The Mismatch - The Summer 'Mismatch' Mailbag: Hyped Teams, Timberwolves' Future, and Perfect Movies

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

As the news cycle slows down, Verno and KOC open up the mailbag and answer all of your burning questions, from the in-season tournament to Matas Buzelis! They also discuss hyped teams, Ja Morant, and so much more. Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Right now on the Ringer game on fee and all throughout the entire month of August, the East Coast Bias Boys are getting you ready to bet the NFL this season. We're going through each and every single division and revealing our favorite futures, predicting division winners, and even giving you some award winners. Do we think the Kansas City Chiefs will repeat or will they be the throne? Tune in now to find out on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon.

And join the miss he does every month. Monday night from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Compel, Kevin O'Compel, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Brien. Kevin O'Brien. Bood-O! How's it going, man? How you doing? Good. It's been a good off-season so far. It's been very strange over the course of the last couple of weeks since we ended Summer League that there has been so little news that is coming out. It feels like everyone in the NBA has just gone on vacation, and then we'll

reconvene. Like every once in a while you'll see, you know, videos of guys working out or something or there'll be some minor note that comes out news-wise. Like today, there was the heat thing. It's a bunch of no-news. It's like, well, she said there's been no traction. Shom said the heat are working on this package that we've known about for three weeks now. It's a bunch of no news at this point. The NBA wants Damien Lillard's agent to stop bullying teams.

Yeah. But, I mean, there's like, yeah, right? there is no news. And so we're kind of that dead part of the year. What we wanted to do today was we gave out the email address. We had people email us to get a mailbag together so we could answer some questions that you have during the year. These are always some of my favorites because we get to find out what people want to know from us, basketball and non-basketball related. And you sent me some of them.

And I think we got some good ones this time around. Yeah, we did. We got a lot of good ones. If you want to email us for future shows, worth plug in the email right now. NBA Mailbag at Gmail.com. That's how you can get in touch with us. If you're listening to the show,

and if you are listening to the show, make sure as well that you're subscribed or followed to the feed as well, since we're still going. Every week this offseason, Chris, it'll be doing some more mailbags as well in the weeks to come. But today, let's get going.

Let's start with some mailbag questions here, Chris. Let's start with a... Kyle! You almost call me Kyle! I know. Oh, my God. I was just texting with them right before. Seven years of my life.

Down the drain. I'm like a cheater. Down the drain. Oh my God. On a date. Oh, my God. It's like you're laying in bed with your wife and you call her Sheila or something. Oh, for God's sakes.

And no offense to all the Sheila's out there, but you're probably a harlot. It's the harlot name. It really is. Yeah. It sounds like somebody that you cheat with, not anybody that you know. You think we got any Sheila? listeners? I don't think so. I highly doubt it. It's like a 95%

male. I think so, too. Or maybe that guy in Japan that turned himself into a dog, he's probably listening. Dude. Isn't that something else? I mean, the world's going mad. All right, tell me this, Chris. I went to, there's like a big birthday weekend for me,

my friends. I had a birthday on Thursday. Another friend had a birthday on a Wednesday. Another one had one on Friday on Saturday night at one of the parties I went to. We were talking about that dog thing. A guy in Japan paid $20,000 to have a dog costume made. And he's not telling anybody who he is. He's not revealing his identity because he doesn't want to be embarrassed, understandably so.

And we got to talking. Is there a price where you would live in that dog costume for a year? There's not a price. Not even in the billions. Absolutely not. There's not a price because you lose your mind, right? You lose it after a certain amount of time. No.

come on. No, I would quit after one day. I would quit after an hour. I mean, it'd be funny for an hour. And then it stops being funny. And then you're like, oh, come on. Did you see the videos of him rolling over and stuff? It looks painful. It looked like he wasn't comfortable moving around with that costume on. Well, definitely wasn't worth 20K, that's for sure. The world's gone bad. The world's gone mad. And by the way, happy belated birthday. Thank you. I appreciate it. 33, my Larry Bird year. We're growing old together here, Chris on the show on the mismatch. All right. Okay. Let's get started with a suggestion by Ben. He says there have been issues regarding the fact that the winner of the in-season tournament doesn't seem to get any real

advantage. What if instead of not counting the championship game towards the regular season record, the winner actually gets to keep that win on their record effectively acting as a tiebreaker over any other team at the end of the year. In this situation, the loser of the championship game would not have the game counted so they don't get punished. But the winner would get that extra W in the wind column. Doesn't this feel like something the NBA should do? I actually don't hate this as a reward because, you know, my initial reaction is,

let's just say at the end of the season, and I'll just come up with two random teams, the Sun's and the Clippers, that they played, four times throughout the year and the sons won all four of them. But they wound up with the exact same record at the end of the year. This would be the issue is that if the sons won that tournament, that they get the automatic tiebreaker over a team that they got dominated by throughout the season, right? Say the clippers beat them, force it, right?

Is that an issue though? Or no, is that like that's the point? That's the incentive, right? I guess that is the point, right? Like I am, I am open to, I don't hate this. I am open to any suggestions that make that worthwhile to the fans, right? That is my big thing. I am not anti-mid-season tournament.

