The Mismatch - What Barrett Extension Means for ​​Donovan Mitchell, and Your Mailbag Questions!

Episode Date: August 30, 2022

Verno and KOC discuss the Knicks signing R.J. Barrett to a four-year extension and what this means for Donovan Mitchell (00:58). The Wizards are being mentioned as a possibility for Mitchell, but the guys don’t believe he’s a fit next to Bradley Beal (09:51). The fellas go into your mailbag questions next (24:00), with topics including the Pelicans, national vs. domestic MVPs, and Tyrese Haliburton. They also discuss KOC’s old Letterboxd reviews before diving into why video game culture is the worst (47:10). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mac Jones is ripped. Matt Patricia's calling plays. The Celtics are title favorites. And The Ringer has a new Boston show. I'm Brian Barrett, host of Off the Pike, the show covering all things Boston Sports. I'll have shows multiple times a week covering your favorite teams

and with your favorite ringer and local guests. Plus, maybe Bill will stop by to rant about the socks. Follow off the pike with me, Brian Barrett now on Spotify. Welcome to The Mishmatch. I'm Chris Barney. And joining me see it as every Tuesday from the ringer.com. Kevin O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O. Bomber, Kevin O. Conflict. Kevin O. Kahneman O. Kavanaugh. Kevin O. Cannabis. Kevin O. Burd. What's going on?

Well, we actually do have some news. Yeah. It appears as if the New York Knicks have dedicated themselves to R.J. Barrett. R.J. Barrett's going to get a really good contract upwards of $120 million on a four-year deal. as reported by AJ Ward Janoski. It was just last week that we were talking and we mentioned in passing about R.J. Barrett and the Mark Berman report that they like Cunning Grimes more than R.J. Barrett. And then, of course, within a week's time, after I ripped that cockamamie story,

they give $120 million to R.J. Barrett. Tom Timidos, piss. Yeah, they've got to be just all fired up about it. I've told you from throughout his time with the New York Knicks. I don't necessarily think that everything has been suited for RJ's success. You know, you had this all-NBA season that was going on with Julius Randall a few years back. then you had last year where they go and they attain, you know, one of their free agent's flashes is going and getting Evan Fornier,

and then they re-sign Alex Burks, and like, they just, they've done some weird stuff for sure, and they took a step backwards last year. I don't think he was in the best situation by any means. In fact, maybe the worst, certainly of his peers, if you want to consider those to be Morant Williamson with the whole Fisdale thing. You know, when you get front office change,

when you get coaching change, when you get personnel change, all of these things, I think, make it very difficult. All the while, COVID by your second year, you know, kind of taking over the league. Like, I still got a lot of stock in R.J. Barrett. And I think R.J. Barrett, But there's a ceiling that I think is maybe a little higher,

maybe much higher than people think. I think the floor is always going to be a good slash really good NBA player. But I think that ceiling is still out there for him to possibly be a great player in this league. good say you. I'm with you, Chris. I mean, I think with R.J. Barrett, the one thing we've known about him since he was a young player is that he's going to work. He's one of those guys that's going to maximize whatever he's going to become,

whether that's just, you know, the same guy that we saw the last two years or whether that's an even higher ceiling player as you're talking about, where the shop becomes really consistent. He gets better at drawing files, finishing at the rim and all that. If all that happens, he could be an all-star, even if it's just a one-time, two-time all-star, RJ is going to be a good player for many years to come. I don't have any doubts about that.

It's just a matter of what level he ends up reaching. And you're right. I don't think the situation's been the best for him. Like, when you talk about the higher ceiling RJ Barrett, doesn't that include him being in a winning situation? I mean, I'm excited for the possibility of the Knicks getting better and seeing what RJ Barrett turns into in that environment. Yeah.

And I just think that, you know, they kind of, they've split the line in terms of, are you good? Are you not good? Are you in a development stage? Are you winning now? You know, like, because everything happened so fast with the tips thing and they got some veterans around them and he's still long in minutes. But Randall's like the guy on that team. When you say split the line, you mean like the past couple years, right? Like they're kind of straddling between winning and development, right?

You're not really in a development mode, right? But you're also not win now win big mode. That's what I mean. Yeah. And I mean, does a Donovan Mitchell trade get him there? Or is that just one more step towards winning? If you have Barrett, Mitchell, and whatever you keep from not trading for Mitchell. I kind of think that.

When you sign RJ Barrett to this $30 million contract, $120 million contract, I wouldn't be surprised if that is a move on from the Mitchell idea. You spent a fortune on Brunson. And so I don't think Brunson Mitchell Barrett gets you where you want to get. I don't think that those three together is, that's not the mix. To me, to me, if you are doing the Mitchell thing, I don't think you do the Barrett thing. But could you do the Mitchell thing?

And then it's like two years from now, this other superstar player says, I want to go to New York. And then that's where you flip Brunson and that deal. So you're getting the superior talent and Mitchell now, and even though the fit's not perfect, it's not your championship core. It's one step towards that. But I like Barrett. I like Barrett as a big too.

Don't you? Yeah, I like him there as well, for sure. Yeah, so and that's what, I mean, Donovan Mitchell is a shooting gun. Yeah. It's what he is. And he's also got the ball in his hands a lot. I'm not sure that you get the best of R.J. Barrett

playing next to Donovan Mitchell. And Jalen Brunson. Right. Yeah. Those are two guys that clearly Brunson is fine without the ball. He had to live that life without Luca. But he was at his best when he did have the ball. That's when we, Jailen Brunson, made no mistake.

Jalen Brunson has this contract because we saw him with the ball and we saw what he could do when he was pushed into that. and in the most ironic thing ever, you and I are a huge Mitchell fan. We love him. Brunson wore him out. Brunson wore him out. Like that, he did.

Mitchell's annoying, dude, because, like, he's awesome. I love him. But defensively, pull out video of him when he was playing in college. Totally different guy. Totally different energy levels. He flew around. The intensity on the defensive end of the floor was consistent. He was impactful despite being smaller.

And that's all gone now. It's gone. And if you're Mitchell, let's say you start the year with Utah, which is possible. You got to prove yourself. I think you got to show, hey, here's what I'm going to offer a winning team. Hey, hey, Utah, we're going to win too many games if you keep me. I know you want to take. This is what you're going to get from me.

