The Ringer NBA Show - Boogie Goes Down, Fixing the All-Star Draft, and Boston vs. Philadelphia | Heat Check (Ep. 199)

Episode Date: January 29, 2018

The Ringer’s John Gonzalez and Kevin O’Connor discuss the impacts of DeMarcus Cousins’s Achilles injury (1:48), the Memphis Grizzlies’ future after Mike Conley’s season-ending surgery (8:12), potential improvements to All-Star Weekend (13:30), and possible trade-deadline moves (18:22). Then, they debate Boston vs. Philadelphia (25:30) and preview this week’s most exciting games (31:28). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to the Monday morning heat check. I'm John Gonzalez. Is Juliet Litman not here today? She's off on vacation, well deserved. In her stead, Boston, now in L.A. Kevin O'Connor. What's up, buddy? We're hearing to talk about The Bachelor. I'm excited for tonight, also basketball. Kevin is a new refugee from Boston seeking asylum in L.A. from the tyranny of the mass holes. I'm glad that you finally fled. You came to your senses. You left all that cold weather behind. How are you enjoying it, buddy? Oh, it's beautiful. Yesterday, it was 85 degrees, walked around West Hollywood a little bit. It was like I was on a different planet. Basketball in the afternoon? It's great. Yeah, it's pretty wild. It's unbelievable.

Pretty crazy. We're going to get into it. A lot of stuff happened over the weekend. Not all of it good. In fact, a couple of it not good. Specifically, Boogie Cousins down with an Achilles injury. This sucks. Really sad. How do we think it's going to affect the Pelicans?

Because all season long, they've been sort of right around the back end of the Western Conference playoff picture. And this is going to change a lot of things for them. Yeah, you know, when that news broke Saturday night, it was just, for me, it was just depressing in the sense that they were finally, finally starting to figure things. out. I mean, they still needed to make additions and maybe they still will. And I think they're going to continue trying to add. You think they will add. I think they will. This is one of the things I wanted to ask you about because right now they're two games up on the clippers.

They're in the sixth spot, but they're only two games up on the clippers for that last spot. They're going to lose that spot. I mean, this is a tough thing. So if you could decide to go and add, you know, who knows, you might be adding and still not make the playoffs. For sure. I mean, I mean, there's guys out there that, you know, can help you. But the thing is, is that short-term thinking is what gets a lot of these teams into trouble. in the first place. But New Orleans has to think short term. They only have so much time until Anthony Davis really hits free agency or until the point that, okay, so right now, theoretically, you could trade Anthony Davis everywhere, any team, because he has enough years left on his contract.

But when you get closer to that point when he becomes a free agent, he's only going to want to go to teams that he's going to be able to resign with, right? So you need to think short term to bolster your team now. Otherwise, you're putting yourself in a situation to where you could lose them later. But the thing is that, Boogie changes everything. It's a catch 22. It really is. He changes everything because the Achilles injuries,

guys have a low success rate in getting back to the level that they were, especially when someone who relies as much on explosiveness, on agility, he's a giant human. He's a giant human. Let's not forget about it. Sometimes I think we look at this through, like, we're NBA fans and fanboys and we pay attention to all this stuff, but we take out the human element of it. Which you just brought up, like, he's a giant human being, right?

There's an actual physical effort that has to go back into getting back in shape off of an Achilles. And we saw with West Matthews, West Matthews, much smaller human, did not look like the same dude still doesn't really since when he had his Achilles. He's been better this year, but he's, what, 80% of what he was? Still recovering. So I wonder what is boogie cousins going to look like at that size, having to rehab, coming off an Achilles injury.

And that's why I said it's a catch-22, because you're right. If they don't buy and try to show Anthony Davis, like, look, we're in it with you. Let's try to put something together. then Anthony Davis is going to want to walk. But if they do buy, they could screw themselves long term for a short-term like overture to AD. That's the fascinating wrinkle entering this summer now. I mean, so before it was kind of a no-brainer.

Pelicans are going to give Boogie Cousins the Max. The only question is will he resign there? Right. Now the question is, should they give Boogie Cousins the Max? And if they don't, what will he do? Right. And will another team be like, you know what? Screw it.

