The Mismatch - The Ballad of Chavano Hield, Bad Vibes Bucks, and the Joe Mazz Fight Club

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

Verno and Jacoby briefly discuss last night's slate of games, including the struggling Bucks losing to the Grizzlies (01:02). They then discuss players (09:28), teams (30:08), and things (52:10) they loved and loathed from this past week. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visithttp://www.rg-help.com/www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Brian Curtis from The Ringer, and I want to tell you about the Press Box podcast. The Press Box is a podcast for anybody who likes news, whether it's about sports or politics or pop culture, and wants to understand how that news really gets made. We have news shows every Monday and Thursday. We have long interviews with everyone from John Crackhour to Joe Buck. Your social media feeds are bursting with information every day. Let us help you sort it out. Join us on the press box.

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me to see us every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. What's happening, Verno? Hey, man, we've got a ton of stuff to get to. I went to a basketball game last night. Did you? Yeah.

I saw the Milly Waukei Algonquin for the Goodland Bucks versus the Memphis Grizzlies. and what I witnessed last night was downright shocking. Maybe appropriate for Halloween. By the way, before we get into it, how was Halloween? You've got young kids. You've got young kids. I saw one of them running around as an inflatable chicken. I love that.

It was very warm here in New York City last evening. The inflatable chicken led to a lot of sweating, so he was hot. So we ended up being a deflated chicken for most of the evening. All right. Well, that's what the. bucks were as well. Deflated chicken. They were a deflated chicken. Yes, they were a deflated chicken. I mean, it was shocking to witness this in person. You know, we come on the show twice a week, and we talk about all these different teams, and we view them on television and we say, oh,

it's not starting off great for the nuggets. It's not starting off great for the bucks. Those had been two of the big topics already this season, given that they've got, in many people's estimations, the two best players in the world, and soft supporting casts around them. As I watched it unfold last night, what was shocking to me was the absolute lifelessness and how I sat there and I thought to myself, boy, this is a team that's like, you know, they're starting off one and three. They're playing a team that's on a back to back that's really not in great spirits after losing to Chicago and Brooklyn in these last two home games they've had.

They're down to two more starters in Desmond Bain and Marcus Smart. And so this is a perfect time to get right if you're the bucks. And then to watch the game unfold the way it did. When I tell you it was Janus and nobody else, anybody that did not witness this, and I will imagine many did not, go look at the box score. You could even look at the plus minus. They're like even with Janice on the court,

and he had, I think, 37 in the game. But not, Lillard, that was by far the worst game I have ever seen Damien Lillard play. Now, I have not seen all of his games over the course of his career, but certainly in person. I mean, I've watched this guy in person a big playoff event. This, and he looked miserable like the whole time. He looked miserable.

The team, like the connectivity didn't look there. And I just, you know, the whole time I texted you during the game and I said, Chris Middleton ain't fixing this. No. And you look up and down, you go, all right, what could they, you know, is there some roster stuff they could do here? Is there somebody they're not playing that they should be playing? And the answer is no.

And then I see, I mean, for goodness sakes, I see Tarring Prince out there. And then who do I see over on the Milwaukee bench? Darwin Ham. And I'm like, oh, Lakers fans have to love this. They got to love this. And the crazy thing is, how about this one? And then Darvin Ham, you know, he's just like living his life. Nobody even knows he's an assistant coach for the bucks, for that matter.

he's just trying to live his life. After the game, one of the guys that hounded Damian Lillard, like his life was on the line, was Scotty Pippin Jr. And after the game, he said, yeah, I took this one extra personal because there's a coach over there that didn't believe in me. I was like, damn! Oh, I love it. I love it. I was like, this guy can't catch a break.

Darwin Ham's going to get blamed for them, too. He's getting straight. Yeah, right? I don't know, man. I know that Doc said, you know, our transition defense is this, and we've got to get this right, and I've got to get back to work. But look, it's not going to be this bad, but goodness gracious. I just thought when you're one and three and you're playing a team that's been in shambles recently

that you would try to be getting right, but instead it was the Grizzlies that got right. And Morant was truly otherworldly last night. One of the best games I've ever seen from a player in a half. In fact, it was downright historic. I think they said only four other guys since 96 had had over 20 points nine and eight in a half. And like the names are like Luca Hardin,

thinks a bonus did it once. I mean, it's a short list. But he was otherworldly, and on the other hand, they've got nothing outside of Janus, especially if Dame is not going to be good. And he was miserable last night. I mean, it was one of the worst Dame performances you're going to see. And I've got some more on the bucks later. But their problem, as you said, Chris Middleton is not going to fix their problem.

Their problem is perimeter defense. They cannot stop any ball handling guard from getting to the rim, from getting to their spot, from getting to their shot, from getting whatever they want. They don't cover three-point shooters. That is their problem. And Chris Middleton does not fix that problem. And they don't have anyone on the roster, as you said, that they could play more minutes that will fix that problem. This is a broken team.

And yeah, it's also look at Doc Rivers. Like, since Doc Rivers has taken over this team, they have not won basketball games. They just simply have not. And they're top to bottom really, really bad. And I'll get to the bucks later, but we do have to start having the conversation of how does the honest feel about all this. As you said, the two best players in the planet are on bad teams right now that are not winning games. Right.

It has to be the way. And to your point, we always talk about the drop-off, whether or not a guy is sub-doubt or whether a guy is injured. Sometimes it's about the drop-off to the next guy. And what happened when they moved off of Drew Holiday to not address the issue that you said, which is point-of-attack defense? Because everybody can just get their offense going then.

which is even more killer when you play drop coverage with Brooke Lopez. Right? Like you've got to have somebody that can stay in front of the ball. And when you go from Drew Holiday to Damien Lillard, you know that's going to be a deficiency. But then you're flanking with like Gary Trent? I mean, to not address somebody being able to get a stop on a perimeter player is just madness. Truly madness.

I mean, that is a failure by that front office by all accounts. Other things that happened last night that are worth mentioning, the sun's coming back from big deficit against the clippers. Booker having a big night, right, against the clippers and storming back and winning that game. Wemby with his 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, and 5, the 5 mark, which, now he's done it twice in his career, which is crazy when you stand back and think about it. And I always love when he does it. It's only happened once before, but even when people were talking about like,

here's a guy that could do this, that Andre Carolenko, AK-47, gets his flowers every time they mention it. He's like the only guy, right? It's like the one weird, awkward stat that now everybody loves one Binyama so much that any time he does this, people give Kirillian. Terolinko is flowers for pulling it off once upon a time. And then Rockets really good win against the Mavericks on the Mavericks home court. You know, really good win for them.

So light night, last night, there wasn't too much that went on. But we are going to go through as we do every week, the players, teams, and things that we loved and loathe throughout this week of NBA basketball. All right. Let's go with this week. Do you want to start? Do you want me to start? I'm a start. Let me hear it.

