The Ringer NBA Show - Draymond Gets Paid, Zion’s Big Draw, and the 2010s All-Decade Teams | The Mismatch

Episode Date: August 6, 2019

The guys react to Draymond Green’s four-year contract extension with the Golden State Warriors (0:42), scheduling news for the 2019-20 season (16:24), and NBA.com’s All-Decade Teams for the 2010s (35:03). Hosts: Chris Vernon, Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, it's Liz Kelly and welcome to The Ringer Podcast Network. Up on our site, The Ringer has just published their first ever fantasy football rankings. Our NFL experts, Danny Kelly, Robert Maze, Danny Highfits, and more rank and analyze the top 150 players in 2019, with with you, with you, wherever you're drafting. To check out our rankings and for more preseason coverage, listen to the Dannessie Football podcast or head over to the Ringer.com. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. joining me as he does every Tuesday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor,

a.k.a. Kevin O'Connor, A.k.a. Kevin O'Connor, A.k.a. Kevin O'C. Khammer. O'Connor. Kevin O'Candiland. Cavill. Verdo, what's going on, man? How you doing? Well, there's actually been some stuff that has taken place since we last spoke. We have some big news of one of the significant players in the NBA signing a contract extension. Also, some schedule news has already come out. but let's start with that significant player and signing of an extension, and it was Draymond Green.

He now has a long-term deal with the Golden State Warriors. The fourth-year option in his new $100 million extension would allow him to go after even more guaranteed dollars in the future because he has a option in his contract, unlike Steph and Clay reported Nick Ferdell from ESPN. But in fairness, Steph Curry has a $200 million contract and Clay Thompson has a $190 million contract. Are you surprised that Draymond signed the four-year $100 million extension? No. And the reason why, Chris, is because that $204 million that was out there potentially for him this next summer is not something Gold State would have offered.

And even other teams, other teams could have offered him a maximum of four years, $150 million. I'm not sure some of those teams that could have even offered that would offer it. A team like the Atlanta Hawks, they could have created the cap space. But are they going to offer that to a near 30-year-old big man? Is Draymond even going to leave Golden State for that team? No, I don't think so. So I think for Draymond Green and for Clutch, they projected ahead with the market. They projected ahead with his career.

And there is more value in signing a guaranteed $100 million. dollar deal right now rather than waiting. And for Golden State, it's a good team fair contract for a guy who will be 30 when the deal kicks in. And it's a very tradable contract for no matter what happens in the future. He'll make at most 27.6 million in that player option deal in the fourth year, the 2023-24 season when Draymond will be 33 years old. So for Draymond, it makes sense to lock in security now. And for Golden State Warriors, it makes sense to lock him in on a good deal and not risk him potentially getting a $150 million offer next summer. The one thing that was a little surprising to me is this is the cash-in moment for him,

because he hasn't gotten paid by players that he has been much more significant to winning than, right? I think it's fair to say you look around the league and Draymond Green has not made the money that players that are much worse than him have made. I think he probably looks around. And even on his own team, after what was a breakout season for the, Brooklyn Nets and I understand his youth. But DeAngelo Russell signed a $117 million contract, right? And so you look around the locker room, everybody's got an ego. You look around the locker room and it's like, wait, hold on now. Well, I mean, I've helped deliver championships to this

team. I've been the heart and soul of this team. So I, listen, I think it does say something about Draymond because he obviously wants to stay with the Golden State Warriors and wants to keep that together and the ego in this moment could get the best of you because you would think, I would think, if I'm him, look, Clay's going to be out. He's going to be out for a long time. Everybody's going to see what I really am now because look, if they're going to win games, Draymond's going to have a big year. And if he kept himself in shape and he did all of the things, if we got playoff Dremont for a

year, the numbers he could put up with him and Curry having to do it every night could be rather absurd, I think. And so, I don't know. I mean, again, this stuff does come up in locker rooms where you look around it. Everybody knows what everybody's contract is. And there was a part of me that thought, he ain't going to be fine with making less money

than DiAngelo Russell, but he is going to be fine with that. Look, I mean, you can't necessarily compare what you're making against somebody else. That's what gets you into trouble. That's what leads to, like, exactly as you're describing. If you're Dremont, you can't do that. If you're Draymond, you have to look at the market for what the league is for Tays Biggs,

you have to understand that teams are paying for projected future performance, not paying for past performance. So everything that Draymond Green has done obviously matters significantly, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be making an equal impact moving forward in the future. So for Draymond, yeah, there is that question about his conditioning that really came up last season. Yes, there is that question as he's 30 years old this coming season. he'll turn 30 in March. So when this contract starts up in the 2020, 21 season, he'll be 30.

Someone who has had his weight fluctuate ever since he was back at Michigan State. The question will be for him moving forward at 6-7, pudgy, 230, 240 pounds, whatever he is. How does his game develop over the years? Because the thing with Draymond is, athleticism is more than just leaping ability. So often we think of athletes as these big dunkers,

guys like DeAndre Jordan and Zach Levine, who could just dunk over people and do all these amazing things. But athleticism also has to do with lateral movement and things like that. So for Dremont, so much of his success over the years has been due to his elite athleticism, his ability to react and change directions quickly, where over the years, his body has been able to keep up with his brain, which moves at hyper speed. But at some point, maybe he slows down just a little bit, just a little bit, whether that has to do with conditioning or his athleticism.