We're just going to throw the max at him and see what happens. because he's a player for that. He has to get a max, right? But the thing is, is there are a lot of teams that don't want Boogie. They don't want to touch him. And that's why with the trade offers for the Kings last year, they weren't quite as high as people would have expected because the perceived value publicly of Boogie isn't quite as high

as what a lot of NBA teams have because of his, you know. You think that because of like the reputation and like the team name, the locker room stuff. More than reputation for that matter. You're saying it's a personality. It's a personality thing. It's a hangout. Can you win with this guy? Is the question NBA executive, it's a lot.

will ask. And now the question is, is he going to come back and be a total shell of his former self, kind of like Elton Brand? Or is he going to come back like Dominique Wilkins did and just be 100% the same exact player? And I don't know, because like you said, with the Pelicans, let's say they do give him the max, or even if it's just close to the max. And he comes back and he's 70% of what he was, that's still a really good player. But it's not the same boogie that you had now. And maybe that 70% of boogie five years from now, or four years from now, rather, is kind of an albatross contract. And then, guess what? You're in a worse situation than you are right now. I thought it was an interesting scenario, like, what the Pelican should do with him even before

he went down, because, like, you have got two of the best players on the planet together, right? And two of the best bigs. Two of five Western Conference All-Stars, and they're 12 and a half games back on the Warriors. Like, what is their actual ceiling with these two guys? I think it makes it more likely that he ends up just getting maxed out by the Pelicans. and staying put because you're right. Like if you look at the trade market, you're going to go, okay, well, do we want to go and buy a guy with a reputation thing coming off an Achilles, has to rehab? What's it going to look like?

Will he fit our system? Will he fit our culture? Then you look at the Pelicans and you go, we already invested. Yeah. And we want to show AD that we're still in it for the long haul. The easy fix here is just to keep it intact and keep going. What choice do you have? Yeah.

If you let boogie walk, what does that say to AD? He's already been a guy who publicly said, or at least said on the record, Adrian and Ward Janowski, quote, it makes you wonder, does this organization really have my back? I've been loyal to this organization. I love it here. I love this team. It's not about the money. It's not about having fans. The most important thing to me is winning. That's what I want to do. And I want to do it here. So if you let Boogie go, the guy who he's had a lot of success with the best, the greatest success of his career and vice versa for Boogie, that says to AD, you know what? Maybe winning isn't the priority. Even if in the eyes of the Pelicans, it's,

in the best interest of the organization, not to resign him. In the eyes of the player, it's going to be, is this team really going all in? I fear for the Pelicans. I fear for them because they could lose either direction they go here. They already have Anthony Davis, who is kind of really fragile. Drew Holiday has had injuries in the past. And then if you bring back Boogie coming off of ruptured Achilles,

you have three guys making almost $100 million. Two guys who have missed quite a few games. And then another guy coming back from a ruptured Achilles. I don't know. That's scary. This is one of the first times we've done a podcast together. That was expert analysis, as I would normally expect. What I did not expect was the dramatic reading and the wonderful dot, dot, dot, dot.

Isaac, I would like in the future for KOC to come in and do all of our quote readings. Only ellipsies. Any quote in the future where we have an ellipsies, we'll be like, get the ellipsy guy in here. I added that. I didn't feel like reading, the Marcus Rondo. Oh, you had a lib, dot, dot, dot? He's a veteran. You can't stop him, folks.

I should pivot to active, I guess. Boogie was not the only major injury that we got to get into KOC. Mike Conley also, he's been out for a while. They decided that he's going to have surgery to smooth a small bone protrusion. He's expected to make a full recovery and be back for the preseason. He last played on November 13th. He's only played 12 games this season. I really like Mike Conley.

He's a really underrated player. This sucks for the Grizzlies. When he's not out there, they're a completely different team as we've seen. Do you have the quote in front of you on the rundown? Do you have the rundown? Because I want you to read all our quotes now. I do. All right.

And maybe you add live another one. We'll see how it happens. All right, here we go. We got KOC with another quote. Mike has been extremely diligent as we pursued multiple different approaches to alleviate the pain before deciding surgery was the best solution. It's amazing. You're one of our great actors of this generation. Who's the guy that everybody all, oh, Daniel DeLoyer.