Player that I love this week, I didn't see this coming. I really did. This player has bounced around more than someone with their talent should. And did you know, there's a gentleman in the National Basketball Association with the first name Chavano. Chavano? Buddy Heald's name is Chavano. Is that true? Yeah.

Wow. If your name is Chavano, why do you need a nickname? It's such a great name. Like, why are you buddy? How do you go from Chavano to Buddy? I had no idea. But I'm going to celebrate Buddy Heald on this pod for this week. The Warriors are 4 in 1.

Steph Curry twists his ankle twice. Two non-contact ankle rolls in the same game. And you're thinking without Steph Curry, what can the Warriors possibly put together to win games? And Buddy Heald is just like, hold my beer. He has this season scored 20. 22, 27. Had a stinker against the clippers, had 8, 28 and 21. He's 20 for 36 from 3.

And he's just had 19 points in the fourth quarter last night. Or two nights ago. Like, he has been killing it. Lindy Waters, I don't, Lindy Waters all of a sudden is, is playing. And Kamiga goes to the bench and it's just buddy healed steps up. Kaminga plays better. I love what Buddy Heald has done for this team.

And it seems like Buddy Heald is always about to explode. It's about to be in the right system. And Steffin spoke about it after the game. He was like, right now, Buddy is in a system that he's comfortable in. And he's really just really, really, really acknowledging his role and killing it. I love what the Warriors of Buddy Heald have done. I did not expect them to be a 4-1 team at this point at this juncture. I don't think they're going to stay at the top of the West.

but I've been really impressed with what they have done, especially without Steph Curry. I'm going to give you something I know about this situation. I have not talked to the individual about it. And I also, I haven't read about it. There might be something locally that's already been written about it. But a guy that I know and I've known for a long time, Chris DeMarco is one of their assistant coaches.

And Chris was Clay's guy. Like he was always Clay's guy. He always like, if you ever went to a Warriors game, he was the guy working out with Clay through the summer. He was a guy working out with Clay. And then they kind of brought along Jordan Pool at the very beginning, you know, got his career going. But with the workouts and everything.

The only reason I'm mentioning this is because obviously Clay is now gone. DeMarco is still there. Interestingly enough, demarco in the summers, he's the head coach of the Bahamas national team. Oh, yeah. So I guarantee that is playing a. part in this. It's kind of like they went straight from Clay to now. This is a guy that has known him for a very long time and has worked with him for a very long time. So I bet what you'd find is this

this is a very natural fit for him. And there's a comfort zone that comes along with it. Also a guy that would know exactly the best ways to utilize Buddy Healed, right? Because he is his coach for the Bahamas every year. And he happens to be on that staff. And it was the first thing that went through my mind when they signed him this offseason. I'm like, oh, how about that? So Buddy Heal ends up there. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a big proponent of that taking place. And he has filled into that role. And especially in the absence of Steph Curry, they have needed this badly, Jacoby. You know, they needed guys to step up. No, Curry, no Wiggins. Right. Needed guys to step up. You're playing the Pelicans twice and Heald has stepped up.

And that makes a lot of sense with the DeMarco connection because step in the post game talked about how much just healed loves to hoop and how he feels so comfortable and how his role fits so well. And I think that it does sort of feel like they have some advanced intelligence on Heald because he's only been there for five games and he has fit in so well that that does make a lot of sense. Well, and I'll tell you this, he's one of the very, he's one of the very few players I have ever seen. There's one day I was walking around FedEx Forum. I just had to run over there and grab something. Not even like the team shoot around. The team had canceled their shoot around that day. This is when he was where Sacramento?

Yeah, Sacramento, I believe. But the team had canceled their shoot around that day. This guy was out on the court 10 a.m. He was the only player inside the arena in an absolutely. full sweat just, I mean, probably worked out for over an hour in there. Because I went and got my stuff, walk back. And I was like, you know what, man? I'll always kind of remember that.

Like, here's a guy that canceled the shootaround. He's in there. He's getting his shots no matter what. He was alone. Alone. Not even, all these guys take a rebounder, too. He didn't even have a rebounder with him. He's just going out there doing it himself.

And I was like, hard work guy. Hard work guy, for sure. All right. The player I loved, and this is unfortunately going to have, a great beginning and then a sad ending. Palo Bancaro. So he had a couple of duds. You know, we had lauded him in that Orlando team early in the year.

And he had a couple of duds. The Brooklyn game was kind of a dud. The Memphis game was kind of a dud. And then his response was playing against Indiana, which is a great team to get right against if you're an offensive player. But 37 in the first half is crazy and ended up with 50, 13, and 9. That was after the two duds And that's the

Anytime you see these guys that have these Dud games and then their response Is something like that And then he responded again by going to Chicago In a game that they narrowly lost But he had 31, 7 and 4 So he played two games in the week And had 81 points, 20 rebounds, and 13 assists

Which is just crazy And then we get the news last night. which was the absolute worst Halloween news that you could get for a player. Well, maybe not the worst, but terrible news, nonetheless, that he's got a torn oblique and is going to be a four to six weeks, which is, it's a big chunk of the season, a big chunk of the season. And, you know, some of those games that are going to be played for that in-season tournament, like he'll miss all of that, right?

This is a team that would have been a fun in-season tournament team, too. and certainly a guy that has broken straight through into what appeared to be super stardom very early in his career. Got $300-something million on the line, as we mentioned, if he makes an all-NBA team when it's extension time. But just terrible. And it's so crazy because my buddy Jeff Stats, who does in-street clothes on Twitter, he's great with NBA injuries. If anybody wants to pay attention, he'll usually tell you. he's got a whole database of how long guys missed for different injuries. But I interestingly enough had to check what he had put about obliques

because Desmond Bain went out with an oblique injury the other night, which is just a, you just don't see that injury. Yeah, it's a weird injury. It's a back-to-back nights you had oblique injuries in the NBA. And obviously you hope that Baines isn't torn, clearly. But Pallo's being torn. and now, you know, four to six weeks, just brutal. But I was absolutely in love with them right before that happened.

And so that made that news all the worst last night. It was tough. And one of the things I loved about how Paulo started this year is you love to see the progression from year one to year two to year three. And it really felt like he was taking a superstar turn. It really felt like his play was going to take the magic to hosting, a round one playoff series. That's how it felt. And he was carrying

that team to wins, and I am very concerned about what they will do in his absence, because he is so important to what they do. Because he can do everything. He shoots, he playmates, he posts up, he rebounds, he defends, he does everything. And without him, that team

looks very different. They're about to go through with the Warriors are going through right now. And so is there a buddy healed that could step up for them? Chavano, Chavano Heald. Chavano Heald. Is there a Chavano? Yes.

