The Ringer NBA Show - An NBA Venting Session | The Answer

Episode Date: January 28, 2022

Chris and Seerat begin the pod by sharing their reactions to the Sixers' win over the Lakers on Thursday night. They then try to find solutions to some of the issues they are having with the NBA at this point of the season starting with the product that is being offered TV (5:00) and how it can be improved for the fan experience. They continue by touching on subjects like the negative comments being made about Tobias Harris and Robert Covington heading into the trade deadline,(12:52) unnecessary player awards, (18:09) the state of the Minnesota Timberwolves (26:36) and Nets/Lakers media fatigue.(29:23) They end the conversation on a positive note by giving flowers to the Cleveland Cavaliers and their exuberant roster. (38:27) Hosts: Chris Ryan and Seerat Sohi Production Assistant: Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let's help everybody. I'm JJ John Gistramski. And I'm Jason Gough, and if you haven't heard, the ringer has gone local. I'm bringing the fire. I'm bringing the rain from the Big Apple with my show, New York, New York. And I'm reping Shottown with my new show The Full Go on All Things Chicago. We've got episodes three nights a week with all the reaction to the local teams and guests. Plus bonus episodes around all the big games and storylines.

So whether you're uptown, downtown, downtown, in the burbs or a transplant. Make sure you follow New York, New York, and the full go on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Hello and welcome to the ringer NBA show. It's The Answer. I'm Chris Ryan. I'm joined by Siritt Soey. What's up, Siritt? Chris, how's it going? It's going great? Well, okay, it is going great, but what we're going to do today, we're breaking negative. We're breaking bad today. So Syrit and I wanted to just have a quick venting session. This is like we get into the end of the first half of the season. And what we wanted to ask each other this week on the answer is what's frustrating you, what's bothering you, what's annoying you about the NBA this season. So we can get it all out. We can clean the baffles as say on submarines. And then we can go into the second half of the season renewed with like a new sense of like optimism and idealism about this beautiful game that we follow. Is that sound good to you sir? I'm with it. You know, Aquarius season just started. I think this is a perfect time for something like this, a month's about to end. It's perfect. I'm really excited. And but before we get into that though, okay. Before we get into that, I was watching Leaker Sixers last night. And my, my mind started

wandering and I started thinking, I have my own answer to this question now after a while. If you had a team of five Matisse Stibbles versus five Malik Monks, who would win? I think the game would end 6-0 after 48 minutes and I think the monks would win. Can I tell you something though? Of course. If I was a mad scientist and I could build the perfect NBA player, I would just put Matisse Thibel and Malik Monk together. Can you have a lot of? Can you have a imagine if Matisse Thibel could score like Malik Munk is capable of scoring? I think that's actually what kind of spawn this thought, because Matisse Sible is the perfect basketball player in terms of just like, you know, he just like star jumps and then just

gets at every loose ball. He's just so athletic. But yeah, that jumper. I still think, I still think he should get more minutes. I think if I had a generational defender, I would, I would just live with the fact that, you know, he's not going to hit his jumper all the time so he can get into rhythm. Anyway, we can tell the all the time. Is that what you think? His goal percentage suggests that he doesn't hit his jumper all the time. I'm not asking for Dale Ellis. I'm asking for, like, hitting the backboard from the corner every once in a while. Maybe not for basketball reasons, but just I just like watching him do stuff.

Yes, yeah. I think in, like, a vacuum, like, we're in, like, little bursts. Matisse is, like, one of the most magnetic players to watch because, like, you just feel him create basketball actions that, like, a lot of teams don't create where there's just, like, a loose ball going towards your rim or whatever. like, or going to the opposing team's rim. So it creates like these fun, fast break situations. And also, like, when he pressures the ball, like, you can tell it actually genuinely

irritates the ball handler. You know, like, I've seen it, there's so many, like, kind of, like, fake full court presses or fake pressures, but he's actually, like, a menace. Yeah, it adds a nice element of surprise. Like, NBA actions can start to get very predictable. So when somebody can intercept a pass, like, you just never see you get intercepted, it's just like, oh, like, kind of, kind of, kind of, too awake a little bit.

Right, unless Russ throws it, and then you see it get intercepted quite a lot. Malik Mon could probably intercept those. Right. I just really quickly about that Sixers, Lakers game, I felt like that had like a real exhibition game vibe because it was like, it was a very much like get Anthony Davis back in the mix, and he had like an absolute Shackian game for most of it and looked like he was specifically trying to assert dominance over Embed. Like, it did seem like, and he was giving him B'd a lot of trouble.

but the Sixers won pretty comfortably and never seemed particularly bothered. Yeah, that was a really fun game. I love watching that matchup down low. I didn't love watching them both fall a lot. That was incredibly stressful having both those guys. We don't get a lot of Davis versus Embed actually. Both of those guys have dealt with a lot of injuries. Twice a year, yeah.

