The Mismatch - Things We Can’t Believe This Season. Plus: Star Players Return From Injury, Ivey’s Rise, and Life Outside Basketball.

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Verno and Jacoby discuss Jaden Ivey’s performance this season after his game-winning shot against the Raptors last night and the Pistons' future with Ivey and Cade Cunningham (00:40). They also discuss the Knicks blowing out the Nuggets as well as the return of Kristaps Porzingis and Ja Morant. Next, the guys each share four things that they can’t believe about the NBA season so far (28:17). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For all your fantasy football needs, check out the Ringer fantasy football show with me, Craig Horlebeck, along with Danny Hyfitts and Danny Kelly. That's the Ringer Fantasy Football Show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Misfatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And Jordan does every week from The Ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. What's happening to Barno? Big night last night for the Knicks and the Grizzlies and the league as a whole. Can't wait to talk to you about it. It was a big night.

I went to Memphis versus Portland. and I watched those two play a road game about a week ago, and Memphis beat them by 45, and I was like, all right. Well, since then, seeing them got some really good wins. They got a couple wins over Minnesota. They got a win over Houston. They got seven wins.

I mean, they're respectable. And I show up to the arena, and they say, now who would you want to see if you were going to a Portland game? Shinsharp. Really? Yeah. Oh, I got to see him. He doesn't move the needle for me.

No, Scoot? Yeah, I wanted to see scoot and I wanted to see Clingin. Guess who wasn't playing last night? Scoot and clinging. Scoot and clinging. And so I got a lot of Ryan Rupert and Tumani Kumar and who else did I get? You got John Morant, Berno. You got Jha Moran.

Got a little Amperty Simons. You got Jha. I did. I got John Moran. I also got a little duop brief. Look, the Portland thing was just absolutely pitiful on that side. But the story of the night was John Morant coming back. And his first half had enough highlights to fill up at least a short reel.

He had 20 in the first half, including a massive dunk on a break that went super viral, a behind the back pass. And then at the end of the half, he hit a shot from beyond half court that banked in that did not count. And then just stood there mean mug into the crowd and folding his arms. And so it was electric to have him back in the arena looking like the John Morant that we saw at the beginning of the season before he was out. for the last eight games. And so, yeah, I mean, the story was, I mean, look, they were up 12 by the end of the first quarter and the rest of it was just, I mean, you could add a running clock. There was one short burst by Portland. Other than that, I didn't see a very eventful game outside of the John Morant return, which was fantastic.

That being said, trying to keep up with all the other games that were going on last night. There was some fun stuff that was going on, not the least of which was the text I got from you about the Ivy game winner. And you know I had to run straight to the internet to find this one. Four seconds, three seconds, two. Jayden Ivy from the baseline. There he's it.

At the horn. Pistons win. You picking Ivy early on the season was just really well done. Because he has had an as, you know, it's not really as much about. Ivy is this is about Monty? You know what I mean? It's just like, why wasn't he playing last year? Like this is like malpractice.

Like what that was, I have no idea, but he didn't just get the game winner. He had himself a game. And what he did is he had off night on him, one of my favorite nicknames in the league. I don't know how much he deserves it, but he plays good defense, Davia Mitchell, and he got a switch to Abaji and then just took him right to the cup. He didn't get

shoulders past him. It was kind of like a little floater flying hook thing, but it went right in, right at the buzzard, not leaving a millisecond on the clock, game over, big win for the Pistons, who's been playing well. They've been playing well, especially at Ivy. So good O'S to you for that

Ivy call. Yeah. Off night, that was applicable at Baylor. Yeah. There's a lot of these players that when I'm at the arenas, you know, you go down and you're around them and you can't believe sometimes their dimensions,

he is on the side of, I can't believe how small he is. It would shock you how small he is as compared to his peers, Davy on Mitchell. That being said, Ivy is a house. And he is also,

one of the reasons that I believed is, you know, his mom, who is now the head coach at Notre Dame, was an assistant coach for the Grizzlies for the first couple of, the Morant years. Ivy was around.

And by all accounts, just an absolutely great kid. So you've got great kid, and then you've got top 1% athlete. I mean, his burst is absolute craziness. And, you know, then you take situation into hand. And that was the reason I, you know, was so bullish on him. I'm like, I had this core belief when he was coming into the league. and there are many times where it has failed me, where you look and you say,

oh, it's just a situation. Oh, it's just the coach. Oh, it's, you know, whatever reason my evaluation wasn't correct. But he was one that I just was not willing to say that the evaluation was not correct. This kid is way too talented. I'm going to tell you this. That franchise, we talk about this. We have talked about them more times on this.

podcast than I would have ever imagined because every night they are in some kind of a thriller and their back court now, you think about the way it looked a year, a year and a half ago, and now you're evaluating it, and you're talking about young back courts that you would want in the NBA, there's a couple there that don't have great records in the Eastern conference, but between them and Charlotte, I think people are looking at those and going, you know, if you build out right correctly around this, you are going to have because both those backcords, the difference is it's like the modern one, which is two guys that can handle the ball, two guys that can shoot, two guys that can make plays off the dribble, and they're both huge.

And that's the case with Lamello Ball and Brandon Miller. and that's also the case with Jaden Ivy and Kate Cunningham. Well, one of the things I like that they've done is not just sort of switch coaches, which is obviously going to be helpful based on what happened last season. But listen, these guys aren't going to move the needle and get you a ton of wins, but they have Tobias Harrison, Malik Beasley in, Tim Hardaway Jr. in. Just vets. Vets.

You know, all the stuff that you don't see on the actual floor, the lifestyle stuff, just having a mix of established veterans. in players in the locker room with the new coach can breathe new life into a very young team and give them role models, give them mentors. Just having bets around is going to be very helpful for that team. And of course, the coaching switch. And I don't think they're going to go to run to the second round of the playoffs or anything like that, but they're building something that looks like they're trending in the right direction, which is not something I can say about the pistons for the past three years. I've always liked their roster, but then I didn't like the product on

a floor. Let's talk about your beloved Knicks. Jamal Murray after the game, quote, it's a long season. Guys have lives outside of basketball. We just beat L.A. in L.A. We've got some guys who live in L.A. So stayed in L.A. I don't think the focus was there from everybody. And that's what happens when you don't have the focus. Hmm. Hmm. I love that. because he is, the people in that locker room know exactly who the people are that stayed in Los Angeles and that live in Los Angeles. And something tells me that Mr. Murray was not one of those people. And something tells me there's a little bit of a finger pointing going on there. That was an absolute abhorrent loss.