You know what? Of all your takes, I might agree with this one the most. I mean, Chavano Heald sounds so much cooler. It's a great name. It's a great name. Yeah. I'm calling him Chivano and I'm calling Steph Wardell. Wardell and Chavano.

Are you going to go, are you going to go Tmetrius for Joe Morant? Or do you like Jaya? No, no, no. Just good. Okay. Just good. Oh, man. The big heroin news is sad, but I'm glad that he's getting his flowers here into this man.

I'm going to do something now for the player that I load that's going to get me in some trouble. This is a bit of a zag, okay? And you mentioned him earlier in the show. I did. But one of the players, the players that I load this week, Victor Luz-Bin-Yama. Boot! This is America's sweetheart. Francis Swin-Yama.

Here's what happened. I was so excited for the Chet-Wimbenyama matchup. I was so excited. Like, I blocked out my day to watch these two go head to head. Because remember last year when they went head to head, it was, it was appointment television. And I know he got hurt during the game, but he did come back and play. But he was so bad in that game. I think it was the worst I've ever seen him play.

And it was a marquee matchup between him and Chet. And Chet is playing so well. And do you remember during the day, there was a reporter for ESPN. I'm sorry I don't know his name. But he was saying that Victor Wimpan Yamma refused. to say Chet Holmgren's name. Is that true? Throughout the day.

Yeah. Yeah. They're like, like he doesn't say his name. Like he won't even mention him by name. And that was all, that was going, that was making its rounds through the day leading up to the game.

And I was so excited for the two of them to go head to head. And Wiminyama, one for five. How does Victor Wynbinyama go one for five? I know he was hurt for part of the game. But one for five in a marquee matchup against someone who's name you won't even say. And so far this year from three, Mbenyama.

One for eight, two for five, one for five, one for five, O for three, four for 13. This is, are you saying this is not the Bancaro leap? No. Right, no. We were all waiting for how good can he be, how soon. And so far, it has not been that. You can, I haven't seen it. Yeah, everybody can pull off their pants for the five by five, you know, that he had last night.

but it's not been thus far like, oh my goodness, he's here. You know, this happened faster than we thought, ready to dominate the league. Thank you. Yeah, that's fair. It hasn't been that way. You know what? I wanted to hate this, but look, how many times have people, have you heard people who have been having Wemby conversations so far this year?

No. In the first play against the Thunder, the first play of the game. Again, I'm on my couch, popcorn, ready for the matchup. Lou Dort just pushes him off his. spot and gets a steal. The first possession, couldn't even get the ball. Lou Doris pushing him around. And I'm listen, I'm not sitting here and speaking

into a microphone and saying, Victor Wambayama is not going to be a superstar, not going to be a good basketball player. I'm just saying, thus far, this season, I expected more from him. It's not about, it's not about whether or not he is good. He is going to be a superstar. He's going to be an all-star. He's going to be all-MBA, perennial all-MBA

for years to come. But expectations, he has not met the expectations. He's not met the expectations this year so far. Do it. You want me to do it? You want to do it. What is not meeting expectations?

He's overrated. It's the exact definition. I mean, listen, I'm not saying he's bad at basketball. I'm saying I've been listening to so many people tell me that he is the next superstar. He's going to change the game. He's a unicorn. He's an alien. All of this.

Guess what? Aliens. better from three. Aliens don't go over three. Aliens don't go one for eight. He's going to have 38, 17, and 10 this weekend. Oh, for sure. He's for sure going to do it.

Delete all of this. He's for sure going to do it. He's for sure going to do it. He's going to do it. There's going to be two games. He's not going to say, Chet and Jacoby. But I just want to say, I just I have expected more from him.

He's only shot over 50% from the floor one time this year. Think about that. He's eight feet tall. He's only shot over 50% one time this year. I want to see more from him. Again, I'm an intelligent human being. I know that he is good at the sport of basketball, but I want to see more.

I expected more. I want to see the Palo type of trajectory where you get your feet wet in the first year, you start to play good in the second year, and then you play great in your third year. That's the Palo Bancaro trajectory. And right now it still feels like we're in the feet wet phase. And you wish you would have done something else that night?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. The chat night? Yeah. I mean, national TV game. I'm on my couch. I've got it circled. I'm only going to watch this game and this game only.

And I just didn't see anything. And again, I realized that he was hurt. I get it, but he played. And when he was out there, it wasn't much. It was. The player that I loath this week, bam out of bio. What is going on?

Seriously. What is going on? 11 and 7. 39.5% from the field. They played two, like, big-time teams this year, Orlando, and they got run out by 20 on their home court, and he was one of five, I think, or something like that. Meanwhile, the magic out rebounded him by 16 in that game

and just, you know, bully balled them, and he's the guy. And this is coming off, like, oh, Bam played for the Olympic team. Could this be the Bam? Oh, he's shooting threes now. Remember that was all season. Yeah. Oh, shooting threes. And then he didn't come out against anybody that has been, how do I say this?

No one has ever mistaken Carl Anthony Towns for the Incredible Hulk. And yet, Carl Anthony Towns had 44 and 13. Believe, boss. On 17 of 25, four of five from three. Meanwhile, on the other side, BAM's got this feeble-ass 11 and 3. Like, how is this? What happened here? I mean, is this the only guy who's in the world?

Is this the only guy in the world? Now, again, I don't know everybody else's, you know, mate. But is this the only guy in the world where it is plausible, his girlfriend could have gotten the same numbers. I did not know you were going to go there. Maybe the Dwayne Wade statue threw him off. Maybe that's what it is. But in the next game, he made Carl Anthony Towns look like a bully ball player.

Carlton Towns, I mean, I don't have numbers 40 players. That's crazy. Probably had five dunks in that game. He was getting his own rebound, getting offensive rebounds. Like, that's the Carl Anthony Towns that we've all been waiting for, but it was enabled by Bamette at Bios defense. And that's what he hangs his hat on. Well, you remember that first game, we were like, oh, well, what happened here with, like,

Jimmy Butler was feeble. And then Beelah, I was like a minus 30 in that first game against Orlando. So, like, it's not like, you know, some of these teams you're seeing, like even last night, right? Where I told you, you know, Janus is alone, right? Like, they're able to play when he's on the court. You've seen it a bunch with Yokic already this year, right? Like, the team's pretty good when you're out there. It ain't his fault.

But it's 100% pay him how to buy it. Like he's on the floor every time they're getting their ass kick so far. And it's just bizarre. It's so bizarre to you could find there. If you give anybody those minutes, they're going to get you 11 and 7. On that team? Yeah, yeah. You give anybody those minutes.