That would be it. Exactly. And then it's like even if the teams play twice a year, but it's how often are Davison and Bede both playing at the same time. So yeah. I thought it was a fun suite of games last night. We had the Sixers and the Lakers and then we had the Timberwolves Warriors game. But it does bring me to my first event, if you want me to kick things off here.

I think mine are going to be pretty general. I'm a pretty general guy. I like to throw out populist ideas. You're more like I would say you're more of a visionary, right? Like a big picture thinker. Sure. I just think we really need to like change the NBA television product. I was thinking about this specifically because, and, you know, I'm drunk on NFL playoff football,

especially this last week in the games that we had. And, you know, like, 52 million people watch Chiefs bills. I'm not asking for that to be like an NBA game in late January. But I really do think we are way past the point of when the NBA could offer a feasible red zone-esque product that would make watching basketball on a night-to-night basis a little bit more engaging. And I think what happens is, like you get settled in on one game. And that game has its ebbs and flows just like any sport does. But because it's like you're changing the channel and you're trying to find like the rhythm of some other game, especially if you're watching on like Wednesday and you have like the full

suite of games, it just gets like kind of like a little cumbersome. You're kind of like checking scores. You're trying to find something. So here's my proposition. Like start NBA crunch time, NBA fast break, NBA full court, whatever you want to call this thing. I understand there might be some issues with like it being. live. The whole premise of Red Zone is that there are parts of the NFL field that when a team is like within 20 yards, it's just the Red Zone. But like when it gets like, when there's some

momentum going on a drive, like they can identify like this team is approaching a score. But to me, NBA Red Zone would be really easily governed by like, okay, the starters are on the floor, you know, so we can just have All-Stars on TV all the time. And when games get close. So for the first couple of hours of the East Coast games, you just show like whenever like the NBA All-Stars are on the populating the court or if there is a particularly close-click game. And then as those games get down to crunch time, when it's a 21-point lead and nobody is watching it, like that game gets kicked off. But there's usually a game or two that's within 10. And I just think they would just make the night-to-night NBA watching a little bit more

holistic. I mean, I think I don't really understand why they don't do this. I would even allow for them to black out the national games that are on that at that point from the product. So you have to choose either you're going to watch Red Zone or you're going to watch the national games. I assume that Turner and ESPN would not be happy with that with any competition like that. But there's already league pass. But I just think like there is a feeling for me of like the NBA lagging behind a little bit in like how it services its fans in a way that's surprising because I think we think of the league as like a cutting edge product. I feel like it would be very simple. You could literally just call it league pass alert.

Yes. And you could just have like, you know, just have like an actual NBA junkie running it. Like we don't even have to think that hard about it. Just like, you know, like I have a craving for this as well. And maybe you're the same way because what I do is I turn on a game and then I forget that anything else exists. Even if that game gets boring. And I'm like, oh, this game's boring. And I'm like, sometimes I forget that that game exists.

That's the problem with NBA Twitter is like, I'm like, oh, but it sounds like something really. important is happening in this Pacer's game, but I guess I'm just like pot committed to watching Luca tonight. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. There's a lot of FOMO. I would like my FOMO eradicated from my NBA watching experience. Maybe what you could do is, you know, even if you have that compete with ESPN or TNT, where they may not want those games on TV, whereas League Pass they could look at it as like just not really competing against them, which I think is actually a fair assessment by them too, right? But you could do it. It's not like ESPN and T&T have national games on every. every single night, right?

No. They're out here ducking Thursday Day football anyway. It's just like, let's like during most of the first half of the season at least. Is these six game like every game is local type of nights? Because those also end up sometimes being the most fun nights just kind of like, I like, I kind of imagine myself going down a staircase in a way where I'm like, oh, okay, so now we've reached the fourth quarter of this game, which means that the other one's in its third quarter and change and we can kind of just hop and

and try to catch the fourth quarter of every single one. So, yeah, if somebody could curate that experience for me, I would be thrilled. I'm sure there are Twitter feeds out there who, like, alert you when so-and-so has checked back into a game. Like, there are some, like, pretty elaborate NBA League Pass alert things. Well, hypothetically, Twitter is supposed to do that. Yeah, I mean, but I just think it would be cool if there was some, like, it was a little bit more automated.