It's Chris Ryan. Chris Ryan and Daniel Lewis. He started a silent film for us. He was fantastic. And Take Hunter was unbelievable. Yeah. Well, the Markell Fultz thing was just, I mean, I'm, Acting opposite of him was really one of the great moments of my career.

Jason Gallagher's a genius behind all this stuff. Yes, he is. But for the Grizzlies, KOC, is this full tank mode for them now? I mean, they stink already. So I don't know if a lot changes, but I do think they're going to look to trade Tyreek Evans. They want a first-round draft pick for him. I don't know if they're going to get it. But if you look at past deals, you know, like Donovich,

the Williams, you know, these type of guys on expiring deals get first-round picks for them. So I think the Grizzlies could. we'll see where he goes. I do think they can get one though. And then I don't think they're going to trade Marcusol. You don't think they will? I mean, I think they should. I think they should blow the whole thing up.

This is a shocker. Wait, hold on. Can we get some sort of like breaking news, a sounder, Isaac, because KOC wants to blow it up. It's kind of hard to blow it up, though, when one of your two-star players is out for the season. You're not going to get value back for him like you could have before. He got hurt, right? Right. So I say that.

And yet it's like, well, what are you going to get for Marka Sol, a center who came off a major foot surgery a couple of years. ago and is over 30 years old. What are you going to get from Mike Conley? A maybe the eighth best point guard in the NBA who is coming off, you know, another injury. I'm glad that you're throwing all this grizzly shade on this show and not the Chris Vernon show. Well, and you know, that's part of like the argument, you know, me and Chris Vernon have where it's like, well, yeah, sure, you can say blow it up, but what are you going to get? And that's true, I mean, I don't know where you're going to get. You might actually be better just riding it out with these guys. But they're another team like the Pelicans where it's like, well, what do you

do? That Chandler-Parsons contract really puts it in a... Chandler Parsons contract is a big one. I think you make a really good point about, like, if you blow it up, what would you possibly do? Because we've seen those two guys, Mike Conley and Marcus All are, I think, unquestionably the most valuable to the team that they're already on. If they think that Conley is going to come back, those two together, when they play, make the Grizzlies relevant. They're not contenders, but they're going to be in the playoff mix. And you sort of move the other pieces around. We've seen that time and time again that those are the two guys that if you unplug one of them, the Grizzlies go in the tank.

If you have both of them, all of a sudden they're good. So if you can offload Tyreek Evans, who's had previous injury issues in the past, but it's having a very good season this year. Yes. I think you do that, especially because I was looking at their pick allotment. They've got a couple of extra seconds in 2018, but they owe a first to the Celtics as part of that three-team Jeff Green trade, which in retrospect looks absolutely horrendous. That pick has protected one to eight in 2019, one to six in 2020 and unprotected in 2021. So at some point, they're going to lose a first. And coincidentally, I think the Celtics want Tyrick Kevin.

So I wonder if maybe Memphis would get your pickback? I don't know if you're going to get your pickback, but maybe some of the protections are changed on that. Who knows? But I think Evans is definitely an interesting player because he's been terrific, man. He's been great. 19 plus points per game, super efficient having a lot of the best defenders against him because Conley's been out.

I would be all over him if I'm a team that needs a score off the bench, who can kind of also do a little playmaking. He can run the points sometimes. Isn't he kind of become the guy almost, you would have expected him to be after his great rookie season? The Tyreek Renaissance has been wonderful to watch. I'm happy for him. Last Grizzly's question for you, though,

what do we think about Chris Wallace in the Grizzly's front office? Because you mentioned that Albatross contract, talked about how they traded away a pick for Jeff Green, which wasn't great. I mean, like, the pieces lately that they've tried to move around the board and bring in, haven't been terrific. Like, they're a team that prior to this year was going to be in the middle of the pack and the playoff picture,

