The Mismatch - The Latest Trade Rumors, All-Star Reserve Reactions, and NBA Rankings

Episode Date: February 3, 2023

With Thursday's announcement of the NBA All-Star reserves, Verno and KOC discuss the players selected as well as all the snubs. They start in the East and debate whether Bam Adebayo’s selection was the right choice, if Trae Young or James Harden should've been selected over DeMar DeRozan or Jrue Holiday, and talk about the joy for first-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton (03:30). Over in the West, the guys discuss Damian Lillard’s selection, question why Paul George was chosen over De’Aaron Fox or Ant Edwards, and more (21:18). With the NBA's trade deadline a week away, the guys debate whether this trade season will be an active one (47:06). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez *The Ringer NBA squad is coming to Salt Lake City for NBA All-Star Weekend! Get your tickets here!*  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's popping, everybody? This is Logan Murdoch from Real On I have some big news to share. On Saturday, February 18th, the Ringer NBA show will be hitting the road for All-Star weekend for a live show in Salt Lake City. You heard that right. We are taping the pod in front of a live audience in Salt Lake next month and we want you to join us. Pull up on us at the stateroom in the heart of downtown Salt Lake. You can grab your tickets now at thestateroom.com. That's the stateroom.com. Doors open at 9 o'clock. Show is at 10. It's going to be a 21 and up event. Come hang with the gang and chat, mid-season updates, draft preview, and even have a Q&A with us. Space is limited, so grab your tickets while they last at the Stateroom.com or click the link in the description of this show. Hope to see y'all in there.

Hey, just a quick PSA before today's episode of The Mismatch, letting you know that Chris Vernon and I did not get to discuss Yana Sando de Kupo dropping 54 points with 19 rebounds and an epic comeback, one point win by the Bucks over the Clippers. because we recorded the show earlier in the night, which is too bad because Janice showed once again why he's the best player in the world. It wasn't just because of the 54 points, putting constant pressure on the basket,

being unstoppable on offense. It was the fact that he played center in the fourth quarter, defended every position, had great stops on ball on Kauai Leonard, constant great help defense. I wish I got to discuss it with Chris, but I'm sure we'll be talking about Janus once again next week in the lead-up

to the trade deadline with a lot it's going to be happening next week. But this week, Chris Vernon and I've gone to the latest trade rumors, All-Star Reserves, and a whole lot else to hope you enjoy this week's podcast. And I hope you have a great weekend. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon at joining me as he does every Friday from The Ringer.com. It's Kevin O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Climber, Kevin O'Colns,

Kevin O'Candyland, Kevin O'Compin. Kevin O'clock. Burdo! How are you doing? I'm great. We have had quite the eventful evening as we were recording, this on Thursday night. And at 6 o'clock central time,

the All-Star Reserves were announced on TNT. And man, oh man, nothing brings out passion like All-Star Reserve announcements. It's so funny to see how people do care deeply about who makes the All-Star team and who doesn't make the All-Star team in a way that is just not replicated in the other sports. It's one thing that I do really like about the NBA

and that there is, you know, when so many of these Hall of Fame have gotten watered down and so many things, you know, we see like Tyler Huntley replacing Josh Allen in the Pro Bowl. I flip on golf. Josh Allen's playing in the Pebble Beach Pro Am instead of being at the Pro Bowl, you know, like all this crazy stuff. And then you see the passion from these different fan bases about whether or not their teams are represented and whether or not their guys made the All-Star team.

I do like that people care about this. I do. And, man, they cared about this one tonight. They always do. That's one thing we can always count on. The East Reserves were announced. Let's just go by everybody that made the All-Star team one by one. Bam, out of buy you.

I think there was a feeling that he may be one that could be on the chopping block simply because he was running mate Jimmy Butler. When you imagine this stuff, you go, well, probably not putting two guys. And if they put Jimmy, then it probably isn't good for Bam, but bam, it's probably not good for Jimmy. And I do think that while Jimmy Butler, you can make a great argument for Bamabio has kept that thing together in the wake of so many guys missing so many games. And he has been outstanding. I know my buddy, my buddy Zach Lowe desperately thought that Bam out of bio should have been on this roster. And so no problem with it.

I got no problem with Bamadabio making the All-Star team. I don't either. I mean, with Bamatabio, as you said, he's helped them through absences, and he's a defensive scheme master. He can play any style, switch, drop, blitz. He can play zone. He can handle the ball on offense. He's picking up more of a scoring workload this year. He's awesome. But do you think he should be on the team over Jimmy Butler, if it's between those two, did they make the right choice? Well, here's what I'd say. So I went and looked up, and I, weirdly, I don't think I've ever had or had the reason to or thought to look this up before on what the coaches are given when they are picking the reserves. But they are given a sheet and they are to select two guards, three front court guys, and two wild cards. Yeah. And if it's multi-positional players that are going to be selected, coaches are encouraged then to vote for the player at a position, quote, most advantageous for the All-Star team. Okay.

So once you're getting down to the wild card. So you've got front court spots there. And so the only front court spot that was an 100% no-brainer was Joe L&B, unless you want to say that you are putting Jalen Brown in a front court spot. So those are two guys that made the East Reserves we don't even need to comment on. They were 100% no-brainers.

Yep, and B to complete no-brainer. Brown as well, yeah. And then the other ones were all the ones. Well, the one thing I was to say, though, Brown was in as a guard, technically, because Bam, Bam, his front court, unless Randall was, well, because Brown was a guard on the ballot for media.

Okay. So I assume he was as guard for, Yeah. For them, too. I mean, I don't know. The positions don't make any sense if we're being honest. Right. Well, then the other selection would be, you know,

I would imagine that you're probably filling in front court, but Jimmy, what was he listed at? I forget up the top of my head. Yeah. I mean, they probably, you know, look, you're, you are thinking of this through the prism of adding bigs to the team and rewarding bigs. And I do think.

Rewarding defense, too. That's been, it was a theme this year with Jaron Jackson making it on, on Drew Holiday. Drew Holiday. Drew Holiday. And coaches love defense. They will many times play players that you don't understand that are inadequate offensively,

simply because they are good defenders. And guys that can get on the court early in their careers are typically guys that can guard their position and be in the right position and make the correct switches because they will live with you screwing up at offensive play. They will not live with you screwing up a defensive play. So the fact that coaches would lean more towards defensive impact guys is wildly unsurprising.

But anyways, bam, no problem with it. And honestly, bam or Jimmy, and if you want to argue that the heat should have had too, I could listen to that argument too. There's always going to be good players that are left on the outside looking in. DeMor de Rosen. That shocked me. They've been bad this year.

