The Mismatch - Wemby Done for the Year, Hot Nuggets, the Broken Suns, and What Is Going on With Ja Morant?

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

Verno and Jacoby are back as they discuss where the Spurs go from here after it was announced that Victor Wembanyama’s season is ending due to injury, in addition to the continuous struggles from the Suns (04:51). Then, they discuss if there is any way for the Lakers to hide Luka Doncic on defense, why Shams is absolutely right when it comes to Giannis’s situation with the Bucks, and the Grizzlies' worrisome loss to the Pacers (21:46). Next, they discuss the Nuggets’ nine-game winning streak, as well as the tight MVP race between Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Karl Anthony-Towns’s stellar debut season with the Knicks, and the Sixers’ disappointing season (43:23). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons letting you know that we are covering the White Lotus on the Prestige TV podcast and the Ringer TV YouTube channel every Sunday night this season with Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson. Also, on Wednesdays, Rob Mahoney and I will be sort of diving deep into theories and listener questions. So you can watch that on the Ringer YouTube channel and also on the Spotify app. Subscribe to the Prestige podcast feed. Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel. And don't forget, you can also watch these podcasts on Spotify. bonafire. Wait, Lotus. Let's go. Welcome to the mismatch. I'm

Chris Vernon and joining me to see us every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Verno, I missed you, buddy. I didn't think I would. It's never happened me before, but there was a part of me because we didn't do a show on Tuesday. I was like, I want to talk to Verno. I want to catch up.

Well, I am glad that we didn't have to do the obligatory how do we fix the All-Star Weekend? What's wrong with All-Star? We can. Everything sucks. I hate the NBA. I will say, there was a part of me that I was like, man, should I get on the microphone and like somewhat apologize for trying to gas up like, hey, maybe this is going to be good. I'm hopeful this is going to be good. And then it turning out to be literally the worst thing ever.

Well, I'll just say, and we can move on, but I'll say this is it wasn't a format problem. as someone who's worked in sports television for 24 years. That was a poorly stacked and produced television show. That's what it was. It was just a poorly produced television show. It wasn't the format of the game that was the problem. It was the way the television show was presented to the audience. Those are my thoughts.

I knew it was going poorly when I was watching it. My son and his buddy, who are both 15 years old. So this is a good demographic, right? Yeah. Yeah, bring him in. At one point, Kevin Hart is out there and he is handing everybody from TNT fishing poles and they look over at me and they go, what are, what is going on? I was like, I don't know.

It's like, it's like, I feel like they were like at, we were at a funeral and like the guy in the casket was like, I'm not dead. I'm not dead. We're going to see the inside the NBA guys next year and eat the future for years to come. We're not saying goodbye to these people. Honestly, it felt like someone in the casket is screaming, like knocking on the casket and be like, I'm not dead in here. Stop eulogizing me.

So, all right, I'm going to do Glass FFull once more and say that a couple of weeks ago, WWE had their big Netflix debut. And they obviously went all out with the Netflix debut. Like, everybody came back. They made it like the biggest deal ever. It's like, hey, here is. making our announcement, this is where this product is going to be, and here's why you are going to watch it and want to watch it. And so they made a huge deal out of it. I can only hope that next

year, when we hear Round Ball Rock, and this is on NBC, that, you know, this was like the last of the, who cares, because it's not going to be on TNT anymore, but we'll give them fishing polls and make a deal out of it. That by the time we get to next year, that there, there will be much more attention paid to making the event great simply because it is the first of something that is part of a $76 billion deal. And it's on national TV. It's on NBC. And so they're going to want to make it much, much better. It's almost like this is the worst of, and hopefully it could turn into a much better spectacle TV show weekend. than it was just by virtue of them being on a new place, right, and wanting to impress.

Again, that's glass-appful. It sucked. And I'm glad we didn't have to, because I understand all the reactionary, this was awful thing, but I'm glad we didn't have to do that. I'm glad we didn't have to do a show on Tuesday, and I'm glad we had a great slate of games and a bunch of news to talk about today. We have a ton to talk about. We're going to use the games that took place on Thursday night as to jump off to talk about

a lot of these different teams, but we'd be remiss if we did not start with the biggest news yesterday. Absolutely, totally shocking at about 1130 Central yesterday. I was getting ready for my local show and my producer yelped, oh my God. And I was like, what? And he's like, dude, Wemby's out for the season. And I was like, what? Like, what is going on? Like, it was honestly, totally.

shocking because so out of nowhere and I'm sure that you've had kind of the same experience where though they have not been playing games we saw Wemby a lot in the All-Star weekend and I'm all in on that court of gold so he's been like I've been watching

him a bunch I've been watching him talk I've been thinking about him the second half of the season or at least these last 30 games of the season and then out of nowhere it is announced that he is going to be out for the rest of the season.

And, I mean, immediate reaction is like, did he get injured? Like at a shootaround? Like, what in the world? How are you out? He played the last argument. Yeah. How are you out? What happened between then and now?

And the story comes out about him having deep vein thrombosis, a. a blood clot in his shoulder, which we have seen in the past that it cost Chris Bosch a career. We are obviously most hopeful that it is like the Brandon Ingram situation, who also had one in his shoulder

and then was able to come back just fine. But nothing to be trifled with and something that is very serious and well beyond just an injury, this is a health ailment that has taken place. And he was having one of the most unbelievable seasons. The ripple effects are absolutely enormous. But yesterday, that one felt, I mean, shocking and terrible news.

