The Mismatch - Young Players Emerging, Zion’s Future, and a Bad Rookie Class, Plus, Where do the Warriors Go From Here?

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Vernon and Jacoby break down what happened in the Knicks' and Grizzlies' losses Monday night, while also highlighting the excellent play from Cade Cunningham and Jalen Green this season (00:58). Then, they analyze Draymond Green’s comments about the Warriors not mortgaging their future to win now and why the Lakers’ loss to the Spurs really doesn’t mean anything (15:11). Next, the guys share a few things worth mentioning from the NBA since the start of 2025 (29:59). They discuss everything from Zion’s suspension to the Thompson twins, the Sixers’ critical stretch, and so much more. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Look, it's not that confusing. I'm Rob Harvilla, host of the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, except we did 120 songs. And now we're back with the 2000s. I refuse to say aughts. 2000 to 2009. The Strokes, Rihanna, Jalo, Kanye, sure. And now the show is called 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, colon the 2000s. Wow.

That's too long a title for me to say anything else right now. Just trust me. That's 60 songs that explain the 90s, in the 2000s, preferably on Spotify. Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Varnan, and joining me as he does every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. What's up, Verno? Dark, dark evening on the text thread. The mismatch group chat was sad last night. It was a tough one. Not only did the Grizzlies lose to the Houston Rockets, the New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons. And in the interest

of full disclosure, as the year game was coming down to the end, because the Knicks game ended First, I had it on the screen and I said, this is the moment where the Pistons don't score the rest of the way. Every once in a while they do, obviously, given their extremely much better record this season. But every once in a while they do come up with the plays down the stretch. But more often than not, when they're playing against these best teams, the best teams are going to find buckets down the stretch. The Pistons are going to miss some down the stretch. And you're going to come away with a win in what is an accrued. incredibly exciting game.

But instead, down the stretch of that game, the Knicks made some errors, had some calls go against them, you had towns with the illegal screen, and obviously did not get a bucket every time down, down the stretch. Meanwhile, the Pistons, who were led by Cade Cunningham, get two monster Malik Beasley threes in order to get another huge win. You know, they hadn't won there in like 50 years. and now they've won twice in the garden this year. They've won twice against the Knicks,

the Knicks one, I think the previous 15 matchups between the two teams. And I think the biggest difference in this is, yeah, Beasley hit those two open shots, but they hit those two open shots because Cade was on such a heater, they had to get the ball out of his hands. Like they were doubling him on the touch in the fourth quarter, which is something that you can't say for him. And for those of you haven't been paying close attention to the pissons,

they've been really hot lately. Kate in particular has been a triple double a night, And he has lived up to the sort of number one pick in the trap billing. Because if you follow the Pistons, year one for Cade was okay. Year two was sort of like injuries all over the place, the Monty Williams stuff. But he's really come into his own recently. And it seems like he's got an all-star selection in the bag right now.

And the Pistons are hot. And what they did last night to the Knicks was score every time in the clutch offensively. and defensively sort of just discombobulating. And one of the things about the business I love this year is in the off season, they got serious. They said, all right, Monty Williams, thanks. We'll pay you the rest of your contract, but go away.

They bring in Bicker staff. No of that, they bring in Tim Hardaway Jr. They bring in Tobias Harris, and they bring in Malik Beasley. Veterans that have been in the league a decade apiece can get you buckets and will just cause a balance to the roster where now they've got people in the locker room, people in the room that have been there and done that. And it's proving itself on this little streak that they've been on. It's super interesting because in those two games that we led with,

the Knicks game against the Pistons and then the Grizzies loss against the Rockets, which was an outstanding basketball game. You look back to that 2021 draft and so many times we have already made up our mind on what the ceiling is going to be or what these players are going to be. within the context of the NBA, right? Are these guys, guys that could be one of your best players on a title team? Are these guys worthy of being built around, et cetera, et cetera? And, you know, the third pick in that draft was Evan Mobley,

and people have a much different perspective on Evan Mobley this year than they ever had before. I think that's fair to say. The first pick is Cade Cunningham. And people have a much different perspective about Cade Cunningham. and what he brings to the table and where he is going to be within the context of the NBA than they ever had before. And the number two pick wedged in between them in that draft was the guy that I watched be the best player on the floor in a super high-level game between two of the best teams in the Western Conference thus far. when I tell Jalen Green was unbelievable

in this game. Like unbelievable. And I know people can talk about, you know, look at his efficiency and oh, he had one good game and whatever else. If you are watching that game and you watch the level of athleticism

and skill that this guy has and you still kind of project it forward, like, his ability to score the basketball teamed with his absolutely freakish athleticism is still something that I feel like we're still not even close to fully formed on him. And I think that is the lesson as we watch Cunningham and we watch Mowbly and then I watch Green. you know, I think people have made up their mind in many cases on Jalen Green and what Jalen Green is going to look like. But I will tell you, if you just settled in and watched that game last night, there's no way you couldn't change your perception of what this kid would be capable of

if we're talking three or four years down the road. And we were both pretty high on the rockets coming into the season. But a lot, and I'm going to be honest, sometimes you have to admit that you're wrong even when you're right. and I expected the Rockets to be better than they were last season. I expected them to have sort of make a little leap. But I also expected Jalen Green to sort of fuel that. But Jalen Green is one of those players where he's going to give you 40 or he's going to give you an extremely inefficient 15.

You know what I mean? And it's sort of like a roll the dice or flip with the coin every single night. And when it's nights like last night, you say to yourself, why would they trade for Jimmy Butler? They don't need a score. They've got the guy to give the ball to in the clutch. They've got their guy. The problem with Jalen Green is he's just not always as consistent and efficient as he was last thing.

You give him space and you're trying to guard him with one guy. Oh, you can't. But that finish he had over Brandon Clark at the end of the game. Brandon Clark just put his hands up and did the verticality thing. It just Jalen Green sort of laughed at him and just... He also tried to kill Zach Eadie. That wasn't fair. I think sometimes missed dunk or dunk attempts are more athletic than successful dugs.

I mean, he is He is fast twitch to the bone, though. I mean, he got up so fast and violent, man. The audacity. Just the idea that you consider that to be a possibility with the gravity and sort of physics that we deal with on this planet, the idea that that is a possibility, that that runs through your head.

He's like, oh, I'm going to get Zach Eady on this. It's just wild. It's wild to me. This guy, I don't know. To me, he can still be one of the best few scorers in the entire league. I really believe that. I really believe that. I think the efficiency can come.

And I also think that, you know, if he had a little more space and some better shooting around him, he's just an impossible guard sometimes when he really. Now, again, it's the inconsistency thing. But he's still young. He's still a young player. And I think that as we are watching, I mean, we just started this show. and we're talking about watching two guys from the 2021 draft who our opinion of them has is still evolving.

It's still evolving. And their games evolving. Their games evolving too. Sometimes we forget just how young they are. I think Cade's 23 years old. And I think that we have to mention Shangoon because they've figured out something with him. If you can master the short role, and I think Dremont sort of like created this role at the peak of the Warriors dynasty, to call it that. is Sangoon got the ball in the last couple minutes.