And at that point, what does Draymond become for you if he is not an elite top end defender? Like, he still can be. Oh, well, look, I mean, Kevin, you're talking about the losing a step or, you know, what does he because of what he did last year because of what he did

throughout the season. And then it was- That was silly, though. But he was not good. And then six weeks before the playoffs, he decides he's got to shed off 20 pounds. And we get this guy throughout the playoff run that looked nothing like he did.

If you watched him during the regular, season and you thought to yourself, my God, if this guy, if he was like this all season, this is the best defensive player in the NBA. It's not even, I mean, to me, in terms of, I mean, he's switching on guards and staying with them. He's, he was grabbing rebounds off the board and outrunning everyone to the other end and scoring. And so he did take the season off for better or worse.

I mean, much of the regular season. That's why he was mis-evaluated, though. People were focusing too much on what he was doing in the regular season when their Golden State Warriors at that point are coasting. Everybody's coasting on that team because they were building for the finals. Well, they weren't all coasting. It's not like Durant and Curry had bad seasons. And Draymond, what we thought was, look, he decided I'm going to get in great shape.

We evaluated 25 pounds overweight, Draymond. That's the guy that was being evaluated and also the guy that could not make a three. Right? So a lot of things had changed. Draymond has, that's the thing. I remember talking to Bill Simmons about this on his podcast or during the season, and he mentioned Draymond's plummeting three-point percentage. Draymond has not really shot the ball any differently than he has,

except for that one season. The 15-16 season, he shot the hell out of a three-point ball. But other than that, he's been a subpar three-point shooter, his entire freaking career. So last year what happened is not too far off the norm for him as a shooter. And that's part of the, not the issue with Draymond, but it's part of the reason why. his market maybe not, isn't as vast as perhaps you would think because of some of his

offensive limitations. If he becomes more of a focal point, I'm not saying he's a system player, but so much of what maximizes his strengths is the supporting cast around him. He is in a great situation for his immense strengths, his playmaking ability, his rebounding ability to go coast to coast like you said, Chris. All the little things that he does on the floor is one of the smartest players that we have, not just in the game today, but one of the smartest players in the game ever, Dremont Green, is because of the supporting cast. And that wouldn't necessarily manifest for him in all these different situations. So for Dremon, with Golden State, he's in a place where, yeah, you know what, he can take some of those games off on defense because of the fact

that they have so much other talent on their team. And yes, maybe he is a bit of a liability as a shooter, but it's okay because of all the other weapons they have on that roster. So for Draymond, he's in a great situation that really just kind of highlights the strengths. And then with his weaknesses, they aren't necessarily as as apparent as they might be if he's on a team that is average. Well, and we will see how this all plays out because you never know, given the player movement in the NBA now, but what you would think, and they have won a ton, and that's why. But it is hard for me to imagine.

And maybe it's just being a prisoner of the moment with all the player movement and then everything we have seen in this past off season, but getting three guys to be on one team for over a decade, which is what this will end up being. I mean, it's impossible to get one guy to be on a team over a decade. I mean, once, but you had, you had Kobe Bryant retire. There was Kobe Bryant, there was Nick Collison, there was Dirk Novitsky, and there was Eudonis Haslam. Obviously, two of those guys are superstars.

Two of them were role players that people loved having around and in the locker. and kind of holders of the flame of, you know, past times with those seats. But then you had those. Then you had Mike Conley and Marcissau both on different teams now. And then the next was Russell Westbrook, different team now. I mean, Curry is the longest tendered player on a team. And Draymond and Clay are right behind. And with all of them getting locked up in this offseason, for them to not have to break

those three up or for one of them to not have, I mean, I think, one of the things that's maybe a little underrated is the lack of ego that that takes because we saw that with the spurs and what do you want to do you want to win and Tony Parker could have left for more money or maybe to get more shine. Man of Genobley, certainly, could have left for more money and to get more shine, but they didn't. They stayed around there and were longer tenured players with those teams and I mean, I don't know. I don't know if that's a bygone day or not, and maybe it's just dependent upon if you can win big or not, maybe Janice is a guy that's going to be with his team. He seems like the kind of guy that may be with his team for the long

haul, but you never know. I mean, Anthony Davis was with this team for a long time, and he moved elsewhere. To have three that are together for that long, I mean, I don't know. I fear we may not see that again. We may be seeing it right now with the Golden State Warriors. though. That's it. That's it. Bob Myers has been open about wanting to build this team to be like the Spurs. Joe Lakeup, owner of the Warriors, has said the same thing. Ownership in the front office as well as Steve Kerr, all are in alignment with their goals for this team. Of course, they want to remain in a championship contention. But the primary objective is remaining in just playoff contention and having a shot at it with a strong core. And that's what they do retain here with Curry, Clay, and Draymond. In some ways, I feel, I feel.

