The Mismatch - Thunder Humbled, Knicks Embarrassed, Edgecombe Madness, and Six Questions to Start 2026

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

Verno and Jacoby are back with their first pod of 2026 as they look back at Monday’s night action, including blowout losses by the Thunder and Knicks and Kevin Durant beating his old team, and debate whether the Clippers are starting to turn it around. Next, the guys ask three questions each to start the new year. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch! (00:22) Thunder lose second straight, get blown out by Hornets (12:38) Kevin Durant hits the game-winning 3 as the Rockets beat Suns (16:20) Depleted Nuggets survive vs. Sixers (26:50) Clippers win a wild one vs. Warriors (33:12) Pistons completely embarrass the Knicks (38:25) Trae Young and the Hawks working on a trade (49:14) Verno and Jacoby's questions no. 1 (58:14) Verno and Jacoby's questions no. 2 (01:09:11) Verno and Jacoby's questions no. 3 Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producers: Jessie Lopez and Stefan Anderson Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every week from the Ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Verno, what's going on with the Thunder? I mean, should they just tank and call it a gap year and just sort of, you know, they're going to have a lot,

they've got a lot of draft picks coming up. Should they just sort of give up on this year and just treat it as a gap year like the Warriors did when Steph got hurt? And then to sort of like re-engage with the league next season. We had a totally historic moment last. night. Just for a reference point, Action Network put this up last night. NBA teams as 15 plus underdogs since 2006 have been 20 and 381. 401 times a team has been a 15 plus

point underdog. And last night, this applied because the Hornets were 15 and a half point underdogs. And not only did they win, they won outright and smashed the thunder. Oh, they didn't just win outright. I know.

It wasn't close. That was a blowout win. SGA sat the fourth quarter, not because they were ahead because they were behind. Listen, I'm not going to sit here and be like the Thunder, you know, are not championship favorites or not the best team in the league. But what we've seen in the last couple weeks is the manifestation of problems that they've had for the last couple years, but now it's just coming to the forefront. Rebounding,

hitting threes, half court offense, relying too much on SGA. Like their last few losses, those demons have come out from underneath the bed and are now terrorizing them. So I thought on the crazy take, you were going to, I didn't know you were going to go. go with, should they just tank for a draft? I was just joking. I thought, I know, the better one is, did Jalen Williams screw up the thunder? Well, they were the 2016 Warriors. J-dub came back and what are they like, they're 10 and 6?

I think since he's come back. If, to be serious about that, I don't, I think the lack of him getting into the paint has put more on SGA. I think what has screwed up the thunder at this point is just the reliance on SGA to score 30, 35 to be the sole engine of offense. And don't forget AJ Mitchell,

who like they didn't rely on last year, but he's another player that can beat his man off the dribble and start the someone slides, now we kick, swing, kick, and then maybe hit a three or attack again. It's J. Dub not being a second driver into the lane to create those things. He's not himself.

The guy's coming off wrist surgeries. He's not himself. And let's, if we're being fair, last night, we can make it a bigger deal than it is. Last night is the only goofy one. They, at San Antonio, at Minnesota, at San Antonio, Phoenix, or if you want to call those neutral. And then at Phoenix, Charlotte's the only one. And the Blazers one with their head.

Yeah, this is the only goofy one. And you know what? I thought about a great basketball philosopher when I was considering this game in which I should say on the mismatch, the most popular basketball podcast in the world, not just the nation. Right. Is you said, oh, God, I forgot where you got. Oh, now you've already forgotten the great philosophy.

No, no. It was you said you're quoting someone else, obviously, but you're the source to me. And it was like some nights, They ain't got it. Some nights the other team ain't got it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that whole thing. This is Hubby Brown.

Yeah, yeah. It's Hughby Brown. So he was the second coach I ever covered. Sidney Lowe was the first coach for, I don't know, less than 20 games. And Hubey Brown came in, and one night, I used to go to every pregame and post game press conference that he did. And he was just this wealth of knowledge. And one of the things he's always that stuck out to me. was he said there's five games a year

where your team's got it and the other one doesn't. It doesn't matter. The circumstances doesn't matter. Like, it's just what's going to happen. And then there's five the other way. And he goes, and then there's the other 72. And I never, like,

I do think there is a wisdom to that. Maybe it is just like making excuses. But like there are certain games where your teammate got it. The other team's making everything. and you sit there and you go, all right, that's one of them, right? Like, that's, I do think that there's a, you know, the guy was around the NBA for literally 100 years. Like he used to tell Kentucky Colonel's stories from like the ABA, right?

So he knew what he was talking about. And just the point is if we're bearing, if we're breaking it down, there's just these outliers. There's outlier games that take place throughout. Now, I thought what was super, fascinating is Bobby Marks put this up and he was like, look, I know people are going to make this about the thunder. But I look at this through the prism of the Hornets. And when they have had Lamello Ball, Brandon Miller, Con Cinnipple, Miles Bridges, they are nine and four.

And his point was health matters. It's not just breeze over Diabate too because I like Diabate and he's a serviceable center, but those other four guys have all had stretches where they looked like some of the best players in the league. Yes. And the point is like when they're healthy, they're pretty good. Like this is not like this is not like nine and four is a real record. And what if they were ever to keep able to keep their guys out on the court? Like you look at the roster and especially because.

Caniple is immediately awesome. Like he's already, like watch their game. The guy is already fantastic. And so that's just found money. And Brandon Miller hasn't been able to be on the court. So if you ever could, and same with Lamello. Mellow is at his health problems. But it's like you've got these good players.

If they could ever just all be on the court at the same time, you see the results. And it is reason to believe, you know, for these teams that have been injured so far this year. You sit there. Everybody always goes, well, if we were ever healthy, and, you know, many times your team is never healthy. Trust me, I'm around one that's never healthy.

But they are the hope for the guy that sits there and goes, man, I like the team. I like the players they have. They're just never on the court together. And if they ever were, so we'll see. Like maybe the Hornets are a team that could, turn up in the second half. If they can keep those guys on the court,

they're going to get more wins than people expect them to get. That's what I'd say. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I think, I also think that this was a back-to-back. They just lost to the Sons. You know, they had to travel because I think that the Suns game was in Phoenix.

And that's always hard. But the, you know, SGA had nine points in the first half. was three for 12 in the first half didn't play the fourth quarter he just looked exhausted like i just feel like i feel like it's starting to come it i just feel like the checks and balances for the output that he has every single night we praise him for being so consistent we praise him uh for getting to the line getting to the line means you're playing physical means you're bumping into people means you're creating contact and i just think it's sort of like a running back who just carries the ball too many carries every game you can't that's not you can't scale that out and extrapolate that out

through 82 games. And I think that Jay Dubnot being himself, even like missing Jay Will and A.J. Mitchell being out a bunch and Caruso being out, like they're missing guys. And I think that they've got,

like it's been working thus far. Hey, give the ball to Shea and he'll take us home. And I think after a while, like, can someone else take us home? Like, could someone else just take over possession?

Because it's just too much on him. There's too much on him. Well, and one of the things we talked about, one of the things we talked about at the end of the year was they have had statistically they had had the easiest schedule thus far. They had run through it and we were having 2016 Warriors conversations,

but they had had the easiest schedule, you know, win percentage wise. And it was going to start getting harder for them. And so there's probably a lot of different factors as to why I don't think the Thunder are still an incredible basketball team that is going to be there at the end unless something crazy happens. They are. Come on, come on. When you say at the end, you mean the NBA finals?

No, the West finals. Sure. Right? I mean, you know what I mean? And so this is regular season stuff. And this kind of stuff does happen. This is the ebb and flow of a season. And it's probably everybody's fault for thinking that they could go 80 and two.

Because that's not the way. this usually goes. And on the other side, most importantly, shout out to the Hornets. Shout out to the Hornets fans. Shout out to the Hornets fans. I mean, that is one that you remember. It's the biggest upset of the NBA season.

And so it's something to hold on to. It's something to get excited about. And Hope Springs Eternal when you go and win a game like that against the Oklahoma City Thunder when nobody expected you to. and for those that have stuck with it, and you're just inundated, you know, I can imagine if you're a Charlotte fan, there's nothing more annoying than every morning jumping on Instagram and just reading Lamello, Trey and Jod, throwing them in the same bucket and thinking about your best player going elsewhere. It's like, it's never anything good.