But really what that was is lack of focus for the Nuggets and the Knicks just having a disastrous loss to the jazz. Like it wasn't like the Jazz one at the buzzer and the Knicks kind of fell asleep at the wheel. Like it was a wire to wire Knicks lost to the Utah Jazz. So this is this is one team's let down, one team's bounce back. Exactly. And the Knicks are on the road one day off. And, you know, they're in that sort of like a Utah, Denver mountainous region. And I don't think that they're sort of doing what some of those Nuggets players were doing in sunny Los Angeles.

Let's just say that. Understood. That's at least twice. And Jamal Murray has no leg to stand on after he threw up a dud on a Sunday afternoon game that I was at. And he was filmed at the UFC event the night before. So I'm not sure that they just take every game so seriously in Denver. I mean, they've had within the span of the last week and a half, we've had Jamal Murray. out until God knows when at the UFC event the night before a five o'clock game in Memphis.

And now we have Jamal Murray going to the podium saying, we just beat L.A. in L.A. long season. I love guys have lives outside of basketball. Like, what? You also have a job. What if I just showed up or if I showed up and did literally the worst show ever? then my excuse was, sorry, man. I do a lot of shows. I got a life.

Got lives outside of basketball. Sorry, I got a life. That one doesn't play well. No, no. And I just, I, listen, just to celebrate the Knicks for a second, because they handled businessmen. They had 45 assists.

45 assists in the game, which is the most since like, I think it tied a team record since like 1970 something. thing. Wow. That's a lot of assist. Brunson had 17 of them, and O.G. and Nobby had himself a career night. Like, he's been playing offensively really well since he became a Nick. Really well. When he's available, he's been playing really well. Stuff I didn't see in Toronto. That whole team's been dynamite offensively. Offensively, it's weird. Yeah. It's like with Tibbs, you expect it to be the opposite. And obviously, we knew they'd take a little bit of a defensive hit bringing a cat, but

they look good. I think that's the promising thing, though, right? Because if there's one thing you could, you know, sit back and believe it's that, hey, this, it's a Tibbs team and the defense is going to keep getting better. But if the offense is already humming like this, if you get the defense to come around, now you've got a great team. What's your, what's your concern level with the Nuggets? Because I remember we started the season, a few games in, a little concerned about the Nuggets, maybe overreacting a little bit. They've rid the ship a little bit, and then they do what they did last night. Like, where are you with the Nuggets right now? I think that they are a team whose championship window is closed.

Closed! Yes. With their current roster, they have absolutely no chance of winning a title with that roster. None. None. Well, it's, for me, it's a much of Malmary. When they won the title, they had a real one-two punch, and they had a real explosive ball handler and the most devastating pick and in the league at the time. And now

it just does not seem to be the case. I know everyone has lives outside of basketball, but maybe some of that should be spent improving the basketball part because, I mean, I feel like the Timberwolves and the Nuggets are two teams two months ago that I would have said are championship contenders

that right now I haven't seen them play like championship contenders yet. They should have look, they should have brought back KCP and Mike Malone, Michael Malone, is he's justified. I mean, he's brought it up three times already this year. But KCP's not lighting it up in Orlando.

He's not, but it is the role that he played on that team, which is spacing out the floor and guarding the other team's best perimeter player every night. That's what he did, right? And Christian Brown hasn't been bad. I'm just saying it's not enough. I mean, look, you have the greatest player in the world. Unfortunately, Murray and Porter are two and three. And that's what you're asking me to count on.

And that's what I can't count on. There's something else that happened last night that it needs to be discussed. Not to mention they don't have depth. They don't have depth. No. Chris Dasporzeng is coming back for the Celtics. That seemed fast, didn't it? You know what?

Just a quick aside, watching Jha, I understand there are different injuries. and whatever, but watching Jha and Chris Hasporzingis play in games after extended time being out makes me look at Embed and be like, what happened to you? You know, because Embed's just out of shape, can't move, doesn't even look like himself. And then you watch Joddunk behind the back passes, KP's getting blocks, getting dunks running up and down the floor. Like, it really just makes me look in Embed like it looks like everybody else could kind of come back from injury and kind of hit the ground running except for you. But that's Celtics team didn't need any help. and as someone who's invested in the Knicks future,

that was terrifying. This isn't fair. Like, this just isn't. You see the first possession of the game? He hit three. Pick and pop three. It's not fair. Very concerned about this.

Well, I mean, in his case, he had surgery and came back. I just figured they were going to really nurse that and that he would be out a little bit longer. I didn't expect him to be back before we got to December. Well, the rumors have been that he's been doing a lot of work and he's been looking good. and everything's going. No setbacks. Like everyone's talking about it. You know,

they always show him before the game, getting the working during the game, you know, if you watch a broadcast. And he, he looked good, man. He looked, he looked good.

Like, and Bid's knees are shot, bro. Yeah, he's done. That's what it. It's just, it's,

it's a, it is a tolerance thing. What are you going to do? Cut on it again? It's a pain tolerance thing. Look, I have, I have,

I have covered guys like this before. And, I heard one of the guys that expressed real concern about the knee situation with MBE was Chandler Parsons, who I covered during his time in Memphis where he was never able to play. And Parsons is friends with him, number one. And number two, there's nobody that knows what it's like to go through horrendous knee problems than Chandler Parsons. I was like overnight with him. I mean, with Chandler Parsons on the Rockets was a key piece of a great.

great team. And then he signed for $90 million of Memphis and was never able to play. And it was like if it's not one knee, it's the other knee. And then the other one swells up. And then it's just, it's never going to be right. There's only so many times you can cut on the thing. And last year, you remember, they wouldn't even say he had like a surgery or anything. They just had had another procedure. And so that's what I just worry about. When I saw him trying to play in Memphis a week ago and I saw him with about what appeared to be 40 pounds of padding on that leg. And then they said he's going to sit out for two games, for maintenance, you know, to try to get it right. It's like, every time he plays, that thing's going to swell up.

It's just going to be, can you manage it, can you play with it or not? And we'll see. It was Chandler Parsons, I believe, shot to Michelle Beal and Lou Williams. They have a show on a Fandle Network, I believe, who said that they should shut him down for the year. Right. And when I said that, it felt a little hot takey, you know what I mean? But now that you mentioned his history of injury, that it does make a lot more sense, and it feels less sensational and more, like, actual advice for a friend.

He knows. Yeah. He tried. You know what I mean? He tried to play. And, I mean, after, you know, after one game, you look like you're in the potato sack race. One of your legs is just dragging around. And that's like what Embed looks like now, too. Stinks.

I promise you, if you want to know what horrible knee injuries feel like and dealing with them and the constant hassle of playing and then having to ice it down or whatever else, Taylor Parsons might be the foremost expert in the world. Nobody knows. And how can leaprod from one knee to the next because of your, You're imbalanced. Right. Sort of physiologically, yeah.

