The Ringer NBA Show - Curry and the Warriors Torch the Nets and the Hawks' Early Issues | Group Chat

Episode Date: November 17, 2021

Justin, Rob, and Wos start by talking Stephen Curry and the Warriors continuing their impressive play after a comfortable win over the Nets. They also talk about what makes the Warriors so good right now and some of the potential major issues the Nets have (6:49). Then they give their thoughts on the muddled Western Conference (29:27) and they wrap by talking about the Atlanta Hawks' early season struggles (50:37).  Hosts: Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and Wosny Lambre Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Full Court Fits is The Ringer's new weekly NBA video series hosted by Big Was, Waz, aka Wosney Lambray. Each week, we take you around the world of NBA fashion and share can't miss style choices from your favorite players and keep you up to date on the latest news and releases in sneaker culture. Was also talks to experts like Damian Lillard's personal stylists to give you behind-the-scenes looks at how the NBA's biggest stars choose their outfits. New episodes drop every Friday, so make sure you're subscribe to the Ringer's YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash the ringer so you never miss an episode.

Hello and welcome to the Crip, aka Group Chat. I am Justin Barrier joining me, Big Was, Rob Mahoney. Rob, how's your crypto portfolio looking these days? Not strong enough, apparently. I feel like I need to get some tips from Was on this one. Yeah, Waz is young Musk over here. I wouldn't say all that, but yeah, I've definitely made a profit or two here or there. maybe possibly IRS on crypto currency.

Yeah, I mean, so we're recording this in the wake of the bombshell news that got the attention of pretty much every news outlet to the point where I was online at like 11 p.m. last night and you saw the New York Times brief come up about this. I was like, whoa, this is a bigger deal than I thought. But Staples Center will be no more. It is giving way to the crypto.com arena. What do we think about this? Bracially, was, you're a resident of Staples Center.

You go there a lot. Are you ready for this change? Yeah, you know, because anytime you sit and think about why the Staples Center is named Staples, which is that Staples was a relevant company and brand 20-some odd years ago, you think to yourself, well, that's a really ridiculous name for a stadium. Because, you know, I don't know if you've heard guys, but people don't buy Post-it Notes and, you know, magic markers quite at the rate that they used to. Staples, yeah.

Speak for yourself, was. We do a lot of that stuff digitally these days, right? Graves, all of that type of stuff. So I'm not surprised by the name change. And again, like, it's probably a name that people feel a certain attachment to, especially if you're a Laker fan, because there's been six championships had. that building was called Staples, right?

No, that's, yeah, six championships. And so, you know, I'm not surprised that people would have an attachment to it, but the name is arbitrary. It's just the corporate sponsor who happened to step up at that time. It just happens to have the double whammy of being crypto, which is its own bizarre world. I want nothing to do with. And it's a dot-com name, which just sounds bad when you put it on a building.

So not ideal. Is it worse than smoothie king? I mean, we're just in a new age of really bad sounding corporate sponsors putting their names on arenas, frankly. Yeah, I was just a little surprised because this isn't like Fenway

or something with like the long legacy of years and decades even of having this be where people go to is literally the Staples Center is because another company that was booming at the time bought the naming rights two decades ago, probably ahead of their time,

Like so it was at the point where this was not a typical thing throughout arenas in the NBA, but it's just just very bizarre to me. But and hold on. And another thing that like people need to understand, it's not like Oracle Arena, rest in peace, which is like obviously that's the name of a company that's owned by Larry Ellison, et cetera, et cetera. But the word Oracle has a cool meaning to it, right? Staples.

A staple. It's a staple. Yeah. No, but I mean, paper clip. It does represent a time, right? When you think Oracle, you think the boom of the Warriors dynasty. When you think Staples Center, you probably think of Kobe. Yeah, Kobe Shack. That sort of tone.

All of that, yeah. Yeah, right. Crypto is certainly of a time. It will be an immortal reminder of how dumb this particular era was. I can't wait. But how close are we to the ringer.com arena? How close are we to getting our own building in your somewhere. It really depends on Waz's crypto portfolio on how it does it over the last couple

years. By the way, last thing on crypto, they should stop calling it crypto because guess what? The main function in utility when this thing was created was that you could move money around in secret, right? That wasn't cash because cash obviously is unreliable. It can burn. It can be stolen from you, et cetera, et cetera. You use the point of this, because I remember going to a Bitcoin seminar in like 2014, and they were begging people to get involved. And I remember thinking to myself, this is really cool idea. It actually serves a function unlike Dogecoin, y'all idiots who got involved in that. But why would the U.S. government be cool with this happening, right?

Like, the point of the government and Uncle Sam is that they come for their bread. Like, the idea that people would move money around secretly, that goes, that flies in the face of taxes, you know, all of this shit. And then, you know, I learned earlier this year that the feds have figured out a backdoor. So this shit is no longer crypto, y'all. Like, the people know that you moving this money wherever you're sending it to. So just keep that in mind, people who want to invest in, um, cryptocurrency. It quickly became the Joe Rogan podcast. What's going on? Wow. I just, I just threw this out of a joke. I didn't realize that you been attending seminars, man.

Well, dude, it was like open bar, free food. And it was like these nice white people explained it to us. Like, guys, this shit is the future. Invest in it. Tell your friends to do it. And again, in 2014, like, that shit might have been at 100, 200. I don't even remember what it was in 2014. So, yeah, if I had any type of paper or cents, I'd be rich right now, guys.

This is going to be a crypto podcast by the end of the month. All right, let's move along here to what we have on the docket. We're going to talk about the West because it's looking particularly wild these days. We're going to talk about the Hawks because we need to have this discussion finally. But first, let's talk about last night's game, Warriors and Nets, probably the best game, or at least like the most anticipated game of the season thus far. Unfortunately, it was over by the third quarter. Rob, what's kind of the headline from this one last night?

The Warriors really blew the door off the Nets. I mean, to me, it was how shallow the nets look when Hardin isn't MVP level Hardin. And a lot of that comes with when you trade a whole package of players from last year's team for a superstar, and that superstar isn't playing like one. That tends to be the way it goes. But they have some guys out right now, too.

They were kind of, you know, piecing their rotation together with nuts and bolts. And this just looked like a complete team with an identity and a style of play and Kevin Durant and a bunch of guys who couldn't shoot. That seems like a problem. So we'll have to see how much of that gets resolved by hopefully hard and getting healthier over the course of the season.