feel like the team has sort of been overlooked as a title contender. I remember a couple days after the finals this year, I wrote an article about like how do the Warriors move on from here, assuming KD leaves, what do they do? And obviously it was very fortunate for them to land DeAngelo Russell the way they did in that double sign and trade. They got very young across the roster with guys like Willie Colley Stein, Omari Spellman, adding someone even like a Glenn Robinson out of free agency. They have a very young roster now. across the team, letting go of a guy like Iguidala and Livingston. So they got younger, and I think they got,

and some skill guys that have upside, like Russell, or even a rookie like Jordan Poole. So I like what the Warriors did this offseason. And then you have Clay Thompson saying this week to the LA Times that he doesn't expect to return this season before the All-Star break, but he does hope to after that. And that is consistent with stuff that's been reported about his potential return, that Clay could come back maybe in late February or March.

and if Clay's back, and if Clay's nearly 100% of his full capabilities by April and May, I feel like the Warriors have sort of been overlooked here as a team that actually has a shot at going to the finals again and maybe winning the whole thing

with their still of their original Big Three, with the Angela Russell in a brand new system where I think he's going to take a leap this year and some other good young players that could also make progress in that Steve Kerr system. Well, I will say this. If they are, a playoff team this year and if they are able to be in the mix while Clay comes back,

then it is because Draymond has an unbelievable year. He's got to be great. If Draymond's great, they're going to be in the mix. If he's not great, if he plays like he did last year, then that's not happening. And I do wonder if that was part of the calculus for signing him to this extension, saying, hey, we're going to make this guy whole. We're going to make this guy happy. Now, we need that Draymond that we saw for the last two months.

Because if you've got that guy to go along with Curry and Russell, you look up and down their roster, they don't have much outside of those three. You're right. There's not a lot. However, I do think what changed for them this off season, this was really the focus of what I wrote about, like this team, like how do they find that next piece? Like they didn't have a tradable asset, but now they have two of them. They have DeAngelo Russell, who is going to make $27 million this coming season and he'll make $31 million of the first. final year of that contract. So DeAngelo Russell, granted he might be, he's getting paid a lot. That is a tradable deal. Dramon Green at the money that he signed for is a tradable contract. So for the Golden State Warriors, they've retained some future first round draft picks that they already have, but they also have DeAngel Russell and Draymond Green that could either be used individually or be packaged together in some type of big deal in the future. So for them,

you're right that they don't have a lot else on that roster. But those two guys, could either be split into more pieces. You could someday in the future. I know we're already, Draymond, just sign an extension. We're talking about trading them. But it's fair to think about it,

though. Like in the second year of his deal. I think that this deal was signed with the intent that we want these guys to be here for the long haul. That's why. 100% is. All three of them have a 15% trade kicker. That is not small.

And that, that is the intent to be clear. But at least. gives you flexibility in the decisions that you can make. They have more flexibility moving forward this summer because of the deals that they signed than they did day after the finals when you're projecting ahead, like, okay, what's actually going to happen moving forward for this team to build a competitive roster around Steph Curry and Clay Thompson?

Getting D. Angel Russell to me, like, I know it's been talked about a lot. We talked about it when it happened. But when we look back at the summer, I think there's a strong probability. that deal is the one where we'd be like, that was more important than we may have actually realized at the moment. Maybe so. A couple of things have broken since last week regarding the schedule,

including one piece of news that you put out, which was interesting about the schedule moving a little bit. Part of the reason was the FBA World Cup was going to be a factor. So obviously, at some level of conversations with people about this, the season is going to start on October 22nd. did you gather before you put that story out there in terms of if you can the reasons for this?

Why are we moving around? Why does the schedule just not start the same time every single year? Why haven't we found just here is when the schedule comes out and here is when the NBA season starts and ends each year? For what it's worth, I reported that schedule change last year. I just kind of brought it back up again. I was like, hey, just a reminder. everybody. Yeah.

October 22nd. So what I was told last October basically was they were moving it up because partially the FBA World Cup happening coming up soon this month and into September. Part of the reason was players that will be playing in that, which granted doesn't seem like a lot with so many people dropping out. But that was part of the reason that moving forward. Let me take a quick time out, a quick time out. It is not a lot for the United States, but it is still a lot for the international players.

because it is very, very important to them. If you ever cover international players wearing their country's uniform and playing with those guys and being the best player on that team, in many cases, is still extremely significant to them in the United States. Something like the Feeble World Cup is obviously not bringing out the best of the best. Absolutely, yeah. That's still a ton of players playing internationally, which is awesome. The main reason, though, is because simply the schedule is starting to move too early.

October 15th would have been the date, had it not been pushed a week. So now with moving it to October 22nd, you're also pushing the playoffs a week back as well. So everything just shifts back one week later, which I'm totally fine with. And now it'll, you know, over the years shift back the other way. So like the opener in October 2020 will thus be October 20th, 2020. That's the deal. That's all. Just moving up.