De Rosen has not gotten nearly the amount of adulation that he got a year ago. When he was doing what he was doing a year ago, it felt like, well, not only were the Bulls winning at a very high rate, But it felt like every other night we were watching some crunch time spectacular to Mardorosen, willing the Bulls to another victory. And this year, his season has just been wildly off the radar. And so I think that, you know, it's not like he's not a fantastic player. I just don't think that most people thought that he was, that if this is a snapshot, shot of the season that de Rosen is certainly not a guy that was at the top of anybody's

mind. I'm just surprised if you're going to pick somebody from a not so good team, why is it Demar de Rosen over Pascal Seacom? Seacom, who has played near the top of the league in minutes per game, who is carrying that Raptor's offense, you know, a heavy usage who's been good defensively, who's a key playmaker on the team, racks up rebounds. Like he fills up the box score in every single way. He does everything for the Raptors. He plays different roles all year long. Like, that's no disrespect to DeRosen, who's great in his own right.

But I'm just surprised that Seacom got the snub behind DeRosen unless this was like a positional thing, which we don't know, who was the wild cards, who were the guards, who were the forwards and all that. I just, I thought Seacom should have made it over to Rosen. Well, and how about Tray Young? If we're doing the numbers thing, if we're doing the numbers thing, we want to do the... If we do the numbers, yeah, Trey's better,

but if we're talking like using your eyeballs, that dude stinks on defense. Yeah, but if you want... Look, he is right there at the top of the lead in points and assists. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But then Hardin as well. Hardin didn't make it either.

And I'd pick Hardin over Trey Young. Another guy that is not exactly going to make any all defensive. teams. Tyrese Alliburton, I think we got a little worried because it felt like man this guy is a sure fire all star this year. And now he has been out of sight, out of mind for a good little while after his injury. But I think it goes to show that, and we'll talk about this with some other guys

a little bit later, that this stuff happens a little while back. And so the things that are most on top of mind right now that we would be given towards recency bias, those are not as pertinent to this discussion. You know, that the season, when we're talking about All-Stars and putting this team together, it was a little while back. And so at that point, I think it did affect guys that had been out. out for a while and are now back, i.e. Anthony Davis, guys that have been great recently, and their teams have been winning, i.e. Anthony Edwards, but it was not held against Halliburton because he had put up a body of work and then probably had not been out nearly as long as it feels like he has been out whenever they're casting their votes.

And I think all of us in the basketball community were happy to see him get his just desserts because Halliburton, I mean, and look, we have seen the impact. They can't win anything without him. I think it's 11 to 12 or 10 of 11 that they had lost without him. And so you saw how he kind of made that whole thing go. I was happy. I was happy that he made it. I was very happy Halliburton made it as well.

It was well deserved. I voted him as a starter on my media ballot. I mean, yeah, I think it's kind of a no-brainer for him to make it. He's putting up the offensive numbers. He's their engine on offense, but also defensively, that dude's a playmaker. He's reliable off ball. He's tough on ball. He rebounds.

He's a team player. He's a leader as well. Like, Halliburin checks all the boxes for a guy that should be an All-Star. But I'm still shocked, though. I mean, again, like, defense was a theme with some of the choices that they made here with Drew Holiday. I mean, like, was Holiday over Hardin the right choice in your opinion, Chris? Or was Holiday over Trey Young the right choice? I like Drew Holiday.

All due respect, but, like, the Bucks have a bottom 10 offensive rating. It's not like he's picked up the Chris Middleton slack in that regard necessarily. He's a great defender in his own way. But James Harden, ever since he got back in the middle of December, the Sixers have been absolutely unbelievable. They've had a top defense in the league despite Hardin, like being on the court, despite him not individually being some stopper. He hasn't been a complete liability within their system.

I thought Hardin was the bigger snub between him and Trey Young, and I think he should have made the team over Drew Holiday. Well, the TNT guys were arguing for Randall. Hardin over Randall. For Brunton. I'm sorry, Brunson. They were arguing for Brunson. Yeah, I mean, I'd pick Hardin over Brunson too.

And Brunson also very good. Yeah, I mean, but that's who they were arguing for. And so, I don't know. Like, this is not, I am a huge Drew Holiday fan. So I don't want to get hate from the Drew Holiday fans. And I understand that coaches have their own opinion. I don't think any of us thought going into this. He certainly was not a no-brainer.

It certainly is a position worthy of debate. And it is a debate that I, I think in most of those cases, he would lose. I think he would lose. Yeah. If we're just lining it up, fair is fair, he has not had a great season. And he hasn't had this massive impact, right? Because sometimes you could say,

well, the stats don't totally tell the story. I know that their record is clearly going to be better with Drew Holiday in the lineup. but you're talking about impact and you're talking about statistically what he has done this year. And I don't know. I never cried too much over guys that I think that probably have not gotten the accolades of which they have been deserving over the course of their career. And I believe that is true of Jalen Brunson. I'm sorry, it might be true of Jalen Brunson, honestly going forward. He might become that next guy.

But for so many years, it was Drew Holiday. And what was kind of crazy is what they say tonight, it's like nine years between All-Star bids or something like that. I think that's what they say. He hadn't made an All-Star team since, like, it was like this inordinate amount of time. He was 2012-13, his fourth year and final year with the Sixers. I mean, that's crazy. Yeah, it's been a long time.

I just don't get it. I mean, it's like he's playing. I don't either. He's played 62 more minutes and hard and only six more games, so it's not like it was a games played thing. I just think the general theme here is very clearly favoring defense, which is, I mean, I appreciate that. In a year where we have 60-point games every night.

Well, yeah. I mean, that might have played into the coach's decision to choose the guys that they did. But I don't think that necessarily makes it right. And I mean, look, he's having a good season. 15 points a game. He's 46% from the field. He's 37% from 3. 5 rebounds, 7 assists.

I mean, he's Drew Holiday. Yeah, he's having a good season. James Hardin is leading the league in assist. He is shooting 39% from 3. He is part of one of the best pick and roll combinations in basketball with Joel Lombie helping contribute to him having a career best season as well. I don't know. It just

seems kind of silly to me that Hardin and make it. I thought Hardin was a lot. Like when I kind of sketched it out myself, I thought Hardin was in there for sure. Well, what's crazy is you look and you take it into consideration in like 2020, 2020, for the season, Holiday, his numbers are down. He was 50% from the field those years.

He was 41% and 39%. Like, he is, he's not even having close to his best season. He's not having his best season as a buck. That's a, he's just, he's Drew Holiday, which is a fantastic player. He's great. Like they've never rewarded him. No, I mean, the bucks, I would feel differently if the bucks weren't 23rd in offensive rating. If he were, if he were elevating his scoring volume and efficiency with Chris Middleton being out to help Janus under the Kumpo lift that offense.