He got on the short roll right around the nail. He turned and looked for passes. And they were kind of covered. He didn't really have anything to do. And then he just sort of put his back to his defender and went to his left hand and did like a post move. And it was just like, Embed had a run where he had this too from the foul line.

If you can master that short role and be a true pass, shoot, or drive or post player, that can really understand. unlock an offense. I think that Shengoon's going to be he'll get his first all-star this year, I imagine, and he deserves it. And down the clutch, it was him and green taking over that game and beating your Grizzles. And the

trick's going to be when Shengoon, when you get to the playoffs and they start laying off of a couple of different guys on the Rockets and they start targeting Shengoon on the defensive end just over and over and over and over and over

and over again, right? one of the things that is true of last night that has been true recently. So, you know, so many times you can look at all the minutia, but when you have two really good teams and it comes down the stretch, so many times it is decided by your best players. And as we mentioned, Jay Lee Green made the plays last night. John Morant, he didn't make them in the Houston game late last week. That was the Thursday game. He was 0 for 3 down the stretch. And last night had a couple of key turnovers in monster possessions.

And then you flip it. And then over the weekend, he made the place against Minnesota, right? He was crazy. He's crazy. And so it's like, look, you can go through all the other stuff that goes into these games. You know, your best players. And Morant delivered over the weekend against Minnesota. and then these last two games against Houston couldn't make the plays down the stretch

and so many times that's what it comes down to. Beyond that, boy, you better bring some athletes to the party if you're going to play against Houston because good grief. I mean, that one of the things that frustrated me about John Morant was they get the ball with about 37, 38 seconds left in their town. And everybody watching the game at home, the announcers and everybody on the floor thinking the same thing, two for one. Two for one, right?

And I think that Jaws thinking this as well. The Rockets are thinking this too, and he drives to the right and gets to the baseline. And he was so determined to get a shot up quickly or to sort of like force the possession that he ends up turning the ball over, throwing it to nobody. And there's a part of me that says,

I know that it makes sense to get a two for one, but I'd rather you explore a two for one if it's not there, then just play your normal set. Because it clearly wasn't there. He clearly forced it. They end up turning the ball over. Then they're down more. I think they're down three.

Then he gets fouled and jog goes the line and misses the first one. I don't even think he intentionally missed the second one. He just missed it. And one thing that makes me happy in, I don't know why this makes me so happy, but I fucking love it when the fans at the arena get free food because someone missed two free things. Oh, yeah. It makes me so happy. They got free hamburgers in Houston last night.

And I felt bad because you're my guy, Chris, and I wanted the Grizzlies to win. But I was so happy that all those people got free hamburgers. They were so punch. It makes me so happy when people get free food. I don't know why. I don't know what. It was a fun basketball game to watch. It had a great flow to it.

And the Rockets have absolutely had Memphis's number this year. And it's like, you know, those, they've got, they've got guys that aren't playing for the Atari Easton is out. Obviously, they've gotten nothing particularly out of Reed Shepherd thus far. they've got some guys that are out as well. Jabari Smith, who is another big athlete for them. And we will see if things could be different if Memphis has Marcus Smart and Vince Williams and G.G. Jackson. Like, their young, fast, athletic guys are the ones that are not smart.

You know, not. I'm supposed to do. No. But Williams and Jackson are, like, that's their young spry athletes on their team. And man, you better have some athletes to deal with that team because that Rockets team, they are just flying around. And the crazy thing about Memphis, you know, they have this, what is a pretty outstanding record, given their levels of injuries that they've sustained this year. That being said, they are at the very bottom of the league in giving up points off turnovers. And it is absolutely shocking that their offense has been in the top five or top 10 throughout this year.

with that being the case, right? It is one of those things that their offense is obviously outstanding when they don't turn it over, but they turn it over in an extreme amount and give up an inordinate amount of points the other way. And that is something obviously they are going to have to clean up if they're going to be able to compete against the best teams. There's just no way to do it because it shows up. Every time they play one of the best teams, that best team turns them over like crazy. So we're going to move on, but I just want to say in my notes, you kind of brought this up earlier, but in my notes,

this is what I had about the Rockets. Will they be exposed in the playoffs or are they built perfectly for the playoffs? And we'll address that later. That's sort of how I feel. I'm like, I can see this team getting swept. I can see this team going on a run. Like, I can't decide if they're perfect for the playoffs or not. This is the lump season.

We always talk about this. You stink, then you're average. Then you have the really good season. that you make the playoffs but you get bounced early. Yeah. I mean, the self is a perfect example of sort of how it goes. It's like you make the playoffs,

then you make a run, then you go to the conference finals, then you go to the conference finals again, and then you go to the NBA finals, and then you go to the NBA finals and win. It's just the steps you have to take unless you sort of skip the line, which some teams have done the best.

Let's talk about one of the high profile teams, which is the Golden State Warriors. They hit a season low losing to the Raptors, and the question is, where do the warriors go from here? And it seems as if they have a collective opinion on where they go from here, Jacoby. So remember, this quote from Draymond is not after last night's loss.

This is actually after Thursdays win against the pistons. Draymond said the following quote. The beautiful part about being in this space, that we're in is Steve Kerr, Steph Curry, and myself all disagree with mortgaging off the future of this organization saying that we're going for it right now.

Bad teams do that. Bad organizations do that. We're not neither one. Now this is interesting to me because it sounds like to me if you translate that we're not very good right now, we're not going to win the championship.

We're not going to contend. We might not even make the play in. but we're not going to go all in to change that because we have Draymond Green, Steve Kerr and Steph Curry. And my question for you is that's great eight years ago. But all of those people have been there for quite some time, a decade, I would say. And if you just play this season out,

what do you do next? I mean, the first thing that pops in my mind is that is the quote of made men. Steve Kerr, Steph Curry, Traymond Green. They're made men. They are made men both with accomplishment and financially. Well, yeah, you could never touch a basketball again in all three of those guys who want to spring. Correct. I also wonder if the same would be true.

if there were options available. You know what I'm saying? It is an easy thing to say about the we're not going to mortgage the future in order to, right? Like what, as you say, what is the future? What is the future? A team built around Jonathan Kaminga, right? And Kamingas hurt. And we said that that could impact what happens in the trade market, right?

I mean, if you're not available, teams aren't. on a nightly basis going, oh my God, Cominga had 32, or maybe we could turn him into, maybe he could be one of our best players on our team or whatever else. So I don't know how many truly valuable, tradable assets

they have on that team. And so I wonder if part of it comes from, A, being made men, be the reality of the situation. What is mortgaging the future? What is

mortgaging? the future. Jimmy Bullitt trader or Zach Levine trade, but let's not forget it. They went for Paul George this office. Okay, but I'm saying, and they were interested in Zach Levine this offseason.

But Jacoby. What are you giving up? Oh, I mean, Wiggins, Kaminga pieces. What future does that mortgage? The future. What? The future of what?

A future of a team with Jonathan Kamiga and Andrew Wiggins, who gives a crap? I mean, you make a decent point. Like, what future? Am I giving, like what on there am I holding on to that I say, I need this to go into the next iteration? Well, sometimes I can't hear you because your actions are so loud.

