The Ringer NBA Show - East Teams in Strugglesville and All-Stars in Tinseltown | Heat Check (Ep. 195)

Episode Date: January 22, 2018

The Ringer’s Juliet Litman and John Gonzalez analyze the Cleveland Cavaliers’ continuing struggles (0:50), review Chris Paul’s recent exploits (7:27), and discuss Eastern Conference teams dealing with internal turmoil (16:32). Then, they debate the omissions from the All-Star starters (23:11) and preview this week’s most exciting games (32:10). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a boat torch. It's a heat check. You know who that was coming. It's heat check time. It's Monday morning. It's time for the Ringer NBA show Heat Check. I'm Juliet Litman. I'm John Gonzalez.

Hey, man. Congrats on the Eagles. Very exciting. And apologies to everybody who's about to listen to this podcast. We're not going to talk any basketball whatsoever. Just Eagles. It'll just be about Philadelphia. And also to my fellow Philadelphians, most of you celebrated responsibly last night.

Nice. One of you punched allegedly a police horse. Don't punch horses. No. Definitely don't punch anything, really. Don't punch anything, but especially horses. Everyone knows I know a ton about football, so it'll be a great 40 minutes. Just kidding.

Let's talk about the calves. What else is new? John, the calves are sliding. They got blown out at home on Saturday by the Thunder. Yes. I was at a Women's March, the Women's March here in L.A. And I afterwards... Big turnout.

Yes, big turnout. Check my phone. I was like, whoa, this is a blowout. I actually thought the calves were going to win that game. I guess maybe I'm dumb, but I'm just so used to, LeBron flipping the switch when necessary and his teammates getting there with him, I was surprised by this blowout. Were you surprised?

Yeah. Usually my reflexive default position is usually, it's fine. It's the regular season. I'm slipping past that now. I'm starting to slide away from that position and get closer to, huh. And then beyond ha is, oh no. Yeah. And then like, then it gets really critical on my sliding scale.

This is not as good as you would want. for the cabs. Things are not looking up. No, they're definitely not. LeBron keep saying they're in Strugglesville, which I find to be hilarious. LeBron is at once like the coolest, most powerful, important person in sports and also like just such a dad sometimes.

Strugglesville. I like it. He's corny. So their 14th in net rating, their defense has recently been bad, but it's been bad all season long. And we shouldn't forget that last year going to the playoffs, that was a major concern. They overcame it to get out of the Eastern Conference

but obviously it was their Achilles heel in the finals against the Warriors and the Warriors exploited them. All season long, it's been an issue yet again. They've got the 29th defensive rating in the league. 29 of 30. Turns out there's only 30 teams in the league still. Only the Sacramento Kings have been worse. You do not want to keep company in anything like that the Sacramento Kings are doing.

So this is a real concern for them. Even David Blatt is throwing shade at them. I hope we don't give up as many points as the cavaliers gave up last night. David Blatt from nowhere resurface. Unbelievable. Do you think he just goes home every night and catch them with the calves and he's just been waiting for this moment? He's been waiting two years to drag the calves and it finally came around. So I guess good for David Blatt, but bad for the calves. Yeah, it's tough. And so now they're in a ton of trade rumor. There's a lot of trade rumors about them. Kamba trade that ESPN floated is interesting. In that potential hypothetical, they had Isaiah going. Poor Isaiah. I guess he'd get another tribute video. Channing Fry and the 2018 Brooklyn pick for Kemba and Johnny O'Brien.

Is Kemba appreciably better than Isaiah? I don't understand that trade. I think he has just doesn't have the injury history, right? And he's having a pretty good season. He is having a pretty good season. He's a really good scoring point guard. They do need that. They need that offense.

They can't just be through LeBron. That's what they miss the most from last year. But they're just kind of a mess. Like, do we worry about Ty Loo? But this is what LeBron had to say about him, being possibly fired. I would hope not, but really don't know. I don't know what's going to happen with our team. I have no idea what conversations have been going on.

I've been trying to stay as laser sharp as I can to keep my guys. ready to go out and play. Is that an endorsement of Tailu? Not an endorsement. No. And also combine that with Isaiah saying they never practice. Like, what's Tye Liu up to then? This is really confounding. If you're Tailu, you are not at all happy that LeBron was like, yeah, I don't know, man, good luck. Tough stuff for Tileu. I also wonder, like, when you're a veteran team, you get a lot of leeway with this stuff. And like, the longer that this season goes on, the less you're going to practice, the less you're going to have shootarounds. That's fairly commonplace, especially towards the back end of the season as the playoffs approach, like teams kill practices all the time.