Hopefully some of these other guys getting into their groove and figuring out how they fit. But a lot of the guys, the Nets depended on last season, the Blake Griffin types, just are not delivering at a contending level right now. For me, it's absolutely the Warriors defense. Just the switchability is there. And, you know, news flash to everybody, because these are two. switching-ass teams that played last night. Switching is great when you have the personnel, right?

When you have the long, stretchy guys who can move their feet that can make guys' lives hell at the end of possessions, you know, that's when switching is great. Switching is not great when it's, you know, Blake Griffin looking cooked or Lamarcus Algeist who didn't really play, but he's not a switchable guy. Switching is awesome when you have Draymond Green, when you have Wiggins, when you have pool, when you have these guys, when you have Igudala, when you have Agu-Dala,

when you have Ageno Porter, when you have these really smart, rangery defenders, yeah, you should be switching a lot. When you're playing creaky-ass, old and small and short and lazy, and, you know, you can assign those characteristics to Patty Mills and Blake Griffin and James Harden,

switching ain't as fun. And another thing, KD's not in playoff mode defensively yet. So the Nets defense just, that's my biggest takeaway. The Nets defense is, but we said this last year, and it was kind of fine in the playoffs.

And the Warriors look like, they look amazing on that end. Yeah, can we talk about Dremont? Well, I thought I was giving you guys a layup here asking for the headline when Seth Curry went off for 37 points. And it's already moving on to are the nether and trouble. I think this is like the 10th time.

No, it's not 10. I think it's like in the 30s. That step has hit nine threes in a game. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, obviously it's excellent. I think he's playing the best ball in the NBA right now individually. But I have seen this guy do this literally 30 times. Sure.

So, yes, Tramon Green. Go ahead, Rob. Well, I mean, I just thought it was incredible. I mean, first of all, that he's assigned to guard Durant. That's a premier assignment for a guy who's primarily like a team defender, rotational defender in Draymond or who guards Biggs. But he was all over Katie, all up in his shot in a way that, you know, if you're just a defender who reacts to what Durant does,

who tries to contest his shot when he pulls up, you just have no chance of getting there. And Draymond guarded him like a guy who knew all of his moves, who knew his spots, who knew when he gets to that free-row line. You mean like a guy who might have played and practiced against him? Perhaps. Perhaps. Recruited him to the wars, yeah.

But other people have done that too and had nowhere near that level of success. And I think what was impressive too was not just how he was guarding Durant, but in typical Dreymond fashion, thinking what the next counter to that was going to be in preempting it. Like, you know, we were talking about the switching. Obviously, one of the counters, one of defense is switching is you have your screener slip to the rim. Every time someone came and screened for Duran and then tried to slip, Dremont was dropping back, deflecting passes. he was on top of everything.

And I don't know how you do both of those things at once. He was rotating, he was helping, he was doing all the Dremont stuff and guarding the best player on the floor at the same time. I mean, that's defensive player of the year shit if it's out there. Yeah, and what Dremont gives you in terms of the guy as long as hell,

so his contests are real contests. How many times have we seen Dremont block jump shots? Right? It's not because he has Vince Carter hops. It's because, one, he has great instincts, And he has long ass arms. So super long guy. And he can do the PJ Tucker thing where he gets into your body and he's bodying you up and he's not allowing KD to move.

Right. So he's bodying the guy up and just his mind for defense. His IQ is just all-time level, right? Like it's not hyperbole to say he's Bill Russell. He's, you know, he's all of the greatest defensive players you've ever thought of, conceived of in your life. For me, Ron Artes, of course, shout's to Queens Bridge. But, like, he's that. He's that.

So you mix his physical gifts for defense, like his defensive talent, if you will, with his mind for it. And, you know, it's not hard to figure out that Dremont gets up for these damn games, these moments, national TV against the best offensive player in the NBA, individually anyway. It's not hard to understand why Dremont would be. successful at that. And like, you know, I'm watching him on, on Peyton's Place,

but not Payton's Place, on the Manning Brothers broadcast this past Monday night. And Peyton was like, yo, I heard that you could name literally every single dude that was drafted before you. And he's like, you can still do that? He's like, yeah. And he starts rattling off. He's like, he gets to like number 12 or 13. And Peyton's like, yo, stop, I believe you. And I tweeted.

I was like, yo, $150 plus million later. Draymond is still, man, about being jacked in 34th. It's amazing. It's Aria Stark level, like, vengeance. I mean, yes, Drayman was brilliant last night, but to circle back to Rob's original point, like, was it that hard to guard the Nets last night? Like, they were throwing out triangle and twos,

box and ones and all its other stuff in large part because they only really had to guard Durant, sometimes Harden, and then, like, D'Andre Bambri, like Bembery took eight shots last night and played 31 minutes. They were really scraping the bottom of the barrel because they didn't have Joe Harris. They didn't have Nick Claxon. I think there's a case to be made like, well, maybe they get some of those guys, their B-level talent back.

And this becomes a completely different ball game. On the other hand, they are kind of reliant on a lot of these guys, the Lamarcus Aldridge, etc., until Kyrie comes back. And so, I don't know. Is this a problem, Rob? Are you, like, concerned overall? Because an offense that was supposed to be a juggernaut without Kyrie is now 17th in the league. Well, that's where this matchup, the timing of this matchup sucked for them. Because if they had Nick Claxton healthy, maybe he can play.

But Lamarcus Aldridge, it's not a coincidence that he got a D&P in the first half, basically spent most of his minutes in the second half when Steph was off the floor. That's just a non-starter. Like, you cannot put that guy on the floor against this kind of team. And you could say the same thing about Paul Millsap. You could say the same thing about a lot of these rotation guys that the Nets are relying on. To the point that, I mean, Stan Van Gundy was saying, on the broadcast that Blake Griffin is the Nets best defender.

And I don't really, I don't even want to argue the merits of whether that's true. Because if it is true, it is a problem. Like that is, that is not where you want to be. Yeah. Like if a team is playing triangle and two and Joe Harris is out there, that's completely untenable, right? Like, you can't do that when a world-class shoot. You can't just have Joe Harris take practice threes.

Possessions on possessions on possessions. So, yeah, the lack of, you know, having. healthy guys or having immunized guys. Like, that kind of killed them for sure. And I thought, you know, they were gained in the first half. It's just that the Warriors had one of those 2014-15 third quarters. Yep. Right.

Remember when that was their freaking hallmark, they would come out and just blow the doors off of people in third quarters of that season. They had one of those third quarters. And then, you know, the Nets defense, they gave up nine painted, pain attempts in the third, eight of which were layups, layups, layups, guys. You can't give up eight layups in one freaking quarter and expect to win an NBA basketball game.