Speaking of opening night, it was reported that a couple of games have already been scheduled for opening night, which are big, big games. It is not only the beginning of the season. I think this is a sign of things to come when we have seen the report on opening night and Christmas Day and some other significant dates on the calendar that we will get to. I think it's a sign of things to come when we see that the defending champions are, in fact, going to be playing as is commonplace, but that they are going to be playing against New Orleans Pelicans. And you'd love to think that, hey, people are going to tune in because it's a defending champions. But with the loss of Kauai, I can't imagine that the Raptors, I fear they're going to go back to having not that many national television games scheduled for them.

But the Pelicans, on the other hand, this feels like a sign of things to come. The small market team that even with Anthony Davis was not featured on national TV in an ordinate amount or even a lot. They're opening night. They're already scheduled for opening night. They're scheduled for Christmas. And I think this speaks to what level of draw Zion Williamson is going to be according to the NBA, what they think is in store because, I mean, we're getting Zion on opening night.

And I think that maybe from a TV and endorsement and everything else scheduling, we really haven't seen this since LeBron. I think it was even close. I mean, I was trying to think back to somebody coming in the league and immediately being a massive TV draw, like that could get any team on national TV all the time. And Zion's the one. And I think it's indicated by what is. I mean, look, the defending champions are playing. People are going to tune in to watch Zion. That's what they're tuning in for.

I mean, I will too. I mean, I think it's smart, but I can't wait to see how many national TV games they get simply because. they won that lottery. I bet it's immense. I bet it is. I think it's a smart move by the NBA, particularly on opening night and Christmas Day, to be featuring Zion. Because if you're thinking about the next faces of the NBA,

Luca Dantrich, you're talking about Janice Antenacompo, who already is one of them. And Zion Williamson is undoubtedly in that conversation as well for a guy who was a shot when LeBron is either old or gone to be the next face of the league. And so the time starts now to invest in that and to put him on that platform. And on opening night, it's a perfect opportunity against a Toronto Raptors team that lost Kauai Leonard. Granted, they are the defending champions.

They aren't actually on the floor. And so New Orleans has a chance on opening night against this Toronto Raptors team to really put on a show and become everybody's second or third favorite team across the whole league. Everybody's going to want to watch the Pelicans. And then also on Christmas Day against Yokic. You're featuring him against another international star in Yokic, putting more eyeballs on him as well, just this unbelievably fantastic player that people love to watch. So if you're tuning in for Zion Williamson on Christmas, when you're with your family and you get the game on, you might come away a fan of Yokic and really liking a team like the Denver Nuggets,

so we're going to be around for a while as one of the contending teams in the league. So for the NBA, it's smart for them to feature Zion, and I do think that investment will be worth it as well. I can't imagine they'll be flexing him out of a whole lot of games. Because this Pelicans team is going to be so fun, dude. Yeah, well, that Pelicans team, they had more than what I thought. They were scheduled, and obviously this is because of Davis. They had eight ESPN games last year, and they had five TNT games last year. So those are the big ones.

And I'm not, I'm not counting necessarily the NBA TV ones. But, hey, you mentioned Donchich? Kev, Luca was on ESPN twice and TNT three times, all of last year. all of last year. I mean, so even Luca, who ended up, I mean, he won NBA rookie of the year. He just was not featured on TV all that much. If you wanted to watch Luca last year, you had to have league pass. Because they only had nine total, and four of those were on NBA TV.

They only had five true big-time national TV games. And so I can't imagine. Last year, the Lakers had 43. which was immense. That is an immense number. We're going to have 82 this year? I know. Hey, the Clippers last year had 15.

What do you think that number? The Clippers were never on ESPN last year. How about that? That's incredible. I have a hard time believing that, really, because that was a great team to watch. Hey, never on ESPN. They were on TNT three times and they were never on ABC.

The disrespect. And now, And now look, what are they going to have? I mean, they're going to have like 60 games on national TV probably. How cool is it that those two teams are opening against each other? Oh, unbelievable. Yes. Perfect.

The only thing that's a little off is obviously we're not going to get George. True. Yes. We talked about that or somebody, but it's at least out there that from what I've heard is that Paul George is likely to miss the first six-ish weeks of the season after his off-season surgeries to his shoulders. So, yes, they will be, they will be without Paul George, unfortunately. Okay. A couple other things that have been announced, Christmas, Clippers, Lakers again.

So hopefully, even if it is six weeks, you got, you got both full squads by then. Pelicans, again, as we mentioned, playing on Christmas Day, they were playing against the Nuggets, Celtics, Raptors, Bucks, 76ers, Rockets, Warriors. You know that on Christmas Day, that is the day that, you know, the NBA kind of has to itself to put on its greatest of showcases. Many people, because of football season, that's kind of marks when they really start paying attention to the NBA season, the ones that are not hardcore fans. When you saw the list of what is scheduled to be the premier teams, the premier games, I mean, you've got Zion, who is, as we just mentioned, the big draw. And then was there anybody missing from Christmas that you thought would be on Christmas if you're trying to promote the biggest teams?