I mean, they're going to get you 11 at 7. This guy is like, we're waiting for the leap coming up after, especially after, you know, you're around all the other best players in the league. You're learning all their best practices. You know, Simmons has always got this theory about how, how much this can help you by being a part of that. He's come in and, like, he, I guess he is the devil's advocate to that argument. Like, this guy was a part of USA basketball, the gold medal winning team. The guy has been an absolute dud so far.

And they were putting him in a position this like work from the nail spot kind of like using it as like an offensive hub last year where they would get him, they would get, he would get the ball at the nail, he would hit it if you didn't cover him. And if you covered him, he would play make. And it seemed like his sort of offensive distribution was working really well. And this year I just haven't seen it. And I, you know what? When you put his name down on the rundown, I was pretty surprised.

But watching that Nick's game. which was on, the World Series was on at the same time, so I was watching both. But watching the Knicks game, I was thinking, wow, what a great game from Carlin Anthony Towns. He's really asserting himself. But I didn't look at it as where is Bam Anabio and how come he is not stopping Carl Anthony Towns? I mean, they all bitch every year about him not getting defensive player of the year. Nobody bitches more about how they don't respect what he is as a defender. Well, this one, this one's not easy to.

forget. It's cat, bro. No offense. Interesting. Interesting. Who do you think we'll regret their take more? Me on Victor Wemba Njama or you on Bam in a bio? Probably me. I mean, the odds, the Fandu odds are minus a billion. That's why I wanted you to do it.

I mean, your over-rated All-Star team is growing and it's like a who's who. best players in the NBA. I love it. The NBA is back. And Fanduil, America's number one sportsbook, wants you to catch all the action

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All right. Who's the team you loved? it's the calves. I mean, it's obvious. Like, it's low-hanging fruit. They're undefeated, but they're just, the Lakers come to town

and they make light work of them. Now, listen, I think one thing that's important to recognize, especially this early in the season, is they've played the Raptors, the Pistons. They got a good win against the Nix.

They played the Raptors, the Pistons, and the Wizards. All right? So they've really only played the Knicks and the Lakers, but you can only play who's in front of you, and they have made light work of all of it. The Atkinson's diet is really working for them.

And when you think about the calves, and we've celebrated them before in this pod, you think about Garland and Mitchell, you think about, you know, Alan and Mowgli. But what they've done without Struz with Dean Wade, Karris Levert, Sam Merrill, and my guy, George Nyang, like, they're making it work. Like, that's really the question for me is about that fifth spot, like the wing spot. They don't really have a true wing without Struis in particular. but they are right now early it's early but they're and you want and you want lavert as a bench eater yeah yeah you need that you can't start hand but they're first and offensive rating their third and defensive rating so again super early in season they're not going to stay there but first and first and first and offense and third in defense that's going to get you wins and they've got 28 and

28.4 assists per game the fifth in the league they move the ball it's it's a good team to watch They're shooting 41% from three. Like, sometimes, you can't give too much credit to, like, JJ Redick or Kenny Atkinson, but sometimes you just need a different voice in the locker room. And Atkinson has certainly, certainly sort of added a boost to this team and getting more from the players that they had last year because they didn't really make any huge roster changes. Well, and the other thing is maximizing guys. Maximize, like, you know, that's the thing we always wondered, is there too much overla.

app and that these guys are just, you're never going to simultaneously be able to get all of them to be fantastic. And yet so far this year, and I think the revelation early in the season has been Garland. I think we all expect, you know,

and they're going to be able to mix a match, Mobley and Allen to be able to stagger that, you know, in times to be able to make that effective for both of them. But the Garland Mitchell thing, because Garland went through the season, from hell last year.

We've mentioned this a couple times already this year. He made the All-Star team. He was on the trajectory to being one of the big-time guards and a fantastic, efficient player. And he's had some really good early season games, really good early season games. And so I'm with you. Atkinson diet's working.

Totally fair. And boy, they put a number on the, they put a number on the Lakers. Oh, yeah. It's nice to see Bronny score, though. sure but that's the story out of the game the story is oh guess what brony made a basket like all right he's a professional basketball player what about the fact that the calves are undefeated and they whacked the lakers and they made light work of the nicks too they look good

i mean there's a homecoming come on jacobby of course that's going to be the story no he made a basket good job i also think that when you have you look at the roster and you look you point out redundancies you're like oh alan and mowbly are redundant Garland and Mitchell are redundant. You look at that like it's a negative, but the fact is they always at all times have at least two of them on the floor. So they do stagger it really well.

I think the Accus to diet is really looking great on the calves. They're going to host a playoff series. That's fine. But if you mention that game, the story is Brony, Jacoby. Oh, come on. No, here's what we know. If Brony plays,

things either went unbelievably well or super terrible. it was fine one of the things about Ronnie that I love is they've already said that he's on this first road trip this is like his like

all right here's your road trip and he's going straight to the South Bay Lakers when they get back he's going straight to the South Bay Lakers and you will not see him again

we already kind of touched on them because they are because you mentioned the team in the players that you love and Buddy Healed but I got to give the warriors their flowers

Chavano Chavano I'm sorry. Chavano healed. But I got to give the Warriors their flowers. And the reason I'm bringing this up is beyond the fact that they won their two games against the Pelicans this week. It's not easy to beat somebody, then play them again the next night and beat it again. Theoretically, the team that loses is going to go back and watch the game tape. And they're going to say, okay, we did this wrong, this wrong, this wrong, this wrong, this wrong.

Here's how we're going to combat it the next night. and then they turn around. Like we see this a lot throughout the NBA playoffs, right, in games one and games two. A lot of times, even if it's a blowout in game one, game two is a much closer game, even if the other team doesn't turn on the tables. But for them to be able to win those two games in a row,

and more importantly, any win that they're able to grab without Steph Curry is a great win, right? Their winning percentage without Curry has been super bleak. and obviously we know what he brings to the table and the gravity that he brings to that team but you have these guys stepping up

comminga who they moved to the bench and actually broke out had his first two like good games as a bench guy for them as they moved Moody in there they've gotten production out of Trace Jackson they've gotten production out of as you mentioned Chavano Healed

they even got production out of Lindy Waters yeah Lindy Waters and so the other thing that is important is, you know, we have projected, and who knows the way the season is going to go, they've started all four and one. But you're going to look back, and these kind of games can loom enormous, especially when we get to the end of the year. I don't think anybody's fancied them as a top six seed. Maybe they will shock us, right? But anytime, and so the records are all going to get batted around. But anytime they could win without Curry is a great job.

And then when you catch those two wins against the Pelicans, those could loom. I know it seems crazy, and it's very early in the schedule, but those could loom very large when it comes to the end of the season, right? If you took those two losses in the Pelicans, that's a team that you could for sure be right next to in the standings. And that could be the difference between you not, you know, being the seven or eight or the nine or ten, or maybe even the 11 or the 10, right? You never know.