So, you know, I think the nets were pretty game for a half. The Warriors, you know, put the screws to them. But look, I tweeted about this yesterday as well, just like just the idea that people poo-poo regular season basketball. Thanks, Adam Silver. I thought this was a big game that everybody should have been paying attention to. I thought the first half absolutely delivered on that promise. And I think the Warriors are fucking legit.

They don't have Clay Thompson yet. And if he can, you know, again, be anywhere near the level of defender that he has been historically. And we know he's going to shoot the lights out of the ball because that's not going to leave you just because your Achilles got messed up. Warriors are tough. It's tough, y'all. You know they're feeling themselves defensively, too, when they're trying the triangle and two shit. When they're just cavalierly abandoning all non-shooters, they're feeling pretty good about

where they are. Yeah, I mean, we talked about this a little last week, so I won't belabor the point, but the most surprising thing to me is just how much swagger they have on the defensive end. Like, you expected, as alluding to was earlier point, like, you expected Curry to be supernova on any given night. but the fact that they're number one on defense still now 14 games into the season is really impresses without ostensibly one of the best defenders when healthy in the league in Clay Thompson I've been struck by just like how they've been able to go back to previous levels of defense

with guys you wouldn't expect that from like they I mean the whole thing about the war is Andrew Wiggins yeah Andrew Wiggins well hey I thought this was actually like the ideal Andrew Wiggins game It was. Honestly, you like, forget the Minnesota Cleveland shit where he shows up two to four times a year against those teams. That doesn't really interest me. He played good, committed, like, focused defense in this game, aggressive offense, hitting shots, super efficient. Like, this is exactly what you want from him. He lives the best life where he gets paid like a number one option, but is at his best when he's the number four, number five. Like, that's exactly what I want to do in an ideal world. No, but like the whole thing with the Warriors dynasty is like, everyone made a big deal about the shooting. But when you ask people, they're like, oh, the real progressive thing is that they were able to defend while small because they had all of these similar body types, bigger wings. And they've been able to replicate that with guys like

auto Porter, with Wiggins. And if you get clayback, I mean, Damian Lee, some of these other guys, like, they've been, they're back to what they used to be. And when they get clay back, they could only just get better at that. So, like, I don't know. This seems, we talked last week about, like, are the warriors back to being world beaters? Like, they certainly look like it. And they seem like they can only get better. Well, we're seeing flashes, too, from, like, Cuminga had great moments in this game. We'll have to see kind of what the final rotation looks like. There's going to be some tough decisions to make, ultimately, when the playoffs roll around,

in terms of maybe Nomenia B. Elisa doesn't play in a playoff series against a specific opponent. Like, you know, maybe JTA doesn't get big minutes against a particular opponent, even though he could. You know, that's the position they're in, which is miles removed from where they were last year. The fact that they have a rotation that's so deep, they actually have to pick and choose. And again, the offense is going to look different in the playoffs when teams are like heavily scouting them and teams are like, yeah, you're really literally going to have to make shots,

Draymond and Iggy and, you know, Porter and all of these other guys, right? Like Gary Payton the second, whose hops are just amazing. Better hops than your pops, Gary Porter. I mean, Gary Porta, Gary Payton, sorry. Commitant. Yeah, I just think the defense is going to win the day, man. Like, they're going to be able to play Draymond at center for a lion's share of minutes, even more so than before.

Because I think in the original iteration of the team back in 2015, Kerr was very conscious of like, we can't just ask Traymond to do this 35 minutes a game. Right? Like, it's untenable against so many opponents that we come across, right? Against the Boogie Cousins and all of these other guys that were prevalent in the league back at 2014, 15. In this NBA, like, who is bruised? Like, who's honestly bruising you, right? Not just one-on-one offensively, you know, killing you on the offensive boards.

Like, who's doing that to you? J.Mont could do this 30-plus minutes a night. And that's what makes this team scary is like, we're going to protect the paint. You're not going to have some big guy who can bludgeon us and just put our guy underneath the basket. We're going to be switchable. We're going to freaking put pressure on the ball.

Like, we're going to attack you every single level of the defense. That's going to be hard for pretty much every single team to deal with. And that's why not to get all hipster. When you asked me what I took away from the game, it wasn't Steph Raine in 40-footers. I've seen him do that plenty of times. It's these guys just being top flight security when it comes to defense. Yeah, in terms of the bruising bigs, it's really just Yokic, right?

And even then, it's not even just about the five. All of these teams are playing tween or fours now. It's all Jay Crowders and Boyan Bogdanovich's and whatnot. And, like, you can get away with the rebounding part against those kinds of teams now. I mean, look across the court. I mean, the Nets look puny in comparison. you know um i i guess the lakers would be the only comp there but they have plenty of other things to deal with themselves um but can we talk about the stuff of it all yes because 37 points nine

from 14 from 3 seven rebounds five assists in 29 minutes uh i mean wads is right he does this all the time but i'm still just completely marveled whenever he does reel this off uh rob do you see anything different from step this year are the warriors like putting him in better positions? Does he have more space? Because I don't know if the performances are any better, but maybe just like the fact that they have stakes behind them again, there is a little bit more like moi, it's more joie de vivre going on here. Well, I think it is just that. It's, you know, him hitting big pull-up threes in this game and the visiting crowd going nuts because it's amazing in a game like this, as was saying, like this is a game that mattered. The Warriors haven't had

those for a couple years. That makes a difference. The rhythm of the offense makes a difference. Having like legit veterans to play off of makes a difference. Because otherwise he's more or less the same guy. I would say he does look a little bit stronger maybe in terms of going to the rim. Like he's definitely filled out a little bit over the course

of the last couple years versus like MVP Steph. And you saw that just he's always been an amazing finisher, just creative, great touch. Obviously all those things plays off his shooting really well. But the angles at which he can absorb contact and still get something up, that's

always really impressive, and it's only getting more so. Yeah, to me, the thing that looks different, even if it doesn't reflect in the numbers, is his attack in the basket. There used to be a slight hesitancy when Teas was like, we know what to do against Steph and Golden State. We switched somebody on him. We play him for the drive, and, you know, we kind of bother

his shot down there, right? Like, we could get him off balance when he shoots down there. And Steph definitely didn't always want to do it. Now, man, you put a big dude on Steph 30 feet from the basket. It's not even a thought. He's just taking you to the rack and he's finishing. Period. That to me is the biggest difference. That to me is what's going to make them so hard to defend in the playoffs. It's like when you do get that big guy out there, just know, Steph is going to fry him. Like, you get some seven-footer, Slow-footed dude, you think on a switch, that's going to hurts.