It's just always, you know, where's Lamello going to go? And it's like, whoa, hold on now. Like, their team is fun to watch. They are fun to watch. things. One thing about the hornets, I've always loved watching the horse. I love Lamello Ball. I always have. But this was like an ensemble cast where everyone was playing their role to a T. You know what I'm like? Like Brandon Miller looked like an absolute score. Just every time he rose up from three contested, uncontested, whatever, it just felt like it was

going on going in. It went in seven times out of ten. And then you've got Lamello Ball. We've all seen the, the algorithm has said everybody listening to this podcast, his circus shots and his just like weirdness and conible. One legged last night. Yeah, two. They're were just like, what are you doing? Like it's like, you're lucky that went in because otherwise that's going to be a shack and a fool. And Cinnipple just being solid and bridges, you know, defense and rebounding and Diabate just being tall and rim protecting and not dribbling.

Everyone played their role perfect. And we have a obviously, uh, our inflatable car salesman on the roster too. He wasn't. Yeah, he wasn't in the game though. Carbredder. He wasn't there missing. There was a Cobbrenner and Plumley. The depleted or not.

And also I just want to say, because we lived through so many years where it's inevitable, the Warriors and the Cavs were going to play in the finals. It's even like it felt like when the LeBron was in the heat, he would be in the finals. When LeBron was in the Cavs, he would be in the finals. It just felt like the regular season was just like inevitable. Yeah. And the Thunder being this week at this point makes it so much more fun to be a fan of the sport as a whole. I agree.

I agree. I do quite like the. one team is the team to beat. But it still feels that way. But last night felt enormous. It felt enormous. I like it when they're beatable. Yeah.

Right. Katie shot down the Rockets, the Suns last night. Three times I think this season, you and I have texted, like, didn't you get Katie for this moment and Chen Goon inevitably gets the last shot of the game?

I feel like that's happened three different times. this year where Shen Goon is like taking the game winner and we're like, you have Kevin Durant, which people have been trying to block a shot for 20 years and you can't. So why not just give him the ball and let him take the game winner? Well, the absence of Shen Goon, they gave KD the ball and he hit the game winner. Guess what? Just made it look easy too. This was an awesome game.

Like I was locked in on this game. I was not cruising around because this was like really tight. The sun's played really well. and Amend Thompson had this like crazy crossover and one finish because the suns were on a 10-0 run because the Rockets kind of had this one sewed up at home and Ament Thompson hits this crazy and one finish to make it 97-97 and there's also this time where Devin Booker gets the ball with 29 seconds left right and so obviously shot clock is 24 seconds so the Rockets are going to get the ball back and he stands at mid court and holds it and holds it.

The shot clock's at like 15. Like, oh, he'll probably start the action at 10. And he holds it. And it's just like, it was so weird. And then he starts his action at like five seconds, takes a terrible shot. And then Katie just comes back and wins. It was so weird. Okay, that was a function of the game winner he had hit against the thunder.

it was well well he's going to he's going to give them the ball if he hits the shot or not right so if there's less 24 seconds it felt like he was taking the same shot though you remember where he just pulled up from like 36 feet yeah yeah you know at the end of the thunder it felt like that oh do you know what no one will ever mention about this game after katy hits the three the rockets are up three they've run this play for booker to get the ball and i think it was o'neal like o'neill basically stole the ball. Booker rips it away from O'Neill. He's not facing the basket. Turns and shoots and like it is online. And I thought it was going in. And it, I think it was a little, little strong like back rimmed and out, but it looked like it was going in. And if he hit that shot, I was just like,

this is, this is Booker's year. Well, especially because Durant had hit the would be game winner with one second left and did the get the F out of here. And he called it three seconds. It was point three seconds initially, but then they reviewed it and made it 1.1. It was a huge difference between 0.3 and 1.1 seconds in the NBA. Especially, like, it would be the equivalent of like Damien Liller doing the bye bye. And then like the other team gets a chance of time. Like, oh, no. Like, I mean, Kevin Durant, it was 1.1 second left.

I text you. I said, there's too much time. Like one, one point one. One point one, you can get a dribble off. Well, he caught the ball and he was facing the crowd. He had time to turn around and let it off. It really looked like that was going in, but it did feel a bit like Booker was feeling himself.

And he's like, no matter what, I can get whatever I need to get off in five seconds. And I wouldn't mind if I don't know, they passed the ball a couple times that possession, ran a high screen, something, just something besides Booker holding the ball for 20 seconds. It just felt like that's what you do when the shot clock is off, not when there's five second differential. You said, you said game of the year was Nuggets. Sixers. It was.

Game of the year. Game of the year. Stars everywhere. Dude. Jalen Pickett. I've been waiting. For those that are longtime listeners of the mismatch,

he was one of the guys that I really liked in that draft because he was at Penn State. Like, he had originally been at like Sienna, and then he was at Penn State. He was a veteran player of Penn State. And this guy, I was like, Penn State basketball. and then I watched him and he like,

it was like college Andre Miller or something. He was like posting people up. He was just so by far the best player on the floor. I loved him. And then he got drafted by the Nuggets. And then he's just kind of not had his opportunity. Well, Michael Malone wouldn't play him. That was one of those things between Michael Malone and the front office.

But they're like, play this kid. He's good. Michael Blon's like, no. And that's just one of the many sort of situations that were like that with the young players and the Nuggets. and, you know, the front office. Well, it does speak to, like, it does speak to, like, the nuggets and, like, the depth that they now have that they did not prior to, right?

Like, they obviously got some good players that don't get to play for them. Oh, yeah. Like, I mean, that is, you, and you have seen that, like, their depth has been tested this year. Because we were talking about how, man, as long as you have Murray and Yokic, they've had Christian Brown out, they'd have Aaron Gordon out, and, like, they were just plugging and playing. would be Watson, it would be just different guys every night and guys that had stepped up that weren't supposed to be in the situations that they were in.

And now in the absence of Yokic, I mean, like, this truly gets pressed. And you're seeing guys that you just haven't even gotten to see get real minutes before. It is always interesting to me, like with a picket or with anybody else. Like, one of the things I think about through the dynamics of the NBA is everybody, In most cases, in most cases, the transition is very hard for the guy that was the best player on the team, right? Because that's a guy that's functioned with the ball. That's a guy that's functioned as a best player on his team. And typically he's been the best player on his team since he was a child.

And now I've got to figure out how to be a role player, right? I can't do all of the things that got me to this point are not the things that I am called to do, because there are now better players than me on said team. And a lot of guys have a very difficult time transitioning into being a role player. The trick is going to be what happens when you don't get like just have the freedom to be able to play, to be able to go out there and make mistakes when you have the freedom to go take shots that you wouldn't normally take if you had all of your guys like. And that's the fine line between being able to have a long and productive NBA career and not for so many different guys in the league. And I'm not just using J. La Pickett or wherever, but like Jaylen Pickett's got to figure out how to be awesome when he gets six shots, when he gets eight shots, right?

And so I've seen this happen a lot. And you see it all the time with tanking teams, right? The guy that gets to go out there and he gets to like there's all man. of guys in the league that could be super productive. And then they use that as their, they use that as their belief that like, if you just, if you let me cook, I can go cook.

But like the truth is you don't get to, right? There's, Traymond Green used to go to these basketball camps all time and he'd say, there's two guys that get to do whatever they want to do, the rest of you all got to figure out a role. And so the trick is you obviously have talent, and there's so many guys that we've seen,

that have this talent that have gotten their opportunities this year. And how many times have we highlighted guys that are like the, I think, you know, stay ready so you don't have to get ready. Michael Porter Jr. is a great example of this. Sure. Michael Porter Jr.

leap year. Michael Porter Jr.'s most approved, figured out. No, this is the same Michael Porter Jr. That's right on the NBA the whole time. He's just been on a team with Yokic and Murray, who are much better on the ball than he is. That's it. Guess what?