I feel like they pretty well nailed it. No, not really. I think they nailed it. You know what's funny to me, though, Chris? When in the past have all these games been leaked like this? Usually the schedule release, everything drops that day. But I don't remember so much from the schedule being leaked. If I remember correctly, I think it was Shams or someone.

many mentioned like this is a schedule sent out to teams so now teams are leaking it like there's so much reported within an hour well because what happens that was leaked i actually i mean i can explain how this works so what happens is a lot of these teams will share for um either they share their arenas maybe with college teams and then you have events you have events going on all through the year so you have this is very very difficult to pull off because you got to schedule 82 games with all these different arenas and you've got to move around events. And so you have the arena send you everything that they've got going or what they think

they've got going. And then they'll send you basically like a rough draft. So the league sends a team and it'll look like it'll have your schedule on there. Now at that point, the teams can go back and they can request. They can say, hey, we'd like to get this changed. Hey, we'd like to have this change. Hey, could you think about this? And usually it's just maybe a few things that are requests.

And you might get granted them. You might not. But they will certainly take it into consideration. Then they do a rework. And then the final one comes out. And I think maybe, I mean, it's obviously going to be later this week. But that's how it works. And so what happened, what I would gather is everybody got their like rough draft.

And the second they did, there's somebody that these guys know that's able to say, hey, you know what I mean? You just call a couple people that you know within organization. and you say, hey, what's that rough draft say? So those games, it's possible they could get changed, but they ain't going to be changing those big ones. They're not changing opening night. They're not changing Christmas.

It's the minor stuff here and there. Somebody may say, hey, we want to do a concert here. Hey, we've got this conflict. You know, is there any way we can turn this into a back-to-back or whatever? But the big stuff, once that rough draft comes out, that's not changing. And so you can be pretty confident in reporting that. Absolutely. It makes total sense. You know what? I'd love to get a scoop on who the Grizzlies are facing like March 11th.

Just a random day. No, you don't. According to sources. Sources say Grizzlies, Hawks, March 11th. You want me to tell you? I'm just kidding. Is he got two or three retweets? Grizzlies Hawks March 11th.

What are you talking about? That would be Vince Carter's farewell. How dare you? By the way, this is a side note. I didn't have this mark down. I covered Vince Carter for three years. Absolute 100% total professional. One of my favorite guys I have ever covered in my life. And even in, I posted this Twitter this morning.

In 2016-17, I did this interview with him. And it was almost like, hey, if this is the last year, we were kind of talking about within the context of, hey, who knows how many more years? Because that was the last of the three-year deal that he had signed. And since then he's going on to play for the Kings and now the Hawks, two different seasons. He is going to end up at 22, which is going to be the most of any player. He will have appeared, if he can make it to 2020 healthy and appear in the game, he will have played in four decades,

which has never been done by any one. Four decades, four decades. And as someone who was around him daily for three years, he is the absolute best veteran you can have on your team. I think that's clearly why the Hawks are doing this. He is at the arena before everybody and is working out and doing the stretching and doing everything to get his body ready. He, after the game, is doing stretching. He will go and get workouts after the games. He is the best example for young players.

can possibly have. Not to mention his willingness to mentor them completely. And this guy was top of the world. At one point, early in his career, he was the top vote getter for the All-Star game beyond even Michael Jordan. And that's when he's playing at Toronto. He was the biggest star you could possibly imagine. And watching this whole second phase of his career has been truly incredible. He is, is an athletic freak of nature, as we know. But he's, there's a lot of veterans that are old, sour, it's coming to the end, resentful, whatever it may be. He is the best.

And you know what? He's done that podcast for the Ringer. Maybe him and Annie and Baysmore, we can get him some road equipment and they can keep their podcast going. Yes, perhaps. Winging it. Or I'm not sure of Evan Turner's doing his podcast, but E.T. to me. I think Evan Turner

needs his own show. Whether that's with us or somebody, like Evan Turner needs his own show, period. He should do it with Titus. We should sign Titus up for another one. Titus just crapped all over him in his whole book that he wrote. Don't put me in, Coach.

Evan Turner, he calls him the villain the whole book. Anybody, listen, if you don't have Titus's book, you should go back and read it. You will laugh out loud. God, it is funnier in hell. Titus is one of the funniest people I know. that he wrote when he was at Ohio State. It's hysterical.

The other things that broke from the schedule that we'll get to real quick, all right, we have the returns. Those were the ones that were reported. Here's what I'm going to ask you in this context. On November 14th, Chris S. Porzingis to the Knicks, November 27th, Anthony Davis to the Pelicans, Kyrie Irving, to Boston. Of those three, and man, do we have two unbelievable markets

in Boston and New York doing the booing? who gets it the most relentlessly. Who gets booed the most relentlessly? Porzingis, Davis, Kyrie. Oh, not Davis. Just scratch him from the list. No disrespect to the normal fans. But if New York and Boston are just insane.