It's not. He's going to kill him. And he's only gotten stronger, only's gotten more decisive at it. That, to me, is what is changed. Like, he's always had, he's always been a willing passer, always had great vision. Obviously, we know about the shooting. Obviously, we know about the off-ball movement and stuff. He's always had that.

To me, it's like how, like, determined he is to beat guys off the dribble in one-on-one situations. And that's the four-dimensional chess element of this is revolutionize the game to the point that centers are basically taken off the floor and then get layups because there's no more room protection. Yes. There's a clip circulating. I want to say something Andy Liu retweeted. So if you want to go back through his feed, I know it's like a zombie horde of retreats of positivity going on right there. But like there's one where Steph is just moving off the ball. Clearly his conditioning is on another level.

He's always moving, always cutting, always running. off the screens, right? But then you watch him being physical with the screens and literally having to like shove off of Hardin and literally like throw Blake Griffin to the side because they're trying to grab on him. And he's just completely undeterred and then he gets the ball in his pocket and shoots and makes it three. It's like it's like everything you would want from that type of player. And it just shows like how much subtlety is going on before you even see the beautiful shot. I find myself asking a lot just like, why don't more guys try to play this way? Like, why don't more people try to play

like Steph? And then I remember, oh, this is incredibly hard every possession, incredibly taxing. Like, his stamina is off the charts, one of the best conditioned athletes in the NBA, on top of the fact that he's also the best shooter in NBA history. Like, that combination,

it's not unbeatable, but it's unguarded for sure. You think James Hardin could benefit from moving around more? He, man, he needs to be followed around on the court by it, too, because he is just fronping from end to end and just like dead fishing all over the court

in hopes of getting contact. It's like it's sad to watch. What is Steph more like clarinet, do you think? Yeah, or like a flute. Yeah. Some real balletic sort of background music. I mean, this kind of begs the question, though, is Steph now the best player in the league?

Or at the very least, if we were to do the early season MVP voting, is Steph at the top there? I mean, I think going into this game, there's a lot of buzz, including from Charks on our website about just like how good KD has been this season. And obviously he's been brilliant, but you see Steph on the other side. And I don't know, man. It's really, it's tough. I mean, I promise myself I wouldn't like seriously talk MVP until February. But like, whose game is the most beneficial to the people around them?

To me, it's Steph, right? And part of it is, like, again, like a lot of times we talk about assist that's happening. The guy has the ball in his hand. He creates a scene, which punches the defense, makes them react. And he passes to an open shooter. That's an assist. And, yes, you're making your teammates better. Steph's doing that.

Don't get it twisted. He's doing that traditional assists. But, like, the off-ball stuff, we're, like, would as many times this dudes just get confused on how to deal with the screen, and the screener just cuts and gets a layup, you know, or, like, they divert so much attention over to what's happening to Steph off ball that the ball handler could just kick it to the weak side

for an open shot, like, which is all created by one man, his one man's activity. Like, to me, he's having the biggest impact on the game of any player right now in the NBA. Well, I mean, yeah, I know people don't want to have the MVP discussion early on. But like, had I said best player in the world, then someone would have mentioned LeBron.

And it just gets more complicated. Nah. No, LeBron is not playing as well as Steph Curry is right now, period. And it's not even close. It's not one of those things where it's like, oh, you know, like they're at a certain level and you can pick nits about what you would rather, you know, a guy who can consistently get to the line or do this or do that at the end of the games or this. No, it's not close.

Like the level of output is. not close. Steph Curry is playing way better than LeBron James is. Now, if you want to make the Durant argument or some other guys, sure, I might not be willing to entertain that, but don't bring LeBron in this, please. Speaking of the some other guys,

I think this is a Nicola Yokic conversation too. Like, to me, it's it is a tidy conversation right now to the extent that there's an MVP conversation at all, which there isn't, Justin, we're going on strike. Oh, come on. What's fun. Just have the conversation. Jesus Christ. But it's those three guys.

It's Steph and Durant and Yokic. They're on another level right now. We'll see if, you know, Embed when he gets healthy, Janice, if he gets going, we'll see if that evolves. But it's those three guys right now.

I mean, right now, I don't think Janus is worried about MVP. I think he's worried about getting into the playoffs. Just considering how poorly that's gone in Milwaukee. No, I think it's an interesting, just early straw poll to take. Either of any of them are going to be good candidates.

But, I mean, the Warriors have been playing inspired basketball. If we're going to say the team, like, we're actually closing in on the quarter mark of the season. If we're saying team player of the quarter, I mean, warriors and stuff have to be right up there. All right. Let's pivot now to the rest of the Western Conference because in other action last night, the jazz completely blitzed the Embed-less Sixers, who unfortunately the beautiful story of the rag-tag Sixers soldiering on without Ben Simmons without Embed

has unfortunately kind of fallen flat here they've lost five of the last games and then the clippers the hot clippers now nine and five surging up the standings the West is particularly muddled right now and I'm just like curious

what you guys think as we're looking at the standings right now you have the Warriors in first the suns and seconds and then really just a morass of 9 and 4, 9 and 5, Mavs, Jazz, Clippers, Nuggets, Lakers, Grizzlies. What was of that standings from right now surprises you the most? It's none of it. Like, I think the Jazz sons are going to be there. By the time this all shakes out,

obviously I think when LeBron comes back, the Lakers will be better. So, like, I think the Lakers will be better. Like, I think the Lakers are going to be right there. And I've actually been encouraged by what I've seen from the non-Westbrook Lakers since LeBron has went down. Like, I'm encouraged by what I've seen from those guys. I'm not surprised by any of this.

The Clippers, you know, they've won eight of nine, half of which of the games they won came against the Thunder and the Timberwolves. So y'all could do, like literally. four of those wins are against the thunder and Timberwolves. Y'all could do with that information which y'all want. I'm not surprised by any of these outcomes. You know, earlier in the year, I said on the internet that Memphis is kind of limited outside of John Moran,

specifically on the offensive end, and Grizzlies fans were, are you fucking kidding me? Bain is amazing. Brooks is this and blah and this. And what have we seen from that team? When Jaws not behaving like a superstar, which he is, he's at that level now. It's a bunch of dudes trying to get stuff done. They're not, there's not a bunch of dynamic guys on that team.

