The Mismatch - Who’s to Blame for the Celtics’ Underwhelming Season? Plus: LaMarcus Aldridge Starts for the Nets and the Clippers Overhaul Their Culture

Episode Date: April 2, 2021

Verno and KOC get into all the league business this Friday, starting with LaMarcus Aldridge heading straight to the starting five for the Brooklyn Nets (0:30) and Miami’s continued high level of play (11:28). Then they get into Aaron Gordon’s fantastic debut games for the Nuggets (33:35) and their win over a full-strength Clippers team that has made some serious culture changes over the past year (38:26). Finally, they talk about what has gone so desperately wrong with the Boston Celtics (49:08), what Patrick Williams could do for the Bulls’ future (1:06:03), and the NCAA Final Four (1:12:20). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On R2C2, Cecee Sabathia and Ryan Rucco guide listeners through everything going on in the MLB, NBA, and NFL. They also talk to friends, athletes, and celebrities about the world of sports, and much more. Check out R2C2 with CCet with CCet and Ryan Rucco on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Mishman. And joining me as he does every Friday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Conter, Kevin O'Ocounter. Kevin O'O Candleand, Kevin O'Chyland, Kevin O'Chynde. What's going on? How you doing?

Well, we're kind of in the middle of the dog days, I guess, you know, where we've gotten past the trade deadline, the All-Star break and then the trade deadline. And now we have this space for a couple of weeks before we get to the home stretch and we really start paying attention to the standings every single day to see who those 10 teams that are at least going to have a shot at being in the playoffs are in each conference. But there's still interesting stuff that is going on. A week ago, you and I talked about the trade deadline,

and we talked about these guys that were moving teams and also the buyout market, and we kind of covered that on Tuesday. We had a couple of the debuts last night. We saw Lamarcus Aldridge not only playing for the Nets, but starting for the Brooklyn Nets last night. It looking good. Yeah, I mean, look, the Revisions.

vitalization that takes place by putting on a net's uniform is truly astounding. Blake Griffin hadn't dunked in two years and all of a sudden he dunks on his first play as a Brooklyn net. And there seems to be a new lease on life for Lamarcus Aldridge. His teammates are going crazy on the sideline. You know, they were doing it without James Harden last night in that game against Charlotte. But the, you know, we talk about the instant reviews for guys, the instant reviews for La Marcus Aldridge have to be extremely good, considering he got that start and he performed.

You know, it's crazy. Despite the fact he's missed games this season, he still has more post-ups than anybody in the league this year. And he's been very efficient this year, too, Chris. And then last night's game, according to the second spectrum, he posted up 15 times, scored in elite, a dominant one and a half points per chance on those post-ups. And the Hornets at times sometimes kept them in single coverage. Aldrich just got into his turnaround or over-pire. them. If they doubled or showed help, he kicked it out to a wide open shooter. And those are the situations in which in the playoffs, the nets are just going to destroy people and why they are my pick to win the NBA finals on the offensive end of the floor. They can attack whatever matchup

that they want. And with Lamarcus Aldridge, you have one of the best post players in the NBA, a good passer out of the post, who when he's surrounded by Katie and Hardin and Kyrie and Joe Harris, he's going to be able to pick apart defenses there. And we're going to see a lot more switching as the year goes on. And also, though, the big question with the Nets is not offense, Chris, though, is it? It's defense. And with Aldridge, I thought, you know, at 611 with a 7-4-75 wingspan, he looked like he put in better effort playing in their drop, pick-and-roll coverage.

He looked at least, you know, 95% as good as what DJ provides in that drop-pick-and-roll coverage, if not better. So I think for them, another guy would size, another guy who can rebound a bit for you and give way more an offense than DeAndre Jordan can who got a DNP last night. We're going to see a lot of Aldridge and Claxton, Chris. I think that's what we learn about what takes place with this team in conjunction with signing Aldridge, which is what it has enabled them to do, no matter how much he's going to play, is that it enables them to not have to play Deontre Jordan.

And I'm not here to just slander him completely. but the numbers are the numbers. And in fact, I saw this stat this morning that was posted by Tommy Breer, which was unbelievable. And it was that with Nick Claxton on the court this season, the Nets were outscoring their opponents by more than 15 points per 100 possessions. With D'Andre Jordan on the court this season, the Nets are being outscored by their opponents. that is unbelievable. You wouldn't think, you would think you could put me out there

and they're not going to get outscored. You know what I mean? But DeAndre Jordan, and that's Nick Claxton, who's just getting his first, you know, real run in the NBA. But it just shows how dismal they have been with Jordan on the court.

There should be no scenario. If I could throw Nick Claxton in there and be over a plus 15, like how is it possible than when I've got D'Andre Jordan in there, I'm a negative. And yet here we go. He says total minutes logged in the fourth quarter over the Nets last nine games. Nick Claxton, 74, D'Andre Jordan, zero. I'd expect a lot more of that. So that was already taking place, right?

They had already made the move from Nick Clack, or from DeAndre Jordan. Jordan to Nick Claxton, especially, and that's when you know, when it matters most. And now it's a little bit easier too. Now if you have Aldridge in the fold, because it's always hard with a young player taking the place of a veteran, especially a well-liked veteran like DeAndre. But a veteran doing it from a veteran has a lot easier for the veteran to stomach. Right. 100%.

I hadn't thought about that, Chris. That's a great point. It's DeAndre Jordan, no big deal. I mean, it's Lamarcus Aldridge. You know, this guy's been an all-star. This guy's got his bona fide in the NBA. And so it's like, okay, you know, how sour can you be? You know, about Lamarcus, Aldridge.

He's better than you. He's always been better than you. Just to add on those numbers, one of the big reasons why DeAndre Jordan has the negative, you know, plus minus negative net rating, as Tommy Breer mentioned in that status because of first quarters. In first quarters this season, the nets are being outscored. by 10 points per 100 possessions with DeAndre Jordan on the court. And when he's off the court, whenever they pull him out,

whoever the backup center is, whether it's like super small ball with Bruce Brown or Nick Claxson out there, without DJ in the first quarter, they outscore teams by 7.3 points per 100 possessions. A great number. You know, so now you're starting games with Lamarcus Aldridge, who as we just mentioned provides so much more offensively.

He's kind of that connective glue between your stars, with his ability to be a guy. that can throw the ball down too and he can get a bucket for you or find somebody else. And then defensively, like I said, in San Antonio this year, there were times he would like half-heartedly contest shots and it was just an eye sort of watch. I thought last night he did put in better effort and we'll see how sustainable it is. But if a guy's trying, that makes all the difference in the world. Yeah.

Look, Blake Griffin looks like a different player. That net's jersey, it has a profound effect on these guys. Well, with Blake, it's also a minutes thing too. Like with all the injuries Blake Griffin's had, playing 30 minutes, handling the ball as much as he was in Detroit with that much responsibility, he's probably actually able to put in more effort, you know, when he's not doing all everything else on the court. Whereas with Aldridge, sometimes it seemed like a choice with him in San Antonio, with Griffin, like all of those injuries, I have a hard time saying like it was a choice. I think Blake's always played hard. It's just he couldn't play hard with that much that he had on his plate there. but ultimately though, like it's

it's also human nature, Kevin. It's just also human nature. When you got something to play for, you know, it's a different deal than when you are going out there. And like, look, you think Olen Depot could play the same way for Miami that he was playing for Houston?

I mean, come on. It's just like if you worked at some crappy place and all of a sudden you went to, you went to work at another place where everybody else is working hard and the standard is high. Like, it is what it is. You're either going to fit in or you're not going to get the play, right? And so, of course, these guys. Sometimes after hours of losing in war zone at 1 a.m. in the morning, you just rage quit. You don't have that button in the NBA, though.

