The Mismatch - Trae Young Trade Rumors, Grizzlies Silver Linings, All-Star Festivities, and Does Pop Still Got It?

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

Verno and KOC discuss the Grizzlies' upset win over the Bucks as well as Klay Thompson’s hot performance after getting benched (00:24). Next, they have a leaguewide check-in entering the All-Star break, starting off with all the noise surrounding the Warriors after it was reported that they looked into LeBron James's availability (25:05). They debate whether Victor Wembanyama is a top-20 player (39:00), wonder how far the 76ers could fall in the standings (01:04:01), discuss what they are looking forward to in this weekend’s All-Star game festivities (01:11:20), and so much more. Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out http://theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL draft this year. My name is Ben Solack and I host the Ringer NFL Draft Show with Danny Kelly, Danny Hypatts, and Craig Horbeck. We cover trades, free agency and the draft, which is, yeah, obviously. We'll tell you about everything, which includes which quarterbacks are good, which quarterbacks are bad and which quarterbacks are just Kirk Cousins. That is the Ringer NFL Draft Show. Search the Ringer NFL Draft show on Spotify. Before we even get this episode of The Mismatch started, Kevin O'Connor and I, Chris Vernon, have had to come on here early for the people. people because of what took place after we recorded our episode leading into All-Star Break. The Memphis Grizzies defeated the Milwaukee Bucks on TNT, and Clay Thompson came off the bench for the Golden State Warriors and reminded everyone that we've got him all messed up and scored 35 points in a turn-back-the-clock performance.

So neither of those two subjects were covered, but we do this for you. The people. So here we go. It's one of the very few home games that I have not been to this year in Memphis. There was no local broadcasts. It didn't go because in part because you were doing this. For sure. Well, there was no local broadcast because TNT you can't run side by side.

And so typically I'd help with the pregame and the post game shows. But it was one of the few. few games. This was the third home game this week. And honestly, I never get to watch home games on TV, much less a national broadcast on TV. So I wanted to see that. And man, did I get more than I bargained for with the Grizzlies beating the bucks? Look, it's a great story for the Grizzlies who are a young team who keep competing. They got different lineups, different players playing every single night. G.G Jackson, 27 points off the bench. Off the bench. He, Like every time Gigi Jackson does anything, he's always on these crazy lists of the youngest

players to do this, the youngest players to do that. He has been a revelation for sure. They found Vince Williams Jr., who we have talked about on the podcast before. He was a guy that if you go back and look, I went back and looked at like all of the different draft stuff. And there was a lot of the, these are the stats that. Ramon Green put up in college. These are the stats that Herb Jones put up in college.

These are the stats. And it was like a litany of these grinder, a lot of times second round guys that ended up becoming very good NBA players, long wingspans, good steals and blocks guys, really good shooter from three, grinder. So they had obviously already found him. He was a guy that was drafted in the second round out of VCU. played on a two-way contract, and by virtue of all of the things that it went wrong for Memphis this year, got his opportunity, and it became very clear they've got a guy. So they signed him to a contract.

The next one was G.G. Jackson. Again, second-round guy. His is a different situation because he reclassed, went to South Carolina, then went straight to the NBA, signed a two-way with Memphis, after was drafted in the second round this past year, again, given the opportunity, put into the lineup, after he had already averaged a bunch and played very well in the G-League, got his opportunity with Memphis, again, signed a multi-year contract with Memphis.

So they had already found two to be part of the roster, part of the rotation, to augment what their core was. And those two guys have been absolutely off the charts. There's no lie. everywhere I go, people ask me about Vince and Gigi. Those are the two guys. And so I was glad to see both of them play great on this night.

Zaire Williams was the revelation tonight because Dryer Williams has been like not a revelation. And he has had good games here and there. But this was career night for him for sure. 27 points on 9 of 13. This season only 39% from the field, 31% from three. you know, hopefully you can build on this. And then Lamar Stevens, getting him from the Celtics. Lamar Stevens tonight, 13 points, 6 of 10, 5 rebounds.

It's been very good defensively for Memphis so far. These are the Silver Lions we're talking about guys like Lamar Stevens getting chances. True story. I hate to admit this, but it was whatever the Monday night game was. So these all run together. They had played the Rockets. They played the Rockets last night. That was on Wednesday night.

And then they played earlier in the week. And again, like I said, they all run together. But they had played New Orleans. It was the Pelicans game. Oh, yeah, the one we recorded after that. There was like a 14 to 10 fourth quarter, miserable. Anyways, we're doing the pregame show, and we're heading into the game. At the end of the pregame show, you're running B-roll of the guys.

guys going through the layup line and I turned to the host of the show Rob Fisher. This after we're saying, and he's like, and Grizzly's Pelicans up next on ballet sports, right? And so the break runs and I turned to him and I swear my life, I said, who the hell was that? The guy in a Grizzly's uniform going through the layup line had a headband out. I had never seen him in a uniform. It was Lamar Stevens. And we could only see him from like the side as he was going in. He had braids, he had a headband.

And I'm like, who was that that they just showed? And he's like, that's Lamar Stevens. So anyways, that night, they throw Lamar Stevens in there. He's got to guard Zion Williamson and holds up unbelievably. He was great against him. Then the next night, Jaron Jackson Jr. gets in foul trouble. He holds up against Shengoon. I'm like, yo, I kind of love Lamar Stevens.

Like, he might be a player. he's big he's strong he plays hard as hell it looks like he can knock down some shots i was like geez did they actually just find another like deep wing rotation guy possibly that can be a rostered player you know going for because those are kind of guys you need guys that you could throw in there that can be switchable um and he held up look if you could hold up against zionn and shingoon then you can hold up end of story i was really i've been really impressed with He has great strength. Like, Kat, we talk about the Cavs later on the actual pod we recorded.

Caves fans, though, watching Lamar Stevens last season in limited minutes, he was pretty solid in a real limited role. I think that's why Boston wanted to get him in the late in the free agency process, just in case. Yeah. And like a guy like him, boy, what an opportunity to get regular minutes for the Grizzlies this year, really for the first time. I mean, Cleveland, you know, it's up and down with minutes,

but this year with Boston, he's not playing. And now in Memphis, I mean, 20, 20 plus minutes a night. We'll see. Who knows? They got all kinds of different players. One night at Scotty Pippin. One night's Lamar Stevens. One night's this guy.

One night's that guy. Some Trey Jameson. So a bunch of guys that a lot of people have never even heard of. And that's kind of the way it goes when everybody in your team gets injured. And then you're playing it out to kind of talent evaluate the rest of the way. But I'll give them credit. They compete and they try. every night. Many nights they don't have enough, but they do play hard and they do share the ball

and it has benefited them. The real story, Kevin. But that says a lot about Taylor Jenkins. For sure. The coaching and obviously the coaching matchup tonight against Stock River is three and seven now with the books. Well, I will say, the Grizzlies have been very, they've been a big problem for the bucks. You got to remember. And we see this a lot in football too sometimes with the guys that really know the opponent. And nobody knows those guys. And nobody knows Janice and Brooke and what makes them tick and what makes them bothered and what can wreck things. And I know Dan Tony's not there anymore.

But Taylor has been very good against the bucks. Yeah, yeah. That's what I meant. Boodintholden. He's been very good against the bucks. And I think a lot of it is, he knows a lot of that personnel. And so that's always, that's always a thing. It is.

It's always a thing. Now that is no excuse for Lamar Stevens, Zaire Williams, and G.G. Jackson to be able to beat a fully stocked Bucks team minus Chris Middleton. And it is one hell of a trick for them to be three and seven since Doc came on and him coached the All-Star game this weekend. I mean, they just have not reaped the benefits of it. And everybody kept saying the same thing. Process, process, process. I know you even called out. Like, I like what I'm seeing.