and that was basically as good as it was going to get. we feel about their front office? I mean, you take risks, you know, you took a risk on Taylor Parsons and it didn't work out. I think they were in a tough situation in the first place based on the fact that it's hard to build, you know, high-end contender. They had success, and it's the greatest era in Grizzly's history. And front office certainly deserves a lot of credit for that. And I don't think they can be knocked at all for some of the mistakes that they made because it happens. You know, I think the Parsons deal was something that they shouldn't have done. But at the same time, I mean, if that worked out, it might have been the Cal

risk that they needed to take in order to elevate them to the next level. It just has totally not worked out for them. You know, shouts to Chandler, though, for getting that Cabo money, though. You know, he's got, when he goes down to Cabo, he's got to get, he's got a lot of shots that he can buy with that money. Everybody in L.A. looks like either Chandler Parsons or Chandler Parsons's girlfriend. Everybody in L.A., literally. This is an astute observation.

You have already picked up on Los Angeles. All right. Let's get into the All-Star Draft show and the teams, all-star stuff came out. The show was awful. we watched it not together, but together on Slack with the rest of the ringer NBA staff. It was horrendous. What do we think about the new format that? What do you like about this new format? The jerseys, like the picking teams, what do you like about it?

You know, I think there's a lot of potential. Yes, it would have been nice for it to be televised in its first year. But, I mean, whatever. I mean, we're moving in the right direction. They will eventually. I wouldn't expect it overnight to be, you know, with all the players lined up on the court. Like, you know, it's like, I choose you. I choose you.

No, I want that. It has to happen. And it shouldn't be a court. It should be like a black top somewhere. Yeah. You know, like in a park. They should do it down in Venice where they shot. Women can't jump.

Yes, thank you. Oh, Isaac. What? You've seen white men can't jump. You have no pop culture references. Iconic basketball movie. From pre-2008. But somehow you've seen white men can't jump.

Come on, man. Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snites. He's an enigma. It's a classic. I never know what frame of reference. Isaac will it won't get. But yes, I want that. That has to happen. Oh, I have a question for you. So we just did this draft in mid-January, mid-late January, would it make more sense to do the draft like an hour before the game? Yes, this is a great idea. Or even it could be part of Saturday

night, right? Like Saturday night, the big thing. Forget about the slam dunk contest. That's like the last thing now, right? It's the capper. It's been the capper for years. It's been bad for years with the exception of Aaron Gordon had some good ones. Right. They missed dunks and they try to get. That was a great miss dunk. Let's see it again. After they're done with the dunk contest, line them all up and have the pick. That would be a great way to finish off Saturday. So one idea that was passed along to me in an article I wrote last year, like how would NBA agents, trainers, executives change the league? And one of the ideas, a trainer said to me, they should move the dunk contests to the warmups before the all-star game on Sunday night. So

you have all the skills competition on Saturday night as it is, maybe add a couple more in place of the dunk contests. But if you move the dunk contest is Sunday night, you are more likely to get star players, maybe, to do it if it's part of their warm up, right? Like it's a layup line? Yeah, if it's a warmup. Like, you could revise the dunk contest. Why does the dunk contest need to be essentially the same thing it was 20 years ago? Right. You know, I mean, I think there's ways to change it and maybe make it a little bit more interesting and spice it up with star players. Yeah, I'm fine with all of this. I just want to see them pick the players. Like, this is not hard. I literally.

would be way more fun, which, by the way, my favorite part of this, I don't know what your favorite storyline was, but my absolute favorite part of this is LeBron taking Kyrie. Like, what? Oh, yeah. I mean, I wonder if LeBron almost just wanted to rekindle the relationship and Kyrie's like, yeah, I guess I have no choice. I get to play with him now. Or if it's the type of thing, or maybe they have talked and they're fine. Maybe, you know. I like the idea better, though, of this being a petty pick where LeBron takes him and decides that like he's not going to play. Somehow he's like, all right, I took you, but I'm going to, I know, decided you're not getting in.

All right, that's enough All-Star game stuff. The Eastern Conference playoff picture, I wanted to do two things with you. One, you wrote a great piece about the trade deadline. Like, maybe it's going to be quiet.