You put him on the ball. ball you designed the whole offense around his success, he's going to be successful. I think that's a good example of sort of what you're talking about. A player who was like the number one ranked guy in high school had the back issues, went a bit later in the draft than he thought, ended up on a very

good team because he went a bit later in the draft. And his role was to sort of knock down open threes and play some defense against the rebounds. But now he's on the nets, his role is to be the guy and guess what? He can be the guy. It could have been the guy the whole time. They had better guys in Denver and he won a championship. Right. And

So we'll see on some of those guys, but they're obviously talented, right? The talent's there. It's harnessing the talent into being what's most effective for the team, right? And you still be effective when you're not getting to have free rate. And that's the trick to having a career. In this particular game watching it, I didn't think it was like that bad from the Sixers. Because the Sixers are healthy. And Bid played a ton of minutes.

he had 32 points. I couldn't stay in front of picket for the life of him. You know, he was never great when he got switched on to Smalls, but after the last couple of years, it's just not, that's not a defensive strategy that you can go to. But I thought they did a good job to just even take it to overtime. And let me tell you something, man.

Vijay Edgecombe will do like two or three things a night that will just blow your mind. Oh, my God. Like, like, like, rookie of the year, best rookie, whatever. I don't want to talk about. But like, but like VJ Edgecom? I don't want to talk about him.

Why don't you want to talk about them? So, right after Christmas, I had an experience that I don't normally have. The game was on Peacock. Yeah, that was the night we had a show. Yeah,

the day after Christmas, 26th, right? Grizzly Sixers. Yeah. Game was on peacock, so I didn't have to work. Daughter says, I want to go to the game.

He said, we're in. Let's go. So I took the kids and went as a fan. I never get to sit in the stands. I go as a media member like every game I ever go to. I never get to go as a fan. First time I cannot remember the last time I sat in the stands as a fan.

But I sat there and, oh, I got the whole fan experience. I mean, I am going to sue the guy that handed my daughter 96 thunder sticks because. It's right next to you. Oh, I mean. He's getting sued. And Haley's high energy. She's a high energy. So Haley,

Haley's at the game. And I'm talking every time out, trying to get on the Jumbotron dancing. Every defense, defense, every possession, cheering. Like the whole time, the whole time.

For two and a half straight hours, and the game went to overtime. Okay? And VJ Edgecombe hit a game, winner and we're walking out and buddy when you talk about pissed I mean and I'm like look went down to the wire I was like coward almost hit a three to tie it I was like you saw John Morant at 40 like his best game in forever she's like I don't care and I was like oh come on and she's like no and she looked at me.

This is what she said. This is like going to be like a villain origin story. She looked at me and she goes, I cheered all that time for nothing. Got in the car, dead silent. Grisdine didn't want to talk. Yeah. Oh, no.

Didn't want to talk about it. She's putting a 100% effort out on the floor. Grizzies or not. She gave it everything she had and it wasn't enough. She left it on the floor. And I said, Haley, if you wouldn't have cheered, there's no chance that thing goes to overtime. She's like, shut up.

So she's probably going to ask you for a Vijay Edgecombe jersey sometime soon. And then she's going to be like a Sixers fan. It's going to be a nightmare. What percentage of you thinks, what are the chances Vijay Edgecombe ends up being a better pro than Cooper Flagg? I don't want to do this. That's a tough one. That's a tough one.

I don't even want to answer it either. But it's not zero. It's not zero. It's less than 50. It's one. It's one. One percent chance. That's fair.

Cooper Flagg's going to be one of the best players in the world. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, it's for sure. The second I saw him, when everybody that listens to this show for a long time knows, I saw him at 16. I came back on the show. I said that I just saw the best 16-year-old basketball player have ever seen in my life. I've never seen anything like it.

I mean, these AAU teams were, he had nothing on this team from Maine. And they were 94 feet double teaming him. And he was still like, I watched the game. The guy had 14 blocks, Jacoby. He's 16. I've been all in on Cooper Flagg for too many years. If I was a Sixers fan, I would absolutely love the idea of getting rid of George and Embed and just having this back court and building around him.

Oh, he is fun. He is fun, too. He is fun to watch. He had this dunk. He's flying down the lane, cut into the basket. Someone gives him the ball. And he just cocks the jumps off of one foot, two hands cocked it behind his head,

far enough to the defender just breezes past the defender, dunks with two hands and hangs on the rim in traffic. Yeah. And then he hits a three, like it was nothing, like two possessions later. One of the things is basketball fans that we have loved. lamented this season is that, hey, man, Clippers, you can't be dogs because your pick is going to the thunder. And what are you trying to create, like a 10-year dynasty?

Like, what are we doing here? Like, you can't, look at the Clippers being a little feisty. Another win. I can't. The Clippers were, like, three weeks ago, the Clippers were an absolute disaster. Disaster. They're relieving Chris Paul of his duties. They've lost like eight in a row.

The fives are terrible. And then all of a sudden, Kauai gets 40, 45, 30. They win four, five in a row, maybe six in a row they won. And then they lost that Jalen Brown, 50 point performance to the Celtics. Right. And this one was, this was a clipper win.

Steff hits two crazy threes. And then fouls out on the dumbest foul. It was like an offensive rebound. And I forgot who got. it. I think he was like done or something. And he's kind of like reaching for the ball. He's trying to get the rebound. So his arm ends up in a compromise position. He fouls out of the game.

And they have a chance to win the game, but it feels so different without Steph Curry on the floor. It feels so different without Steph on the floor. Well, and I'm going to say, so the clippers are 13 and 22. I'm going to give you something that's super strange. And I know you, always roll your eyes at the statistical analysis of these teams. Right.

Games are not played on paper. They are played on a basketball court. But quick 20 second time out. I'm all ears. I'm all ears. 20 seconds of the shoulders. Okay. I don't think they have those anymore.

My guy's over at shot quality. I follow this stuff all the time. So it's basically here's the shots you take and here's the percentage of the times it should go in. Here's the shots you give up. Here's the percentage of time. And so if everything played out on paper rather than on the basketball court, based upon these are what the shot.

It's like the EPA of basketball. Correct. Yeah. The number one team in the NBA in shock quality is Oklahoma City. Unsurprisingly. The number two team in shock quality is Denver. Okay. The number three, the Los Angeles Clippers.

their record based on shot quality should be 20 and 14 is what it says based upon the shots that were taken in their games and the averages in which those shots are made and missed their record should be 20 and 14 like you look through the rest of the teams and you're going to go like they all have good records the lakers the nicks Minnesota Detroit the rocket it's the warriors are kind of an outlier. They should be better than they've been so far based on shot quality. But this is like the shot quality anomaly of all anomalies. Like it says that the clippers should have been better all year than what they've been.

That that record that they have is like bad luck because they win the metrics on a regular, they should be 20 and 14 based upon shock quality. Now, again, you can roll your eyes at Shaw College. I got it. I'm just presenting it, right? If people want to roll their eyes at shot quality and say, who cares? That's fine. But the metrics say they should have, they should be much better. Like, their record should be much better this year.

And so it's interesting now that I'm sure there's some nerds out there that have been keeping track of this that are going, this is, this is the regression to the mean. Like, yeah, okay. So the Clippers are winning games out. Like they lost tons of games. They should not have lost early in the season based upon the metrics. And now they're winning a bunch. And it's like, this is what should have always been happening.

Maybe they're winning at an excessive rate right now. But this team is not playing up to what the computer says they should be playing to right now. Their record is not indicative of the way they've actually played the game and the shots they've given up and the shots they've taken. just find it interesting because they are, I mean, who on earth would think most, most all of the teams that are high in shot quality are good teams with good records with wins, except for them, except for them. I think when the numbers are so far away from the story that there's something there. And I think that you pointed out earlier, like the thunder's sort of strength of schedule.

