The Ringer NBA Show - Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert’s Mysterious Relationship. Plus, Are the Bucks in Trouble? | Real Ones

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

Logan and Raja first look into the social-media madness and rumored poor relationship between Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert and the issues that could arise in Utah in Joe Ingles’s absence (0:40). Then they talk about the malaise Raja has identified in Milwaukee and discuss how much danger Brook Lopez’s back injury puts the Bucks in come playoff time (20:35). Hosts: Logan Murdock and Raja Bell Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends, it's Ariel Hawani of the Ringer MMA show. I'm Chuck Mindenhall. And I'm Pizzie Carroll, and together we are three-pack. Follow and listen to the Ringer MMA feed exclusively on Spotify for all the latest in the world of mixed martial arts. And join us live on Spotify Green Room after every big event. See you then. Love you. What's popping?

Logan Murdoch here, Roger Bell, there. Ra. Over the weekend, I saw somebody that, uh, are we both kind of kind of. know, man. That we know you know him better than I do. Word. Who? A guy by the name of Stevie Nash. Oh. I saw Steve Nash. I saw Steve Nash.

Acquaintance of the show? You give him shit? You know I fucking gave him shit. You know I fucking gave him shit. I'm not going to say friend of the show yet. He's not, he hasn't earned that. He has not earned friend of the show at all. He hasn't earned it. But acquaintance of the show, I guess, is basically what I'm going to say. But he told me to tell you, first, of all when I was leaving. Well, first when I got there, we were talking about our elite 11 prospect here that we have in Florida that that you're grooming over there.

Oh, okay. You know, yeah. We're talking about the next great, you know, we're not going to say names, not yet. You know, the streets ain't ready. He's not ready for us to say his name just yet. You know, you got earned that, but, you know, grooming. But, you know, keep your head down. Keep working, you know, you know, Steve was, you know, how, how much potential the young home he has, you know, playing football, playing a sport. you know, we're talking through, you know, the stuff and things like that. And then when he leaves, he goes, and this is just the charm of Steve Nash, which is why he's an acquaintance, I guess.

He goes, till rah-rah said hello. On the way out. That's my guy, you know, you know, it was beautiful. That's my guy. All jokes aside, man, Steve, like, when we were in Phoenix, my wife and I didn't have kids yet. You know, we were trying to have kids. There was a time where we didn't know where we'd be able to have them. And so him and his wife at the time, you know, had the twins.

And they would open up their home to us. Like for Christmas, we'd go celebrate with them and watch their little girls run around and open gifts and stuff like that. And so when my boys were born, like Steve was other than like a grandparent, your nurse, he was the first person to hold both my sons. You know what I mean? So like, that's my guy. And no, he hasn't been on the pod and I will forever give him shit about that. But that's always going to be my dude. Man, I understand why.

Hey. Good dude. Really good dude. Good dude. Yes, sir. Really good dude. And I was like, I didn't know, man, because like I kind of known him in this time with the Warriors. And I didn't know, you know, because you only see them once a year.

You only see the net some Eastern Conference teams once a year. But everything is advertised. Really good dude. We'll just keep it at that. But as far as his pod is concerned, he is not a friend of the pod yet. He has to earn that. That's fair. I think that's fair.

Is that fair? Okay. I think you are, listen, respect is earned. Friendship is earned. Toddship, but he's a good dude. He's a really good dude. Friendship is earned.

Friendship is earned. Like his friendship's solid, but generally speaking, like friendship is earned. What do you mean? Okay. There's got to be a mutual trust. You know,

we got to, there's an earning a friendship. That shit that would just happen. All I'm going to say is Nash. I love you. Roger loves you, but you ain't, if you ain't on this pod,

if you ain't on this pod. I'm just playing. I'm just playing. Let's get to the shit. I'm just looking around. Let's get to the shit. I want to talk to you about, I want to talk to you,

I want to go to your old stomping grounds. I want to go to Utah. I want to go to Salt Lake. Shout out to Falters. We're in the building. Shout out. I'll be out there too in March. I'm in the streets.

Oh, you in the streets? Oh, I'm going to be at Walters. Yeah. I'm going to be up in the canyons. Yeah, I'll be all over that. Okay. Hey, hey, hey, lock in with Ra. He goes say it with his chest when you see him.