Right. One other thing I want to mention that took place last night, which is an under the radar story because they ended up losing the game. And it's not exactly like it's some kind of, so it is not some kind of massive nationally televised performance. But that is the Pacers playing against the Pelicans and the headlines are all going to be about. Halliburton. Yeah, I mean, he had nine threes.

It was close. Right after I talked about how I loathed him, he was my player I loathed last week. Now he's come out on fire and knocks down nine threes, which was as many as the entire New Orleans team. But I want to mention Alfred Payton. Yeah, you do. Because Elver Payton just set a new league-wide season high in assists last night with 21. in his third game back after two years in Puerto Rico and the G League.

God, I love to hear. What a story. Yeah. And I think that last time he had doubled to assist, he was with the Knicks, which was like, you know, an unforgettable sort of stretch of his career. But that, that Pacer's game, I had my eye on that Pacers game a little bit. I mean, there was more exciting games on. But I kept looking like, this is a little too close for comfort.

with the pelicans you know the pelicans everyone's hurt don't have anywhere to look for for buckets they got elfrid peyton playing after two years of being in like you said puerto rico in the g league and that that that that pacers game was a little too close for comfort but so here's one thing that has been discussed i want to get your take on berno haliburton's ineffectiveness on the road and effectiveness at home at this point there's enough of a sample size where this is not this is not like a fluky, it'll work itself out, regress to the mean over the course of the season thing. How real do you think that is? Would your theory or the theory be that he is enjoying being Tyrese Halliburton?

Oh, oh, you're really, you're stuck on that 50-cent video. That's what it is. You're still on that 50-cent video. I mean, why? What, oh, you think he likes sleeping in his own bed? I don't know what it is. There might be the familiarity, the routine, seeing the same people, whatever, sleeping your own bed, food and all that stuff.

Like, remember his, early in the season, there was this whole controversy about Steph Curry, told him the nap, the walk up groggy, the whole nap gate. You know what? I'm just going to say, I'm going to say what you tried to say last week. I find Halliburne to be kind of annoying personally. Like, just a different personality standpoint. I do. I thought it was annoying in the Nick series last year.

and the hard bottom shoes at Media Day. He's just got this kind of smiley, happy, go lucky, like kind of doing it for the cameras thing that comes off as a little inauthentic to me. I'm just going to say it. I do. Find him a little annoying. Sorry, Mr. Halliburton and the Allerton family.

Let me just speak one more thing on the Alfred Payton night. So he has 21 assist, and that's a season high. It's extreme number. I mean, teams, you know, team's goal, in many cases, to have 30. in a game. 30 in a game is a great night for your team to have 30 assisted baskets. And every time something like this happens and we see like, oh, that's the season high this

year. The guy had 21 assists. What an extreme number. It always reminds me that that assist record is like absolutely impossible to beat. Scott Skyles with 30 assists in 1990. God. Was that what you in the magic? Yes.

1990, Scott Skiles had 30 assists in the game. He broke Kevin Porter's record, which had been set in 1978. Oh, my God. All these numbers, and we get so freaky with so many of these different numbers, every year, both during the regular season and the postseason, we see the last guy to do this and the last guy to do that, the last guy. And approaching this has not even taken place. So to wit, you have Skiles with 30 in a game in 1990. Kevin Porter had 29 in 1978.

John Stockton. I was going to say we're Stockton, yeah. A 28 assist game in 1991. Guy Rogers, a 28 assist game in 1963. Bob Coozy, 1959, and then another Stockton, Jeff Hudson in 1982, and then another Stockton at 26. Like, the last time, we've had one guy take a run at that Skiles record, which was John Stockton, and that was literally two weeks.

after Skiles did it. Skiles did it. So he was probably, he's probably wanting to, right? He's probably mad at that. I think at some point you kind of have to turn your attention towards the record.

If you get to around 20, you start, I think you play the game a little differently. So this is the one I want to see. This is the one. I want to see, we had, we had,

Alfred Payton have 21 last night. I want to see somebody take a run at this. We haven't had anybody take a run at this. We haven't had, I mean, just listed off. 26 was John Stockton in 1988.

I don't know who's. I'm trying to think who. Who would be the person? I don't know who could do it. You have to have scoring around you. And you have to sort of like intentionally do this. And you have to have a lot of possession. You have to play with pace.

Oh, God. I mean, Halliburton, the annoying one, according to you, might have a chance at it. Aliburton? Yeah, he might have a chance. Yeah, they play with Pace. No, I don't know. I just want somebody to take a run at this

because you see Alfred Pateen's number last night and you realize that's not even close. And of all the records that we have in the NBA, that's the one that nobody takes a run at. I'm trying to think. That might be unbreakable. 30 is so crazy. 30 is like a great team number.

Scott, Scott. And you know what? I need Tom Havversrow to go back and watch all 30. Scott Skiles assist and tell me it's phony. Tom, if you're listening, got a little homework. Go on, Doc. It's upshare somewhere you can find it.

We got, go find the tape. Same way that all those Jordan steals were phony. Surely the, there's no way all 30 should be, should count. No. What happened with the, how come no one did, were we just laissez-faire about these, assist totals. You were just handing out assist no matter what, right? Scott Sciles is throwing it to a guy.

He dribbles it 15 times and then shoots a jumper and then Scott Sciles the or it's just like an entry pass to someone who dribbles five times and then takes a jump hook. You have nothing to do with creating the basket whatsoever. Nothing. Scott Skyles' assist record is phony.

I can see it now. It's click baity, but it's good. We have to do a male pattern baldness all-star team at some point because Skyles and Stockton in the back court there. You've got Manu on the wing, LeBron, you know, I'll tell you this, and you got some young bucks in the league that are taking a run at it.

I saw Taylor, Horton Tucker the other night. Dregler comes to mind. Suggs, there's a reason. Sometimes you see the big, thick headband, there's a reason. Suggs is not wearing that to keep the sweat out of his eyes. Horton Tucker looks like somebody's uncle. He does.

I swear he was like a rookie on the Lakers like three years ago. And LeBron took it out of him. him. Yeah, he really did. He really did. That's probably what happened. Some of his transplants LeBron had, he saw those transplants LeBron had put in game from Morton Tucker. That's part of the deal. Makes a quarter three, MF. Or see in the doctor's office tomorrow.