If Jonathan Caminga was the future of the Warriors franchise, they would have signed them to an extension of softs. They made that decision already. Like, your actions speak louder. If you're like, oh, we don't want to franchise the future because we want to keep Caminga and develop him, If you wanted to develop Kaminga, you would have signed him this offseason. It's that simple. I'm just confused at what future? A future with Pazinski?

A future with Trace Jackson Davis? A future with Moses Moody? What future? If they trade Wiggins and Kaminga for Zach Levine or Jimmy Butler, are they contenders in the West? No. No. They're not. They're a lot closer than they are now.

It's closer than now, but they're still first round exit. That is a first round exit, waiting in a half. Okay. If you say so. They're at a weird spot. It is odd. It's like you guys been to the mountaintop time and time again. You were always a contention.

You sort of changed up the roster. You lost KD. Won another championship. I mean, I just don't buy, to me. They're not there. I don't know. I just think it's. They lost the Raptors.

I got it, but it's just goofy. Like, that is the conversation you have about Houston. You go, we're not getting rid of Tari Isson and Jalen, and Green and, you know, I'm at Thompson and who, like, to me, I look at that and go, oh my God, you can't mortgage a future to try to win that. You can't do that to try to get a Jimmy Butler or whatever, like a win now. You don't make a win now move if you've got stuff that's truly worth building with and around.

There's nothing to build with and around. Like they're outside of Curry or Draylon being moved. there's nothing on that roster that I sit there and go oh my God they just mortgage the future but you know what I'm glad that we're having this conversation because I started this conversation being like

you know what Draymond sounds mature he sounds experienced he sounds like a veteran he knows that this is a this is a marathon and not a sprint this is a long con not a short con let's not trade in all of our chips and make one big move to bring in Jimmy Butler

but the more we talk about it Bro. Let me tell you what good teams do. Comiga and Wiggins are not the future of the franchise. Bro. Let me tell you. This is where me and Dreemot are going to part ways. Let me tell you what good teams do.

And I know they're light years still. I think they're light years still. They're light years at everybody. What good teams do is turn a bunch of average guys into an awesome guy. That's what they do. What they don't do is mortgage the future by giving away young. extremely promising players that very well may be the core

of greatness going forward. That's what they don't do. My issue would be, you don't have any great young players that are going to be the core of anything awesome going forward. No, no. So mortgage what?

And also, it's worth mentioning this. I thought Dennis Schroeder would be more impactful. I really did. I thought he would be more impactful. Me too. I can't remember a good game he's had for the world. years. The Lakers lost to the spurs, got dominated in the second half. Sure did. You know, I think that the Lakers right now, it is totally fair to give them a pass on anything that is

taking place over the course of the, you know, the last few and the next few weeks. Because you and I both have friends in the Los Angeles area. We both have coworkers in Los Angeles area. And it is hard to describe, you know, how traumatic that has been. for so many people, not only the ones that were obviously directly affected in the severe trauma that goes along with that, but also all of them have friends, family, people that they care about that are going through it. And the destruction has just been so extreme. And you saw that heartfelt press conference that J.J. Reddick gave over the weekend. That was super, you know, forget basketball, forget, you know, J.J. Reddick and the, and the Lakers and everything else. As a father watching that and him talking about, like, bro, it even gets me emotionally even thinking about it

because you have small kids too. And it was one of those moments where you think, you relate to it so much from a parent because anybody that is watching that unfold, there's that moment where you go, if I had the opportunity to grab whatever I could out of the house, what would I grab? And one of the things that JJ talked about when he was talking about, there's a lot of material things that can be replaced, but he's talking about like a painting that his son had made. And he was like, and we've got it frame.

And we've got it up at the house. And he made it while we were in Brooklyn. And he's like, and he made it at school. And he's like, you can't replace stuff like that. You know what I mean? And I was like, damn, bro. Chris, I want to say this. That's really insightful as a parent,

someone who loves their children. You feel that way. But I have to push back on something. Kids make so many paintings. You know how many paintings these kids come home with? Every day they come home with a painting. What do they want you to do with it? We've got to frame every painting a six-year-old makes,

but they wouldn't have been room in my house. Every day my kids come home with paintings. Those are meaningless, worthless pieces of course. They're not. No, no, they're not. They spend five minutes on the thing. It's just a bunch of colors and lines. And then they're like, oh, hey, look, dad, look what I did.

Do you what I do? The second they leave the room, crumpled up, put the garbage. Crumpled up and put in the garbage. Kids, paintings, they're just, they, it's like, they spend so little time on these things. You're the worst. So little time on these things. Honestly, there's like, I saw this commercial, like, you can digitize all of your kids drawings, and then we can make a quilt of them later in life.

I'm like, I don't want to. digitize them. I don't even want to look at them. These kids are shitty artists and I don't want to keep anything. I throw it away immediately. The second they leave the room, purple-ed-up in the trash, let's move on. JJ Reddick's kid is awesome and drawing. No, no kid is awesome in drawing.

No chance. They draw the stick figures of the family with a big arrow. Dad, mom, brother, sister, I don't care. Trash. But continue. The point originally was that what happens with the Lakers, happens with

I cannot imagine what they are going through as a franchise. Let's just take it from a basketball perspective. They had games postponed, which is a weird, like, rhythm break in your season. You know what I mean? So it's like just from purely basketball. Like forget fires and devastation and how emotional the toll can be. And like that part alone, it's going to set you back a little bit. And also just, yeah, maybe your house didn't burn down.

You know what I mean? And maybe your family's safe. Maybe life didn't change immediately for you that much. But even then, when your city is on fire, when the people that you know and love are are out of their homes. They might lose every single thing that they own. It's just impossible to sort of, you know, get back on defense and run the plays.

You know, so they took a loss, but the Lakers and the Warriors are kind of in the same boat. Aging superstars, no chance of contending this year, maybe win a series in the playoffs if they get luck. That's all. If you're in need of a midweek boost, Fanduel, America's number one sports book has you covered with the NBA Hump Day Parlay Profit Boost.

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Call 100 gambler or visit R.G. help. I love, I know what, I love our segment this week. I love, I love what we have coming this week. Because Chris, Chris, and I sent a little text back and forth last night. And we usually do like what happened last night, news, hit you caught up.

And then Chris Wright's like, let's do worth mentioning. And I was like, well, that's a shitty idea. And then I was like, let me keep reading. Worth mentioning. I was like, that's just, I mean, it's almost like, hey, this is going to be okay. you know, it's like a restaurant. It's like our food is okay.

Come on in. This is such a misrepresentation. This is a colossal misrepresentation. No, I started this with a compliment. I'm going to go full circle. I was like, worth mentioning is ridiculous. It's not how I presented it. It's like our food is okay.

Cafe Jacoby. Our food is fine. That's not how I presented this. But no, but then you were like, let's, we always talk about the same teams. Let's talk about some teams that we don't always talk about. Some players we don't always talk about. Some things we don't always talk about. Some things we don't.

always talk about. Some things that are worth mentioning that aren't going to lead every other podcast. Then when you go to ESPN.com or NBA. It's not going to be the lead story. Some things that are happening in the National Basketball Association and around it that are worth mentioning that might not be on your radar. That is a great segment. I'm excited for it. Terrible name.