All right? But anyway, I wanted to talk about the Utah Jazz. Specifically, I wanted to talk about Donovan Mitchell. And the reason why I've been wanting to talk about Donovan Mitchell. It was because the jazz came through the bay a few weeks ago. And I remember, you know, reading up on the jazz. Just because I wanted to see him. It's out to my guy, Eric Paskill.

You know, I covered him as a, when he was with the Golden State Warriors. But what I saw about Donovan Mitchell, and there's been like this, this friction between him and Riego Bear. But it's like in a very millennial way, like Donald Mitchell was liking tweets. He is, when he's pressed on these tweets, and I know you hate this about our generation, Rajah. And what would you say about that? What was you saying? He was like, well, we got to, we're just getting ready for tomorrow's game. It just evades the question, right?

He's evading the question between his funk or alleged funk with Rudy Gobert. And this comes back up because the other day somebody asked, you know, when this is from a media perspective, when somebody, when there's smoke, we got, you know, we got to see if there's a fire. So we're going to ask your teammates about what's going on with these like tweets, all right? We're going to ask somebody until we get an answer. So somebody, I guess somebody asks Joe Ingalls about Donovan and all the situation. And he says, I don't think Donovan Mitchell wants to leave. That is interesting to me, right? Because not because I don't think Donovan, or maybe he does, he's from the East Coast.

I don't think Donovan Mitchell is going to leave anytime soon from the Utah Jazz. But, you know, who knows, right? But it does seem like the seeds of a narrative. about to form, Raja. The seeds of a narrative that we typically see with, I'm not going to say small town, because I got a lot of respect for Salt Lake City, but especially in the plain states and the middle America and all the, and especially if you're not a big city or not considered a big city and you have a star, there's always the allure of going to a big city. We've been seeing this more and more about if somebody, a high profile guy has some funk with a

teammate that is, you know, good or stuff like that, we see a narrative form. I'm starting to see this happen, Raja. Is there, is there fire where we see smoke? First of all, let me just put a pin in your question and give a shout out to Joe Ingalls. That injury, I fear that it is that dreaded ACL, MCL type of deal. It's just low to Utah, man. Yeah, it's a horrible injury. Hopefully it's not, but I don't have much faith in that. But shout out, like I feel that's terrible. To your question about Donovan Mitchell, I don't know exactly what's going on with Donovan Mitchell or the jazz. So I want to be clear about that. But in situations like this, typically there does come a point if you can't get that championship or your team is just really, really close and never really gets over the hump.

where you then have to start asking your question you the question and worrying about said player you know wanting to leave and that's not specific to the jazz that's just you know kind of the situation in any pro sport like while you have these windows and you have these these players that you have control over because you've drafted them you've got them young you know for the most part just happy to be in the NBA, right? Destination and second homes and, you know, things like that aren't at the forefront of what they're thinking about, you know, post, I mean, after, you know, after the lights go off. But when, when they start to transition into the next phase, if you haven't capitalized and you haven't won, you know, you do have to start worrying about that. And again, I don't think

that's specific to Utah. I don't think it is either. But you did hit the nail on the head while Utah is a fantastic in Salt Lake and and the surrounding areas are great. I loved living there. Like I've always said it. It was great. My wife lived living there. We had our third son, Zen was born there. And, you know, it was great. We go back and visit all the time. There are things that bigger cities have to offer that Utah doesn't. Now, I don't, I mean, I like big cities, but I'm not a dude who likes to be out all the time. And, you know, so I'm fine in some places. I can't speak to Donovan Mitchell, but there are things in bigger cities that might hold more lore to young players than Salt Lake, more things to get into, if you will, right?

Yeah. I don't know. I do know that the jazz have been really close. They've been a really good team. They seem to have a really good chemistry. But you've only got a window of time to get that done in, right? Because once you peeked and you're on the tail end of that window, it still kind of looks like you're playing great ball, but relationships might not be the same behind closed doors, right?

Frictions might start. and you can't really tell on the court because they still look really good, but things are souring behind the scenes. And I'm not saying that's happening in Utah at all. I'm saying it happened on teams that I was on where things just weren't the same, even though the product, like, you couldn't really tell

that there was any difference on the court in the locker room you could feel that things were changing. I'm going to be real. Young players do not like them small town cities because they want to party. They want to do all this stuff. They want to kick it. They want to chill.