I'm all for trying to garner any extra interest. And for more guys playing, we had such a dismal regular season last year. I want more guys playing. They have instituted, obviously, the 65 games for awards, et cetera, et cetera. and, you know, especially when it gets to the winner, the NFL's going on, college football's going on. You know, is it a way to possibly make people care more about what would be just a meaningless Friday night game? Yes, it is. And I hope that it takes hold.

And I hope that people do care a little bit. But I am open to any incentive for a fan. Why should a fan care if his team wins? There's no pride associated with that. Who cares? The players obviously benefit greatly financially. But if fans not going to sit around at care that a player benefits financially, I'm not going to be excited if, let's say, Memphis wins it.

And, yeah, $500,000 is great for Kenny Lofton Jr., who's on a second, you know what I mean, an undrafted deal. Like, that actually means a lot to him. But, okay, like, he's already got a diamond chain. Like, I don't, like, I'm not sitting around crying poor for Kenny Lofton Jr. And I don't think any other fan is either. And so there needs to be some reason why your fan base should care if you win that. That is to me what needs to be implemented.

And at least this is something. And we've talked about draft picks. We've talked about maybe this, a tiebreaker. maybe home court advantage, any of the things that would matter to fans, right? Like these are things you care about. You care about the draft. You care about home court advantage.

You care about something that affects you if you're a fan of that team. And so I'm okay with this one. That would be okay. It's just one team. And that would be a, it's certainly incentive. Now, how many teams are tied at the end of the year? Not a lot.

Not a lot. So how much is that coming? into play. So I think I'd want something that comes into play more often. I think that's why it would be nice, though, because it doesn't come into play a lot. But if it does, it's like, oh, yeah, winning that in season tournament gave you that extra edge in the standings. And it does pay off for those situations at the end of the year. So I mean, to me, I think the NBA is- It could work in reverse, though. It could work in reverse.

Where like you get into the playing when you don't want to be in the plan, you're saying? Or at the end of the year, you- Oh. You get a bad seeding. Yeah. Well, but that's why, but that gets to my point about why the top seed should be choosing their opponent rather than, oh, we win more games, which means we have a worse matchup. I don't know. Like if I lose, you know what I'm saying? If I lose a game at the end of the season that's going to put me into a tiebreaker, you know, I don't know.

Yeah. Well, I think it's overall a win, but we'll see how it goes this first initial season. and then from there, you know, maybe things will change in the future because it's always going to be changing. From Canis Fitt, not a real name, what two NBA teams do you think next year

might live up to their hype a la Barbenheimer and over-deliver on expectations? So there are two teams? This is a creative question, a timely question, with Barbie and Oppenheimer. Over deliver. Over deliver. I think one of them could be

a team that Michael Pina wrote about on the ringer.com today, and that's the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder with what they have on paper, we talked about Chet Holmgren a couple weeks ago on the podcast, coming back to that team. Shegildas Alexander being as great as he already is. Josh Giddy, you imagine him getting even better with all the good supporting players they have on that team

with the Looddort types of the world. And now you've got Mietchuk coming over from the EuroLeague after all the things he's accomplished over there. Jalen Williams, the other Jalen Williams. I mean, like the list goes on and on with OKC, and they have one of the best coaches in all of basketball, in my opinion, and Mark Dagnall. I think the Thunder are probably one of those teams,

and I think they're being hyped up where they belong in that hype conversation. Like, they are hyped up. People are hyping up O'KCAS. Yeah, right, but maybe possibly over-deliver. That's actually good because then they could feasibly over-deliver. Yeah. Who else? Who's hyped?

I don't know how many we have that are like that you would say are hyped. This didn't like there wasn't some kind of, to me, massive offseason swing. Now, the Lillard thing is still out there. You know, there were teams that we liked what they did in the off season. I think people would probably want you to say Phoenix, but I don't buy that. over delivering on top of expectations. Yeah, how can they over?

They're going to do like they did a couple of years ago and win 67 games or whatever. You know what I mean? They won a ton of games a couple years ago. And I don't think like Utah is being hyped. No. I don't think they're being hyped. I think people think, oh yeah, Utah is a good young team,

but they're not being hyped necessarily. Minnesota's not being hyped. Maybe the Lakers, they're always hyped. and this year after closing the season so strong. Over delivering, though, over the hype. That's a very particular type of team. And maybe it is the Sons. Maybe it is the Sons because the Sons have-

Over-deliver, though? How do they over-deliver? They also have a lot of doubters, too. But it's more doubt for the postseason than it is doubt for the regular season. Could it just be the defending champions, the Nuggets? They're going to come in with hype. they're the defending champs. Could they, could they're young players

who we've typed up a lot on this podcast, Jalen Pickett, Hunter Tyson, and you've got, you know, Christian Brown with a bigger role? I mean, like they have a lot of good young talent on that team that could step into the void left by Bruce Brown leaving, Jeff Green leaving. Maybe they're the team that some of those young guys,

even like a Zeke Naji, ends up stepping up. And they are the team that overdelivers after defending their crown. that's a really hard part about this is because you look up and down. And it's like these teams are not being hyped as they're supposed to be much better. Ogoma City is the only one that we're looking at. Is anybody sitting around hyping up Toronto?

Is anybody sitting around hyping up Chicago or Indiana or Detroit or, I mean, nobody's hyping them up. Atlanta. You know, I can see Atlanta being a lot better. than last year, especially with the training camp and the full season of Quinn Snyder, I could see them being much better than they were in Atlanta.