This is what you're going to get, the past version of me. myself. And if he doesn't tap into that, I'd be extremely disappointed. You see what happened this morning? Of course, everything that happens on the internet is just come over. Oh, this is him removing Utah from his profile. I mean, that's, it's one of those things where it's like, did you see, Donovan Mitchell got rid of Utah Jazz in his profile? Like, that is, I've edited my profile the same way you've edited your profile. It is a very intentional

thing. It is. Totally. Like, that's not like, oh, because sometimes everyone's all be like, oh, so and so, like that tweet. Oh, he must feel that way. Or whatever. And you try to draw things, but if you go in and you're editing your profile

to where, I mean, it says Utah Jazz Guard. Like, you've got to go out of your way to go into the profile setting and then say, yeah, I'm deleting this. I don't want this on my profile anymore. Yeah. It's weird.

It's weird. For the timing of it all. Yeah. I mean, clearly, clearly for him, I mean, it's, he'd prefer to be in New York. I wonder how much would he actually have interest in being on any of these other teams, too. I mean, is that part of it as well? Or it's not just New York. You know where I think he's got the, you know where I think the best fit is where I

could see like Charlotte. No. Where I think like they could win the title. Seriously. Who's that? Miami. Miami. How do they get them though?

If he, hero, a bunch of picks, Duncan Robinson, look, you know, you throw it together, all the white guys you got.

That's a great fit, yeah. Get rid of the whites. Well, Utah, love, love taking those guys on. the beginning of time they've got white guys on that team.

So, no, but Tyler, he, wrote, Duncan Robinson, Max, Struz, we got all of them. No. Danny Hages, he's like, no first-round draftics, I'll tell you this, you got Lowry, and maybe you got Lowry and you got Mitchell, and you got Jimmy, and you got Bam. That's, yeah, that's a great call.

That's formidable. That's formidable. That gives, that's that other, that's what Tyler Hero wasn't there for last year. It also saves you from the counting on Lowry. And then the, you know, Tyler Hero obviously wasn't there. Like Jimmy was that guy last year during the playoffs. But man, because Bam wasn't that good. Bam wasn't great for sure.

but I mean, could you imagine if they had Mitchell too? And you ever want to know if you can get that Louisville defense out of him, Keff? Yeah, yeah, it's Miami. Miami's a spot. I just feel like that's the, that's the most natural best fit for him. I agree. And by the way, like he has ties to Miami because he trains down there every offseason. Yeah.

That's where his guy's been for years now. And so, I mean, he likes Miami. That that's for sure. but like Miami weirdly hasn't been mentioned as often frequently. It seems like Washington's the team that gets mentioned quite a bit now. What are they saying that Washington could even give up? I mean like Quentin Mayo, he reported this morning. He has like a blue wire pod, works for BETMGM, and he said there's a package out there.

Oh, I thought that was a Wizards player. When you said that name, that's how much I think of the Wizards. I'm like, oh my God, I haven't really been keeping up. It's like who he play for. But guessing if the player actually is on the Wizards or not. So Mayo reported that the Wizards believe they are firmly in the hunt for Mitchell. I don't love the fit. With what?

Beal and Mitchell? I don't love that fit. What are they giving up? I mean, you would have to imagine that would be a heavy draft pick based package with guys like maybe Denny. Avdia, Rui Hachamura, maybe you give up Johnny Davis in a deal, even though he's only a rookie, something like that. I don't know.

I mean, like they have young players or any of them good? No. So I just don't think there's, I don't think it makes a lot of sense for Washington, but then again, what are the wizards doing exactly, Chris? Look, you said, and you're saying this is a deal that would go to Utah?

Yeah, I mean, like, oh, we're throwing Kisford in. Yeah, Kisper's going to be in there. That's a 100% has to be in the deal. We're getting Kisper. That's a good Zaga guy too, right? Northwest. What do you think about the Wizards

giving Beale a no trade clause? I think the price of due a business. Yeah? To keep him. I think it's the price of doing business. Was it worth it though? Like, did the Wizards make the right decision going down this path?

Or now you're talking about a Mitchell, Beal fantasy? I mean, that's a weird thing. Yeah. I don't love the fit. I don't get that. I would say I, I mean, they have not hit on any of those draft picks. Yeah, dude.

They really haven't. Like to where you're looking and you're going, all right, I see a path to where he's the guy or he's, I don't know what the hell their core is. I don't know what I would dedicate to. You're not dedicating to Danny Avdia. He hasn't proven he can shoot. We know he's a great defensive player for his age.

but offensively he's done nothing. Corey Kisbert, last year he comes in is this guy who shot over 40% against Zag. I couldn't shoot the ball well. They bring in Rui Hachamura. He doesn't play at all to start the year for whatever reasons with his confidence level. And then Johnny Davis stunk it up in Summer League

and now if you're a wizard's fan, you're concerned heading into the year. None of these guys hit four years in a row. Yeah, like what is the core? I don't. just bread. Even their late first, early seconds. You know, like Isaiah Todd, you take a gamble on him.

He was a top high school prospect. He hasn't worked out. It was just bad luck, bad drafting. You still got Gafford? Yeah, still got Gafford, yeah. I like him, all right? Yeah, he's fine. He's fine.

That's what I'm saying. We're down to... I like Cusma. I like Cusma a lot. He's turned himself into a good player. Yeah, but that's a bad team for him right now. I agree. Same with the KCP thing.

It's just like, like, but what they tried doing last year, it's like, oh, okay, we've just got a bunch of role guys, and obviously the mantras thing worked out poorly also. The truth is, is the wizard should be tanking. They're one of the few teams in the league where you look at them, you're like, yeah, they should tank. They should tank.

Like, what are you straddling the middle for trying to get a playing spot with this Bradley Beal on this below average roster? I just, I don't get it. Yeah. I mean, they should have hit one of those picks. Yeah. That's how you get into the situation when you're when you're rat team and then you You know you got these top 10 picks and none of them like you got to at least go one for four

You know just get somebody I don't think they get Mitchell but if they get Mitchell I I wouldn't like the path that are going down that just seems like a team that's stuck in the middle forever And I hate the fit for Mitchell too Miami is the best fit for him like you said by far What do you think nix fans feel about this? I'd be feeling good I'd be feeling really good if I were a nix fan I wouldn't want to give up rj and a deal. I wouldn't want to. I don't think that was ever on the table just because they weren't going to pay him. That's not the mode that Utah's in right now.