And some guys, like, some guys have take a while to get heated up in games. Audred, from the very beginning of time, and this is all the way back to Portland, he has always been a first quarter player. Just a bucket. Always. Right away. How many times if you watch games

where Lamarges Aldridge scores the first eight points of the game, all on pick and pops? Like I feel like I've seen that a thousand times. They used to do that every time that they would come to Memphis

because, you know, Zibo, and they would run this same pick and pop the first like four plays of the game. And then by the fourth one, Zeebo would get out there and be like, come on. You know what I mean?

Like, this is annoying because he's, you know, he's 26 feet from the basket and you're pulling away guys that are used to playing under the basket. Now, the game's changed where there's certainly a lot more active fours and fives that have to play all the way out to the three point line defensively. But he's always been that guy that in the first quarters has been able to put up points. And so when you juxtapose that versus what you were saying about Jordan and how crappy he's been in first quarters, I mean, come on. You're really replacing something. Now, on the other side, you know, and this is one of the things that last night showed is what this team has been able to show is in the absence of Kevin Durant, kept on trucking. And now, even like a night like that, like when they lose James Hardin, it's like, okay, just keep on going. Like they still can win.

They got enough players now. And the one way you thought, and this is why people, when we covered this on Tuesday, they're so resentful. about the buyout market is because what you have to sacrifice when you attain James Hardin is your depth, right? Like, you don't have that anymore. Like, so that's the price of doing this, is that you don't have your depth anymore. But then they were just able to obviously acquire depth, right? Now they have depth.

Now they have guys that, if their guys are out, James Hardin could sit out. They can still win basketball games. It's crazy. And they still have a roster spot. yes we'll see if they use that on because they they did sign eliza johnson from the g league he had a nice game for them earlier this week you know versatile six foot seven six foot eight big guy is switch screens for you handle the ball bit maybe back into their bench or maybe there'll be another surprise buyout to come down the line to to anger everybody again we'll see what happens they do have that spot though oladipo made his debut last night not some kind

of huge statistical night, but they did a, you know, I watched a lot of this game before I ended up flipping over to another one that I'll get to later. But this was one of the closer games that was on the early slate. And they were, the attention that Curry gets, you know, when they're playing somebody like the heat is just extreme. And it enabled Wiggins to go off in the first half. in the second half, Wiggins, you know, did next to nothing as compared to what he did in the first half. And it became harder and harder. And Jimmy Butler, with about three minutes left in the half, he had taken four shots and he made his first bucket. And then you looked up in the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth and he's got like 21 already.

I mean, he turned up and it felt like the heat were kind of biting their time. It wasn't extremely noticeable, honestly, the Oladipo minutes. And I think that speaks to what we talked about, which is he now has found a place where he just got to fit in. You know, they're already good. It is the benefit. What we just talked about with Aldridge is the same with Oladipo. That team's already good, right? They got good players, right?

You don't have to go there and be a savior. You don't have to go there and take 15 shots. Like, you just play defense, pick your spots. Some nights it's going to be your night. Other nights it's going to be butlers. Other nights it's going to be butlers. Other nights it's going to be Duncan Robinson's, Gore and Drag it's, whoever it may bam out of bio.

You just kind of fit in there. And it's going to be interesting to see Ola Depot more as kind of a role player. It's been a long time, I guess. Yeah, you know, we've been backed up maybe that Oklahoma City season with Westbrook. He was a little more than a role player there. but it's been a while since we've seen Victor Oladipo just fit in. I mean, last night, the stat line is not super impressive, as you said, Chris. See, I mean, nothing pops out, nothing even worthy of discussing all that much.

I do think the defensive effort was great from Ola Depot last time. He had one play where there should have been a kickball, and he hustled back on defense and took a charge. Just little moments like that where you're making up for something that happened. You're not growing frustrated after a non-call. There should have been a whistle. There wasn't. gets back on defense, makes the play. That's what Oladipo will add to their defense.

What Miami really does need him to do, though, is they do need him to be a score. Their offense has really sputtered a lot this season is not the same as what we saw in the bubble. Ola Dippo with the slashing that he provides, the downhill attacking, getting to the rim, kicking it out to shooters. At some point, for Miami to be a championship team and not just a fun or tough playoff opponent, we're going to have to see that version of Oladipo. And maybe we will. I mean, this is just game one and not reading too much into it.

But overall, you know, I liked his debut, but we'll see how that offense develops over the course of time. And it also just helps them with their depth so much in terms of guys not just being able to pick on Tyler Hero, Duncan Robinson, which is what they were doing at the beginning of the season. And inevitably, when you get to the playoffs, they're going to start seeking guys out. And he is not a guy that you can pick on, right? He is, I mean, and the other thing is they were getting literally nothing. out of Avery Bradley. So really, you just, the only thing you've lost off your depth is the,

the Kelly Olinic minutes, which you can fill. And you did get B. Alitza for that role too, you know? Yeah, and he plays. Yeah, he's, he's a solid player. You know what I mean? Like,

oh, I mean, they're already given him pretty significant minutes. Yeah, right. Pair Riley after that trade deadline talked about, you know, getting B. Elisa for them was because of losing Kelly Olenick. I mean, he spoke about the loss and the importance of Olinic.

And, you know, so good, good. trade deadline for them. Yeah, it is. This team, if Ola Dibo can get back, even, don't forget Trevor O'Iraza as well. Yep. From a couple of days before the deadline. If Ola Dibo can return to all-star level, Victor Ola-Dipo, do you think this team has a chance to make a run? I think that they are still, just like we talked, we talked about this all year last year. Look, they are still going to be a bitch to deal with when you get to the playoffs. Jimmy Butler can still be the best

guy on the floor in a series. And, you know, Bam got banged up there in the playoffs last year. Certainly he did in the finals. But the B-Elita thing, much like Olinic, you know, it's another big that stretches the floor. It gives those guys space because there was at one point I'm watching that game last night. And I think Butler hit a three. And I'm going to get the number wrong. But my son, who watches these gaze at me, he turned to me and he said, what? Is that real? I think they said it it was like the 14th 3 or something crazy like that that he had hit this season and he was like he's only hit it was less than 20 it was shocking how many threes had 14 of 68 14 of 68 so yeah 21% of the year my son could not believe that was real the announcer said that

and he said he's only had 14 threes I said man he just doesn't shoot him just doesn't shoot him. 14 all season, which is just insane. You know, when he did it, I mean, look,

that epic, you know, historic game, what was that? Five? Five or six? It was five, right?

Game five last year in the NBA finals. I mean, he wasn't shooting threes in that either. He just had this crazy game. And that's on the highest, highest, highest level. And so he can do it,

no matter. And I would just say, look, They got to have everybody healthy. They got to have Dragach healthy. They got to have these guys. But you know they have a commitment to defense. And you know that they're tough, right?

And they got some guys with, you know, real scars on that team that have been through the wars, whether it's Dragach, Butler, Iguidala, you know, they've got guys. I don't think I like this version of the heat as much as last years. Just because, you know, they had the, they had the Crowder crew. And like they were, they were rough and tumble. Do you not like, do you not like this Miami crew as much as how we remember the heat crew in the bubble? Because like going into the bubble, I don't think, but you know, like the expectations weren't that they would do what they did and be the team that. We also did say that's the scary team.

We did say that. We were talking about that. Yeah. We did the restart video last year with the heater, you know, could make some noise in the postseason all that. They were a popular upset team. That's for sure. You're right about that. So people recognized it.

it happened. This year, I think people recognize that it could happen, but are doubtful it will happen. That's the difference. Because Brooklyn is the team that they are in Milwaukee. I mean, they are much better. Drew Holiday's awesome. What an addition for them. It goes on the same.

