,

like it was Mitch Mitchell drummer. I think Buddy Miles was maybe alive at the time. I'm forgetting exactly if you were there, but I was handing like a bunch of amazing guitarists, like Kenny Wayne Shepard and Eric Gales, and it was like the loudest show that I ever went to in a way

that was like damaging probably to my ears long term. And I wish I was smart enough at the time to wear hearing plugs because it was like for days ringing in my ears after that show. But it was still one of the better shows I've ever been to in a proper tribute to Jimmy. And by the way, I bring all that up to say, I don't know if they're coming through Memphis, but they are still doing those experience Hendricks tours.

And I noticed that they're doing another one with tickets on sale pretty soon. And I want to go. I haven't been, I think, since that one, or maybe one after that with my dad many, many years ago. So I think I'd like to go to another one of those. It's like a lot of great guitarists on set. No, no surviving members of the band, though, anymore, unfortunately. They'll play with Jimmy.

Well, we're certainly on top of everything that we've been going through concert-wise over the summer, but there is basketball going on. The Olympics are going on, and we got a chance to see Team USA versus Serbia over the weekend. The story from the game, this is fascinating because watching the game play out, amongst my friends when on our group text,

it was all about Duran. We were just going absolutely bonkers over Duran. Duran had not played in a five-on-five game, they said, since April. He's had this calf injury. He hasn't been a part of things. He was on the bench. Game starts out. I'm texting them.

Is Yokin's just going to do this? Is he just going to like backdoor pass the United States and kick out to three? Like, is it not going to matter that he doesn't have Jamal Murray, Catavius, Colwell, Pope, Aaron Gordon, and the rest, like, you could just put this guy with anybody because we have got literally Hall of Famers all over the place that are against him now. And he does not have Hall of Famers. And yet, for those first, like, five, six minutes, that's what's running through my mind. Oh, my God, is this guy just so overwhelmingly awesome you could throw away. anybody with him. And then Kevin Durant came in and it was like, you just brought a superhero off the

bench. That was the absolute best of Durant, like the five of five from three, hitting it with guys in the face. He just, he comes out of the bench. He couldn't miss. He ends up having 23 points in 17 minutes in the game. And every time he came in, it was like, this guy is the best play. on the floor.

And meanwhile, LeBron's playing great. You've got point of attack defense. You've got, they're rotating the bigs on, well, really, anybody outside of Joel Embed,

who he pulled the hook on early. So I did forget that. So it became goofing on Embed. It became Lauding Joker. And then it became Durant and LeBron. And that was all the conversation amongst my group and then the game gets done

and all anybody's talking about is Jason Tatum not playing. Isn't that funny how that happens? Like it just becomes all Tatum doesn't play talk even though Team USA played better than they did in any of the exhibition games. Kevin Durant was absolutely magnificent and LeBron James turned back

the clock on multiple occasions and Stefan Curry had that amazing kind of turnaround three, Nolo 3 in the first staff like Team USA played better than they have in the whole past month. Curry even had the exclamation point at the buzzer of the game. Yep. And it was like, I don't know. Like I wasn't experiencing, I think, I wasn't on social media.

And so I wasn't experienced anything in real time. So I didn't even care. Yeah, because it's Team USA. Of course, a great player is going to get a DNP. It just never even dawned. And then watching it afterwards, it's like on, and true to it on social media on then ESPN this morning. You got Kendrick Perkins killing them. You know, saying he was humiliated and embarrassed.

And you have Brian Winhorse trying to say like, here's why he didn't play. Then you have Stephen A. Smith put up a video just going bonkers about it, call it BS. And I'm like, what is going on? It was the weirdest thing to experience not because usually I'm kind of like in the moment with everybody. But I wasn't really in the moment. And I was just thinking, my God, LeBron was awesome. He's controlling everything. He may have a triple double.

Durant's out of his mind. I love Noah Eagle, the play-by-play guy. Oh, he's awesome. He's a star. He really is. He really is. So incredible as a broadcaster. By the way, credit to him for just A-plus pronunciation,

at least from a silly American's perspective on all the Serbian names. Yeah. He seemed like he did it. He was well-studied. I think he's really good. Yeah, he's fantastic. He really is. I love Noah Eagle.