Didn't Wodge say at the least Barrett was involved in certain iterations of the deal? He said the word he used was a staple. He was a staple in proposals for Mitchell and that Utah valued him. So that's what Wode said. I wonder if that's that's different. But that's different than what was previously reported. as you just said. Yeah.

Well, I think that makes it sound good that you resign. Could that now be also a leverage play from the Utah side of things? Like, oh, yeah, we did want R.J. Barrett. Step up, Charlotte. Step up Washington. Step up Miami. Could it be that side of things too? It's possible.

Trying to gain leverage here. Because at the beginning, it made more sense when they were saying they don't really want R.J. Because he's about to have to get paid. I felt that way as well. But at the same time, he is 22 years old. he averaged 20 points. He's a good defensive player. He can pass. He's a good player. So you would want that guy.

But Danny, but Danny, he's always had his guys he likes and doesn't like, even if everybody else likes him. With Barrett, he might fall into that category, the latter category where Ains just doesn't like this guy and wouldn't want to pay him.

It would rather the Quentin Grimes heavy draft pick packets because they want to tank. They want to rebuild. And RJ being on that deal doesn't really fit the trajectory of what you're talking about. I'm fascinated by the whole Mitchell thing because I don't, I've kind of had that feeling that the return he got on the Gobert thing is just going to cause him to have to,

they're going to go into the season with this thing. That Danny's not going to get what he wants in return for Donovan Mitchell. And so it dragged into the season, and maybe it even goes all the way until past the turn of the calendar. And then, yes, by the trade deadline of this season, we're 100% watching Donovan Mitchell

on a different team, but this might make it less likely that something is going to happen before the season. I say all that, but, I mean, the guy got rid of the jazz in his profile this morning. Maybe there is one right on the horizon. maybe somebody did step up.

But once I saw the RJ thing, I know that everybody couched it like still doesn't mean that they're not going to, that the Knicks are out, just makes the deal a little more difficult. And I'm thinking of myself like, hey, kind of, why the hell are we doing Brunson Mitchell Barrett?

That's not a fit. Yeah, Bill, it's like we talked about it. It's not a fit today, but it's about setting yourself up for 2024, 2025, and when you really hope Would you really hope to be in championship attention? To me, Kev, you just spent $30 million on a guy that is a shooting guard.

Really $120 million on a shooting guard. Yeah. If I were going to try to go attain a star shooting guard, I don't give $120 million contract to a shooting guard. So you think you're too small with R.J. Brunson, Mitchell. I think? What you are? What about the team as is?

If you're a Knicks fan, let's say they're out on Mitchell. They have no chance of getting Mitchell, totally out. Are you happy with the team heading into the season? With Obie Topin, you sign Isaiah Hartinstein, bring back Mitchell Robinson, still got Randall, still got Fornier, got Grimes and quickly, D. Rose. Are you happy with the team? I got to get rid of Fornier before the season starts.

So, wow. Who? I mean, you just like get rid of him, see him. see you later. Some way somehow, yes. I move off of him some way somehow because he's one of those guys. It's the worst case scenario.

I need to clear the way for some of these guys. If I have him on my roster, my coach is playing that guy. So I want that clear. I want that to be Brunson. I want that to be RJ. I want Grimes to be able to get minutes behind RJ.

I want to get some wing guys, some minutes. I want O.B. getting some minutes. Like, we got to do a little developing development also. You know, I got big guys, as you mentioned. You got Hartinstein. You got Mitchell Robinson. But I would do something with, I would do something with,

I got to get fournier removed from that situation. And I got to get another wing, you know, something that might be a little better fit. because I do want some of those guys being able to get in the rotation. And, yeah, I think that you're still, that, that, that salary is not going to, that's not going to impede you from being able to get a great player at some point. And maybe Mitchell, the time and the return's just not right for him. I just wouldn't make any sense to me

to be wanting that so badly after you just spent a fortune between Brunson and Barrett combined. And I would look at it and I'd say, all right, I've got these two. Now what else do I need to even out this thing? And that, to me, it's not another small guard.

Yeah, I mean, there is logic to, you know, holding on to your assets and waiting for the next guy. Yeah. Just because Mitchell wants you doesn't mean you have to want him. That's right. And Danny's probably asking for the moon. He is.

Yeah. Just like he got for Gobert. Right. And so that's why you just say to hell with it. We're not done here. We're not giving that up to be able to get that guy. And so good for R.J. Barrett. And I do, I think that contract has a chance to be actually a really good contract.

No doubt about it. If he ends up being, you know, if he ends up hitting that ceiling that we talk about, that we're not sure. And by the way, there are incentives that make it $120 million. At a base, it's what, $100 million? Yeah, which is a great company. Yes, for the team and, you know, for the player,

now you have some extra incentive to maximize yourself, not that he needs it. Yeah. So we get to wait and see on the Donovan Mitchell thing. And maybe that's what that was about. the whole like um maybe that's what that was all about with him taking out his pro maybe he's mad about it right that danny didn't do the deal and so now they're just going on without doing that maybe yeah it's always mad about it there's that story that came out about how uh i guess

mark stein since we last spoke said that the lakers could be the third team in a donovan Mitchell trade with the Knicks. Similar to what we talked about last week with, you know, expanding on that deal. But, you know, we'll see, we'll see what happens there because, you know, maybe that's dead now. But no, RJ. One quick mailbag question related to this topic, Chris.

Yep. Since we did take mailbag questions, thank you, everybody. John from Pocatello, Idaho. He said the jazz are bound for a rebuild on a scale of one to bright future pistons. How excited should I be to watch Jared Butler, Leandro Balmaro and Walker Cussler try to find a place in the league. This ranking should not factor in their awful highlighter yellow jerseys that they will be wearing.

How excited should John from Idaho be, Chris, to watch the jazz? You know, I've never met one person from Idaho in my life. I don't believe I have either. This is the first time I, as far as I knew, there's no people there. And so this is the first time that I've ever. I've never even read somebody saying anything about Idaho. Could you find Idaho on a map? There was a, yeah, because it's got that long thing.