Yeah. And yeah, the initial reaction when you get the news is what happened. And then you find out it's a blood clot. And then you're like, oh, this can go up. few different ways and you have to be cautious with him. And it's particularly damaging because of the Deerrin Fox move. And just the way that he fit in so well, the way they look together, the way you could be a Spurs fan and see a path to competing, to playoffs, that piece was such an important piece for the future of Wemby and the Spurs. And there was sort of some excitement

around the franchise. And the blood clot thing is so terrifying because, again, you can't go back and see him rolling ankle come up lame, even a non-contact injury. He was just in the All-Star game when it happened. I was like, was he on that Delta flight that flipped upside down? Like, how could he possibly get injured? And once I got that information, I decided to do some research, Chris Vernon. I am not yet an officially licensed medical practitioner.

However, I am in the middle of the show The Pit on HBO. So I do have some expertise. And I reached out to two people in my life to get some color on this. And I'm actually being serious. One of my, my rec league is a bunch of ER doctors. And I was texting with my friend about it. Like, what is this? What could it be?

And he's like, it could just be bad luck and it could be whatever. Here's how it works. and here's how it happens. And then I also spoke to an old, old friend of mine from high school named Sadie. And Sadie had a blood clot in her shoulder as well. Mainly blood clots happen in the legs. And the concern is that the clots will travel to lungs, heart, brain, and obviously cause real problems.

And Sadie had something called Padgetts Schroder disease, which is a syndrome that also became Noma's effort-induced thrombosis. right? What it is is because of the repetitive motion of the arm. And think about Victor Wembe Yamma's right shoulder, repetitive motion, getting shot after shot after shot, blocking shots, defending shots. Like you always see him with his hand above his head. And what that can do is sort of like in between your collarbone and your highest rib, it can sort of like trap the veins, right? And I'm not saying this is what he has. But what I am saying is after talking to someone who had a similar ailment and talking to a doctor, it certainly checks a lot of the boxes because it's such a rare

thing to have a shoulder clot, but the repetitive motion of it all, like it happened once to a viola player. Think about the right arm there. And it happened to like a Matt Harvey, a pitcher. Think about the shoulder there. Serena Williams. Think about what she does with her arms. And I really think that this is what it is. And I also think that now I should be qualified to be a medical professional based on this extensive research that I've now presented to the mismatch audience. You should at least be able to be on that Netflix show. Which? Oh, the pit? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's on HBO. It's excellent. It's very stressful. I have some notes about some of the story structure and the reality of it all, but we can do that on a different pod. Yeah, you know what? Somebody, one of my buddies just recommended that to me the other day. He said it's got the guy that was in ER or something on there. Yeah, yeah. I never watched ER, but apparently it's the same. guy playing the same role in a different hospital. They typecast him, right? This guy is just a, he's an emergency room guy.

It's also a ton of medical jargon. I'm like, it's like you might as well be speaking a different language. I have no idea what you're talking about. But back to Wemby, we can all just hope that, you know, they give him some blood thinners, and he passed tests in the future and he comes back next season, good as gold. And perhaps this is going to give them a better lottery pick. Glad that's also. This is also a guy, which you see when you're watching Court of Gold,

and we have become well aware of in his first two years in the NBA, takes his health and health management extremely seriously, right? Yes. And so this is not a guy that you have to worry about in the least will not do literally everything he possibly can to make this right and do. You know, I mean, this is, this guy is, he is so disciplined with everything that he does. And so here's hope, here's hoping that everything turns out. find it is much more like the Brandon Ingram situation where it's just a blip, something that

happened, something that was able to be fixed, and then he's able to go on. I think he had a surgery. If I'm not mistaken, I think Brandon Ingram had a surgery to sort of like get the bone thing figured out with that Padgett shorter syndrome. But he was fine. But he was fine. Yeah, look at him. I'm glad you mentioned the Corp Gold thing with Wembe in particular because, you know, he's like

a likable guy. He's kind of quirky. He's really well-spoken. He's kind of funny. Like, he's always good in interviews. He's put together. He's disciplined. He's great.

But I love him so much more after watching this. And there's a juxtaposition of watching Joel Embed lose to the Raptors and sort of cry in the tunnel. And watching Wemby lose to the dream team. Like he lost to LeBron, Steph, and KD. And he had like Nick Batum and Rudy Gobert and, you know, Yaboo. And he is so disappointed. He's so. crushed that he didn't bring the gold medal to that home fan.

And all the other guys were like, look, man, we played great, you played great, we went up against the dream team. Like, he took no consolation in that whatsoever. He wanted to win, he expected to win, and he was absolutely devastated that they did not win against the best players in the world that it made me love him that much more.

Also feels like a superhero origin story, right? Yes. At the end, he says, look out. Look out next couple years. I just got my heart ripped out of my chest. This will never happen again, right? Yes. And then comes back with a vengeance.