Go ahead and start. Okay. I'm going to go first. Early this season, Chris Vernon, David Dowling-Chicobie doing the mismatch. Zion has a hamstring issue. Chris Vernon loudly exclaims into the microphone. I'm out.

I'm out on Zion. Out. Can't take it anymore. And I said to myself, sort of like earlier today in this podcast, you swung me like the Draymond thing. I was like, yeah,

Draymond, you're being smart. And I was like, you know what, Dr. you're being an idiot. Because you changed my opinion about that.

And you changed my opinion about Zion. I was like, this guy's never been healthy. Got hurt in high school, got hurt in college, got hurt in Summerlee, got hurt rookie year,

got hurt sophomore year. Like I was like, I'm out too. I'm out. Only 24. And then he gets a steel and a windmill dump. Chris Vernon, back in on Zaya. Back in.

I'm not back in. I couldn't follow you down that road. But you proudly, you proudly looked right in the mirror and said I was wrong about Zion. I'm back in. I didn't say I was wrong about Zion. What I said was he always does this to me. Okay. And literally the next day, an announcement from the Pelicans,

Zion Williamson suspended for one game because he was late to team activities. He releases a statement and I quote. No, no, hold up. Perpetually late. That was not one time. We're going to get to that.

We're going to get to that. I'm going to do the statement first. He says, quote, I take full responsibility for the suspension. I've worked extremely hard in rehab to get healthy to deliver for this team. There is no excuse for being late to team activities. I've apologized to Ms. Benson,

that's the owner and my teammates and coaches. and I also owe an apology to the fans. I can and will be better as a teammate and member of this organization. Okay, someone wrote that for him. Great. Here's my question for you, Chris Werner, who knows how NBA teams work behind the scene. How egregious does this tardiness have to be for us to find out about it?

Because you and I both know that the Pelicans don't want to do this. Right. They don't want to put out this pressure release. They don't want to suspend him. They don't want to deal with the players association. They don't want to have to make a case of why they're not paying this man for this game. Like, they don't want to do this. This is a last resort.

How much had to happen behind the scenes for this to get across of our newsfeed? I think it is, hey, you're coming back into the lineup. Now you are a part of this team. And this is still going on. Like, it's one thing if you're just dragging your suitcase behind you and you're never playing. I mean, actually half the time you weren't even travel. anyway. If you're not shooting a shoot around, you don't have to be on time for shoot around. Yeah. I mean, look, it is trying to keep some level of professionalism within the organization.

That's it. Right. Yeah, I know. Because otherwise, the whole thing falls apart. I was actually, and look, I'll give you a good example. I was actually a part of a covering a team like this, where this is post core 4 in Memphis there was an iteration of the team that for a very short amount of time had like Tyreek Evans and Ben McClermore

and it was like a transition year this is the year before they're able to get you know John Morant Sharon Jackson Jr. etc. on the team right and there was time where like Tyreek Evans

just he just didn't go to a game he's just like I'm not going to I'm not I'm not I'm not going to that trip oh right and it's a decision you know I think like the team sucked and they didn't care about winning anyway and so they were like whatever it's like you know and then just be away from the team and he just he just didn't go on the trip right there's no reason given he just didn't go on the trip right well then what happened is you had a rookie on the team named dante davis and about three weeks later or I'm sorry a week later, Deonté Davis was like, hey, I'm not going to go on the trip. Wait, what? Like, this isn't, like, no. Like, it's not the standard. Right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so what happens is it permeates. What happens is if you allow Zion to not give a crap and be late or not travel or whatever, then what happens is it ends up like, then you're going to, you're going to grow into a situation where Jordan Hawkins, not, I'm not, I'm using it. example, not that this kid would ever do that. But Jordan Hawkins, then he thinks that that is permissible in order to do that. And so I don't know, look, obviously it's the first couple times you're like, hey, man, get here on time, get here on time. But if it becomes a problem and it becomes a standard in which the guy is operating, the thing you have to worry about at that point is that it does end up having an effect on the younger players on your team.

they think they can get away with that. And the next thing you know, you have no culture. You have no culture of accountability. I think those are really good points. And I also think that if you look at Zion, he's not not a tradable asset. There's not not a market for him. And for them to put this out just shows me that this was a real problem behind the scenes. And I'll just mention this briefly, but we heard the same thing earlier this year about Joel Embed.

and Joel Embed and Zion Williamson have both been rumored to not be the most discipline off the court players, to not be in the best shape, to not take care of themselves professionally and seriously. And if you're a Zion, man, this is make or break for your career, man. Just show up on time. It's really not, though. It's really not. Look, I'm going to settle on this. I guess what I'll say is I am done on Zion as a pelican.

We will see whenever he is not wearing a Pelican's uniform and he moves to a different franchise, if he can get his act together, and then I will have a level of belief that comes along that maybe that can happen. And maybe that's just I want to believe that can happen. But it's interesting that you bring up Zion and Embed. Embed, obviously, the much more accomplished player and has done much more for Philadelphia than Zion has for New Orleans. but I do think there are some similarities in terms of the accountability thing and guys being able to do whatever they want. And I think some of that comes along with, like, you haven't been available when it matters most, you haven't done the most to keep your, you know, be in peak condition and be able to withstand not only the season, but also the playoffs.

and also we rewarded you. Like when it comes time for every max contract that you can possibly get, we are giving you said max contract. And so it's like if I act one way, but I get all of the rewards of if I did everything the right way, what then makes me feel like I have to do it the right way. I have to be available.

I have to be accountable. I have to be at a certain weight. I have to do all of these things. And so I think it will take a change of scenery and then we will see. And I'm not taking any personal accountability away from these guys. I'm just saying we live in this day at age where the player is the one with the power and teams are also very worried and cautious of wanting their guy to stay there. And so sometimes with that you get a little slow.

in terms of the accountability. There's got to be some kind of, there's a fine line between, you know, total player empowerment and worried that the player is going to want to leave you and then the Miami heat, right? There's something in the middle there, right? Whereas you want to take care of your stars. You want your stars to want to be at said organization,

but also you want your stars to conduct themselves like stars. Yes. And I'll close by saying this is I consider this worth watching because the fact that it got to this level means there's more going on behind the scenes than we know. And you talk about the trust and the relationship between the organization and the star player.

And it's just worth watching this may develop. Fair enough. First thing I want to mention two teams that I think we would be shocked that we would come on an episode on Tuesday, January 14th, and say, Jacoby, be the two hottest teams in the NBA since the turn of the calendar. They've been the Indiana Pacers and the Sacramento Kings.

The Indiana Pacers have run through everybody, and all six wins have been by 12 or more points. Since the turn of the calendar, they've been to the top three in offense. They've been in the top three in defense. The starting lineup is outscoring people by a crazy margin. This was all kept off by a huge 15-point win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. where they really locked in defensively and broke the Cavaliers win streak. Nemhart, Seacum, Halliburton, Madder & Miles Turner.