And if it was curated, like, if they had the, like, the Scott Hanson-esque figure who was just like, yeah, we're going over to Charlotte because Lamello is going nuts. And it's like, I don't even mind if there's a little bit of the delay. I understand with basketball, it's a little harder because there are so many more breaks or it just feels like there are more breaks. But I wouldn't even mind if it was like, we're, there's a five-minute delay on live action because we're like getting ahead of it. I would probably choose that over, oh, you're 30 seconds behind.

Like, you have to go flip over to this now. Yeah. You know who I would tap for that? It's just two options. You can go like the super serious basketball route of it. And you can't get him because he works for. ESPN. He does a million other things. But Tim Legler could be like if you wanted to go like the ex is no side of it, right? And the other way, if you want to just go pure entertainment, like,

guy just coming up with the most awesome catchphrases on the spot ever, Stacey King. Like, let's let's get Stacey King national. Should we have Gus Johnson and Stacey King be like the God view of the NBA every night? I would love that. Or who's a, sorry, who's a hornet announcer again? Michael Pinnett. I did like a story about him last year. He was his I think he would be fun too. What's your first thing you want to vent about? I have to admit, getting into this, I am, I was, I've really been enjoying NBA basketball this week. It's been a fun week of basketball. So I'm going to have to manufacture some anger,

but maybe by like five minutes in, we'll get to the real thing. I'm going to start, I'm going to start with something that actually makes me angry, though. I think venting is different than anger, right? Like, we could just be like a mildly frustrated about something. Yeah, but why not process some emotions in a healthy way with, with a friend, you know? I'm going to start with something that actually makes me mad, and it isn't NBA related. So when you, like, when you're in, like, the NBA YouTube wormhole, you also kind of end up adjacent to, like, I guess, the basketball self-help world in the, you know, in the same way that it's just, you know, wanting to, like, like, you know, make your bed can kind of then

turn you into a right-wing extremist. It's kind of the same thing. The amounts of pliometrics videos that have been popping up on my front page, have just been ridiculous, and it's taking me back to a time when I was in the 11th grade, 5-6, not very athletic, trying to improve my vertical, thinking that maybe one day, one day had to be able to dunk. What are pliometrics? So basically, they're just a bunch of techniques that are supposed to help you jump higher

and just be more athletic, and the kind of athleticism that you'd want for basketball, like box jumps and stuff. So is this, because when I was at basketball camp a long time ago, we had strength shoes that had like basically like it was like platform shoes but towards the balls of your feet so that you basically were always running around like on your tiptoes and that those like when you took them off and put on regular sneakers that was supposed to have improved vertical. Oh damn. We had like a demo for this at St. Joe's basketball camp and it was just like strength shoes, you'll dunk and I'm like I'm 5'4. You know, you're like, I'm a 12-year-old. I'm not dunking, but thank you. See, I, I got hustled by my own self-belief and sprained my ankle multiple times. Kids don't believe in the videos. People who make the videos, you know, like, just stop. It doesn't work. Okay. Yeah, just stop. It just made me sad. A little content regulation. I get it. That's good. Yeah. And throw in some, you know, throw in some stretches in the front and the back, you know. These kids aren't going to stretch if you don't tell them to. Okay, that's your YouTube algorithm that you're mad about.

What's an NBA thing that you're a little bit frustrated about? Trade deadline coming up. So I got like two sides of like kind of like a similar coin here. Robert Covington slander on one end. And maybe it's a little too strong to call it slander. But he is on the trade block-ish. It seems like it's, you know, I don't know. But I feel like every time now Covington becomes a conversation,

the conversation becomes about all the defensive things that he can't do. Oh, right. The myth of Robert Covington's sublime defense. Yeah, and it's just because, well, it's an evaluation problem. We hear a good defender and we just assume that they're good at everything and that's not how it works. It's like, if somebody said good score or would you just be like, oh, well, that means that they can score from everywhere on the court? Covington's a great help defender. He's not one of the best isolation defenders in the league, but he's on a team. And this happens to, this used to happen to PJ Tucker, but he's on a team where you think that if you just sign like one or two,

good defenders, that's going to be enough. And then you put all the defensive pressure on them to somehow make you into a good defensive team. And it's like, it's one perimeter defender in the NBA. It's not going to do anything, you know? Like even Eagle Dala used to go through. Like every single defender on the perimeter. Like, you know, you have like, you have some guys that are legitimate game changers. But aside for that, like, most guys are going to look pretty porous if you like make them do literally everything. And it's a long season. If they have to take on every single matchup. It's just not going to like, you know, anyway, that's something that's been annoying me. And the other end of it is the, the Tobias Harris Slander that we've been seeing this season.