And of course, it's going to be in the state the next time around. So it's like, here's the get back, right? The next time around. And so we got to worry about them. There's no way around that. Oh, yeah. We got to worry about them by the next time those Olympics come around. Interestingly enough, the team that the Spurs beat last night,

the sons, who are in a bad way, I don't know how you felt regarding this Court of Gold that we've watched. Outside of Wembe, which you made love so much more, I thought maybe the best public relations possible for Kevin Duran. How likable is he in that? The interviews are so good. The game, like obviously watching him in the games makes you remember after he was out for a month and he comes back and he has that game against service.

but he's like the United States player that's featured the most in sit down interviews and in between him talking about looking up in the stands and him getting super emotional and him getting emotional about how he grew up and about how there's so much hate in the world and how basketball really saved his life and how much he loved it and everything like you're watching that I don't know how anybody could come away from that show having any other emotion than I love this guy. Like, I love this guy. I think it's a best thing that Kevin Durant ever been a part of in his whole career probably

because it's so authentic, it's so real, and it makes you like him so much more. And he's just so unfiltered. And we know this from his social media presence. Like he'll interact with fans on ads or Twitter, whatever calling it. And in the interview, it's no different. He's not polished, media trained. I'm going to give you the right answer that I've been taught to give and not let you in. He lets you all the way in and he becomes more likable for it.

But there is nothing that that's the off the court stuff. Watching the Serbian national team at halftime just really paints a picture of just how, just what a scoring, an unstoppable scoring force Kevin Durant is because it's all they can talk. about and it's again a team of lebron beat tatum step and all they get and then the the serbian coach being like this is all my fault i should have never had you pick up kevin durand my i also i laughed so hard when yokech who is not one for many words is saying like i'm i'm paraphrasing but it's basically like if you see bam out of bio and you see kevin durant take kevin durand Carver Kevin Durant.

You know, if he, like, you're making the wrong choice here. If Bamadabio beats us, the Bam out ofio beats us, but like, don't leave him. Don't leave this guy. It's fun to watch Yokic because we talk so much about how LeBron's basketball IQ and how he knows the other team's plays and, you know, Janus's work ethic and everything. And Yokic is kind of just like, oh, ho-hum, he loves horses. He's just naturally gifted at this sport. But he really does think the game in a way, and it's fun to hear him talk the game in that way as well.

Well, it's crazy because Durant still at his age, having an unbelievable season, his scoring and numbers look almost identical to every other year of his career. And yet, that team is just a bad basketball team. I mean, they are 25th, I think, in defense. They've got a negative point differential. they're bad, a terrible offensive rebounding team, so they get no extra possessions. So, like, the one thing is if you're, if you're not good defensively, at least be able to get yourself

some extra possessions on the offensive end because you're trying to create, you say you're not at a disadvantage possession-wise every night, and you're not a good defensive rebounding team. You're a terrible offensive rebounding team, so you lose that. Then you're not good defensively. And, you know, they play about even, with Durant's on the court, but they lose by two points per 100 possessions with Booker on the court this year, and they lose by seven when Beals on the court this year.

And obviously when you've got three players like that, they've all got to be awesome and simultaneously awesome to make up for the fact that you are going to be at a depth disadvantage on a regular basis. And so I think I thought that they might be one of those teams that could see. sneak into the play in. But, man, you watch them in a game like last night

Spurs without Wemby, and obviously I saw them right before the All-Star break against Memphis, and it's like, geez, man,

I don't, it's hard to see how they play three, four games better than their peers because that's kind of the position you're in.

You've got to play three or four games better than some of your peers. And so I think there could be some jockeying around in the Western Conference standings, but within 24 hours, I think we're almost to the point where it feels like, geez, not only are the Spurs not going to be in the mix for this

play-in, which we would have said they are 24 hours ago, but it's hard to see the Suns being really in the mix for that play-in. I think if Dallas really has a lot of. a free fall. Maybe. It could make it possible. Because when I'm looking at it, and I was thinking the same thing, and I was like, how do the sons get to the 10? And I think without Anthony Davis, there's just not enough there.

And they could take that spot if Dallas sort of falls down. Because if they went three and seven or two and eight, you go. It doesn't take five and five, and then you're right there. You know, so I don't, I don't think they're playing good basketball. I don't think they'll field this team with these three stars next season. But I think just because of the injury to Anthony Davis, Dallas, which probably will not be able to maintain their spot. But who knows?

Let me tell you something about Phoenix that made me a little. It gave me a different perspective. Okay. So during the All-Star break, I went to Scottsdale, Arizona, Phoenix slash Scottsdale. Oh, let's do some recon on the suns, boots on the ground. I was not doing any recon on the sun. though I did talk to Suns fans who were just despondent. Like they're like, I don't understand why we're not good.

We have two of the best players in the world, right? And so it's kind of depressing to talk to Sun's fans, but I will say, and this is third time I think I've been to that area. I am always blown away. You get to that airport or you go to anywhere around there. You go to a mall, you go to a gas station, you go whatever. The Suns are omnipresent. Like everywhere you see Sun's gear.

You see Booker stuff. You see Durant stuff. Like it is just everywhere. And it makes it all the more depressing because I'm like, this is like some cities you touch down in. And like you don't have an awareness that there's like sports teams. And you would think like there's not like I know that the Cardinals play in Glendale or whatever. Like you'll see like a Kyler.

or a Marvin Harrison Jr. something. And you will see some people like wearing like Diamondbacks hats or you'll see like a Diamondbacks, you know, polo shirt or something like that. But it's nothing like the Sons. The Sons are everywhere I went. I saw Sons gear. It was crazy. Or a Durant something or a book or something or whatever. And I'm like, this is super depressing because they are in here. Like they are everywhere. It's like the thing. If you're a sports fan, you go to any sports store. I mean, it's just rows and rows and rows of all kinds of sun stuff.