So when you talk about that standings, the Lakers, sons, jazz warriors to me are the cream of the crop. Everybody else is cool. I love to. If we want to flash forward. I just see an incredible nobody really wants to be the 10th place Western Conference team battle here. Like, it seems like between the kings and the wolves, there's a lot of like, eh, eh, going on. And I still like the wolves. I think they're frisky.

Like, that game against Phoenix the other night, they were frisky. Like, Phoenix made up executed some, like, incredible half-court offense to win that game at the end of the night. But, like, you know, it's the wolves. We'll give them frisky. Yeah. Yeah. The Wolves did bit the Lakers. I'm surprised,

wise, that you're so high or at least like not concerned about the Lakers right now because I have to say, I'm mildly concerned. A lot of it hinges on like when LeBron is going to come back.

But like, they have not looked good without him, especially when AD is getting injected from games that they should be just blowing out the opponent. Yeah, it's a team that, you know,

not a high effort team. They're not exactly the Chicago Bulls or the Warriors here. Like this podcast, yeah. Right. A lot of guys who've been in the league for a while, a lot of guys who have seen big playoff minutes, a lot of guys who like, you know, unfortunately for us, have an understanding about how long the regular season is. And so to me, like I'm watching like a big minute guy like Westbrook who you need him to find

a role and play it to the best. of his capabilities, he's not doing that. That's concerning to me, right? Like, he's going to play big minutes in big games, and he hasn't defined a role on the Lakers that's going to prove to be lasting for when LeBron comes back, for when they need to do a long playoff front.

But, like, you know, they got a decent amount of shooting. AD in spurts has looked like a great defensive player. You know, I have a decent amount of confidence that he can tap into that. when it truly matters. And, you know, like a half-court offense that I'm not worried about the half-court offense. To me, it's about, yo, are you guys going to guard anybody?

You know, when LeBron is not, because LeBron can't do, it's not 2010 anymore, right? Like, he can't be the be-all and end-all of every single offensive possession in every single game that matters. At a certain point, AD's going to have to lead offense. Russell Westbrook's going to have to lead offense and then LeBron could do it most of the time

but he can't do it all of the time and what I'm not seeing from the Lakers is an ability to generate consistent quality shots in the half court from these other dudes and that to me is what you should be concerned about and the fact that your defense is just wow it's fucking horrible

seven things but I think they're fixable I think a lot of this stuff is fixable Well, I would say I am more worried about their half-court offense than you was. And some of that is because even when they won the title, they weren't that good a half-court offense. Like, they were a really good defense that ran. And so you add Westbrook to that equation. I mean, just look at the way the Bulls guarded them the other night.

Basically hard-dubling Anthony Davis whenever they wanted to, they could leave Westbrook. They could leave a lot of these non-shooters. And frankly, even the guys on the Lakers who can shoot, they can't attack a closeout. So if you run hard at them and take away their shot, they got no. Mello is not going all the way to the rim. Maybe he takes two dribbles in and pulls up and you can live with that, but that combination feels pretty untenable

to me. Yeah, the Save Us Mello approach has limited like reach. There's only a limited amount of time that's going to work here. I'm just like, I don't know, I'm teetering on the verge of being critical of Anthony Davis because on the one hand like, you know, he doesn't have a ton to work with.

They are starting Avery Bradley Bradley in some of these games still, which like, what the fuck are we doing? on the other hand, this guy is apparently one of the 75 best players in the NBA. Avery Bradley? Yeah, every Bradley. It goes, Avery Bradley, T.H.T. Crusoe. No, but Davis, these are the moments that LeBron has basically been preparing him for, have been baby-burting him the spotlight in L.A. to take the reins and to be able to run this offense when he's not around.

And, like, they really haven't gotten to that point. and Russell Westbrook, AD's close friend and a guy who ostensibly could set him up in those prime positions. They have no chemistry in picking roll.

Yeah, and like, is really only compounding some of the issues. Like, you don't have to guard Westbrook out there, so you're going to double on AD to Rob's point. I mean,

there's a reason why AD, over all the years he was in New Orleans and these years playing with LeBron, like he pairs best with somebody who knows how to set him up

in spots. Westbrook sets people up on his own time. Like, that's who he is. That's a playmaker. He can be a really good passer, but he's reacting to that opening at that second.

He's not someone who's like preemptively going to get Davis into his stuff. Yeah. And look, AD is want to when it comes to like, all right, just give me the ball and I'm going to get fouled. That's not, that's something that wax waxes and wanes. I don't think AD really has any interest in being the focal point of an offense for real. I think he wants his touches when he wants him. But, like, as far as, like, directing how the how's and the whys of an offensive ecosystem, I don't think he has any interest in that.

And, again, that's LeBron's job. Like, the Bulls, like, straight up, like, oh, I'm going to hard double AD. Like, that's not a hard defense to figure out where the openings are, right? When it's like, all right, a quick swing. And guess what? I'm now open on the other side when these guys front me. Like, this is stuff that's, like, simple, offensive basketball against some of the, like, super aggressive defense

the Bulls were playing. And they just didn't have guys with the smarts to beat it when LeBron's not out there, basically being Frank Vogel on the court, you know, possession by possession. That's why, look, LeBron's a lot of things, he's not a lot of things anymore, right? Like, he doesn't beat a bunch of guys off the dribble a lot.

He's not as explosive at the rim even when he gets, anymore. But like, figuring out how to get decent looks against a hard double, LeBronk can still do that. I'm sorry. Well, before we go too deep into Lakerland, I do want to go back down the tunnel of crypto.com arena. I think we deserve, the Clippers deserve a little bit more than glossing over their wins over the Timberwolves. Yeah, let's do that. Because I think, to me, that is the most surprising thing in all the Western Conference picture this season is 14 games in, the Clippers have the number two defense in the NBA, that's incredible, given their personnel without Kauai Leonard, you know, with all the, without Marcus Morris, you know, like basically with a compromised rotation.

And it's not even necessarily their starters. It's when you get into the meat of the game. They just grind you down. They get Terrence Mann out there. They have Paul George. They have all this length. They have all the switchability. As you mentioned up top when we were talking about the Warriors was, you know, switching is good

when you have the personnel for it. They have the personnel for it. And you just can't get them in rotation. You can't get these guys moving to where you have clean lanes to the rim. And when you don't have clean lanes to the rim, you don't get corner threes. You don't get free throws. You don't get any of this lifeblood offensive stuff to the point where they played the Spurs on Tuesday night. The Spurs took seven free throws in that game.