Sixers adjacent player slander. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's the offensive end of this. He wasn't asked to do this. Everything that you're directing towards him. Like, there's a guy who's not playing. I get it. Philly fans are, they've, they've been plenty mad at Ben Simmons. But man, like, Tobias Harris is just like, he's just been the player. He's always. always been. And he was never supposed to be like, your closer. He wasn't signed to be that. That's why you've been signing all these other guys, whether it's Jimmy Butler or now, you're going to try to get like an actual closer for Simmons. Like, you know this. There's this thing that happens where rosters get overstretched and then players can't live up to,

you know, whatever it is that they have to make up. And then we get mad at the players instead of, you know, either luck or roster construction. Yeah, I mean, he's an unfashionable offensive player right now. I think that's part of the reason why people are kind of like kind of turning on him a bit. There's also like he's pretty deliberative. Like he, when he gets the ball, like there's going to be some dribbling or some like pumping before an action happens. And I think that that that isn't really what I mean like, like unless it's like, oh, you're in your bag. Tobias doesn't have a really like a bag per se. Like he can get to the rim and he can get hot from with his jump. bumper, but it's not like watching Anthony Edwards, like, look off three different timbre wolves.

And then, like, he has a bag when you get him off a screen. Yeah. But it's, and then it's like, and then he can beat a triple team. It's like, that's cool and he's young. And he's like, it's all promised. Like, this is what Tobias is. And he gets paid like a closer. So, you know, we can go back ages and start debating, like, whether or not NBA players

should have their salaries held against their games or not. But the truth of the matter is is that Tobias is played like paid like an all-star. And he doesn't really play like one. And now, you know, like, I think that there's been, this is like the sort of like the downside of having an NBA front officer, specifically Darrell Mori, where you kind of expect him to constantly be like maximizing the roster. And that some player, a player like Tobias is like, oh, you know Darrell wants to get that

off the books. You know Darrell wants to get him out of there. You know Darrell would like love to attach him to like a King's deal so that like he can just get off of Tobias's money. And so that probably is starting to get to him. Like, I mean, like, he obviously had, like, a moment a couple of weeks ago where he was giving a little bit back to Sixers fans who were booing him. There was a report that he's playing with, like, a couple of different, like, upper body

injuries right now. And it's, like, just so you know, like, Tobias is, like, gutting it out. It's tough. Like, he seems like an absolutely, like, awesome dude, which is, like, part of, like, the bummer here. But, yeah, like, the Tobias Lander is pretty tough. Although personally, aesthetically, I have a tough time watching it. Yeah, that was a very diplomatic defense of the slander.

I can accept some of that, most of that. Okay, so my next thing I want to vent about is, and I think that this is probably like something that maybe people are noticing this week because last night, obviously, was the great Andrew Wiggins debate online. Like, Andrew Wiggins was elected as an all-star starter. Wait, remind me, like, the all-star starters are votes, right? That's fan vote. The media gets a vote, but I assume this was fan.

There was also, like, there was some player voting because there was, like, players voted for Kyrie and Grayson Allen and Ben Simmons. Like, they all received votes in various ways for starters. But, you know, like, obviously there was, and the Andrew Wiggins thing got me thinking a little bit about, like, how players are rewarded. Now, All-Star is one thing. There's contractual benefits attached to All-Star, and it means a lot to the players, obviously meant a lot to Andrew Wiggins.

All-Star, like, is a really good historical, like, go back and see how many All-Star teams a person made. But I do think that the NBA sometimes has absolutely, like, meaningless awards that they give out. And I would just like to say, I don't think we need a player of the week. I don't know what, like, purpose this serves, but, like, whenever I'm watching TV and they're just like, oh, and this week's player of the week in the Eastern Conference, and I'm like, this information. literally went in one ear, went out the other. I don't have an example because I've never remembered someone who won player of the week. I assume Yokic has won it a bunch of times this season. But like, does Yokic know that he won player of the week?

Does Yokic get like a contractual bonus if he wins player of the week? Are we really rewarding, giving an award for having three good games in seven days? I don't understand that. I mean, player of the month I also don't really care about either. But I guess at least it's like a larger sample size of work. And can I have like just a second here to talk about like the NBA is the only league that rewards substitutes? Like the sixth man. Do we need to give an award for the sixth man?