And Wade had a couple of, like, you know, too many repetitive lines. But I thought other than the repetitive lines, like, you know, he was good. Wade was good. Other than that. too much of Bam Too many you know

Too many he hymns Yeah heems Too many of that Too many Bam Bam full first name jokes But other than that I thought Wade brought humor And analysis

And with Noah Eagle I think that's something For NBC to think about But I don't know If Wade would want to do it Because Wade is You know On to bigger and better things

Right Anyways experiencing all of that in real time Thinking about the announcer Noah Eagle thinking about, I mean, Durant and LeBron and even Drew Holiday, Madman on the ball. And it's like, I was just so impressed with Team USA.

I thought they were so fantastic. They ran off in that second half. And then I guess in true, you know, NBA culture form, it's like, oh, my God, this is all about Jason Tatum. And so after I'm taking this in after the Fed, hear me out on this, Kevin. Tell me what you think. I was listening to on my drive back. I listened to Bill Simmons and Derek Thompson.

They did their future of everything pot. Yeah, that was a fun episode. Yeah, and one of the things they were talking about was conspiracy theories and about how we're, you know, everything is a conspiracy now and nobody, everything is. Oh, I know. I know what you're going to say. I know. You could say it, but I know where you're going to say.

Okay. So anyways, that was in my head and I was like, man, am I just playing it into this? Or do I really believe this? And I don't, you had Grant Hill go on Dan Patrick and say, it's a conspiracy theory that Taylor Brown thinks that Nike doesn't have him. on the team, right? And then he goes on to explain the reason we did it this way is because Kevin Durant was out. And then we had other guys out, i.e. Kauai Leonard.

And because we took the centers that we did, we're playing in practice. We've got AD and BAM out there. we've got AD and BAM playing together in these games, and we realize this is a great pairing and one of our best defensive pairings, and these guys can play together. And so then now we're thinking of a logjam at 4. And so if now Kauai is out, well, if we think AD and BAM can play together,

then we don't want to add in another 3-4. Everybody could talk positionless, how much ever they want. but we don't want to add three, four. We'd rather add another point of attack defensive guy. We've already got a great point of attack defensive guy, probably the best in the world and Drew Holiday. The second best of the world is probably Derek White. And it made perfect sense to do, Chris.

And we wanted a car. It was the right choice. It was the right choice from a team building perspective. And we wanted to go. Fantastic basketball player. So we've got this lead up to Team USA. in every damn headline is about Jalen Brown, the finals MVP, not being on the team. Yeah.

It's all about Jaila Brown. It's about Jailen Brown and Nike. It's about Jalen Brown's tweets. It's about Grant Hill saying this is a conspiracy theory. It's about Jalen Brown responding to Grant Hill saying it's a conspiracy theory. And then we get to the game. What did Jailen Brown say? He's like, you can't call me a conspiracy theorist.

I've been the vice president since I was 21 years old. Right. So then you can say whatever. So then you fast forward to the game and they don't play Tatum. They don't play Tatum. So now it's like, hey, they're not even playing Tatum. All the Brown stuff goes away. All of it goes away.

Nobody's talking about because honestly, if Jalen Brown would have been there, what? I mean, Jason Tateham didn't even play. You think Jalen Brown would have played? And Derek White plays, and he plays a bunch. And he was the replacement for Jalen Brown. So if I were going to make all the Jalen Brown headlines go away and no one talk about Jalen Brown not being on Team USA anymore, number one, I would win.

That's the first thing, because nobody's getting care as long as you win, right? Number two, I would play. Derek White. And number three, I wouldn't play Jason Tatum. So, is that a cookie conspiracy? Or do you think,

I'm telling you, every headline around Team USA was about that stupid Jalen Brown thing. It really was. And if you don't play now, what's everybody talking about? Jason Tatum not playing? Conspiracy number two,

Steve Kerr, we know he's friendly with Bill Simmons. Bill Simmons on one of his more recent podcasts said Danes should be running point. Steve Kerr could have just been trolling his buddy Bill Simmons. And then the weird thing was Steve Kerr coming out after the game. It just like being deeply apologetic. I know, I know. Well, the Steve Kerr apology, that's why I don't think any of it is, you know,

conspiracy. I think he was just going with the 10 guys he thought were best suited for that matchup. And they all played well. They played better than they did throughout the whole past month. Do you care that Jason Tatum didn't play? I mean, I couldn't care less as long as they win. I couldn't care less either at all. It makes it, it's that's completely non-factor to me.