Yeah, exactly, right, yeah. It's going to distinguish shape to it. There was a song I used to love called Idaho. Actually, now that I think about it. Who was it by? This girl that was on, it was, there was a show like, maybe it was Showtime or HBO or something years and years ago. Girl never got famous, but it was called Live from Abby Road.

I'm looking this up on Spotify right now. And I remember her name was Serena Palette. And she played a song that she had written called Idaho. And it was awesome. She was great. And I still remember it to this day. That's how good I thought it was. I can't find anything about this song.

Serena Palette? Yeah, Serena Palette. I think. And what show is this? I think that's her name. Live from Abby Road. I don't know. Just type in live from Abbey Road, Idaho.

It'll pop up. She was great. So I like that song, Idaho. Anyway, no, what do you talk? Oh, Noreena. Norena Pallet. Norena Pallet. Okay, ah, okay.

That's her. Yeah, Norena Pallet. She was on that show, and I remember watching it. She was great, and her song was called Idaho. It's the only thing I think about, besides potatoes, of course. Look, bro. I mean, you live in Idaho, so maybe you should be a little more excited. But there's Jared Butler and Walker Kessler and what?

What was the other? Oh, I love Balmorrow. But. Yeah. Big, big guard. Who doesn't love big guards? Whatever, whatever the, what was the lowest thing on the level of excitement? Was it I live in Idaho?

What was it? I'm kidding. Come on. What was the very bottom? It's just one. One, two bright future pistons. Bright future pistons. Oh, yeah.

Bright future pistons? I mean, yeah, it's one. It's one. Yeah. I think. That's one. That's one. One being I live in Idaho.

Sorry. We're going to have a bunch of listeners from Idaho. Idaho. What? Idahoans, what, Idahoites? Idahoans. Please tell us a good thing about it. Idaho's.

Please hit us up and tell us the great things. You're going to have a bunch of Idaho's up in our email. Get these Idaho's out of here. Get these Idaho's out of here. All right. Go ahead. All right, what else we got on this mailbag? Uh-oh, we want to do more mailbag?

There's no other news? No. No. Okay. No, I mean, Chad Holmgrenad surgery. We already talked about that, right?

Oh, you're never going to believe they reported it was successful. Yeah, it was successful. Yeah. Breaking. Breaking.

I hope this week, I hope this is the year, finally the year that someone reports it. Actually, our player had wildly unsuccessful surgery. And he's probably critically damaged for the forever. Hopefully not. Anyway,

more buildback questions. We got a lot of, a good ones this week. From Gerard, one of the few longtime New Orleans Hornets slash Pelicans fans here,

he said, with Dallas losing Brunson for nothing, Memphis dealing with the Jaron Jackson injury, the Pelicans seem to be set up to have a really strong

regular season. My question is, what's keeping the Pelicans from finishing as a top four team in the West? What's going to hold them back, if anything, Chris, besides Zion.

Is there anything that can hold this team back from actually reaching those heights? Yes. Now look, I'm going to give real legitimate reason that is going to cause the ultra-annoying side of Pelicans' Twitter to get mad at me. Great, I love this.

But this is totally legitimate. Your four best players have not played together yet for any amount of real minutes. and those four best players have shown to be at their best when they take shots. They are all shot takers. And that is C.J. McCollum, Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, and Jonas Valachians. All four of those guys are offensive players. and getting that to work is difficult.

Somebody has to not take shots. Somebody has to sacrifice. In every situation that we've ever seen, right? There is the Chris Bosch, there is the Ray Allen, there is somebody that is sacrificing for the greater good. Now, inevitably, Valanthutus is probably not going to get, he's not going to take 16 shots, right? his shots are going to go down a little bit.

But of the others, and CJ proved to play nice and be an outstanding facilitator, and he is an outstanding facilitator, right? But that Zion Ingram thing, I've never loved it. I've never loved it. And I know everybody always wants to say,

it works, it works, it works. They're always better without each other. They just are. I think you get the best of Ingram without Zion, and I think you get the best of Zion without any. That's what I believe. I don't think that is a great fit. I think CJ is a great fit with Zion for sure.

But I'm not sure that having a high volume offensive wing is the best thing next to Zion, and I'm certainly not convinced that it would be the best thing next to CJ. But so the pecking order, no matter what anybody wants to say, you say, oh, they all, you know, and the off-season everything's a fairy thing. But I've seen this with all manner of teams.

What is the pecking order? Who's the guy? Who's the second guy? Who's the third guy? You say, oh, well, each night, this guy can do this and this guy can do this. There's an order, man. There's an order with every team.

I think there is an order. Zion 1, Ingram 2, C.J. 3. You think so? Yeah, I do. The least experienced, least, lowest amount of minutes played, and the one that is in and out of the lineup more than the others, right, is that goff. He's a beast. He's a beast, yeah.

I agree. I agree. I'm not sure that Brandon Ingram who I think is great I'm not sure that Brandon Ingram

doesn't think he's the guy Did you see his new look? He looks like he's straight out of the 70s Was that right? Huge fro, big beard, scruffy. Yeah, he's gonna- Okay, I've changed my opinion. Yeah, thank you.

I just had to let you know because that's a porn intel. Do you think that Bringram thinks he's Robin? Do you think that CJ thinks he's third? I mean, I mean, listen,

I mean, listen, Chris, like this, this depends on the character of the players and the level of buying because I remember when the Celtics assembled their big three back in

2007, and this was the same conversation, who's going to sacrifice amongst Pierce, Alan, Garnett? Obviously, those guys were older, but that was like, what I grew up with,

was that conversation, how will there be this level of buy-in? you're right, you're hitting it right on. This is the big question for the Pelicans. How are they going to distribute touches? Are guys going to be happy? Will they accept their roles? We don't know.

We just don't know. And that's the thing. If they do, though, this team could be freaking nasty. Oh, for sure. If they do. And what I'm saying is none of those guys, you got four non-roll players. That's what I'd say. That's a lot.

That's a lot. That's not that talent, man. As you mentioned, like say that Boston team, right? When you think back to that, right, there's so many, Kevin, of those moments throughout their runs that you think about Eddie House, you think about Big Baby Davis, you think about James Posey.