Can we just like put Lou Williams in the hall fame? Like let's just like say he goes to Springfield and then retire the award. I think it's cool. I'm sure that there are contractual bonuses attached to winning six man awards. Like I'm sure that gets written into certain people's contracts. But like it does seem like an award you. in game, like, if you have, like, if you average 17 a game off the bench, like, you can just win the sixth man award. Do you think that it's a valuable award to have? I love the six men award,

honestly, because I think that you need something to reward those guys for actually coming off the bench in some cases. Now, like, for the last little while, we've kind of had six men who were actually just supposed to be coming off the bench, and they're doing a great job at that role, right? But when you have like, you know, the six men in the traditional mold of like a man who genoblee or, you know, like Andre Aguadala with the, with the warriors. That's the six men that I like to, I think that that role is first of all just like, it's one of my favorite roles on basketball. The straight bucket off the bench guy?

I love it. I love it. And just like getting everybody set up, whether it's like, you know, it's a benchful of young players or just guys who are maybe a little bit offensively challenged. I think it's a noble. undertaking and I think it deserves to be rewarded. Siri, here are the last batch of six men since 2012 when James Hardin won it for the thunder. J.R. Smith, Jamal Crawford, Lou Williams,

Jamal Crawford. Eric Gordon, Lou Williams, Lou Williams, Montrez Harrell, Jordan Clarkson. Okay, so not exactly like pillars of selflessness, I guess. I don't mean, like, the selflessness is irrelevant to me. I just feel like, why don't we call it the Jamal Crawford Award and give it to the best scoring six men? That's fair. I never like how the voting turns out for that.

like Jordan Clarkson was almost on my list just Jordan Clarkson not this year but like you know last year it's like we're gonna like why why not Joe Ingalls you know why not Joe Ingalls I like that type of six men I have to go back and look but is sixth man best bench player or is six man literally you have to come into the game you have to be the first sub into the game

because sometimes I guess you can't tell because you can sub in two guys at once or sometimes I think it's just a matter of how many games that you that you actually do come off the bench I don't think it matters, like, when it happens. You gave me an idea for how to fix the Player of the Week awards. Okay. Because the only time it's ever fun is when someone you don't expect to get it gets it. Right, when it's like Austin Reeves gets it or something.

Right. Yeah, yeah. So I think maybe there should be a rule where you can only get it a certain amount of times in your career. And after that, you're done. You get retired from Player of the Week. Yeah. And then they have to pluck from, like, like some of the players that are having impressive weeks that we might not know about because then it could

actually be like somewhat it could be cool it could be like something for for a role player to aspire to potentially like an employee of the month sort of thing you know employee of the month I was just I was just saying in my head I was like I don't know let me take that back real quick but I think that could I think that could be fun because right now what we have is just like it's like this check-in like the one you texted me about I think was tray young getting player of the week where it's like we're just checking in And it's like, yep, Tray Young still get a basketball. You know, like, that's all we're really learning from it right now.

I'm looking at it right now. There's one week where, like, I was like, oh, January 10th, like, John Fred Van Vleet won. And that would be, like, a good suggestion to go check out Jha and Fred Van Vleet if you were somehow, like, a casual who didn't know that either of those guys were doing well. What if it was just like a what's new this week column? What if the, what if the NBA just had somebody write one of those? So the kind of thing that you're talking about, like, Miles Bridges won at one week this season.

You know, like, Bojan Bogdanovich won it one week last season. I'm just like scrolling through like all the players of the week. I first of all, not a single thing about this is ringing any bells. Sadiq Bay won at one week last season. Does Sadiq Bay like get anything out of that? I don't know. Probably not. No.

So like I don't like, I guess I see what you're saying like, yeah. That would be cool. It's like once Yokic wins it once in a week. So that by the end of the season, we're. giving player of the week to like the 13th dude on the Bulls. I say let's not even roll it over season by season. Like I say like let's let's just like make a rule. Like if you have a max contract, if you are an all NBA player, an all star, you just

can't be player of the week. So here's my flip, we're spending way more time on player of the week than I thought we were going to do. But here's one idea. And I don't know that I bet the players association would reject us because, you know, this would require people to like maybe miss time. They would play through injuries or maybe not. take the rest that they needed. But what if player of the week was essentially like winning a

golf tournament and you get like FedEx Cup points? Like when PGA players win a golf tournament, not only did they win the purse money for the tournament, they went, they've lift the trophy or whatever, but then there is like the FedEx Cup, which like racks up points throughout the year. It's the same thing for like F1 does that, I think, with the races people run. And it's essentially like you want to win MVP, you have to get a certain amount of player of the week awards. Or it be like second or third in player of the week that week. So essentially it's either like abandoned player of the week or make player of the week the thing that decides MVP at the end of the season.