They want to just have like all the cliche and the endorsements and all these things, but they want to have everything that comes with a big city at a young age because of what they think a big city provides for them, right? A mid-market team came through, right? I was talking to a player there, and he was talking like, man, I hate this such a such city, there ain't nothing to do. And just in the nick of time, an OG former player comes

and it's like I couldn't have scripted this any better, right? Roger. And the OG is like, yo, man, you're probably in a better situation in a young, in a mid-market city to do what you want to do than if you were in a New York or or, or L.A. or all these places. And he was like, I'm going to show you, I'm going to show you the game, right? I'm going to show you what it is, right? But I say all that to say to bring that all the way back to Donovan. We see all these things with Donovan, um, because of the CAA ties with the New York Knicks.

And he's from the New York area. That's why there's always just speculation and things like that. You see that, right? You see the allure of the Knicks. The Knicks always have allure. The Bottes and Square Garden always has an allure no matter how good or bad they are.

I remember a couple weeks ago when Dame Willer was in town, Irv Gotti was like, yo, man, I need you to come to the Knicks. I need you to come here. Yeah. Right? There's that allure all the time. I just see when you talk about Donovan Mitchell, man, and I hope that this isn't the case.

And I hope that this doesn't, I think that, like, if you builds it right, if Utah is as good as an organization as we all think they are just in the front office and things like that, it can work out to stay and keep going. My question to you is, how does a narrative start from a player perspective from us? Like when you see it from the inside looking out or it's like, oh, man, you like to tweet. And how do we exacerbate a situation that doesn't even necessarily need to be exacerbated? Because I do think that that's kind of what's happening between him and Rudy Gobert. Well, I mean, you exacerbated by writing the dumb shit. Okay. That was to me.

That was right here. If you're asking me, that's how you exacerbate it, right? Like, if I'm Joey Ingalls and I have to sit up there, I don't know that Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell are liking or, or, you know, subliminally sending jabs. That's not my business. I don't know that until you ask the stupid question. And here I go. And now I leave the press conference and I'm minding my own, like doing what I do,

talking to family. Hey, you're good to see y'all. I got to catch this. I hop on a bus. We got a flight to catch. You know, I'm out. And then I'm sitting down and, you know, chilling back in the seat.

And I'm like, what the fuck was he talking about? Let me dig into this shit a little bit. Let me start asking some questions, right? And now we got a snowball effect started. And families, I mean, teams are families or as close to families as you're going to get. And, you know, I've been on teams where the culture was love, love, love, and everybody got along and it rolled smoothly. And we didn't play well. And I've been on teams where it was more of a business relationship where there was a respect level,

but maybe we didn't break bread all the time. And maybe we weren't at each other's holiday parties and stuff like that. And we kicked ass. You know what I mean? So, like, they're different families and they're different types of. locker rooms and there are different types of relations even within those. And so I don't read a lot into whether or not guys, and whether or not guys are always looking like they're besties. We are together or you are together all of the time. I mean, you're spending plane rides and

bus rides and I hear your conversations because I'm sitting in the seat right behind you and you hear mine and I know what's going on here and you know and you know sometimes that shit just gets to be a lot and people need you know to be able to go through their little thing and keep it moving. I don't know, you know, all that's going on there between Rudy and Donovan. And so if I were their teammate, I wouldn't want to be answering questions about it. I'd be like, I don't know. I can't speak for how a locker room was when you were a player and I would love to get your perspective after after I share this.

but man, these dudes are on their phones so much now, man. I'm assuming it's like the equivalent to the newspaper when you guys were playing, right? They're in their phones so much about what's going on. But the thing is that you guys have, and I've talked to a lot of players about, like former players about this. You guys could at least turn the shit off, right?

You could put down a newspaper and be like, I'm not going to read this bullshit, right? Yeah. They read them, they do these things, and they look on social media and they see what other people are saying about them. Like, you're alone in Utah as Donovan Mitchell and you're just looking at yourself and you're like, you see a tweet that says, Rudy Gobert is annoying. And you're like, you know what? Sometimes Rudy Gobert can be fucking annoying, right? Like, you know, and then you keep thinking about all the times that Rudy Gobert was adjoin, right?