I think it partially depends on how the respective teams are doing mid-season. But I would lean towards, lean towards Porzingis. gets more booing. Really? I think it's Kyrie. I think, I think Kyrie might get stuff thrown at him, which is regrettable,

but I mean, I think that that's, I think that's going to be the worst. I do. I think Kyrie in Boston, I bet that's 48 minutes. Like, every time he touches the ball,

they won't let up. You know, because they feel like he ruined something. Whether that's fair or not, that's how they feel, right? and you never really had Porzingas crap on New York, right? Like the story was Kyrie didn't even like it in Boston and so he wasn't, you know, I don't know.

I think Kyrie's going to get it to the worst. You know, you're making a fair point here. And then like with Porzingis, he also hasn't played it in a long time too. Yeah, right. It's not that he's out of sight, out of mind. It's that he didn't play at all the 1819 season like Kyrie just did. So everything with Kyrie is fresh in the minds of Celtics fans. It was funny when they, when they had.

announced these, quote, returns. What made me laugh, Kev, was you have Porzingis, Anthony Davis, and Kyrie, which are all like, oh, that's going to be wild when those guys go back to their old teams. And then the other ones that were reported were Kauai going and playing against the Raptors in December. He'll get a standing ovation, complete standing ovation. And Russell Westbrook going back to Oklahoma City, he will get a hero's welcome and a standing ovation.

I don't know about George going back to OKC I mean, I think it's indifference, right? Like, do you think Oklahoma City fans are like, I'm mad at Paul George? I don't know. Maybe they are. He wasn't there long enough. No, I don't think so.

And he asked for a trade, but I don't know. This wasn't enough for it to cut to the core, like the other guys. No, not. Whereas I do think Kauai and Russ will get massive ovations, both of those. So we got three that are going to get relentless. Leslie Boot and two that are going to get heroes welcomes. All right, we've got to take a quick break.

When we come back, we will talk about NBA.com's all-decade team that they put out. Today's episode of The Mismatch is brought to you by Google Phi. Doesn't it feel like most phone plans just weren't made with us in mind? Between bad coverage, paying too much for data you don't actually ever use, and crazy roaming charges, Google FI is a phone plan by Google made with features that people like you and I actually want. Features like free international roaming, so you never have to worry about calling up your provider to let them know you're going to be traveling.

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All right, Kevin. So I told you to pull this up, the NBA.com, all-decade team. And then they did their statistical rankings of players and what they had accomplished within the decade. And I said, hey, just look at this. We won't talk about it. And then I want to ask you what your quick observations were when you first saw the all-decade teams. First team, looks good. Steph, Hardin, LeBron, KD, Kauai, looks great.

Second team, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, AD, Blake Griffin, Carmelo. You know, I think you could argue Carmelo third team, but I'm not about to, you know, flip out over a subjective list. Third team, Wade, Kobe, Paul, George, Marcus Aldridge, Yana sent into Kumpo. Kobe's the one that sticks out here, Chris. Kobe's the one that sticks out. I'm stunned by this. Because he should be higher. No, he should not.

be on it at all. What? Wait a minute. This is not the response I was expecting to be clear. He made seven All-Star teams. He was four-time first-team all-NBA. He won a finals and a finals MVP in the decade. Kobe had like three good seasons this decade.

Seven-time All-Star, four-time first-team all-MBA. He had like a three-time all-defensive. Three good seasons this decade. Three or four? And he made seven all-star teams? If we're counting the 0-9-10 season, which I believe they did, it's four. He had four good seasons this entire decade. Where he won, because he won a ring and he won a finals MVP within the decade.

I'm very confused about if they're counting 20-0-9, 10 season, whatever. But I'm surprised Kobe was on there, like some of the names that came to mind for me, like when I'm thinking about the other great players this decade, some guys we talked about earlier in the show Clay Thompson and Dray Juan Green they both come to mind Damian Lillard Kevin Love Mark Grosol and then two Hall of Famers

Tim Duncan and Dirk Novitsky to me Duncan is somebody that I would have put on this list ahead of Kobe but yeah to be honest like it's whatever but I was a bit surprised Okay the first thing that stood out to me the first thing he stood out to me was the pitchers

and here's why first team Katie, LeBron, Kauai, all on different teams than even what they're pictured here. Okay. Second team, Carmelo Anthony is retired and the other four guys are all on different teams. Third team, Kobe and Wade are retired and Paul George and Lamarcus Aldridge are on different teams. Janice is still on his team and the other two guys are retired. I mean, that's incredible.