It's like, yeah, they're losing now because they're playing better teams. And you know what? The Clippers are winning now because they can't be. the only team that has this huge gap between expected shots and shots going in the battle. Right. Like it's just like that's not how it works. They put so many variables into that equation like, you know, how good the shooter is and where they're shooting from and who the defender is and how far the defenders away. Like they drill that thing down with all the variables. It does sort of seem like this is bad luck. There will be a regression to the mean. But

what I expected the clippers to be this season. Because I like the addition of Collins. I mean, deal is whatever. But like I like the addition of Collins. And they had such a good defense last year. And like no one said this, but like Zubotch isn't the same Zubach from last year. No. At all. No. But I can see a world in which they're not the terrible team that we thought they were three weeks ago. Maybe they're not the top two, three team in the West. We, we thought they were going into the season. But they're going to be heard from when the, you know, when the snow melts and start you start wearing your your t-shirts outside i think the clippers will still be in the

conversation well and you've got this is going to be hand the number three pick over to the thunder as long as they can keep kawai leonard on the court yeah i didn't know james hard yesterday either right got a win but but kawai leonard is i mean he's averaging 28 a game it's stupid and it doesn't look hard for him he's been great it looks effortless it looks absolutely effortless for him yep all right you ready i i've let you go 30 minutes into this pod you ready to talk about the Knicks? No. Are you ready to talk about the Detroit dancers doing their routine?

Oh, my God. And at the end of their routine. Them playing that sound clip in the arena. It's funny. I would say if you're funny. After all that. After all that. Yo, the Pistons were out for blood last night.

Oh, my God. I mean, yo. I said on the text, they're out everything. They were out coached, out hustled, out shot, out dressed, out, out paste, out everything. Like the, they didn't have dirt. And the physicality of the Pistons was just way too much. It looked like older brother, younger brother stuff. Like the defense, I think the Pistons defense is one of the most underrated units in the

entire league. How big of a mess was towns? I mean, it's, it's, I mean, that was like schoolyard bully stuff. Just turning the ball over, driving into traffic. I mean, oh, yeah, yeah, that was rough. That was a rough way. That is like, that is the, for, that was a cat haters dream last night watching that. You soft, I mean, it was just so soft.

It feels like, it felt like the pistons have. had something to prove after the playoff series last year, which I'll say a million times over was much closer than you think it was. And I also think that they kind of like, I think they did some extra scouting on cat. Because I watch a lot of cat. And when he's dribbling to the basket, when he dribbles,

watch how high he dribbles. Like, that thing goes up around his chest. And I, and he turned the ball over so many times just having the ball swipe from him. Well, that's the thing. You got to get mega physical with him. Right? He doesn't want to get mega physical. No. No. Get mega physical with him.

That's the book. That's it. Right? It's easier said than done. And a lot of times he'll just stand out at the three point line and bomb you out from there. Next thing you know, he's hit seven threes because, you know, he's not down in that. But like, make him feel it immediately. Like, that's always been the trick.

Most people can't pull it off, though. That was embarrassing last night. That was a really bad loss. There's no fight. They never made a run. That felt like that mattered. an enormous amount

to the pistons. That felt like we want to make we are making a statement tonight. I feel you watch that game unfold and you feel like

one locker room was completely different than the other locker room before that game. Yes. One locker room was like we are out for blood.

This, you know what I mean? This is the night we show them. It like, like it mattered. And the other team was just like this is a regular season of basketball game. And like that's the way it played out.

It played out like one team was like, no, we're going to whoop your ass tonight. You know what I mean? And like the other team did not have that whoop your ass energy at all at all. We've seen so many NBA games. Usually when one team jumps out to a lead, the other team makes a run and makes the other team call time out and it gets close to get in the third quarter or something. It just never happen. Start to finish, belt to ass. And Jalen Rose is in the front row,

getting, standing up, getting in a defensive stance. It just hurt my heart. The whole thing, this is a bad experience. I got, I got to be honest,

I changed the channel in the second half. I was like, I can't watch this anymore. I know where this. I know how this story ends and I'm not going to be here for it. There are other games

I need to pay attention to. One of the things is, I had to kill the, the peacock app for a while there. One of the things that's crazy about watching them, too, every time there is the visual of Cade Cunningham and Jalen Brunson, it really looks like a full-grown adult standing next to a kid.

It looks like the poster for twins, the movie Twins. That's what it looks like, the poster for the movie Twins, but Danny is going to know in Arnold Schwarzen day. That's, it's like the most, it's the moment when you're watching and you're like, Jesus, he is a huge. Like Cunningham is like 6-8 and he makes, Brunson looks so small. And you're like, how are these guys both point guards?

How this is possible? This guy looks up like a monster standing next to Brunson. Like they should be in two different leagues. And I know one of the biggest problems for the Knicks is you can see Kate Cunningham can stay in front of Jalen Brunson. And Jalen Brunson would never, never be matched up with Kate Cunningham. Never. He'll be in the corner covering a shooter. A couple of news items that we need to get to.

I, what we just did our, uh, 2016 predictions. I didn't think by January 6th, I was going to get this. But I had, uh, we finally get the Tray Young deal. It was my last one. That was our last show of 2025. I mean, we haven't even made it a weekend.

And now Mark Stein, like, usually when there's smoke, there's fire, especially when there is player named, not like you had two things happened yesterday for those that have not been keeping up. You had the obligatory, Trey Young is open to moving. So there's one side of it, right? No, Hitch's representation is met with the front office and they're having good discussions about moving on from Trey Young or whatever. the word he is. And then you have

not only a team he might go to, the major piece that would be included in the package. And it's like at this point, to me, it would be shocking if there is not a Trey Young to the Washington

Wizards in a deal that includes C.J. McCollum coming back deal. Right? Like, it's just too specific. It's too specific. It's like, not only have they, we know they're talking about deals and now we have specifics of who exactly, like we've been spending the last several years like, who would even trade for Tray Yonge?

And what would you even get back for Tray Yonge? Like, Mark Stein literally put it out there. Yeah. Here's the deal and here's the guy that would be included. And then there will be other stuff that obviously has to get shaken out. But I mean, when I text back to you yesterday when we were talking about this, I was like, look, this is, you get a good character guy that can play on the ball that's going to fall off the books. Like, you're not getting talent value back.

So you look at, you know, sometimes you are trading for draft capital and talent, the young talent. That's probably not going to be in the cards in a trade young deal. And sometimes you are looking for relief in order to build your team going forward. And the biggest relief is we're not going to pay this guy. Anyway, once you've come to terms of the fact that I'm not signing this guy to an extension. So, and you find a landing spot? So the Washington Wizards would then become the landing spot for Trey Young. And I think at this point, I'd be shocked if it didn't happen.

It makes a lot of sense for both parties because, like you said, McCollum's big contract comes off the books. And if you, I feel like they built this team with Trey Young as the point guard in mind. and I think that his injury was really instructive as to what they should do moving forward. And Jalen Johnson's ascension, although he did kind of get locked up last night against the Raptors. But his ascension has sort of like

shown a path forward that perhaps a Trey Young-based team is not going to be the most successful team for us and the number that Trey's going to demand is insane. But if I'm the Wizards or the Wizards fans, this is awesome. This is awesome. This is what Stein said.

There have definitely been, conversations today. Like, that's when he reported it. So it's like, okay, like this is, this is down the road a little bit. Sources tell the Stein line that the Wizards have been actively exploring their trade options with McCollum, who is playing out the final year of his $30 million contract with Washington after Washington acquired the veteran guard in an offseason deal that sent Jordan Poolellan to the Pelicans. More salary would have to be added by Washington to make the salary catmath work in a trade-free gong. and it's believed that the Hawks would also have to send the wizard's draft capital to convince them to absorb Young's contract. But the prospect of Atlanta trading its most popular player is only growing as the February 5th deadline near.

Sources tell the Steinlin that Young has been in communication in recent days with general manager Ansi Sala and is aware of Atlanta's ongoing efforts to canvas the trade market for their four-time All-Star. He's got 46 million this year and a $49 million player option next year. And so obviously Atlanta's 2 and 8 with him, 15 and 12 without him. And he was scheduled to miss his fifth consecutive successive game last night in Toronto. So anyways, I mean, the interesting part is the Hawks having to include draft capital. That's wild. I mean, wow.