We talked about it all year, but the benefits of that probably won't show up until the postseason. Right. And do they, you know, is Oladipo awesome? Do they get the amazing Draggich? I mean, Draggis led that team in scoring. He was awesome.

Last year, right? So it's a different, right? Like, is there a circumstance where we look and we say, okay, the leading score of the playoffs for the Miami Heat is Gorin Dragich? That seems very far-fetched, right? At this point, I would think. It could happen, I guess, but he was just so awesome last year, all year. And then especially when they got into the bubble.

And so I suppose he could. But he was, I, I, he was. he was sneaky vastly underrated last year because I don't think most people realize he was their leading scorer and it showed up big when they played against the Lakers to say the least and plus with him he's a former all-star

that kind of re-found his all-star form in the bubble he was performing at his peak level awesome to watch that all right Chris I got a little pop quiz question for you related to your Jimmy Butler comment with him only having 14 three-pointers this season, 44 players are averaging over 20 points. How many of them?

I got to name them all. Where does Butler rank and made three-pointers of those players of the 44? I'm going to say it's at the very bottom, but I'll say it's not the very bottom, that there's going to be some big guys that are at. So I'll say 40th. Forty-thirds, only Zion. Oh, wow.

It's under ball with with eight. And then you get 80 with 17, Derozen at 18. So bonus of 36 and beat at 38. Like the point I'm getting at is here is like it gets up pretty quickly. Wait, Zion has only hit eight threes. Only eight for Zion. Remember that first game of the season? And he knocked some down.

I thought, didn't he knock some down like at the debut, like that first ESPN game? Yes. Last season, he had four. Oh, it was last season. When he first made his debut, which is so funny that he had four in his first game. And ever since then, he only has 10. But Zion shooting a good percentage, though, like 38% from three for his career. It's not like Zion has low three-point shooting numbers.

It's just he's a dominant force. How many has he attempted this year? This season, Zion is eight of 23 from three-point land. Eight of 23. So of 20-point scores, Zion and Jimmy Butler, our outliers compared to everybody else. That is unbelievable. You know what's crazy.

So I watched that heat game against the Warriors. And then I flipped over because our ritual is when we're just sitting around, we'll keep the scoreboard up and then we just flip to whatever's close. These games were crap last night, like by and large. Most of them were huge margins. So the only close game was the Pelicans Magic game. and you and I had been tagged on some tweet about Mo Bamba. And I was like, well, hell, if Mo Bamba's playing, I was like, I'll flip it on there.

And then you watch it. And I'm like, oh, my goodness, what is going on here? I watched for like the first, you know, whatever, first three minutes of our viewing. And then finally, I go and check the box score. I'm like, bro, is nobody playing? And no Lanzo, no Zion, no Ingram in that game. Jason Randall is playing point card for Orlando. Josh Hart, 47 minutes, Eric Blitz of 46 minutes.

It went to overtime, by the way, but still. They got these new guys. But my guy, Nikiel Alexander Walker, he had the team to himself. He hit a, or he missed a critical free throw at the end of that game, which I hated that that happened for him because he was big time during this game. I loved seeing it. And it was kind of like, hey, no Lanzo, no Ingram, no Zion. Let's go.

Here, it's my show. We talked about him Tuesday, right? Yeah. And it's still going. Orlando? I'm going to tell you something, Kev. They have this weird deal where they got rid of these guys. They got these two wins and they beat the Clippers and then last night they beat the Pelicans.

Now, I know it's not the same as beating the pelicans with all their guys. But I'm watching, I was watching on their feed. Boy, I tell you this, their announcers by the end of the game, like their postgame walkoff interview was a Wendell Carter, who was awesome down the stretch. 21 points, 8 to 13, 12 rebounds to assist. They love him. Like this is Wendell Carter honeymoon times 1,000.

I mean, if you ever heard the kid talk, he's a great interview. He's intensely likable. and, you know, he's played, he was just awesome for them down the stretch last night. And they really like, you know, kind of what he's brought to the table for them. And so it's always, it's always kind of fun. You know, I mean, I know it sucks to be a magic fan right now, right? Because your team just got stripped up. Now you're doing a rebuild again, whatever. But it's always fun when you attain some guys that are actually going to be able to play for you and do something. And the Wendell Carter thing was fun. You know, they close the game with him. And I was thinking, you and I both were very high on him. You higher than even I was coming into the draft. And I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that we look back in three years and go, you know, not that it was a bad trade, but that the magic, that at the time,

the bootch trade, as it was termed, might have been undersold a little bit. it because this kid is still just scratching the surface of what he can be. And he's a good defender too. He is a good defender for that team. He's a positional guy. Yeah. Over time, you hope that that can develop into, you know, consistent production. And for Orlando, man, Wendell Carter, it's like we said on the inverse with the Chicago trade,

they traded Wendell Carter and picks for Nikola Vutrovich, who is kind of the guy that you hope Wendell Carter someday becomes. you know, on the offensive end of the floor, except with better defense, because that's what Carter could be. He's still super young. And you look at this magic team, there's a lot of quality players who can potentially impact winning.

I know that's like a real loaded sentence there, but Chuma O'Kiki, Chris, he didn't shoot the ball. I was high on him. I loved him at Auburn. I loved him. Me too. Me too.

And he missed his first year with the injury. I was texting with Kevin Clark from the ringer last night, world's number one magic fan. Yeah. And he's like, O'Kiki's not shooting the ball. that well tonight, but he's just such a joy to watch. And it's true. Like, Hokiki, he does not need to score to make a winning impact because he does it with defense,

with energy, with tipouts, on rebounds, rotations, communications, communication. He does everything on the floor for you. And with the magic, they have some of those guys, like Jonathan Isaac someday comes back. Well, it would not shock. It would not shock me if, you know, you got to see him a little bit last night. And he was pretty good in his Denver minute. It's not going to surprise me if R. J. Hampton's a player. I mean neither. He's raw, but someday. Yeah, he may end up being a player now. He's good. I mean, he can play.

And so you could see, he's at least one of those guys that I could see developing into something that is maybe a, I mean, he was a huge, huge high school recruit, right? And we've just got that one year where he was kind of out of sight, out of mind for everybody playing in New Zealand. Zealand. And so I, you know, I think people is sometimes you do need to go back and say people right out of high school thought this kid was going to be very special and destined to be a very long-term and possibly extremely good NBA player. And sometimes it just, you know, something takes a bump in the road and we look back and go, well, that was the evaluation on him once upon a time. You know who that happened with earlier this week when I was reading an article was the guy that the one that had 19 rebounds of the first half? Moses Brown.

Moses Brown, right? You go back and look, this guy was a huge recruit, Kevin. You know, five-star, like, five-five-star McDonald's All-American, like all of it, right? The same way we evaluate guys when they're at that age. and then he comes in and he plays and 99% of the basketball viewing public watches that and goes, who in the hell is Moses Brown?

Because he didn't do anything of count, you know, since high school. And if you don't follow high school, you know, it's not the big of it. It was okay. You know, like this team didn't do much at UCLA. And so he just kind of shows up and it's like, geez. And then you go back and you realize

this ain't just some kind of like fight your way of the NBA story for Moses Brown. This guy was supposed to be awesome when he was leaving high school. You know, everything you just said, the critique of Moses Brown in high school was effort and, you know, intensity and all that, like it is for a lot of bigs. And you watch him on OKC,

that would not be your thought with the way he rebounds, the effort he puts in with the intensity on the floor. And while you were talking, I was just thinking about Christian Wood. You know, another guy who, you know, he wasn't necessarily as highly recruited. as Moses Brown, but who in college you could see the potential. You could see what he could be.