And so not only did they get those two wins without Curry, they got those wins against somebody who is a direct peer of theirs, because we threw the pelicans in the exact same bin that we threw the warriors. And yes, it's very early in the schedule, the first five games of the season, but you could look back at the end of the season, and those games mattered a great, great deal. And so to not even split those, that's a good job by them. That's a really good job by them.

And with no Wiggins, too. Yeah, no Wiggins too. You take out Steph, you take out Wiggins. I didn't even know where the offense is going to come from and, you know, Chavano Heald steps up. Trace Jackson Davis has been playing well for them as well. Yeah. Like they're really getting the most of what they have.

Now, unlike other teams where I think the hot start, indicative of where they will stay. I do not think the Warriors will stay at the top of the Western Conference. I think they will slide regardless of the health of Steph Curry or whatever. But they're doing it. Oh, no, and that's why I said. Like, that's one of their peers. One of their peers is the Pelicans.

Like, we're not looking at them and going, hey, you never know. You know, that might matter in a tiebreaker versus Oklahoma City. Like, I'm talking about a tiebreaker against the pelicans where it could matter. And Draymond, Drayman's got the gray in his beard. You know, he's getting a little older, you know, but he's still, he's making it hard for Zion Williamson. I didn't think he got, he drew two charges on Zion last night. Like, like, Draymond will still play some defense.

Like, he's not, he's not going to be all NBA, but he'll still make it hard night for you if you're a player like Zion Williamson. We've spoken about this team earlier, but this is one of the, the nuggets we've discussed. But now it's time to talk a little bit more about the Millie Walk A-Bucks. what is going on? Like what is happening here?

You celebrate the Warriors. They lose Steph Curry. They lose Andrew Wiggins. They still win games. The Bucks, they're without Chris Middleton, but they've got their guys. They've got a top three player in Janus Sant'Acoupo. You can't put him outside the top three.

They've got Dame Lillard. Dame Lillard, one for 12. 0 for 6 from 3, minus 27 last night. There is no chemistry between them. There's none. There's no chemistry between the two best players. So I fooled myself into thinking that last year was a bit of a sort of anomaly for the Milwaukee Bucks. Do you remember Dame saying that there wasn't much to do in Milwaukee?

And, you know, he went through some off-court issues in his family life. And they had the coaching change early in the season, which is a little weird. And I said to myself, all of those things, all of that. just has settled. That year two will be a different experience for Damon Milwaukee. So far, it's worse than it was last year. This team, last night, you were at the game. They had, so let's say an NBA basketball game is around 100 possessions, right? Let's just call it 100 possessions, okay? They had 20 assists. So think about that. 20 assists. Only 20 times did a player pass the ball to another player for a basket. That's a really low number. They're,

have 22.3 assists per game. That's 25th in the league. 25th. So there's only five teams that have less assists per game than them. It's a mess. How is a Damien when they made

that deal, we all sat back and said a Damian Lillard, Yonaz And de Kumpo pick and roll is like super cyan Stockton and Malone. Like, this is unstoppable. What are you going to do?

You have no good choice. They don't even run it. They don't even, this isn't even like part of what they do. It's crazy to me. It is absolutely crazy. Watch the way they function. And they just don't, they have no chemistry. None, none.

So you're at the game. You're in the, you sit close. Tell me what you feel from this team. Oh, no. That's what I was saying to you with the start the, to start the show. It's just five guys that are out there.

It's the honest and four guys. And obviously, look, fair is fair. I saw the worst Damien Lillard performance this morning, right? Like, I mean, it got to the point where when I was scrolling through my Instagram this morning, he made the,

you know, there's like an Instagram that puts the, it's like the Chinese song in the background and then they put up their stats. Like the player's going to have to go play in China. Oh no. Did that to Dame? Yeah, yeah.

They did it to Dame this morning. Oh, no. I mean, I saw the worst of the worst. But, like, you watch teams in the way they communicate with each other, and the way they huddle with each other, and the way they interact with their coach, and everything else. Oh, there's nothing. I mean, it's just, it's lifeless.

There's no, like, there's no togetherness. It's just guy pointing here, guy pointing there, and take a lot. of the ball out of the basket with their heads downs. I'm telling you, I texted you guys last night. It is bad vibes, man. Bad vibes. They lost the Nets and the Bulls.

I know. I watched the Grizzlies. I watched both of them. The Nets and the Bulls. And let me tell you this. The way those teams interacted with each other infinitely better than the way the Bucks did. Now again, they were winning.

But even when they were losing, those guys were still like talking, communicating, right, with each other, right? You could tell that they were trying to get on the same page. And then they ended up doing it, both those guys, both those teams. And by the way, that Schroeder Camp Thomas backcourt is cooking. Yeah. It wasn't just Memphis. They've been cooking, man.

33 last night. They almost had a couple really good ones this week. I mean, they took, you know, they should have won that Denver game. then they came to Memphis and on the second night of a back-to-back busted their ass I'm like two weeks away from You gotta watch out

I'm two weeks away from celebrating Ben Simmons Just give you two weeks No The nets are that Like they're one of those teams Because they've got enough of those guys That like really do give a shit They're one of those teams

That everybody is going to like Oh shit we're playing the Nats And they're going to like catch teams Especially early in the season They already have. They already have. Just because you look up and you're like, damn, man, Dennis Schroeder's got 30. That's that happened.

Like, he's going to try. Like a lot of these teams, a lot of like the tanking teams, it doesn't happen until later in the season. But they're just lifeless too. But what was crazy is this is a team that we think of as a possible title contender with the Bucks simply because of their best player. and they were just a lifeless mess, truly, lifeless mess. So we have to have, we're obligated as NBA podcasters to have the conversation. What about a Janus trade? Not yet.

If this season goes the way it's going. Not yet. If it goes the way it's going. No, you exhaust. No, you try to exhaust everything you can. Like, again, I think, this is my opinion, the much more likely scenario, everybody's talking about Yonah's going to have to get out of there, Yon's going to get out of there, right?

And he signed the extension there. He wants to be there as long as they can build around him. You just wave the white flag on the Dame thing. This wasn't the match. The guy never wanted to be here. And let's go ahead and get max value that we can. What's sooner than later? But what is the market for Dame Lillard?

I mean, would you? Who wants Dame Lillard right now? Wouldn't you revisit the Miami thing and try to get Butler? Again, you're always in win now mode when you've got one of these players. You know what I mean? It is. We said it earlier this week, but it is interesting, just the parallel between the Nuggets and the Bucks. You know, two teams that have recently won championships that doubled down on that core and now that core is turning on them. Yeah, I mean, you try to find somebody out there that really wants Lillard and thinks they could take, you know, take them to,

They need it. They think they can take them to the next level. And you know the easiest one to go out is hopefully you can catch a frustrated Miami heat and just say, all right, bro, you always wanted to be there anyway. Let's see if we can actually get real value from them now. And then you try to build out around Giannis a different way. Right? I mean, you try to build around you.