But nobody's sitting around talking about, oh, Atlanta's going to be really good this year. You know, you what I'm saying? Like, they're not talking about it. I do think they're going to be better, but I don't think that people are sitting around talking about it. So if the question is,

who is being hyped up and can deliver to said hype, I guess, you know, nobody's sitting around hyping up Dallas, but I think Dallas is going to be a lot better than they were. I like their roster so much more than I did last year. I hated their roster last year. You hit the nail on the head about their roster last year. And I hope this year they're better.

They should be better on paper with the additions that they made. It's got better players. It'd be shocking if they're not better. I mean, you get Grant Williams most recently. You get Seth Curry back after he was gone for a couple of. the years you would hope like a young player like Josh Green is able to get even better and find more consistency. Maxie Kleba playing a full season got guys like that. I mean, he played 35, 36 games last year. Maxi Cleaver is a really good two-way guy. So they they should be better on paper.

I think the one maybe, uh, I think you hit it with Oklahoma City. You know who else? San Antonio. That's a good one. They're going to have that. Yes. Nobody's sitting around. thinking that they're going to be like a playoff team. But they're hype. Right. But they are hype because of the guys. And they're going to, and I think he nailed it,

San Antonio, because they're hyped because of the guy in Wembe, but they're going to be better because of all the existing pieces that they already have, who people haven't really paid close attention to in recent years. Devin Bacellon, Keldon Johnson, their rookie last season,

Jeremy Sohan. There are other rookie this year. Like you get him in the second round, Citi Sosocco. I think he's going to play. San Antonio could be the team. That's our answer. OKC and San Antonio.

There you go. Next question from Alex. What is a movie you give a 10 out of 10, 5 stars, two thumbs up? Oh. What's a 10 out of 10 movie for you, Chris, or a 14 out of 14 movie? I mean, I've mentioned this a lot. It's funny because I think I would give the, I would give like all the guy movies, right? Like, I mean, that's the, the, the one.

that always surprises people. Like, my favorite is probably, and I've said this before, is the Princess Bride. Like, I've watched that. That's a really good movie. From the time I was a child

to the time I was adult, I've watched that the most. I like laughing. So, like, the other night, I watched with my son. I watched Happy Gilmore. Good movie.

I enjoyed it for 90 straight minutes. I loved it. I loved Happy Gilmore. Tombstone. I love Tombstone. I love Gladiator. Like all the, you know,

all the ones that are like dubbed guy movies. Rocky, love Rocky. In terms of like the ones that are like the critically acclaimed, I mean, I don't think I'm, I'm not far off the map on this stuff, right? Like,

I like the godfather like everybody else likes the godfather. I like the, I like Pulp Fiction like everybody else likes Pulp Fiction. Like I don't, I don't think I have some kind of oddball, you know, I like comedies a lot. I love Anchorman. I love Billy, you know, I love Happy Gilmore.

I love all those. So the ones that make me laugh. And then I like all those, like, you know, I like the Western stuff. I like the gangster stuff. I like the boxing movies a lot. So I don't know. Like, I don't think I'm going to give a good answer to this. It's like something.

Are you too old for? I love, I love, almost famous. I loved almost famous. Are you too old for Super Bad? No. Okay. Okay. All right, because that was like 2007.

Yeah, I like those, that Cameron Crow run. I love Say Anything. I love Jerry McGuire and I love almost famous. I love all three of those. Yeah, good movies. Those are all the camera crow movies. They feel realistic to me. Like, you know, the, I like the dialogue, the way that people talk in those.

And I don't know. They seem real. and I think it's a reflection of him. So I like all those. Yeah, I love Almost Famous. And I love Jerry McGuire as well. So, like, I think I listed off about a thousand, but I like all those.

I'll rattle off. I'll rattle off my 10. You know, I'm not movie buff. No. I mean, I'll watch what everybody else has. I'll rattle off my 10 out of tens that I have on Letterbox, starting with the old ones. A clockwork orange.

One flew over the cuckoo's nest, taxi driver, The Shining, Scarface, Goodfellas, Fargo, Goodwill Hunting, Titanic, American History X, Fight Club, Gladiator, Kill Bill, Old Boy, the original O3 Korean film, V4 Vendetta, Super Bad, Slumdog Millionaire, and Glorious Bastards, Inception, Django Unchained, Whiplash, Interstellar, Parasite. Those are my 10 out of 10s. Here's the ones that stood out to me when you mentioned that. I forgot Goodwill Hunting. I watched that about a year. About a year ago, I watched that. It was on TV and I watched it back and I forgot how amazing that movie really was. Absolutely sensational.

After all these years, I had not watched it, Robert Williams. It was kind of sad, obviously, given what had happened with him. but I watched Google hunting. And then I like, I love the Kill Bill one. I like Kill Bill 2 better. Ah. Two. I loved Kill Bill 2.

Yeah, I had Kill Bill Volume 1. I don't know what I had 2 rated as. 2 is probably like a 9 or something like that. Two is crazy. Yeah, I have 2 as a 9. Yes. I loved Kill Bill 2. Oh, they're both amazing.

Yeah, I like most all those movies that you mentioned, I like, I don't know if you saw this, but the guy that Christopher Nolan that just did Oppenheimer he went on, he did an interview on Rich Eisen's show. Oh yeah, what was the movie he said? Did you see this?