If only he had a higher basketball like you, if only he tried harder, if only if he was more consistent. And now he has become that guy. And it's so hard for people to change the way they're wired like that. But hopefully Moses Brown can keep doing it. He's already been rewarded with the short term contract with OKC, like the life changing money. It's not like, it's not like hundreds of tens of millions, but it's millions.

Yes. It's life-changing money. And Christian Wood getting his big deal with Houston. So it just shows the power of effort and intensity and true. And no matter what you do, and especially true if you're trying to be an NBA player, there's only so many jobs. You've got to give it your all. And Moses Brown's a good example.

I have an amazing story about this, about another kid who was once a five-star recruit, who has not found that in the same way that Wood did in the same way that Moses Brown did. And I hope he does one day because he's a really sweet kid. but Deontay Davis who was a high draft big for the Grizzlies and here's a great story. So Deontay Davis went to Michigan State. Some people thought it could be a little lottery. He ends up falling all the way down. Famously on draft night, he just was super perturbed about the way it all went.

He ended up, you know, not even finishing out basically a rookie contract. He moved on from the Grizzlies, went to another team, and then he's been kind of G-League in and whatever. ever since. But I was at his second year in the league. I was at Summer League. And he's not going to mind me telling this story at this point where it's water under the bridge. But at that point, the guy who is now the president of the Detroit Pistons, Ed Stefansky, was in the front office for the Grizzlies. And I'm at the small gym in Vegas at Summer League. And we're talking about like the team that they've got out there. And I said, you know, what drives me crazy about, you know, Deonte is like I really do,

because I love the kid. I said, I feel like I could go in that locker room right now. And I could say, Deante, I'll bet you 50 bucks, you won't grab 15 rebounds tonight. And he, I guarantee you, he would win that bet because he would want to prove me wrong. What he doesn't realize is there's a hundred million dollars on the line if he just goes out and does that. But the instant thing is if I told him, I bet you 50 bucks, you can't grab 15 rebounds in this game. I totally believe I would lose that bet. And I'll never forget this.

Ed Spansky, you know, he did. He looked at me and he goes, go bet him. that's great. He's like, I'm not going to go. He's like, I'd love to see him too. Right? Because these guys, you know, their jobs are on the line when draft picks, you know, especially ones that they've really gone to the, to the tilt for when it came to that war room.

And so everybody was a, you know, you all wanted it to happen. But to your point, that's the difference between guys, Moses Brown decides I'm going to go and I'm going to get every friggin rebound. And he just does it now. He just does it. You ever watch the show Ted Lassau, Chris? I haven't yet. I want to.

Oh, it's so great, man. I've heard so many good things. And I love him. I love Siddakesh. Yeah. I love him on Saturday Night Live. I love, I mean, I still go back and watch a lot of those, like, old skits that he was in. The A-holes is, like, seriously.

Like the Aos go to a travel agency. Him and Kristen Wigg, when they were the couple, I mean, I love, I think he is legit hilarious. He is. And in Ted Lassow, he is legit hilarious. He's also legit inspiring. Every episode has the deepest life lessons full of wisdom. Yeah. And just the scene, what you were talking about reminds me of a scene in the show.

I'm not going to say anything. I don't want to spoil it for you or anybody listening to the show. But watch Ted Lassar. It's one of the best seasons of, television I've ever seen in my entire life. Oh, wow. What a review. Ever, Chris. You loved it. I'm not wanting to like exaggerate my feelings about TVs or movies or whatever that I watch. Like, this is legit one of the best seasons of television I have ever watched. Wow. What a review. I loved every moment of it. Kevin O. Ebert. It made me tweet about it at 3 a.m. in

the morning when I finished binge watching it after like three, four days. Three a year. But yeah, watch the show. And then come back. to me whenever you do, you'll know the scene that I'm talking about in terms of motivations. Let's get to a couple other guys that have been on new teams. You are over the moon. Maybe not Ted Lassau over the moon, but you are over the moon about Aaron Gordon and how that looks in Denver so far. Pretty close. Oh, yeah. Pretty close. You are excited about the way he looks. And look, there was, of course, the highlight that would arrive everywhere last night in their game against a clipper. where Yokic is doing the Yokic thing, he's handled the ball. And if you cut to the basket, he will find you.

Oh, yeah. And he finds Gordon run at the baseline. Gordon has that reverse dunk that makes the highlight rounds everywhere last night. But, you know, you were a big promoter of this. You really liked the idea of Gordon. But the idea is always different than what it looks like in practice. but the instant reviews as we speak on these different ways these new players are impacting their teams, instant reviews for Gordon in Denver are very, very good.

I mean, they'll both the only negative thing you can say is he's shooting 25% from three. That's pretty much it. And you hope those shooting numbers go up to at least career averages, hopefully back to what he did in Orlando this year. But the number one thing is the defense, Chris. We saw it against Kauai Leonard last night. It reminded me so much of what we talked about after the deal was made about what he did against Kauai during Orlando's 2018-19 playoff run where it's like, whoa, this guy can be locked down in games that matter. Well, last night, he was playing like a game that mattered.

And he made life hard on Kauai Leonard, one of the world's best scores. Says a lot to me. This Denver team is going to be a tough out in the postseason. They're going to be a really tough out. And if anybody's hurt even a little bit, I feel like, you know, ankle injury for. or LeBron or AD, like they'll be very clearly the best team in the West,

if that's the case. If they're healthy, that's a different conversation, but either way, they're going to make it harder on everybody in the Western Conference with this group. All right,

let me say off the bat, I agree with you. Now, I'm going to play devil's advocate. Okay. Two things. Number one, the same way you talk about, you know, if other teams

get banged up, that they could be, they could slip in there and be a real real problem. If anybody in that starting lineup get banged up, it is a problem. And the other thing, and again, these are small things.

I said off the bat, I agree with you, I'm just going to play this devil's advocate. And maybe there will become true to this. But when you look at something like last night, that is them playing against an extremely good team, right? the cost of making some of the moves that they made is the depth, right? Well, we talked about this at the beginning where it was like, that's what happens.

When you acquire guys that are on contracts, you end up losing some depth possibly on your team. And that was the whole deal with Brooklyn, right? It's like, okay, you've got these amazing players. But here's, here might be an Achilles heel. They really do not have depth on that Denver team. And they, in a season where you are playing so many games in a short amount of time, just if you pull up last night's box score, Kev, you just look at those minutes. 39 for Gordon, 39 for Murray, 36 for Yokic, 35 Barton, 32 Porter.

That catches up, man. Nine guys played. I mean, when you're right, nine guys played, but your lowest starter total was 35? 32 for Porter Jr. Yeah. 32 for Porta Jr. And then they really didn't bring it. They got the,

you know, they got the little guy, uh, compazo and they've got a PJ Dozier who, you know, at least had a moment of through forum last year, but they don't have much. You know,

Chris, I mean, I know you're playing as devil's advocate. I agree with you too. I want to make sure I rephrase what I said. I'm not saying they would be the favorite. What I mean to say is they're right there with those other teams, including Utah and Phoenix and both LA teams.

The LA teams have higher upside than anybody else, but Utah and Phoenix are real threats as well. And Denver should be right there. I mean, I know they go off to a very slow start during the season, opposite of Utah and Phoenix. But the team we've seen more as of late, I believe this to be the real Nuggets team. This is the real Nuggets team and they're even better with the Gordon edition. It gives them what they lacked. They have big, strong defensive stopper. And we saw the issues that he can create.