Maybe it's not. And I want to fold that into the Eastern Conference playoff race because three through eight has been super, super close. Right now, three is the Cavaliers. They're five games back of the Celtics. And the 76ers are in eighth spot.

They're nine games back. That means the Cavaliers in the three spot and the 76ers in the eight spot are separated by four games. This is really interesting. You've got the heat, the wizards, the bucks, the Pacers, and the 76ers. Who's in the best shape? Who are you the most worried about?

I still think, you know, cavaliers. They have the bronze. So it's like, I'm not worried about them. It's just I'm worried about them compared to the expectations, you know. Like all these teams have issues. The Wizards don't want to take bad teams seriously. You know, the Pacers need to make additions. Right.

The Sixers' number one draft pick is, you know, let's not. Let's not. Ben Simmons shoots at the wrong hands. He's eating chick-fil-all. All these teams have issues. I would say the team I'm really most worried about is the Bucks. They have Yannis, and they're basically a 500 team.

They just fired their coach. And they need to make additions with, you know, and they already made one. Eric Bletsow, who's been good. But at the same time, he also perhaps hasn't made the impact a lot of people would have thought he did on their wins. Yeah, I thought that the Bucks would take a bigger step this year, although they are in the playoff picture. And with the honest thing, in the same way that you,

you say that the calves have LeBron, and that's a theory that I subscribe to and that I've voiced many times on this podcast that, like, you know, once the playoffs start, playoff LeBron is a different beast and he's going to carry them, it's going to be fine. The Bucks have Viannis, and that like makes me feel better about their prospects. And even better lately. They've won three in a row, you know, I'll be interested to see how they change the season evolves. The calves, though, things are weird with the calves. And people have noticed that things are weird with the calves, and they've brought it up. And it's starting to rankle them. Even Isaiah Thomas,

who like just got there is like starting to get annoyed by it. Y'all made a story about that too? I just made a line of it. I just wondered if you had something. So Isaiah was like, I can't believe you guys are writing about this. The hilarious part is last night, he didn't play in the fourth quarter. So right after everybody's like, hey, what's going on with the calves? They're shuffling the lineup.

Tailu might be on the hot seat. And Isaiah going, no, everything's fine. Isaiah doesn't play in the fourth quarter, which I think is bananas. It's fascinating. So today is January 29. 2018, last year at this time, the conversation with Isaiah Thomas was, whoa, this guy has elevated his game to the next level. Is he an MVP candidate? Right. That was the conversation. On the 28th of 2017, he scored 37. He was in the middle of a stretch that the numbers at least resembled

Stefan Carrey's tremendous 2015-16 season. And one year so much has changed where he's a guy not even playing in the fourth quarter when his nickname was King in the fourth. Yeah. And will he get back to that? I mean, it's really the big question of the season, especially for the Cavaliers. I don't think it's realistic for him to get to 100% of what he was. But what percentage does he need to get to? Like, what is he now?

And what does he need to get to, John? I don't know what he is now. I think that, like, forget about what percentage he needs to get to. Like, you look at the Cavs, right? When he was coming off of the injury and they were re-adding him, their point guard situation was disastrous. They had Derek Rose, who may or may not still be in the end. NBA. I'm not sure. And they have Jose Calderon, best currently known for like pig farming. He has amazing Sarano Ham or Hamon and good for him. But like that doesn't get you much on the NBA court.

You add Isaiah Thomas back in and I'm like, this is wonderful. And no, I guess not like do you, here's my question for you. Does Tyloo survive the season? I'd lean yes. Yeah. I forget which Cleveland reporter it was. I was trying to lead you into another Twitter hot take. But I buy. I buy that, you know, he's kind of helping hold things together. Should he stick? around? I mean, that's another question. Is he the right coach for the team? Maybe, maybe not. But I have a feeling that they're not going to pull the plug on that. I think they're going to, continue with what they have. You know, we've talked about this. We've written about it on the site. It's personnel issues. It's the personnel that's a problem. They don't have a single,

consistent, positive defender on the roster. So it's hard, you know, whether you like Tyloo or not, it's hard to fault him. Tailu can't play defense. Exactly. Yeah. For these guys on the Eastern conference, you wrote an excellent trade piece on the ringer.com today. Everybody should check it out. Who's a buyer here? And of these guys, like, Woj had a report that Avery Bradley's on the block, that he could be traded. The Cavs could use in Avery Bradley. I don't know if the calves have what it takes.