I do. It's getting better. The wins will come. But damn, bro, national TV for everybody to see against a team that's on a back-to-back who's got none of their able bodies. By the way, Jared Jackson has been playing, and he didn't even play. play tonight. And the Bucks can't beat them?

I don't know, man. That's alarming. It's alarming. It's a worrisome loss. But I'll tell you what, the two big questions with the Bucks, the coaching has improved. The defense is improving. Has it, though? They're three and seven.

It has improved. We talked about this on the show recently. I believe it was earlier this week or last Friday, whenever it was, we talked about the Bucks defense. So listeners can, you know, go back to the Tuesday episode. but the big questions with the Bucks now are, A, the health of Chris Middleton, can he get back to being 30 plus minute per game guy, 20 point per game score, run help and run the offense, and B, Damien Lillard's consistency.

He has been very, very streaky offensively for Milwaukee this season. He's putting up numbers similar to the year two seasons ago with Portland before he had the surgery. And then last year he had the most efficient high-volume scoring season, of his entire career. I mean, it's public information going through a divorce right now. It's public that we know he wanted to go to Miami. He gets traded to Milwaukee.

Clearly a lot going on in his personal life, not being able to be around his kids, not being in the city he wanted to be in, away from Portland, new situation, all that. I still wonder, like, you know, we're not too far removed from that injury either. I do wonder if that could be a factor that hasn't been discussed at all. I have not heard anything about that, nothing at all, to be clear. But like the numbers from the perimeter are very similar to what he did that year. So it's at least noteworthy in my eyes that those two outlier seasons this year and two seasons ago, it just seems like something worth noting there.

But the bucks need to get right. He could be a smaller guard that's getting older and is in a new environment. Yeah, it could be a ton of things, a ton of things, like new role, new situation, not getting the ball in the same spots. It could be a lot. Also, he's a guy that could come out of the All-Star break in the last 30 games of the season average 35 points a game or something. Bingo.

I mean, we know. Bingo, like, he can do that. So I think with Dame, you know, it's just, you know, it's something just the note that with him, he's not quite the same guy that he was last season when he was 32 points per game and he was just absolutely absurd efficiently from everywhere. To me, it's the defensive intensity, which you can scheme it all you, one. Yonnas plays hard every single night.

Even tonight he did everything he had to do. And I just don't feel like all those other guys follow suit all the time. And obviously when they've got Lillard and Beasley, it can be dynamite offensively when they're knocking down threes, but defensively, it just, I mean, it breaks down an entire defense because once you're not staying in front of anybody at the point of attack, now with as many teams have the same goal, which is get a paint touch, kick out. Get a paint touch, kick out. Well, the way you stop them getting a paint touch is staying in front of somebody.

And they don't have many guys that stay in front of people. Yep. I mean, it is a roster issue for them. And even with Middleton, he's not the stopper he once was. No. Pretty crazy win for Memphis, pretty wild loss for Milwaukee, especially because you know the nation's watching because it's the it's the only game on tn t now what a lot of people weren't seeing because it was not the tn t game was this golden state

game which we do talk later in the podcast about how clay thompson had this miserable ending to the clipper game which then landed him on the bench which is uh it's one thing to not close games now steve cur demoted him from his starter position in place of pods and I think he took this very seriously because Clay Thompson, right here before they're about to head into the All-Star break, became 2016 Clay Thompson tonight. My God. I mean, they end up winning the game 140 to 137,

which is just a crazy output for the game. But he ends up coming off the bench, 13 for 22, 7 for 13 from 3, 35.6 rebounds to assist for Clay Thompson. You figure it out. I mean, what? We say later in the show how I like the move starting pods ahead of Clay, and I still feel that way.

I hope Clay embraces this over the next week. Like I say later in the pot, he's going to let this marinate being benched. Maybe he'll see this as a good thing coming off the bench. Maybe this will inject some energy. into him and he'll play in a like a six-man role and be the star six-man for the Warriors. That'd be kind of cool. Just come off and get the next chapter.

Yeah, that'd be kind of sick, right? He certainly got buckets tonight. I'll give him that. That was turned back the clock. On the other side, look, Colin Sexton's been fantastic this season. He had 35. 33. But Keonti George.

Yes, sir. This is another rookie. We talked about him a lot and how great he looked at Summer League. He had slimmed down from his time at Baylor, and we thought, boy, this is one that could really be a steal. That was our first impressions from watching him in Utah, right? If you're watching all these different lottery picks, there's some that stand out and there's some that don't. He clearly was on the list. Anybody could go back and find those pods.

We were in love with what we saw from Keante George and thought, hey, this is one of those guys that got drafted a little bit later that we may be. very well look and go, oh, he should not have been drafted a little bit later, you know, in the same realm of you can go all the way back to Paul Pierce going 10th. You can go all the way back to, you know, Kawhi Lederd and Janus and Donovan Mitchell and all manner of guys, right? Trieries Halliburton, for that matter, every year, there's somebody. And so if you're trying to like figure out, okay, who's that like 10 to 15 guy that might have been the one that we're going to look back and go, geez, man, how did he end up going 10 to 15? Kianti George might be that guy.

And he has certainly showed glimpses this year. The stats aren't great, but this was a big, big performance. One month ago on the ringer, I wrote an article, seven NBA observations in the Spurs, trade rumors, and the Lakers next move. That's the article where I talked about why the Spurs should trade for Tray Young this summer. in that same article, I have a thing on there, a rookie check-in on Keante George. And I interviewed Keante earlier in the season and talked to him about his progress. And one of the things that I talked to him about was like, you know, finding scoring consistency.

Because he was, you know, defending a bit harder. He was showing a lot of playmaking skill throughout the season. But how does he find scoring consistency? Well, that was published. on January 15th. His last 10 games Chris, last 10 games is according to Ben Dousset.

Jazz covers the jazz. He's done some freelancing for the ringer as well. Ben tweeted this out tonight. Keante George's per 36 minute stats over the last 10 games. 20.7 points, 5.1 assists, 3.9 rebounds, 48% from the field,

42% from 3, 86% from the line. So Keante George, last 10 games, playing around 27, 28 minutes per game, extrapolated out the per 36. This is the stretch where he's really starting to find that consistency with this being his best overall game so far of his entire career showing off all the talent together. Good for Keonté George and hopefully for the Jazz who are kind of, you know, sputtering a bit up and down that he continues to be one of the bright spots for them to close this season in the second half.

Seems like an unbelievable second year leap candidate as well. Yes, with his scoring ability. And like, who knows what the Jazz will do with trades this offseason as well. Like a lot of touches could potentially open up for him. Yeah. And if he catches on these last 20, 25 games really shows us something. Then he comes into next season. We're like, okay, this was predictable.

He's one of my regrets in the draft. I, I at one point, I mean, we were high on him. But in terms of my ranking, I at one point had him like fifth. I think something like that and I shifted him down to I think like 12 something like that he ended that I should have kept him higher it was the weight thing that that's what it was yeah I had him

sixth when the big board launched in January of last year and then I moved him down to 14 that's where he finished so a little too low all right so we want to make sure that we covered both of those things that took place oh and I guess I should mention yeah because there'll be the 10

Wolves fans that tweet us that are mad they're killing the Blazers so there you go at the time of recording they're killing the Blazers so congrats to them your team's amazing

everybody loves them and the national media Rudy Gilber is a god yeah Carl Anthony Towns has got the perfect voice and is awesome and Mike Wolf

you can brave about Mike Conley genuinely I do like Mike Conley you do like Mike Conley Yeah. I like that wolf. I love Conley and Edwards. I do. I like the old. I like everybody else that annoys me. I mean, I mean, you know I like Gobert. I like Jada McDaniels. Awesome defender. Nikiel Alexander Walker's been great defensively this year. I've always liked Monta Morris. Their new back-up point card. I've loved Morris for a lot of years. I like that. Nasreid. Yeah, I like Chris Finch too. I like a lot of the wolves players. I like, I know. We didn't even mention Anthony Edwards is their star. I did mention him. I said I like Connolly and Edward. Okay. I missed that. I miss that. that's what I like. But I love Edwards. And I, you know, and you know, I love Rudy Gauver.