That might be a more accurate way to decide MVP though because like what we do is like we just stop watching after February. Like we're like we just decide and then it's over. We talk about it way too early. We start talking about it three games in and we're like, oh my God, is Brandon Ingram the MVP? And then we lose interest around the Super Bowl because we started like paying attention to football. And then it's like, oh, I just just just.

assumed Steph is the MVP, but he's not. Okay, what's your next thing you want to vent about? I'm going to do a quick one here. Carl Towne's posture. It's been, it's been a long time, man. I just can't believe nobody has fixed the way that he runs. And it's just like, it's this very strange thing where with the basketball in his hands, he looks like, honestly, like one of the most graceful offensive players that you've ever seen,

especially at his height. Like, he looks incredible. Like, he has a very pretty game. And the second, the second he doesn't have the ball anymore, it's like he's a seven-foot Mr. Burns. And I just, no, seriously, seriously. I did not expect this to be this much body science from you today. You're not going to be able to unsee it. Yeah, I don't know.

These are the things that stick out to me. But I'm just so shocked that nobody has like at this point in his career gotten that out of his game. Especially for a big man, like the way that you run. And like, it's just, it's like one of the most important things for your long-term health. and like it just it helps everything else. I also would love for him to like touch the ball more. That would be that would be cool. But like that is that is secondary to.

I feel like Anthony Edwards is like I love Ant, but like he does look off like open players on his team. Like I'm sure Finch is giving him the green light and like that's what they need from him. But it was kind of fascinating last night to watch them. They were making a little bit of a push against the Warriors like in the fourth quarter. And there were a couple of times where I felt like like a little bit more. more ball movement a little bit, like, more like finding the open guy might have helped a little bit. Yeah, they could use a little bit more table setting because Ant's not necessarily naturally

inclined to be that guy. And I think while Russell can do it, he's still more of a hybrid that I would consider more of a scoring guard too. So yeah, I agree. I also think that maybe the solution to that is literally just like, they do run some stuff out of the high post for for Kat, but just kind of doing that more, especially in those situations where you just don't really have, like, offensive balance. It's just kind of obvious. I don't know. He's, he's Carl Towns. And now that you've got everybody else kind of in the mix, it seems like the next natural kind of progression to the offense. Timberwolves currently in eighth. They're pretty much locked up with the Lakers in that spot, that area of the Western Conference. Do you think that the Timberwolves should

be pleased with their season so far? It's a good question. Yes. Yes. I think so. I think they got a couple of lucky breaks, not lucky, but they have some breaks in the sense that there's no Zion in New Orleans and there's no really functionally no dame in Portland. So they've gotten the breaks that they needed to kind of get out of that 10 spot. I think that if you're the T-wolves, you probably look at your roster and you look at cat, right? And you're thinking, gosh, we'd love to get above like this Clippers team without their stars.

You know what I mean? Like that that would be like, I think the Timberwolves should be aiming for the clippers and the nuggets as like the teams that they want to claw back. You know, I think Finch is a cool coach. I like that team. They're fun to watch.

I would love to see them in, and like not even the playoff, the play in games. I'd love to see them in the playoffs this year. Yeah. Also, I know that we're talking about things we don't like, but just shout out to the amount of defensive creativity we're seeing this year.

Like wolves and and the bulls have kind of built like these perimeter oriented defenses that have. made up for, you know, what they're missing in the middle. And I just don't think that like, it was something that we even envisioned happening. Like, I think the Bulls kind of saw it. Like, they, they built that team intentionally to be able to do that. But I think the wolves kind of ran into it with like the ways that they use Russell as a defender. And obviously, like, is just incredibly aggressive too. You have Vanderbilt just like fucking everywhere. But using, yeah, using your perimeter stars to actually build a really,

really effective defense. When you don't have the right guy in the middle to make the rotations, it's just, it's just, A, it's really fun to watch because it just means the team's going to run a ton, just going to try to get a bunch of steals. And if they don't, it also means that they're probably just going to have a bad defensive night like they did. So it's fun on the other end, too. But yeah, yeah, that's, I'm going to, I'm just going to throw in the one thing that I like this week. I like the, I like your positivity. I'm going to talk a little bit about the team the Sixers beat last night the Lakers really quick. I feel like they're a little bit of a drag on the NBA this year.