It's also worth mentioning that Halliburton went out, half-time of that king. Right. And they made a low-key, like, super-valuble move that no one in the free world talked about, which is adding Thomas Bryant, who has been really good for that. Worth mentioning Thomas Brin. mentioning Thomas Bryant. It seems to have sort of like Daniel Gafford from last year where it's like a player who's good who contributes

but has been on bad teams and doesn't really like crack the sort of zeitgeist. Thomas Bryant, they needed to make out of. But obviously can have a profound effect just by filling a knee. Hey, we don't have this big in the lineup. So now we can have this big in the lineup.

But we come off the bench, right? We're not having to play, we're not able to play short-handed size-wise. And Thomas Bryant's been, really, really good for them. And so they are worth mentioning to say the least. They have been absolutely fantastic and there's no

question that they, and they still don't have knee smith back, who's probably their best perimeter defender. You know, as you're playing well. Yeah, I think we kind of looked at the Pacers and you did have some of that, we accomplished something and now we're a little lackadaisical

coming into the season. But they've gotten their ish together and I certainly think, that you've got to view them much more through the, hey, this is going to be a difficult team when it comes playoff time. If they keep playing like this, you know they're well coached and they've really gotten it together. And so they've given you real hope. And it's not just beating up on soft schedule, right? They've been really good. Likewise, in the Western Conference, I mean, bro, did they hate Mike Brown? What is happening? Did they hate him?

I mean, I know Mike Brown is a beloved media member, you know, and they got absolutely shredded, not only for, you know, it wasn't just the way they did it with the phone call. It was that they did it, right? Mike Brown is a respected guy who won coach of the year, who helped them into the whole light the beam thing. and the kings are a disrespected organization that is run by fools. That is the general consensus, right? Yes. But what that consensus did not include is, like,

maybe they just couldn't, maybe they really hated this guy. I don't know. Sometimes it's just change for change's sake is effective. Like maybe Doug Christie's not a genius. Maybe Mike Brown is a great coach that had this franchise turn the corner. but it's working. It's hard to argue with the results.

They have been defensively so much better. They've led the league in defensive rebounding recently. They're forcing more turnovers, et cetera, et cetera. And somebody worth mentioning, because this is the guy that would not, for sure. Kian Ellis, you know, look, he got big minutes when Fox was out, and then the ball kind of ends up with Monk,

and it ends up with DeRosa, it ends up with Subonis, and they kind of did it by committee in terms of the ball handling, because Kian Ellis is not exactly, you know, any kind of world beater. But sometimes you can install these type of players. And you know I have talked about this so many times on the show, which is the guys that can raise the collective level of play. There's nothing that the box score is going to tell you necessarily.

Many times you are going to see that maybe in the plus minus, you will see that energy and effort and that carryover take place. And that is true with Ellis. I mean, they have been unbelievable with him on the court. But he got more minutes with Foxx. And like, you look at the like the last several games, 38 minutes, 34 minutes, 24 minutes, 24 minutes, 49 minutes, 23 minutes, 20 minutes. I mean, the more they get Keon Ellis on the court, the better.

It is much better for them defensively. And I do believe that he is one of those players, much like we have seen with Westbrook and Denver. The more they're on the court, it's not about. what they do individually. It is about raising the collective level of the unit. And Ellis is certainly one of those guys. And I think you can draw a pretty good line between,

hey, there's been a lot more Key on Ellis minutes and activity and a lot better defensive effort across the board from the Sacramento Kings. It's interesting because Mike Brown is known as sort of a defensive strategist, sort of like a Tibado style, kind of like you think defensive first coach, sort of like an NFL coach, if they were previously a defensive coordinator, then you sort of look at him that way. And Mike Brown is one of those coaches, and the defense has gotten so much better since he's been gone. And a lot of that has to do with Keon Ellis's minutes and just change for changes sake. And it's also worth mentioning before we move on that these two teams that have similar

sort of like opinion arcs, like young teams that are now sort of, sort of challenging the established franchises in their conferences to like, oh, they don't have it anymore. Let's write them off early this season to now two of the hottest teams in the league. They've sort of like been parallel in the Eastern and Western Conference to say that. It's also just worth mentioning they had a huge trade a couple of years ago. I know. Like these two teams had a head scratching trade a couple of years ago.

And here they are as two of the hottest teams in the league. A bonus had 28 rebounds in a game over the weekend. That's ridiculous. 28. That's ridiculous. 28. All right. Next one for me. You were going positive about teams since the new year. And I'm going the other way here.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Like the Rockets and the Pistons, another team that we both sort of thought were ready to make a leap, ready to be better than expectations. Heading into the new year, they were on a four. game win streak had a couple big wins in the Emirates NBA Cup. Seemed like they were headed the right direction. Everyone is anointing Dyson Daniels as an all defensive team, potentially defensive

player of the year. We're talking about his steel numbers. We're talking about the Hawks. Guess what? Ever since the new year, first of January, they lost in Denver. The third of January, they lost to the Lakers. The fourth, they lost to the Clippers. The seventh, they beat the Jazz by only three points, and they're the Jazz.

That was the Trey Young half-court shot. Yeah, exactly. A miracle win against the Jazz. Truly, a miracle. They lost to Phoenix. Then they had a rare Atlanta postponed because of Snow game against the Rock because they play Phoenix tonight. The Atlanta Hawks were previously. the bell of the ball, have they officially turned into a pumpkin, Chris Vernon?

No, they have to have Jayla Johnson. Yeah. I mean, you know, him, you could argue his importance. I mean, everybody loses players and maybe his importance has been a bit outsized. But, I mean, defensively, you know that they are not exactly going to be world beaters. There's no way for them to be world beaters. defensively, but not having him, him getting hurt was an absolute killer. They went two and four on what was their longest road trip of the season.

Of course, over the weekend, they had that game postponed. But Jalen Johnson's missed four of the last five games, and he wasn't going to play against Houston. And so, I mean, they have to have him. Like they're not, they're not good enough to be without one of their best players. A lot of these teams. And so you can use that as a demerit against them. Hey, there's a bunch of teams that have had to play games without one of their best players. I think one of the things, their success is very tenuous where it's like, you better have everybody available, especially him who has had, I mean, it's been a breakout season for sure.

Oh, for sure. It's been a breakout season for sure. but they have been horrendous defensively. They have given up 123 points per 100 possessions. That's ridiculous. Since the turn of the calendar. 123 per 100?

Yeah. That's bad. That's really bad. Again, worth watching. I'm not going to say the season's over. They're always a tough out. We've seen them beat the Cavs. We've seen them beat the Knicks.

We've seen them beat the Celtics. It's just worth watching. But if they don't get it together, if they don't get it together, they're playing three teams that offensively could have big nights against them in Phoenix, Chicago, and Boston being their next thing. Oh, yeah. And then they play the Knicks after that, then the Pistons after that. Their next five games are all loseable.

All loseable games. I'm glad you brought that up because not only do they have a bad start to the year, they've got a tough five games coming up now. Next thing worth mentioning, the Thompson twins, who both of us got to watch last night in the respective games that we were focused on, you saw Asar, I saw Amen. Assar made a great play. He tipped a pass, headed for Kat that then deflected off a cat's hand in a huge possession. Drew the foul against Kat on the screen. They are unlike anything going in the NBA.