We have, we should have a whole decade team and like everybody's wearing a different uniform. So, deregly, these are all the best players. By the way, Carmelo Anthony, you have no problem with Carmelo Anthony being on the second team, but you have a problem with Kobe Bryant being on the third? Yeah, because longevity matters. So for naming an all-decade team,

Kobe played three or four really, really high-level seasons. Carrello Anthony had like seven. For the decade, he averaged 25, 5, and 5. He did that on the strength of three seasons? What? Yeah. If you're doing it all-decade team, yes. It was like three or four of really strong seasons. And then he played a season where he played six games, a season where he played 35. And then he put in the final season playing 66, which is not a productive season. He was not good after the Achilles injury. Unfortunately, that Achilles injury really cut down the last couple years of his year. But really, Kobe's last great season or that's very good season was the 2012-13 season.

so he was early in the decade the tremendous Kobe Bryant faded away and there's just a lot of great players as I mentioned a Draymond Green a Marcusole Tim Duncan who played longer into the decade or still playing today Damian Lillard Clay Thompson

Clay especially who has been one of the best two-way wings in the whole league for almost the entire decade and one of the greatest shooters at all time and a champion and an all-star and an all-NBA player he has all those accolations as well. So Clay to me is one of the real snubs from this list. Tim Duncan as well, if you're factoring in defense, Dramon, if you're factoring in

defense, there's a handful of guys I think should have made it over Kobe Bryant. But ultimately, it's a subjective list. And ultimately, like, it really doesn't matter. No, no, no. But it's on the strength. You say, like, of those beginning of the decade. But, I mean, those are like all NBA first team years. So, I mean, do you credit being the absolute best guy or one of the best players in the entire league and winning, you know, even if it's for a shorter amount of time, if you're the best guy or you're one of the top two or three guys in the league,

then, you know, what winning? I'm serious, what winning are we talking about Kobe here? They won the title, yes, and 0910. Right?

And yes, they made the playoffs. Didn't you just tell me they included that? I don't know if they included 0910. I believe they did. Let's just say they did for the same. conversation, yes. But then the Lakers lost in the playoffs in the second round, the following two seasons, lost on the first round in 2012-13, and then over of Kobe's last

couple seasons, they were dismal winning 27, 21, 17 games. So it's like, yes, they had some winning early in the decade, but there's been some teams that have won the entire decade. I'm a little bit surprised you thought you should be higher on the list, that's all. Just because, I mean, if you are including 9-10, that's a finals win and a finals MVP. So you would have Kobe on the list over. Clay Thompson. I mean, Clayton,

on Chris Vernon's all decade team, all decade team, you're putting him over. There's guys on this list that I haven't won anything ever. Like, I mean,

again, I guess I care about winning. Are you putting him over Mark or Saul? Yes. I am fine with, if you did it for a short amount of time, but you were the absolute

best, the best of the best, even if it's for a short amount of time. this is the Sandy Kofax thing, right? Like, okay, so he didn't pitch as long as

some other guys, but he was the absolute best guy for this amount of time. What's interesting to me is Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo Anthony's on that list is, what is he, two-time all-MBA? I guess they list him at three all-N-BAs. I don't know if any of those

were first team, all-N-BAs. Carmelo can't get a job. It's the damnedest thing. How about this one? You know who might have a fight? You know who does have a fight in terms of that decade? Is Dwight Howard. He does.

Dwight Howard was five-time all-NBA, two-time defensive player of the year, three times all defense, three-times rebound leader. Like, I don't think anybody's, like, I think this side of Carmelo Anthony, people talk about how Carmelo and like, God, can you believe how we talk about Carmelo now? Has anybody's career? become more underappreciated than Dwight Howard. Isn't that fair? Is anyone like, I mean, you look at the years that that guy had.

And the perception of him is just, it's like less than rock bottom. I mean, he's not even, he's not even on here. My buddy, Dan Bailey, texted me about this list yesterday, and I had mentioned Dwight Howard to him. I did not mention Dwight earlier because I do think some of those other guys that I listed earlier have have had stronger longevity this decade than Dwight

but Dwight is certainly somebody that could be arguable for that list and yes his career has been tainted after the past couple disastrous seasons for him but his peak and his peak powers of those Orlando teams with the four shooters around him he don't turk or glue

Rashard Lewis whatever iteration you want to talk about JJ Redick those are some really tremendous Dwight Howard seasons that we saw it's fascinating too to look one of the things that stood out to me when I looked at the leaders from the decade, I was a little, I mean, maybe, maybe I shouldn't be, but if you were going to like reel off the top six scorers, right? So LeBron, Durant, Harden, Westbrook, Curry, nothing surprises you there, right?

Lamarcus Aldridge was sixth in scoring and fifth in rebounding for the decade. And that did stand out to me. There's another guy that maybe when we take the whole sum of his career and, we're a lot of we go and look back, it's going to be more impressive than maybe we would say on the surface. Isn't that fair? Yeah. And I probably would have put him second team. To be one of the six best scorers and one of the five best rebounders in terms of total,

the other one that stood out to me, and I went and looked this up because he was high on a couple of those lists. You know, D'Andre Jordan, for this decade that they did that, he would be number one in games, number one in rebounds, number one in field goal percentage, number two in blocks. Is he underappreciated for what he pulled off? I mean, I don't know. I don't think he's underappreciate. I think DeAndre Jordan was probably rightfully graded or appreciated in his prime years of the Clippers.