Earlier in the year, especially when you're struggling and especially when you've got defensive issues, I wonder about them not practicing as much. Sure. And so, yeah, if you're Thai-Lew, like, you've got to be sweating this right now. And I will say, LeBron, after they got blown out on Saturday, LeBron made a point of being like, we have a practice at 11 a.m. tomorrow. He called practice. Yeah.

So, LeBron's the voice of practice. I don't know what it's going on there. It's just, this is like, also, this is devolving into a February with LeBron because Wade tweeted last night, look in the mirror and you will get all the answers you need. Good night. And then it's just like, so is he trying to like talk himself into, I think that he's like directed himself, obviously, that's like what mirror comments usually are. But it's also like, is he trying to like be a leader and be like young guys or other guys like you need to look in the mirror too? See, that's, okay, so I, you threw this out there and like initially because, you know, the mirror component you would think like it's naturally like, I'm naturally like, I. I'm going to look in the mirror at myself. But the more I think about it, I'm not interpreting that way. I think, like, there's a lot of finger pointing going on. And he's going, hey, you've got to look at yourself, which, you know, ironically, like, he should also be looking at himself and maybe he isn't.

None of this is good for the calves. They clearly need to shake it up. The interesting thing I thought is that Ty Loo said that there are no lineup changes imminent. Right. So he's just going to try to ride this out, I guess. That's one way to handle it. I would shake up the lineup at the very least. What's the one move you think he should make?

Well, you need more defense. The problem is you don't have anybody who is really on your team to play defense. I mean, like, you know, Jay Crowder, in theory, would be a good defender. But KOC has been saying this for the last two years. He's really slipped in the last couple of years. And also, Charks and Gallagher will tell you that when he was in Dallas, he was no dynamo either. Like, everywhere Jay Crowder goes, he has a legion of discerning fans who disapprove. Yeah, I actually really like Jay Crowder.

But some of his ability, obviously, the luster has worn a little bit. But where are you going to get, like, somebody, I mean, you know, Kevin Love isn't a great defender. Dwayne Wade is old. You've got LeBron. J.R. Smith, I don't think has played defense in his entire life. What do you have? I mean, Amon Shumper used to play defense. Sure.

But, I mean, he's playing 20 minutes a game. Can I float an unfounded theory? Sure. It literally is totally unfounded. But I think, like, one of the strengths of LeBron is that he, like, for all the, you know, Kyrie didn't want to play with him. And we've been dealing with Cavs drama for, like, four years now. He always has sort of just been.

found a way to rally the troops and flip the switch, etc. I feel like probably having Wade there actually makes that harder for him to do because it's sort of like he brings in a lieutenant in a way that it's clear that he has an allegiance to one person over everyone else. And so therefore I feel like it makes it harder to marshal the rest of the troops. But I don't know if that's correct. But that's just sort of like my own armchair psychology. Something's wrong.

Yeah. Something's wrong. And if I were Tailu, I would at the very least like just move some pieces around. Yeah. Just to why not? Like, what do you have to lose at this point? Because if not, you might lose your job. You might, all of a sudden, you're going to be David Blatt dragging the calves from the sideline, like, in a TV game that nobody was watching.

I don't even know where he was when that happened. Yeah, somewhere in Europe, I think. Somewhere in your undisclosed location in Europe. A bunker in Europe. David Blatt weighs in. That's crazy. Let's move on. Let's talk about another friend of LeBron, Chris Paul.

He's been weird lately. We're all weird. So he was a key player of the fracas in the Staples Center last weekend, which was last week. last week between the Clippers and the Rockets, but no suspension for him or James Harden. Jeff Van Gundy posited on Saturday that perhaps it was because it didn't want him to miss out on any national TV games, which I thought was interesting. Also, that was interesting for Jeff and Andy to say that on the national TV broadcast. Yes.

But that's kind of neither here nor there. And then when the All-Star starters were announced, Chris Paul was asked about if they should televise the draft, hashtag teleifies the draft. And he didn't really want to weigh in. He was very terse. he was asked about the conversation with him and Adam Silver and all he just said was like, yes, we talked about it. And then they asked Carat Sherry told him.