Like, now, long-time mismatch fans will know. I have had a thing for the Thompson's for a long time. When they were in high school and they were about to be going into, overtime elite, I went to a workout where I watched them, literally right down the street from my house. I met the parents. I met the kids. They were super cool to my son at the time. I was just so blown away by these kids. I thought, like, wow, if it all comes together and then we're we watch this whole workout and they can't shoot, right? Like, I mean, I'm watching the workouts. I'm watching, no, I can't shoot, right? And then they, they,

get done with the workout and ah man there's like a ball the ball like rolls to him underneath the basket like they're just you know they're dripping with sweat workouts over whatever the ball rolls to him under the basket and this is like one of those things you never forget as long as you live Jacoby he's standing under the basket picks up the basketball and off vert jumps up and windmills it. Ooh. And I turned to my... Motion from the ground to the hoop?

Yes. And I turned to my son and I was like, bro, what? What was like 6-7? I want to say like 6-7. Legit 6-7. What is that? And you watch him last night.

He's like a track and field athlete. Like, you can't get more fast twitch than I'm in Thompson. He is everywhere. He is long as hell. and the brother, obviously, Asur, has gone through the injury and has only played 18 days this year. He's been back, though. But, and we will see as these teams grow and then you get to playoff time. Like, if either of them figure out how to make a jump shot,

they will. Oh, my God. Because, look, Amen, obviously, he is, you know, years ago, I used to love these old Shaka smart. VCU teams. I even saw them when I went to the NCAA tournament and I remember for a long time I bought this shirt and it said havoc is what you fear.

Like that's what they called their defense. Havoc. And it was just guys flying around everywhere. You inbound the ball and it's just frigging chaos. And this guy is 100 percent pure havoc.

One man. I swear to God you watch a game. there's nine other guys on the court. He is involved in everything somehow. Like a shot goes up and he's flying around somewhere. Or a ball is like passed across the lane and he flies in the middle of it. Or he's contesting some shot. Or he's in the dunker spot and flying up and catching an alleyup.

And you're like, Jesus, dude, how are you involved in everything? I was watching a game and this guy, there's like, you watch so much NBA basketball. you sort of get used to the rhythm and the unwritten rules and just like you expect things to happen before they happen because you've seen it thousands of times before and I'm watching the game and there's an inbound to the point guard I don't remember who it was and Thompson turned him four times before he got to the half court marker and I'm like it just I've just never seen anything like it outside of like the last two minutes of a game or something or like it's a strategy that we're going to do it was just like why are you working so hard dude like here's the other thing is this is this a well

do here. Stop. And the crazy thing is, this is how they make up for, like, one of them shoots 25% from three and doesn't shoot them. The other one shoots 30% from three, but doesn't shoot them. Doesn't shoot them. Neither of them can hit free throws. And yet, if you watch a game with them in it, you cannot take your eyes off them. And they have this profound impact every time. Every time, they're never, like, there's some guys. A man cut a lob from. A man cut a lob from Sangoon and it was like he was again he was flat footed underneath the basket Shangoon threw it up high and a man just sort of like did a little jump caught it dunked it with two hands no problem like there's a lot of guys that play in the league that

you know you can joke after the game like bro just you look at their box court you're like just straight cardio they might as well have had their AirPods in running up and down the court never them they are always sprinting they are always jumping they are absolutely one-man havoc defensively. And I just, like, in this day and age, we're shooting is everything. And like, and we'll see how,

you know, what comes to pass as the as the year goes on in these teams, hopefully, hopefully we get to see both of them playing playoff basketball and that'll be the test, right? What happens when they just say, hey, man. Game planned against. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to tricky. You just, yeah, we're gonna, we want you to catch every ball. Now, maybe you just, you know, you dunker spot them and all of a sudden you're like last night, it was like Aaron Gordon ask.

Yeah, that's the player that I was thinking of as well. And you got to see him, you got to see him do it last year in the absence of Javari Smith as well, right? They played him a lot at power forward. But I mean, a guy that you can play a power forward on offense, but also guard the point. guard on defense, but also can't, I mean, it's just, they're unlike anything going, honestly. There's something I need to say about both of them quickly, that they, last night's games are a great example. A Sir Thompson is in between Cat and Brunson, and Brunson tries to throw the ball to cat. He gets his hand on it, and they call it Nick's ball. Well, there's a break in the action. They review it, and it actually went off a Thompson, off a cat, out of bounds, Pistons ball.

later, we mentioned earlier, he draws an offensive foul on cat by embellishing a pick that cat set. Both of those led to turnovers by the Knicks, possession for the pistons. Neither of those are going to end up in the box score. And then his brother, twin brother, simultaneously, amend Thompson,

John Morant decides he's going to go for a two for one. He's got the ball on his right hand. He's on the right side. And John Morant, I don't know if he's the fastest guy in the league, but he's close, top 10. And Thompson is there with him step for step and forces a turnover, but it's not a steal. It doesn't end up in the box score.

And those are the things that they do. Where you can look at him and be like, doesn't score that much, doesn't shoot that well. Does he have a future in the NBA? It's because everything that they do that doesn't show up in the box score. No, if they could just figure out how to make, all they have to do is make corner threes. They'll figure it out.

Everything else they bring to the table is just, I mean, they are top. 0.0001% athletes. Well, I put a button opposite to this. They ask him in Tomson after the game about Jalen Green. It's like, God, when he's on a heater like that, there's no one in the league that can cover him unless it's me. Tell him I said that.

I love it. I love it. The next thing for me that's worth watching. Mentioning. Oh, worth mentioning. Sorry. How dare you? I got the bad segment wrong.

I'm sorry. It's a huge, I mean, this is like, what I'm the great segments of all time. It is. It really is. It really is worth mentioning. Worth mentioning. Worth mentioning. Worth mentioning. I'm going to mention this. Leangelo Ball.

No, I'm going to mention. I'm already sick of the song. I'm already over it. Like most viral trends by day four, I'm like, all right, this is, this is over. He's dropping another one, too. He signed a deal. Okay, great. Someone's going to pay him $8 million to make songs.

Okay, great. Can I kind of say nothing really bothers me about the Leangelo thing? It's like, it's a throwback. It's nostalgia. This is like music in 07. In 07, I was like 30. It's like this is a throwback to a different era. It's like, you kidding me?

It's the same era. Moving on. Something happened in Toronto. You'll never believe this, but Steph Curry is a pretty popular basketball player with children. And they were doing a pregame mini game. So this is before the game in Toronto. And the in arena people, talent, whatever. they are, they selected

a child to come down from the stance. And here is what happened, courting to the announcers for the Warriors. Here it is. Pre-game, something happened that just isn't right. What happened? And the Warriors are going to try to make things right. This kid had a curry jersey on, right? Oh, no.

They made him take it off because he was going to do a thing on the court. He put his warrior hat and jersey. You know, this is messed up. They put the Raptor T-shirt on him. Look how sad he is. there are so many mistakes that were made here. Let me just list a few of them. Number one, if you're in charge of picking out kids from the crowd,

don't pick out the kid with the Curry jersey. There's got to be other children there that are willing to come on the floor and play basketball. Number two, if you do do that, let the kid wear the Curry jersey. He's stiff curry. It's fine. The crowd can do it. Yeah, boo. Yeah, he gets, let the crowd boo him.