But they got led the league and assist last year. Now I have to attach draft capital to get C.J. McCollum and like A.J. Johnson and the Thunder 2026 pickback. And you can also, look, people can poke calls all they want. And I know everybody hates Trey Young. And it's probably not a fit with what they've got in Atlanta right now. And it's fine that they're going to move on. You cannot take away that he was the best player on a team that made a conference finals.

Like that's happened. That happened. Yes. However, and you can, you can poke holes in everybody's road to get to that moment, but that happened. And it is kind of crazy that you look up now. And it's like, yeah, you're going to have to get, like, you're going to have to convince them to not only are they going to get

trade young, but they're going to get draft capital as well in order. Because his contract is $49 million. It's got to be like a second rounder or something, though. Like, you know, I don't know. I don't even know what the Hawks have left to give. but I can't see them setting too much. Our boy Joe House, we got to confer with him.

I think I would love this if I was a Wizards fan. Because one of the things about Trey Young is he's, he's exciting to watch. And he's going to win you some games single-handedly. The Wizards become a better team if you swap out AJ Johnson, McCollum for Trey Young. And he can pass the ball. He can shoot from deep.

He opens up the floor. The geometry of the floor spreads when he's on the floor. and hopefully we'll see some like Alex Sar catching lob stuff that we haven't really seen from him you know like the I love SAR as a prospect all right I mean and maybe he can teach uh tray Johnson you got two trays there right oh that's gonna be yeah maybe they can't trade them too many trays the one thing I found interesting about this whole thing is the this overshadowed the reports that the Hawks are opening to trading Risa Shea because I just found that weird. It's like you've got this number one pick who hasn't performed up to your standards. Second year is not as good as the first year. Well, look. That's someone I would keep in-house and develop rather than sort of trade 50 cents on the dollar. This is one of those though where when we were talking about when we were giving our predictions at the end of the year when I said we're going to get the Tray Young deal. You remember when I said you're going to that Mark Stein also was the one reporting

that there was heavy interest from the hawks about Anthony Davis. And I don't think it's a coincidence that all the Trey Young stuff comes out. And also in unison with the Trey Young stuff coming out is the AD wants to stay in Dallas and sign an extension of Dallas. Because one of the things I proposed to you was you're going to lessen the blow if you, if you trade off for salary, right? And then you, because even at that time, they said that they weren't going to, that that wasn't a Tray Young deed, that Atlanta was interested in Anthony Davis. And that wasn't a Tray Young deal.

That would be a, you know, the Porzinger's contract, the Knard contract, Riesichy, whatever, right? That that's what would move off to Dallas. and so I do wonder if those things are not coincidences that we get both news the same day where it's like, hey, Trey Young is fine to being traded and here's where he's going to go and here's what they're going to get in return. Oh yeah. Also, Anthony Davis doesn't want to go anywhere because if you're making the Tray Young deal, right? Like one of the things is you're thinking about rebuilding your team and we already had those hints that they wanted to go after Davis.

And, you know, Dallas has got a decision to make in terms of trying to build out around Cooper Flag. Like that's the timeline now is the Cooper Flag. It's a tough decision because there is a world where Kyrie comes back. You've got Davis and Gafford and PJ Washington, Kyrie and Kooke. You know, you are that big defensive team that Nico dreamed about. But what I don't want to do is extend AD. Maybe you don't trade him, but extending him does not seem like a good idea. Right.

He has not looked the same when he's on the floor. So there's one thing I found interesting with last night action is we focus so much on whether Trey Young is on the floor or off the floor for the hawks. Are they better without him? Are they going to trade him and Trey Young is this one thing that really changes the hawks and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But no one really mentions the facts that they trade, they bring. they brought in KP for a reason for rim protection, catch lobs, spread the floor.

You know, like I thought he was a very big piece of what they planned to do. And the Celtics obviously won a championships or without him. But he played last night. And he is one of those people sort of like those if healthy people, where they are very different team, if healthy with Chris Stapps, Porzingis.

I think that too much of the quote unquote blame of their woes when Tray came back also coincides with KP not being available. But no one mentions that. No one mentions that. Totally fair. Totally fair. And look, I mean, I think that what the big thing that the Tray Young thing has exposed is like they have a

budding big time star in Johnson. And so that like you now look and you go, all right, that's what we want to that that's the guy we want to think about going forward. The next five years of Hawks basketball is playing with Johnson and by. And just I'll give a quick hat tip to the Raptors because Scotty Barnes and Colin Murray Boyles.

Murray Bowles was great last night. Those, they, they made Jalen Johnson's night hard for him last night. Well, you're number one. It's a different world for Johnson because you're number one on the whiteboard now. Yes, yes. He's number one on the whiteboard. And he's living that life. All right.

All right. Yeah. We got to get to some things that we care about right now. We got three each. All right. I'm going to start. Is there a team? that is last year's Pacers.

And I don't mean we're going to look up and they're in the NBA finals. Game seven, yeah, sure. But I do mean we got to the end of the calendar year of 2024 and the Pacers were like a totally mediocre

basketball team. Right in the middle. No one would have ever in a billion years expected what took place the rest of the way to take place. But once the calendar turn, they turned up and next thing you know, we're watching them in a game seven of an NBA finals. Is there a team that has been decidedly mid so far that you could see turning up and we look up at the end and maybe they are having a chance at a conference finals?

I'll give you two options for each conference and then you decide which is the most realistic. Do you agree? Sure. What are you going to say? No. All right. Yeah, I'm trying to decide if I agree. Eastern Conference.

Let's start in the West. There's one that's super easy. Western Conference, Phoenix Suns. Throw that out there. No. They're not, they've been a great, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? What are you talking about?

They could be this year's Pacers for sure. No, they've already been an amazing story. They have overachieved. We're talking about a team that is underachieved, thus far that has way more potential than what they've shown so far. Clippers. It's clippers.

Yeah. That if we looked up at the end and the clippers are, I mean, oh, the shot quality guys are loving you right now. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah,

shot quality. You say clippers. In the Western Conference. That are bad now. But underachieved. Yeah, that's clippers. I mean, are in trades that could sort of swing things.

But yeah, I would, I would say Clippers for the Western Conference. I can't come up with the second one. How about Portland? I can't see it happening. No point guard. Yeah. Denny Advia is the guy. Dennyovia is the guy, the guy.

I can't see it happening. Like if they went on a run in the second half of the season, and again, it's extreme what the Pacers did. Okay. How about the Warriors? No way after watching them last night? No, I mean. But this is no, I'm saying, look, this is exactly what happened last year.

The Pacers are like under 500. We would have never seen it coming. I don't see it happening with the Warriors. I don't. No. They don't have a 30 and 10 or whatever, a 27 and 12 in them or whatever, the rest of the way. I mean, the Clippers, would be the one.

The Clippers would be the one in the Western Conference. Right? So because we just chronicled that the record should be better already. So let's just say they are, let's see,

they're 13 to 22. So that's 35 games. Which means you got 47 left. Like if I told you, they went 32 and 15 the rest of the way. possible.

Oh, really? Yeah, you went two out of three games. It's possible. I mean, a lot would have to change, obviously. I mean, that would be... Quay would have to be there the entire time. And that would get you to 45 wins.

Zubach would have to be the old Zubach from last year. You know, Hardin's available. Kauai's available. All right. Sure. In the east, it's... It's obvious. Cleveland.

Yeah, it's Cleveland. I mean, because they're 20 and 17. It's Cleveland. Right. So if there is a team that has been like there are eight right now going into as we just started the new calendar year. I think you could also make a hawks case. You could make a case that sort of moving off of Trey Young settles rolls and rotations in a way that just settles the team down. So it doesn't feel like this kind of like flip of a coin, what team are we going to get tonight with the Hawks? You know what I mean?

16 and 20 for Milwaukee. Could you see that? No chance. No chance. No chance. Who's their second option? Rollins? Who's like

Turner? Like, it's pretty bleak. Who's the second best who's the second best offensive engine on their team? You know what? That's a, who is? we're not taking into account like defense, right?