He said, nope, Adam knows. So he's playing that one close to the vest. And then after the Rockets beat the Nuggets, he was super short with them. He's been grumpy lately. He's been grumpy. I also, at the end of the third quarter against the Warriors, I was like, oh, sulking Chris is coming out. I can't wait for this fourth. Sulking Chris is a real thing.

Angry, grumpy Chris is it. It's super real. Yeah. And so, I mean, like, we've, people who watch the NBA have been talking about like Chris Paul and how he interacts with his teammates for a long time. I think his interactions with the media have been slightly different. He's actually pretty good and easy to talk to when you get him in a certain setting. But this lately, it's just been like universal across the board.

He's angry at everybody. It's all very strange. It is weird, particularly from the Players Association president. You'd think there's sort of like a managerial cap he would put on to like set the right example. But maybe this is the example he wants to set. So all of the stuff that we've heard about Chris Paul over the last however many years about him being like a difficult teammate. Sure. Difficult teammate but then like supposed to like a great guy, which I think is interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's a certain amount of like public relations management that goes on to have that reputation while also having your teammates think that you're difficult to play with. Yeah, but how much of that do you buy into? Like we watch this like this. Like this is a little bit of tea leave reading right now because we're, you know, like we don't really know Chris Paul. But he's got this reputation that like sort of runs counter to the public. like Chris Paul that we see in like the State Farm commercials and like, you know, when he's even making fun of himself in that James Harden video game commercial. Like I wonder how much of this is like he's really a grump. I think that he is grumpy about basketball and like not outside of that.

One thing that's always been said about him is he really takes care of his family. Big family man. Yeah. Which I love. And not just like his kids and his wife, but like also his cousin, aunts and uncles. Like there's a lot of like Paul family activities. And he, you know, many years ago when he was first coming up, he was on, wait, wait, don't tell me. talking about his grandfather and how he owned the gas station in North Carolina.

Like, I think he's like a... Which is the stuff I love from Chris Paul. Totally. Totally. But I think that he's just like really... I kind of... I'm scared of the rockets on behalf of the Warriors. I feel like they're a little scary because they're really dialed in.

What did you think of that game? It was really fun. How much are you... How much weight do you lend to that? I think a decent amount. One of my first thoughts was like, wow, the Warriors really missed Jordan Bell already, which I thought was interesting. And like, maybe a bad sign.

It was a pretty bad staff performance. It also was their fifth game on the road, five of five, I believe. And the rockets are cooking right now. Yeah, the rockets are cooking. But, you know, Capella looked amazing. And that just seemed like a real, you know. Capella's been killing it this year. Yeah.

And that's like probably one of the biggest tests for him, not because they're so strong inside, but just because if that's going to be like the rocket's X factor, then it has to work out. And so he looked really good. Also, Hardin, I thought when he was switched on to Steph, like played staff pretty well. You're selling me on this. I initially was just like, whatever. It's a regular season game. The Warriors are...

I think of it had been in the playoffs. KD would have been a little bit more assertive. And that's what we saw last year in the finals. When they need it, KD turns it on. And I don't know if we saw the full KD experience on Saturday. So that's kind of my caveat on that one. Also, even though he's kind of washed, like, Andre Aguadala adds a dimension to that team that I think they rely on to a certain extent.

I don't think Iguado is going to win the finals for them or the Western Conference finals. But it wasn't... He's a component. that they need. They need some sort of contribution from him. I think the rockets looked really good, though. And, you know, they're undefeated when Capella, Paul and Hardin are all playing. So if they say healthy, they're definitely...

Is that right? They're undefeated. Look at the little nuggets that you just drop in and I wasn't ready for that. I think I saw it on Twitter. Okay. Well, it's not like I did much research. You mind it and you moved it into the podcast. As everyone, as you know, no one else knows.