I was thinking about like how Tom Brady might retire. I don't want LeBron to retire, but I do want to retire LeGM. I want to retire this idea that like LeBron as puppet master, LeBron as like team like roster constructor and that LeBron is somehow like taking meetings in the middle of the season to like redo this roster that by all accounts like was his choice to put together in the first place. So the, like, mid-season, what trades will LeBron make thing has become a little stale. As someone who made a lot of bones and wrote a lot of blogs in praise of Russ, I officially

tap out of the Russ Wars. This is like, I bend the knee. I can't do it anymore. I can't talk about this anymore. I mean, it's, it was cool, I think, at certain points when he was in, well, for me personally. I enjoyed him as a wizard more than I enjoyed him as a rocket or as a Laker. I wonder whether or not if he could go back, if he would have just stayed on the thunder. I wonder like if it would have just been better for him to spend five or six years getting

eliminated in the first round of the playoffs and be like a franchise legend and making $55 million a year or whatever. And then I don't know. I mean, I think it's cool that he went, went out looking for a ring in Houston. Like they obviously wanted to completely tear it down. But we've taken someone who was just like a really, really special electric NBA player and made him like this weird political football for like debates about the game that I think kind of

sucks. And then also like is just now like gets blamed for every franchise's problems that he ever steps foot on. So tired of the rust thing, tired of LeBron like trade watch like who's LeBron going to deal, who's he going to swap, what insane return on like nothing, like

what THT is going to fetch on the open market. The Lakers are just bumming me out. and talking about the Lakers or reading as much about the Lakers as I do is bumming me out. Would you be bummed out if John Wall, Westbrook trade actually happened? He went back to Houston. Is that going to happen? Like, is that, like, I thought, like, he left Houston, like, abruptly. It's not his choice, though.

I mean, I imagine it would be, like, I think it would be a buyout situation. Sure, sure. Like, for, wait, for Russ? Mm-hmm. Does Houston do buyouts? Like, I got the impression, like, I mean, like, why, why not buyout Wall then? Well, they would want to trade Wall so they could try to get that Lakers for round pick that was that they've been I think I guess it's been reported that that's what the deal would

be like yeah I mean I'm this is the funny thing is like wall is another guy who was just like one of my favorite five NBA players for the in the beginning of this the last decade and is now become like this sort of weird albatross and like I just think it sucks like he was an absolutely amazing player to watch and Washington wall was like was so good before those injuries so I don't know it just is like this I feel like we get like fixated on the Lakers because of like the franchise and also because of LeBron but this is like the ninth best team in the Western conference and it's just like when they when they do their surge when they get all their when LeBron and AD play together and they rattle off like eight out of 10 I'm sure it'll be back in the championship mix but like right now it's

just I wish there was just like a moratorium on talking about them yeah I'm with you and it kind of transitions into into my next thing that I've been I've been annoyed with all season is just like the the absurd synchronicity of all of the Lakers and Nets injuries. Yes. So that it's all like their entire seasons are like theoretical basically. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Like we're still, it is, it is January 28th. We're more than halfway through the season and we are still in that place.

We still don't really know what these teams like would look like. They played this week and the Lakers were full strength and they looked really good. And Anthony Davis like looks like he looks like he lost some weight. he looks like just like he looks a lot better defensively he looks more engaged she's like been really physical i think he's been kind of like the ad that people were hoping to see and then the next day it's like lebron has an east brain and we only get lakers nets for for that particular moment and then in the sixers game hopefully it's not like he played through it hopefully it's nothing but then in the sixers game ad hurts his wrist it's just like come on man no his x-rays were negative

ad x-ray watch is another thing that i could never i'd love to opt out of. Well, that's good. Yeah. That's good. No, though, you're right, though. I mean, like, we've got these two teams that I think a fair amount of people were like, yeah, Lakers Nets. Like, that'll be the finals, right? Like, you know, and I mean, I'm sure there was, like, there was plenty of people who were like bucks and, and stuff like that. Yeah, just need both plots to move forward, though, at this point. Yes. Yeah. Like, it just does seem like, you know, and we'll probably this season not get, like, an optimized Nets team just because Kyrie's only going to be playing these away games. So the rhythm of that, that team is going to be compromised.

I was going to ask you whether or not you wanted to weigh in it all on the, Hardin stuff this week. Well, you were talking about it before the pod, so, you know, this is event session. Let's go. Let's get it. Yeah. I mean, I guess I have like galaxy brain take is that I think that the original like the Sixers are waiting for Hardin report felt a little bit like a response to Daryl Morey's 97.5 interview

that we talked about last week on the show, which was basically like, you know, we 1,000% would welcome Ben back. We're a way better team with Ben. is the perfect fit for Joelle, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then there was a lot of cryptic stuff about like, if this, then that, and like we're not trading them for 30 cents on the dollar, everything we talked about last week. And then pretty much right after that,