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call 1-800 gambler or visit rg dash help.com. All right, let's get to our topic of the week, which is things we cannot believe. All right. Four things each that we cannot believe about this NBA season so far. I'm going to let you tee off. So you didn't share yours with me,

but somebody tells me there's not going to be too much, too much intersection of these two circles. I'm going to start a little chalk here. I can't believe the only good thing happening with the Sixers is Jared McCain. I just cannot believe it. With a team that has Tyrese Maxie, Paul George, and Joelle M.B., the only good thing that's happening is Jared McCain. They have three wins on the season.

McCain's last nine games, 18, 27, 20, 33, 34, 29, 20, 20, 30, and 18. He's shooting exactly 40% from three, right? 40 for 100. This is a number that I found interesting. We were just talking about all the assists. 82% of those three-point shots are assisted. So if you look at someone like my guy La Mello Ball,

it's probably like 14% to our assist. Let's be honest. Zero percent. Maybe a couple. maybe a couple of an offensive rebound or something. But his, he's been well documented what he does, right? And I'm never going to fix my lips and make a Steph Curry comparison,

but just the energy and the offball movement. And just I do not want to cover that man. I do not want to cover him on a basketball court. It just looks exhausting. And obviously, I can't believe part isn't that Jared McCain is a good basketball player. It's just how bad this team is. and you've seen pretty much every minute of every grizzlies game. They have not been healthy, but they're still winning games.

Like the Mavs, without Donjic, won a game this weekend. Like, teams get through difficult stretches in the season when they're missing key players. And the Sixers have absolutely not even shown a hint of that, not even a hint of that. Because they had Maxie for a while, but they're just overworked to him that he's out. And then George, you saw what a collective 17 minutes of the three of them playing together.

If that, it's just been embarrassing. It's a leadership thing too. Yeah. A lot of that, when you see teams that are able to keep it going in the absence of their players, a lot of times it's obviously everybody pulling the same rope and playing together as a team. But it is also that a lot of times the guys that are out, they're not despondent. They're totally engaged with the team, and it is about the team. It is not about just them individually.

And so they're still the ones speaking up. They're still the ones coaching guys, right? When I watch over the weekend, just because you brought up the team that I'm around all time, when I watch over the weekend, John Morant constantly going over to Scotty Pippen saying, attack, attack, attack. And then it ends up with the guy having a 30 point 10 assist game in Chicago. It's like whether he's playing or not, he's engaged. When I see Marcus Smart going over to Jalen Wells and saying when he's driving baseline, do this and this, like having those guys engaged and being part of the greater good,

though they're not a part of what, you know, the activity every night. And look, say whatever you want. the one thing we know about that team is that one of their younger players called out their franchise player for not even being it stuff. I know. Another team that comes to mind like that is the Thunder.

You know, they've missed Jalen Williams for a large stretch. They miss the other Jalen Williams for a couple of games. And when you see that, it looks like a, I mean, their chemistry is well documented, but it just seems like the people that are out are contributing and very, very much engaged. And it just feels like the saga

of the Sixers this season is not just not that. It seems like when Embedithes out, he's actually detrimental to the success of the team. Seriously. And McCain is like this light amongst the total malaise. Because

I mean, it is shocking that a guy that is that prolific at singing and dancing on TikTok is that awesome. Can I just do my old guy TikTok thing for a second? Those things would typically not

line up. You would think, like, isn't he set up exactly to be the guy like, yeah, maybe you should get all freaking TikTok, right? Oh, Jeremy Cates, one for eight from three again. Yeah, well, you spend a lot less time doing your stupid videos and getting in the gym. And it's like, somehow this guy has the time to be awesome on social media and be awesome at basketball. So everyone tells me how prolific he is on TikTok. So I go check him out and I watch some of the videos. I'm just going to be old guy. Give me old. Give me. give 30 seconds of old guy watching TikTok, okay? Please.

I'm not impressed by this dancing. It seems like you barely move your feet, number one, and it seems like it's not cool to try, so everyone just kind of like goes through the movements, kind of like half-ass. Like, I'm not impressed by this whole generation's quote-unquote dances, right? They're choreographed. You're stealing it from someone else.

You add no sauce of your own, and they look like air traffic controllers. They're just doing hand movements. They look like the guy at the airport who tells the plane to move to the left of the right and to shut off the engine or whatever. Like they don't even dance. All right.

Old guy watching TikTok, rant is over. Let me interject here. So I'm watching the Cowboys Commanders football game on Sunday, which is a great game, though, less. Super exciting. So there's this guy that starts making all these plays as a defensive back for Dallas.

Now, I'm a Dallas fan, and I'm like, who the hell is this guy? They say, Butler with that other pass breakup. And I'm like, who is Butler? Like, what is going on? This is bizarre. And so then they say at one point, Kevin Burkart, or whoever's calling the game, he's like, he last played in college five years ago. And I'm like, what is going? What?

Alfred Payton? I'm like, so I go and look him up. I'm like, who is this guy? This guy's like making place. He's like, like knocking down passes to Noah Brown and Terry McLaren. And I'm like, who are you? This is your team, too. Like, you're not just watching a random game.

Like, I don't know the backup cornerback for like the Seahawks. I don't even know who this is. So I said to my son, I said, William, who is this guy? He's like, I got no idea. I'm like, all right. They just said he blast played in college five years ago. Do we just find the guy on the street? So I go and look it up, and it's like he played five years ago at Michigan State or whatever it was.

And then he's played in like the USFL and some other like leagues and whatnot. And I guess he was on the practice squad and had a decent preseason. And he's on the practice squad. He's activated. And there he is. And he's like making these big pass breakups on third downs and stuff. And then I'm scrolling down, I'm reading about the guy. And I'm like, okay.

So he just didn't go up in his dream and whatever. And then I get down to the last line and it says, Butler is known for his 3.2 million TikTok followers. And I was like, hold on. Did we just find, did we find a corner off TikTok? In between Jared McCain and this guy breaking up passes, like maybe this is the new frontier.

Maybe he can go. Yeah. His name is Josh Butler. And he for real has three million followers on TikTok. And it's like music, fashion and something else. And I'm like, this is the, this is 2024, honestly. Yeah, you know, none of the rookies ever go to the combines anymore, they just go to TikTok now.

You know, we don't need to go to the combine. We'll be a TikTok. Find my measurables there. All right. The first thing I can't believe, I can't believe the Cavs 17 and one start isn't being treated like a massive deal. That's a great point. It's not.

It's not. This is the best start that we have had since the 93-94 Rockets, which is a team that won the title. The offense, unbelievable, defense, great. And only the 15-16 warriors had a better start. And the 15-16 warriors were crazy. And the captain's crazy. Like people thought it was cheating. how good their roster was, that it was unfair.