Well, who does? This is the same thing. Like, so, okay, so you mentioned that Presti is going to be on the phone, but what do they have left? Misai Ujiri with the Raptors, Aver Bradley would be excellent for them. For sure. Do they have enough to go and get them? Who do we think, Isaac right now is in our outline saying the Clippers? Isaac, I don't think he's going to go to the Clippers.

I think the clippers would be a great spot for him. I think, you know, they had... You think the clippers are going to buy and not sell? So when, yeah, I think they, maybe they'll buy and sell. I mean, we'll see what happens. I mean, I think Avery Bradley, the defensive metrics on him are very bad. Very bad. You know, they make him out to be a very poor defender.

You don't like defensive metrics, though, do you? Well, I think with Avery Bradley, you need to look at the playoff history, the playoff level of production when he is constantly engaged on defense, when he is constantly focused on off-ball defense. when he is going through screens at 100% intensity, not regular season. It's irrelevant. You're getting Avery Bradley to produce in the playoffs. You're getting him to be a Stefan Curry stopper. You're getting him to slow down Kyrie Irving.

You're getting him to slow down these types of point guards. And yes, Bradley's not perfect. But if I'm any of these teams in the West or the East for that matter to have a chance at every Bradley, and the price is right, I'm going for him. But with that said, what would just have the price is high. So Detroit might be thinking bigger. rather than just exchanging a free agent to be. Yeah, you'd have to know that he's going to stick around.

I mean, that's the thing. There's no way that you're going to go and get every Bradley. Like, if you're the Sixers and you're like, hey, this is a guy we could absolutely use. The Sixers ran out an absolutely ridiculous lineup last night where they had the players on the floor. None of them could shoot. It was like T.J. McConnell, Ben Simmons, Trevor Booker, Justin Anderson. I mean, they could absolutely use an extra person. And the Sixers are a team that in the past has expressed interest at Bradley.

So Sixers have, the Clippers did when Doc Rivers was general manager. I'm sure there could still be interest there. Yeah, there should be interest in Avery Bradley. I'm curious about how big Detroit would actually be thinking, though, or if they just have heard that he doesn't want to stay. If that's the case, they're not going to get a lot. If they do that, what does that say about SVG? Are we looking at, like, I wrote about this a little bit.

He's on the hot seat anyway. It's crazy. I don't know if it's the hot seat yet, but he's sitting in a seat and it's warm. It's warming. Yeah, and like the dial is getting turned up a little bit. And he's like, ah, what's going on down there? Yeah, yeah. Is this a heated recliner?

Bad news for you, SBG. Last one for you real quick before we move on to real or not real. Does Kemba get moved? I don't think so. Kenba's staying putt. How about you? You think so? I hope he does.

Should they move him? Now all of a sudden I'm you and I'm going blow it up. Blow it up. All right. Let's do a real or not real edition because Kevin O'Connor is here and because he's since fled Boston. We're going to do in advance of the Super Bowl. and all Philly versus Boston addition of real or not real.

Kevin O'Connor, first question for you. You had an interesting hot take before the All-Star teams were announced. Was it really that hot? Should Al, I'm going to give you a chance

to walk this back. Real or not real. Al Horford deserves to start in the All-Star game over Embeded. I mean, I'm happy M-Beed's starting, but I'm not voting for the guy that I hope starts. Didn't you have Horford?

Yeah, I'm voting for the guy that I think should start based on the deadline of January 8th, which is way too early. I mean, if we're talking about a month from now or, you know, a couple weeks from now at this point, it's like, yes, I mean, you should start. I'm very happy that he is.

I think Horford was the last pick in the draft. Probably. No way that he should start over him. Like, what is it about Al Horford? He's a great passer. I believe he leads the Celtics and assists this season. Yeah, he does a lot for that team. He's a way underrated player.