I mean, Janus is the key reason why the bucks are number two in defensive rating. They've been dominant. They're the number two league in the east still because of Janus. True Holiday, I mean, he is still a great player, as we're saying. Like, this is no knocks against him. It's just surprising he didn't, that he did get the nod over some of those other guys. Yeah. And like I said, I never, I never get mad about guys that I feel like have been deserving and have not gotten rewarded.

He got one for many, many years ago. Many years ago, but I'm saying like he's even had better years recently. Yeah. Of which he wasn't rewarded for that he wasn't considered an all-star. And so this year a little bit different, Julius Randall, was the nick. There's no question, probably him being on that front court line

played a part in that. And the fact that you had, if you're putting De Rosen in there and you're putting Brown in there and you're putting Halliburton in there and you're putting Halliburton in there, that wedges out the Brunson thing. And so we figured there'd probably be a Nick.

Randall has had a great statistical season, for sure. And the Knicks have gotten better as the year has gone on but I do think if we were doing a popularity contest, even amongst Nick's fans, Brunton would win it going away. You know what I mean? Like,

they'd probably be happier. Brunton was there than Randall. It's a real love, hate with Randall, especially with the crunch time stuff. Do we know for sure he was a front court pick, or was he a wild card? I mean, it's hard to tell.

I think he was a front court pick, though. Well, but even if not, yeah, he's probably on enough ballots as a front court pick. But even if not, you're looking down and what you're supposed to do, if you're, if you've got the other guys, I mean, that's at least four guards. Because Brown was 100% or. And then we debated DeRosen, Halliburton, and Holiday. So you already had four. You're just trying to even out the roster.

And decides. I think with Randall, it's well deserved with the way he's performed this year. He's been after a slow start where Knicks fans were disappointed in him again and rightfully. So he's been awesome the last two and a half months or so. He's better than the all-NBA version of himself right now. Not that he'll get those honors again, but you've got to give Julius Randall for stepping up his game and helping lift the Knicks up on both ends. He's trying harder on defense, putting in more effort, limiting some of his sloppy turns. Turnovers we've seen at the past, better shot selection. And dude's producing.

You've got to give him love. So you would say certainly Hardin. I mentioned Trey as another guy. Seacom is a name. It did not feel as if in the Eastern Conference, at least to me, just via social media, that the debates were extremely strong or that people were furious about select. Not in the way that it was in the Western Conference. And that may be because of the markets.

That may be because of the popularity of the players, right? There's a lot of people that don't like Hardin. There's a lot of people that don't like Tray Young. You know, not as many people get to watch see Ackham on a regular basis. And so that probably plays into it. But that one, I will tell you that I'd watch. Watch out if I were, you know, you always, whoever the snub guys are,

you always got to keep an eye on for the next time out. So whoever, oh, for goodness sakes, it's the Spurs. Hardin may go for 30 and 20 tomorrow night, you know, trying to do that against the Spurs. The poor Pacer is going to have to face the Aaron Fox. He's going to be playing against them tomorrow night. Let's get to the Western Conference. They announced the West Reserves, Kev.

Shea Gilders-Alexander, shy Gilders, Alexander. Is that true what he put on Instagram? What did he put on Instagram? He said shy. Like you just said shy Gildes. Yeah, that's why I changed. That's official.

Yeah, that's what he says. Official. Like, he said that publicly. It's actually shy. Yeah, shy. Because I saw he posted that on Instagram. We've been calling him Shay forever, haven't we? But so he said that publicly, though.

Yeah, there's like a video. There's like a little video of two little kids having a debate. and I saw one of the Oklahoma City media members saying it's shy guys, debate over. It's like this video of like little kids debating how to say his name, which is actually a funny thing to do. But SGA, let's just go with that. Yeah, that works. He was 100% no-brainer. John Moran was 100% no-brain.

Was he? Come on. Shut up. Was he? stop Stop Sub bonus was a hundred percent no-brainer Okay

So Gilgis Alexander Morant Sabonis Those guys were A million percent No-brainers Then we get to the debate Over and Fox, you're sure? I'm just kidding

Lori Markinen we thought yes. Damien Liller, I mean, having an unbelievable season. I saw him in person last night. I got to tell you, he is easily on my list of top five players to see in person.

Who should have made the team first, Dame or Jha? I think it's, I think they're both in the same bucket. I mean, obviously, Morant is part of the team that's got the second best record in the conference. And that does play a factor, understandably so. Of course it plays a factor.

Yep, it does. Yeah. I mean, it probably also plays a factor that he averages about as many rebounds as Zion Williamson and more points, but that's neither here to there. It's neither here nor there. See on my screen the pelicans are on tonight.

Oh, boy. Oh. Well, because Zion's not out. Oh, mother, Ingram is. Except he looks like Andre Ingram now. That guy that played for the Lakers for 50 years. I saw. That's who it is, actually.

It is. Oh, it's definitely not Brandon Ingram. We thought it was Brandon Ingram. It's Andre Engram. By the way, they're only down four right now with a ferocious fourth quarter comes out. Is that right? No Luca, though. Luke has been.

They got the wrong Ingram from the Lakers, though. Jeez, tough scene. All right. Back to Lillard. easily one of my top five guys to see in person. When he is at his best, it's like Steph, it's like very few others. The big guys are never as fun,

though they are wonders in person to watch, the little guys that are able to do, and that was true many, many years ago, when I used to go to these guys, Iverson, Kobe, those are always. If you can watch one of their spectacular performances, it becomes unforgettable. And Lillard last night was just ridiculous.

And he has been through January, I think it was 38.8 points per game, like almost 56% from the field, over 40-something percent from three. Oh, man, just ridiculous. They have a ridiculous run. Dane Dame is having, you know, he's scoring over 30 points per game and averaging somehow a career high in scoring efficiency as well. Seems like they're going to be a buyer too, that they're going to try to build out around him and try to make around this.

Did you skimmed through my article on the Blazers this week, just a little scroll? Well, there's that Vanderbilt thing that's out there right now. Yes, that was reported tonight that they're in on Jared Vanderbilt. I like that. They say Lillard wants him. Yeah. And after seeing that team last night, he'd be a really good fit for them. Oh, fantastic. In the same way that Jeremy Grant is, anything better than Nurkish for sure. Grant had 18 and went out at halftime. He looked fantastic.

Yep. You know, seeing him in the game last night. They're, they, he is just so spectacular. And, oh, I've got to mention this. Guess who I, I, we'd never met in person. I am such a huge fan of Kevin Collabra, their play-by-play announcer. So I thought I was going to meet him yesterday. I was texting with you yesterday. I thought I was going to be, I had scheduled him to come in on my local show, and he was going to walk over to the studio.