Leon Poe. You think about Rondo, who played a role for them at the time. Tony Allen. PJ Brown. Yeah. Leon Poe, yeah, as you mentioned. Like all those guys. Sam Cassell.

A lot of role players, right? A lot of guys that came in and played a role. When you've got four awesome guys, none of which are role players. None of them are role player. Herb Jones is a role player. Lil Alvarado guy, he's a role player. There's other guys that are role players. You know Jonas Valentuna's.

You had him in Memphis. Do you think he has the personality type to be a role player? I just don't think he is a role player. But does he have the personality type to embrace that? I'm only taking eight shots tonight. I'm still grinding on defense. I'm still boxing out. I'm still screening and rolling.

Does he have that mindset and your experience being around him? I think you will get the most out of Jonas if you get him some shots. I mean, I think he's an offensive. He is as good a low post scorer as there is alive. I love Yon's.

but he is he's not a role player you know I mean it's part of the reason that the grisleys were you know just fine with replacing it with Stephen Adams they're wildly different types of players right but all those shots that aren't being taken anymore by you know Stephen Adams is never taking a shot unless it's a dump off or a putback he's never taking a shot, right?

And so, and he's also just there to augment and clear the way for Marines. So a role player served well having him in that position. They need some role guys that they're going to fit in. And when you've got four guys that are really good like that, you know, especially when two of them are young guys and two of them are veterans, but they're not like, old guys. They're not like past. Valentunis and McCollum are still,

you know, in prime years. Right? Like, maybe, you know, maybe McCallum's a little, you know, on the other side of whatever his best of his best is, but he's still frigging awesome. He's still really good. And also, also like, this is, I mean, we saw it at post deadline, but this is his first full season

without Damien Lillard. We're going to get to see what he can do more of like play make first rather than score first as like a secondary presence next to Dime. I'm excited about New Orleans, man. One quick yes or no question for the Pelicans follow up. This is from Maxwell. He mentioned how the Pelicans are 15th in championship odds at plus 4,000, ninth best odds in the West at plus 2,200.

He said, do you see the Pelicans making the West finals or making it all the way to the finals? Yes or no? I would never put them as a, I would never bet them to make the finals, but, but as like, oh,

the West finals? West finals. How about that? We've seen this. If you wanted to put a little chunk on that for fun, I wouldn't think, I wouldn't think it's crazy because here's the thing. Me too,

especially those numbers, like plus $2,200, it's pretty good. Oh, you get into the top six. You never know the way that thing's going to break. You just don't. you never know

we would have never in a million years imagine the suns getting beat by 700 points at home we thought they were in the finals that was that was chalked up they weren't in the Western Conference finals Dallas was

right we would never guess Memphis was going to be have a real chance at making a West finals and they were right And there they were. They had a chance.

So, yeah, the West Finals, it's a way different bet than NBA Finals. Usually to get the NBA finals, you've got to be. You could get to the West Finals and not be some amazing team that will always remember. Because that Dallas team was not some amazing team will always remember. But getting to the NBA finals, I think you probably, yeah, you need more. One other thing I'd add, though, the Pelicans before the next question, can't forget they have 13 first round draft picks

they could add more that's right so I think that's where maybe the bet makes even a little bit more sense if you wanted to throw a little bit of expendable cash on a finals bet I'd understand because they could get better great great question here from Lance I said love the banter

love the hoops chat discovered a new band in Mountjoy he said this is an over under question over the next 10 years will the most valuable player be won by someone from the United States more than four times. He mentions Janus, Yokic, Embed, Luka, Victor Wenban Yama, but then Tatum, Jha, Booker, Zion. What do you think the split will be? International versus

American-born players for MVP. How many years? Ten. Yeah, I would take the under. So three at most for U.S. 7 for international. I would take the end of it. I would take the end of it. I I think I would too. I mean, maybe an end of-a- You're taking a consideration in the ages of Yokic and Yonis? Yes, they're so young still. Yeah, these guys are...

Lucas is inevitably going to win one. Yeah, Janus... If Wenban Yama dominates the way he could, he's going to win one. Embed will probably win it this year. Yeah, he probably will. Hell, he's going to come back and be better. That's for sure.

Well, yeah, and he will be better. Yeah. It's only a matter of, because he play enough games to stay healthy, but Embedd's going to come back a better player. As I said, that dude all summer long has been working on perimeter stuff, attacking the rim from the perimeter, pull-ups,

transition stuff, Yanis style attacks on the break. Embeddead's going to come back a better player. Even if you just gave me those four guys. And without even... No, forget this Wimbaniana. All right.

Embed Yonis Yokits Luka. Those four? you just gave me those four. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with you. I'd take the under for the United States. You know what?

You know, I'd love to see, I'd love to see, I mean, obviously we have Eurobasket coming up later this week, which should be awesome with all those big name guys, but I'd love to see USA versus World now more than ever. Just competitive games on an annual basis. That would be sick. Wouldn't that be cool to see Janus, Yonka, Chabee, Luca, Wehbenyama on the same court against Tatum, LeBron,

Ja, Zion, Steph. Like, wouldn't that be amazing? That would be unbelievable if that was a competitive game or series. We used to do that with the, well, I guess they still do, with the rising stars, and that's really the only, yeah. Yeah, but, like, that's not competitive. I mean, like, if you could make it competitive,

those guys going full throttle, if that could, in this fantasy world, become a thing. That was so damn cool. Well, maybe you wouldn't run out. A high level. I don't know if you could fill out. If you could fill out high level.

Off the benches? A world team, you know what I'm saying? I don't want to see M. 40 in the game, Kevin. Yeah, I know, but like that's part of it. Maybe the top end roster is better on the world. No, Frank Nellikina is not playing in this, Kevin. We're not getting all of them in there, Kevin.

we're not figuring out a way to get frank in the all-star game Kevin you got gobert coming off the bench you're just trying to figure out a way to get the hillean in an all-star game you got killy in there you got all-star you got all-star you're 100% right though that the like the top end talent internationally is better right now than the american talent but there's more great american talent than there is more great international talent total right balling wise. You could have a 15-man roster of amazing basketball players in the United States right now. Correct. All right. What else we got? Anything else? RJ Barrett can come off the bench. He is Canadian. From Michelle

in Kansas City. Tyree Halliburn, is he good enough to become the next Reggie Miller in Indiana? That's been a topic recently. They wanted to become the next Reggie Miller. He is so annoying on television.

that his career is looked at different. Reggie Miller is a bona fide, all-time great. You think Pacer's GM, Chad Buchanan's the one who said that. They want him to be their next Reggie Miller. They want a mural in downtown Indianapolis. Yeah, face of the franchise. He's the one who said it. Is Buchanan also pissed off?