And then that builds up something. And I'm just, this is an example. I don't really, like, obviously, I'm just going on what I've seen. Like, I ain't Tony Jones in the streets, like, in Salt Lake City. I don't know all the things. But what I'm saying is, like, I could, in this generation, we know way too much about these motherfucking players. And they know way, they can, they're way too accessible to slander in all these things in a way that I don't think is really healthy for teams. That's why I think we see so many people that are trying to go get that instant gratification.

They're trying to make that new look and try to get all these things going. So I could see, you know, somebody in Salt Lake with nothing to do, even though they could go hiking and there's a lot of stuff to do, do some outdoorsy stuff, get up out the house, but keep your phone at home. But they don't do that because they're young and they want to like they want to kick it in in New York or something like that. But I just feel like this specific thing, I don't think, I think it started off as just being close in proximity and all the annoyances. But I think like social media, the new millennials and all my age group, like really exacerbates it with the social media, man. I really do think that that's what it is. Well, everything's blown out of proportion now with that, you know, good, bad, and in between. It's all just ridiculous.

And people are addicted to those things, man. I mean, me included, right? I sit there watching games with my kids and my wife. And I'll take account. I'll look around. And I'm like, God, damn, like we're all sitting here trying to. to watch a game, trying to hang out, and we're all looking at a phone. Everyone put the phones down.

Everyone put the phones down. Put them down. Put them in a bag, leaving by the front door. You know, so I tend to agree with you. I would say, as far as Donovan Mitchell is concerned, as a young star in the league, I could, I would make the case. And again, I want to be careful because this isn't really a shot at Salt Lake. It's just a fact. Like, if he were in a bigger market, being the player that he's been,

he'd probably have a larger national profile. Not that he doesn't have one, but markets matter. They do. When you're trying to build a brand, when you're trying to establish, you know. Kyle Kuzum might be recognized in some circles before Donovan Mitchell, just for up a simple proximity. And that's no shade to either one of those people, but I'm just saying. Correct, correct.

And it's clearly not even in the same category as player, in my opinion. But, you know, the teams that you play for, the markets that you play in, the profile that those teams have sometimes bring bigger endorsements, larger, you know, audiences. And you reap the benefit to that if you're doing your job. So if you are relatively young player like Donovan Mitchell and you're looking around and your aspirations are yes to win championships, but also to, you know, you hear people say, I want to be the best of ever do it, right? You think it's cliche.

Like a lot of dudes are like, hey, man, I want to be the best ever. Like sometimes markets matter in the quest for that or, you know, the narratives and storylines that you would need to support that. And so, again, if you're not going to win that chip or get, it's different when you're going to the finals. Yeah. It's different because you're right there. You're like, no, we're, yes, we're right there. But, you know, the jazz haven't really crossed that bridge yet. And so that's what they got to do.

They have to figure that out so that the pressure then becomes on Donovan. You know, like, hey, man, you're going to walk away from all of this. Like, look what we're doing. I mean, we're getting closer and closer every year. You know, you're in your prime. We're going to continue to put pieces around you. We're already in the finals. Like, you know, you're going to leave us.

And you put the pressure on him because there are a couple of point where he's like, yes, I'm out, yeah, I'm leaving. What have we done? Yeah. And that's unfair too, right? Like, but it is what it is. And like, we referenced a Joe Engels injury, which doesn't look good at all, bro. It's not.

It doesn't look good. that takes the Utah Jazz out of title contention in my opinion it just does like if he's out for the season I don't they're not going to the finals they're not I don't I don't I don't I think they're fourth or fifth in the Western conference right now it's a huge part of what they do huge it's not gonna they're not going to the finals it is what it is but say another year they don't go to the finals and what's the narrative that's going to start off it's like oh donovan they get those their great regular season team for whatever reason. And I even said it on the pod, even before Joe Ingalls got hurt, I didn't think that

the Jazz were going to the finals, just simple fact, because when their defense always lags during the postseason, that's just is what it is. But like, it's tough. And then the narrative is going to be, oh, you can't win in the postseason. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do? It's the same thing that happens over and over again. But I don't know, it's just interesting, man. I do think that like, if this keeps going, you know, there's a good. There's going to be a good chance that Donovan dips. That's just the way it goes. That's just the way it is.

And that's the league. It's the way it goes for most teams in the league. It's not a Salt Lake thing. It's not a jazz thing. You know who else it happened to? The Golden State Warriors. Yeah. The greatest run of all time.

You know, they got left at the altar. It just happened. Yep. Happened to the heat. Happened to the heat. Like happens. It happens. No, that's just business, man.