Yeah, then it's like just a mediocre to bad basketball team, yet they've got this massive star power. It's broken. It's broken. It's absolutely broken. And whether they make the 10 seat or not, you're going to have to win two playing games, then you're going to have to beat the thunder. So good luck with that. A couple other things we need to talk about. LeBron James, man, what an unbelievable recovery.

Because I was really worried about his injury. Yeah, yeah. That kept him out of All-Star Weekend. And then miraculous. You know, you see him tomahawking on Mark Williams. And you're like, wow. Thank God. I was really worried that that ankle injury was going to keep him out a long time.

Yeah, I'm surprised he's not out for the month. And then he played back to back. Wow. It's crazy. I mean, if you're Adam Silver, you have to be like, dude, come on. Really? Like, can you make a bigger mockery of the weekend that I tried to make important?

Am I really supposed to believe that he, like, suited up on Sunday morning and, like, tried to give it a go and just looked at the trainer and just like, I gave it, gave it my all. Can't do it. Can't do it. Meanwhile, and then plays a back to back two days later. Well, meanwhile, makes a mockery. of All-Star Weekend and has his agency mate on the broadcast talking about what a piece of crap

it is. Tramon Green literally at the desk. Like, can you imagine if in the middle of the pit? You said that's a new show you're watching, right? Yeah, watching the picture. Or say Court of Gold, something that we mentioned earlier. Imagine if in Court of Gold, they like paused in the middle of it. They're like, hey, we just want to remind you this thing you're watching.

Well, it's not just that. It's the whole point. The whole point of a pre-game show is to get you excited to watch the show. You know, it's like he's doing a pre-game show. Shout to my guy Jalen Rose, who was also there looking great. Haircut looks good. And it's just like, bro, we're leading into this broadcast. You're supposed to sort of build anticipation and excitement.

And that is not how you do it whatsoever. But do you what I found interesting is, I don't think LeBron planned on playing in the back-to-back, but I think he said, we can't get Luca, beat the Jazz, lose to the Jazz, lose to the Hornets, and then lose to the Blazers. I think that was an unplanned. Even JJ said he wasn't sure when he went to bed the night before if LeBron was playing the next day.

I think that was he said, you know, we need a win here. We need one. Well, he was unbelievable. He had 40 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks. Austin Reeves at 32 and 7. But the big thing is we watched them come out the first night post All-Star and lose to the Hornets, as you mentioned. And boy, it was a glimpse into the future, possibly, which is something they're going to have to figure out. And that is, what are we going to do when they just put a target on Luca and try to put him in literally every,

single action every time because they do not have the defensive reinforcements that Dallas had. They had Derek Jones Jr. and PJ Washington flying around on the wings. They had a super active big guy, you know, that was kind of cleaning stuff up behind them, whether it was Gafford, whether it was lively. And so they don't have the same kind of defensive personnel nor intensity. and then on the offensive end, you got some figure it out to do because what is Luca doing when LeBron's got the ball?

Right? Like this is the, there were times where I was reminded of that old Houston thing where it was like when Chris Paul or Russell Westbrook had the ball and you're like, is James Harden really just going to stand there?

I'm surprised James Hardin to just sit down. That's the level of effort that he was putting in. Right. He wouldn't cut, he wouldn't screen, he wouldn't try it off at the rebound. I think what you, when you started, you hit the nail on the head is, we can criticize Nico Harrison, fine. There's going to be no shortage of that.

But what you can't criticize is what he did yesterday was build a team around Luca that made sense. The Lakers don't have a team around Luca that makes sense because Luca just fell on their lap. You know what I mean? So it's not like this is a structure that is, going to work moving forward. Luca fell in their lap, so they have obvious problems and shortcomings, particularly on the defensive end.

But I think over time, that'll get ironed out with roster building. But right now, as you mentioned, come playoff time, you're going to say, where 77, bring him to me. Whoever 77's covering, bring him to me. We've seen it time and time again in the playoffs. And I also think that in that Hornets game in particular, and I don't. I'm not really going to go into this whole, like, Lucas out of shape thing. But the fact of the matter is, is Luca did not play for the longest stretch of his career.

So he is not in basketball shape at the moment. And that showed it was not playing for whatever it was six weeks. So he's out of shape. And then coming off the All-Star break where he legitimately said, like, yeah, I didn't think about basketball. And then he's in his Hornets game where they're targeting him. It was sort of a recipe for disaster. And his performance is pretty disastrous. Not great so far, but look, he's looking at Donchage.

I think everybody expects him to be able to move on, though. Yeah. We're not doing love and load this week, but I absolutely love Tumani Kumar. I love him so much. I'm watching the game last night. And there are stretches where I'm like, is he like the eighth best wing in the league? I'm just like there are stretches. I think he had like 19 last night.

And I'm watching the game. I was like, this guy's good, man. He is good. long athletic, super defensive intensity. I love him. I love him. Yeah. The Bucks beat the Clippers last night.