Like that is a dead in the water. Like you are not going to win under those circumstances if you're one of these lesser teams. And that's what the Clippers can do is they can just put away a lot of these teams that just don't have the mechanisms to overcome, you know, Nicco Batum. switching out on them. And, you know, the thing I do like about the clip was too is the TIE Lu of it all in that, you know, I tend to think of Tailu as a guy who basically only cares about offense, which is unfair. It's just his favorite thing is offense.

And he's a great offensive coach. But what he's great at, too, just philosophically is like, I'm going to do what works all the time, right? He's like the anti-Kur in that way, right? Like, Tyler would never have James Wiseman trying to do beautiful basketball stuff with Steph Curry. Steve Kerr's like, no, like, I think this is a skill he needs to develop, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Tyler's like, no, no, no. I'm going to do what works every single time. And I think that's what you're seeing with the Clippers as far as their philosophy on defense. And, you know, again, Talu's a magnificent offensive coach, man. He's going to figure out the best ways to get his team, the best shots. His lineups usually tend to skew offense first as well.

Although with this clippers group, it's not like he has a lot of wiggle room with that. I just love the Tailu of it all. It's just his ability to just straight up find whatever it is that his team does, you know, optimally. And just being stubborn about sticking to it. Like, Tailu will do the shit with like, if a play works two times in a row, he's going to run it the next three times down the floor. He's like, shit keeps working. I'm going to keep running it.

You know, that's what I love. about Tailu and this group. This team reminds me a lot of a very classic one star in a small market, like success story where it's like you have a LeBron James and you have a Mo Williams, which in this case, I guess, is Reggie Jackson. And then you have just a bunch of guys and you don't know what you're going to get from on any given night. But they'll play hard and they'll play defense and that's enough.

And it's enough because Paul George is playing absolutely supernova basketball. Like over the past, I think in this run, over the nine games, I think he's scoring like 27 points a game. And in terms of like an early MVP discussion, if you were to have one and I would like to have one, I think Paul George is fourth in that mix with those guys because he's absolutely carrying it. Like it's a lot of just like Eric Bledsoe rip and run,

but then Paul George has to be scoring 30 points, 25 points a game for them to have a chance. And I mean, the schedule's been light, but he's been doing what he needs to do to get by. And he's leading the team in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. just Paul, this is like, okay, this is Paul George and, you know, the Pips. Right.

Well, I do want to bring up one thing with him because George has never been the type of guy to get to the free throw line. He's always going to be more of a jump shooter type and his shot is just so beautiful. Like, it's been working for him. Do you think, Rob, I'm curious, like, as other players like Trey Young and James Hardin's struggle with that part about not getting to the line anymore, maybe not getting the calls and, like, having to adjust. Do you think it's been an easier transition for someone like George,

whose game isn't based on getting to the line and getting those stark calls to have instant success? Well, I think it's easier both for him and for his team, because that's what's exasperating is if you play with one of those guys who's very reliant on getting those calls, and they're doing the same rip-throughs and jumping into guys, and they're not getting them, and you're just throwing the ball out of bounds three or four times a game,

that can really take the wind out of your sales as an offense. And so I think what helps the Clippers, especially when you're talking about the high energy of their defense, the buy-in of their guys, it helps when you just have Paul George playing Paul George basketball. Like, he isn't going to get to the free throw lines,

the free throw line, and there's trade-offs with that in terms of his like consistency as a score from quarter to quarter, from game to game sometimes. But the trade-off is you know exactly who you are. You have this steady beat of your identity as a team.

And for as much as, you know, like the league pass nerd in me wants to say, oh, you know, they got three good minutes in this game from Brandon Boston Jr. How delightful. The only reason any of that works is because Paul George is great. The only reason they can play any of these guys is because Paul George can carry what he can carry.

Big Amir coffee guy. He was chasing over some screens. He was doing some good defensive stuff. I was into it. Shout out of Mir coffee. So who are we putting our money on here as perhaps, who were putting our crypto on as maybe being in the mix for the top of the West that we didn't consider?

Because right now it's warrior sons, Mavs, jazz. I think you would expect three of those teams. The Mavs, I'm pretty surprised considering they played pretty mediocre basketball. And now I guess Luka's hurt, so we'll see how long that goes. But like, by the end of the season, who do you guys predict would be in this top four? Definitely not the Blazers because they're still small and soft.

Like they don't, they have no athleticism on the wings. They're just small, right? Like, they're just small. They're too little. And that's like, there's nothing Dame Lillard could do about that. Or C.J. McCollum, for that matter. So definitely not them. I, you know, the Dallas thing, that is what it is, right?

Like, it's Luca. Ors think this has been better. He's been better, but he's not good. And he hasn't been good enough. You know, he hasn't been good enough to make a difference over there. So, I mean, the. Clippers, you know, Kauai Leonard has a chance to come back.

If they get Kauai back, this team's going to be a problem, you know. Without Kauai, I just think they're too thin, too many Reggie Jackson pull-ups, which, fun fact, he's shooting 34.8% from three in the last 10 games,

and that's up his average to 33.3. That's upped the average, guys. I think you're right to pinpoint this race, though, And it's like the who can get home court advantage in that fourth spot seems really interesting now. And I think the Mavs do have a case just because they've banked some of these early wins while their point differential was still so bad, while they were still so flaky and inconsistent, while Porzengis was playing poorly or injured. And if Luca is able to come back relatively quickly, now I think he basically has both a knee and an ankle injury going on right now. So if he can come back and be more or less himself, you could see them kind of navigating the season. in this way.

Like, their play is finally starting to come around. Their guys are finally starting to hit some of their kind of expected value, open threes that just weren't falling for them early in the season. You could see them sliding into that fourth spot. You know, and again, if LeBron comes back quickly, maybe the Lakers get into that conversation too. But I would say those are probably the three is the Clippers, the Lakers, and the Mavs. Among them, I kind of like the Mavs to hold on.

I think they have enough to slide in at four probably. So not the Pelicans or the Rockets? I mean, there's still time. Yeah. The Rockets are 1 and 13 right now and are flirting with the worst record of all time. So that's something to keep track of. But no, I think it's interesting. As we saw last postseason, it does come down to, like, it might be a matchup sort of situation.

You get the Lakers without LeBron and AD and all of a sudden. Look at the suns getting in there. Actually, let's talk about the suns briefly because Robbie wrote about them on the site today. They are 10 and 3 after reeling off nine straight wins. And they have the Lucullus Mavericks on their schedule tonight. which means they might be 10 and on Friday 11. What is going on with the suns these days? It's just a classic case of, you know,

Chris Paul just doing enough to get by, or is there anything new going on there? Well, they're getting D'Andre Aitin back, which is big for them, just functionally speaking. Not dissimilar to the clippers as Waz laid out. They've been beating up on some lesser teams, which that always helps you kind of get your head right. I think ultimately they're just kind of tuning up.