So like let's take away. Yeah. Offensive. I guess it's, I guess it still have to be Turner, right? But I might take Bobby Porriss. I like him the most. I know,

but I like him the most. But he can get his own basket. Yeah. Like that's when I look at them. It's like a Januson shooting. Yonis and shooting is a great plan. And it worked at first. But like,

Kevin Porter Jr. Maybe. I mean, And that's the thing I look at with that team. I'm like, if it truly is just Janus in shooting, but Janus can't play 48 minutes. And sometimes Janice doesn't play. And then there's no sort of like person to step up in that way.

All right. So that was the first one I thought of. Is there anybody's Pacers? Last year's Pacer. We got. You know, I like my position as one of the soul, probably the soul, Victor Wemben Yamma detractor in the entire sports media.

He's the only one. You're the only one. I'm dug in into the spot. I'm not happy about it, to be honest with you. Because I really like watching and play basketball. But one of the things I care about, because now I'm locked in as a detractor, is will he stay healthy and establish the Spurs as like legit contenders in the Western Conference? Because let's not forget, he has not played a single playoff game.

He's in and out of the lineup. The Spurs are good with him and great with him. good without him. But can they put it together and be the spurs that we all saw beat the Thunder Street three state times? Because they have some bad losses on their record, too. So that's one of the things I care about is like, which direction will these spurs go? Are they playing in team or they hosting a playoff game?

He was 71 games his rookie year, 46 games last year. This year he's played 21 so far. 21 of 35. They have been 10 and 4 without it. That's pretty damn good. They have been. They have shown themselves to be able to be able to win without Victor Wimba.

I am supposed to see him in person tonight. You want me to go boo him for you? Yeah, yeah. I hope he plays. I really do. I would be depressed. Buy Haley a seat and bring her. She's not going.

Tell her to bring a Luzben Yama sign. She's not going. After the Edgecombe experience. After VJ Edgecombe. ruined everything. So wait, you've got Home Spurs tonight. Yes. Home Dylan Brooks revenge

game tomorrow night. Oh, you think it's going to get bleak where I am? It's Spurs' Sun's Thunder. Ugh. Oh, Thunder, too. Hey, hey, hey, I am about, hey, I'm about to make you throw up

all over your laptop. Listen to this. Spurs. Suns, Thunder, Sunday 2 o'clock in the middle of the NFL playoffs, Brooklyn. They're going to lose to Brooklyn. Is that in Brooklyn? No, those are all home games I'm going to. Oh, my God.

Oh, so you're going to miss the playoff games? All four of those games. And my producer is the biggest 49er fan in the world. And they play the Eagles at three. and he has to do radio. It's a thing. This is not the most fun week in the world. Oh, my God.

How many points is Dylan Brooks going to score? 35. Does he get a video? Does Dylan Brooks get a video? How's it work? Huh? Does Dylan Brooks get a video? How's it work?

He's been back, actually. We've done that. He's hit a game winner already when he was playing for Houston. All right. Next one. Is this going to be the end of the 65 game rule? boy did this, has this gotten hot, right? Especially with, and let's go to a trainer to the stars, Drew Hanlon, who you know

is the trader for Embedd and Tatum and everybody else. I've never liked the 65 game rule and always thought all NBA should be positionless, but it's wild out loud some of the media gets when it affects Yokic. Embed finished second MVP runner up twice and was second NBA, all NBA, and no one cared. Yokic did it once, and next year, all NBA went positionless. Now the 65 game rule is suddenly a problem because it impacts Yokic. The bias is crazy.

Great angles from him there. He is presenting that, oh, now the 65 game rule matters. Now, I will say this, it's not just about Yokic. That is obviously him having the great. to season at NBA history, P-E-R-wise, is a thing. But I will say that the 65-game rule has now truly come into focus because at the beginning of the season, we would have said, and virtually every website does this,

if you were going to name the best five players in the NBA, you would have Yokic, Shea Gildes Alexander, Janus, and then everybody else had who, Wemby and Luca. Those were the five, though. That was pretty much everybody's top five. Janice Wemby, Luca, Curry, maybe aunt, like all of them.

Like, it's not just Yokic. It's all of them. And so I understand how it's easy to say, oh, well, now it affects Yokic, so it's a thing. But we haven't had an MVP that's played less than 65 outside of Bill Walton forever ago. I know this is becoming in focus. I know there's a million videos

and takes about how the 65 game rule is ridiculous, but I don't know any other way to go about it. And honestly, if you are not eligible for awards when you don't play 80% of the games, I'm fine with it. I am. I'm fine with it. That's where I've come to terms with.

I'm fine with it. Like, would you give MVP to somebody, that played 13 NFL games? Possibly. No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't. Well, I'll say this. It is supposed to deter load management.

It's supposed to deter national televised games, like the one between the Warriors and the Thunder, where the Warriors announced that Trey Monk Green, Jeremy Butler, and Steph Curry are not going to play. That is the action that the 65 game is supposed to deter. if there is a situation where a player like Yokic has a historic season statistically and brings a team above expectations in wins and in seating and at the end of the year he played 63 games

that is not the purpose of the 65 game rule because he misses those games because of an injury so I think what's happening here is well and maybe so your point would be your point would be, you know what? Maybe somebody would get in the NFL. If they were 11 and 2 and the guy threw 50 touchdowns in 13. That's what I mean. Like, that's kind of what I mean. Like if some, we're running back

at 2,000 yards in 13 games, give him the damn trophy. You know what I mean? That's kind of what Yokic is on pace to do if he doesn't get to 65. So I, but they make the rule to deter load management.

But it could end up punishing players that are just out because of injury. And I think that one of the things we talk about MVP all the time and no one talks about defensive player of the year. But Victor Wembegiam is the best defensive player in the National Basketball Association. Right. And he should probably win that award last year, even though he played 46 games. But that's not enough, obviously.

But if he plays 60 games and has whatever, a million stocks, it still feels like he should get the trophy. And he's not missing games because of like BS reasons or rest. Well, and it's not just Yokic. Again, we could look up at the end, and the consensus top five outside of Dave Jacoby, four of them could all not be all NBA players. That's a real thing. I'm trying to think, yeah? Well, SGA would be the only one that makes it, right?

Yokic, Yonis, Wembe, Luca. I mean, Lucas played 26 of 33 so far. So he's got breathing room. But again, he's got, Luca can get there. Good. That's a lot, dude. That's a lot of the best players in the league. It is a lot.

What would you do? Adam Silver calls your phone right now. I love the mismatch. I listen to it every week, three times a week. I'd keep it. Even though it's on twice a week. I'd keep the rule. Until it really, until something, let's just say this.

Let's not. I think I'll say this. Again, I got it. Like, it's because it's not as brazen as rest, though, Jacoby. Well, if you're going to, if you're going to say, fine, we can't sit guys out for rest, then what they're going to do is just make up phonies.

Exactly. So they abused it so much that I think this is the only deterrent. Otherwise, if you don't make it a deterrent, they will not, they will not adhere to it. I do think that guys play more

because of the 65 game thing than they would. One of my life philosophies, you'll hear a lot of them, is this one I don't 100% believe in, but it works a lot. In work, and social life parenting, whatever.

It's not a problem until it's a problem. Right. So let's not change the rule until someone like Yokic has a historic season is the best player, has the number one seat in the conference, but played 64 games and doesn't get the trophy. Until someone gets truly unjustly violated by this rule, let's not change it. That's where I'm standing on it. Fair. The problem is that supermaxes are tied to this.

that's what you've got to change. That's fair. If they ever gave me a vote, which they shouldn't, because I'm an idiot, I would consider it very seriously if I knew like the financial future of someone who's at stake. You know what I mean? And that's what I think that's what you have to change. Yeah, I think that's fair. Because let's say someone has a historic season.

They're the best player in the league. They haven't hit a supermax qualifications yet. And they play 64 games. And that cost them $80 million. or something like that doesn't seem fair. Yeah, that needs to be like, look, bro, I know you're trying to save, you're trying to save organizations from themselves,

but they've got to take responsibility for that. You give them the contract you want to give them, right? And I got it, right? But the NBA letting them, like, I mean, I'll just, I give you, for instance, right? Memphis saved $100 million on Jared Jackson, Jr. Yeah. Him and Shengoon were like a vote short.

it's a hundred million dollars different you know what and you know what and the thing i don't like is they celebrate that as they should because it gives them a lot more cap flexibility moving forward right but like i don't want to be in a position if i'm the front office of the memphis grisley's hoping that my guy doesn't make the the all-nba team like that doesn't feel right right like you know what i mean like that my interest should support my goals i shouldn't be i shouldn't be interested in i shouldn't be hoping that jaron jackson junior doesn't make all mba if i'm the next thing you care next thing you care about This one is simple.