It's fine. This is, right? This is the cost of you wearing the jersey, kid. Like, I don't know if you remember, and you could find the picture. But, like, three or four years ago, John Morant went and scored and got an A&1, and it carried him into the stands. And on the front row in Memphis, there were three little kids, and they were all wearing curry jerseys.

Right. They tried to give him a pound or something? No, he stared him down. Yeah. He stared him down. It's one of the iconic pictures. And then ended up later that year, they showed up to the game and all traded in their Curry jerseys for Morant jerseys.

Good for him. They were from like Nashville or something. But making this kid changes jerseys. This reminds me of who was it, the Hornets that gave the kid the PS5 and they gave me a t-shirt. This again, it's like, what are we doing? What are we doing? He's a child. Let him play in the Curry jersey or don't pick him out.

Don't make him put on a Raptors jersey if he's not a Raptors fan. Like, what are you doing? Who's in charge here? I'm glad he brought up Curry because he is still one of those massive stars that draws opposing fans into home arenas. Yes. Every time you see the Warriors on the road, you will see a selection of children that are there in Curry jerseys. And one thing that people might have missed that is also worth mentioning is that over the weekend, Steph Curry did something I thought. thought was truly incredible.

So very, you know, there's been an ongoing narrative about guys missing games, stars not playing in games. And it matters a lot when you're playing like the other conference because those are the only times that guy comes to town. And so the Warriors were going to Indiana and they were playing against the Indiana Pacers. And before the game, it was a back to back out of Detroit. And Steph Curry was not going to be playing in San Francisco.

game. And so he had the PR staff for the Golden State Warriors go around and find kids that were wearing Curry jerseys that were there for warmups before the game, pulled them all back into the media room and thanked them and met them one on one and said, you know, sorry he wasn't playing that night, but that it means a lot to him. You know, you came out here and you're wearing his Jersey, whatever. And I just thought that was the absolute most awesome thing ever, right? I can only imagine if I was a kid. And in many cases, what people don't understand, especially at small markets, when, when Curry or LeBron or whoever comes to town, like even last year, I remember when Wembe came to town as a rookie for the first time, people come from 150, 200, 300,

sometimes even more miles away if there's not a bunch of teams in the vicinity. And so you got a lot of people and there's a lot of them, those kids, I think what you would find is a lot of them got those tickets for Christmas. Their Christmas gift was, hey, I'm going to get to go see my guy when he comes to Indiana. And so Curry ended up feeling bad about not playing and rounded up all the kids

in Curry jerseys. and then they got the most unbelievable night of their life. They got to meet their hero, get pictures with him, get his autograph. And I just thought, man, what an unbelievable move by him, truly. He needs to be highlighted for that. Absolutely. I think that's good. And again, I'm going to spin this negative.

Oh, God. Does it bother you at all? Shut up, Jacoby. That Steph Curry is like perfect. It's not perfect. He's not perfect. he's never been in a scandal. He has no edge.

Like the only time he's ever shown a little bit of humanity is when he threw his mouthpiece in the stands during the finals. Do you remember that in Cleveland? Oh, I need night nights, people. But even that is kind of sweet. It's kind of nice. He's putting you to bed.

Like in his home life, Aisha's perfect. He's perfect. He's always bringing the kids in the curry jerseys to the back and taking pictures with him. Look, you don't need to be talking to me. You need to be talking to a third. therapist. I should.

I like, I like people with edge. I like people with little humanity. You have no attack. I can't relate to the perfect player who's perfect off the court. I'm not asking you to relate. Who has nice little, you know,

demure tattoos. Nobody expects you to relate. It's just like, I just can't, I don't know. Nobody expects you to relate to him. He's too perfect. What you should do is try to be like him.

No. Yes. No. Yes, you should. I just want a little scandal. You're like, oh, this guy is, this guy's too perfect. Kids are a stinker making art projects. They do.

Kids are shitty artists. I'll talk to him by that one. You don't need to talk to Chris Vernon. You need to talk to a therapist. The worst, the worst, worst artists. You got angry. You got angry. How many frames do you think?

How many frames do you think I'm going to pay for to put this bad art in? Jesus. All right. Next thing worth mentioning. So, one of the things we have. always acknowledge is that the season is very, very long and, you know, things can change dramatically in sorts of time. Like last year, we saw nobody was thinking of Dallas, particularly as a finals continue. They get to mid-February and they make these trades and then they hit a stride.

And next thing you know, it's like, man, Dallas isn't the team you want to see. And so you always know there's time left. That being said, given the circumstances of where their record is right now and then you look at the schedule they have ahead, we need to pay very close attention

to what happens with these Philadelphia 76ers over the course of the next few weeks, Jacoby. Because they're, you know, even with their losses to the Sons and the Pelicans last week,

John Schumann wrote about the Senate's power rankings. The Sixers have the league's biggest differential between their record versus the top 13 teams at or below 500, which is 11 and 5, and their record versus the 17 teams currently over 500, right? So there's 13 teams in the league that are under or below 500. They have,

yeah, they're 11 to 5 versus the 17 teams in the NBA that are currently 500 or better. They are 4 and 17. Ew. The loss of Orlando on Sunday was the start of a stretch where the Sixers are playing 15 of 16 against the group above 500. They also... 15 of 16?

So of their next 16 games, they have 15 of them against teams that right now have a 500 or better. Correct. And in those 7th,000. In the next 17 days, they play four back-to-backs. So who knows if MB's availability. Well, M.B.'s hurt.

Is it for that. Right. He's hurt anyway. By the way, how about the first of those back-to-backs? Tuesday, Wednesday, Thunder Knicks. Good luck. You know what? I'll take this one step further.

So I'm just saying, I think their season might actually be in the balance. I think it's over. I think it's over. Of course of the next few weeks. I mean, if their record stinks that bad against good teams and 15 of the next 16, like you always have time. That's what we've learned. But, bro, you're going to get so far behind the eight ball if you continue to suck against good teams.

Well, let's look at a team like the Dallas Mavericks, right? They're currently fifth in the West, which is always two games away from being 10th in the West or whatever. But they lose Kyrie and Luca and they say, we need to be scrappy. We need to win some tough games, and they've done it. You know, I saw Queen Grimes hit a game winner, okay? But that's a team trying to stay afloat, saying we're fourth in the West. We're going to go through this time without our star players. Let's see if we can stay afloat, maybe get them back when we're six or seventh and go for a run, right?

That's perfectly logical and doable. I'm saying the sixers are cooked because they're 11th in the East right now. I know. They're 11th. They're outside the point. playing right now. Joel Embed is out. Not because of load management because of his knee. Now he's got a foot problem. This is a different injury that's keeping him out. This isn't, oh, I don't play back to backs. Oh, my knee is swelling. It's none of that. This is a brand new

injury that he has. And you just so elegantly plagiarized Mr. Schumann's research. I read that power rankings every week as well. Shout to him. It's not plagiarizing. Oh, no. You cited it. It's fine. All right. I'm just being a dick. How dare you? I will say this, though. is if they continue that trend of losing to teams over 500, 15 of their next 16 are against teams over 500, no M-beat or M-beat in and out, Paul George in-and-out, not playing like Paul George. This, we could have a show in four weeks,

and they could be 13th in the East. Seriously, they could be 13th in the East. Usually you always have time to get it right, but man, schedule is so brutal. I mean, actually, the Nets and the Hornets are Raptors and wizards are going to be behind them. Correct.