It was a comedy, right? He said Talladega Knights was the movie that he loves to watch when it's on TV. And he said, if you're not first, your last. It's so good. Yeah, I saw that clip. I mean, that was the most shocking answer.

I think people were not expecting that Christopher Nolan, you know, would say that. But that was his answer. He said, he said Talladega Nights was the movie that if it's on TV, he drops the remote. And I was like, wow, unbelievable. You ever watch Old Boy? Did you ever see that one? No. The old version, not the remake in America.

But if you're cool with subtitles, Chris, old boy is worth like an hour and a half, two hours, however. however long the runtime is on that. It's, I'm readable. Look, you're speaking my language if it's 90 minutes. Old boy. I mean, it might be longer than that. I'm definitely misremembering. Oh, okay. Well, 120 minutes. Two hours. That's not bad. You can do two hours.

Yeah, no, you're pressing me when you get to like 220, 230. We're getting deep. But yeah. Oh, boy. I'm with it. Chico asked, I'd love to know Verno's opinion on Barbie and who were the players with the biggest It's Kennergy in the NBA. Okay. So I'm going to have to make an admission on this show that I'm not proud of. So this past weekend, I went to the National Sports Collectors Convention. That's not something I'm not proud of.

I loved that. I also met a lot of people that listened to the mismatch. Hell yeah. There, which is super cool. It was in Chicago, Illinois. I went with my longtime local producer, Rosa. We got an email from Simon who said he saw you. He didn't say anything, but he did see it.

And my son went with us and we went and had a good time in Chicago for sure. With that being said, my wife took my daughter and they did the dress up and go to Barbie thing while we were out of town. They loved it and had the time of their lives. And so, and I must say that in between my friends and family and everybody I, I have spoken to personally that has gone to see Barbie I have not had one person say they did not like it not one. Every person has told me it's good

and so they went to it without me and my son and so maybe I'm sure inevitably I will see it. I mean whenever it comes on streaming within the next couple of months I will see the movie but in terms of the theater trip we were out of town

on a guy's trip so they did the girls thing and went to the went to barbie and had the time of their lives and they like to go with all your boys I did not we did not go to Barbie we didn't go out of our way to go to Barbie how would that go over if you said hey guys instead of going out to the restaurant or barn tonight you want to go to Barbie I don't think I don't know 40s and 50 well I mean it was just being it was just being Rosa and William so I guess we could have oh okay I see we could we could have just gone yeah and so I guess I guess we could have gone over to the movie theater if we wanted to, but pretty much any time we weren't at the convention,

we ate it Harry Carey's every meal because it was in our hotel, which was great. It was great. The food is great every time. And it's cool. You know, it's sports themed and whatever, and so it was good. So you didn't see Barbie. I didn't see it. So I don't know who has Kennergy.

Is Ken a dumbass or what's the deal? I don't. I don't know. You haven't seen it? I know I did see Barbie. I'm just not sure the Kennedy Energy means. Yeah, what does that mean?

Let me Google. Let me Google says. Isn't he supposed to be dumb in that what people got mad about? Like it portrays guys as dummies? Kind of, in some ways. Yeah, I'm not against that, though. I don't know. In many facets we are.

Yeah, of course. So who's got? Kennergy. Kennedy represents men who support women with confidence and openness, that doesn't seem right to me. I don't know if that means Kennergy. Yeah, I don't buy that. I don't know.

That doesn't seem correct to me. I don't know who is Kennedy. The guy means you're a weenie, right? Isn't that what he's trying to say? So it's towns. We actually, that's a great way to pivot to the fact that we got a ton of questions from Minnesota Timberwolves fans. I scrolled through the many questions we received.

and the team, the fan base that asked the most questions were Timberwolves fans. That's the first time. Yeah, seriously, that's the first time I can ever remember getting the most questions from Minnesota Timberwolves fans, including some people that lived overseas and their Timberwolves fans for some reason. I mean, tough choice. Hey, you know, that thing I just told you, I was at Edwards was there yesterday. Really? Yeah, he's signing autographs.

Oh, that's cool. So he's there for like a signing type of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shopping for, you know, memorabilia. No, no, he wasn't shopping. Okay. But with the Minnesota Timberwolves, there's no one specific question,

but, you know, that I want to outline because there are so many of them. Thank you for those. But the spirit of them were like, what the heck that we do? What do we do in this spot? Where we are right now, we get Gopal.

There's a video of him with the French national team shooting threes, towns being involved in some trade talks during the draft period. You get Anthony Edwards on the up and up, You get McDaniels, one of the better two-way players in basketball, an excellent defender. Are you trying to trade towns right now, Chris?

Is that the number one thing in your mind? Or are you given it another chance with the two bigs, or now really three bigs still? Because you get Nas Reid on his contract back now. Are you rolling it back like that and seeing if it works in year two? I mean, they're saying that, you know, they've committed to Gobert and the Towns is going to be the one on the way out. That's what, you know, the people I spoke to the cover of that team think that, that's what's going to be on the horizon. That being said,

I have been of the opinion that Towns is a better fit than Gobert with him. I mean, I saw them blow, they took their scars, but I covered that series against Memphis two years ago before they got Gobeer,

and I did not think they were very far away at all. I thought they could have augmented that team and been a real problem, because I am of the opinion that the big that spaces the floor and provides that space for Edwards is the best thing to have with Edwards. And so I actually think Towns is a very good fit with Edwards.