Reggie Miller on TV too much that's tainting the memory of him as this Hall of Fame talent? Possibly. I think you can be right. Reggie Miller's an all-time great. Yeah, Reggie Miller was unbelievable. And if he wasn't on our TVs all the time, I think people would look at Reggie Miller different. Also, if he didn't have a tattoo of like the sun around his belly button, people would look at him differently. But I forgot all about that.

But in the sense that the guy can be synonymous with franchise, face of the franchise, put him up on the side of a building. In that sense, yes, in the sense that he's going to be a Hall of Fame basketball player, I'd slow down on that one. But yeah, in fact, go ahead and put him up on the side of building. Who the hell else you're going to put up there? He got nobody else? I mean, what, do you put up Lance Stevenson?

Who else you draw on? Lance Turner. and strumming the guitar. Yeah, that'd be cool. That'd be a cool mural. Yeah, that'd be safe. Yeah, in that sense, could he be your, you know, I'm not as, I don't know, I like Halliburton.

When he got traded from the Kings, people acted like they traded 1986 Michael Jordan. So I'm not as high as some of my peers. I know nobody loves Halliburton more than nerds. I mean, they love. They, he is the king of the nerds. Can't get enough. Yeah, he's king of the nerds.

Yeah, we love him over here. And I saw his TikTok, he's kind of a nerd, so it fits. Is he really? Yeah, he's kind of a nerd. He's not like, Tari's Halliburton's on TikTok? I got it's shirt the sign. You see Bill Simmons got on TikTok? Yeah, I saw it.

That's pretty cool. I'm very glad. Oh, wow. Okay, I see Halliburton on TikTok. Him and his, his girlfriend's doing videos together. Yeah. Little dances and stuff. So yeah, he's the next Reggie Miller.

I'm kidding. Oh, he hasn't posted in a long time now, Chris. Well, since 2020. I guess TikTok got old to him. Oh, is that right? I maybe deleted a bunch of them. I saw people were sending him to me a couple months ago. I see.

They're like, look at this dude. I saw Halliburton in the airport on the way to Summer League. Nice guy. I said hi to him. Oh, I think everybody I know that, No, Halliburton thinks he's great. Great human. Great human.

Yes. I've never heard a bad review of him in my life. I'm just saying in terms of when the Kings traded him, I thought it was a little over to the top. I mean, it's the reaction. Like they acted like they traded Michael Jordan in year two. Yeah. I mean, come on. They got some bonus.

Bonus a hell of a player. It's not like they got nothing. But it's like, oh my God. You know, like I don't think they. Kings got a Kings Is Terry Talbotan going to be in the Hall of Fame? I would bet no.

I think it's typically a safe bet. 15 years later. Yeah. Stuff is played at his Hall of Fame. It's like, all right, cool, I was wrong. Whatever. Yeah. I'd agree with you.

I mean, I think from a concept standpoint, it makes sense you want him to be your face of the franchise. Sure. Hall of Famer. I mean, that's, that's a high level to reach. and Reggie Miller was so ahead of his time, so consistent, played 80 plus games every year.

He was amazing. A reference to our conversation last week, we had a lot of listeners talk about your sleeping habits, Chris, having an AirPod and the side of your head. Yeah. And how it falls out. Zach message saying how he was doing exactly that, as you said it on the podcast,

it was one of those weird meta moments. And we had Andrew Plessard with the title, Sleep Mask for Verno, And he says message, not a question. Verno needs one of these game changer, these headphones. And they are these like flat speaker headphones instead of a headband. I've had them. You don't like them?

I've had them. How do they work for you? I'm not a fan. So I only have one air pod in. And in many cases, I don't have any air pod in. I could leave my phone playing. Okay, yeah, yeah. Like you just let speaker, right?

I could be slow. Yeah, I could put it out real low or I can have the one end. I did have those. I think they were wired. Are the ones the guys sent Bluetooth? Yeah, Bluetooth, yes. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that might be better.

I can't imagine those being wired. I feel like the charging thing was annoying, and I feel like the wire dangling. off of it was annoying. And I also feel like my head got hot. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. It's like I was wearing a headband.

That was my problem with it. Now that I think about it, that was my problem with it. Right? You're like wearing a head. It's like you're, you know, you would wear a headband if it's cold outside. Yeah, not if it's, you know, normal weather out or room temperature. You don't want a headband on. Right.

Especially like there's electronics in there probably naturally might heat up a little bit. Yes. that's against a pillow the whole night I'd be afraid it would blow up right yeah I think I didn't like that it was too hot that's what I think I remember about that but thanks for the tip

yeah it gets great reviews on Amazon 37000 ratings 4 and a half stars you think they're all bots they're all bots you think Amazon buys bots like Twitter has a bot problem do you think Amazon also has a bot problem

with reviews. Come on. I think anything that's like that. Anything on the internet. You can't, yeah, for sure. There's a lot of bots out there. Take it with a grain of salt.

Yeah. You think there are any NBA teams that have bots? Tweeting at Star Players. Your team hates you. They want to trade you. Get out of there. Oh, that's interesting.

You think there's any teams that have bots? I don't know. I think they got enough. I think they got enough problems without bots. See all that Lamarj. and stuff the last couple days, right? Yeah, yeah. Who needs bots?

Who needs bots when you got fans that are out there with access to be able to at you whenever you want, right? Yeah. Yeah, Lamar Jackson liked the tweet, right? The Dolphins uniform, too. Well, he also responded to the guy saying they never offered me $250 million.

Crazy. All right. Any other questions we want to get to before we get out of here? Nothing else from Idaho? Nothing else from Idaho. It's because the one guy that lives there emailed us. There's a couple other Quicket ones.

One question for me from Ethan, why did you stop using Letterbox? What's Letterbox? It's like a movie review app where you could grade movies or leave short reviews. I stopped watching it because I really haven't been watching many movies or TVs the past year. I'm getting back to it.