It's all about matchups. The team played well. The team looked like it fit. There will be a moment for Tatum. Cur said he'll play Wednesday. I'm sure he will and he'll probably play well. but the reason why they got Derek White, the reason why they're playing Drew Holiday,

is because they have these like high-end elite role players because those guys are elite shooters, elite movers without the ball, elite defenders, they fill the gaps next to a Kevin Durant and Anthony Edwards and LeBron James, so on and so forth. That's why those guys are on the roster.

That's why they picked them over Brown. That's why they played them over Tatum in the first game. That's why they played over Halliburton, who's an inferior defender compared to those. guys who's not as much of a mover without the ball, has not proven it for Team USA yet. So I think for those guys, look, dude, Tatum is going to be a fixture of Team USA moving forward. And the Olympics in L.A. in 2028, Tatum will probably be a starter on that team. Maybe LeBron's not part of it.

Maybe Katie's not part of it. Maybe, you know, Steph might not be part of it in 2028 for that matter. It's going to be a new generation. That's what makes this roster so interesting. Like it's a lot of future gen guys for the Olympics and also a lot of, you know, past gen guys that were part of, you know, teams 16 years ago. So I think for Tatum, it's just one game and it'll probably play Wednesday. Will he play more than 20 minutes? Yeah, yeah, I think so.

But it was this whole like, it was almost like worried about his feelings. And like Kendrick Perkins is using the word disrespected and embarrassed him. Yeah, I heard Tim Legler said that on. the All-NBA podcast with Adamades. He said that as well. Yeah, Tim Legler said it was disrespectful to Tatum. And that's Tim Legler. So, I mean, I think it's ridiculous.

If they win! I think it's on- Again, I've always mentioned about who plays if you don't win. Yeah, to me, I think it's on Tatum to continue playing his role. If that means being a cheerleader off the bench, like Halliburton wasn't that entire a game against Serbia? Well, then that's your role when you're playing on a team of future Hall of Famers and All-Stars and All-NBA guys. Every matchup's going to be different

and Tatum's going to get his chance to play. It's just a matter of then who else gets benched? Because you can't play 11 guys or 12 guys. Somebody great is getting benched. What Joe L.N.B. got benched. Well, Joel and Joe Al-M.B. That's the where it's

really interesting with the Tatum stuff. Not only did it overshadow the Jalen Brown conspiracy theorist stuff, It also overshadowed the fact that Joel Abed, after making some progress later in the exhibitions, he really struggled again. He got punked by Yokic and he looked sluggish. The ball did not move as well with him on the floor on offense. They looked more dynamic defensively without him. It was pretty much as soon as he got subbed out of the game in both halves.

So I think with Embed, that is the thing to really monitor for USA moving forward in the Olympics. But, you know, ultimately, Chris, I still think whether Embed is. you know, fantastic or not, I still think USA is going to win gold. And you do wonder about, I watch some of these guys. Obviously, Tatum hit his apex by winning the championship this past year. Well, the apex in terms of team accomplishment, but he's still, individually, people are still questioning. Like, he wins finals, he wins the finals, but he doesn't win finals MVP.

And they kind of win the finals without him. The lowest field goal percentage of any finals player ever. And so he's still being. questioned after doing that. By the way, real quick, speaking of people care deeply about Jason Tatev's feelings. I know. It's ridiculous. But speaking of

former finals MVP's Yokic in that game, how crazy is it that they played even in the 30, 31 minutes that Yokic was on the floor, and then the nine minutes he's off the floor, they get outscored by 26 points. He's incredible. Mike Malone's somewhere going,

now you see! now you see i can't take this dude off the court for five minutes i think i think it was the rights to ricky sanchise which is the only sixers podcast account on x posted how uh what are they trying to do and flate yokech's on off stats again just like ben for with no backup center it's so good you do wonder about some of these guys that are like hitting their like they're kind of like in their prime years and which of those other guys could possibly even be taking even another step towards maybe not even statistically but towards more greatness, whether it is a Bam out of bio, whether it is a Devin Booker, because those are kind of like those second tier.

They're not the older group. They're not LeBron. They're not Durant. They're not that group. But I mean, you see Booker in there. Like there is kind of that middle tier of guys. guys, right, that are at some point, they are going to be those guys that are at the very top. And Edwards as well, right?