But you've got to make a choice there. I think that moving off of Towns and keeping Gobert would be a mistake, but it appears that's what they would do. I think your whole, every move that you make has to be how does this augment the development

of Edwards into a super duper star because I believe Edwards is going to be one of the best he had there are very few guys in the league that really have a chance to be one of the best 10

or best five he's one of them he's that great and he is still so young and he's only on this trajectory, he's going to be one of the absolute best players in the entire NBA. They tried to speed up the process.

That's your best player. And he took some lumps last year in the playoffs again, but I do think that, or I guess in the play in, I do think that he is going to be one of the best players in the league. And so every move has to be to augment that.

And so I don't think you need a bunch of stars necessarily around him. I think that you can kind of surround them with some role players. Not all, not all role players, because he's not that kind of a guy. But I would certainly not be against them trading one of the big guys in order to get them, get them some more wings, right? And then anything that can create the space for him, because I don't want him pulling up. and shooting a bunch of pull-up threes.

He has that you cannot stay in front of me, athleticism and size. And so everything that I'm doing is trying to create the maximum amount of space. They're shooting sucked. So, I mean, he's doing everything without it. I want to be able to space the floor as well as I possibly can.

And so that's what I'm doing if I'm Minnesota. I think with Carl Anthony Towns, right now they're also in a position where he's signed through the 27, 28 season, and that year he's going to be making nearly $65 million. So with Carl Anthony Towns, everybody's talking about Damien Lillard and the money he's making and how tough he could be, you know, to get traded and why there might be a lack of interest, then you factor in his age. Well, Carl Anthony Towns, it's kind of the same thing, just a different angle towards it. Yes, he's only in his 20s right now, but he's in his late 20s

and he's not a great defensive player and he's going to be making that significant amount of money into his early 30s. So there's concern there with Carl Anthony Towns in the eyes of other teams which speaks to your point about how even though Towns is the guy conventionally people think could be traded if they're split up

maybe it could actually be Rudy Gobert who's only signed through the 25-26 season. He just doesn't have as many years left on his deal even though he's older. Perhaps Gober could be flipped and you just, you know, you eat your losses and end up reconfiguring in a team that fits the imagination that you have for it, where you're focused on spacing with towns and Nasreid,

sometimes playing together, or they can each play the five and fill those 48 minutes as necessary. But with Minnesota, I wonder with them, you know, with the Damien Lord stuff, right now it seems like we're at a big stalemate. Portland's not, you know, finding a deal for him at this moment. Wodge says today how there's no acceptable offer out there. I wonder if at some point Carl Anthony Towns, probably in a three-way situation, maybe during the season,

if Minnesota could get enough assets for Kat that could be flipped for Damien Loweard with their other existing assets of which there is not many, obviously, considering what they gave up for Gobert. But with Minnesota, I wonder if there's any way for them to get in on that. Just throwing that thought out there. because if you're if you're Minnesota and you're going to you're talking about maximizing Anthony Edwards that was part of the reason why they traded DeAngelo

Russell and got Mike Conley having more of that playmaking traditional point guard presence sharing the bat court with him so finding a player that can do that for Carl Anthony Towns for Rudy Gobert for whatever it is that you're moving out of Minnesota to me that's the big priority here because Mike Connolly's 35 years old he's only got one year left on his contract you you got to find a guy for Anthony Edwards who is still just a kid, he's 21 years old, that he could grow with in the years to come and who complements him. To me, that's the big priority there. But we'll end up seeing what happens. As Sam said in one of his emails, you know, it seems like with those mega contracts, they're not going to move them. If this goes

well, maybe you go into the second apron. Maybe you double down. You don't have any other choice. You go all the way in on this two big, these two big lineups if it works better this year. And who knows, man, maybe with Chris Finch it will after a full off season. That was a weird last year for Carl Anthony Towns missing all that time at the beginning of the season. I mean, I'm not saying that you should scratch it off immediately and say, oh, forget all the bad that happened last year. But, I mean, in some ways, maybe you give it a little bit of a pass and see how it goes with a full training camp going into it. But we'll see.

They're going to be interesting. I mean, I resent the hell out of them because, I mean, all they had to do was score at all in the last eight minutes and the Grizzlies wouldn't add to play the Lakers, idiots. Get a bucket. Ridiculous. They had them. Did the rights.

They had them. They had them. Let's move on to a Grizzlies questionnaire for you, Chris. From Charlie. Charlie said he's a huge Grizzlies fan. He's from England. and he recently ran the Paris Marathon earlier this year in a Memphis jersey and he posted a photo of it and he said my question is realistically how far away are Memphis

from winning the chip they have they have the best young core in the game and I love the addition of smart but with Jah being the smallest physically of the superstars in the league can he lead this team to the top so that's a question specifically for you Chris can John Morant lead the Grizzlies. I think that if John Morant could get his head on straight, basketball has never been a problem. I mean,

none of John's problems are basketball related. The guy would have been all-NBA last year if he doesn't get suspended. He was all-NBA the year before. He now, by virtue of the way that they, they've had a couple of things break their way in a crazy way.