I'm going to install some things that I like back into my life. life this year. So I'm going to be watching more TV and movies this year. So maybe I'll be more active on Letterbox. You use anything like that, Chris? I don't know this. I just don't know it. How about IMDB?

Yeah, I know. It's like that, but like a better design, more modernized website. Okay. I'll check it out. So you just type in the movie that you're thinking about watching or something? Yeah, and you can leave a review and all that

and put a four and a half star rating, whatever it might be. Oh, cool. so you had your own kind of deal there. No, no, no, no, I had just made an account. You could sign up, yeah, that's all. But did you review movies or something? Yeah, I had a couple of reviews on there.

I want me to pull one up for you, Chris, or something. Oh, yeah. I used to read the Rotten Tomato ones for the bad stuff. Oh, see the tomatoes. Yeah, like people that hate the movies, right? What was that one that, uh, oh, what was that one that, you know, you know, like you'll like look up one for like Top Gun Maverick

and it's like, well, might be fun for some. Just another example of the male patriarchy and the problems. Like, oh, shut up. Seriously. Seriously, lady. Can we just watch Top Gun Maverick? Some of those critic reviews

that are just trying to get their points on Twitter. Yeah, right. My review for the Invisible Man, you ever see that movie? I said, entertaining. It's like a really, really good lifetime. movie. Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on now. It's called the what? The Invisible Man.

Oh, the Invisible Man. It's the Anthony Davis documentary. God. You ever see Tiger Tail? That's another one I got to review on. I said, I was moved by Tiger Tail. You were moved. It tells the story of the challenges.

I mean, why did you just write I was high when I watched Tiger Tail? I wasn't high when I watched it. What is Tiger Tail? What is that? The porno? No, it's not, I just, I said, I was getting it. It's a story of an immigrant family. Oh, God.

It's terrible. It's a, it's a deep movie. It's a man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter. It's a really good movie. Alan Yang, he's been on Bill's Spot, I believe. Great movie. How about when Harry Metzile? Last one here.

Yeah, I'm watching Harry Metzile. The Billy Crystal? Yeah, I gave it four and a half stars. Oh. When Harry Met Sally feels real. I mean, it doesn't feel like I'm watching Billy Crystal play a guy named Harry and Meg Ryan portray a woman called Sally. It actually feels like I'm watching two real people named Harry and Sally. There's a sense of realism and authenticity from their dynamic personalities.

The things are are so fucking corny. The things they say in the choices they make, they're both just trying to figure out who they are, which is a feeling everyone could relate to at one point in their lives. It's they're relatable imperfections that make. When Harry Met Sally, such a rewatchable rom-com. So what chick were you trying to get when you wrote that review and then sent it to her and said, Hey, did you ever read my review of when Harry met Sally? No.

In March 2020, nobody. I was stuck at home watching movies during the pandemic. Kevin O. Critic. I was not doing any dating at the time. Is that what you put on there, Kevin O. Critic? No, I got a corny picture of me, though, with the green screen behind me. and let me just send it. Are those the only movies you reviewed on there?

No, I got other reviews on there too. Oh. I got white men can't jump. I'm going to read them all. An annihilation, the hunt. And that's it for the reviews. That's all. You should check out my grades, though,

my five-star movies. Oh. You want to know the five stars? How many are there? Five-star rated movies. What is the Killian Hays of movies? Oh, my God. That's a great question.

Tell me, okay, I'm gonna... Let demure, it is a French movie. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna rattle off the movies. About a catfish. I'm gonna rattle off the movies I have rated it as five of five stars on letterbox. Parasite and glorious bastards, the Matrix, Old Boy, the original from 2003. V4 Vendetta, taxi driver, Scarface, a clockwork orange, one flew over the cuckoo's nest, Django Unchained, The Shining, Goodfellas, Fight Club, Inception, Breaking Bad, that's TV, American History X, Fargo, Kill Bill, Volume 2, Gladiator, Slumdog Millionaire, Titanic, Goodwill Hunting, Interstellar, Whiplash, that's a good list.

That's a really good list. Slumdog Millionaire is the one that I think we could argue that like some of those aren't, you know. Yeah, for sure. But it's a personal rating. I don't care about. you know, oh, it's filmed this way. They could have done this better. There's this plot hole here in Interstellar. Interstellar made me feel like I was going through a black hole when I watched that on IMAX. That's what I care about is the feeling I get. But that's the Gillian Hays.

Movies. No, that made me feel like I was going into the play. Yeah. Craig. Thanks, Christopher Nolan. I'm kidding. You ever see Interstellary? You ever seen her stellar in theaters, Chris?

No. I've never seen it on a TV screen. That's too bad. Whiplash? I've been meaning to watch that since it came out. Oh, you haven't seen that either? I still never watched. That's a great...

That looks like my kind of movie, too. Controversial lending. Sure. Great movie. Yeah. How about Slumdog Millionaire? That's the one of people like... You rated Slumdog Millionaire that high.

Yeah, Slumdog Millionaire makes me feel... It was awesome when it first came out. Oh, that's such a great movie. I mean, I haven't watched it again, but I remember feeling some kind of way when it did come out. I liked it. Parasite?

Didn't see it. You see my, you see my, I have to read, right? Yeah, you don't do subtitles, do you? Yeah. Yeah. Just a point.

Well, I mean, parasites. I know. That unbelievable. I'm going to watch it. Unbelievable. Yeah, I don't. How about some of those older movies? One flew over the cuckoooose nests.

No. A clockwork orange. The. China. You never saw those either? No, the Stanley Kubrick ones. Yeah. I just started watching the, I just went and seeked out that, that first Paul Thomas Anderson one. Wow.

Part eight. I like it. How about, how about taxi driver with De Niro? When I was, like after, you know, in high school or something. It didn't come out when I was in high school. Yeah. Yeah. You're not that old.

I'm not that old. Yeah. You're not that old. Like I remember, like that was like one of those movies that it was like, kind of like the scarface that you mentioned, where it was kind of like doing something we weren't supposed to be doing. Yeah. At my buddy's house.

You know, that's when people cared deeply about, you know, R-rated and vulgarity and adults watched R-rated. And so if we were watching like an Rated movie or something, we were doing something we weren't supposed to be doing. Is that thing nowadays still with your kids? No, really?