Like, I mean, it's going to be fun to see some of these guys on the younger side of things, more in their, more in their, you know, mid to upper 20s rather than their 30s. And kind of what steps they take after just being a part of all of this. Because this is a serious collection of talent. Yeah, it's amazing. And you're just getting to learn. You're getting to see Steph Curry and Kevin Durant and LeBron James and like all the great, like they've got all of them together.

And if you're somebody like Anthony Edwards, obviously you think you're better than all of them, but you also can take the opportunity to soak it all up and see like this is, this is what greatness and longevity and greatness truly is. because it's shocking how great LeBron and Durant still are. I know, I know. It's pretty remarkable what those guys were still able to do. Some of the transition buckets LeBron had, the one where he flexed afterwards. And the last KD bucket, I think it was in the first quarter, like that right baseline kind of spin turnaround.

How are these guys still doing this at this stage? What the crazy thing is, go flip on a 92 Dream Team video. every once while and see what bird and magic of those guys look like. Like it's just not Yeah. It's not even comparable. And not to mention. And they're younger.

And Steph Steph is 36. I know. He's getting up there in age too. It's not like Steph is young at all. Right. These guys are Katie's going to be 36 next season. He's 35 right now. Obviously the Braun, he's turned 40 in

December. I mean, like I always say it, don't take LeBron James for granted, but also don't take Kevin Durant for granted. Don't take Stefan Curry for granted. These guys doing this at this stage of their careers is pretty special. And I think, like, we talk about aging players, this is the generation where we have the most high-level old players. It's like Bill Simmons said in a podcast earlier this year, he said it's the four generations currently in the NBA, where this is the first time that's ever happened with four generations of stars all in the league at one time, still performing at a really high level.

And I do think there's been a little bit of a changing of the guard in terms of the teams that are contending for championships, but that's not Steph's fault necessarily, you know, that the Warriors have slipped since 2022. It's not necessarily LeBron's fault that they've slipped since 2020. It's like, or Katie's fault that, you know, he's picked the wrong teams. You can blame him for picking the wrong teams. but these guys individually, as my point is, are still elite level players.

They still are individually. So we'll see if they can get back. I still wonder if at some point we'll see Old Man Avengers, as you called it earlier this year. I wonder if we'll still see that somewhere. I feel like these guys have something's going to be brewing. You do wonder. Right?

Something. I know this. They've got obviously the 12 NBA guys. We're going to see how this all plays out in terms of food they're going to be playing. but they've got 12. Canada's got 10. Australia's got eight.

France has five. And France has been fun as a host city because not only are there, there are tons of like American fans there in the crowd. You see how many people were there supporting Team USA, famous people and non-famous people. Obviously, a lot of people watching the Olympics there. The French crowd booing M. B'd for playing on Team USA. It was hilarious.

And then just the Wembe reaction and him getting to play there. Now, of course, they silver medaled last time around. So they got a team. He had 19 and 9 against Brazil. And it's weird because this, there's still a really good team, France is. And they've got Rudy Gobert. They've got Victor Wenbeniama. and they've got some other NBA guys, Fornier, et cetera.

Batum had 19 points in that game against Brazil too. Yeah, and so. Frank Dilakina. Frankie Smokes, nine points, if I remember correctly. Look him good. I didn't even know he's still around. It was great to see him. Having those guys, you know,

having their group and their group's been together a long time. And the other thing is this, you know, as I'm watching it, I go and look up and there's, there's a bunch on the horizon for them because you've got this French team and right now the Olympics are in Paris. But three of the top six picks were French guys. You had Riseschay, you had Sarr, you had Salon. None of them are on this team. You have Wembe, who was last year's number one pick.

You have Kula Bale, who I think was the eighth pick last year. He is on this year's team, though not. either of them played the world championship. And then there's some more on the horizon. Like the French team, we're going to look up and it's weird because it's kind of a transition year with Wemby just being in his second year, first time going through this. But, I mean, we're going to look up in 2028 and they are going to have a bunch of dudes on that team.