So they're going to stay at 11th, but they're just going to be deeper in the hole. This is the opposite of the bucks. Remember we said the bucks were down? Also, the idea is to be able to get to a position where you don't have to play yourself in or if you do have to play yourself in, that you get to do it at home.

And those things aren't in the cards, possibly. This feels like a little bit like last year. Last year was the opposite. They played really well, and then they lost a beat for a while. Then they fell in the standings. and they made the play in and they end up giving the Knicks a really, really tough series in the first round.

If they can get into the playing, they are one of those first round teams that if you're the Cavs or the Celtics, you're like, man, we spent five months playing our ass off and now we have to face a former MVP and Paul George and Tyrese in the first round. It's your last one. I hate to do it.

I hate to. But I'm going to compliment you here. Uh-oh. And I'm going to start with a gentleman by the name of Sean Marks. He is the Nets general manager, and he's been there through a couple storms. You know, he's brought in a couple of nucluses that he thought were going to go far. A couple coaches. Yeah, a couple coaches.

He's been through it over there. By the way, he had Kenny Ackinson, who has the best team in the NBA. Oh, yeah. KD. didn't like. And here we go. Here's what he said recently about the Nets and their future and their philosophy and their strategy. towards this year. Quote, we're going to have to be systematic with some of the decisions we make.

And they may not always be in line with winning the next game or putting the most talent out there. I mean, that is, we are tanking. He said the strategy that they employ may not be about winning the next game. Okay. Now, why would you do that? Because my co-host, Chris Ferni, the last episode of the, last episode of the, mismatch celebrated a gentleman by the name of

Cooper Flag from Maine. How about the timing of this? And what did he do that even? He scored 42 points on 11 of 14. I'm saying it again, 42 points in a college game on 11 of 14. Jacobi, with three, six,

with three minutes left to go, or less than that, he hit another elbow jumper that was waved off for three seconds in the lane. He should have had 44. And he went four for six from three. So that means he missed one field goal from two. 16 of 17 from the line. Seven assists, six rebounds.

So I'll say this. Sean Marks, thank you for admitting that you're tanking. Chris Vernon, great call on Cooper Flag. He looks like the absolute real deal. And if I was a franchise, like the wizards, like the rafters, like the pelicans,

like the nets, I'd be tanked too. Look, I'm not one of those. Look, there's nothing unique about me thinking Cooper Flagg is awesome or it's going to be awesome. Point was on Friday,

I said he is living up to the height. And then she exceeded all hype on Saturday morning. So shout out. to you, Cooper Flagg. He, and I know you're not a big college basketball fan, but probably the most impactful best player so far this season has been this kid at Auburn, Janai Broom. Broom went down with a pretty nasty ankle injury over the weekend. And the reason I'm mentioning this is because Cooper Flagg was like plus 300 something to win national player of the year. He is now like minus 250 to win national player of the year because you had that huge ACC

freshman record set and you had Broom go out. I think that probably played a role in it as well. But I mean, we've only had a handful of rookies or freshmen, rather, win the national player of the year. Durant did it. AD did it. Zion did it. So, I mean, these have all been like transcendent draft picks.

Obviously, AD and Durant lived up to it more so than. than Zion has, but he's on track. He's on track to be a national player of the year as a freshman. Look, Cooper Flagg, obviously, and whether it's Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper, many of the kids that are in college right now, it expects to be an extremely good draft class next year. My last thing worth mentioning, and I'll be negative for you. Oh, good. I want you to do me a favor just later today. go look at the Kia rookie ladder that Steve Ashburner puts together every week for NBA.com.

And earlier in the year, I remember you did a bit about how, hey, you know, this one, Dalton Connect went off. And then we had, you know, the kid. He had a 40. Kid in Phoenix. It was like, hey, maybe it's not something like this rookie. I mean, bro, you look at this rookie ladder. And I think there's a reasonable, I think it's reasonable that there are, don't forget, McCain was going off at the time, too.

Like, they had a moment. I think there's multiple guys at this rookie ladder that will not be in the NBA in five years. Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. This class stinks. I mean, it stinks. It is exactly what they said it was. And maybe there are stars amongst them.

There's not. Maybe Reed. Maybe Reade Shepard. Maybe McCain. McCain was impressive. Yeah. Maybe Shepard and McCain. and maybe there's a couple others.

But in terms of when you look up and down it, and again, I should have learned by what we just talked about with Cade Cunningham and Jalen Green, et cetera, that like, hey, you just need to give this some time. But,

boy, it is hard to find the star. Well, both Cade and Green had flashes in their rookie year where they looked amazing. Like, I haven't seen,

I've seen like A game from Risa Shea. I might have been against the Knicks, he had like 40 or whatever. But I know what's talking about. The ultimate role player draft. Is anyone talking about Sarr? Is anyone talking to you about Sarr? Anyone you ever go to a bar?

He's number one on this rookie ladder. And I was like, no, I know you for the mismatch. Alex Sarr really blowing your socks off. Isn't he? No. He's number one on this rookie ladder. Which is disgusting because-

Just take me through the top five. I'm getting upset. Alex Sarr, Missy from the Pelicans. Who I do like is a role. player. Sure. This is the backup, the future backup draft is what this is. Jalen Wells,

Zach Edie, Stefan Castle. I like Castle. I do too. I like Castle. Anyway, all right, go ahead. Now I'm done. All right. I'm going to wrap it by saying this. You have to answer honestly. How many of your childhood paintings do you

currently possess? The answer is zero. Paintings? Drawings, paintings. None. All right. What about your son? Probably have two. Okay. What about your daughter? She's now, what, 11? My kids aren't good at it.

No kids are good at it. Point being is there worthless pieces of crap that your kids spent four minutes on and they come home and act like you're supposed to frame the thing and put it up in the living room. They make too many paintings. They get too much positive feedback about these paintings. And they do not deserve to be kept. They do not deserve to be framed. If you're a parent, you can still love your kids and throw away their shitty art. I'm going to die on that hill. My kids draw something.

I throw them away. You know, to your point, you know, I've got file cabinet right behind me. And I thought, I thought that one of the ones that she had made for me was in there, but it's not. I don't know. No, you throw it away. It's like Christmas cards. You didn't keep Christmas cards. They're worthless.

birthday cards, Christmas cards, kids paintings, throw it away. Maybe JJ Reddick's kid is way better at art than ours. Listen, if it's the year 2047, and I'm at a gallery, and it's the Reddick, the Reddick Brothers special, and there's lines around the block,

and they're selling for millions of dollars, I will eat a shoe. I will eat a shoe. I will cook it, and I will eat a shoe. But until that day, I stand on, every kid is a shitty painter,

and they should not be framed. It's going to do it for this episode of The Misfatch. Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez, as always. Jacoby. I'll talk to you later this week. All right. Must be 21 and over in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 over and present in D.C.

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