And the big story with the Bucks was before the Wemby story broke yesterday morning, the first big story was the Bobby Portis was going to be out for 25 games for violating the league substance abuse policy. And it was a truly unbelievable story. story. Like there have been so many times whether it is in the NFL or whether it has been in Major League Baseball over the course of the last 20 years when I've looked at these stories and I meet them with an epic eye roll whenever the excuse comes out. It's like, come on, bro. Just just keep it real with me. Just tell, I will, I will accept. Like I've told a story many times. Years ago, there was this guy, his name was Matt Lawton and he was like a,

he was an outfielder and he had signed with the Yankees and he got he got busted and he came out and the reason I remember him to this day is because I was like how refreshing he was basically like I did it I'm sorry I wasn't good enough to play on the AAA Yankees at this point much less the New York Yankees and I am really sorry for the decision that I made but yeah like I took steroids and it's like wow like all right like I can be mad at you I guess I could be mad at you but like I get it like he was just like here's the here's my situation here's why I did it I'm sorry um and so but the reason I remember that all these years later is because no one ever says that they always say no I took something I didn't know what I

took or I took this because of some cockamamie reason when really it's just masking what I actually am taking because everybody knows that I'm on performance enhancing drugs. In this case, Mark Bartolstein, who is a fantastic agent, comes out with an unbelievably worded statement that I totally bought. Like, I read it and I was like, you know, this makes all the sense in the world because it's like he took this painkiller. Somebody gave him a painkiller. He took Toradol instead of trauma doll, right?

No, no, no. He took trauma doll. I don't know the difference. Again, I'm working on my medical license as we covered earlier. Yeah, he took, he had the one you're supposed to take, and his assistant had a prescription for the one you're not supposed to take. And supposedly his assistant is the one that gave him the one you're not supposed to take. and it was a mistake.

Yes. An honest mistake. Now, you shouldn't be taking prescription drugs that aren't prescribed to you, right? And I would say

that the agent's statement was believable, but I, what I liked is it was also paired with Portis's statement, which was like, I apologize to my teammates and my fans, and I'm going to get back ready to play.

You know what I mean? He didn't do this whole, like, victimized, like, not my fault. I'm the victim here thing. And the agent sort of did that for him, but he was like, he went down the middle

with like, I'm going to get ready to play. I apologize. It sucks. Walk me through the Janus Shams report. Well, here's what I like. Because we've both been in the media for a long time, right? And over the All-Star break, Janus is talking to like some Greek outlet.

And he says the following of, so they're like, would you ever ask for a trade out of Milwaukee? And again, this is All-Star weekend. He says, quote, I don't think I would ever text and ask for a trade. I'm not this kind of guy. They would have to kick me out, right? So that's him.

That's Janus himself being like, nope, I don't ask for trades. They're going to have to kick me out of this place. And then 24 hours later, Shams says it's something to keep an eye on. He loves Milwaukee, but he loves winning more. so if he feels like he can't win in Milwaukee,

then he might leave. And while those two statements might seem to be in juxtaposition of each other, I think they can both be true. I do think it's a situation to monitor. I do think Sean's is correct. If they get swept in the first round, remember what happened last time?

They lost in the first round. If they get swept in the first round, I think that Janus could say, look, I don't know if this Robin Lopez Dane Lillard core is really going to be where I'm going to spend my prime and dramatic change could be made. And I also think that right now, if you ask Yannis, he says, I'm not the type of guy to ask for a trade. I think that can all be true. I think that, yes, of course, any time, anytime that you get beat in the first round, that kind of stuff is always going to come up.

But one of the things that I will give Milwaukee credit for is they have consistently attempted to go out of their way to build out to make him happy. Right. Like we're resigning these guys because we know. We're trading for Dane because. And so it's like they are consistently making moves. They're not static. And you can't very rarely say like some teams have those guys and you can't feel. like they are taking them for granted and maybe not building out or constantly attempting

to improve or make it a great situation for the star. But they routinely get him to re-up and sign extensions because they show the effort, right? They show the effort. They're paying the money for the players. They're making the deals for the players. They just tried again at the trade deadline with the whole. you know, Middleton, Kuzma deal.

And so I do think that one of the things that players always want is, are you showing an effort? Now, in the end, the results are all that matters, but you can't fairly look at them and say they aren't constantly attempting to evolve and make it a situation where he can win and not just say, hey, we've got this guy. But, you know, I think it's fair. you could like look back at say like the best of Embed right now appears to be behind us and i think that you could go back in time and you could go man should have should have gone all in and built out when we had the chance right because he didn't have his best supporting cast and that because

you know you never know when it's going to end but i do feel like each and every year year they attempt to give him a chance to win by building out a roster around them. And so I don't know. Anytime a great player is in a small market, this is going to happen. We're going to get to another story like that in a little bit. I will say this about Janus is if I'm the Bucks, let's just say whatever. They lose to the paces in the first round. Okay.

Let's just say that that's what happens. If I am the Bucks, I'm saying, okay, we will do whatever it takes to make this team better with Janus is the only fixed variable in the equation. Janus is the only person who's not off the table. We are not trading Janice's Hentacupo. We're not doing that. But everybody else is on the table. And if I'm the owner, I'm like, GM, come to me with any idea

that does not involve Janus, anything. And as you said before, they've done that in the past. What they really haven't done is draft well, if you really want to look at their problems. Yep. Well, and just a total waste of one this past year, where that can really change. your trajectory as a franchise if you're able to hit on those 20s picks but i mean even at the time

i remember you know kevin o'connor who was on this show with me came on and just tore them apart for their draft they're like you took the youngest guy in the draft who cannot help you now and you know doc rivers is never going to play like what are what are you doing what are you doing and of course that guy's already been traded. Yep. He's already been traded. And it's like, what the heck? I mean, just a waste.