And then we're going to look up in 2032 and Katie Bar the door. Because, I mean, you're going to have a 27-year-old Victor Wimbunyama. And then let's just say. two of these guys paying out to be awesome out of the six high drafted ones, but just good, just good. Yeah, really good. Yeah. Because Victor is going to be that special, like with Yokic on Serbia,

that he's going to be able to be surrounded by a bunch of guys and still play even with his minutes. If he's merely surrounded by, you know, if Wembe, that is, by five Bogdan Bogdanovich is like Yokic is with just one Bogdanovich, it would be a different story for Serbia if they had more guys of Bogdanovich's level. Victor is going to have that at a minimum for France with the amount of talent coming through there right now. So I think for Victor, they're set up to, you know, they're already a gold medal contender, but, you know, with all this young talent, they're set up to be maybe the favorites in 2032. 2022. I mean, maybe a little early,

but 2032, they feel like they could be the favorites. And you do have to think about those two guys. I got it. I read the article about how, you know, they were young. We had to make the roster.

We didn't really get to see them because the rosters do July 7th. And, you know, a lot of guys. Yeah. A lot of guys don't get, you know, play going to put, who are they going to put off the team for them? They got a lot of veterans on that team.

If they were super awesome, they'd find a spot. That would be my point. Yeah, that's fair. If it's the, last year, Victor didn't do it because it was the world championship. But you don't think Victor Wenamah would have played in the Paris Olympics if it was a year ago? But he was great enough. Of course he would. But he was great enough for the team.

He already was. But that's what I'm saying. These guys were just drafted number one and number two overall. Yeah, no, you know, in the NBA. Frick, the Leukee is pretty good. Shut up. Gershawne, yeah, if you sell it, you're going to boot Gershont off the team. This is the number one and number two pick of the draft.

You can come up with every excuse of the world that they want, right, as to why they're not. I just wonder if it's a sign that they're not that good. I mean, they're not yet. I got it, but their own country didn't take them. And if they were amazing, they'd have found a way to make sure they're playing in the friggin' Paris Olympics. Are you kidding me? You know, the funny thing is...

The Olympics, you ain't ever getting to do that again. You know, the funny thing with Yabu Selle, he's been playing for Real Madrid last three years. I was looking at his numbers while watching that France game. This season, Gershont Yabuzele, hit 44.5% of his threes. Oh, you want him back. Last year, 36% of his threes. The year before, that 40.2% of his threes.

The year prior to that, 44% of his three. So he's been. Snife. He's one year. Yes. At 6.8, 260 pounds in elite three-point shooter for four straight years. I'm just saying, Gershon, 28 years old.

Maybe he gets an NBA contract at some point in the coming years. Let me tell you something. I will walk over to my attic. I will start sifting through boxes of common cards. And I will sell you every Gershan. Jabbercelli you want, Kevin. Let me go find my Yabocelli. There's somewhere.

I would love to see him get another chance to the NBA. Because you know how I would like, I'm not saying he'd be PJ Tucker. But like with PJ Tucker, it's like, like there's like the rookie year stats and then like a basketball reference. There's like five years. Did not play other league. Did not play Greece. Did not play like Italy.

Like it's all different leagues. And then it's boom. NBA like late 20s into his 30s. every year since. I'm not saying the Ibu Sela is going to be that, but it was just really cool of Gershon, of all people. He's such a fun player. He's fun with the Celtics

his first two years in the NBA. It'd be cool if he had a similar story where he gets to, get to another chance that he comes back and he's like an elite shooter at his size. I am, with all these NBA players involved in this, I have found the basketball to be super

fun to watch. You know, I love to watch those world championships last year. So the United States are going to be playing against South Sudan in the middle of the week. We'll get to talk about that later in the week. A couple NBA things that we did want to mention on the show today. Real quick, Chris, before we get to that, just a note for our listeners. We're going to be doing some mailbag questions throughout the next month. So hit us at NBA Mailbag at gmail.com with any questions?

NBA related, non-NBA related, life-related, whatever you want it to be. NBA mailbag at gmail.com because at some point the Olympics will be over. They won't be games to talk about. So we'll be doing that throughout the entire month of August and September. Yeah. Always during the summer we get the opportunity to answer a bunch of questions. You know, team specific related. And we always get a bunch of good questions.