He's a glue guy. He's a guy that does a lot of things. He doesn't hurt you anywhere on the floor. Do you get excited about watching out Horford? It's the All-Star game. I want you to, you live in L. Now. Put on your LA clothes.

What is the All-Star game? I want you to be wearing it. This is a philosophical conversation. Should the All-Star game be about the most exciting player? Because if it is, yes, Joelle Amid is one of my favorite players to watch. That's it. But or is it about putting in the guys that are the best players? And Embed is a perfectly fine choice.

And for me, it was a coin flip. And Al Horford was just the impact that he has beyond the numbers, kind of gave him the slight edge at the time of voting. But that changes if we're voting in early February. changes in the foresight cut out when you were saying how amazing Mbide was and then after that I didn't hear anything. Next one for you. Real or not real, Gordon Hayward will play before Markell Fultz. Oh boy. I thought about this and I was like, oh God, that's an actual question. Yeah. It's kind of sad that it is. I'm going to say no. I think the Sixers will throw them out there

at some point. I think Fultz will get out there. Whether or not that's the right thing to do is another conversation, but I think they're going to put them out there. That makes me feel a little bit better. I wanted it to do a couple of Boston ones for you. Real or not real, Duncan Donuts is better than federal donuts in Philadelphia. I've never had federal donuts. You're missing out. This is not real.

Federal donuts is much better. Is it even fair for me to pick Duncan Donuts? I'm helping you, you know, to the right conclusion. We're going to get you some federal donuts. Shots to Federal. They're excellent. Real or not real. Marky Mark is your favorite rapper.

Definitely not real. It's definitely real. It's definitely real. We actually cue this up for you. So we're doing a podcast right now What you can't see is that Kevin is really getting into the groove That's his favorite rapper Marky Mark

Totally jamming out Fresh Prince much better Give me some fresh prints inside But you can't speed through Two miles an hour So everybody sees you There's an air of love And of happiness

And this is the fresh prince's new definition So I decided to throw those two guys out there Just as a joke And Isaac was like I don't know what this is Which makes me very sad feel very old that you don't know what summertime is. Listen, I was born in 1994.

This came out when I was like three, four. Listen, you can't make the line of demarcation for your pop culture knowledge the year that you were born. I want you to expand your horizons. I moved to this country in 2002, so I mean, I feel like that's an excuse as well. All right, all right, that's probably a better excuse. All right, let's do the heat check. Oh, wait, before we go to the

heat check, heat check, I got one more for you. Real or not real, the Eagles will win the Super Bowl on Sunday. That's not rude. We had some technical difficulties for Kevin's microphone. So he picked the Eagles. That's excellent. That's amazing.

I even brought you an Eagles hat for you to war. Congratulations. Fly, Eagles Fly. Let's go to the heat check. Boom, Shakalaka. He's heating up. All right. Heat check news.

We have breaking news, believe it or not. Isaac dropped this into the outline, and I'm laughing because breaking news, the Knicks are looking to move Joe Kim Noah. No shit. Is that really breaking? This is fantastic. Shams reported that after a heated verbal exchange in practice between Noah and coach Jeff Hornacek last week, the Knicks are exploring avenues to part with Noah. He has two years remaining on the four years, $72 million deal he signed in 2016.

Look, I mean, breaking news. Every time the Grizzlies look at Chandler-Parsons contract, they break into tears. I mean, look, they were trying to move Noah before this heated verbal exchange. They're trying to move them now. Maybe there's greater sense of urgency. to make it happen. I don't know if they're going to be able to find a trade for him. Maybe a buyout is the most likely avenue for Joaquin Noah and his big money deal.

Godspeed, Jo Kim Noah. More heat-check stuff. Did you see Kevin Love? Did you hear his reaction when he was asked about where he thought he was picked? Glass. It was pretty great. Where was I picked? I don't know.

I'm probably dead glass. I'm like the, you know, I'm the guy in the pickup game or, you know, during the summer where it's like, okay, he's a big guy that can shoot. Like, I guess I'll take him. You know, he don't know how much I, you know, I'm not going to be doing the between the leg down to the windmills, but, you know, I'll be getting those rebounds and I'll let the ball. So I guess that had some value to that. I know Russell like it.