So don't yell at us, Minnesota. All right. All right. Now to the actual episode that we had already recorded. Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me see he does every Thursday night from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Campor, Kevin O'Candee, Kevin O'Candeeland, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien,

I caught that at the end there, Chris. Oh, kind of snuck in a new one on you. That's good. I like it. Yeah, gallows. All right, we're going to do kind of a all-star break check-in as there are going to be all-star events going on this weekend. You are not going, right? No, I'm not going, no.

Sorry, I'm not going to grace you with my presence, Indiana, but not this time. I went last year. I'm taking the weekend to catch up on draft stuff. Oh. I'm doing a, it's a, like, All-Star weekend here. We got, you know, Spotify. Next week we're not doing a show early in the week. We'll be back next Thursday night or Friday morning with our next show,

depending on the timing of when you listen. But I'm going to take this time All-Star weekend to do a lot of draft stuff. So that's my plan for the time here. I'm going to do a tremendous amount of self-reflection. Oh, that's good. Like Draymond Green, right? You're going to look at, you're going to. Yeah.

Like that tight? Like some basically nothing. All right. Let's get to our All-Star Break League check-in. Kevin, first question. Is it possible in the Western Conference, we already have our 10 teams settled. That given the recent successes of both the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors,

which were at least bad enough through the first port. of the season for people to question whether or not they would be playoff or even play in teams and where they were going to go from here. But given their recent success and the fact that they are part of the top 10, are we now looking right now, though the order will change, but our top 10 is already decided. Do you buy that? I buy it completely. Our top 10 has been decided for sure. I mean, just to go through it real quick, you have kind of a top full that's all two and a half games behind each other. Minnesota, OKC, Clippers, Nuggets.

And then you got four teams that are within a game and a half of each other, the Sons, the Pelicans, the Mavericks, and the Kings. And then the Lakers, as you mentioned. And then the Warriors, as you mentioned. And the Warriors are a game and a half up on the Jazz, three games up on the Rockets. And then after that, you have the Grizzlies, the Blazers, and the Spurs, the bottom teams in the West.

I think those 10 are going to stay in the top 10 spots. It's only going to be a matter of, how they end up falling in what order. But I'd be a little bit surprised if the Lakers or Warriors at this point were to fall down. The Lakers are playing a lot better recently. They have found some good combinations. Darbinham has done a better job there. And we have not seen the Warriors game yet tonight.

But Steve Kerr, after Pods, had an awesome game the other night. And Clay Thompson completely blew it down the stretch after pouting from the bench. He has benched Clay Thompson. Clay Thompson will come off the bench tonight. in Thursday's game, the last game before the All-Star break, he's going to have to marinate over that for the next week before the Warriors play again and think about his place in the league right now, while Pods rightfully starts ahead of him.

So I think Kerr also is making some of the tough decisions that he didn't do earlier in the year that he now is with the younger guys on the team. Well, he gave him an out. He gave him an out with the debacle that was the intentional foul after Pods had hit that huge three. and I've seen a bunch of different videos that have kind of gone through the look at the Warriors bench and players on the court reaction to that. They are just, I mean, flummoxed.

They can't believe what he has done. And he's just doing his, you know, side to side, you know, sway as he goes back. But, you know, that was a big game. That was one that we had circled as, hey, are they real? course it was without Kauai Leonard in this game. And they blew it. They were up like nine points with what, 70 seconds left? Right.

80 seconds, 90 seconds? They were up a lot late. Yeah. And so look, he gave him an out by making such an egregious error at the end of that game. But it'll be fascinating to see they certainly have played much, much better since the Dremont return as well. We did not get to speak about the next subject because it happened. after our last podcast. But the story comes out about the conversations that were attempted,

or at least had when reaching out to the LeBron James representatives to see whether or not he would like to be part of the Golden State Warriors and also whether or not the Lakers would be interested in moving on from LeBron James. James in Los Angeles. And obviously we know nothing came of that. But I was interested in the idea that LeBron James did not want to do that and made that clear through his representation. As you read through the report from Adrian Wojianowski and Ramona Shelburne, what did you make of the Warriors and the Lakers even broaching this topic? you mentioned how

LeBron through his representation released the thing that LeBron won't be traded he's not going to ask for a trade. That's not necessarily saying that he doesn't want something like that. That's just the framing

of the public conversation that they don't want it perceived as LeBron forcing his way out of L.A. That's what that was. No, no, no, no. I'm not talking about the statement. I'm talking about in their article,

they said they had to reach out and talk to Rich Paul. and when they talked to Rich Paul, there was not interest from that side. I think they want to play out the year, is what they want to do, and then reassess this off-season. You know,

let me take a quick, 20-second time out. You know what I thought is something possibly on the horizon, and it's something that you have been hitting on over and over again. It's starting to gain a little steam, and then I'm just putting two-and-two together here.

Did you see Kendrick Perkins when he went on with McAfee? and he said, they need to just chill in L.A. get through this season because there is a superstar on the way. Not going to say who it is, but there is a superstar on the way. He is coming to L.A. next year, and he's going on. He's like, I'm not Ramona Shelburne. I'm not, you know, A. Joe Ward Janowski. I'm not Adam Schaefter.

It's not what I do. There's people that trust me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But they're just going to sit tight, get through this year. and there's a superstar on the way. And my mind immediately went to you weeks ago, possibly months ago, bringing up Trey Young. You think that's who he was talking about? Trey, look, I've said for a lot.

What other superstar or somebody that you would even termed that could he even possibly be talking about? I mean, look, I've said for quite a while now that Trey Young is highly likely to be traded this off season. And I think it'll be San Antonio or the Lakers, maybe your surprise team like the Orlando Magic, somebody that's in need of a point guard, somebody like Orlando.

But the Lakers or the Spurs would be the top two teams in all likelihood for him. And I think for L.A., that is 100% why they decided not to make any moves this trade trade this trade trade three first round draft picks this summer. They didn't want to ruin the chance of making the best offer for Trey Young or whoever it might be who becomes a ill. Obviously, Donovan Mitchell, they'd love to have. I don't think he's necessarily going to be available unless he forced his way out. Howard Beck, you know, in his article this weekend, The Ringer said how he had a Western

Conference executive saying that they expect Mitchell not to stay in Cleveland. We'll see about that. Cleveland's rolling right now. But Trey Young and the Hawks, they're not. So I think we're heading towards Trey Young, a guy who has not been voted or chosen to an All-Star team for two years except as a replacement. You know, I think for Trey, he's a guy ready to win playing the best basketball. ball of his life right now. And I would expect to trade this offseason from him leaving Atlanta.

So for the Lakers, they'd be one of the teams that could go there, that could go and make a strong offer. And plus with trade with his youth, you could have him as one of your post-Lebron building blocks as a guy that you have if LeBron decides to leave or retires and you have him in AD together. As AD enters his mid-30s and Trey Young, that could be one of the best pick and roll combinations in all the basketball. A.D. He's one of the best lob threats ever, ever. So I think, you know, for the Lakers, that makes sense for today and for the future. And that's one reason why they will be patient here. And that's another reason why LeBron wouldn't want to be traded yet. It's about waiting until the offseason

to then assess the situation. Do the Lakers land him or not? Maybe because the Spurs can make a better offer if they want to. The Spurs could offer the Hawks their own draft picks, which is why in January, I wrote that article saying, hey, the Spurs and Hawks make a heck of a lot of sense for a Tray Young trade, because they can actually offer the Hawks back the picks that they gave up to get to Jonté Murray. So the Spurs can outbid the Lakers if they want to. It's just a matter of if they decide to do that or sit on those assets and go for somebody else out there. That could be kind of over. Well, and obviously, who knows what their pick could be given the lottery. Their greatest asset is going to be possibly a number one pick or a number two pick or number three pick.