Jared Jackson, Jr. was coming off of an injury-plagued season when he got to his extension. And then he signed his extension. And then the next year, that's when he started making all-defense. And then, of course, last year transitioned into making the all-defensive team. John Morant was in line to get the all-NBA bump. And now you would have been $40 million on him. you probably saved yourself 70. I mean, at minimum, at minimum, you saved 70 by signing Jackson when you did. His contract is amazing now.

So you saved yourself on your two best guys, $100 million conservatively, that you then can spend on a roster and having a strong team around them. They have now, they've gotten playoff experience over the course of the last, well, really the last three years, and lost to Golden State, lost to the Lakers last year. I don't think they are far away.

I certainly think they have the ability to compete for, they'll be in the mix and be able to compete for it within the next, couple of years. And I think that you've got your best players at, you know, around 25 at that point. Certainly they've added veterans in Marcus Smart, Derek Rose, guys they have a round. They've signed Desmond Bain long term, who I think is great. So they've kept their core intact. They're doing the, they're doing the thing that a lot of the good teams have done,

which is we do not get rid of our core players. we don't fire our coach. Do you know this? Do you want to hear something insane? Yeah, tell me. I love insane stuff. Tell me. Taylor Jenkins is the fifth longest tenured NBA coach.

Turn over so fast. That is insane, Kevin. Fifth. He's still just like one of the youngest coaches in the league. It's pop. He's way younger than me. Spolstra, Pop, Malone, and Kirk. That's it.

those are only guys that have had their job longer. Man. That's the NBA now. That's the NBA. And so I've been of the opinion that the, you know, the continuity going through all those things together. I think it was a big lesson of what we've seen from many teams, not the least of which are both Milwaukee and last year's Denver team. were very good, very good examples of that. You know, having guys that have gone through those things together

have been in those situations, the high leverage situations, with the same coach, for that matter. And those teams reap the rewards of it with Milwaukee winning a title and Denver winning a title. I think you saw a blessing of some continuity with Miami, even though it's not long term necessarily. but I think within a couple of years, sure, Memphis should be able to be there.

They were the two-seed two years in a row and have caught some very tough opponents. The Lakers. I mean, when they lost to the Warriors a year before, and the Warriors won the title. Yeah, Lakers were no trouble, that's for sure. John's comments are going to live forever, though, until they get through the war.

West. We're okay in the West. Well, no. People are going to forget about that after they got humiliated. And they got humbled last year. So it's good for them. And there's no more Dylan Brooks. That's exactly what I was going to say. No more Dylan Brooks. So title, here we come. Hey, Draymond Green said, the dynasty starts after you leave. Remember that? You're doing that? I'm going to hope Draymond's right. I mean, look, I agree with you on Memphis's upside with what they can be. They have one of the best defenders in all of basketball in Jaron

Jackson Jr. They were without Stephen Adams. If he can stay healthy, that's critically important. They have a bunch of good young players, supporting players. Desmond Bain, I'm higher on him than I think most people are. I have been for years since before the draft. I think that guy is

a potential all-star. I'd like to see him get even more shots. I think he can be a guy who gets close to 20 shots per game, over 10-3-pointers per game. To me, Desmond, been being as an absolute baller and the more touches that he's able to get, the better that team could be as a supporting piece next to John Moran and that back core. And Marcus Smart, man, like if he can return to the defensive player of the year caliber guy, plays with an even

bigger chip on his shoulder than he already has. Marker Smart could make the type of difference that Tony Allen did so many years ago. Except this team has more young talent than those Grizzlies teams did. The Grit and grind Grizzlies, this team has higher upside than even those teams did. They had title upside, those Grizzlies team. They didn't get there, but, but this Grizzlies team does as well. So I'm high on them. A question from Aria. Sorry if I'm miss pronouncing your name. He said, with my wizards tanking hard. So this is a question on the opposite end of the spectrum here. I've been looking ahead to the top picks in next year's draft. So we already have some fans looking ahead to the 2024 draft. He said,

damn, can Kevin explain that, right? I know kind of sad times. That is dark. I know. He says, can Kevin explain to me why Matas Buzellas is ranked number one? Matas Buzellis, just to give a little bit of background here for the listeners who don't know him. He's a 6'11 kind of a point forward type of player. He'll be almost 20 years old in the 2024 draft. So next year, he's going to be playing in the G League this year, like Scoot Henderson did last year. We'll get to see his games played there. But as he said in his question, he's a little confused here with how he's.

he's the number one ranked player because he said his junior year of high school in new hampshire he averaged 11 points six rebounds to assist uh he says his his senior year of high school at sunrise christian when he won kansas player of the year he averaged 15 points five rebounds to assist he says it feels a lot like the hype around denny obdia i think with matas mozellus he's currently my number one ranked prospects that could very well change there's a lot of guys that i think have a chance at number one, Jacoby Walter from Baylor, Ron Holland, Buzellis's teammate in the G League, you know, Stefan Castle, there's a number of guys that could end up being number one. But I think with Buzellis, he's number one right now. He

reminds me of Lamar Odom. And you think about what Lamar Odom would be in the modern NBA. The Lamar Odom, we remember Chris, is this six-foot-nine playmaking forward, multi-positional player who could be plugged and played in the different positions on the floor. Imagine that. Imagine Lamar Odom in the NBA today. All the different schemes you could use him in. Dribble handoffs with shooters flying off. A screener on ball rolling towards the basket.