People still resent Kevin Durant to this day. And so you have really one thing that improved the team massively, and that's the head coach. But they're now 17 and 1, and they have a 12.4, now, now. rating so far this season, okay, 12.4. That means they have outscored their opponents on average by 12 points a game. The best net rating in the history of basketball is the 95-96 Bulls, which was 13.4.

Number two, and again, I get it, we're only through 18 games. But it's this year's Cavs. this year's calves is wedged between the 95-96 bulls, the 96-97 war, I'm sorry, 96-97 bulls, and the 2016-17 Warriors, and then last year, Celtics. But, I mean, they're second right now in terms of net rating. So not only, it's one thing to have been 17 and 1 to your first 18 games. not on national TV a ton,

not a bunch of, not any really household names. I mean, Donovan Mitchell is certainly the biggest name on that team. No one in the MVP conversation, and they've only lost one game. And yet they are doing this. Not only are they 17 and 1,

like the rate in which they're doing it is historic, the way in which they are beating people's asses and having a net rating of 12.4 through the first 18 games this season. I just feel like it has not gotten enough love. Like that's, it's not headline news everywhere. It was that Celtics game that was nationally televised.

I know. When they were truly undefeated, there was a momentum, and it was sort of like a national story. And then that game was closer than you remember, because the Celtics kind of jumped out really hot in the first half. But the Cavs crawled back into that thing, and we all just sort of said,

Oh, Hohom, the Celtics are still the sort of cream of the crop of the east. The Cavs, great start, cute story, but, you know, they still got to get over the mountain top, still can't beat the Celtics. And I think that has diminished this accomplishment from this team. And you mentioned that they didn't really make any big moves outside of the head coach. But what they did do is got Ty Jerome back and got a healthy Darius Garland back, which have made a big difference. I saw Ty Jerome hit nine threes in the first half of a game like a week and a half ago, bro.

geez, Louise. And let me correct myself because that 15, 16 warriors didn't have Durant yet. No, they lost, and then they picked them up after that. It was still Harrison Barnes. That was a 73 and 19. Yeah. That was, you know,

one of my favorite games. Still, amazing start to the season and a team that went on to win 73 games. But it is, it is a good point from you just as someone who pays a lot of attention to how the league is covered. Like, are we got a team with one loss? They've lost one. One game.

Well, and to me, to me, it's almost more impressive to do it now as someone who's at games constantly throughout the year. The variance of this stuff is crazy. You know, if you, the Nets beat the Warriors last thing. But I'm saying these teams shoot 45 threes and some nights they make 10 of them. And then the night that they make 20 of them, you're smoked. Yeah. And so I actually think it's harder to be 17 and 1 than it has been in the past because the game has gotten pretty sterilized where everybody's trying to look for the same things. They're looking for corner threes or looking for rim runs.

And, you know, even the bad teams are shooting sometimes 40, 53s. I mean, those nights that they make 20, you're not going to beat them. And so that speaks to how unbelievable it is, honestly, to be 17 and 1 through 18 games. You know, I think that people watch them get boat raced against the Celtics in the playoffs last year, but they were not healthy. They didn't have Jared Allen. They didn't have Donovan Mitchell. Like, you know, they were not healthy. But when I'm watching KP in the Celtics last night, I like their black uniforms.

They look good. And that was kind of scary as someone who's, you know, who's got some hopes for the Eastern Conference playoffs. but the Cavs have a good matchup for that team. I really believe so. We needed the Cavs too because of what's happened with the Bucks and the Sixers. Yes. And the Knicks, let's be honest. The Knicks don't look like a powerhouse,

and they're playing better than they did the first 10 games. But the Cavs, the Eastern Conference having, what, five teams over 500 is pretty surprising. But it's not I can't believe surprising. But here's what I can't believe, Ferno. I can't believe that we were right about the rockets. I can't believe it because I'm not usually right. I'm usually wrong. And you were with me on this one.

Believe in E-M-A. I mean, look, they tad the trajectory of you're usually flirting with 500 and then you can take a step up. Mm-hmm. And obviously, they're doing it with defense. And one of my concerns about this team, this roster, defensively in particular, was not the wings, not the point of attack, it was around the rim. And Alpern Sengun, Shengun has really,

it's team defense, but he has individually sort of quelled some of those concerns of mine because of how well he's playing. And just their defensive philosophy is, it's just a swarm. It's just an absolute swarm. of switches and pressure and suffocating you with the three point line and then staying in front of you when you try to drive. I think they give up.

I don't have the numbers in front of you, but they just don't let you shoot threes. They really don't let you shoot threes. And then the other side of the ball, I didn't know this until I looked at it. They've got seven guys in double figures. That's like 11 points and above. Seven.

Seven. Usually don't see that in a box score. And we've talked about it throughout the year, man. it is just absolute havoc when Ethan and Thompson come in the game as a tandem. They started calling them the terror twins on the broadcasts. The terror twins?

The terror twins, yeah, which I like as a twin dad. So they do a lot. Do you, when you watch a Houston broadcast, are they still doing the weird angle? No, I think they're showing it from. I haven't seen that. I think they have a camera. there, but they go to it less.

And they know exactly what you mean. Yeah, that corner. It's like a corner. It almost looks like you're looking like a video game. Yeah, you're midway up in the corner. It drives me crazy. Yeah, because we're so conditioned to that sort of 50-yard line, high-high camera angle that's zoomed in.

But those two, I've seen at least four or five times when both Eason and Thompson have tried to block the same shots. You know, they look like defensive backs. It's just like, I've seen multiple times where they both try to block the exact same field goal attempt. And there's swarm around with boundless energy. I love this Rockets team and it's not one of those teams. Sort of like the pistons we discussed earlier that you like, but doesn't necessarily always translate to the win-loss column. They're fun to watch.

They're third in the West right now. I don't think they'll stay there. But they're third in the Western Conference right now. They're fun to watch. Really fun to watch. If you tune them in, it's fun to watch. So here's something I wanted to get your take on, Bruno, about this team. They have, like I said, seven players averaging a double figures.

One of those is your guy, Dylan Brooks. And there's the discussion around this team is do they do a consolidation trait, right, for whoever it is. Do you see that happening? Do you see that as a good idea? Or could you see it going kind of like how the Brooklyn Nets went when they had all this young, fun core that was winning games and exceeding expectations? And next thing you know, you got Kyrie and KD, and it all just falls apart. I mean, this is a cop out because it's always depends on the player.

Of course. I don't think a consolidation, I think they've got so many players that even if you consolidate, you still will have depth. I mean, there's guys on their team that are lower down the totem pole, that I think could help other teams still and say Jay Sean Tate, right? Yeah. I've always liked him. I've always like Jay Sont Tate.