They're going to have a really good chance. I mean, they're going to have a great chance of getting one of the top four picks on the draft for sure because their record is pathetic. 100% Chris. I mean, the spurs, they currently have the third best odds. Like, you know, that gives them a 52.1% chance of landing in the top four or a 14% chance of landing the number one pick. So San Antonio, if they wanted to move that pick, or maybe they don't even need to move that pick to have the best offer. Just the Hawks future picks alone could potentially be enough. You might not need to give that pick, but that's where you can get creative here.

If the Spurs end up with the number three pick, right, the Hawks currently have the ninth best odds. The Hawks could trade nine and Trey Young to get three and all of their other future picks back from the Spurs. or like if the spurs ended up number one and the Hawks were number four, like you could do a flip there within this year's draft because the Hawks have their own lottery pick too. So there's ways for those teams to get creative in ways that the Lakers couldn't with an offer. And obviously we're jumping ahead here, but I do think it's worth glancing ahead with this stuff because it does dictate where these teams are today.

And this whole conversation this week about LeBron and the Warriors, that is why nothing happened because LeBron, and the Lakers both want to give this time, and the team is crushing recently. They're playing great. He might very well stay with the Lakers, and they get to the second or third round this year, and then they reload. That's very possible. Get buckets with your first bet on Fandul, America's number one sportsbook,

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Bonus issued and non-drawnable bonus bets to expire 7 days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook. com. So if we both agree that the 10 are settled, then there's, there are at least a couple, I think, that are going to play it out and be right there at least trying to the end. Because you never know. All it would take is one guy twists in his ankle and missing six weeks. And so Utah is still right there.

Utah is only a game and a half behind Golden State. And Houston is three back from Golden State. Now, I saw Houston in person last night. They've got their share of guys that were out. I didn't see Van Vlead. I didn't see Tari Eason. I didn't see. They had a couple other.

Cam Whitmore wasn't playing last night. But they still had, they certainly had a lot more guys than Memphis did last night. But let's just say it was an unimpressive effort to say the least. It was my first time to get a look at Amman Thompson in an NBA uniform in person. You're a fan? Oh, brother. I mean, Kevin. He's so athletic, right?

If he put something to get... Look, it didn't get a lot of... Look, that was a rat game, and I know that most people are not going to care about that game, but I will say, typically you could catch some highlights, like going viral from it, and this did not get viral, but I will say he did one thing in that game

that I was so impressed by. At one point in that game, and it did not go viral. He caught a ball off the rim. I'm talking flat-footed and off-Virt jumped up and just spiked it. And like, you just don't see it. You don't see stuff like that. He has a top 0.05% athleticism in the NBA.

Seriously, it is off the chart. And he found out and it honestly, like, made it. a massive difference in the game. I'm interested to see if he can put it all together. You know, he's still, it's a rookie who's getting his first big minutes in the NBA. It didn't really get cracking until later on than some of his peers in this season.

But if he ever throws it together, he has ability, as we talked about with both those tops of brothers. The scoring thing and the shooting thing is what is going to be what they have to tackle, but everything else. boy, they get in there, they can rebound, they can get steals, they can get blocks, they are just so ridiculously athletic that they can impact a game in a lot of different ways

besides scoring. And by the way, he scored last night. I think he had like 19 in the game I went to, but he was the one that really stood out. It's really besides shooting. Like they can score at rem and, you know, get hot. but they don't need to shoot threes in order to make a positive impact. That's what you mean, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did wonder at one point last night, I did wonder, and this is a down-the-road thing, I did wonder, you know how we talk like, hey, can you get the best of these guys when they're playing together? Can you get the best Scotty Barnes if he's next to see Akum?

Can you get the best Evan Moby if he's next to Jared Allen? Can you get the best winner? I did wonder about the Jabari Shengu thing. Can you ever get the best? the best, you know, can they both become the best version of themselves as a tandem? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they're two young, I mean, tantalizingly talented guys. And Shengun is obviously very, he's much farther ahead offensively than Jabari.

But I think Jabari's got a lot of offense that he's going to be able to unlock down the road. And I wonder if they are simultaneously going to. to be able to be their best. I think you can. Because with Jabari Smith, it's going to be a matter of what level does he reach as a shooter. And it's the same thing with Shenguen, too. Shengu needs to improve as a three-point shooter. But Jabari Smith right now is a 36% guy from three.

As a rookie, he was at 31%. So those numbers still need to get better. If he can become a 40% guy, that lessens the pressure on Shengun to do it. However, I think the point you're hitting at with Houston, they have so much talent. It's almost too much talent to develop. They got to figure it all out. They get at some point consolidate some of these guys.

And then that's where you can really hone in on who's your dudes that you're really, that you want to be contending with when you reach that point at some point. You're obviously not there yet. You're not even a playing team at the moment. But they have so many guys on their roster that deserve developmental opportunities. Like you're saying, they're saying with Jabari Smith, he deserves touches the develop as a score. I mean, doesn't get him every night.

I know. I'll give you a good one, though, watching them and you see the difference between when you're, like, treating it as a real organization with a real coach. Like, last night, Udoka was like, bro, you're not here to play. You're not playing, Jalen Green. You're not here to play. You're not playing. Jay Sontay's trying.

This guy's trying. Like, if you're going to dick around, then you're not playing. And they just didn't play. It was like he wouldn't, I mean, like he wasn't even in the game. Yep. And somebody asked me if Jalen Green played last night because they did not remember it.

I was like, yeah, he was out there for a little bit. I mean, like, when I tell you, the impact was minimal, that is an overstatement. So anyways, if we feel like we got our tail, we got Utah is going to play it out, Houston's going to play it out, and then you got those three teams at the bottom, Memphis, Portland, San Antonio.

And then we're just watching four. prospects, up-and-comers, rookies, see if Scoot can get it together the last, you know, 30 games of the season. And then you highlighted Victor Wimbayama, who has certainly gotten the most amount of chatter, viral clips, etc, over the course of the last two weeks as he's had throughout the season. And that because he had that triple double with the blocks that we talked about and all kinds of other exploits. but I saw you went out of your way to highlight kind of what he has done over the course of the past two months. You posted that on various social media outlets, which has been super impressive. You can read off the stats if you want. Sure.

Victor Webanyama, last two months, 21.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 3.5 blocks, 1.1 steals, and that's in only 26.9 minutes per game because of the minutes restriction he was dealing. with per 36, that's 29.2 points, 12.9 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 4.6 blocks, 1.4 steals. Those are crazy numbers, and then efficiency-wise is a score, 72% from the restricted area, 37% from mid-range, 38% from 3, 81% from the free-throw line. I said at the end of that post, Victor Webbenyama, is a top-top. 20 player already. Do you agree with me on that that he's already at that point?

Well, A, that's one less spot for your buddy Franz, uh, if you're already putting him in the top 20. Franz is not a top 20 guy yet. You can't have 40 top 20 players. I said, I said Franz will be a top 20 player. He's not yet today. Look, here's the deal, Kevin. If we're lining them up all on a, this is how we did.