Look, dude, you exhaust everything you can. Everybody's going to be, oh, look, everybody's always going to say, trade yonis, trade yonis, trade yonis, trade yonis. right? Like, I think you exhaust everything before you do. And you try to, you give it one more crack. And obviously, you get the next one wrong. Now you got three strikes. Right? Because you moved Drew Holiday. You tried Dame Lillard. And now whatever you try next. There's a part of Drew Holiday that enjoys this. There has to be. Like all of Drew Holiday, a hundred percent.

There has to be a part of Drew Holiday. It's like, yeah, when I was there, we won a championship. And then you guys traded me for Dame Lillard to now look at you. Oh, by the way, I also won a championship last year. just so you know. Right. Love that for Drew Holiday. All right, so we did teams. By the way, go even look. If you go to like ESPN.com, whatever you know, they get the headshot for the year.

Mm-hmm. Go look at Lillard. He wouldn't even fake a smile on Media Day. And it's not that, no, it's the worst kind. People are going to think I'm crazy here. It's the worst kind because there's the, I'm making a, serious face to show that I'm about business. There's the typical smile for the camera like most people do.

I'm looking at it up now. And he gives it this like me half smile. Just apathy. His picture tells you I hate this. I'm cold. I have nobody's here. No, I'm a hero to nobody. Oh, no, it's bad.

I'm looking at around. He's trying to smile. His face won't even let him smile. No. He can't do it. His face won't let him smile. He won't let him. It's a tough one.

And also, and last year it was like, there's nothing to do in Milwaukee. It's like, bro, you were in Portland. Like, you got to make the most of it. You're making $50 million in here.

Family and friends there at least. I guess. Andy was God. Oh my God. He had four points, two rebounds and six assists. It's a minus 29. That's why he's not smiling.

He's really not smiling. If you're listening to this podcast, push pause and look up Dave Miller on ESP.com. His face, he's got the strangest face. It's the most I don't want to do this. I don't, yeah. And that's the picture that everyone's,

you know that's the picture everybody's going to see all year. That's why Jimmy Butler, that's the best one. They took 50 of these. That's the best one. They're like, smile dame no no all right no yeah yeah god it's tough oh god tough saying for my guy that just made me sad

can we can we go positive though this one's right up your alley i did this for you all right up your alley i did this for you all right this is my gift to you chris vernon the thing that i love this no i didn't get to do the team i loat oh do the team you loat you were the bucks i was excited to give you a gift well i was getting for you later All right. I had to go with the Hawks. Give me a break. All right.

The Hawks, losing to the Wizards is despicable. Okay? I know. It's despicable to lose to the Wizards. But we are very early in the season, and I'll give them a bit of a pass. Oh, wait.

They lost to the Wizards twice. Back to back games. Losing to the Wizards. twice is worthy of me loathing you. That's crazy. And I mean, the only thing you did, and Belil Kulabale, who should have been on my players. I mean, they turned him into a superstar. Guy has a career high, 27 against him.

But to lose to them and then turn around. So you lose to him and then you turn around and lose to them worse. theoretically, you made adjustments to deal with the wizard and got beat worse. Belulah-Kulah-Bah-Lah-Bali was shocked that he was Belil-Kulabali. He was like, how many points? It was possible. Unheard of. Truly unheard of for them to.

One of those games, one of those games, Trey Young was really, really bad. Yeah. Like, I'll look it up. It seems like two for 15 or something. The first one. The first one. The second one. He had 35 and 15.

But the first one, he was a dud. Yeah. Nice adjustments. Coach him up, Quinn. Kula Bali. 27. 11 for 14 from the field. Yeah.

Cool. Watch out. Watch out. Cool of Bali. Shout out to Joe House. Is he better than Rembaima? Hey, stop the season. Would you rather build your franchise around Kula Bali or?

Wimbenyama. Who would you rather build your franchise around? You know what? Kulabali was probably like, you know what? I'm tired of all this Risa say shit. I'm the guy. I'm the guy. He cares about reasons.

I'm the guy. Kulabali was on that weird made-up team that Wembenjama was on, like Metropolitan 92 or whatever. Right. Yeah, he was on that team. Yes. God, Belil Kulabali. The French AAU team.

The French AAU team. I was like, what is this team? What league is this team in? Like, oh, no, no. Is this team just before? No. Is this after? No.

They're gone. All right. It's like some guys. Yeah, all right. I guess so. All right, the thing you loved, let me hear it. This is for you. Oh.

I just want everyone to know that if you are part of the Huff Hive, this is the podcast for you. The thing that I loved is just everything about Jay Huff. And if you're unfamiliar, he's on the Grizzlies. Oh, hold on. Hold on a second. Hold on. Oh, oh, oh, oh, Bruno just stopped the show, walked away from his seat and he's going to come back. Well, one thing that I'll fill time with is this is the thing I love this week was Huff, not just signing a four-year deal, but showing up on Halloween as Kyle Kuzma with the sweater.

Yeah, look at that. So now. This is the best present I've ever gotten from Joe. House. When we did a live show in Memphis, Joe House brought me this. The Kyle Kuzma sweater bubblehead. And Huff dressed as Kyle Kuzma on Halloween. And he signed a four-year deal. I've seen this man dunk. I've seen him hit threes. I've seen block shots. This is the Huff hive. If you want any updates on Jay Huff and the latest of Jay Huff, you will get it right here in the mismatch twice a while.

week. Yeah. Unbelievable. Jay Huff, who played in Virginia, and then he actually won G-League defensive player of the year, and it's kind of bounced around, but now he has been signed up to a minimum contract for four years. Yeah, years down the road, which, look, Memphis has done that with four different guys now, which is exactly the kind of thing.

If you got guys that can actually play, it's the best thing that can ever happen for your franchise if you can find them, and you can get them on these two-way. contracts. There's now four guys that have been converted from two ways to roster spots with long-term minimum deals. Scottie Pippin Jr., G.G. Jackson, Vince Williams, and now Jay Huff.

And in this era where you are having to pay your best players, right? So, Jared Jackson, Jr. will be in line for a max. And, you know, John Morant's contract, the next one will be insane. Desmond Bain already got his Macs Exception. Like you have to have guys that can outperform contracts. That's the only way

that's the way it goes, right? And juxtaposed when you see like I'm watching Milwaukee last night and it's a perfect example, right? Where not their guys that they've brought in on low deals, right? Like the Tarin princes and the Dilan rights and the Gary Tred Juniors and the whatever, right? It's like

if you can find young guys, that can outperform their contracts. That's the gold in the NBA. And who knows? You know, I mean, there's no risk when you sign these guys to minimum deals because especially with the way the cap is now. If it doesn't work out, then, okay.