A very good player, a very good defensive player who has declined in recent years. And not to like pivot away from the past, but with DJ, that's going to be one of the things that's really interesting for him at this phase of his career. Now 31 years old has this nice contract with the. nets in a winning situation now? Does he maybe tap into some of the effort that we haven't really seen from him since his days with the Clippers with Blake and CP3? I wonder how much of that he can get back at this point now in his 30s that he seemed to have lost the last two years with Dallas and the Knicks. And then his last year with the Clippers as well, he seemed to have faded quite a lot. But so how much of that was effort versus just diminished athleticism? So I wonder

if he'll get back to some of what we did see in his prime. totally possible well i'm glad you made all the cobi fans mad i don't have to live amongst them you do i mean coby coby's unbelievable it's just i don't think he belongs on the all on an all decade team for the 2010s good luck walking down the street in ill like kiv yeah whatever man good luck all right last thing i want a lion king review uh so with the lion king king a couple of thoughts. It is just an incredible,

amazing technological achievement. I was watching the movie sitting there just in awe at the realism. It's the type of thing where it's like there's certain moments in the movie you forget that these are not real lions and they are not real anything on the screen.

Not real birds. They're all fake. And it reminded me I remember like in 06 or 07 my grandma was over my parents' house and I was playing Madden and she's like, oh, who's playing right now? It's like, nobody. She's like, oh, on the TV,

who's playing right now? I was like, nobody. I'm playing a video game. She's like, oh, it looks so real now. The video game looks so real. And this is like 0-6-07. Wait, there was a, there was a moment where you were in the theater and you thought to yourself, I cannot believe that that is

not a real lion talking. No, I'm just saying it is, it looks so real. And it made me think of a time. My grandma looked at Madden 06 and was like, this looks so real. I can't tell the difference. Fairness,

your grandma probably had standard definition TV still. Yes. I know, but that's my point. It's amazing how far the technology has come. And that was my greatest takeaway. It's an amazing achievement in technology. But we've already seen this with planet Earth. It just so happens.

These animals were talking. I don't find that the movie was necessary by any means. It felt like a flex more than anything else. So if you're going to watch the Lion King, just watch the original, rent it, watch the DVD or the VHS, whatever you got. Like, don't bother spending $15 or whatever to see this new one. It's just unless like you want to be amazed by, you know, the technology because the story is the same. Because you will catch yourself for a.

moment, if I'm gathering this review correctly, there is a moment that will come where you will think a real warthog and a real meerkat are singing Akuna Matata. That was probably, I'll tell you what, I think that's when the movie really turned on for me. That was the best act of the movie when they came into the picture. Sets Rogan was great. I thought Donald Glover was really good. I didn't, I'm like, I already pissed off Kobe fans earlier. I'm going to regret saying this, but I think, I think Beyonce was the weakest. by far in the movie. She was not good at all.

I was sitting there thinking to myself, boy, what is, what is this remind me of? Like, she feels like she's just reading off the paper. And it's like, ah, I know. L. Jefferson, an NBA 2K. When Al Jefferson's doing the voiceovers. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Like, Beyonce is incredibly talented. She's fantastic. But as a lot of, Oh, canceled. Kevin O. Canceled. Kevin O. Canceled. She was the only one in the film where I'm like, I'm just having a hard time buying this lion right here. I don't buy this lion's real. He just slandered Beyonce. The Beehive is all over us. Oh, my goodness. Let me make this clear to all Beyonce fans. My name is Chris Vernon. I don't agree at all.

I haven't even seen the movie. I haven't seen the movie, but I bet she's amazing. And I would never compare her to Hal Jefferson. And I'll say another thing. I'll say another thing. Oh, no. Salang Noles. Have you ever heard her music? Oh,

are you familiar with her at all? Are you familiar with her music? Yes, I know who Salonj is. Do you like her music? Yeah, she's very talented. Okay. She's also got a hell of a right hook. I saw the video, Jay Z in the elevator.

She, I'll tell you this, I will, even if I wasn't, a fan. I tell you I was a fan. She can swing it. I was just going to say, I think her album when I get home, released earlier this year is... Don't try to kiss up now. It is. No, no, no. This is not kissing up. I'm saying

I've probably enjoyed this album more than anything from either of their discography, Salon or Beyonce. I think when I get home is pretty tremendous album. Kevin said Beyonce ruined the Lion King. Yeah. That's what he said. She's the one. There he was just

enjoying the animals that he thought were real singing, and then he made him think about Al Jefferson. Yeah, but Nala is the one lion that I didn't think to myself, wow, this is a real lion to real lion. To real lion, Nala, old Nala was the only one. All right, we're done. This show is over.

This show is over. This show should have ended six minutes ago. And I apologize. It should have ended before the all-decade team talk. All right. right. That's going to do it for another Rigger NBA show. Kevin, I'll talk to you next week. Cool. Well, more more reviews next week, perhaps. Yes. Thanks to everybody for listening to another episode of the Prigger MBA show. Give us a rating and review. If you dig what you're hearing,

five stars, five stars really helps. And we will talk to you next week.