I remember we did this as Zion, you know, years ago. We're lining them up all up on a wall. we're going to pick teams. You got to win today. There is zero chance he made. Of course. You think he's making it to 20? Of course.

Absolutely not. I think Wendy... Absolutely not. I last posted my top 50, my personal top 50 in November. I had him 25 in the middle of November, less than a month into his rookie year. I'd have him probably around like 18 or 19 right now. Well, I got to be honest with you,

I took such great joy in your sense. celebration of Victor and also the stats. I thought the stats were great. They were great. Especially when there wasn't much context put to it, but I couldn't help but notice that you didn't mention that there is kind of a tie in here that six weeks ago there might have very well been a major change within the way the spurs were being run and that Six weeks ago, they actually started playing basketball with a point guard, of which you were a proponent of the first madness.

And the truth is, we could have gotten this from Victor Wimbayama all season. The numbers with him on the court with the point guard, Trey Jones, have been off the chart all year long. All year long. The only thing that set him back. was that they had this positionless basketball by putting a guy who has no business playing, you know, point guard at point guard to the detriment of team and player. Look, Chris, I think you're wrong. And here's why, because it's not just them having Trey Jones play more point guard

and giving Jeremy Sohan more of his natural role as a forward. It's also the fact that they've put the ball into Wemby's hands. How does it get through his hands? But they're just sometimes just letting him run pick and roll. Like sometimes Wemby is running the pick and roll as the ball handler. That is something that didn't happen a lot earlier in the season. So yes, they are not playing Sohan as a point guard as much, but they're also playing Wembe as a point card more often.

It's not like just it's Trey Jones running the show all game long. It's still a multi-ball handler offense. And listen, wait a minute, wait a minute, one second. As my farmer uncle would say, Kevin, denial ain't just a river in Egypt. No, but like you're moving the goal. No, because you're moving the goalposts here. My only argument, anybody can go back and listen to the shows. My only argument for giving Sohan those point guard minutes was to expand what he can become and see what he can become.

To get, it's worthy of experimentation to see if that there's more to his game. That was the argument there. Not, I don't. To the detriment to the entire franchise? No, no, no. your franchise player. No, no, no, nope. Again, you can listen back to the shows.

I said it's worth doing this if it also means losing some more games and digging a hole deeper when the incentive isn't to win games. You're tanking. You're trying to lose. You're trying to get higher odds here. So the incentive isn't to get a play in spot and to maximize your odds of winning. Wemby's going to get better no matter what. I said to you in this pod, there's also incentive to making things harder on Wemby,

making things difficult on him. So he himself can grow through that after he's been a winner, every stage of his career after he's always been the man. There's also incentive to making things harder on him. I stand by everything I said about that early season experiment. I think I was spot on about all of that being worth it. And it doesn't change the fact that Wemby's flourishing now. This further enhances my point because this was going to happen no matter what. That's why it was worth doing that earlier in there.

It wasn't derailing anything with Wemby. They weren't even competitive. They had an 18-game losing streak. Of course not. Who is that good for? Who is that good for? I would argue it's good for Wendy. I'd argue it's good for him.

I would argue it. I would. And I'm doing it right now. Well, then shit. All these pistons are going to be in the Hall of Fame because Lord knows they've got the greatest experience. Nope. I would never say it's good for James Wiseman or any of those guys.

Why? Because Popovich isn't their coach. It's because of who Wemby is. It's his mind. it's who he how he's wired as a person. This is bananas. It's not at all actually. Yeah, this is bananas.

You convinced me that an 18 game losing streak is good for a player. Yeah, I think it is. It's the most wild thing that's happening. I think it is for Wendy because he's somebody who he has experienced loss in the past year. He goes to the championship game with Mets 902. He loses in the finals. He gets drafted number one and he immediately is like, I'm trying to. trying to win a finals ASAP.

And he's someone who he and his circle expect to win ASAP. Like, I think the Spurs, this is why the Trey Young stuff is going to be a conversation. The Spurs are going to try to improve things this off season. So next year they are competitive. Wemby wants to win. There is an advantage to somebody experiencing what it's like to lose like this for Wemby. There are greater questions with the Spurs that we can talk about. we can talk about for the Wemby side of things

if he would see Greg Popovich as the right coach for the future after he's seen Popp go through stretches this year of not really coaching. Wembe doesn't care as much about what Pop did with Tim Duncan back in the day and Manu Jonoogh and Tony Parker. Wembe needs to see Pop coach now. So I think there's bigger questions about the future of the Spurs aside from some of the experimentation we saw and aside of the losing that relates to Wembe's future,

To me, that stuff, it could be beneficial, but it's really about some of those other factors. Does Pop still have it? That's my big question with San Antonio. Well, according to you, he does, because this was brilliant to suck and to lose 18 straight. And these are all great lessons. And Sohan got so much better because of it. And Wembe learned the value of losing because of it. He learns how bad it tastes.

how bad. The idea that it was good for him to lose 18 games in a row is crazy to me. How to deal with losing, how to help a team be better when they're going through tough times. Like, what, I feel like you're just, now that they're getting these wins,

are, is it good for him? How can you argue against that there's not valuable lessons in losing? Wait, this is a simple life thing. Somebody, Wendy has won his entire life. Look,

when you, if you're losing on purpose, there's no value. to it. Literally none. There's only value in competing and then falling short. It's not like they aren't competing. But they weren't competing. They were getting drilled

every night. It's not like they aren't competing. They weren't. And now they are. And so there is great value. Their net rating is still terrible. Their net rating with Trey Jones and Victor Wimbayama is unbelievably positive. A positive net rate. this season with those two on the floor,

which you would think is impossible with that team. And it's those Zach Collins minutes where everything falls in fine. It would be how they can be a positive. They have actually won per 100 possessions with those two players on the floor. And the second that they made the switch, They became a competitive basketball. This is their numbers right now this season. Wemby plus Trey Jones.

They are outscoring teams by 2.7 points per 100 possessions, according to PbP stats. That's their numbers right now with Trey Jones and Victor Wembe Nama sharing the floor together. So we're agreeing that's good. Yeah, they're above zero. And so it's good to compete? For a plus.

So is it good to compete and it's good to lose? Or is it only? I honestly don't even know what you're arguing. Of course you want to compete. They were competing. No, they weren't. They had the worst point differential in the NBA by wide margin. They lost 18 games in a row.

Yeah, but this team is not good, period. They're competing now. In fact, I think the only blowout they've had since the Trey Jones thing, at least up until last week, was the Oklahoma City, I think it was, or one of the games that Trey Jones sat in. The rest of time, they got some really good wins in there, too. Honestly, like, I'm not even, I feel like we're arguing two different things here. Because all I'm saying is that there's lessons to be learned and losing. That's all I'm saying. That's a life thing, not just like the course they're competing.

As individual players are competing, the team sucks. There's lessons to be learning that for a teenage prospect who's been number one his entire life. All I'm saying is I think they should have competed the whole season. and this could have been a much better I disagree completely because if they competed intentionally not competing because the point

you literally just said 10 minutes ago well they have high draft odds that's going to give them more flexibility to make trade offers for a star this summer but why do they have high draft odds because they favored experimentation over being average earlier in the season

that's why they suck so hard because they're experimenting it wasn't Of course, you're just avoiding the point. All right. Move on. Not avoiding the point. Yeah, you are.

I just paused you talking about them sucking so far. Not avoiding the point. But you know I got you there. It's true. No, you didn't get anything. Yes, I did. Because your point is that you're saying they should have been competing the whole year. After you said they have high draft odds to help them get a star the summer.

Why are they in a position? No, that's the situation that they're in. Look, Memphis could go out and play Gigi Jackson. a point guard every night. And you would sit there and you would say, well, this is great for the long term. No, I would not say that. That's fucking stupid.