This is professional sports. You have to get, you have to get that done and give people reasons, you know, to stay where they're at or they're going to be looking, you know, for another place that can. It is what it is, man. Let's take a quick break. Roger says some team is in trouble. I want to find out who it is. And we are back.

Roger, who's in trouble right now? Listen, I was really harsh when I said they're in trouble. I want to adjust my team. Come on, bro. I am walking that back. You said it really with your chest. Okay. I did say it with my chest.

And then in the prepot, I also said, like, I'm worried about them. I don't think my eyeball says they don't look the way they should look. Your gut has been right. It's Milwaukee. All right, all right. All right. It's Milwaukee. Okay.

I don't, I'm sure Brooke Lopez not being there has a huge, plays a huge role in that. But something just feels off when I watch them. Like, I feel like there may be some slippage in terms of over. overall hunger. You know, it's a weird one because it's not, it's hard to quantify or give you a stat for why I feel this way. I just watch them. I see them sitting in FIPP in the East right now.

I feel like for some reason they just can't consistently get it moving. And it's just my gut. I don't know. I can't support it or substantiated. I just have a feeling that, the vibes are off. Right now, they're not, right now they're not a team that I would pick to win a chip. And I came into the year saying, yeah, but right now I don't feel like that.

I think your first inclination about Brooke Lopez is pretty on par. Because when they did play fully healthy, what they do, opening night, they beat the shit out of the Brooklyn Nets. And it wasn't even close. I remember watching that game. And granted, Kyrie was out. But, like, Guy is probably not going to play in the postseason anyway. But they beat the breaks off the Brooklyn Nets. And it looked like, okay, Milwaukee's going to beat a team.

They're going to be the team. Yeah. Who hasn't played since then, Raja? Yeah, Brooke Lopez. So I do see where you're going with this, but I think that that goes back to our previous argument with the jazz is like, yo, it's not always a superstar that will make or break your season. Superstar gets you into the conversation.

They get you into the door. The generational talent gets you up in the room to be like, okay, we have a chance. Right. the role players, and I've learned this from you, I've learned this from Perk to put some respect on your own motherfucking name because y'all really hold it down in the ways that we just don't see, bro. You don't. And what did Brooke Lopez do last year?

Turn in the shack against Atlanta Hawks' front line. Took Capella to school. Just literally won the series for them. It wasn't Janus. It was Brooke Lopez that won that series and got them to the, finals. Same thing in the finals. Brooke Lopez played an important role in that front court. And so when you, and I think he has a back injury,

those are always tough to gauge, right? Those are always tough ones to navigate and you never know when you can come back because those are always tricky. So boom, Brooke Lopez, let's just put that, put it there. Yeah. What do you, what do you think is going at? What do you think can be done for this team to continue? What did you see? What were the, what were the vibes telling you, Roger. What were the vibes telling him when you did watch them and when you did see them or read up on them? What do they just, what do they tell?

No, again, like I can't really point to, you know, defensively, like the numbers are solid. Offensively, they're solid. Their big three is playing well. So I do think it's got a lot to do with missing that major piece, at least defensively of what they do. And I don't mean to marginalize what he does offensively stretching the floor and keeping those big dudes out of the pain and stuff like that because that's probably equally as important. But I do think it's that. And if I'm making a case for, you know, I love that when we, like, we say these things, they get screenshots. No, yes. And it can't change when in fact, like, the season unfolds. And, like, literally two weeks from now, you could possibly be saying a completely different thing because they're playing better, right?

Like, that's the nature of playing that many games. And so hopefully we will be. You know, and if I'm making the case for a silver lining, like, you're getting. a lot of people really big, meaningful minutes that may need to contribute in one way, shape, or form come down the stretch and leading into the playoffs, whether that be for just, you know, rest or because there's some injury and there's real necessity or what have you, right? Like you've now got more seasoned players because they've had to pick up these minutes. But I don't know, Logan, the best way I could describe it was there was its energy.

And I feel so crazy, man, because, again, I talk about this high school team I have. And way more often than not, when we come into the locker room, my messaging is about energy. There are times when the messaging is schematics. But in high school, you don't run into that a lot. Like, you just don't. Like, not a lot of dudes are out there doing stuff that is like, hey, man, here, you know, we got to counter this by doing that. Like, it's just not rocket science.