It's not like Kauai's not going to get his. He did. But Gordon can make it hard on somebody in a playoff series. I love this Nuggets team. They're fun, man. Yeah, on the flip side, the Clippers are one of those teams that the whole year, they've been like in the top three. And yet, you know, if, if it, what happened last year against that team, that, what happened

last year is just impossible to erase from everybody's mind. And so in any other scenario, but instead, it's like their losses are magnified. Like, you look at their record is still fantastic, but their losses are magnified. It's like, why aren't they doing this? Or, you know, do we believe in the Clippers at all? Like, in any other season, we would look at them and we would say, wow. Like, let's just say this is the first year that they're running through it. But that bubble thing, I mean, they're just going to have to win.

at such a high level for people to believe in them because that collapse. I mean, I think that collapse was possibly the worst ever, seriously, in terms of where they were in that series and also our expectations of them. You know, people thought that it was going to be either them or the Lakers. They certainly thought we were destined for Western finals that feature both those teams for a whole year. and then it just, you know, they just fell apart completely. But they have not been bad. I do wonder they spent that fortune and they've gotten beat up over the, you know,

Kinnard thing. Let me, I hear I'll play devil advocate on that. Why don't they play him more? Like, I was looking at it up and I'm like, has he been bad this year? Do you know that this season, Luke Kinnard is shooting 48% from the field and 47% from three. That's what he's doing for the Clippers. He just got done in the month of March.

He averaged almost 11 points a game, shooting 56% from the field and 60% from three. Like, it is weird. It is weird. I mean, what the hell? The guy just shot 56% and 60% for three from the month? And it's like, he's like a, I mean, he treat him like he's a, you know, second year player in the league that some nights he'll play eight minutes or some nights he

play. It's just bizarre to me. It is weird because, you know, recently he had that big game offensively. Yeah. A couple of them. A couple of them. Earlier this week he had a really strong defensive game against the bucks, a really strong defensive game on and off the ball.

And then you look at the box score and it's like 15 minutes. It's strange. It is strange. Because this is like one of those games, obviously, we just saw. You see how many minutes all those nuggets guys played. This is one of those games that you circle, right? You got a bunch of these games. Some of the games you're going to end up punting.

Your guys are going to be there. But everybody was there playing for these teams last night. And it is one of those that you do, you know, give it your best because you know you might face this team. It's very likely that you could face this team. you know, come playoff time. And so you want to get a feel and want it to be a great game. And it's like, did you just just play that like you would a playoff game? Because what the hell?

Like, I don't understand. He's, Ty Loo sometimes, he does this old school shit where it's like, he just, I don't know. He does the big guy stuff. But then when it's when it, when he likes that, but then when it requires that you try to like go big, then a lot of times in those scenarios, he'll end up going small. Like I remember there's a game against Brooklyn earlier this year. And he just tries to match up with them going small. And I'm like, you can't win like this against this team.

Like the only way is if you try to like punish them on the boards and you try to like make sure that they never get an offensive rebound. and you get a bunch of offensive rebounds, therefore you take more shots. And I know Ibaka wasn't in the mix last night for them, which matters. But still, the Kennard thing is bizarre because he's a free agent that everybody said that sucks. But it doesn't match up.

When you go look at his numbers, you sit there and you go, why doesn't this guy play more? Yeah. I mean, he's had some fit issues, chemistry issues. Yeah. It hasn't been perfect.

I think it's been tougher than the numbers indicate. And Clippers fans definitely recognize that, too, the growing pains with integrating him into the team with this funky mix, you know, on that roster. But I do think, you know, this team in a sense, Tyloo feels like it is throwing darts sometimes, figuring out the lineups that work together. They've had some guys in and out.

Paul George, obviously, we're now dealing with the toe issue. That's clearly limiting his performance. But Tyloo does deserve some credit here for, figuring out how to use Terrence Mann. Terrence Man's been very, very good for the Clippers. He has been 18 points last night. He had a 23 point game earlier in the week. He's consistently doing the little things on the team,

screening and rolling as a guy who's only 6 foot 5, much like we've talked about with Bruce Brown on the Nets earlier this season. I love the way they're utilizing him all over the floor offensively. And defensively, he's rock solid. Can defend multiple positions for you. He's reliable. He's steady. He communicates.

He's in the right position. So, you know, Lou has been some issues with Kennard, getting him worked in properly. But with Terrence Mann, they've really figured out how to do things properly with him. And now you're going to integrate Rondo into the rotation, maybe once he's ready to play. There's a lot of guys that deserve minutes on this team. I look forward to seeing how it, you know, ends up falling through. Yeah. We haven't seen Rondo yet.

You haven't seen Rondo yet. And it is fascinating, you know, anybody can go pull these up. but there were a bunch of quotes earlier this week from Lou Williams. He finally talked about it. He talked about how difficult it was for him. He felt like, you know, they kind of built something there. He and Pat Bev were like the longest tenured guys. The way they willed that team to the playoffs a couple of years ago,

kind of, you know, felt like they flipped that from what had been, you know, this losing situation to more of a winning culture, which enabled them to get. guys that really wanted to be there. But he talked about, you know, Pat Beverly talking to him and him and Pat Bev and Matras and whatever. And I couldn't help as I'm reading all of the quotes thinking about what we talked about post.

And this got less attention than it normally would when a good team fails. Everybody always wants to find out what happened, what happened, right? And there were just those, there were those stories that came out about the whole you know, they really catered to Kauai. He bought a house in San Diego. Many times they're sitting around. They're all waiting on a plane, you know, for him to get to the plane because he lives two hours away. That was from the athletic that story, I believe, right?

Yeah, and he painted this picture of a frustration from guys that had been there, longer-tenured guys. And I couldn't help but think as I'm reading that, well, they've gotten rid of every one of your asses. They got rid of Lou. They got rid of Trez, and now they're replacing PAPF. That's what they did at that trade deadline. And so, like, they just moved into this new, this is, I mean, it's Kauai and it's Paul George and for better or for worse. But like that, the guys that were the clippers that like kind of established something a few years back, it felt like when you read that read between the lines and maybe you didn't even have to read between the lines, that they were all like rather resists. resentful about the way that like, hey, what about us, right?

Like, why is, you know, we're like, we've been here five, six years. We just made the playoffs or whatever. And now, like, we're sitting around waiting on a plane for two hours so that, you know, the king can arrive or whatever. And I just felt like there was resent from those guys in that locker room. And there was obviously a fracture that took place in that locker room because of that resent. But you want to talk about a Stars League? those dudes, they're all out.

And Pat Bev's going to lose his job. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't go that far with Patrick Beverly. He's still going to have a role on the team. You think he's going to be a starting point guard? Hell no. I mean, starter bench. I mean, I don't know. He's still going to have a role on the team.

Even in last night's game, you could see him from the bench talking with Rondo a lot, showed the camera, showed them. So, you know, I do think that with Patrick Beverly, is still going to have a role in the team. It's just a matter of what. Like, it's sort of, we've talked a lot recently, like, really the whole. season, Chris. We've talked about the theme of having offensive variety

with the lineups that you use. And Ty Lou and the clippers, the amount of depth that they have can play different styles. Sometimes Zubots is going to play 30 minutes. Sometimes Zubots might get a D&P or play only 10 minutes off the bench. They can play different lineups for different situations and different

types of teams. And that could work to their advantage in the playoffs if they can fix the it factor, the intangibles, like what's been missing from them. So we'll see how that works out. but I think Tyloo has a lot of options on his plate. And Patrick Beverly will part of some of those equations for sure. A couple other things we do want to mention.