Like, we'll take the cap hit every year because it's a couple million bucks. But he's a cool story, for sure. And he's had some big nights. And that Halloween costume was out of control. I mean, I don't even know where, and by the way, he's seven foot tall. So do you know how? I mean, where do you even

how would you even go about ordering that? You have to plan that in advance. Yeah, like three weeks ago, he was like, I'm going to dress his Kyle Kuzma for Halloween. Like, in like September, he decided. Do you have to have it made? Like, there's no way, because there's no way he bought. You can't buy that off the rack?

Yeah, right. No, but I'm saying, like, there, I don't even know who sells that, but surely, right, you didn't buy the same one Kyle Kuzva did because he probably spent two grand on it, right? And, you know, Kyle Kuzma retired from. from tunnel Fits He's like,

I'm out. I'm not doing this anymore. And I don't know, somehow the world, somehow the world's still spinning. Somehow, somehow it's still wake up every day. It was too much effort.

Well, I mean, look, it is kind of like walk out on top. Bro, after you had that huge, you know, the black puffer coat

where like, his head was sticking out and then the sweater, I mean, that's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like Lway. Just walk out

while you're on top. Joe House is the best. Just walk away. All right. The thing I loved this week. Oh, you're going to love this. Oh, are you going to love this? All right.

So your beloved Joe Missoula, who I know you're a huge fan of, Joe Missoula said, quote, the biggest thing that we rob people from an entertainment standpoint is you can't fight anymore. I wish we'd bring back. like fighting. Missoula told NBC Sports Boston.

You want to talk about robbing the league of entertainment? What's more entertaining than a little scuffle? How come at baseball they're allowed to clear the benches? How come in hockey they're allowed to fight? I don't understand. Okay. I love this. I love this so much.

Fantastic. Because it can be taken either as a totally unsurious thing and you don't know if he's trolling. Or is this guy really? really serious. And the reason I love it is because it gives you that debate where something is so crazy that you don't know whether or not the guy is serious or not. Most of the things he says are like that. And he's saying it.

He's either in character, right? Because he's not saying this, like, to let you believe. that he's trolling. So then you are led to believe this guy's serious. But then there's that part of you that's like, there's no way he's serious, right? Like, there's no way. And the fact that this guy is keeping me on edge,

I mean, obviously I lean towards the guy's just a nutball. But I, I mean, and maybe he doesn't remember the malice in the palace. I don't know. Like, I mean, that's obviously an easy retort is to be like, hey, man, the reason that this,

you know, you make, here's a 30 for 30 you could watch just in case. Just in case you have to forget. All right. Instead of the town for the 4,000th time, just watch this 30 for 30.

But, like we did have fighting. Like we did have that. We did. And then this horrible thing happened. But so here's what I love about this quote, much. He's user-friendly.

He's like, this is what we rob the people of. He's like, we take this from the viewers. The NBA fans are being robbed. It's a disservice to our paying customers that were not allowed to fight.

And then he, this was also, this was the headline, but he also said he wanted like a hockey style, like a penalty box. So you'd have to go four on five for a while if someone like, you know, had a flag or file or whatever. And so, look, and obviously there's a debate that goes along with this.

My favorite, my, no, no, no, no, I'm about to give you the debate. I think you and I both, when you think back to, like, maybe our, some of our favorite basketball memories, right? You as a Knicks fan, me as a Grizzlies fan. My favorite team all time is the grind Grizzlies. having fighting would have been amazing. There are some of these teams in league history. And by the way, his team right now,

he doesn't want that team to fight. Luke Cornett. Like, get the out of here. Come on, Joe. If we had fighting, your team is not the best team. Okay? If we had fighting right now in the NBA, they ain't the best team.

but my favorite team of all time or like those 90s like could you imagine like the 90s and the Jeff Van Gundy was hanging on a dude's leg during the nicks and the dicks in the heat when they were still letting them go and so obviously look if they let guys fight

Charles Oakley would be back in the league for sure and and Hazel him I mean this is like his first year away He's like, oh, I'm strapping him back up. Another thing, so here's what Missoula is doing here. I think he's serious, right?

Like, I think he's actually serious. And remember, he's a big jujitsu guy. So he spends most of his time, like, doing jujitsu and learning how to fight. So I think that I think he's like in this mentality. He doesn't spend most of his time doing juxtricen. Yeah, the majority of his time on the planet is spent wrestling. But he spends a lot of time thinking about. jujitsu and practicing

jujitsu so he's in the gym not lifting weights or running on a treadmill he's fighting so I think that's part of his mentality is like we should be allowed to fight I think he wants to fight other head coaches I think that's really what it is he's I think he just wants to fight other head coach well the answer is and forgive me because I don't know

if he's the answer is whoever has James Johnson that's the team that wins he's on the pacers now he's on the pacer's now never plays okay but that's it doesn't matter that's the team that way like I don't care that guy is like a literal black belt

yeah like it doesn't matter if the rest of your guy like Tyrese Hallberg could just sit over on the side like James Johnson will take care of it that guy is a lethal like he's a legitimately lethal human being Missoula oh you think Missoula just wants to fight the other coaches I think he wants to fight yeah he can remember he's a

jiu jitsu guy all right he knows that he will win the fights I wish you would have prepared me for this I'm looking up and down. Now I got to see. Again, I know he's a Jiu-Jitsu guy, but I'm seeing if there's anybody just right off the bat that I can look at. I may.

Yeah. Ime O'Doka could probably, yeah. He could probably scrap. You look up and down now. There ain't a lot of these guys that you'd want to go to... No. No.

I'm not picking Mark Dagonal over, over, over, over Missoula. Right? And we've got Jiu-Jitsu. You know, remember, people always think about fighting is like punching but the jiu jutsu that'll prepare you to win some some things good for muzul he really wants to fight really what he wants to fight it's not about we it's not about disservice

to the fans it's about him wanting to fight other head coaches maybe if you really if you if you gave him truth serum he'd be like really it's about me I just want to beat the shit out of the other head coaches in the league maybe maybe uh maybe jason kid could scrap yeah maybe Willie Green could scrap. Yeah, we're light. It's got to be, yeah, yeah. I'd take Missoula and EMA. Those are going to be your number one and number two seeds.

Chaunty may be able to scrap a little bit, possibly. I don't know. All right. So that was the thing you loved this week. All right. The thing that you loathed? So this, I don't like covering the coverage, right? I don't like sort of like talking about media.

as a member of the media. Okay. But the thing that I didn't like this week comes from a player that has a very long career in the media. This player is my prediction to be sort of like the next sort of Charles Barkley. And that is Draymond Green.