So way more often than not, it's about energy. And kids are always looking at me like, oh, really? Like, you're not going to give us some, like, proprietary, like, play that's going to allow us. And I'm like, no, like, play harder, dog. Like, want that shit more than him. If the ball's on the floor and you could get it or he can get it, go get it. And so when I watch Milwaukee, I'm going to default to that. Like, I didn't see anything schematically, really, or anything to be worried.

They're sitting in fifth, like, their numbers look solid. Obviously, those big three are playing well. The energy was a little off for me. I've watched them a couple times. And they looked like they were on a mission before they got the chip, right? If you can feel me like they were on a mission. And sometimes just a little slippage in that area can be what an eye like mine says it's seeing, right? Like maybe just not.

Can I get a little devil's advocate up in here? For sure, for sure. Okay. Devil's advocate low. It's really hard to maintain energy levels in general, just life and all these things. and especially it's hard to maintain energy levels. It's January. And you know this is the dog days.

We're right before all, or like a few weeks away from All-Star break. And I could, I'm just going to make the argument. What if they're just tired right now? Like, because they went on such a roller coaster of emotions. They wanted to kick ass and prove everybody. They're trying to repeat as a title repeater. And you go so hard for the first two months when everybody's watching.

Because everybody watches the first couple of months of the season. and they trail off because we're in NFL, right? No one is caring about what's going on. It's the dog days of the league. It's going to ramp up after All-Star Break. I could see this team, just saying, Brooke, just get all the way, get your back right, bro. We can hold down the fort and stay to like four or five

and just ride the ship until you get back, bro, or anything, right? Or just an overall point, we could just, we just got to get right. And then we're just going to run to end the season. All right. We'll just get back to end the season. And all it matters is we're, because the Milwaukee Bucks and similar to the Brooklyn Nets are one of those teams that are battle tested, dude. They're fine.

Once they get to the show, they know what to do. It doesn't matter about home court advantage. They know what to win on the road. They won their last, they won their last series on the road against Atlanta, right, with Brooke Lopez. But I think, you know, every team I see coming through to Bay, tired of shit. shit, they're just tired. They're just trying to get through the game, you know? I think once they get through the All-Star break, I think they'll be fine.

Is that, what is, is that, is that, is that a, is that a more compelling enough case? It is. It's a compelling case, right? Because, you know, on one hand, I'm telling you, it's just a little feeling I have, having watched, right? Like, so I think you probably hit the nail on the head with where they are. It does support kind of what I thought I saw, which is like, yeah, you did just come off of a championship.

That does expend a lot of energy. We are, to your point, kind of in the dog days right before All-Star Break. And all of that kind of has to be factored in, right? And the approach they should take is the one you are talking about. Broke, sit your ass down until we are 100%. And then we're going to sit another week just to make sure that, you know, we are guns of blades coming down the stretch. You know.

I have a question for you. Go ahead. I have a question for you. I'm going to bring this back to the little homies on the team that you coach. I'm going to bring it back to them. I don't know what. What do you do? What do you do?

What do you do? Okay. I mean, you know, listen. They better be listening to the real ones. Before you're listening, they're in class right now, you better be good today. Hey. Oh, my question is, what do you do, Ra, when you're in game 15 of the of the little homie season, right?

Right. And, you know, they, you know, one of them probably ain't been doing homework and shit. You know, they, you know, they probably, you know, on the verge of getting grounded. So they're just, like, coming into practice pissed. And they're not, and the energy levels are, they're sulking, you know, I'm just bringing up scenarios. But these are what kids do, right? They just coming in, they sulk and they do all these things. What does Rod do to get the guys in gear?

Do they, does he, does he, does he, does he, does he, do you do 17s or do you give them an impassioned speech? What do you, like, how do you, how do you get their team, how do you put a flat of fire under the ass? I don't know. That's what the OG coach used to tell me. How do you light a fire under them? It's a really good question, Logan. And I hope the little homies is listening, because y'all, y'all in for shit tonight.

Your group changes, like, you know, from year to year. So what might work for a team last year might not be the answer for this year. What I try to do is, like, the running, I don't think works. Now, we'll run. Like, if you're in there and, like, we're not concentrating and, you know, we're just doing dumb shit. we can't remember plays and you're not like, we got to wake you up. But what I try to do and what we try to do is just foster like a more competitive practice.