Andre Drummond got his toe stepped on like immediately as soon as he became a laker by Brooke Lopez. They said it ripped this toenail off. And I was like, oh my God. That sounds maybe a four too. I lost my toenail. I was like 11 years old or something like that. It takes a long time to grow back. Sounds intensely painful.

It is painful. Yeah. And so the news is not. that he's going to be out for a super long time. But it's like, okay. Well, it's all this. I'm going to deal with. And we just didn't get to see it.

Like, how do we know? We don't know how Drummond looks on the Lakers. And obviously, you know, whatever he looks like now, playing with Dennis Schroeder or Kyle Kuzma is a much different role than he'll play when they get LeBron and AD in the mix. Stephen A. Smith went on ESPN. and opined that Brad Stevens Brad Stevens is not for long in Boston, possibly.

He said Stevens doesn't have the pulse of the team. Yeah. Yeah. And so look, people can roll their eyes, write things off just as you know, oh, this is the first take of a shit, and this is just him throwing something out there or whatever. but it any time, any time, a team does not live up to its expectations slash potential. That's when the finger pointing starts, right?

And so you have, is it the players or is it the coach? And we kind of make it like, okay, well, there's only two things here, right? It's either the player's fault or it's. the coach's fault and then people take sides and they decide, is it the player's fault or is it the coach's fault? And it feels like the, I mean, the first real time where somebody mentioned something like, now, let me say off the bat, I think Brad Stevens is an outstanding coach and I think it's stupid that he, I'm saying, I'm not saying that he wouldn't be under fire because that's the nature of the NBA. I'm saying, I think Brad Stevens is an outstanding

basketball coach. That's what I'm saying. that being said look when you underwhelm that's when finger pointing starts and so here we are with brad stevens a guy that just a few years ago people were saying they would rather have him than top five draft picks or whatever crazy talk at the time it is yeah i mean it's definitely crazy talking now how far we've fallen oh boy but uh it was like how many guys would you want over brad stevens that never should have been a conversation in the first place. But I mean, I understand what Stephen A. Smith is saying. I look at it a little bit differently, Chris. The Celtics have no pulse to feel. Like, you can't feel the pulse if there is no pulse. And I have a hard time putting that all in the coach. Brad Stevens deserves some part of the blame, just like he deserves some part of the credit for the success when things are going well. I just have a hard time pointing at the finger primarily at him here. And I go, back to what we've talked about all season long, what Danny Ains said in his weekly radio interviews with Tudder and Rich. This week, Danny Age said,

Brad has zero responsibility for us shooting five for 34 from three last night, most of them being open shots. He doesn't have responsibility when players improvise and are playing with a lack of emotion after they miss shots. The only thing he could do is yank his best players out of the game and go with other players. That's the only option he has.

And then he goes into a bit more about how everybody deserves credit and blame and all that. Obviously, I agree with them completely. Me too. Also, let's be honest. It's his fault. It's what is? His fault.

Danny Hitch. Yes. Okay, yeah. All right. Bro, it's his fault that they got to the trade deadline and could maybe get guys. And they didn't get any, they couldn't get any of them because they didn't have nothing to trade. Because they haven't drafted anything. It's in jailing.

that anybody wants to trade for. And you could try to wedge Time Lord down my throat if you want to. But like, they don't have. Time Lord's pretty good, Chris. But nobody's giving up. Aaron, he can't be the, you can't be like, oh, wow. I'm going to get Aaron Gordon back in a deal. I'm giving you a time lord as as a guy, right?

Like, not only. Look, giving you time Lord. There's some of these things that he has made his bet on now, Kevin. You think Danny H calls Robert Williams time lord and trade negotiations? I don't know. but I know that even if people want to just say, oh, it's the business, whatever, players reacted very poorly to the Isaiah Thomas thing. They hated that. They didn't like when it happened.

That's a long time ago now. But it also is this mercenary type. Danny Ains works like that. And he is like a mercenary type. I will, he tells players, I'm out there looking for somebody to replace you. Like he says that to him all the time. Tony Allen's told me. Like, that's just how he rolls, right?

And it's like a motivational tool. But it's also honesty, right? I'm trying to. And so I'd rather that than be told otherwise personally. I can't, you know, speak for anybody else. But the other thing is, Kevin, these guys have, these guys have moved on, right? Like, and Gordon Hayward moved on and Al Harford moved on. And like, they had guys that moved on.

They hadn't brought in, you know, another free agent. The Kemba thing has not worked. out as well. And look, if you look at Charlotte, like Gordon Hayward and Terry Rozier playing pretty damn good there for those things, right? So they have had players go elsewhere that have had success and they don't have anything anybody wants to trade for outside of their two awesome guys and Marcus, who he doesn't want to give up.

But he are, and as I chronicled a couple weeks ago, people could say whatever they want, It affected them when Marcus was hearing his name all of the time. It's just the way it is. And look, they, I don't know how Brad Stevens is responsible for. When you look up and down that roster, and they're light after you get through about really three guys. And that's including Marcus Smart. And maybe if you want to throw Kemba in there, but Kemba in conjunction with his contract,

I'm not sure, you know, it's not like anybody's lining up to trade for him. You know, so to your point about Danny Age, it's also hard to put it all on age, but like the fact you can't put it on one person as part of the bigger issue here. It's like we haven't gotten to the players yet either,

but with Danny Age, like in an alternate universe somewhere, Chris, somewhere out there in the universe, Kyrie Irving recruits Anthony Davis to the Celtics, which is part of the plan. And they have AD and Kyrie Irving and Jason Tatum and they might be the championship favorite in an alternate universe somewhere.

Kyrie doesn't leave and he recruits AD. That could have happened. Things that not go as planned. They still have two of the best young players in basketball, Brown who's 24, Tatum who's 22. I still look at the Celtics and I'm like, oh yeah, they have a bright future ahead of them. It's just the expectations of this team are,

we're thinking about a team that over-dictive, achieved the last four years. They went to three of the last four Eastern Conference finals. This year's team, they have attempted the 10th most isolations in the league, according to the second spectrum, but they're 27th in efficiency. 10th most ISOs, 27th in efficiency. Tatum is one of the least efficient ISO scorers in basketball this year. Midseason, they asked Jaylon Brown to shoot less from mid-range and shoot more threes to up his efficiency even more. Kemba, we've been through him plenty of times with his inefficiencies this year and his problems. The Celtics, for whatever reason, and this is why people are blaming Brad here, they're just not playing in their motion, read and react, you know, with dribble handoffs and everything else in the same way that they have in the past.

Why is that? I don't know. We've talked about their chemistry issues before. We've talked about the COVID issues, guys being in and out of the lineup, the lack of consistency. see during a year like this, I have a hard time saying about any coach or any team, like time to press reset or drastically shuffle the deck here because this is just such a weird year.

It just is. And I know, I know it's the circumstances are what they are, but every team is affected differently. Every person individually is affected differently. And so with this Celtics team, I don't think that they should, suddenly try to change everything, but there are changes that need to be made that have been

made apparent. And that ultimately comes down to Danny Age more than anybody else. The players need to be better for all the reasons he's talked about, for all the reasons we're talking about. Brad Stevens needs to figure some things out given the circumstances. And Danny Age does need to find more depth and reshuffle the deck here. But I don't think it needs to be any dramatic overreaction when you still have Brown who's 24 and Tatum who's 22. There's still a lot to feel good about with that Celtics team, Chris. Yeah, they did a good job building around those guys or building in conjunction with those guys and those guys were on smaller contracts, but the preparation for when they're, you know,

because you have to be great at the margins when you have guys that you are paying a fortune to. You've got to be able to, you know, whether that's drafting guys, whether that's getting buyout guys, whether that, however that is happening when you're spending a lot on three, guys, then that depth, that's where it's truly the challenge, because you got to have other players that could truly outperform their contracts and they don't have those anymore. And look, when you've given Brad Stevens a good hand, he's been in the Easter Conference finals, for God's sakes, right? When you've given him a bad hand, this league is about players.