There's guys that they're not even getting minutes for that probably can play. Cam Whitmore went down to the G League, right? So I think they're a team that, like, a lot of times when you say consolidate, it's like I don't want to sacrifice my depth because if there's one thing we have learned about teams throughout this NBA season thus far, it's that having depth has become almost like the new money ball. Look at the teams that we're talking about. Look at the performances they're getting from guys off of their bench.

And as they go deeper and how many teams are playing, you know, 10, 12 guys a night. And why we're talking about the night the buddy healed had, or the night that... Chavano healed, please. Yeah, Chavano healed. Or the night that Ty Jerome had. Or the night that, right, like on and on and on.

And you see... And it also helps you be able to withstand injuries as well. And so I think I would not want to sacrifice much of my depth. But honestly, I don't think a consolidation for them. I think a consolidation could be a three for one, and you still keep your depth intact. I don't think it has to be some kind of, you're right, or maybe even a three for two. Like, yes, I think that in order for them to compete at the highest level, right, if you want to say, like, hey, we want to win right now, not just, hey, we want to take the next step, which has become a playoff team, but we want to be able to truly compete in the playoffs.

we want to be able to be in the win a round in the playoffs and and and play in that next round um at that point yeah i mean you probably an upgrade uh is not the craziest thing but i'm also not against having these young guys you know figure it out and go in and take their lumps i mean i think you're still in the evaluation of okay what is our core that we're building out around guys, because you've got to start thinking about this, right? The same way that Oklahoma City thought about it and goes, okay, Giddy's the one. He's the one that's not, right? Because there's, there's going to, they've already paid, they've already given the contract to Green.

They've already given the contract to Shengoon. But you still got Javari coming down the pike. You've got Yasson coming down the pike. You've got Thompson coming down the pike, like all of those. at some point. So you're trying to decide even now, like it's still evaluation phase, but which of these guys,

how many of these guys are we committing to long term? And who's the core? I'm a little concerned about their center depth. You know, obviously I love Stephen Adams. I know you love Stephen Adams. I know you love Stephen Adams. It's more grizzly. Yeah. But, you know, he has trouble staying on the court.

And then they're looking at like Jock Laundale. And this team did play well without Schengun last year. But I don't. I don't know if that, if a Stephen Adams, Jack Laundale combination in a very switchy defense. I don't know. It's still better. It's still better options than a lot. Sure.

Look around the league. It's not exactly a haven for backup centers. No, except for Portland Troubles. That's it. They've got them all. All right. Next one. I'll do Lamello.

I can't believe Lamello founder coach that lets him do. pretty much anything he wants to do. I mean, we talk about Lamello every episode of this show. He's second in the NBA and scoring. He's averaging 30 points a game. I was texting. I was on text with some of my friends

shot at the Cookies Hoops podcast. I was like, Lamello is the most impressive losing basketball performer I've seen in a long time. You know, he had 50 and 39, both in losses. The league needs this so badly, though, because with Lamello and then what I saw with Jha last night. I saw this clip yesterday.

It was BJ Armstrong and he was lamenting what the NBA had become, which is frankly what every former player does. But I actually, I thought he made some very good points. And one of the things he was saying was his gripe was when I, you know, Armstrong's an agent. He said, but when I talk to GMs and when I talk to this, guy when I talked to the analytics guys, they all say, they tell me the two point shot is a bad shot

and that they're trying to get corner threes. They're trying to generate. Oh, I saw that clip. You saw this, right? Yeah. And he said, and what's happened is, we've taken so much creativity out of the game

because it's like robots playing. Everybody's trying to do the same thing. Everybody's trying to get a paint, touch, kick out, swing, swing three, right? And so as I'm watching that, And then I watch Morant highlights where he's just doing the wildest crap you've ever seen and has got a flare about him. And then you see LaMello who is playing a different game than every other guy on the court.

Like he's literally trying moves. The one I sent you last night. The Batazi. He just made that up on the spot. He just didn't drill that. He does not drill that little lean-in thing. Leave the ball behind me. It's like he's skipped to my loo or something.

Or he's like he's at Chino Hills. Or like I've said, he really plays like there's 10,000 chicks in the crowd. Like the marriage of him finding a coach in Charles League, it's like you've let you've let him out of his case. He was playing for Steve Clifford, who you know detested all of that. But it's gone so far the other way where there's no bad shot. and you can, he can clearly just greenlight everything. Do you know, he is taking 13 threes a game?

Bro. He is shooting 13 threes a game. Four of those, four of those are off one foot, Verno. Four of those threes are off. What was it again? One foot. One foot. Lebella has Paté autumn.

What was that? And he turns a ball over. Like, you know, his assister turnover ratio stinks. It's like seven assists, four point four turnovers. But I'll be damn, man, you tune it in. And combination of coach that allows player to do whatever and announcer that just goes absolutely bonkers over everything. Eric Roberts, it's the best.

It truly. It is. It's one of the best shows in the NBA right now. And again, like, they need to get him on national TV. Yeah. Unless you are too. this in, you can't believe it. I'm telling you, this guy does whatever the F he wants.

It's wild. I just always wanted, like, what would happen if he was on a different team? You know what I mean? Like, what would happen if it doesn't just like, hey, man, not only here are the keys to the car, like, here's the keys, here's the registration, here's the key to the house. I'm not going to be back for three months. You know what I mean? Like, I just wonder what would happen if he could dial it back to a more sort of traditional

style of play on a more successful team with other scores around him. It makes me want to go back and watch the game that he got benched in because he must have just done the most agrees of stuff. Yeah, it's like, I'm getting benched now. If you see the previous 14 games, now I'm being benched in Brooklyn. Right. If he just started spitting the ball like a Globetrotter like on his finger in the middle of the game. It wouldn't surprise me.

No, no. I think he's going to be like Larry Bird and just play a game left-handed one day, just for funzies. Why not? He's one of the greatest shows. This is, um, here's one of my, I can't believes. And I've been down a little rabbit hole. The algorithm served me a video of a basketball contest that blew my mind. And ever since, I've been doing some research on this. And I'm glad to share it with you on the podcast. I can't believe the lack of passion NBA atmospheres and fans have when compared to Euro League games.

I am shocked. Oh, stop. No, you're not. I was sent a video. I can't even say the name. It's a Serbian team. It's Red Star. They're Belgrade.

It's like Svenna. I don't know. I can't say this. Were they on fireworks in the arena? You can't believe this. There's like, they're not holding. sparklers, they're holding like flares. Like it's like explosions and like storming the court.

The entire court is shaking. There's coordinated like sort of like the like it's almost like the opening ceremony at the Olympics before some of these games. And you can't tell me like, oh, it's because there's 82 games in the regular season and the players don't care. Well, guess what? I watched the NBA finals and it can't hold, it can't literally cannot hold a candle to the fireworks that they have going off in these games. The chance, the signs, the signs are like four stories high. It's nuts. They have to have protective glass around the players for projectiles.