Not anymore. Because the Internet. But kids because the kids have TikTok. I just be raped my son. I mean, I hear it come out of his thing. And I put the protections and stuff on it. It doesn't stop it. And then the video game culture is the worst.

They just, Oh my goodness. These people are all Scarface. They all talk like Tony Montana. I swear to God, every time I hear any of those videos he's playing. Yeah. I mean, I love it. They, you curse all the time on there.

Kevin, no, curse it. No, I talk trash sometimes, though. I think video games make you toxic. When you're in that world, you become it. You feel like you're playing a character. You're fighting for your life. When I play war zone, I want to be the last to survive. I want to win.

Oh, I tell you this. I know how much it matters because I walked up, I was looking for something I lost up in my game room the other day. and this little I don't even want to get it to I saw three broken controllers really yeah he's obviously replaced

obviously he I keep in mind he's never mentioned a word to me were these controllers smashed smash bro like you gotta get that you gotta get that out of them no I'm saying a piece off of it

oh yeah I know so he's smashing the though physically he's controlling his controllers. Yes, he threw. Or he hit the, or he hit the, you know,

the, what do they call it? Armrest. He slams it against the armor. Yeah. I think I, I think of probably broken one controller in my life. Purposely,

when I was really young. Because I told him when I got it, this is it. Yeah. You break this controller, you don't get another controller. Oh, I love it.

That's good. So then I see, there's like two or three broken controllers up there. So I go back down I said, where did you get the controller? I asked mom. Every time I go to play golf, that's when he'll like sneak in.

He'll say, Mom, can you take me to target or something? He uses his money. So he uses his money. But he doesn't even mention that he broke the one I got. Wow. Wow. But I know that there's, where did the other ones come from? I said, where do those controllers come from?

He's like, what are he? talking about. I'm like, bro, I saw three broken controllers up there. I'm like, where did the new ones come from? He's like, I bought him. So what do you mean bought him? He said, Mama took me to Game Stim. I had those gift certificates for my birthday. And I was like, you're an idiot. What games is he playing? Okay, I'm so mad. Have I teabagued his ass in? No, you don't play that. Has that happened? You don't play that. Two, two, two, 2K, 2K Madden. Oh, 2K's Madden.

Fortnite. Play some different games. Fortnite. Why play Madden? Madden's horrible. Madden is the worst game. What's he playing Madden for? I just got the new one.

It's terrible. But, I mean, so I'm not like one of these gamer nerds like, y'all, I just like, it's the same as it's always been for me. I'm not playing it. Look, Kevin, I'm never going to be on a Madden TV show. I'm never going to win money playing this thing. I am doing it for like the arcade. I'm fired up. I got 30 minutes.

I'm going to play some video games. You should have both. It's good if you're doing that. Yes, they should have the, you know, casual fan experience. Yeah, but all that minutiaeat. I don't care about all that stuff. I know, I know. But like, they should have that for the people who do.

Well, yeah. There's so many glitches in that game, franchise moments. has been diluted. I don't know. You don't like. To me it's the game, what the game was when I used to play that, 04, well, really 02

from 08,09, when the game was as great as it was back then when 2K was still around and those games were always getting better every single year. Because 2K, NFL 2K was such a competitive product. It was so good.

They got better every year. The game is not improved in the 10 plus years since then in the ways that it should have. It's an embarrassment. The only games that I've played so much that I would care about would be like, Hot Shots Golf. Every version of those I played, I mean, I played an insane amount of hours.

Is that that arcade game? Hot Shots. Spinning, like the little wheel, right? No, no, no, no, no. Hot Shots Golf is cartoon, like they're cartoon characters. Golf. It's the best. It's my favorite ever.

I've played it. hundreds of thousands of hours probably between hot shots golf one through whatever the last one was but the last one that I like cared cared was the last baseball with mani Ramirez on the cover MVP oh that was a great game

that one I played a 162 game season on that. But that was 20 years ago that was a great game yes I think because then the next year they came out with like the road to Omaha or some cramp and it was just college baseball. Because they lost the rights or whatever. But that's the last,

that's the last game. In college I played a bunch, but like that's the last game that I remember like taking over my life. I don't play the MLB the show, but I've heard that's really good for a baseball game. Yeah, I've heard that's sensational.

I played it a lot because you could just fire those up and play the challenges. I like playing those. Yeah. Because that's something quick. You know what I mean? So, like, they have all kinds of challenges for you to win the stuff. So, like, I go in, like, I'll just give an example.

One of your challenges will be, like, get a, you got three innings left. In order to get this Brooks Robinson card where he's part, you know, he's in your deck, you've got to strike out six batters in the next three innings with Clayton Kershaw. And then you go and you do it. And if you fail, you've got to try it again. If you fail, you've got to try to get, right? You're trying to get six strikeouts at three innings, right? Two an inning with, and they have like all those.

Or like hit hit a home run with Albert Poulos and that'll give you four at fat to try to get a home run with Albert Poulos. And so it's just fast forward to all these like moments in the game. That's that's the fun part for me. And that's quick. Because I ain't got a lot of time sitting there playing like these long-ass games. Yeah. How old is William right now? I got things to do, 12.

12? I wonder if he'll be on the next Call of Duty coming out. Maybe. Later this year. I haven't let him. Yeah, you haven't let him. No. Now, Call of Duty.

I know. Talks. It's a don't. Yeah, it's talks. Even the characters in the game swear. Like the animated characters, they swear. I see the way they talk. I see the way people to play it talk.

I don't want them around a bunch of creeps like you. I got to protect this kid. I mean, I'm not sure Fortnite's that much better. Probably not. That's probably not. Call of Duty's the adult. I feel like Coled Duty, like strangers are all talking to each other.

Forty-N-talking to strangers. William would be a little voice. Oh, yeah, because his friends still play. Yeah, they just do those whatever. Eventually, there will be a shift. One of them will get Call-a-Duty, and then all of them will play Call-Duty. There will be a shift.

It's coming, Chris. And then I'll see him out there in the, and Morse, and I'll smoke his ass. Just smoke. Take all your frustration sort of. You take him out of my four son. Ringo Bear! It's great.

It's going to do it for today's show. Thank you, our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. Have it going.