We've had ice storms terrible in Memphis. And so the guy, you know, I could have injured him trying to get him to walk from the hotel to our studio. he slips twice and we're like, no, no, no, no, no, do not do this. Obviously, because of the ice storm, there's no ubers or anything, so we end up doing the interview on the phone. One, I enjoyed massively. But he was the longtime voice for the Supersonics years ago and then was on ESPN radio with

Dr. Jack Ramsey and Hughie Brown for many years. And now he has been back in the Northwest as the voice of the Blazers for a long time. He was also one of the voices on video game. I played all the time in my youth. The same way Kevin Harlan is on like 2K now, that was Calabro. Anyway, got a chance to meet him. And man, that was a tremendous thrill to get to meet him yesterday. And check this out.

He listens. Oh, wow. He listens to the mismatch. And because when we're talking, when he comes on, he yells Verno just like you. Whoa. Yeah. I couldn't believe. it. And then he, we were talking about our kids. And I was saying, yeah, mine are 13 and nine.

And, you know, and he's like, yeah, I hear you talking about him all the time. And I'm like, wow. What a world. What a world. That was so cool. So cool. And so it was a great thrill. Portland, you're lucky. Kevin Colabro is one of the great voices. ever. That Portland broadcasts in general is fantastic. Great. Lamar Hurd? Yeah, Lamar Hurd is great. They go to Corey. The guy, you got really good stats, numbers, insight. I mean, their graphics package. It's just a pretty broadcast. Great, great personalities and information on there. I think it's one of the best local broadcasts for Damshur in the league. All right. So next one. So you got Markin'n,

Lillard. No problem, no problem. Now we got. get to problems. Paul George. Yeah, I get I get issues with this one, Chris. I saw I was so bracing for the Jared Jackson slander from Kevin O'Connor. Yeah, well, we can get to him in his fake fake blocks soon. Much to my surprise, I was met with Paul George slander and I was like, God, that's a minor win. So Paul George, who's averaging 23, 6, and 5, 3 and a half turnovers. I mean, having a good year, but... Yeah, he's having a good year.

He's having a good year. There's like nothing particularly significant about this year. Anthony Edwards is leading the entire league in minutes per game, tied for the league and games played. George has missed a third of the Clippers games this season. Ant is the engine of the Timberwolves this year. He's been excellent the past six, seven weeks. Deeran Fox, who we've talked about a ton this season on this podcast, him and Sabonas together

are the engines of Sacramento. He's been unbelievable, having an efficient high volume year, busting his butt on defense individually, flying around. Paul George is, he's good. He's very good. He's Paul George. It's another good Paul George year. But if you're factoring in responsibility for their teams,

that you're factoring in games played. To me, ants and Fox both should have been the choice over Paul George. Really broke my heart on the Fox thing because in our semi-bolded predictions to start the year, one of mine was, the Kings are going to break the streak, much like the Seattle Mariners just did,

and they will be a NBA playoff team. That one is going so much better than I could have ever fathom. The other portion of that was and Fox will make the All-Star team. I have kept all of my Deerrin Fox stock through all the slander. Last year, Simmons did a podcast, and they named him amongst the worst contracts in the whole league. And I almost drove off the road because I've always loved Deeran Fox.

And I really thought that he was going to get rewarded with this year. And I do believe he should. have and I believe the same goes for Anthony Edwards. Fox is, how do I say that? It's a little more understandable to me, but it is more egregious to me, if that makes sense. So let me explain. Understandable because you've got a guy on your team that made it.

Yeah, they get the bonus. And a lot of guards too, SGA, dame, jaw. It's always tough to get two. Yeah. Right? It's always tough to get to. So you've got it even subconsciously, the kings have a guy. But their season has been worthy of having to, in my opinion.

So I think he was hurt by that because there's another guy on his team. It didn't affect the Milwaukee Bucks. You're right. Or the Memphis Grizzlies for that matter. But I absolutely am with you on Edwards also. like those are two hundred percent real debates worthy of having and debates that I would say can be one in most cases just like we said on the other side right if you put the name drew holiday up and we're going to have the debates on who is more deserving of these guys I don't

think Drew Holiday wins a lot of those and I think that is true of Paul George, I also think that's true of Jaron Jackson. Let me tell you something, Kevin. Now, I love having kids that are involved. They're fans. And so I was, I'll tell you, I will never forget this as long as I live. I was at my kitchen table eating dinner. I was the last one to eat the other, they had already eaten.

and so I was at the kitchen table and the announcements started for the All-Starts, and I'm watching it, whatever. And the kids are in there and they hear Jaws name because he's been announced on Western Congress. So they like come in there. And when they got down to that last spot and said Jaron Jackson, Jr., I almost fell out of my chair. I couldn't believe it. and the kids are going crazy because they know Jaron, they love Jaron,

and so they're going crazy. And I'm like, what? Like how? And I'm telling you, I had Jaron Jackson on my show two days ago. He didn't think he was making this team. And so it was, it was just such a shock. So if anybody wants to say, he don't deserve to be there, he shouldn't be there, there's other guys that should be there.

Okay? Like, I'm not going to fight about that because, look, I would not have been yelling on this show that he was a snub, so I can't rightfully tell you. You know what I'm saying? Like, he'd lose arguments. All right, Chris, I'm turning around. Tell the listeners why the coaches got it dead wrong.

I don't think that from a coach's perspective, they know his impact. And I do think that people have paid attention, the people that have paid attention have seen, if you want to talk about impact impacting winning. He does just that. That's what he does. They have the second best record in the Western Conference.

He is having an all-time great defensive season. Like not just a good one, an all-time defensive season. Go look up the numbers. You talk about impact. You can look up the counting numbers or the advanced numbers. he is having one of the great defensive seasons we've seen. And in the modern NBA, a guy like that that's that amazing on that end that cannot be played off the court is a very, very special thing to have.

Meanwhile, I mean, he's an efficient offensive player and averages 17 to 7. But he's making that based upon his defense. And so I'm not going to cry about defense getting rewarded in this particular case. And honestly, like, I mean, I say, saw people saying about the AD stuff. Like, I also don't mind them rewarding, winning. I don't. And Anthony Davis is part of a team that he's played, what, 28 games?

They're 25 and 28. Then you say, yeah, but what's your record with AD? The record with AD is 13 and 15. Yeah, the one thing I'll say about that, though, Chris, is Anthony Davis this year has played 967 minutes. You know how many Jared Jackson's played? 944. And Jackson's played only

six more games. Okay. So let's do this. That's fine. Let's line up the minutes. So now tell me how many of those minutes the Lakers were winning and how many of those minutes the Grizzies were winning.

Can we do that? Give me one second and I'll pull those numbers up. I would love to hear that because they're 13 and 15 with Anthony Davis. The Lakers are in Anthony Davis's minutes a plus three net rating. That's the net rating with Anthony Davis. Okay.

And with Jared Jackson Jr.? Yep. Plus 11 and a half. I think that's a GTFOH. Is that how you spell it? It's not. It's not because the Grizzlies are a better team. What?