I think in the beginning of this week, there was sort of this renewed, like, the Sixers are holding fast for James Hardin, who they think they can get, who, you know, James Hardin's a free agent in the summer. And it would have to be like a sign and trade essentially. And, you know, quickly that was a shot down, by a woad report that was like the nets are not entertaining offers for James Hardin and also

think that like the James Hardin, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving thing that they moved heaven and earth to put together that Kevin Durant and James Hardin both were like, make this happen is not going to be broken up this season or next season and that that's, this is the franchise they want to go forward with. And then it got into a whole like, if you're James Hardin, why would you go to the Sixers? And if you're Brooklyn, why would you let him go to a division rival to the extent that that matters. So I feel like there was like a lot of, um, through the media, like, manipulation going on between like basically clutch and, and, and the Sixers in this story without knowing anything, like, behind the scenes, it just felt like the order of operations of that narrative where it was

like Daryl's interview, the James Hardin trade rumor, the James Hardin trade rumor being shot down and now we're back where we started and we're, you know, 12 days out from the, or 13 days out from the trade deadline. I don't think, I don't think, I don't think Simmons is getting dealt before February 10th. I think this goes into summer. Do you think that there's anything real about a potential heart into Philly for Simmons scenario past the trade deadline? You know what? I've learned that never to say never about NBA stuff, but it would be really surprising to me. And also, like, I do, I do actually wonder whether or not, like, that's the bet you make. I guess if it's just for Simmons and Simmons doesn't want to play in Philly anyway, go for it. But, you know,

Brooklyn gave up a lot to get Hardin, and I think that they would probably be, like, pretty hard pressed to, like, just be like, yeah, sure, go ahead two hours south and go play with a generational center that we're going to have to play you guys five times a year or whatever. Yeah, I don't see that, I don't really see it from the net side either, which I feel like it would have to be, like, happening right now, and I don't think it will because, you know, once the off season comes, like, what's, you know, how's that even going to work, right? So actually, I was reading, I was reading Rob Mahoney's profile of Seth Curry, The Ringer. It just dropped yesterday. That was awesome piece. Yeah. It was about Seth basically being like a super role player, being like the exact type of guy because of the gravity that he gives you. And also just like this.

Yeah. He's like in the JJ role that was like he can imbid and gets into these lockstep rhythms with a show. Exactly. Exactly. There was a piece in there about how when Mori was a GM of the Rockets, he wanted to trade for Seth, or he wanted to sign Seth, that was when Seth went to Dallas, and then, you know, he managed to trade for him when he went to the Sixers. All of which is to say that Darryl Morey is incredibly patient.

Once he likes the player, I feel like he really likes him. And I think that once he's been in those trade rumors, like, you can count on Darrell taking his shot at trying to figure out if he could get them. All right. So we spent the entire pod basically complaining about stuff. Should we end on like a positive note? Is there anything that you want to be like, I want more of this? I want more Evan Mobley, Lurie, Lurie,

Lurie, and Pick and Rolls. I love it. It's so, it's honestly, I mean, I love, I love watching that team, but Mobley's a great passer. And then you combine that with the fact that he can see over literally everyone, throw a pass over literally everyone. He plays with a bunch of guys who can catch the ball over literally anyone. They've kind of like, I feel like they can take vertical space to just kind of like a completely new limit.

There was a play. I can't remember who they're playing. But yeah, Mowgli and Morgon ran like this pick and roll. And Marketing just slipped it. And it was like, it was the easiest pass in a world to make. Like it's just like there's no, like who's going to defend that? Who's going to defend you throwing like a, like, like, like a seven-footer with his wingspan, throwing it up high to another seven-footer on a slip, especially.

Like, if you can see over the defense, slips are like, as far as passes go, like, they're really, they're really hard to intercept from the top unless you're also like Janis onto Ticumpo, you know. Yeah, I would, I love watching the Cavs. I love just the creative stuff that they're doing, more of that particular play and more of whatever, you know, whatever is in a bag for that team. Like, just throw it all out there. That's, that's mine. I was going to, I was going to say, uh, Garland. Like, I just want, like, Darrys Garland is like, I try to watch like Cleveland at least once a week. And watching him kind of,

just sort of like assumed so much responsibility after Sexton and Rubio went down and essentially be their, their closer, their point guard, but then they're shooting guard when Rondo comes in. And it's, it's so awesome to watch a guy take the leap. We've seen it with Jha this year to some extent and obviously what he's done with Memphis and leading them into like like top of the Western Conference contention. But Garland's awesome. Like I did I would never really like clocked him coming into the league or like thought like I thought that that whole Garland Sexton thing was just going to be like four years and then they were to be like, you know, role players throughout the NBA. It's so cool. All they get is a great nickname out of it. I know. It's excellent. We can wrap it up there.

Thanks to Chris Sutton for producing us. We'll be back next week. We hope to. We got all this out of our system. So expect nothing but like optimism going forward from the answer podcast. Goodbye Zulam.