It's just kind of troublesome. I wrote the Celtics off as like bad, you know, a few weeks into the season as everybody else did, like the first month of the season. And now they're awesome. And now Sheila Brown is scoring 50 points on the clippers. And like Jason Tatum videos are coming out every single day. Like are, is Tatum going to come back and like really change the Eastern Conference? Oh, you're turning this into a Jason Tatum thing.

Yeah. Oh. I don't think this Celtics team is like a threat to go to the NBA finals. I thought. But like you add Tatum into this? Like I don't want to see that team in the playoffs. With this angle, I thought you were going to do the. Jason Kidd was right.

Can we have the conversations that this guy's. This is not Robin. This is a guy that did everything that he was. He like played a role. But when given the opportunity to be the man, look at what he's looking. at what he's done. Look at what Jalen Brown has done. Jason Kidd was right. He always has been the best player on that team. I thought that's what you were going to do. Oh, hell no, no, no, no.

I mean, I do have a dark heart and I'm generally negative. But I'm more as a concern, Knicks fan being like the pisons are a tough out, the calves are floundering, like, you know, no one else is that scary in the conference. And next thing, you know, the Celtics just keep winning and winning and winning. It's like Jordan Walsh. You're just like, what is going on? And Queda. Queda, I've always liked him. It's good. I've always liked him.

He was getting such limited minutes like two years ago. I was like, I kind of like his bounce and its energy. Like, I like him. I had their game on last night. And, I mean, they were stomping the bull. Oh, yeah, I turned that off real quick. Oh, my God. Yeah.

Just stomping him out. And Brown couldn't make a shot. And they were still stomping them. He was like four for a thousand. And they still stomping him. Bad. It's crazy. Yeah, he looked bad.

Coming up that 50-point Clippers win. So you're doing that, oh, so we need to start looking like, can the Celtics actually, like, wreck some stuff? Would if Jason Tatum had two months of NBA basketball under his belt and looked like himself, I would hate to play the Celtics in a seven game series. I would hate it. That may be so, but as currently constructed,

this is regular season good, not playoff good. they just, I just think they're too thin in the front court. They're too thin in the front court. Like, Luca Cars is playing for them. Luca Cars is like an important part of what they do. Like, it's ridiculous. This is on the random night and the team shoot 63s and it's like, it's regular season good, but game planning against it,

they would have to have, they would have to be like a team that would scare you in the playoffs. They're too thin, too thin at the front court positions. Like, Kate is having a great time. But in a seven-game series, you can exploit where he's deficient because he has deficiencies. Last thing I care about is Sacramento the team that's going to swing things? So we've talked about some of the deals that could take place in the NBA. But we got like a month now, exactly a month, until the trade deadline. So the reason I'm bringing this up is because over the weekend I had one of their games on.

And I'm like, like individually, these are all players that I could see going elsewhere. and like really helping someone like De Rosen and Levin and Sabonis and Monk and Fruder like they're all kinds of guys that I think could help other teams

but they're a horrible fit right and so they suck they're going nowhere like are they the team if they do do the like just unload we're they're 8 and 28 who cares

and they just go ahead and decide. Well, all right, fine. Like, we paid Keegan Murray, so we'll stick with him, and he's going still. But the rest of y'all, we're going to find a place. And if they did, like, do the fire sale and just unload to, like, plan for whatever the future is, because we're 828 and going to get a high draft pick anyway, like, I think that's like, they're such an odd rat team.

very rarely do rat teams have like six guys I think could actually like really help teams they do none of it fits they stink but if they like moved off of these guys I could see that like really boosting somebody up and many of them like fitting into different scenarios um and so they are the one that I'm looking at the most honestly like as we head to the trade deadline because I do think they've got and they're like vet guys too that have been around that probably would love to be in a winning environment at this point so you get a new lease on life like they've just got to these guys are not talentless guys it's just all of it is such a mess and I was watching them and I'm like damn man if they ever do decide to just put a four sales sign up like forget what they would get in return I'm looking at it to who would get de rosen who would get Levine who would get Sabo like if they do decide to just tear the thing down,

they've got good players that absolutely, I think, could change things. Like, you see, like, we were talking about Malik Munk. Like, you were talking about, we were doing that show right after Christmas. It's like, man, Jordan Clarkson is like been, that's a big help for somebody like the Knicks, right? Just having another guy come off the bench,

give you buckets and you sit there and you go, man, if a good team got Malik Munk, that swings a bench unit completely. Look at what Deeran Fox has done for the Spurs. Right. It's something like that. Like a team like the Spurs that is sort of a Deeran Fox away from being a serious team. You could see even Dennis Schroeder, right?

He killed the Knicks in the playoffs last year in a game. Like if you put him on the Timberwolves. Right. You know what I mean? It's a team that needs point guard help. The Timberwolves are the Hawks trade, Tray Young. And they somehow bring in Dennis Schrooter. reunite shooter with the hawks right well the only reason i'm saying this is because like and and again

i'm not going in the trade machine doing all the money whatever but like let's just say there's a world and you looked up and zach levine's now on the bucks like you look at that completely we just talked about them not having a second option you look at it completely differently exactly exactly exactly in that spot derose in that spot right if i and you could say well i don't like xaclavine whatever But like, if you put Zach Levine on that team, all of a sudden you look at them infinitely differently for playoff basketball, right? Because now it's, I've got Levine, Janus, and whatever, right? And again, I'm not saying that Levine's an option for them and the money would work.

I'm just opining if the kings want to move up. There are, there are certain places for all of these different guys where I think it could swing things dramatically for the teams that acquired them. That's awesome. And I think that. I like flash and flare. You know, I like highlights. I like lamella ball.

And that's one of the things like, but like, like, I'm just never really like, you know, been a huge demonious, Sabonis. So is it a Domino's man?

Yeah. Yeah. I was his dad's name. Arvetus. Arvita Savonis. Um, but that dude, you know,

he could, if he's like on the pistons, everyone's talking about Lori Markin's perfect for the pistons. Sure. But what if you end up instead of paying 70 cents for and you pay 30 cents for Subonis, like, that changes everything. He absolutely could change things for a team.

Change everything. Because he gets every rebound. Yeah, Sabonis is, he's 20 and 10. Every time he laces his shoes. He gets every rebound. Put him on like the Celtics. Again, I'm just like, you know, playing fantasy, whatever.

Like, all of a sudden that fit in the front court thing, or the thunder, you know, you're getting out rebounded all the time. I don't know. That is interesting because the Kings, the Kings did this with the spurs. They're like, oh, we're not going to get off of Deer and Fox. And now he's a cornerstone of what they do offensively. Yep. All right. Next one. I'm watching the game last night. And

I'm on the East Coast. It's getting kind of late. It's like midnight. But I can't stop watching the Clippers and the Warriors because of one man, not Kawhi Leonard, not Steph Curry. Snoop Dog. Oh, Snoop Dog. Snoop Dog in the booth. And I'm not familiar with the work of a gentleman by the name. Let me look at my notes.

Terry Galen, he was the play-by-play guy for this game. Gannon? Let me open this up. Gannon. Terry Gannon. Yeah. I don't think in the wild Terry Gannon and Snoop Dog would hang out too much.

And Reggie Miller was doing his best to bridge the two. but Snoop Dog was absolutely unhinged, just unhinged the entire time. It was worth to watch. The clip is going around is him, we're talking about Steve Kerr when he got ejected, which was hilarious, but he was wild. And everyone's going to be like, oh, Snoop Dog was high. Snoop Dog gets high so much that when he's high, he's not even high. So we can't even blame like, oh, he smokes weed.