Plus 11 and a half, bro. I know. They have better depth. They have better talent all around. Hey. Just take the L. I'm not taking it out. I knew it was coming when I pulled that stat out.

You didn't know. Almost quadruple? I looked at all. Almost quadruple? I watched every single Jared Jackson play the other day. I trusted. I looked up as the stats and numbers and everything. You didn't think it was going to be almost quadru?

I knew it was. I knew it was. Well, I don't mind rewarding winning. Look, here's the thing, though. This was on my mind today, reading Twitter, seeing all the response. is, you know, thinking about... But everybody get off of Jared Jackson and hey, let's just all crap on Paul George.

Okay, that's fine. Playoff P, et cetera, you know, whatever. You lead the charge. Also, very cool that Lowry Marketing made the team. Like, what a great story. Amazing. In Utah, it's great that he got that honor. Here's the thought on my mind

through this entire week, all the discussions about the amount of players on the team and everything like that. This is just, you know, kind of a half-baked idea. What if the NBA expanded from 24 players to 32 players for the All-Star game every year,

and rather than have two teams of 12 each, or with that expansion, two teams of 16 each, you have four teams of eight each, and they play like a little mini tournament. Why are you always trying to change everything? I love this. I'm just saying I love guys making it and not making it

You want everybody to get a trophy No I don't I don't want Participation trophies I want the best content And like you want No but is it possible that if you create Some type of tournament feel That these guys could be competing

Harder if there's 14 It's been awesome recently It has been awesome The Elam ending and like I love it The target score at the end is great It's great It's fantastic I'm just throwing the idea out there as an alternative.

I'm not saying that it's even what I would want them to do. The target score has been awesome. I've loved the way the games have been played. But if we are going to expand, if that is something people wanted to do, well, could that be a path forward where you have four teams competing for like the little mini all-star championship?

Whatever. Something like that. I'm going to be fair. I'm going to be fair about this. Okay. Considering your idea. it sucks I appreciate the honest feedback

like I said half baked that's all it was you'll put one tenth of the league in the All-Star game dude I mean you guys are you already got

Dylan Brooks in the friggin top 100 of the ringer 100 I cannot believe we have Dylan Brooks in the top 100 I argued so hard against that. It makes no sense to me. And by the way, can I just say, and I know social media is not real life,

but there were enough people on social media that actually thought, I guess they just don't listen to me, and they just think, oh, he's from Memphis, so he'll defend anything. Memphis thought I would defend Dylan Brooks with the melee,

mini melee, with Donovan Mitchell. Bro, if you hit someone in the news, nuts if you get kicked, punched, a ball thrown at you, whatever, like, that is so beyond the pale. Like, I am Mr. Objective. Fair is fair. Oh, you're Mr. Objective. And if you throw, if you hit someone in the nut, I am always able to look at things and say

if it were the opposite. Just like I did with Jared Jackson, if it were the opposite, and he wouldn't have made it, I'm honestly telling you, I would not come on here and told you he should have made it, the other guy shouldn't,

and he was snubbed. Because it's ridiculous. I wouldn't have told you the guy was snubbed. I will tell you, even tonight with the Cavs Grizzlies game, you called this ahead of time. You didn't have any fantasies about them winning this game in Cleveland,

considering Jaron Jackson being out. the flight landing late. You were like, this is probably going to be rough for this young team. Yeah, and they were dead. I texted you that this morning. Yeah, you were 100%. We were going to record after the game. I said it'll be over early.

And you were right. They got to the hotel like 4 o'clock in the morning. Sharon Jackson ain't playing. Like, they've been playing like crap anyway. This is to the wolves. And then Dylan Brooks, you know. Oh, God. It's embarrassing.

It's embarrassing. You've never heard me defend it. him and defend him over the Gary Peyton crap last year. I hope they trade him. I want like, you do. I can't imagine how much. Well, that's what I'm saying. I hope they trade them,

trade him in a deal for Oji and Oby and Oby's free for a shot. No, I hope he gets traded to your pelicans. What did you think about that? You have to watch. You have to watch him take more shots than Zion. What did you think about that that trade rumor this week from Chris Haynes and Mark

Stein saying that the pelicans don't want the Grizzlies to get OG and Obie and the Grizzlies don't want the pelicans and vice versa. I think Messiah is a master. He's just pulling leverage right now trying to build leverage on his

side. That's what's happening. Do you hear anybody else talking about other players? It's like all OG and O'G and Oby and Raptors all the time. Yeah, because nobody else is talking about anybody else. Well, Chris, though, that's true, though, because I said this a month ago,

whoever wants to be the team that decides to sell, you're going to get all the attention. And that's exactly what's happening right now. If the Bulls suddenly said, okay, we are willing to trade everybody, then they would be in the conversation too with Levine and DeRosen and Caruso and all those guys, but they haven't done that yet.

The Raptors are the only team that have made an indication that they're open to offers for everybody besides Scotty Barnes. Yeah. I mean, I just think it's all. I am of the opinion. It's all to drive up. value as it should be and it might be and it might work might i guess we'll see it might not you're just wrapping up on the on the all-star thing look if you're going to be

mad about your guy not making it if you want to be mad about anthony davis look kevin just read those stats to you they're unimpeachable if you're mad about edwards and fox then you got to be mad about guards i'm sorry because they're going to add big guys it's just a matter of big guys if you want to argue that it should just be all all guards, but Gildes is Alexander, Morant, Lillard, like, I don't know which one of those, because, you know, Sabonis, Martin, and Jaron are all frontboard guys. And truth be told, if Zion can't play in the game, which is highly likely, you would think, at this point, like, I think they're replacing them with Edwards or Fox?

Probably. Maybe they will. But, I mean, again, you're usually. that's probably where Davis gets in. I mean, if you don't like that they do it, you know, smalls and bigs, I understand. But there's always been log jams for like the guard thing. For so many years there was, especially when you had James Harder, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, and all of Damien Lillard. I mean, you had all these great players, Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, you had all these great players that somebody was going to get left out.

And I do think it speaks to just the insane talent that we have that you're sitting there with guys like, and guys having seasons like Fox and Edwards that are on the block. You can be mad about Paul George. That's for sure, right? You don't be mad about Paul George. But I would just say on the other front, like, you're probably getting big. So, I mean, if you're mad about Aaron Gordon or you're mad about AD, not making it over Jared Jackson, Jr., understood.

But with the guard stuff, you're probably having to kick off other perimeter-based guys, because they're going to have guards and bids. It's just the way it is. And for this year, Sabonis, Markinen, and Jackson were the ones. I guess he only, yeah, there's really nobody.

Booker, I saw his name come up as a guy that was snubbed, but, and certainly much like Halliburton. Yeah, probably hasn't played enough. How many games? 29. That's more than AD. Mm-hmm.