A spot-up shooter. A guy running pick and roll. A guy posting up. Somebody who's forcing mismatches in the half court, which is the toughest way to generate quality shots. That's what I think Lamar Odom would be in today's NBA. And that's what Brosella says. He's kind of that connective playmaking piece

who could be plugged into any role on offense. And for an NBA team right now, I think right now it's safe to put him at number one. He's got to get stronger. His three-point shot, he shot very well as high school season, 43% from three off the catch. But he's going to have to prove that that shot's for real. He needs to get significantly stronger.

He needs to prove that he can survive against the strength that he's going to face in the NBA G League as a defender on ball. But Buzellas right now, I like him as the number one pick. I'm not locked in on that. This is no Wemby situation. It's no Zion. It's not one of those years. There's a number of guys that can end up being number one.

Jacobi Walters is the one that I like a lot that nobody's really talking about out of Baylor. But right now, Bezellas is the guy at number one. And we'll see if that changes over the course of the G League season. They play a game in early September. Those Gleague Ignite players, it's not going to be against Victor Wembenyama like we saw last season, but they're going to play purse. from the NBL and Alex Sarr, another potential lottery, pick kind of like a seven, seven foot wing type of player.

He's got a center size, but plays more like a wing. You'll get to see him start in early September in Nevada. So I look forward to that game. That'll be our first real good look at Muzellas, Holland, and all the other G-League guys. One note on this was in the spring. When I was at the All-Star game in Utah, I ran into an NBA scout,

and he had been to basketball without borders that morning, and I said, give me some names of guys that are going to end up being lottery picks. And he's like, I think Buzellas is the only one that was in there. Like, he was like he was that much better than everybody else. So, but that is,

I went and looked it up, and that guy's right. As a junior, it says Bezellis was named New Hampshire Gatorade player of the year after 11.6 rebounds to it. Like, was there one team in it? New Hampshire?

Like, what's the 11 and 6? Yeah, that was his junior year. And then he went to a... I get it, but what are they doing? Are they playing... Is it like a six possession game? Is it just no shot clock? And they're just walking them all at the court.

Pep Beverly average 37 in high school. Well, that's the thing with Boozellis. You're not... You're not necessarily drafting him. I think the Lamar-Odom comp is a good one for people to kind of conceptualize in their head who that player is. Lamar Odom wasn't a 25, 30 point per game score or a guy, but do you kind of see what I'm saying, Chris?

But Lamar Odom was amazing in high school. Amazing. A different era, though, but I'm saying that the NBA version, I'm not talking about Lamar Odom in high school. I'm talking about Lamar Odom in the NBA. The version of Lamar Odom that we saw with some of those Clippers teams, those Lakers teams, or he was a ball handling, shot creating forward, that guy in today's NBA, what would he be?

It would not look like the Lamar Orton that we saw necessarily in his time in the league. It would be elements of that, but I think it would be a much more dynamic role. And that's where it's exciting to think about what Bozellas can be, especially if he continues to shoot as well as he did this last year in high school. He shot 43% from 3. and like they're not just like spot-up threes or anything like that he was very good off of like screens and movement shots so i think with him that that's what's exciting when you have a guy who with his height with his feel and passing and playmaking ability that he could be somebody who was like that great connective glue piece and is that the qualities of a number one pick yeah maybe he ends up being awesome like look look i'll tell you this kentucky wanted him florida wanted him everybody wanted him you know everybody wanted him everybody wanted him Everybody that evaluates talent thinks the guy's awesome.

So either they're all wrong, right? Either they're all wrong or he's going to end up being awesome. Maybe not, you know, franchise changing, which unbelievably, after all these years, I'm sorry to the Wizards fans. After all these years, and you finally tank it. It's a year worth of snowplay.

Oh, my God. I know. Idiots. All right, Chris. Well, people want to read more about the draft. I'm doing my way too early big board on the ringer.com that they can check out. I believe on Wednesday that's going to publish my top 30 currently in early August. So people can check that out there.

We'll do one more question. We're going to have a bunch of other good questions. We'll save those for next week. If you want to get your name into the mailbag for next week's episode, go to NBA mailbag at gmail.com or tweet at us at Chris Verner Show or at Kevin O'Connor NBA. But for now, let's do our last question. Let's do a question from Scott. Scott asked, it's been a while since you guys have talked about players

who you still have stock on their islands. So which players' islands do you still have real estate on? You take this one first, Chris. You already know my answer. I have a lot of homes in France. So I went back and I tried to look through drafts to find people that I really liked, because that's where this comes from, right?

You typically liked them when they were coming out and you had a belief in them. So I went back and I looked at drafts and to see guys that haven't popped yet, but I really liked them. And so I, you know, that's the whole island thing, right? Like, I'm still there. I still believe in them. These are the ones I jotted down the people I think could be out on. Jalen Suggs?

I mean, they just drafted Anthony Black. Don't you think people are out They've decided what Suggs is, right? Yeah, it does seem like that, yeah. Okay, I'm there. We have real estate. And let me tell you, they have. I was just at a sports collector's convention

and he's bargain binned. The poor guy is bargain bent. Like, he's not in the big case. You're looking through the boxes to find his. And you could get him cheap. So, I mean, I'm not saying, bought any Jalen Sucks cards, but I'm still on the island. Moses Moody?