And I think, again, if we're just doing the blame game. that's all I'm saying. People go, it's either the players or it's the coach, right? And there are many times where we sit there and we say, you know what, they could be better coached than what they are. Another guy could do a better job with this roster. I have a hard time believing that you're going to, you would replace Brad Stevens with that roster and you're going to, you're going to achieve something much greater than what you are achieving right now. So if the pendulum, I would just say it's much further on the, there's a roster problem than there is, there's a coaching problem.

He's got, like, he's got his credibility. And the other thing is Brad Stevens would be unemployed for two seconds. That's all you need to know. I have a question, Chris. This just came to mind. Yeah. If like in men in black, I could erase your memory from, every basketball season before this one.

And if you started watching the Celtics team, same results, nothing's different. They're still up and down. They're still frustrating at times to watch. But if you forgot and didn't know about the Kyrie situation, the Isaiah trade and all that, everything, the Gordon Hayward injury against Cleveland in his season debut, forgot about the three Eastern Conference finals runs, if you were to look at this roster, how would you feel about it, not factoring in the, past here?

Like, would it make sense what they're doing with this youth? All these young guys on the bench, Grant Williams, Peyton Pershing, Time Lord, would it make more sense, not knowing what happened in the past? Considering Brown is 24 and Tatum is 22, would this make more sense if the past? No? Not to me. No? How come?

I'm curious. Because I would say, those guys are ready to win now in, in, a way that younger players were not. And that's because they have those guys, when I talk about playoff scars, they had the benefit of taking those early. They have played in a lot of playoff games, Kevin, and high level playoff games, right? And so the other thing is, okay, how,

and we'll see how plays out how many of those guys that we're talking about, you know, name it. Obviously, Langford doesn't even play for it. But, you know, the Peyton Britcher, and the go on down the line, Niece Smith and Grant Williams or whoever, right? If I say I'm trying to compete for titles, right? How many of those guys do I think are tight rotation guys in playoff series?

When I'm winning at the highest level, how many do I have? How many guys on my roster do I have that are for sure those guys are in the game with five minutes left in the fourth quarter of a high stakes game. Because, I mean, Time Lord can't be there. He's going to miss the, he's going to miss the free throws. So how many guys do I have that are on that team that I think are in that spot? Some inevitably will develop into it.

Some will not. But they got what? Three? I mean, I think Time Lord could be out there. He shoots 64% from free throw. It's not like he's 40%. But I mean, I disagree there, Chris. And the reason why I ask that is because they have overachieved.

It is abnormal for a team with such young players to go to three out of four Eastern Conference finals. That's unusual. It's more normal that a team is young and has ups and downs. And you're thinking, oh, when Tatum is 25 and Brown is 27, 28, then they'll be ready to compete for a championship. Usually that's the tone of the conversation. with this team, it's so different because of everything that they've done in recent years.

And I left out Kemba. Kemba deserves to be out there. Sure. Yeah. But what they did happen, it's real. It's part of the equation. You can't erase it. But I'm just trying to think about it in that way in the sense that like if you're building this team out,

adding Nicola Vuccivic would not have made them a finals contender this year. It just wouldn't have. It would have helped their chances. It would have made them better. But I don't think that addition alone would have made them the favorites. I don't think it would have made them better than Brooklyn or even Milwaukee and maybe not better than Philadelphia. They still might have been the fourth best team in the east at best. And if championships are really the move here, I'm trying to forget about what led to this point and thinking about, what would I do from here?

And I'm not sure they're going to have those pieces that you're talking about, Chris. I don't know how they do that. It's a lot harder to do when Tatum next season will be making his max. Brown is already making his max. It's going to be difficult. But I look at the deadline possibilities. I still think to myself, that's not the title move. And I'm not sure when that move will come.

I'm not sure if it'll be there. It may never come. And a couple of years we could talk about Tatum and Brown being plucked from another team. That could happen. That's a possibility. But this team does have still a lot of promise with those guys. And I do like some of their young talent, especially Robert Williams. I still like Grant Williams too.

Peyton Pritchard looks like a solid backup. point card. This team is just really, really frustrating to watch right now. I don't want to, look, I am a Kemba Walker fan. I like the guy, right? But the truth is, he is now a player that if I said, hey, I'm shopping Kemba Walker. My phone doesn't ring. It doesn't ring. You're wondering why nobody loves you and why nobody's texting you. Yeah, why is my phone? I mean, he could leak that to Wode. The Celtics are willing to part with Kimball Walker and the phone is just going to stay dormant. That's a problem, right?

Like, if you, you can't have that amount of money. It's one of the things we've learned sunk into a guy that people would not want to trade for the second you said, I, those guys are like, that, that's what happens with buyout guys. They become Lamarges Aldrich and Andre Drummond and these guys that are like, okay, we, we've got all this money, you know, tied up in this guy that we can't really get returned for. And by the way, like, it's like you said earlier about Danny Ayn. She's always trying to find somebody better. Of course they're willing to part with Walker. Like it goes without saying 95% of the league a GM is willing to part with a player. If maybe even 99% of the league,

a GM is willing to part with a player, that's not necessarily news. It would be news if a team had interest in a point card making $35 million while shooting below 40% from the field. that would be news. So if it comes to a point where a team actually has interested in training for Kemba, it'll be a bit of a surprise to me, Chris. Yeah. Let's get to a couple other things. You had a very good video on Patrick Williams,

and we talked about how his, how good he can be in a short amount of time is going to determine the Bulls' destiny over the course of the next four or five years. because can he be a guy that greatly outperforms his age, his years of service in the league, whatever, because there is this gap between kind of how old Vucevic is, how old Levine is, and then you have Williams as this guy that, you know,

you hope, you fancy him as maybe being able to be the third piece there. It's fascinating, you know, in your video, I watched it. The Jalen Brown comp is kind of interesting to me, right, as a guy that because I think Jalen Brown is so much better than people would have thought he was going to be his rookie season, right? Totally different player on the offensive. Totally different player, right?

And so could I foresee a circumstance where Patrick Williams becomes this kind of a guy that could be possibly a dynamic score or on a night give you 35 and it has scored in isolations or whatever else. Like it doesn't look like it now, but that's why I thought it was good for you to bring up Jaila Brown because it didn't look like that for Brown either, right? And so do you have the requisite tools, capabilities? I thought the quotes you put in there, the kid watching games, you know, 10, 20 times, he said, you know, of Kauai Leonard and whatever.

And that's real too. He actually does that. Yeah, I mean, that's obviously somebody. that's very, very serious about their craft. And so it stands to reason that he could, whatever his destiny is, you know, safe bet would be, you want to bet on guys that are like that that are already their rookie year doing film study and care deeply about being a great player in the league. I thought that showed an immense amount of maturity.

And, you know, that's consistent with who he is as a person. Jonathan Charks wrote a great feature on Patrick Williams before the draft that really detailed the character aspect. This is somebody that you can bet on Patrick Williams to be as good as he can be. What level that is, who knows? Maybe it's a superstar player. Maybe it's very good player. Maybe it's one time all-star. I don't know.