And what's Zion? 29. He's 29 also. Yeah. I know he was voted in. Zion was voted in. But I mean, you got, yeah. But hell, now, I guess nowadays,

you look at this stuff and you're like, Davis isn't 30 now for what it's worth. 29 games might be amongst the league leaders. It feels like nobody plays. So it's not nearly as stark as it used to be. Now, almost up and down the line, we're trying to figure out, you know, I got to go look up how many games these guys have played because no one's barely, hardly close to playing all of them.

And I do think it probably helped. I mean, Holiday, I think, is at, what, 40? He's at 40. And Randall's been incredibly available. Bam out of bio has been incredibly available. So, I mean, there's some guys that certainly have gotten credit for that for playing in a lot of the games. But I didn't think it was that bad. Sean Sharania was on TV today and was asked about names for the trade deadline.

And I was interested to see what he would say. Pascal C. Akum, O.G. N and O.P. But then he mentioned John Collins and J. Crowder. So none of those are new ones. Like, if we're, if we had the expectation, and I don't know if you. You saw, I guess there's been two lines of thinking that this is going to be a very active trade deadline and then the opposite, which is it's not going to be very active. I kind of feel like it will be. And I feel like we've got surprises ahead because I feel like all these same names have been out there for so long.

and there's a lot of, you know, these teams that have become much better about guarding information and then surprising us. There's been a lot of moves. If we've learned anything over the course of the past four or five years, where we were shocked, we didn't see coming, we had never heard anything about it. And so I'm kind of holding on to that, that, that there's, There's going to be stuff that we didn't even consider could be taking place that is going to take place. Siakam might be one of those.

Shams bringing that up today, Chris, is one of the first instances that we've seen a reporter mentioned Siakum by name as somebody that could be available at the deadline. Like we've known the possibility with the Raptors, but Shams saying that is definitely no worthy. Yeah. We've had the Toronto stuff out there for so long, though. It feels like that's been going on since like November. Yeah. Where it was like when they started off, you know, whatever, 12 and 15 or, you know, and their record wasn't that good.

And it was like everybody's kind of looking at the Raptors. Who else though? I mean, I mean, like, what's a surprise name that somebody wouldn't expect? The Hawks deciding to pull the plug on Trey Young, I don't think so. DeMarda Rosen with the Bulls, Bulls decide to go full rebuild mode, somebody like that. Like, who do you have in mind? Well, like, you remember when the Vucevich stuff happened? Oh, so you mean more in that category?

Yeah, like maybe not like the biggest stars. I mean, well, look, you could have something go on with the Bulls. And everybody saying. Zach Levine, maybe, somebody like that. And one of the things that I think is a common refrain is that, you know, well, they'll be, for sure, there's going to be guys from Utah that people are able to get. And those guys are going to be able to be playoff contributors might be needle movers, you know, just with the fit.

Somebody like Beasley shoots a million threes. He hits a pretty good rate of them. I think he's hit more threes off the bench than anyone in the NBA. It could be helpful for somebody. Vanderbilt, as we just mentioned earlier in the show, could be very helpful for somebody.

And maybe some of their other guys. Mike Conley could be very helpful for a team that needs a steadying presence as a point guard. and I know everybody wants to break this into, I guess one of my prevailing thoughts is everybody wants to break this into buyers and sellers. And I don't think it's necessarily the case that it's just going to be buyers and sellers. I think there's going to be, I don't even know if we create a category, augmenters.

Because I think a lot of these teams look at their roster and they say, we need to improve here. and here's how we can do it. And you can still find, without it being a buyer-seller relationship where a team is trying to get worse, you've got more deals where people are trying to make it mutually beneficial. Someone's not giving up something in order to go downwards. They are looking at their roster and they're saying, okay, this isn't because we want to just sell off everything and become crap.

But here's kind of what we've got. They can fit your team. And here's what you've got. They could fit our team. And so that's how a deal can get done. I think we've lived so long with the buyers and sellers. And if there's not enough sellers, then it's just not going to be a good trade deadline.

Are you a seller? I think you've got a bunch of buyers, people that are both interested in trying to change. teams are also going to be fine with standing pat unless a deal meets their threshold as well. You're going to see those type of teams too. That could be true. Yeah, whether it's a, the Raptors might be in that category

where they're not outright selling. It's not some fire sale happening right now, but they're like, oh, well, oh, you don't want to give us three first round draft fix or OG? Okay, we'll wait till summer. Or we'll hold on to these guys and be in the lottery anyway. Right. I mean, look, the Westbrook thing is out there as a massive,

massive one that's hovering over. For sure. With the change of the agent and it's a premier team and goes without saying with him. Yeah. Yeah. And you've got a lot of people that, you know, that can go to work to make that stuff happen. We've seen it. We've seen them go to work and get AD there.

We've seen them go to work and get Russell Westbrook there. We've seen them go to work. Lots of them. So, I mean, they got power within the league for sure. And so that one's out there. And it'll be interesting to see if they just kind of roll with it, especially with their record right now. I know they got that win over Indiana tonight.

But, you know, are they going to go into the playoffs? With him, is there six men? And 80 was magnificent, too. Like, that's one of those games you watch and you're like, oh, this is why the Lakers should be treating both of their first round draft picks. when LeBron was dominant again. AD had that amazing fadeaway jumper, then a block shot on Halliburton,

back-to-back possessions to close the game. He was, and he ripped down the rebound as well. Like, he was absolutely outstanding down the stretch of that game. And that's one of those moments where you also see Russell Westbrook. Granted he has 10 assists. He's also 2 for 16 from the field, a complete offensive liability as a score. If you can turn him in two first-round draft picks into two or three quality,

quality players. If you're the Lakers, you're going to be feeling like, hey, the West is wide open. If things break right for us, we can make it all the way to the NBA finals.

Why not? With LeBron and AD. And you're certainly more likely to have role players moving than stars. But the same way last year, we saw Boston go and get Derek White, right?

Well, yeah. You obviously helped them. You mentioned, I just want to ask, real quick, Chris. You mentioned Vuchavits earlier today. Yeah. He's like more of in the role player category but he was an all-star for

Orlando. So is there anybody in that category like a DeAndre Aitin style guy where they're a bigger name higher paid player? I mentioned on Bill Simmons podcast on Thursday night. We did a pod with me, Chris Ryan, Rob Mahoney, and him with some fake trades. And I mentioned

like some DeAndre Aiton thing with the Sons and the Raptors and other teams. Like I said, a name like that where maybe you think these are the names that could pop up out of nowhere. Nobody's expecting it. I mean, I wouldn't put necessarily Aiton in the no one is expecting it, but let me give you it for instance. We know the relationship with him and Monty. We know he has not been very good this year.