Whereas you can look and say, hey, if they would have drafted somebody in the 20s, like, it's not impossible to find somebody that could have helped you and at least been a role player for you on a great contract. Because those are, those are the best values is getting guys late first, second, or undrafted, and then being able to sign them to, you know, long term low contract. tracks or at least three or four years. The Pacers beat the Grizzlies last night. Burnow. Burnow.

It was worrisome. It was very worrisome. It was very worrisome. It was very worrisome. Berno. Listen. We're at the sort of like podcast. People have been listening for a while.

You're comfortable. We're comfortable. Yeah. People want to hear from you because it looked really bad. Didn't they give up 50 and a quarter or something? It looked really, really bad. First quarter was great. From someone on the inside, how do you feel?

I think the first quarter was great. I thought it was an absolute mess. I think that this team many times, and especially when they play against best, better competition. And I'm putting the Pacers solidly in that mix. You know, if you go look at the Pacers, they have played great basketball over the course of the last 20 games. They're like 15 and five, I think. They were at one point, they were 16 and 18 coming into 2025. And they have been one of the better basketball teams in the NBA since the calendar turned. And so on one hand,

I want to give them credit for being that. On the other, I will say that when Memphis has played against good teams, it has happened too often that Moran gets frustrated at the beginning of the game or at some point in the game. Maybe for a spurt will turn back into himself, but all too often has this, you know, he just seems like down and he will just. not even get the ball from out of bounds and he'll just run up the court and run to the corner and just kind of like be like okay you guys do it and it's like i don't understand memphis has no chance of achieving whatever whatever their ceiling is is totally dependent on

him being great and not good great and he has been downright bad more often than not against the best teams this year, it has been totally bizarre because obviously I've watched every single game in his career. And I have just found myself constantly asking people like, what is going on? Like, is there something going on with them like off the court? Is it? He just does not seem to have that killer instinct, that passion that made him so great. He just does not seem to have that killer instinct, that passion that made him so great. And I don't know if it's because, you know, at the beginning I thought,

geez, he wanted so badly for this to be like the revenge season, right? Like everybody's forgotten about me. Everybody's put me way down their list. They've forgotten how good I am. And then all of that was torn away by injury, right? You look up and you can't make the All-Star team and you can't make all NBA.

And all of these goals that you had set for yourself have probably been ripped away. But that's individual stuff. In the end, your team goals are still available. And I just don't, I don't know if he's, if the shoulder that he hurt when he ran into Daniel Tyst still bothers him. I just, it seems, it is so perplexing to watch him in these games for segments of time, just run to the corner or to the dunker spot. And you're like, what the hell is going on?

What is going on? Well, here are my questions for you is what happened to John Morant that was just an absolute force finishing at the rim? Like he would just easily get past his man and then he would take on the help defender and score over them or get an N1 and repeatedly do that over and over again. There were some numbers where he was like, he basically had like the rim scoring of like a like a prime D'Andre Jordan. You know what I mean?

Right. And then if it wasn't that, it was like getting to the foul line or the elbow and hitting that mid-range shot. And I just don't see any of that. And I'd also, I don't ever see like the 35 point game, the 37 point game, the 20-point quarter. Like, it just feels like he's hurt. It's the only thing that makes any sense.

I mean, right before the All-Star break, he showed up and had this 27-point game in Phoenix. and I was like, oh, maybe we're back on the right track, right? Jaron Jackson's starting to get double teamed a lot now. Teams, you know, teams start to look at the whiteboard and they go, okay, the guy we got to stop is Jaron Jackson Jr., because the other guy's not doing as much. And it's like, well, if you go back to single covering Jod, you're going to have a real problem on your hands.

Are you? I mean, you did in Phoenix. You know what I'm saying? But he used to have 27 every night, Furno. I know. He used to have 27 every night. You can't point to a game and be. like that's the old jaw one time in Phoenix he had 27 points because last night he had 14

looked kind of disinterested and sort of like disappointed that's the problem my problem is not the play it's the it's the body language and in games like that the whole team feeds off of him yeah and it's like if you're down the whole team's got to be down if you're up and bouncing around and beating your chest and grabbing your crotch that's what the whole team's going to do and so they got to especially with a young team especially with the young team especially with young team. Look, you're always 24 hours away, as we say, from changing people's minds. They have that Memphis Orlando game is a really good one tonight. Oh, yeah.

They're playing against each other. And Franz, I read this morning, he has got the highest scoring average since McGrady. You believe that? Wow. 25 a game. Palo had a huge night last night against the Hawks, too. And Palo did have a huge night. And Orlando is one of those teams that has desperately needed to get it back together post All-Star break. But, yeah, we will see. It's tough. The nuggets, they beat up on the Hornets.

And the reason that this is fascinating is because their wind street continues. Murray has really gotten going. And Christian Brown been great for them. I was reading an article about them this morning that said, he's leading the NBA in transition points and he's averaging. Christian Brown? Yes. And he's averaging 15 points a game.

No. 58%? Yes. Yes. He's having a great season. Wow. He's having a great year. I'm trying to think who else.