I show up for this podcast. Do you do most of the work? That's not true. You and Isaac Carrey mate. It was fun. It just also makes the rest of the season and the playoffs a little more exciting. It does. And that's something that I'm like, because we had talked previously about like, could the

rockets be like an actual impediment to the Warriors? And I don't know what percentage I ascribe to that preseason. And early on, like, especially because the, the rockets have played such great defense this year and I didn't expect that. Like I was starting to think like, hmm, maybe now for sure. Like, this is like potentially a thing. Like they might actually have a foil in their own. conference. It's interesting. I obviously think that the Warriors are still the heavy, heavy

favorite, but it's way more fun to imagine a world where the rockets could potentially unseat the Warriors than just going, yeah, we're just going to have another coronation. Yeah. Also, the concern of there's only one ball for Hardin and Paul. Because A, there's been injuries that hasn't really been like an issue because they've kind of like for all intents and purposes in platooning. And that's the way that Dan Tony plays them quite a bit. Is that one of them's always on the court at the same time, blah, blah, blah. And they sort of, they seem like they really happily coexist, which is, I think, just the biggest, one of the biggest surprises of the season? Yeah. That kind of goes counter to the Chris Paul as a bad argument. It definitely

does. Which I like also. Like, let's give Chris Paul a little more dimension. I would like to believe in Chris, like the Chris Paul who said, you know, like one of the things that bother him about the Clippers is that he wanted to have everybody hang out together. That like, yeah, like that family guy atmosphere where it's like, let's all be together. Let's have fun. Let's hang out. Like I want to believe in that Chris Paul, the guy who, when Blake Griffin went down last year, and we were all in Utah, and he was really upset for his guy. Like, that Chris Paul is the Chris Paul I like, not like Grumpy. Don't talk to me about the All-Star game, Chris Paul. Yeah, absolutely. I also, I mean, Hardin's just so, is so good right now. So good. Even if he's coming back. One of the sneaky reason why that game was fun, Hardin, like, barely got to the free throw line.

It wasn't like a slog fest. You don't like that. No, I hate it. I love it. It's so slow. That's a real NBA junkie opinion. It's a weird thing. And maybe Raptors fans. will get angry at me because I mentioned this about DeRosen and DeRosen being like the least exciting starter. But what I like about DeRosen is his efficiency and getting to the line. Like, that's a skill. And similarly, James Hardin, I know that it's not an exciting skill. It's actually quite boring for you and a lot of people to watch James Hardin get to the line

and shoot three throws. It slows things down. I'm just like, let's keep it moving. But it's such an art form the way that they can draw fouls. It's true. There's a beauty in it. Okay. It's not exciting, but there's a beautiful.

goody in it. I think that that's also part of the Hardin, Chris Paul experience together. Yeah. There's less like ISO for Hardin because of just the system's a little bit different. I want to talk about teams with some adversity, but first let's talk about our sponsors. Unlike flights or other travel, hotel rates usually get cheaper at the last minute. In fact, Hotel Tonight partners with awesome hotels to help them sell their unsold rooms, which means you get amazing deals. All it takes is 10 seconds, just three taps and a swipe to book a room. No long, endless list of a zillion hotel choices because Hotel Tonight only shows you the best deals at the best hotels. It's perfect for if you're busy or don't want to overthink things. Or if you are

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of all sizes and industries to find the most qualified job candidates with immediate results. And right now, our listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for free. That's right, free. Just go to ZipRecruiter.com, slash ringer. That's ziprecruiter.com slash ringer. One more time, try it for free. Go to zip recruiter.com slash ringer. Let's talk about some teams with infighting or we're struggling a little bit. As LeBron Litt say, let's take it to Strugglesville.

Take it on down to Strugglesville. Exactly. And our Justin Timberlake voice. I didn't realize that the wizards were having some issues. The wizards are a mess. I kind of checked out on the wizards. You just totally are. You've written them off.

I did. The only three teams that matter in the year. I guess there's four. Bucks, Raptors. C's and calves, right? And so you're just, like, done with the wizards. Yeah, I mean, like, look, the wizards are fine, right? The wizards are like a second, third-tier team, that middle-of-the-pack group that we had talked about previously where they exist in the NBA. Yes. They're going to make the playoffs. They're not that exciting. And it's fine. Like,

they need to add if they're going to ever be anything more than that. Sure. But I didn't realize that they were fighting with each other. Like, they had to call the team meeting. Here's what happened. Thanks to Candace Buckner for this article. She also one of my favorite NBA reporters. These are, quotes from John Wall via Candace Buckner. We had our team meeting. A couple guys took it in the negative way and I heard our team. Instead of taking it in a positive way like we did in the past and used to build our team up, it kind of set us

back a little bit. Bradley Beale added, it was tough. I try to keep all of our stuff as personal as possible, but I think in a way not everybody got a chance to speak whenever they wanted to. They didn't want to bring up an issue or something. They had a problem with on the team. Regardless of what may be going on, is men, we've got to be able to accept what the next man says,

be respectful about it and move on from it. I think it was one of those situations where we didn't necessarily get everything that we wanted to get accomplished. Yeah. My favorite part about that whole thing is that then afterwards, he kind of just threw up his hands and Bill was like, honestly, it was probably pointless. Yeah. Wow, that is tough. I have a couple of thoughts on this, but first of all, I just feel like this was like Bradley Beale and John Wall were like, we're having a team meeting and probably talked to everyone. And so no one else got to speak because those are the two who were like, this was bad.