Is that count? Yeah, I think that counts. Moot's counts. Yeah, I think Moses Moody could still pop. I'm a Moses Moody guy. Probably have some opportunity, right? Now that Jordan Poole's out of the mix, probably get some more minutes. Kind of brought him along slowly.

But I'm a Moses Moody fan. and I would say I'm on so Suggs, Moody Who else I said write down Got a little pop last year But I think that he and did not sign a good contract A big contract by enemies Nikiel Alexander Walker

I wrote him down Really liked him coming out of the draft I still have stock in him You know he's already on his what third team or something He's been included in deals Starting from New Orleans But Nikkeel Alexander Walker that one.

So Suggs, Moody, Alexander Walker. I mean, from last years, I don't count them as islands because they're, but they're not hot, like, in the same way that, like, say, like, Paolo or Chad or some of those others, but Jabari got hot for Summer League, and I still had all my Jabari stock. And Ivy as well, I still love Ivy,

despite, in fact, they're not at some kind of spectacular rookie year by any means. But Ivy and Jabari, And then I tried to go back to like old drafts and fine. And the craziest one would be Jonathan Isaac. Yeah, that's a good one. Right, because it's like, I don't know if he's even alive anymore. He might be in a dog suit in Japan for all I know.

I don't know. His knees couldn't take that. How about, did you see the video of the bear today? How about that one? the bear in the zoo that people were accusing of being fake, of being a human in a caution in a Chinese zoo. Did you see that video? No, I got to.

I'll look it up. It's a video of a bear standing on its hind legs. And it looks like he's wearing pants the way it's kind of like back slash ass fur kind of wrinkles up. It looks like jeans. Dude, I saw one the other day where a bear, it was like down. I'm 30A, which is a very popular vacation place in like Destin, Florida. There was a video. People could type it in and see it.

There was a bear that like was swimming in the ocean and like came up to the damn beach. I just saw the video come through by my feed. But I'm like, where the hell did that bear come from? Oh, I see that now. Yeah. Where did he come from? How far did that bear swim? I know, right?

To walk up on a beach. Where is the land that he came from? I don't understand. The bear is literally swimming in the ocean and then just like starts walking on the beach. And people like scared are like, ah! Like that is not what you're expecting to see if you go to the beach. A friggin' bear?

They get the cocaine sharks in Florida. Could that be an actual cocaine bear? Oh, cocaine bear? Totally possible. Then he would have been from Miami. Yeah. He just swam from there. Some players I saw islands of.

Mo Bamba. Gorns. Going to the Sixers. This is the, I'm very excited. I'm laughing because just you're looking at me like it's sad. I mean, but bomb,

it is. Bomba, you know, it goes to the Lakers. It feels in a great situation. Then he gets hurt. It's unfortunate. He goes to the Sixers now.

It's a situation to back up Joel Lombie and maybe even Nick Nurse goes with some two big lineups. Have some floor spacing out there with Bomba. I hope he makes the most of this. This could be one of his final opportunities. Grant Williams, he's been successful

on the NBA, but I want to mention him because I had him ranked eighth in the draft, so I was very high on Grant Williams. I think Grant Williams with the Dallas Mavericks, this is going to be a situation where you're going to see him in a role that you didn't see him in in Boston, where he was more of that kind of just spot up behind the corner, attack closeouts guy with Dallas.

I would think, I would hope Jason Kidd's going to use him as a screener for Luca, and you're going to see Grant Williams in a position where he can unleash his playmaking, which is the skill he had at Tennessee. That's what I felt like made him a top 10 prospect in his draft class, not just the defensive versatility, not just the shooting potential, but the passing, the connective ability. So I hope they use him with Luca in that regard. You know, other than that, you know a lot of the names that we've talked about over the years.

All my French guys, I have no choice. You're done with them. Come on. No, I mean, you do not have Nilakina Island still. Well, I mean, do I have much of a choice? Who am I selling it to? I don't even think he's on a team. Is he? Is he on a team?

I think he's out. He's still under contract, right? Oh, he is? No, he's still, no, no, he's not under contracts. No, he's currently a free agent. that is your island is desolate yeah it's been

it's been overtaken by the rise no coconuts left yeah there's not even coconuts left nothing it's gone yeah kill it uh killian haze of course I think Jonathan Isaac I had him on my list that's a good one

even though he missed two years and then he only played 11 games he wasn't horrible in those 11 games but Jonathan Isaac with the player that we saw earlier in his career why not Right? Yeah.

Why not? Why not? Yeah. Also, it's also like a shout out of the Charks, too, because Charks love Jonathan Isaac and his versatility. So Jonathan Isaac comes to mind as another name. I'm probably forgetting some off the top of my head. You said Fraynealekita.

He's not in the NBA. That is loyalty, brother. That is loyalty. That's like me saying Cendarius Thornwell. Yeah. I still believe. All the other drafts are too recent. I only went back to 2017 on the Ringer draft guides.

I didn't go back to my 2014 draft guides or anything like that. But, well, we all have our islands. Send us the emails if you want to get a question in on the show. We'll be doing these throughout the dead time of the year. Give them that email address. Kiv? NBA mailbag at Gmail.com. NBA mailbag at gmail.com.

Thank you, our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. Kevin, I'll talk to you next week. Have a good weekend. For a good week. It's only Monday. Have a good week.