Wouldn't Janus be leading the league in transition points? You would think so. Josh Hart or something. Like, you know what I mean? Like some. You would think so. Christian Brown. That's your answer.

Wow. He's been fantastic. The story is really Murray. That's the story. For sure. The story is Murray. I mean, because on this win streak, they have the one-two duo that brought them the Larry O'Brien trophy. And they are all cylinders. And Yokic, again, the story is Murray, but 29, 17, and 9. And then I was looking at it, and I saw this online today as I was prepping for the show about the MVP, right? Do you remember when it used to be the Sixers are going to Denver and then Embed wouldn't play. And we would have these sort of like late season tight MVP race head to head games.

March 9th, March 10th, two bleeping nights in a row, we get Shea versus Yokic, both in Oklahoma. So this is end of the season, tight. MbP race. Home back to back. Two nights. Back to back. Head to head. That, I mean, this is a very close MVP race.

And that's going to sway it. It's basically like the MVP cup right there, those two nights. I can't wait for that. That will decide the MVP race. I mean, you can assume that SGA and Yogat are going to continue to perform the way that they have because they are two of the most consistent performers in the entire league, which is why they're the top two MVP candidates. They go head-to-head back-to-back nights.

Not one night. They go back-to-back nights on the ninth and the tenth. People are going to really start talking about this. Just remember, this is the MVP Cup. We need to start marketing this now. Adam Silver, you want people to pay attention to the league? You want the ratings to go up? Start talking about these two games right now.

Yokic at six threes last night. And I saw he is top five in the NBA in point, rebound, assists, steals, and three point percentage. It's like, come on.

Can somebody else have something? I mean, what? It's a, it's, I just, I just,

I always knew he could hit threes, but I never thought he would be like, the fourth best three-point shooter in the NBA. You know what I mean? I know. It's ridiculous. Yeah. It's ridiculous.

And so, uh, they kept on cracking. I don't know if you noticed, Berno, combined with, the grizzlies loss, if you take a look at the standings, the number two. They are number two.

And look, if you go look at Memphis's schedule, they're going to have a hard time hanging on to their spot or even two and three. Like, I, no, I can't see the Lakers or the Rockets overtaking the Grizzlies. I think, I think that says more about the Lakers and the Rockets. But, you know, I just don't see. the Rockets haven't been playing well the last month. The Lakers could like go on some magical thing where like Luke and LeBron figured out

and have a mind meld and they win 10 in a row. I can see that happening. But I think that's the only threat underneath you right in the standings right now. You and I were texting during the Knicks Bulls game last night. Carl Anthony Towns has been just absolutely otherworldly for the Knicks this year. I mean 32 and 18 and 13.

He he surpassed Yokic as the most 30 plus 15 plus rebound games this year. Really? Yes. He has more 30.15 rebound games than anyone. Well, I always say it's not what you do. It's how you do it. It's we're in overtime. We found ourselves in overtime because McHale Briggs made an amazing defensive play on Busevich.

They should have lost the game. Amazing defense. time also also absolutely disgusting by vucci main who i'm a fan of just if if you've got him pinned under the basket like that you can't get blocked i think vuchy main was like oh this is a bucket there's no chance he's gonna oh shit like i think that's how it went i think he was just so comfortable that we drew up the play for this to happen i've got mccall bridges on me there's we've this is going exactly how we drew it up there's no chance he's going to block my oh whoops but Back to Cat is in overtime, it was basically the Carl Anthony Town Show.

It's like one thing to get 32, but if you don't show up in overtime and Jalen Brunson takes his home, it's fine. But it was just like, we need buckets, we need this win. We found ourselves in overtime at home after the All-Star break against a team that we should be beating and give the ball to Cat and he gets it done. It was a really impressive performance from Cat. And a couple big misses. The butt naked Lanzo 3 from the top of the key. With the rhythm dribble, that would have won the game.

Too open. Yeah, that was tough. It was just too open. I feel bad for Lanzo. I also want to give a big shout to Lovar. LeVar Ball. TMZ reports that for some health reason he had his foot amputated. And I mean, first of all, it's terrible.

And just the picture of him in a wheelchair, literally with a missing foot, but a huge smile on his face is just the epitome of LeVar Ball. You know what I mean? He's just so positive that, and, you know, obviously we wish him the best in recovery and whatever happened to hope it is not a continuing ailment. But to lose a foot and to be just ear-to-ear smiling about it is just so lavar ball. I got to say to Kobe, last night, I was settling in to turn on the games and I pulled up. the scores to see where I was on the on the scores and when I pulled up six or Celtics I was in

absolute complete utter disbelief that all of those 76ers were playing in the game I was like really as soon as I saw the box score I was like wait George maxi and they're they're all playing and then I got the Peyton Pritchard show um Peyton Pritchard just mowed them down the 76ers and then you've got these super depressing and beat quotes after the game. About. The quotes during the game,

he had just depressing possessions. I mean, how he's going to have to take care of this knee that, I mean, because like, theoretically, I mean,

we're coming off the All-Star break. He just had all that time off. of it. It's worse. And yeah. And then you come out and it's like, but I think everybody's super hopeful.

It's like, okay, obviously he's only played 18 of their 50 something games or whatever. But maybe something can be done during this time off. Maybe him just being able to have an extra week and a half to totally recover as if he hasn't had a week and a half over and over again throughout the year. But I think just coming out of the All-Star break, okay, stretch run, 20-something games, the rest of the way. Maybe we're going to get to see Joelle and B play basketball some down the stretch and as they're trying to make it to a play-in position and then obviously in the playoffs.