Famously has his own podcast. I think that he's going to have a very, very good post-basketball media career. He's already got a successful podcast. and he mentioned this week he was very critical of the way that the Oklahoma City Thunder do their postgame interviews and the way that they do them as a group

and how they bark like dogs and he's like oh there's something it's hard to win in the league it's an honor to have a postgame interview and having the whole group there he was critical of it and I was like Tramond you're anti-fun

like you don't like collective happiness like teammates supporting teammates like what is it about this that bothers you because I love the fact that they do their interviews the way they do their interviews in post games and it remind me of one thing that I was thinking about Draymond's Warriors before they won that do you remember that

OT Genesis song I'm in love with the cuckoo remember I know every OT Genesis song I don't know what OT Genesis doesn't know every OT Genesis song But I remember a Warriors team playing video of them all singing that song. And I remember thinking myself, those guys are having so much fun together. They're having so much fun playing basketball together. And that exact same year, they won the championship.

And I felt the same way about the Thunder. I was like, those guys are having so much fun being together on the court, off the court, practice, trips, flights, meals, that they have this group dynamic where no one stands out above the whole some of the parts. And I love that about the thunder. And I love the way they do their postgame interviews. And I feel like Draymond was being a little bit of a hater. That's the thing I love this week.

This is perfect because we've never spoken about this. Oklahoma City rallying everybody, all their young guys like, yeah, yeah, yeah. The rally after the game and everything is 100% complete biter, Bullshit. They stole this from Memphis. They literally stole it. They are a cheap knockoff of what happened with John Moran, Desmond Bain, Jaron, Jaron Jackson, Tyos Jones, De Anthony Melton, Kyle Anderson, Stephen Adams, Brandon Clark. This was a Memphis thing that they did. And they're the new Memphis. They just came last year. The whole Memphis team got hurt. And so they just said, oh, we're the new Memphis.

We're bootleg Memphis. That's what we are. We're small market. Everybody cheers for us. Bootleg Memphis. And they stole word for word, bar for bar, just like Drake did with soldier boy, word for word, word for bar, kiss you through the phone. they've stolen everything that Memphis did.

I wouldn't be surprised if they start playing three six mafia at their games. This is, and Draymond, to his credit, I'm going to stand up for him. He shit all over Memphis every time Memphis did it and said, these young bucks, this ain't time to win for them yet. They're not, they're unsurious. They're unserious. They're young. They think they're hot shit.

This isn't how you win. They're on serious. And guess what? Dremont was right. He was right. And in fact, they're the ones that took down the Grizzlies. And he was right. And that's when he famously told Dylan Brooks,

shut the F up. The dynasty starts after you in Memphis. It's like, so this isn't, this is part for the course with Dremont. He did this. But now everybody's beloved. Oklahoma City Thunder. Oh, we all loved Oklahoma City. Let me tell you something.

There ain't an original thing they're doing with that. Go back and watch Memphis did this every post game. Every post game. And they just stole it. Word for word, bar

for bar. Dremand was right about the Grizzlies and Dremond is right about the Thunder as well. They ain't going to win shit. Chris, you sound jealous. You sound vindictive. You sound insecure. And you sound like a homer.

Tried to build their team the exact same way. Oh, they've got John Morant. Okay, it's John Morant, and it's Desmond Bain, and it's Jaron Jackson. And so they said, oh, okay, we'll get Shane's, Jildes Alexander, Jalen Williams, and, uh, and, uh, Chad Holmgren. Yeah, okay. All right. All right. Look, word for word, bar for bar.

No, you are correct. They both did do group interviews after the games. However, the Thunder will have the best record in the Western Conference and will be title contenders, whereas the Grizzlies never were. What do you mean they weren't tight? They were a two seed for goodness sakes. Okay? How they work out.

Okay? How to work out for the Thunder last year? Watch a Derek Jones Jr. hit another three? Get out of here. Come on. It's all great. What have they done? What have they done?

Do you know what they're not doing in Oklahoma City when they do those group interviews? They're not saying, oh, wait, how did Memphis do it? Let's do it like that. That's not what they're doing. 100%. They saw Memphis and just took their style. Word for work. I guess you hate chemistry and you hate teammates and you hate fun.

I understand. That's not true. All right. The thing I love this week was this announcement that was going around about Stefan Marbury the second going. going to Cal. I was like, oh, come on. I can't take this anymore. Like, there's not a day that goes by. You and I are both old, but older, but feel, we don't feel old. And yet, this stuff happens where I'm constantly reminded. So is Stefan Marbury the second going to Cal? And he's going to

team up with Pages, kid. Pages, Tuyakovich's kid. And now there's not a day that goes by. Obviously, the worst one for me is DJ Wagner because I covered DeWan Wagner at Memphis. Okay. So that one is like at 19. Like he was out of, fresh out of high school, I covered DeWan Wagner. So that one hurts. Also, it hurt for me to see Jace Richardson at Michigan State because the first NBA coverage I ever did was I went to a. Jason Richardson versus

Trenton Hassel draft workout for the Crisleys. And now Jace Richardson is at Michigan State. Carmelo Anthony's kid. I think Carmillianthi was at Syracuse like 10 years ago.

And now his kid's in college. Going to be in college. Oh, look. There was like even, you know, Trace Jackson Davis. That's one of the Davis's kids. Oh, look. From the Pacers. There's boosers got the kid, arenas got the kid, Carmelo's got the kid, right?

In football, there's all kinds, like, you know, you're tuning in and you're watching, you know, Michigan State. Samuel. Yeah, Michigan State's got Antonio Gates Jr. Like, what are we doing? What? I feel like I just watched him. Or I just saw Clinton Portis's kid, like just committed somewhere. And I'm like, okay, dude, this is troubling, right?

These are all the guys that I felt like. Flaxigal Burris's kid is going to Notre Dame. Yeah. Oh, and look, the other. The other worst one for me is, you know, a kid that was an elementary school, an elementary school, like kindergarten age, Zeebo's daughter, sat behind me at every game. Like she sat on the front row when I was on media row.

And she was just a McDonald's All-American. It's about to start her freshman year at Louisville. And I'm like, I'm out of here. Stefan Marbury the second. That's crazy. Enough. Going to Cal. I know.

I know. Going to California. So I loathe that every week I am constantly made to feel old. No, not good. So is Stefan Marbury famously sort of like caught on in China and he's beloved there. And they did a bio musical about his life. And I'm dying to see a Chinese musical about the life of Stefan Marbury. Me too.

all the way across the world just to see that production. I'm going to do some research after the pod and see if it's still running, because I will see that thing. I would love nothing more than to see a Chinese musical about the life of Stefan Marbury. It's amazing. All right, thanks for listening to another episode of The Mismatch.

Thanks as always to Dave Jacoby. Thanks to our executive producer Jesse Lopez, and we will talk to you next week. Must be 21 and over in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 over and present in D.C. Got a gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help-Help.com.

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