Like we try to put a practice plan together that has you competing for everything you do, right? Less teaching maybe in this practice, right? Or quicker spurts of teaching and then longer spurts of competition, you know, within, you know, the area that we just taught, whether that be boxing out or, you know, weakside help into, into, you know, into your gap. Now you're in denial. We get you on the wing and now we're going one-on-one. Like more things that interest them. Less talking, less teaching, more like, let's get after it so I could talk a little shit because I beat you.

Right. And hopefully that picks the energy up. Sometimes, even when you do that, the energy doesn't, the energy isn't there. And some of those days, you know, as a coach, you know, you just got to accept that it's not going to be there. sometimes it's better to not be in there, right? Like, I believe it. Like, listen, if this is just going to be like this, like maybe we need to regroup,

maybe we need we to get out of here. You guys go, but sometimes it's not even, it's not even worth it to beat them up or anything like that. You know, I typically, I always work the best when a coach would explain to me why it was in my best interest to do something. Like why it made sense for me.

And show they care to be that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, you try to explain it. It doesn't always work. You know, and then sometimes, sometimes you just got to get in something. somebody's ass, dog. And to bring this full circle, it's crazy because it's like I was talking to some of the folks

in the Brooklyn Nets. And you know, like, you don't be knowing other, you know, when you see a friend in the league or something that comes around, you don't be knowing they schedule where they're going after this. You just see them when they're in the moment, right? So I was just talking to some Brooklyn people. Like, yeah, where are you going next? What's the trip look like?

Bro, they're going to fucking Phoenix. Then they're going to Sacramento on a second night of a back-to-back. I think then they're going to Utah or something after that. Then they go back to the to the East Coast. Bro, they ain't tripping off. They're, they're fucking tired, dude. They're tired.

And that's just one example. Yeah. You know, like, that's why like, people say these are a dog days. No, you're right. You're right. You're right on Milwaukee. And I'm not in a panic mode.

I was just telling you it looks a little, it looks a little off. But having, having you explain it to me and going back to when I was in that time of season, and you are looking forward to the break. Yeah. You know? Like, you want to, hey, man, I got to get away.

I got to refresh it. It's hard to keep generating and manufacturing energy. Yeah, no, no doubt. But you know what, man? We made a valiant effort today. We manufactured a lot of energy today. Yeah. We out here in these streets.

All right. So good job by you, Raja. That was... That was our Monday edition of Real Ones. Matt Hooper Monday's here. We're here. But make sure you guys check us out Mondays and Thursdays, but in the meantime, in between time,

make sure you check out upside high with Jonathan Sharks and Jake Howell, man, tell them the real one sent you. Make sure you check out weekends with Waz. Make sure you check out The Void with KOC every Wednesday. Fall on the Void. Make sure you check out group chat. Make sure you check out the answer with Sirius Sohee

and Chris Ryan. Make sure you check out R2C2 with who. Raja Bell. Malayo legend, the crestside clown, C.C. Sabatia. Make sure you check out Black Girl's songbook with who, Raja Bell. One of my favorites, town legend, Danielle Smith. Now that we paid the bills, we have an announcement, Raja. We have a Grizzlies Palooza coming on Thursday.

All right? Get your job, Morant. Takes out, baby. You know what I'm saying? All right? Get your shit out, man. Get your barbecue ready. Because we have Grizzlies Palooza, which is our first real missing.

match because we're going to have KOC in the motherfucking building. We're going to have Chris Vernon in the middle fucking building. Birdo! We out here, okay? So what we would like you guys to do? What we like you guys to do is send in your questions for Grizzlies Palooza? You send that to a real one's mailbag at gmail.com. Or any of your mad hooper's out there that want to, you know, ask a question or do something

like that. Make sure you call 510-469-0-2-94. It's going to be, it's going to have, we're going to have a nice little party, man, you know, because we, we know. Hashtag, get John Morinna's signature shoe. Hashtag. Hashtag, hashtag, Razza's not motherfucking playing. Okay. I don't know why we got to be begging for that, though.

I don't know. That shit just makes sense. Hashtag Roger still got Nike ties. Hashtag, Roger still has influence. Hashtag, we out here. Hashtag Roger needs to get his little, uh, uh, uh, care package. Yeah. hashtag Roger needs his care package okay

hashtag we out here holla we'll see you guys on Thursday peace