But you watched last night and that's the kind of team you've got a beat to be able to achieve whatever you want to achieve. I mean, that was embarrassing. I was watching last night. I'm scratching my head. I'm like, this Sixers team is so bad. Like, they just look so bad. And I said to myself, wait a second,

I watched the same matchup on Christmas Day. Do you remember that game? Yep. And that is when I said, those are the 76ers I thought that we were getting this year. Yes. They were great. It's the same floor, the same guys, the same uniforms,

the same everything. but the team that I saw on Christmas and the team that I saw last night are just two completely different teams. And if you're the Sixers, you're looking at it and you're saying, all right, the Bulls will probably fall out of the 10 spot. We'll climb into the play in. And last year, we should have beat the Knicks. We got it out of the plane, climbed out of the plane, and they can convince themselves that there is sort of this puncher's chance thing going on this season. but if I was the 76er's best friend, I'd be like, guys,

you're 15 games below 500. You don't have a puncher's chance at anything. And if you're best player who you're investing half a billion dollars in needs surgery, get him the surgery so he can start that process now, pun intended. So we can get him ready. I mean, that need is shit. I mean, he looks like he can't even stand.

and you, I mean, you've brought up, you wonder if he didn't have on that iron man-esque knee brace, which is, I mean, it looks like he's lugging around 60 pounds on his knee. Like, if he took that brace off, you just wonder if the thing, if he just, like, fall. Like, it feels like it's holding him up. Well, do you remember a series a couple years ago against the nets, he was falling over. like 12 times a game. And it was almost like he was been taught that the impact of falling is going to be better for his body

than like keeping himself from falling and putting that kind of stress on his ligaments. But man, this guy, it looks like he can't even stand when he gets the ball. Like I feel bad for him now. Like honestly, as a human being, I'm watching him out there being like, this is not the guy

that Joel Embed is as a basketball. He cannot be great under these circumstances. There's no chance. No, but again, remember Christmas? Christmas was like two months ago. It was two months ago. And they beat that team on that floor and they looked like they were title contenders for a day.

And yesterday they looked like they should just shut the whole thing down. I mean, you just saw the distance between those two. You saw the distance between those two teams. If we're sitting there and trying to convince yourself like, hey, just get there and you never know. It's like, bro, if Joel and B, it looks like that, they can't be. beat anybody. I don't want to let Paul George off the hook either.

Like, he has been terrible this year. I mean, come on, man. Like, I think there's, we always focus on on B because he's the former MVP.

He's the face of the franchise is the big money. But like the big free agent acquisition to come save the day to take them over the top, to put them in that sort of like Eastern finals trajectory has just not done it. Not doing it. Clippers seem really smart right now. they do they do right they seem really smart right now look at where the clippers are look at the situation that they're in and then you see what has like this this last contract for paul george um man you would at least think on the front end you would get amazing value out of it

if you would have told us like when we're doing our little like preseason pot bro how is tobias hair better. It's like, the six is going to be 20 and 35 and the clippers the clippers are going to be 31 and 34. What?

What if I would have told you that they're going to swap out Tobias Harris for Paul George? For Paul George. And they're going to regret it. They're going to regret it. Yeah. Yeah.

Crazy. Obviously we've got to see most of these teams already once. and we got a huge amount of games that are coming up this weekend. We will reconvene early next week where hopefully we don't get any more bad news. Yesterday was a super bad news day with the whole Porta suspension and the Wemby being out for the season. So here's hoping that everybody can stay healthy.

We've got, you know, obviously there's the March 9th and 10th NBA Cup games, but we've got Lakers Nuggets Saturday night. That's a big one. That's a big one. And I think that LeBron didn't plan on playing last night with an eye on that game. I think that Luca also has an eye on that game. And I think that that's going to be one of those big nationally televised 830 on Saturday. Smoke them if you got them.

Empty, empty, everything you have type of games that I can't wait to see. Well, and this is the time where everybody's attention starts to turn to basketball. Yep. Honestly, like the Super Bowl's done. No college football to go against. Yeah, no NBA NFL play. playoffs games. And you've got Yokic, LeBron, Luca, all on the same floor. And if you could fill the void by being mega entertaining down the stretch, you will be

able to do great things for your league. We just saw it happen with hockey. There was the void that was there, and it became a wave. And by the time that thing came around last night, it felt like everyone was watching. I can't even name these guys on either team. And everybody was watching that. But I'm watching. I'm watching. I was watching NBA. But then once I found that I was 2-2 and the third, I was like, okay, let's turn this thing on.

Shout to Sean McDonough. But man, I'm telling you, the NBA Cup game is between the Thunder and the Nuggets are going to be absolutely huge. This game on Saturday night is going to be absolutely huge. Huge. Yeah. And I think it turns out to be a great game too. And this is huge for the Lakers, too, because are you guys the team that lost of the Jazz and the Hornets with Luke and LeBron? or are you the team that beat the nuggets with Luke and LeBron?

Like, which team are you? No, it'll say a lot because the nuggets are the hottest team in the league. So heading into that. Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez, as always, and Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week. Must be 21 and over in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 over and present in D.C. You got a gambling problem?

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