No, it's not. I would not say that because G.J. Jackson doesn't have guard skills. It's not his. Neither does Jeremy so on. Okay, well, you haven't watched him then. Yes, I have. He stunk. He's a, he's not a point.

He was terrible. He's not a point guard. He is a terrible point guard. Horrible, awful, pathetic, deplorable. disgusting the worst the worst and it was a travesty

to even have to watch it he's not a point guard but he's a connective forward and so we are just going in circles here the point of doing it the point of playing him there was to a experiment B see if you can get more out of him

to see if he does have it in him find out what you have for the future and see yes if he sucks you're losing more more. They accomplished the C. Check. Check. They accomplished all three

because they found out a lot about them. And guess what they found out? Everything you just said about him is a point card. But it was worth it. I could have told them. They didn't have to do it all. I told them at the beginning. Listen back to our pods in December and January.

I'm saying the same thing now that it then. No, you weren't. I was. You can listen back. You're forgetful. You're getting old, Chris. I'm not getting old. I see more of the wrinkles with that.

No, I've been using the C-ROM. All right. All right. Eastern Conference. Do you believe we have our 10 teams in the Eastern Conference? It's Boston, Cleveland. Let's take a quick time out to praise Cleveland. There's a lot of 7 and 3 teams and a lot of things that have been good in their last 10.

Cleveland, who has brought back guys into their lineup after they had really gotten going have been able to assimilate with the you know bring them back uh some key guys and along the way have gone nine and one in their last 10 games and i feel like there's been three different times throughout the season where we've been like okay do we start like really believing in cleveland do we need to start talking about cleveland are they the philly replacement now should we be talking about them like we talk about Boston, like we talk about Milwaukee, like we talk about New York as a team that has real Eastern Conference finals opportunity. And I know that, you know, I've heard Rosillo say this.

And I think it's a wise thing. He says that speaks for a lot of us that are NBA fans. And it is so hard to get that Nick series out of our head. last year. I mean, they just got pummeled in that thing and then had some disturbing quotes about how they were not ready for that. They, like, that level of physicality and toughness and everything that the playoffs brought. And Jared Allen especially, who turned it to a pumpkin when it mattered. And so it's kind of like, you got to prove it to me. It feels a little bit like a team that Donovan was on in Utah, where we accepted all year.

year long. Awesome regular season team. You got to prove it to me by when you're when you're in the Western Conference Finals, then we're going to believe it. But it might take until then for you to truly win us over. Where are you with this? Because this Cleveland thing has not stopped. And it has been a, it's been a freight train for now a couple months going. I mean, I'm the same place I was the last time we talked about him that this team looks like Evan Mobley has returned. and he has returned a brand new improved player. He's addressed some of the stuff that we talked about earlier in the season where it looked like his development was stagnated,

but in the nine games since he returned, at 15.3 points per game, he's at 57% from three, granted it's only 1.6 attempts per game, but he's doing more stuff on the perimeter, looks more comfortable off the dribble, and that has, you know, continued to allow Jared Allen to just flourish

like he was through that entire, absence without him. Jared Allen's so versatile on rolls to the rim. Such a good decision maker as a passer. Mitchell's still thriving. Garland isn't even shooting threes at a high level yet since he returned. And yet he seems to be playing incredibly well despite the shot not falling right now. So I think with Cleveland, everything that worked that you talked about with those kind of three and guys, you know, fitting alongside them, whether it was, you know, Max Struce, Okoro, now are a reliable shooter. Sam, Merrill, Merrill. I mean, up and down the line on that roster, they have a lot of guys that have fit next to the Mitchell Allen-centric offense,

but Mobley is fitting in, Garland is fitting in, and the team is continuing to thrive. Do I still look at them at the same level as the Sixers plus Joelle Lambede or the Bucks with newfound improved defense or the Celtics with all their talent and experience? No. But I will say this, Kevin. One thing that has dawned on me is that that was so highly successful with the Mitchell and Allen tandem with surrounded by the wings. They were so good. I mean, on offense and defense.

They were just on a win streak to no end. It has dawned on me like, hey, what if, what if J.B. plays this. thing right and we don't think of it like oh those are our four guys but rather you think of it like two different pairings that of course they're going to take the floor together and they're going to take the floor together a lot but as the going gets tough that you have the two guys and then the two guys you have mitchell and allen and you can surround it and you have garland and Mowbly and you can surround it. Because if you're leaving in Garland and Mowbly to play against second units, that's a bloodbath.

Yeah. And so now if that other can hold up, right? Like, and you're mixing and matching to where, you know, now I got these guys back and we don't have to look at it as, okay, now all these guys have to play together because we don't have enough depth around them. You know, we can't be good enough. they actually are good enough around them that you can mix and match this to where, okay, now here's the moment where Garland and Mowgli, you guys are going to do your thing and you guys can two man on this. And then we can go back to Donovan.

And at that point, that's something we don't see very often where it's like you can run the show and then you can run the show. But it's something that they'll be able to utilize that I think could make them pretty devastating if they pull it off. I mean, having star depth essentially. Yeah. Like, that's what it is. If you have, if you have, you know, if you're able to, when Mowbly and Allen play together,

if Mowgli is able to effectively space, but you also have the option to have one of them on the floor for all 48 minutes, you play them a little bit both together, play him a little bit solo. And same thing with Garland and Mitchell. If they're able to coexist together and your defense is so strong because of the Mowbly Allen backline, your offense can flourish. And then you have one of them. those guys on the floor for all 48 minutes

with exactly the type of structure you're talking about, that's what gives Cleveland a chance. It's kind of just a younger version of the same duo. Yes. Which is best equipped to be a duo. Yeah. I think

that's where, like, if you're a Cavs fan right now, everything you just said is why you're going to be feeling so good. Even if there's, I don't think they're on the same level of some of those other teams. Even if you acknowledge that as a Cavs fan and you say, you know what? Yeah, second round or if we could sneak into the conference finals, great. That's a victory. That's a step forward for your franchise. I don't think the

expectation for the Cavs should be NBA finals. They haven't been through it yet. And as you said, that Nick series still does stick in your mind right now. But we'll see if this is where an improvement came because I think Jared Allen looks better this season than he did last season. Evan Mobley, the last nine games, looks better than he ever has in his entire career. So, I mean, I think you don't want to fall into recency bias, but at the same time, I do think you have to take in new information, especially with young players and how they're progressing.

And Mobley, after I've been pretty critical of him offensively throughout basically his entire career, I'm very optimistic with what we've seen recently. Let's see if he can sustain it now. And in fairness to them, they've got better wings. Which is going to make them better equipped. Big time. Big time.

You know what I mean? Dean Wade out. I mean, we didn't even mention Dean Wade. Like, Okoro's a real shooter at this point. He's for real. Contract to you, right? No. Last year he started figuring it out.

There was a shooter. Okoro. Yeah, he did. He did. Midway through last season. He figured it out. Not as much in that playoffs here. Not in the playoffs.

No. But regular season at least. And that's like what you're saying. You're still shooting a low of, out, right? Yeah, he's a low volume guy, but let me just pull up El Corro's numbers real quick, just to detail this for the listeners. Right now, he's at 39.3% from three on 2.3 attempts per game.

Last season, he was 2.3 attempts per game, 36.3%, but as I stated, midway through the year, I think it was middle of December, he started shooting closer to the percentage that he is right now. The issue is, is, you know, like you said in the postseason, he just, and he just, he just, not shoot at the same level that he did during the regular season. He was at 30.8% in the postseason on 2.6 attempts per game. And that's where like regular season hitting, you know, relatively open shots compared to postseason when everything's tighter contested.