But Patrick Williams is a worker and a smart worker who is going to maximize whatever his potential is. and that player could be the perfect compliment to Zach Levine and the perfect compliment to Nikola Vuccivic at the time that they could be ready to actually make some serious noise. I mean, I love his game already. I love the mid-range style. I hope he expands as a three-point range. He's comfortable pulling up with a hand in his face.

That's something you can't say for a lot of people. Being, getting contested does not affect his shot. It's just a matter of the ability to create that shot and improve his handle. You mentioned Jalen Brown. It was the same thing with him. Jalen, you can always kind of see what he was trying to do. It's just he was so clunky with his handle. Patrick Williams is further ahead than Jalen Brown.

I would say as a rookie as a ball handler. It's just he needs to add some more dynamic moves to his game to maximize on his fluidity and size and strength. But Bulls fans have good reason to love, love, love Patrick Williams. And then they can't get to mention his defense too. very versatile on defense, potentially down the line, brings effort every night.

I mean, what more do you want? What more do you want to have a young player right now in terms of, and then thinking about what the player could be? It's a good time to be a Bulls fan. Also really promising that their coach plays him.

Yeah, invests in him. Yeah, that means starts him. And he has started him. I mean, you, it's the best teacher is him getting out there

and getting NBA minutes. And he has gotten NBA minutes. He has gotten NBA minutes. He has gotten NBA. be a crunch time minutes. And he'll get even more, you know, as this, as this year comes down. And he'll do it with a couple better players on the court. I love the clip.

I went out. We were looking for quotes. Me, Dylan and Rodick, we did the videos together. We're looking for some quotes. And I saw the video of him giving his number to Nicola Vouchevich. Yep. Because he was wearing number nine all season long and then switched to 44. Vouch got nine.

And like he said in the video, Vooch texted him, you know, number nine means a lot to me. What would you want for it? and Patrick Williams is like, you can just have it. Like veterans of the team are like, no, you get asked for money. You get asked for money. And Patrick Williams like so, so innocent as a young rookie. He's just like, oh, no, it's just a number to me. When I was drafted, I told him just to give me a number.

I didn't ask for a number. It's such a sweet thing to say. It is sweet, but I mean, I wonder if, I wonder if fanatics on their jersey insurance. I hope that covers that. It'll, I mean, I think short term, if you are a. Bulls fan who owns a number nine, Patrick Williams jersey, probably hurts short term, but long term,

that's a relic. You think so? You were, I think so in the sense that if you, I want the right number. I'd want the 44, too. But if you also have the number nine Patrick Williams jersey, that means you were there. You had his jersey even before the Vouch trade. That's kind of cool, right? Yeah, what we call

those music festival jerseys. Yes. Right? Yeah. Did you wear it like Coachella? Exactly. Or outside lands later this year. I'd love to go in October. All vaccinated, go see Tame and Paula play.

Have you going to go see any concerts this year, Chris? You're going to be calling me a concert again by the end of the year. Oh, look, as soon as they start having concerts again, I'll go. There hasn't been much scheduled in my area, honestly. Not yet. but surely as soon as there are all going to be some concerts, I'll get out there. Last thing, NCAA tournament final fours this weekend, Kev.

And of the draft risers, we kind of talked about this on Tuesday, but there is no question. There's always somebody that, you know, it's kind of projected maybe second round, late first round, and then by the time this whole thing's done, it's like, oh, wow, they've moved up to the lottery or the top half of the first round.

That was, you know, famously DeVincenzo, you know, a few years ago. When you're on an awesome team and you're on a huge stage, people start paying more attention to you. It feels like that guy is Mitchell for Baylor this year, right? Mitchell was not projected as somebody that was like a lottery talent necessarily. And now I think it's pretty safe to say he's put himself firmly in that discussion. and who knows if they're able to knock off Houston. Likewise, maybe Houston, you know, he's a little bit older, but Quentin Grimes, who five-star recruit went to Kansas, it didn't work out.

He's been around a long time, man. Yeah, he's kind of found his footing, though, with Houston. Like, it's always some of these guys, though, that now get to the Final Four. And because the spotlight gets bigger, people start becoming more enamored. But it feels like Mitchell's the guy. year, wouldn't you say, no matter what happens in the game tomorrow. I agree with you for sure. I mean, it's like we talked about recently.

It's hard to be more comparable to Donovan Mitchell. Yes, I know. 45, the height, the style of play, the herky jerkiness. It's pretty weird. It's eerie in a way. I think I saw a tweet. I think, and I might get the guy, I'm pretty sure it was Damien Lillard tweeted Donovan Mitchell last weekend.

It was like, yo, you play for Baylor. too? Yeah, right. Right? It's crazy. Donovan Mitchell said, Donna Mitchell said I have two years of eligibility. Normally, I feel like comparing a guy with the last name Mitchell to another Mitchell or a guy wearing the same number is a lazy comparison, but this is an accurate comparison. Yeah.

Hey, what about the, what about the UCLA guy, Johnny Jazang? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Fed attention to him. He was, you know, he was a Kentucky guy who transferred out there. What a great transfer that is. Godly, because he had, they scored like, with like 50 points the other night. He had 28 of them. I was like, man, put yourself on the map, kid.

He can shoot it sometimes, too. Heck of a night. You know what I mean? And look, Cal Perry doesn't recruit bums at Kentucky. He's got a long list of guys that turned up pretty damn good in the NBA. So maybe we need to pay a little more attention to Johnny Jazang. I hadn't seen him on a lot of list either. But he may have put himself there.

just by getting to the final four, you know? It's been a fun, fun March madness. It's been weird without a Duker Kentucky in there. At this point, I'm just kind of, I'm kind of hoping that Gonzaga just runs the table because they,

like they really can get into the discussion as one of the greatest teams, if not the greatest team ever. And I know that sounds crazy, but Kevin, they have not played a game within double digits since December 2nd. That is nuts. I mean, you're going to throw,

you're going to have a clunker at some point. You just are. You're going to not have it. You're like, you know, team doesn't have it for some reason, right? Especially in a season like this. Every single time they've beaten every team they've played by double digits. That is just warpath stuff. I mean, that's crazy.

I mean, they really handled USC. Oh, my God. 19.1 just handled them. Yes. They've handled everybody all year. And it hasn't stopped in the tournament. It's not like people are playing them close now. Like I said, December 2nd, they play West Virginia.

It's a five-point game. That's the only one. And they haven't lost a game in over 400 days because last season got, you know, done. It was like a close game to BYU. Other than that, they hadn't lost. Like what that guy, what that team is. I don't think it's probably got enough credit. The problem is they play it like freaking 11 o'clock at night.

How soon until we see some of them? headlines could Gonzaga beat the Houston Rockets? Oh, God. Not anymore. The Rockets got all these like veterans. Kelly O'Linnick and Andrew Bradley. Not anymore. Yeah.

Especially with Christian Woods in the lineup. Yeah. Kevin Porter dropping 20 points. That's right. I guess Cleveland's been the worst team. Even Kevin, Kevin Love plays basketball I saw last night. I had no idea.

Oh, yeah. That's right. Him and Delavidova were in the mix last night. I was like, what is going on? Do you hear the announcer for the other team said, with Delvedova shoots, it looks like it hurts? I was like, damn, man. That's, that's hurtful.

With Deladova, isn't it crazy? Like, he's just been kind of out of sight out of mind ever since LeBron was in Cleveland. He's a gritty role player. Yeah. Had some moments. That's right. Just kind of funny how quickly things can change.

How quickly things, though. Solid player. Now he just pokes a Alex Caruso voodoo doll. Oh, God. New Delhi, as they say. All right, that's going to do it for today's show. Thank you to producer, Sasha, as always. And we will talk to you next week.

Have a fun, safe weekend, everybody.