That's why he's crazy. Like, no, no, no. He is a very likable just, it was honestly like one of us was just given a microphone. was like, sorry, I have to use the bathroom. I'm having a baby. Yeah. And then so like, you know, so Reggie Miller was like, I'm having a baby. Jacoby, I love you on the mismatch.

You take the microphone and finish this game for the second half. Because he's talking over people. He's making jokes. He's like, he's commentating the game as if he's watching the game on his couch. Oh, baby. Oh, give that up. Give that up. I think they're warming him up because when I was,

I was watching it. I didn't even, honestly, until this weekend and I saw the commercials, I didn't realize the Winter Olympics start in a month. It's, it's an Olympics tie-in. So he's, they, they hired him as like an Olympics correspondent. And it worked well. Not only that, he's got a chain on with a big NBC peacock logo pendant on it. He's got classes on. He somehow he's being dwarfed by Reggie Miller and Terry Gannon. I don't know how, because Snoop Dogg's pretty tall. He's like six four, six five. Him and Kevin Hart are absolutely hilarious during the Olympics. Yes.

Like that alternate broadcast is so funny. It's unbelievable. It really is. And Snoop is like, dude, and the thing I care about is, I'm going to get more Snoot. Will we get more sort of like stunt broadcasting like this? Because I don't want it during the NBA finals. But during a regular season, late night Warriors Clippers thing,

it was awesome. Like he was, he transformed. He started doing this impression of like a 1950s, like Howard CoSell broadcaster. He's like, and the Clippers win. The Clippers win in a thriller. It was like, what are you doing, Snoop? He's like, he sort of like ran out of bits.

It was weird, but I couldn't go to sleep. I couldn't stop watching. And remember, the Clippers had this game like pretty handily until Steph hit a couple threes. But like, when Steph hit his first three to like, I'll go on their run, Snoop was like, you know he looking for three. You know he looking for three. And then he hits a three.

Stoop was like, I told you. I told you. It's somewhere like Terry and Reggie, you're like, am I supposed to do anything here? It was wild. Would you watch a alternate broadcast? Like if they, I'm Peacock and they just had like Snoopcast and you had an opportunity like, I'm saying I will give you regular announcers and I will give you Snoopcast of an NBA game. Would you choose Snoopcast over regular announcers?

So I will answer that question two ways. If I were an NBC executive, I would 1,000% green light the alternate broadcast snoopcast. I would. So it's like it's like NB, it's like Manning cast except in Snoopcast. But that's the answer to the question for if I was an NBC executive. But David Jacoby,

I don't like the alternate personally. This is just my opinion. I prefer listening to the crowd noise and the traditional play-by-play color analyst format. It might just be because that's a format I've been watching the sport in for 40 years. But like I prefer to watch the Monday Night Football broadcast versus the Manning cast.

And I allow the internet to then filter the good parts and give it to me on my timeline. You know what I mean? Because I find if I'm watching the actual Manning cast, I'm like, I don't know, I like to watch the game instead of these guys talking about the game. but when it's good, the internet will feed it to me.

I love Manny. I love Mannycast. So you watch the Mannycast many times instead of the game. It depends on the game and it depends on the guests. I many times I will turn off when they have a guest.

Because that's, I don't feel like, I feel like I'm sitting on a couch with Peyton and Eli when they are watching the game and talking about the game. But when they bring on you know, whoever Paul Rudd yeah, I turned to Troy and

Jack or Joe Buck. Yeah. Because I like the idea that they're talking about the game and he's explaining things to me and that they're giving their opinions on these things. I like that. It's the guest that I don't care about. I also think that some of you said for the man in castes, you're listening to two quarterbacks with very high NFL IQ. Yeah.

So they can break things down in a way that's additive, whereas a Snoop cast would just be kind of funsies. No, that's funny. You know what I mean? It's like, it's just like, it's a completely different product where Snoopcast is like, if it's a blowout, let's have some fun and watch this.

And also like Snoop wasn't exactly an unbiased objective media member while this was going on. I don't know if it's a Laker Clipper thing or if he's got more friends on the Warriors or whatever, but he was a Warriors fan. doing a national broadcast. I mean, he might have money on it. I mean, I'm not saying he did or didn't,

but it felt that way watching it. And it was a lot of fun. And if Snoop is ever doing another game, which I'm sure he will, just make sure you give it a good 10 minute listen because it's not just the clips that get to the internet and go viral that were interesting. Like throughout,

he was absolutely unhinged and weird. And it was awesome. There's the things we care about this week. Thank you to our executive producer. No. No. No. No.

No. one more thing before we go. One more thing. More mismatch on movies. I got so much feedback. Fantasy texted me and said, please stop talking about movies on the mismatch because you're threatening my job in my livelihood.

I knew that was coming. So I'm going to make this very brief, but I have two movie takes I want to share with you. Hey, I thought I was going to pitch Bill and Fantasy about something. Do you want to hear my idea? Yeah. It's to compete with the rewatchables. Rewatchable, rewatchable rewatched?

No. We watch the rewatchables and then do rewatchable episodes rewatched? No. No. And this is from... How about this one? Don't anybody steal this idea. I'll sue you.

I swear to God, I'll sue you. Yeah. Vernal's got lawyers. The unwatchables. Oh, yeah. That's good. That's good. We watch the unwatchables. Unwatchables.

That's what it is. And we compete head to head versus them. Yeah. I don't think they want that. You guys watch movies that people like. We watch movies that everybody hates. People hate. Yeah.

We'll find it. We'll find out the human spirit. It likes positivity or negativity. I'm, I'm Darth Vader all day. If I find out that the unwatchables already exist, I'm going to barf. I know. It probably does.

All right. Anyway, what were you going to say? so I'm fantasy scared for his job per usual to have two movie takes number one i tweeted this yesterday but i was watching all the greenland two promos i was like is this just brilliant marketing and there never was a greenland one because i don't remember greenland one ever existing the like russell crow saves the world the world ends and russell crow's there to save everybody have you ever heard of the movie greenland no the only thing i ever think of when you say that is in Greenland,

unemployed, in Greenland. That's what the, that's what Fessick says, Andre the Giant on the boat in Princess Bride. He tells him, unemployed in Greenland. That's where he took and he saved him. I love Princess Bride. I love it.

He saved him. That's what he said. Greenland is, they're promoting Greenland 2 right now, and I've never heard of Greenland 1. A lot of people on Twitter responded and told me that it is a thing, but apparently it's a thing. And here's nothing I want to say about. Never heard of it.

I take my kids to every movie because it's just an easy way to kill time. And it just gives my wife a little time without the older kids and whatever. So we see everything, right? We saw SpongeBob, whatever, fine. And I saw this film that it had a 56 on Rotten Tomatoes, which is bad. Like that means you're going to a bad movie. And heading in, I was like, if that many people don't like this movie, it's probably bad. And I want to tell you that 44% of those people were absolutely wrong because this movie was hilarious.

I loved it. It's not good. It's just much better than you think it is. I laughed out loud like five, six times in the movie theater. At one point, I stomped my feet on the ground. I was laughing so hard. And this movie is... The housemaid. What? Anaconda. Oh. Oh, Anaconda. Like, no one's talking about it. Everyone's talking about Marty Supreme. And I just went there just to kill time. And I'm telling you way above expectations. I hate movies about people making movies like comments. many writers and like Hollywood writers writing about writing. It always pisses me off. It's one of those movies. So it's losing points because of that. But when I tell you, you can't watch that film and not laugh out loud like seven times. And Jack Black, you put Jack Black in anything and it's going to be hot. Anaconda was awesome. It was a, if you have like kids between the age of eight and 14, take them to Anaconda. Take Haley to Anaconda. You will not regret it. You think a 12 year old would enjoy it? I went with the 12 year old.

And liked it. And two 10 year old girls. And everybody liked it. It was funny. It was stupid. It's a stupid movie. It's stupid. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Good. Yeah. It's a good. It's not scary.

It's not scary. Yes. We will do it on the unwatchables in like 2034. The unwatchezed. With Dave Jacofi and Chris Vernon. Yes. All right. Thank you to our executive. We're coming for your head, fantasy. That's right. Thank you.

We're executive producer. Jesse Lopez, as always, Jacoby. I'll talk to you later this week. Thank you.