We know that they didn't give him the five years and that they made him go get that contract from the Pacers before they even matched it. say he's probably not all in on the Phoenix thing in the first place given, you know, you're just going to be resentful of your employer. That's the way that goes. You guys get resentful about that stuff. Like, why did I have to go have somebody else and me sign an offer sheet before? Yeah, right. I understood.

But so that, that relationship, I do not believe is going to be long term anyway. And you pair that up with the new guy taking over. new guys always flip over rosters. James Jones, many people have said is GMing for his job. But the trick would be with that one, Kevin, that's where that one gets interesting because DeAndre Aiton's got a very big contract.

And so everybody says, and I listen to you on Bill's thing, where you brought up the, you brought up... Raptors. Yeah, a three-way deal. Yeah, it was a three-way deal, right? Right. And it includes usual suspects that have been reported a lot. The trick would be if it doesn't, right? That's where this gets fun. For sure. Everybody expects Orlando, L.A. for Van Lee, you know. Memphis, New Orleans for O.G. It's like, uh-oh, nope, it's Phoenix. We're all using the same names of names that have been out there to put together these trades. But if it's a lot of, they are moving Aiton, which I think is not unlikely in the least. You could foresee a circumstance where guys that are moved back are not, those are the

surprise ones, right? Those are the surprise ones. It might just be the names that have been out there the whole time, but more than likely, I would think it's probably going to be surprise ones. That's where the surprise factor comes in. But Aiton is a guy that certainly would shake things. up dramatically and maybe whatever they would bring back. You could shake things up.

Bakhtanovich could shake things up a lot. You know, you're throwing Bogdanovich into a lot of these teams as a wing. I couldn't help, but I was watching that Cleveland team again tonight. And I'm like, Jesus, if they got him, good luck. Could you imagine if they were able to put together something? Oh, I know. And grab him with the two guards. And if they had him to throw it out to, I mean, you know, it's Akuro and Jetty Osmond.

And I don't want to defame any of these guys. But I mean, he's a different deal. Oh, Coro's shooting the hell out of a ball. Yeah. But this guy's a different deal. 100. Exactly. Like Boggs by now much is a high volume guy who could do stuff off the dribble for you.

Yeah, guy's awesome. And he could have an enormous impact for a team that was able to get him just because floor spacers like that, that shoot at that rate, at that volume. not easy to come by. Which, by the way, is why the Pistons might end up keeping them, because they want to try winning next year with Cade and whoever they draft this year. So I could see why they might keep him, too, despite his age. Yeah, I was fascinated with the idea that people thought,

at least there was a report out that the Knicks were the team that was the one, at least there was a rumor that they're the ones that offered the three first rounders for OG and Ninobe. They get a bunch of like some shit first round picks too, though. Yeah, right. Heavy protections and all that. Like them offering three firsts. It's not the same as.

Yeah, it's not the same as three unprotecteds. Right. Yeah. Nah, not the same. But it would lead you to believe that they're looking to improve. Is what I would say. Yeah. You know, that gives us a hint.

That Atlanta thing, that's a big one to watch too. John Collins, still. And maybe not just. Collins. You just don't know. Landry Fields is now running that. The guy that put together that roster is not the guy there anymore. They say, you know, and I told you this, as soon as that story came out, they say, he's staying on as an advisory role. That just means they got to still pay him.

He ain't even in the building anymore. He talked to anybody in Atlanta. That guy ain't around. It's not his thing no more. And they ain't talking to him about anything. Travis. So he's not around. That's Landryfield's deal. What do we always say? New owners, new GMs, they want their own thing. And that team is middle of the pack in anyway. So they're one that for sure could swing things. And I think Collins is an impact guy for some teams. I could see him being very good. That Phoenix thing sounded very interesting to me.

I think he could be dynamite with Paul and Booker, especially Booker. I thought that was a pretty good trade idea, the one I set on Bill's Pod. Yeah, not bad at all. I like that one. I think it makes sense for all three teams. Just to, you know, just to kind of tease Bill's Pod. You should listen to that. Yeah.

If you haven't already, after you listen to Missmatch here, we did like fake trades. And I said, Sons get Fred Van Bleet, Ojean and Obey, John Collins, Raptors get two first-round draft picks, DeAndre Atenry and Aaron. Holiday as a filler in the deal from the Hawks. And then the Hawks get Jay Crowder and Dario Sarich. So they trade a big for a wing, two wings, really, if you want to count Sarich as a wing. And the sons get a guard, you know, for support behind CP and Booker, a long-term replacement for Chris Ball, a big who can actually dunk in John Collins and a better wing than

Jay Crowder. And the Raptors liked DeAndre Aiton last year, so maybe that would have more appeal to them than some other deals that could be out there. Probably would want, I mean, I imagine if I'm an Atlanta fan, I'd want a little more. Yeah. You know, because you got no leverage with me with Crowder. I'm giving you. I'm giving you John Collins.

I'm giving up the best player in the deep. Yeah, but Collins has been available for a year plus. I get it. And they found nothing. I get it. He's still good, though. Oh, he is good. He has not shot the ball well this year.

I told you it's that finger. A weird-ass finger he's got. Weird finger. It's screwed up everything. Get that thing straightened out, bro. You're right. He's got to get that figured out. Is there ever been an investigation on that thing?

I know. How are you supposed to shoot a basketball? I know. Come off sideways every time. That thing. Anybody, go, for those that are unaware, go Google John Collins' hand. Be ready to throw up. Yeah, it's his wild.

His right ring fingers. Terrible. It looks like a thumb. You know, and so, and look, there's a lot of smoke about this Dallas thing, too. And then this is happening in real time where the luke of pressure and he doesn't really say anything. And you see how Piss Cuban's been getting anytime anybody brings it up. And then that's floated out there about like Dorian Finney Smith, but they would want to star back.

And then there's this stuff about them talking to Christian Wood about a possible extension. And then there's the, well, maybe they're a reddish team. It's like, really? I mean, you're going to be like, hey, Luca needs help. You can't just be going for 50. and everybody else has two. Let's go get Cam Reddish. Like, come on.

So there's somebody to watch, for sure, because they're willing to give up, you know. They ain't got all that much, but there's certainly, I would be very motivated to try to improve the team if I were them. Not because I'm worried Luca wants to go somewhere else,

simply because I would feel, so terrible about the Brunson thing. He'll be like, all right. Like, it can't be worse this year. I can't be less equipped playing in, you know, game,

like they were, they were playing in a West Finals last year for going to sake. And they know very well that they ain't going to the West Finals with what they got right now. So, the fact that that happened would make me

feel pressure to try to improve, even if it's, even if it's on the edges, even if it's not star time and I'm not able to acquire a star, I still would want to go try to make some moves to improve the team right now

for him, because I screwed that last thing up. So we'll see. They're one to watch, for sure. I'm with you there. Yeah. Yeah. And so, I mean, I think,

I honestly think a lot of these teams are going to try to be active. If you've got that amount of teams that are in it that can augment their rosters that want to be active, I think we'll have a bunch of trades. I do. And I'm excited for it, man. It's only going to take a couple to get the thing rolling. And usually everybody does kind of wait. There's a lot of, and there'll be all the, we'll have to be deciphering.