It makes me think about the Bob Myers quote at Sloan. God knows how long ago. I like might have been seven, eight years ago at this point. Bob Myers was talking about how when they assess shooters, you know, you like, there's a difference between looking at playoff film and regular season film because an open three-pointer might be two, three feet of space in the regular season versus in the playoffs, that might be two or three inches with a hand, like right where it needs to be to properly contest a shot. And so I think that's where guys like O'Coro do need to prove it in the postseason. But regular season

production is certainly encouraging within the last year and a half. All right, where we go down the list, we got after Cleveland, we've got Milwaukee, New York, Philly, Indiana. That's the top six right now. They're all in. All of them. And then we got Miami, Orlando, Chicago, Atlanta. In for Miami and Orlando. Chicago, Atlanta. Chicago right now is the nine seed, four games back from Orlando for the eight.

Hawks, Atlanta. Six back from the magic for the eight seed. Two and a half up on the Nets. But do you see any of the Nets, Rappters, Hornets, Wizards Pistons? Obviously not those three of the bottom. Obviously not pistons or wizards. So Toronto or Brooklyn. Could you see either of them?

Are they, are Toronto, Brooklyn, it does mirror the Western Conference in the sense of it feels like we're talking about Utah and Houston. It's just their version on the other side. And they're,

I mean, I think we probably have our 10. I think we probably have our 10. Yeah. I mean, maybe if the Nets get really hot. But five, games lost by friggin 40 last night.

Oh my God, I know. So I don't know about hot. I don't know if I'm counting on that. And the Raptors, five games back from Atlanta for the 10 seed, that's a lot to overcome with their lack of, you know, I mean, look, the Hawks have Tray Young still. They have Dejante Murray. They have Jalen Johnson. It's not like they're without talent. They're just not good collectively.

Philly three and seven in their last 10. How far do we think they fall? Are they playing in? I think they can follow to the plane, yes, I do. But, but in B. back mid-March, he'll be back soon enough.

You don't, you hope, if you're the Sixers' medical staff, mid-March, seems like, we'll see. It's been such a weird reporting on that. I know.

Not even talking about surgery, not even talking, like, it's just, there was a procedure done, and, you know, and then obviously he's seven-foot-t tall,

two-hundred-90 pounds, and getting to trust that knee. coming back. I mean, you don't know. Heald's been a good fit for them. For sure. Yeah.

It will be a, it'll be a great fit once a beat comes back. Alongside with him and Maxie, you know, playing off of that. But it's obviously all dependent on when Joel can come back. Uh-huh. Geez.

They've got a three, the two and a half game cushion on eight. Mid March, Chris, this is their stretch. have a starting march 10th listen to this stretch for the sixers this is hell for them at nix at nicks at micks at bucks verse hornets verse heat at sons at lakers at clippers at kippers at kings verse clippers at calves that is from march murder yeah march 10th until march 29th that is a stretch of games that they have they they like they got to have

have a beat back somewhere in the middle of that stretch or it could fall really far in the plan they could fall they definitely even by then they're only up three and two and a half right now on the heat for the seven seed two and a half on Orlando they're on Orlando too they could to the eight. Yeah. They could. It's definitely possible. Eight's probably the farthest.

I don't think they fall as far as Chicago. It's six and a half between them in Chicago. They'd have to lose like every game. And the Bulls, you know, obviously they're an average team. So White is continuing to thrive for them. Let me tell you something. I saw him in person about a week, week and a half ago. That's it.

For people that have not watched the Bulls a lot on League Pass, boy, you know, look, I love that he's got the hair back. And there's a little Samson thing going on. I know you're not a biblical man, but there's a story of Samson and his long hair,

Samson and Delilah, and Samson got his haircut and it took away his powers. And there feels like a little Samson thing possibly going on with Kobe White, because the hair has been back in full force this year. but let me tell you about a little something about Kobe White. He uses that hair to his advantage because he does, and it drives me crazy. This was very prevalent in the league a couple of years ago. And Hardin used to do it all the time.

Trey Young used to do it, the guys that took it to their advantage. And his looks so pronounced because of the huge hair. Anytime he is the least bit bump, he does the whiplash thing where he kicks his head back so that his hair goes flying everywhere so that he can get whistles. He's a, he's a, he's a stealth floppy guy, uh, Kobe White. And he uses that hair to the advantage. He really does because it looks like his heads going, you know, like in whiplash because the hair's flying everywhere.

But it's really not. He's really, and in fact, I saw him do it twice, both challenged, both reviewed, both overturned. And it wasn't even a big deal. It's just it looks like he gets killed because every time he gets touched, he whips his head back. And I mean, I've never seen a guy use his hair to an advantage like him. It's amazing. Talented guy though. As you were imitating white, you know, whipping your head back. I finally caught a glimpse at your shirt. I've just seen Ken on the screen. Now I see it's Ken Griffey Jr. What a what a great shirt. Yeah, that's an awesome shirt. That's so cool.

That's the vintage rookie card cover photo, right? It is. King Gervy Jr., this is probably typical of anybody born in 1990 or in the surrounding years like me. Ken Gervy Jr. is the first athlete I really loves. First athlete I really fell in love with. Every day after school, there was a bookstore down the street from our house, and we would try to work up like allowance money so we could go down there and buy 1989 upper deck cards just so we could get.

The rookie? A King Griffey Jr. Yes. Wow. I mean, that was the hunt. The hunt. Like he was and he was cool and he wore his hat backwards and like I mean we just smoothest left. Yes, dude.

There was nothing cooler than King Griffey Jr. He was an amazing, amazing outfielder. Yes. He was amazing defensively. He stole bases. Played with his dad on the same team, which is a dream for any kid. It's like, oh my God, you're on the team with it. You know?

He is so cool. He, the epitome of cool, truly. And now he's on my Instagram feed every day telling me, you want to get rid of that dad pod? I swear to God, he's promoting some dad bod thing. Oh, my God. And it is on my feed every day. And I'm like, screw you, algorithm. Really?

You got like a childhood hero? Hey, fat ass. You're tired of. those people noticing the extra 15 to 17 pounds you're carrying? I'm like, is he talking to me directly? Get off my, get off my Instagram feed,

Ken Griffey Jr. Yeah, it's like dad bod stack. It shows up on my feed every frigging day. Yes. I got a wild feed, man. You need to see a middle-aged man's feed. It's wild. Not sure I want to see it.

It's that. Dick pills, all kinds of stuff. I'm like, why do they, Why do they think I need all this? They're like, hey, you got a dad bot? I'm like, all right. It's okay. Hey.

No judgment if you do. Want to last longer? I'm like, eh. You know? You say the box is discreet. How discreet? Like, is he going to say my name on it? We're going to get that as a sponsor now.

Oh, I'm sure we will. You're going to be coming to me, be like, will you read this? I mean, come on, man. Get off me. All right. I'll be the one that has to read the ad for that. I read the answer to this fun. I'll read it.

All right. Somebody works for Blutcher or whatever. What's the other one, Roman, Roman or something like that? Hems. Hems. Yeah, hymns. All right. We got the All-Star weekend.

We've got rising stars that is going on. Well, the first thing we've got is the Ruffles, NBA All-Star Celebrity game. Now, you want to feel old. Check out this game because you're going to be going, who, who, who? They are, I want to see a couple of athletes that you'll recognize. Meta World Peace, of course. What's he going by now?

That's it. They list him as Meta World Peace. Really? Okay. I thought he was like meta something else right now. Michael Parsons and C.J. Stroud. That's cool. I like it when the football guys do it.