They came into the season, a little rusty, a little sloppy, very uncharacteristic for them. This is a team that needs those edges to survive and to win, and they're finally starting to get them back. Their defense has been there all year. It's just like offensive execution stuff. They had to clean up. And one of these days, Jay Crowder is going to hit three pointers again. And at that

point, they'll be very good. But until then, they're competitive in all these games. They're tough to beat still. They just have a little bit more to iron out to get back to, you know, the team they were rolling through the playoffs. Yeah. So their schedule over these nine wins has been the Cavs, the

the Hawks, the Kings, Trailblazers, Grizzlies, rockets, Timberwolves, and then the Mows without Luca. So, I guess murderous role. Yeah, this is the point of the season we're at where a soft little run here

can really flip things narratively. But I mean, it is impressive, though, because they do have a lot going on around them. Are we surprised that they've been able to pretty much just shut out all of the talk and all of the just the constant

looming questions about the investigation going on into Robert Sarver and just playing pretty inspired basketball. I mean, I think it's commendable at the very least, but Chris Paul certainly has some experience with these kinds of big picture problems with an organization. And look, Devin Booker was nothing, if not raised in basketball dysfunction. So one of the perks of playing for the Sun's your whole career is that you get used to a lot of what goes on there, unfortunately. So I wouldn't say it's necessarily surprising, but it is commendable under the circumstances. Yeah, I got nothing. I mean, you know, the Sarver thing is, if you work there, you know what it is, right?

If you, like Chris Paul, I'm sure, has a relationship with James Jones, you know what time it is. So I'm not surprised that they can block out having a bad boss. We've all had bad bosses in our life. And, you know, somehow we managed to show up, pay the bills. rent do on the first, that's basically their attitude, right? Rent still do. You know, it's one of those things like, and I hate being old school about it,

but like people talk about mental health and this and that. And I'm just like, yeah, your landlord doesn't care. And I think that's the sort of approach that the sons have taken. It's like nobody cares. We got to go out of it. Luckily, you guys have great managers here at thuringer.com who always okay those expense reports. Big facts, big facts.

If we really want to get into it, I have an editor who I could really vent about, but that's a different pot. All right. Get ready for those dev talks, guys. All right, let's flip now to the Hawks. Dr. Waz, just take it away here. Where do you want to go? Where do you want to start? I mean, it's a lot of things, right?

It's Trey Young saying that, like, look, like, you expect guys to be playing ball. We went to the conference finals last year. And we know what the intensity of those games feels like. This ain't that. Again, saying the quiet part loud, which I don't believe that he should, just as an ambassador for the league and for the game, he shouldn't. And just as a leader, you don't really want that message out there. I understand that, like, there's a fine line between being some sort of drill sergeant,

like, get your ass in line right now, motherfucker. It's game 12. It's the biggest game of our lives. Like, there's a fine line between doing that and being like, nah, you know, up doing that. But like, and again, like that attitude, you can measure the consequences. And it's measured in a bottom five defense. You know, coming into this season, there was this thought that the Hawks could be in the top 10, especially after, you know, we saw after Nate McMillan got there and how they finished the season,

Clint Capella was basically a defensive, all defensive type of guy, defensive player of the year type of candidate and completely anchoring the defense. and this season has been the opposite. He's been probably the worst defender on the team who's not from Italy. They're underwater with him defensively on the floor this year. Granted, the last two games,

he's looked better against Orlando and Milwaukee, respectively, and he did have an off-season procedure. So we understand why he's come back slow. It was an Achilles situation. But he's killing them on defense and, you know, injuries, which has been the case. for basically the last two seasons have hurt them a lot.

Hunters just went out. A Kangu hasn't played a freaking second. I know people at home are rolling their eyes. Like, the reason they can't play defense is Akangu? Did you see this man in the playoffs last year? He was terrorizing folks on that end of the floor. So Capella not having his legs. A Kangu being out.

Just a general malaise. Bottom five defense is not going to get it done. I think they're going to get better. I think these problems are fixable so I'm not in panic mode but you know I mentioned Golanari in passing but like we're going to have to have a dialogue

about him and Lou Will they're chopped they're cooked solo hill minutes I can't do it I can't do it anymore right Lou Will by the way

basically since he got COVID basically since he came back to the bubble he hasn't been the same guy he just doesn't have that pop and that burst He's a fadeaway jump shooter now, strictly and exclusively. So Lou Will not having it. Golanari being one of the worst defenders in the NBA right now.

He's just straight up his. Let me reset here. We've gone a long way down the road. The Hawks are playing poorly, guys. They are six to nine. It's a defense. It's a defense. It's a lot.

Six and nine. They lost six straight, most of which are coming on the road. But they have won two of their last. games here. Trey Young playing better. But overall, they have looked quite atrocious. The defense is 27th in the league. The offense is six. That's crazy.

That's crazy. You can't go to the conference finals one year, then come back and, you know, damn near 15 games into the season, you're the 27th best defense in the NBA. That's absurd. Well, when you only got to the conference finals because of injuries,

I think you can. Yeah. Just like, I think this team has a bright future ahead of them. It's just like assuming that they were ready to take a leap just based on circumstance was a little bit much. I think like they have like a great future ahead. It's just like, you know, DeAndre Hunter hadn't played a full season in like two years now. And it looks like he's going to miss like eight weeks. We're still not sure about like what level Trey Young was at.

Yeah, he was a supernova in the playoffs, but he wasn't an all star by midseason. and like as you mentioned, Clint Capella was basically anchoring this defense by himself and the fact that he hasn't been up to snuff lately just goes to show you how everything just falls apart when you just remove like one little lever. Yeah, I don't know what the causalities of it are

if it's like Capella has been slower because of the Achilles or less mobile and therefore other guys just like aren't buying in in the same way they used to. Or if it's, I don't know, again, I don't know how to attribute the domino effect of all this. But next time you watch a Hawks game, clock how many times a guy,

is supposed to be contesting a shot and doesn't even get their arm up over their shoulder. There's just a fundamental difference between, again, scheme-wise, you can run a conservative defense, but a conservative defense with low-energy versus high-energy. And this is super low-energy, chill vibes, lazy Sunday kind of defense in a lot of cases. It's just not going to work.