You know, by the time we do our pod next week, there are going to be so much fake stuff out there trying to drive up prices. Here's what's been offered for him. Here's what's been offered for him. You know, it seems like every, every schmo in the NBA has been attached to, well, teams can have, you know, Mason Plumlee's out there. They need a, they want a first round pick back.

And it's like, oh, come on. Yeah, good luck. Okay. Okay, bro. Like, everybody's worth first round picks. Most guys are worth three first round picks or two first round picks. Like, come on. What do we do when you do?

So everybody's kind of throwing that stuff out there now. Here's a little literal hive of hornets for you. That's all you're going to get. I mean, geez, what do you expect to get for Plumley? He's having a great season. Yeah. He did switch shooting hands. Got to give him credit there.

Oh, before we get out of here, we got to talk about this. Number one, everybody last night was, and I need, I need everybody to know on social media. Direct this crap to Kevin and not to me. Okay? I'm part-time. I do these podcasts. Kevin is a ringer employee.

What happens? Part of the rankings. Last night, when Damien Lillard is setting the Grizzly's ass on fire. Oh, you were getting tagged on those too? Oh, my God. Yeah, and the ringers got him is the 19th best player. I'm like, I have nothing to do that. Why is he 19 on their stupid list?

I'm like, I have nothing to do with that. Nothing whatsoever. And then the other thing that has been told to be brought up. So that's on you. By the way, Jaws too high too at number nine. Shut up. He is too high. Shut up.

Just being real. You're too high. You're too high. I'm not, not since August. Yeah, Kevin O'Cannabit. That's not true. I know the exact date. Oh, I don't know the exact date.

I just know it was early August. I have a very shoddy memory. My whole life. Last thing that we do have to mention. And I cannot believe this is not come up on the podcast. Especially as you were talking about Plumley changing his hand. And that's what jogged my memory. For years, the Ben Simmons thing has been a thing.

We're always fascinated with guys changing their shooting. And the results of the so hay and free throw. Oh, yeah. I tweeted about that a couple weeks ago. Unbelievable. Yeah. And we have not broached it. We haven't talked about that at all.

No. But you, I mean, I know you tweeted about it. The Sohan free throw, the one-handed. Isn't that cool? They're never on TV, so people would have to, like, actively seek it out unless somebody like you tweets it. But the Sohan free throw thing is now something to behold. Yeah.

On December 19th, he started showing. shooting free throws with one hand. And he's shooting 75% from the line, 34% from 3, from 3 point ranges with both hands. To be clear, you know, like it has the guide hand, his left hand, and then his shooting hand is his right hand.

But from the free throw line, he's been sub-60%, sometimes sub-50% since high school. So granted, it's only 75% right near a league average. That's a massive improvement for him. And like it's such a cool story. He'd be like the third best free throw shooter on the grizzlies, I think.

I'm serious. They're the sorriest free throw shooting team in the world. I thought it was a cool thing. When I tweeted that out, I loved reading my mentions because there were so many people saying, you know, you love seeing a player, you know, try something new, not worrying about what people are going to think about how it looks. Ben Simmons and Jeremy Sohan should go get a beer together, you know, stuff like that. And it was a lot of responses hitting on the mindset and the open mind in this that Sohan has to do something like that.

There are not a lot of players who would. The Sixers tried to get Ben Simmons to switch shooting hands while he was in Philadelphia. There was literal video footage of John Townsend, the Sixers' former shooting coach, trying to get Ben to shoot right-handed free throws before games at practices, and he didn't stick with it. And they're just on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of open-mindedness, willingness to change. and Sohan, you have to give him a lot of respect for the will to do this so early in his rookie career. Absolutely, because it is unlike anything, you just don't see it. You don't see it.

You don't see it very often. And you and I had this discussion many years ago when I think it was about, I said it would have to be somebody of tremendous clout, like maybe like a Janus or somebody like that, to try the underhand thing. And if it meant, and we talked about that podcast that I'd listened to many years ago that Malcolm Gladwell did about free throw shooting and about how Will Chamberlain shot his best number shooting it underhand and then the next year went back to shooting it overhand. And it's this whole thing that it's like for cissies if you shoot it underhand. And it wasn't just about the male and female thing because Gladwell went and interviewed a collegiate girls team. and asked them about it. And they wouldn't want to do it. So it wasn't like this idea.

Even they didn't want to do it. Hell no, I'm not going to do that. It was all this, and it's this case study in fear of public ridicule or someone pointing and laughing at you. It's ridiculous. Or whatever else.

You're just going to be yourself. Well, you also, like people, the idea that people would, eschew what would make them most effective simply because of. And that was the whole idea. Which is my whole thing and has always been my whole thing with Ben Simmons. There were so many times over the years where Sixers fans or Simmons stands would be like, you just don't appreciate the things that he does well.

It's like, no, I do appreciate the things that he does well. And this is the one thing that he doesn't do well that could make him even better than he already. he is. He's an all-star guy. He's an all-defense-player. He's an all-N-V-A player. Well, here's his one Achilles heel. And Sixers fans, we saw how that resulted with that game against the

Hawks with him passing under the rim. That's all he does now for Brooklyn. He does not look at the basket. He's afraid to get fouled. He doesn't roll hard to the rim. He shoots below 50% from the free throw line. Simmons is worse than he's ever been as a scorer.

And it's largely because of his own stubbornness and unwillingness to make those changes earlier in his career when everybody in his circle was trying to get him to do it. He's a natural right-handed player. He admitted himself that in 2016 to the New York Post saying, I think I was raised right-handed and then I started shooting lefty and it's all natural now. No, it's not. And if Simmons tries to shoot hands, tries to change shooting hands and it fails, so freaking what? If it fails, it fails. But you're failing now doing what you've always done. So why not try something new?

Why not try something different that you've never done before? Why not continue and stick with it? Because I think he'd be at least better than 44% from the free throw line with his natural shooting hand. So we salute you, Jeremy Sohan. We do. And go get a beer with Ben Simmons. Seriously.

Do it. Talk to him. I don't know if he's of age yet. Sohan is probably not 21 yet. How old is, Sohan? Sohan is 19 years old, so don't get a beer. Go get an old. Oh, duels.

Oh, duels. Go get an odoole. Yeah, go get a soda. We don't want to get you in trouble. Yeah, don't get a beer. Don't do that. All right. Thanks to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always.

Next week's going to be super fun with the trade deadline ahead. Kevin, I'll talk to you next week.