You know what you've ever watched like the Yokic brothers at a game? Imagine 40,000 Yokic brothers. That's what it looks like. It's nuts. It is nuts. And then you see these guys when they do the intros. It's always like some guy you saw in college. Like some dude from America who's looking up in the stands being like, like, what?

How did my career put me in this spot right here right now? It is shocking. Okay. Part of that is what is allowed. In fact, a massive part of it is what is allowed. Allow me to tell you, I was at a game last night where at one point they stopped the game, had someone come out on the court like Ed Beloy is like looking down at the ground. He's like here.

And then all of a sudden the kid with the mop comes out. He starts mopping up, whatever. But it's like it like mid-court. And no one's fallen. And so then they're like, what's going on? I mean, this is like taking like two or three minutes. And then they look over to the other side. And Ed Malloy points down.

And there's like another spot. Okay? There's another spot on the ground. Waves the kid over. Kid comes out there, mops it up. Now there's somebody else that's out on the court. All of a sudden, I see all this security. start walking down.

It's like a damn SWAT team. They're all on their headsets. They're all like they're looking on a video to see if they can find the fan. There are two pieces of ice on the floor. Meanwhile in Serbia, they're letting on bombs. Actual bombs. Bro, I watched this. The game was so boring at one point, right?

Or they're just running out on Portland. My whole attention is now at security trying to, get wired down after there's video replay of who threw ice from the stands. Two cubes of ice, Jacoby. And all of a sudden, I see the security like they go and talk to a guy that's in the stands. And they're like, could you come with us? And now they're like walking up the stairs with them. And I'm like, what is happening?

What is happening? So when you say, oh, wow, I can't believe that the Euro League, they're shooting. off flares and friggin bottle rockets in an arena. I watched the guy, I watched them have a full-ass investigation in the middle of a game onto how a piece of ice got on the court.

It's just see these videos. I'll say, I've seen them. They're nuts. They're nuts, bro. Like, I'm telling you, the arena is shaking. And, like, the coordinated,

the singing and, like, the pre-game, the pre-jump ball, just like jumping up and down in each other's arms. It's like, what those things? We'd be like, I'm not bringing my son to the game. No chance.

No chance. Am I bringing my son to the game? I like you. It's a culture thing. All right. Next thing I can't believe. Oh, you're going to love this. I can't believe that we could have an argument

whether we would take Zion in the top five in the 2019 redraft. No. There's no argument. Hold on. So we're going to redraft it. So now you get him from this point on. Okay.

Okay. You get him from this point on. We're going to set aside. He's 24 years old, by the way. Okay. But they have announced again that he's out for a long time. So we're sending aside John Morant and Darius Garland. Those are 100 million percenters, right?

You would draft both of those guys in a region. All right. R.J. Barrett had a great game recently. Okay. Hold on. You tell me where the list stops for you. Tyler Hero? I'd take him over Zion.

Right now. Yeah. RJ Barrett? To have the career moving forward? Yes, yes. Without question. From this day forward. Tyler here.

We're taking salary into account. Yeah. Do you want, you get this player going forward from today. I'm taking Tyler Hero. I'm taking R.J. Barrett. Kobe White? I'm taking Garland.

I'm taking. Marant. Okay, so that's five. Jukobi White. You mean? Jacob White. All right. Now we're going to, now we're going to really test you.

Kobe White, Kobe White gets interesting because when Zion is right, which is rare, but when he is right, he can be pretty electric. Okay, so you're a little toward it Kobe White. Yeah.

You're 100% on R.J. Barrett and Hero. Just because of for health reasons. I mean, Heroes missing time. Those guys are available. They're going to play. Zion is not going to play. He's not going to play in the game. You're done too.

You do not think there's any chance. He gets change of scenery, dedication, and by the time he's 27, he does fulfill the prophecy that he is one of the best players in the world. No, I'm telling you that is guaranteed to happen

for two months until his hamstring tweaks, and then he's just going to go right back to the bench. He will have stretches in the rest of his career where he is an all-star level best player on the team player, but it just will not be a long stretch and it will not be enough time

to sort of allocate the resources that it takes to have him on your roster. All right, we're down to it. It doesn't make sense. Kobe White or Zion? Who's next? You've got the fifth pick

and I'm telling you, Morant Garland, Hero, and RJ are off the board. Mm-hmm. Oh, we're having meetings. I'm talking to doctors. Kobe White or Zion? Kobe White's a consistent player is available.

is Jacoby White, by the way. Jacobi. Jacobi White or Zion? Who's next? Because that was close. PJ Washington? No, I'm taking Zion. Ty Jerome?

He's the 24th pick. I'm taking time. I'm taking time. How excited are you for that Ty, Jerome, Peyton, Pritchard six man of the year battle? Oh, God. Who would have thought it? Oh, gosh. the Celtics game.

Watching the Celtics game, it was Scowl and I forgot who the other guy who does it. He said, Pritch better have my money after he did three. That's so perfect. The Scal said, baby, what you owe me.

I'm sure they do this often. I don't watch that, that duo that much, but that made me laugh. You like Pritch better have my money. There's a lot of ways you can go if you start replacing that word. Do you think we are, does that make it feel extremely distant from Tommy Hineson?

You don't think Tommy Hineson? would have said, Rich better have my money. Probably not. Probably not. Probably not. But like, that would have been the most viral clip in the history of basketball

if Tommy Hineson would have said, Mr. Mr. Better have my money. Mike Gorman and Tommy Hineson. Rich better have my money. All right. Your last thing that you can't believe.

My last thing that can't believe is, I just, I just can't believe the Drake sued universal music group yesterday. Because he sued the Universal Music Group saying that they made not like us more popular than it was, that it was all bots and Siri and misdirections and no one really liked not license us. His career isn't really over. It's almost like, it's seriously like, please don't run up the score on me. It's like when a football coach gets mad when they lose by 35.

It's like, what are we doing? I'm being honest because you know more, you know more famous people than I do. who could possibly be advising him? Thank you. That that's a good idea. You could have the absolute, you could have videotape of someone pushing the button or making the deal or writing the check or dropping the double bag.

You could have proof, proof, proof, proof. But the PR reputation hit that you take when you do this is not worth it. Whatever you're going to get back being like, Mom, Dad, Kendrick's not that good. It's not true. Everyone still loves me. Like, no, dude, no. They're not like us.