So, yeah, send those in. NBA mailbag at gmail.com. Man, Phoenix did great by getting Tyos Jones. Oh, God. I love it. I love it so much, dude. Man, when you ain't got any money, to be able to get a guy like that for $3 million,

you know, this is, this is one of my favorite players slash people I've ever covered. Got to know him very well in Memphis and the family. And just like consummate team guy, great locker room guy. Everybody loves him. And solid as a rock at one of the very few things that I can say about him is that I don't know

how many guys in the NBA truly make the other guys on the court better. He, without question, makes his teammates better. Now, there's a limit to that. You know, he can't very well make Kyle Kuzman and Jordan Poole better, you know, even though he played on that rat team last year and still led the league an assist to turnover ratio somehow. Again.

That speaks to how good he is. He's playing. He put the numbers by it, 7.3 assists per game to only one turnover. Bro, he played for, and he played for a team that doesn't run plays. And the one turnover per game, a career high. I have seen, career high. I'm telling you, I have seen, I saw that wizard's team in person last year and I just, I shed a tear for Ty.

Yes. I mean, I've seen more plays run by lifetime fitness guys. It was just. nothing. And now for three million bucks, he goes, because the market obviously was not there for him. You know, this is a guy that... It will be in 25 after this coming season. That's why he's betting on himself here. And that's why you're doing this. You're betting on yourself. And fair is fair. Last year, I told you many times. I was like, I know the way that their owner talks about it. I know the way Frank Vogel talks about it.

Oh, no. Well, we can do it by committee and Devin Booker can be on the ball. And Brad Beal could be on the ball. And I said, man, just get him a point guard and let him set these guys up because these guys are devastating off the ball. And now he'll play and he'll start for that team. And I saw him in a system here with Taylor Jenkins. And I saw how great he was.

was and started playoff games and helped them win playoff games and hit big shots of playoff games when morant got hurt two years in a row and saw what their record was with him and that's playing for taylor jenkins and taylor jenkins is a disciple of budenhozer and i think you are going to see a lot of what you saw when he was so awesome he was the best backup point guard. And then for the time that he started was a high level starting point guard during that time in Memphis. And I do think you're going to see a lot of the same stuff being used with him in Phoenix because Budenhalser is the coach now that I saw here. And I think he's going to do great there. I do. I think he's going to do great. And I think it's a great signing for them.

And one of the things that you saw him transform in Memphis, right? Like in Minnesota, one of his flaws was three-point shooting. Early in his career with Memphis, three-point shooting. But he became a knockdown guy's last couple of years with the Grizzlies. He shot over 40% for the first time in his career this past season with the Wizards. He's been a knock-down catch-and-ch-chute guy now for three straight years. So you're talking about setting up his teammates, limiting turnovers. That's all true with what he'll do for the Sons.

But Katie is still going to be a guy handling the ball at end of games. Devin Booker still is going to be that. Tyish Jones has turned himself into a guy. now in his late 20s that can hit that open catch and shoot three point shot when Katie gets that double team when Devin Booker comes off the screen they send two at him. Tias Jones

can hit that shot now so he's a perfect fit I think for all circumstances for the sons on the offensive end. The question I'd have for you though is how do you think he fits in defensively at 6 foot 1? Is he good enough of like kind of a hustle guy? Like what does he bring defensively? He's positional

you know he's a positional defender right he's not Drew Howard and he ain't locking anybody down. But he's also not going to get you destroyed. Yes. Right? Because he's going to play his position. He's going to play his role.

There's a lot more guys that are the Tyos Jones. Yeah. And in fairness, there's a lot more guys that are the Tyos Jones level type defenders than there are the Drew Holiday type defenders, right? For sure. And I do think you could also, like most of these guys, you can cover for them. Right.

So now you put them on the, you put them on the guy that's standing in the corner if it's a, If Deerrin Fox is just making mincemeat of you, now you put one of your bigger wings on him. And now you move him over. And so I don't think he's a devastatingly bad defender. I agree. I think it's a super underrated signing for them.

You know, amongst the mix of all the signings that take place, there's going to be a lot that get a lot more buzz. But I think an underrated signet. The guy gets what every team wants right now, and especially these Boon-Hulsar teams, the paint touch, Get to the paint. Now he is amazing at hitting floaters or just kicking out.