Okay. And then who else was in this that I care, that I saw was doing it that I had some interest in. I can't remember who else. I don't know. Anyway, look, the celebrity games going on. There's a couple of big names in sports that are going to be playing in it. There's a couple big celebrities. Your kids are going to know who's in the games and, well,

not your kids, but other people's kids. And the LED court. That's the big thing, right? So even if you don't give a cramping, about the celebrity game, the LED court. It's going to be, I think, the first time that we can, like, see it with people playing on it. It's going to carry an endless amount of animation capabilities throughout the game,

such as dynamic three point line, court graphics, and much more. There's also going to be a four-point ridge line and a ruffles crunch time and the ruffles flaming hot challenge. So there's going to be all kinds of crap, but they got this. I just want to see the court. I do. Like, the celebrity games is a celebrity. a game. I'd like to see

Parsons and C.J. Stroud, who but beyond that, I want to see what that LED court looks like on TV. They're doing the court for all the games, aren't they? For everything? Including something? Right, right, but this is the first event that's going on. And so they're going to take real advantage it feels like of this LED

court, because they got all these like challenges and crap. So, I think there's things that are going to be a part of that that probably won't be a part of some other stuff because they're going to be putting like, you know, here's this sex. Here's the four point line and here's the Flaming Hot Challenge and here's all

this crap. So I mean, look, if I'm around the house, I'll flip it on for sure. I will. Because I just want to see the court. The next thing is the Rising Stars. I got to be honest, I love the Rising Stars format. I think we talked about that last year.

A little tournament. Yeah, with the three teams. And I feel like they play like they care because of the target score. Yeah, the G League. Yeah. Well, the G League. I mean, yeah, right. There is four teams. That G-League team is going to get run out.

I would think so. Oh, God. Yes. They're probably going to get destroyed. Yeah, bad. But the other Rising Stars teams, tons of great young talent. One thing they do have game experience together. That's the argument for them.

Yeah, but I mean, I think Chet and Jalen are on a team together and Wembe's on a team with a teammate. I'd be, I'd be shocked. if they won. I'd be shocked if they come within 15. Yeah. But, well, they probably come with that 15.

They only played at 25. But I like, I like the format. I mean, just, I'm not kidding. I don't know. I like the, I like the format.

I do. And I like the target score. I like team. I'll watch anybody play basketball to 25. Yeah, it's cool. I'm honestly looking forward to that more than anything this weekend.

The Rising Star? Yeah. Yeah. That's fun. No, it is fun. I've never been a Saturday night NBA All-Stra Weeking. Oh, I have my whole life.

I've never ever. I love it. All right, three-point contest participants. Just give me your winner. We got Malik Beasley, Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Halliburton, Damian Lillard, who is the defending champ,

Lori Markinen, Donovan Mitchell, Carl Towns, Tray Young. Let's go with Tyrese Halliburton. I have shocked Tray Young's doing it. I wouldn't even show up. I'd just give everybody the bird for not having me there. I think it's a good move. He should do it.

You're going Halliburton because he's the hometown guy. No, I'm going Halliburton because he's an amazing shooter. And he's got like a very stationary shot. I think he can flourish on that competition. I'll go Donovan Mitchell. Okay. I'll go Donovan Mitchell. Who do you get in the Steph Sabrina, three point contests?

Steph? Yeah, I'm going Steph. as well. Yeah. So we got that. And then we've got, of course, the slam dunk contest,

which is going to take place. And what is your opinion on Jalen Brown doing this? Who else is in it? Who are the other names? Jalen Brown, Hamey Hawkes, MacMachuk, Jacob Toppin.

It's nice to have a star. That's about it. It's cool. Hopefully we get more of them. Hopefully he has an amazing weekend. And then more stars are like, hey, I want that attention next year.

Ain't nobody beating MacK McClung. Yeah, I don't think so either. MacMaclunk put on one of the best dunk performance. I mean, I was just, I was there last year in Utah. People were going nuts. I mean, he was awesome. He is a great, great dunker. Yeah, like, Macon McClone is a great dunker in every format.

Jayland's more of an in-game dunker, like an in-game, you know, big-time, you know, fast-break dunk type of guy. People are stunned at two things. A, that Hami Hakez is doing the dunk contest. So anything he does will be shocking. Didn't he win a high school dunk contest? I think so. Obviously, he's a great athlete. A lot of college players did, but I'm pretty sure he did.

Anything he does will shock people. Yeah. Right? Because they've never really seen like the Hawkes highlight that's gone mega viral of him dunking on someone or whatever, which typically. And people are also going to be shocked that Obie Toppen has a brother, Jacob Topin. You think Jalen Brown's

recent dip in offensive production is due to him spending every off day practicing dunks. It sounds like something that they would talk about on Boston Sports Radio. It does. It does. Doesn't it? That's 100% of 420 big traffic topic. I was raised on it. Yeah.

Do the Boston accent. Here, I'm going to tell you exactly what to say. Coming up next is Jalen Brown's current offensive. dip because he's trying to do the silly dunk contest. Go ahead. Because I can't do the Boston accent well. Can you try first? Can you just try one?

I just want to hear you try it. What is it? You got to like do your like Fenway Park. Yeah. Fenway Park. Is that right? Coming up next. Coming up next. Coming up next is Janlon Brown

ruining his career by practicing dunks on his off days. Yeah. For some reason, when I channel, I don't know if that's even a good impression. It's probably Boston people. It's like, you got it wrong.

But when I channel Boston accent in my head, I think about the people who are scalping tickets outside of Fenway, outside of the garden. Oh, when they're like, tickets, buying, selling tickets. Tickets in.

Like, when you were in the car, did your dad listen to like, whatever, the Glenn Ordway and like all those guys that were, yeah, yeah, yeah, all the time.

He was like a W-E-I guy. Yeah, one of the coolest things before my dad passed away was at the Fenway Park, August 2019, they did a Jimmy Fun Telethon. That's where I think the cancer research thing they've done for raising money for decades. At the event, I remember I was with my mom and my dad. I went to the bathroom for a minute. And then I walked out and my dad was talking to Glenn Ordway, who he listened to the radio on for decades. And it was Glenn Ordway who recognized.

I was a really cool thing for my dad. He's like, Glenn Ordway said hi to me. That's cool. That was a cool moment. Yeah, or Glenn Ordway, a super nice guy. Huge deal in the afternoon's there for a long, long time. Yeah, he had a big show for many, many years in Boston. Yep. That was a pretty good impression. I thought you could have, you could add a career in sports radio. Yeah. You know, it's, it's funny. Like, I think I've never really had like the strongest accent even even like pre sports media ever going i've never had the strongest accent um i think it used to be more apparent in my teenage years talking a little bit you know lazier which is odd because your mom does yeah my mom does for sure when i met her she's got the like you

would immediately know where she's from yeah i think there's certain words it like slips out a little bit with me but like it's just that's just the way it is but it's never been super heavy with me i don't know why I don't know. I mean, I didn't grow up like in selfie. That's where a lot of people have the heavy accent that you see in movies, like people trying to imitate and the departed and all that. The departed. Departed.

Yeah, no, you know. But I don't know. I never really had a super heavy one. Maybe I think because in Brockton, like Brockton is such a diverse city from people from like so many different backgrounds and all that. I don't know.

Maybe I just grew up speaking like Brockton. He weren't around just all people that sounded the same. Yes, exactly. I grew up around people who sounded completely different from each other. So I don't know. Maybe that's part of it. Makes a lot of sense. All right.

Kevin, it is always a pleasure. We are going to enjoy our All-Star break. We will not have a show at the beginning of next week, but we certainly will at the end of next week as we head into the post-all-Star break. I mean, it's a stretch run of the season as we are going to be heading into basically the last 30 games of the year. see where these teams. We think that we've got our 10 in both conference, but there's going to be a tremendous amount of jockeying for in the standings before the end of the year. Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez, as always. Kevin, I'll talk to you next week. Have a beautiful week, everybody.

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