It's just not going to work with this personnel. This is a group of players who, there are some standout athletes, but fundamentally they have to work. They have to dig in for this to be functional, and they're just not willing to do that. By the way, six on offense, and I think they got a lot of shit to sort out on offense,

and they can only get better. Bogie hasn't looked like themselves yet. Again, another guy coming off of off-season surgery, injury. I think the offense is going to get better, and the defense is happy. It has to. It has to. Isn't this why you have Nate McMillan?

Like, didn't he come in midseason last year and really organize them and, like, professionalize the environment and build more of a... I thought you would be in sarcastic for a second. That's, yeah, that really tells the tale there, though. Like, doesn't this fall on McMillan to really make sense of this team? Absolutely. But I think to Waz's point, but yes, they should be able to clean up some of this stuff offensively.

And I think you have to hope that some of that bleeds over into the defense, too, in terms of the effort level and investments and stuff. because there are games where everything works great for them on offense, and it clicks. And there are games where it feels like three of the five guys on the floor are all pressing at the same time. And it's hard to look at that and not say, this might be related to the fact that everyone's playing

like four fewer minutes than they were. They're coming in at different times in the game than they were last season. They don't have the same opportunities, the same touches, the same shots. It feels like a team of guys who are reaching all the time. And if you have that going on, and then you have the other four guys on the court kind of hanging their heads or jogging back on defense, it's just hard to get fully into your stuff

and into your systems all the time. And so that's McMillan's work. That's his job for the season is to get all these guys invested and on the same page and buying in in the way they were last year because this isn't a case where he's flying in in mid-season or dropping in or being elevated into that post, and he gets to, you know, he gets to be a bolt of energy for that team last season.

Now this is just like, this is our way of life is we're going to play 10, deep when everyone's healthy and you're going to have to deal with it, it's a bit of a tougher cell. Yeah. And, you know, I think the poster child for what Rob just mentioned is Cam Reddish. And I think, you know, I was reading my man Chris Kirchner at the Athletic, and he mentioned something that that gave me some pause.

Cam Reddish's trainer told him that Cam wants to get back to being himself. He wants to get back to being more than just. spot-up shooter, defender type. He wants to get back to having a ball, like in his high school days. That's concerning. That's something to keep your eye on. Because honestly, Cam Redis, that should not be your focus on this team. Exactly your focus should be guarding the hell out of people, knocking down shots.

Since you have this reputation of being some sort of freaking shooter, it'd be nice if you ever showed it. Cam Reddish and his trainer thinking like the key did unlock in the season was him going Kobe. Something to keep your eye on for sure. Currently the worst rotation player on the team, minus 7.1 net rating currently has more turnovers than assists. It hasn't been good. I guess the silver lining to the Hunter injury is like maybe this clarifies things a little bit.

Now you're not really juggling between roles a little bit. like you're going you're basically defaulting back to putting herder with the starters and now reddish has more of a role the same i don't know like i don't i don't think the issue with the team was ever reddish's role being unclear i just think he needs to be able to play through mistakes and they're just not at that point in their trajectory anymore and so like you have him basically anchoring down a lot of what's going on there i don't know it's just there isn't a clear solution and i think this gets to the broader point of like trying to have your cake and eat too try to to win games compete on an Eastern Conference final level while still developing your guys. Yeah. It's really tough. Is that dissonance between what you're saying and what Was is relying from people like Reddish's trainer where it's like, are the mistakes that you're making as Cam Reddish? Are they mistakes because you're going ISO and breaking people down and you're just giving

the ball up? Or are they mistakes because you're trying to play in the flow and you're not quite reading it, right? Like those are worlds apart. If you're a member of the Atlanta Hawks, if you're a player on the floor with him, and what you think you're supposed to be doing when Cam Reddish has the ball. So what do we think, Waz?

Are we as optimistic as we were preseason? I'm still super optimistic. The only thing that I'm, you know, starting to become, is the injury portion of it all. Like if Bogdanovich is not going to be himself, if Kempel is not going to be himself, while Hunter's missing a quarter of the season,

that's, you know, that's concerning, right? My man, Hoarder looks good. He's been looking good the past few games He didn't shoot out the gate I actually think Some of the answers have to be like We can't do bench mob Like that because

Lou Will is not the guy that we thought he was At back of point guard Able to anchor these bench units that Kev Probably has to do that I think that's probably going to have to be Ultimately his job as being the fulcrum Of the units when Trey doesn't play

And then you know He closes a game with Trey so that they have these two great on-ball threats at the end of games. But, like, the bench mob, I'm not into those bench mob units, right? Like, between the defense that Gallo's playing and Lou Will having no pop, I think you're going to have to make Kev man those units now, which, you know, again, would require somebody like Reddish to understand while he's playing with Trey and John Collins.

You're an ancillary part here, bro. And by the way, that can still get you paid. You know, shouts to shameless plug, full core fits, and Mikhail Bridges. Go check that out. I interviewed him on the team. That's a guy who understands the like,

I'm going to get paid by being a cog in the machine. Like, he got paid. This man got $100 million to be a cog in the damn machine. Granted, he's an elite cog. He's a platinum-plated cog. but he's a cog, right? And Cam Redis need to get that through his head. Like, boy,

you're not you're not Coah Leonard. You're not Kobe Bryant. You're not LeBron James. You're not an elite wing. Make yourself a guy and make yourself great at being that guy. And if they can get enough guys being guys on this team,

I think it goes the long way because Trey has honestly been pretty good. John Collins has honestly been pretty good. Like the macro stuff in terms of their stars has worked aside from Capella's health. So it's just like they just got to get on the same page in terms of whether it's role definition, expectations, managing little stints at a time in terms of how many shots they're taking are supposed to take. That's a lot, you know, from a political standpoint within the organization. But I think that's within their range of what they can solve by the end of the season.

Also, you got to start playing better, Cam Brady, should we could trade your ass. I mean, you know, you need to speed this up, brother. They are a prime trade candidate. Unfortunately, all the players that anyone would trade for are doing particularly well. So they are currently at the top of the east. Speaking specifically about Beale and Zach Levine. So it's going to take a lot for those two differences of opinions to merge. All right.

Unless, was, you have any other crypto advice? You want to give the audience before we leave here? Maybe something you gave to Mikhail Bridges. to do with his new extension. We had 64 right now. We're nowhere close to the ceiling. This guy's the limit. Rocket ships or something, right?

That's the thing. We're buying it on Hawkscoin, that's for sure. Okay. Well, some of us are. All right. For Rob and for Waz, I'm Justin. Thank you to Isaiah Blakely on production. We'll see you next week.