And the big thing about him is he is your old school point guard that gets the ball right where whoever wants it. He hits you in the shooting pocket. And if you're talking about a team that's got Devin Booker, Brad Beal, and Kevin Durant, you found a guard that can get you in the shooting pocket every time you got problems on your hands like i think that's going to be great for them i do i think it makes them way better i know that sounds crazy but i really do i think it makes them significantly better it's an absolutely perfect fit it's a perfect fit for the suns it's a perfect fit for tyus jones because you know you sign a one-year deal without much of a market out there for you if the sons make a deep playoff run or even

win at all and you're a central part of that team suddenly you're going to be making big money next off season oh for sure the other one was you questioned it last week russell westbrook's a denver nugget i can't believe it i can't believe they actually did it i mean we we saw it i think i think what they did is they looked and they saw his field goal percentage was better last year than james hardens and thought well this guy o'connor's always talking up james hardin but weirdly, Russell Westbrook even had a higher field goal percentage than him. Let's just take Westbrook for $3 million because he makes 45% of his shots might as well. Yeah.

His field goal percentage was higher, but his true shooting percentage and his effective field goal percentage were significantly lower. Those nerds that. We're talking batting average over here. Yeah. I think Nuggets fans are in for a total. with this. Oh, Westbrook's going to be amazing there. He's just going to dominate.

It's going to be great. It's going to be a disaster. No. He's never on bad teams. He wills them to victory. He even had the Red Washington Wizards team winning. Yep. Unbelievably.

Yeah. Oh, I can't wait to see that Yokic Westbrook two-man game. This is your nightmare. I'm really, shout out to Calvin Booth. From removing my opinion of how I think it will work for Denver, forgetting that, as we talked about last week, I'm excited to see what happens. I'm excited to see how this ends up looking.

I'm sure they're going to have a lot of exciting plays. Russell Westberg brings some energy that, you know, that we haven't really seen off the bench from behind Yokic. They haven't had a type of guy like him at all. And I, but to me, I don't think he, look, like you can talk about him as a Reggie Jackson replacement. Sure. Reggie Jackson's not good. It's a low bar.

You can talk about him as a Bruce Brown replacement, not happening. Bruce Brown is a far better defender, a better shooter, better cutter, a better finisher. It's not even close. Oh, stop. He left, Joe, get you, went into witness protection. We didn't even see him last year. Is he even still alive? He went on the Jonathan Cibachian.

Simmons plan. Okay. Jonathan Simmons once was playing with the Spurs and then he went to Orlando. We never heard his name again. The number one concern for the Nuggets is Jamal Murray. Still, he's got that big contract extension coming up. He has not been great for months. Even in the first game for Canada against Greece,

Jamal Murray did not look great. He comes into every season out of shape, gets himself into shape halfway through the year. And that can't happen anymore. You're like you need to come in and cheat They got Westbrook, bro He's dancing on the stage with Kendrick Lamar They're not like us

They're not like us Yeah, they got Russ now They don't need to Malmari because they got Ross, yep, yep All right, last thing Huge news on the TV contract We kind of broached this last week It is an 11 year $76 billion deal

Mondays This is starting in 25-26. Monday's Peacock is going to have a double-header every week. Tuesdays NBC is going to have two games on regional affiliates. Wednesdays, ESPN's got a double-header. Thursday, Amazon's going to have primetime games after Thursday night football. Fridays, Amazon's going to have prime-time double-headers. ESPN's also going to have some.

Saturdays, ABC is going to have their prime-time games. games still. Amazon's going to show games during the day. And then on Sunday night after Sunday night football wraps up in January, they're going to do what I suppose will be Sunday night basketball, as they have the set up there. Yeah. I have heard rumblings about that like five years ago about the NBA wanting to have

a game after either Sunday night football or Monday night football. And it's happening. Like I'm stoked about it. I think it's going to be what they're going to do here. is that prime time where everybody's kind of conditioned to watching Sunday night football. So when football ends off,

so when we get to the spring, from what I gathered from reading the releases, it's going to be a Sunday night game and it's going to be like the same time that the football game would have been. So you're already conditioned. It's not like there's going to be like a 9.30 game central time or something.

It's going to be when you would usually watch games. So it would be a 7 o'clock game on Sunday night. and they're going to have like a real who knows who will be the studio show but it'll be a real studio show and it will be like an hour long pregame about everything that happened in the NBA that week and whatnot and then there's going to be a game now the only thing is from a fan perspective I do get reading this and being like well hold on now and this is annoying you and I because we're it's our it's our livelihood, like, we got all this stuff and we're watching it all. But like, so I have Amazon Prime. I have Peacock. I have ESPN. Like, none of this is on stuff that I don't already have.