They not like us. They're not like us. Okay, let's just say, let's just say, best case scenario. If you're his buddy, this is what I would say. Your best case scenario, I guess, since you're going to do this stupid thing, is that we find out that they actually did inflate the song. Yeah, yeah, okay. Nobody cares.

Nobody cares. And it doesn't make the song any less good. It doesn't, they're not, this is like when the, like, after a game, this is, we'll bring this back to the NBA. It's like after the game when someone, like, files a protest, like, Darryl Morey, like, writes the league or something. You know what I mean? It's like, you lost.

It's over. You lost the game. They're not going to go back and say, you know what? Two-minute report says that you actually did win the beef, Drake. You're right, Aubrey. No. On the same day, when he did. just came out with an album, what are you doing?

And now everybody's just going to make fun of you for that. It's not hard to make fun of either. Right. Like, what are you doing? I can't believe that. It's an objective. Thank you. It doesn't have to be inflated.

I've got twin nine-year-old girls that love the song. They're twin nine-year-old girls that listen to YouTubers and Sabrina Carpenter. And when that song comes on in the car, they sing, along. Whop, wop, wop, wop,

like, come on. Squabble up. Squabble up. Squabble up. Squabble up. All right. My last one is,

I can't believe that we have now switched up to J.J. Reddick, but the Nuggets still absolutely owned the Lakers. 13 of 14. Like,

at some point it has to, like something has to make a difference. And they just smacked them around. And then I see all the stuff after the game. And it's like, oh boy, here's, here's JJ now catching the Darwin Hab heat because it's what you're starting to realize is when he goes out there and he's got Austin Reeves and Cam Reddish alongside Rui Hachamora, LeBron, and Anthony Davis.

And it's like, I don't like, I'm trying to get. somebody that can get steps. He's already had it with D. Lo. So that, that, that, I talked to him more than any player, all off season.

And that was good. It's like, look, I'm not here to defend Darvin Ham. What I am here to say is, you're now seeing JJ Redick having to go through it. And it's like, we're already to changing up the lightups.

You remember it was like, yeah, well, uh, Darwin Ham, it didn't work out well. And part of the reason was because, like how about you just play

the lineup that made the West finals and people killed him all year for not Delo Reeves, Ruy LeBron 80 we're not even 20 games into the season it's like here we're doing Cam Reddish again

we're doing we can't have Delo and Reeves together and it's like well I thought that was a rea I thought that was a Darvin Ham thing. Because right now, they are 27th. No. In defense. No.

27th. They're fourth in offense. They are 27th in defense. And it's like, okay, how is this going to look? Are they going to be able to change it up now? They got the new coach, got, you know, and they got this new offense that's had great success. And then the Nuggets. though they don't take every game seriously, obviously.

They have lives outside of basketball. They have lives outside of basketball. They decided to take that one seriously. And then had Russell Westbrook posting the aforementioned, not like us, and him doing an Instagram video dancing to not like us. After he got booed in crypto. But look, I mean, you're seeing, you're seeing JJ already get frustrated, talking about how they don't compete.

And it's like, I mean, look, nobody needs to apologize to Darvinham, but I find it very fascinating that you have now someone who's way better than Darwinham, according to the first, you know, 10 games of the season and every Laker fan in the world. But it's like, okay, are we now going to, now we're going to talk about like the real roster problem you have?

I've said it before. I'm going to get sick of saying it. Who can get you a stop? It's not Anthony Davis. Right. Like who's a plus defensive player? That's not Anthony Davis. I mean, LeBron, when he tries, like LeBron in the playoffs, I guess, sure.

But, you know, that's a few and far between. Those are spurts. But they just don't have, like, a perimeter defender that can get you a stop, that can disrupt an offense, that can get in the way. So you better have the four best offense. But he got, I mean, look, part of the reason Ham got beat up last year is because it's like, they made the West Finals and they bailed on it. And you remember there was that proclamation

before the season ever even started. My starting lineup is DeAngelo Russell, Austin Reeves, Rui Acha Mura, Anthony Davis, LeBron Jay. And Laker fans and everyone else in the Free World went, oh, thank you God. It was July. It was July.

What was this Tarine Prince Madness last year? And he's bailed out of it already. It's interesting. Crazy. Crazy. It's interesting. Are they going to blame JJ? No.

I think JJ is a darling. The thing I'm getting a little tired of, and I like JJ, I don't know him that well personally. He's not in my phone or anything, but I see him around the office when I was at ESPN and he was there too. You know, if you listen to him, do media, you know that he's a very engaging, intelligent, and fun guy to be around. He just checks all the boxes. But remember, there was a, he was a. at the car wash and he was watching film. Someone like filmed him watching film while he was at the car wash. And then after a loss, he says, I'm going to go to a dark place. Like, what do you mean by that?

He's like, well, I'm going to go in my basement and watch the game again. This like, JJ takes the loss's really hard narrative workaholic thing is like, I know we joke about it. Maybe you should have a live outside basketball. You know what I mean? Like, you know, get a hobby, dude. Like, I don't know. Do something. I know you got a family. Like, you know, get away from it for a little bit. You got assistant coaches. You got all that. We'll see. Look,

they put out a lot of content, the JJ Reddick related content. Like, oh my God, you were talking about Instagram. I could not get away from the, how awesome is this? Don't connect asking JJ Reddick

for his pregame shooting routine. And I'm like, I mean, everybody jerking off to that. Like, what do you expect them to? I mean, what?

But wait, wait, wait, of course he asked him. Do you know when they're going to start climbing the defensive ranks? Bring Brony back. You need Brony. They're Brony away. They are Brony away from turning this whole thing around. You know that. I thought it was Vando.

No, no. Fanderbillian. Brony, Brony, he's a defender. He's a defender. You've seen his G-League stats? By the way, Vanderbilt is ruined forever for me after, after Anthony Davis. yelled at him you hadn't played in two F and years.

I know. I thought he was going to be a real contributor. Every time I see Vanderbilt, all I think about is Anthony Davis yelling at if they hadn't played in two years. Well, two years from now, we'll be saying that about Brony. Dang, dog. You know, one of the things I can't believe is just how little of a story that became. I thought it would go like this, but I'm kind of glad it meant like this.

I'm glad that we're not discussing Brony anymore because we spent a lot of time, a lot of time talking about him this summer. I'm glad I went like this for him I'm glad I went like this for the conversation I'm glad I went like this for the media go away get better come back later turn around the lake for season want everybody out there

to have an unbelievable Thanksgiving enjoy the time with your family we are off on Friday so we will resume early next week I want to wish everybody a great Thanksgiving and thanks so much for stick it with us and listen to the mismatches

as we started off this season. Seasons off to a good start. Yeah. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always, and Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week. See next week. Must be 21 and over in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino,

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