I love that. I love that he was poking fun at himself. I did an interview with Carl Anthony Towns, also on the ringer.com today. He's a big Eagles fan, by the way, your new favorite team because you've renounced all your boss in eyes. I love that about you. You've seen the error of your ways. But Carl was talking about, like, I said, hey, where do you think you were picked? And he's like, I don't care.

And he, like, he was kind of earnest about it. I'm like, no, this is the way you react. Kevin Love made fun of himself. That's when you know, someone really cares. Yeah, exactly. Exactly right. Speaking of, Russ was also asked about... He cares.

He definitely cares, too. Thoughts on being picked by LeBron for the All-Star team? Oh, that's cool, man. That's good, man. Finally, they got the team figured out. That's why you really feel. Fuck. But I see, I was the last pick on this.

I was just trying to figure out, you know. Alphabetical order. It was alphabetical order. See, I told you, man. Aphabical order. man. Of course I was first. I love that he thought that he was picked last because his name was last. That is hilarious. That's very rough.

One more quick one on the heat check here. I've got to mention this because you brought up Markell and I brought up Markell. He's on a court. He made a shot backwards, full court. That's the best thing we can say about him. Maybe the key to fixing his jumper is he needs to start shooting backwards. Yeah, maybe. No hitching that backwards shot.

Maybe he will innovate a new way to shoot a basketball and change the game in a similar way that Stefan Kari has extending three point range, extending the limits. Maybe Markle Fultz has found a new way to extend it even further by shooting backwards. It's really depressing to me. We'll play the Markle Fultz theme song. Oh, I have to run this one. I keep saying the last one, but I really do have to run this last. This is how bad it's gotten for the cabs. So Ty Loo, did you see Ty Loo wanted to put Derek Rosen for longer the other night? He had 14 points in 15 minutes against the pacer. So Tiley was like, oh, he's having a good game. I'm going to give him some more run.

Couldn't find him because he was in the bathroom. Like, in the middle of the game, I don't know if, like, that one is better than New Orleans Noel getting his halftime hot dog, but this is one of my favorite weird NBA stories of the season. The hot dog was better. Hot dog was amazing. Everybody has to go to the bathroom.

But I don't think I've ever heard of an NBA player in the middle of a game disappearing to go to the back. Like, I literally, I think this is the first time I've ever heard that. It's fantastic. Derek Rose, Godspeed, buddy. All right. This weekend basketball coming up. We've got Sixers at Bucks tonight, Battle of the Unicorns.

You got, oh, M. B, it's going to be out, but you've still got, it's a back-to-back, but you've still got Yonis and you've got Simmons. Hopefully the All-Star games on are back-to-back. Nice. See, you're going to throw in your little shots. I get what you're doing over there. Games played and availability is part of the conversation. This is not helping your Horford argument. You've already said how excellent M-B is.

M.B should start. He should start. That's good. They cut his mic again, Isaac. We've got O KC and the Wizards on Tuesday. Heat at the Cavs on Wednesday. That's a fun game. Battle of the Mid-tier Eastern

conference playoff teams and then you got a mid tier for calves that's that's a i know i know i know i know i know and then you've got uh rockets and spurs i always love when the texas teams go out it that'll be fun i always like those as well especially it's it's best when the mavericks are good as well yeah right yeah right you have that texas road trip yeah uh you got any good pieces coming out this week we should be on the lookout for um nothing at the moment you know we'll play it by your phone over there as we're doing the show i mean with trade deadline coming up that's a lot of the focus right now How about you? I have a Jason Tatum piece coming at, J-Team, so that'll be out later this week.

And also, you'll be back tomorrow with Chris Vernon on the NBA show. We've got Sursa Say with Juliet Litman and Chris Ryan on Wednesday. Group chat with Chris and Justin Verrier in the gang on Thursday. The podfather, Bill Simmons, everywhere all the time, pays the bills. Make sure to listen to all the ringer NBA shows. And I will not be back next week because I'm going to the Super Bowl to see Kevin O'Connor's favorite team. The Eagles win the Super Bowl. I don't know about that guy.

on Monday. Juliet, we'll be back with a co-host TBD. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.