But if you're like an NBA fan and you're trying to figure out like what you're going to do for your TV stuff, you're now going to have, you are going to have to have to have in order to watch all this. You're going to have NBC and Peacock. You're going to have Amazon and Prime. You're going to have ESPN. and then your local team is not part of that either. And now, you know, there's all these regional rights. Like, I mean, look, Memphis is one of those cities that's in the middle of it too, where it's like, is Bali going to get out of bankruptcy?

And as Bali is still going to have this? And is Bali going to have, and it's like whatever those are going to be named that are owned by your regional team. And then how are you getting that? Is that, because you're subscribing to that, you know, specifically? Or are you doing that because you've got, direct TV or cable or whatever and that's how now I'm able to see

my local team and then on top of that I'm buying league pass I mean that's a lot of shit kept yeah you know I mean if you're a basketball fan and you're like man I want to see all these I want to I want to be able to see all this stuff

I mean just off the top of my head it's NBC ESPN Amazon Prime whatever your regional's on and then league pass that's five days things I got to subscribe to. Yeah, it becomes a lot more complicated for sure. Yeah, just give me my damn cable back.

Well, I mean, that's what's going to be interesting also about, you know, now the NBA Cup will be on Amazon. All right. So NBA Cup games will be, you know, only on Amazon. Is that going to, I mean, is people going to sub just for that, you know, and keep their subs. It's a lot to figure out. But this is the day and age we live, live in now with streaming.

So, like you said, a lot of people already have those apps. Well, I'm not going to cry about it yet, but obviously it's devastating to think about not having inside the NBA. Let's just hope that somebody throws so much money at them that they land somewhere. I think they'll try. I think one of those networks will try. Because there's all this, you know, Barclay says he's retiring. Ernie doesn't want to do it if it's not Turner. There's all that, you know, I even read in Tim Bontub's.

article. He mentioned some of that. And I was like, oh, bummer. But you never know. It's a year away. I'll tell you this. Adam Silver is going to be beside himself with all the jokes that Barclay gets off for this last season. I know. Brother. At least we get one more year, you know. But man, oh, man, is there going to be a lot of basketball? If you're a basketball fan in two years, you're going to be damn games every single night. It's pretty cool. I'm very impressed by what they put together. I am. And how much money they got for it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, people around the league have always said it wasn't this TV contracts that they were worried about. It's the next one that they're concerned about with like what that total could be because this is the big, this is actually the big test to see how streaming does on how profitable it is to Amazon, how much they want it again when rights are up.

So got a lot of time before we talk about TV deals again. This is a long deal. But it's the next one that people are more concerned. concerned about well and the only thing I'm concerned about is Jason Tatum's feelings and I hope he gets to play against South Sudan I know I know thoughts and prayers up thoughts and prayers up obviously bit of really tough time I know he's had a lot of people come to his defense um even though team USA won by 26 points but there are some people that made some memes and some jokes at Jason Tatum's expressed on social media the memes are so good and that will never be

They were so good. Hey, Matt, imagine that. Conspiracy or not, it got everybody to stop talking about Jason, Jalen Brown saying he wasn't there. Yep. And that Nike's the reason. Good work by Steve Kerr and team USA, killing the Celtics from within. And I've been told that the Celtics are going to put Derek White on all of their banners going forward. Yes, his face.

The new duo in town. And it's going to be Derek White and Drew Holiday. arm and arm. Holding their gold medals. Yeah. And then just a frumpy Tatum in the back. And then like, you know, and then Jalen Brown in the back,

like with a FUSA sign. What did Jaylen Brown probably go show up playing for France. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what the rules are exactly, but it seems you can kind of choose your own team. That seems that way. All right.

Kevin's always a pleasure. We'll see how it plays out when they're playing a little bit later this week. Throw out that mailbag one more time so we can get some questions for Thursday. Email us at NBA Mailbag at gmail.com. You can also just contact us on social media. Instagram is a little tougher, but on X at Kevin O'Connor NBA and at Chris Vernon Show. Just, you know, add us both or email us. Email is best, though, because we can sort through it all quite easily.

Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez as always and Kevin I'll talk to you on Thursday Can't wait