And then they probably like, I don't know, I guess this is just a team that doesn't really like each other. This is such a metaphor for the wizards that they were struggling. I at least was sort of unaware of like their internal issues. Then they called a meeting and they were like, yeah, that meeting was dumb. What a waste. That's so perfect wizards. As we're recording this, they've slipped to fifth in the Eastern Conference. The Miami Heat are on a heater and have overtaken them for the fourth spot.

I mean, the wizards are, you know, I like them fine. but again, unless they add, what are they really doing? And even they seem to be sort of bored with themselves. Yeah, I think there's just sort of like this is not going anywhere. Right now, as currently comprised, what's the ceiling for the wizards? Like when... Eastern Conference Finals? Like, if everything absolutely breaks right, they win two rounds, I think even that's probably a stretch.

Yeah, went around and you're going home probably. Wonder what I would do to throw boogie into this locker room. Yeah, this is maybe not the best spot for boogie. I don't think so. And if you're team boogie, why did you want to go there? No. Yeah. Except to like hang with your friend.

But like, whatever, boogie's fine. I think he could like find friends wherever he is. Yeah, he's big and cuddly. Also sliding. Boston Celtics lost three in a row. Only two games up on the Raptors now in the east. The Raptors. Raptors rising.

Raptors rising. Celtics are on a road trip right now. They're going to be here in L.A. Yes. They have the Lakers and the Clippers back to back Tuesday. He check field trip tomorrow. He check field trip. We're going to that game.

Yeah, this is an interesting time. for the Celtics. Yeah, I like it. Are you worried? As a resident Celtics fan and J-Team enthusiasts, what's your level of concern? I feel like this is a win for Gordon Hayward. That's kind of my take. It seemed like the Celtics didn't really need him.

They got these two young guys that everything's going great. But young teams struggle at some point. And I think we're seeing that right now. Also, if a 40-point game from Kyrie can't get you a win, that's a problem. Percentage chance that the Raptors, not the Celtics, win the Eastern Conference, regular season, not playoffs. I want to put it at 52%. You're handicapping them, the Raptors as the favorites now. I think so. I think that the big lesson of the spurs is the consistency and experience contributes to like a strong regular season, if not the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, the Raptors are sort of like the

un or anti-w wizards. Like they're together. They're a really good team. They figured out how they want to play. DeRosin's an all-star. Like, they're just chugging along. I still probably am like, you know, 55, 45, 45, or even 60, 40, Celtics will pull it out and have the best record in the East regular season-wise. Sure. Like, it's not as crazy a thought right now as I probably would have thought it would be before the season started to imagine a world where the Raptors end up with the best record regular season in the Eastern Conference.

Could happen. Yeah, I just worry that. Congrats Raptors fans. Totally. Let's just read a Harry Irving quote for good measure. Yeah, do it. You can never go wrong. You got to hit some adversity.

We have to hit something. Like, we need it as a team. That's part of the game and learning one another. and being able to figure out how do you respond from that. Us as a group, as we come in the last four months or five months,

it's new. We need to hit something like this in order for us to grow. It's part of the game. It's part of being on a team, part of being a professional on any team in any environment. You've got to have stuff like this

where you've got to figure it out. Is that the most normal Kyrie Irving quote of the last like eight months? It might be. Shout out to Kyrie for just speaking those talking points. Right, just doing, hitting the cliches.

It's fine because also they had, the Celtics had that like incredible start to the season, what they win like 16 in a row, right? It's an incredible beginning. So they've got a cushion. I don't think it's a huge deal.

I think they'll be fine. Yeah. Also, like, no one really expected this team to win a title. They're overperforming. Since we lost Hayward, per Instagram, it looks like Gordon Hayward is doing rehab in San Diego right now. Is this the most fun just because we don't know how it's going to shake out Eastern Conference playoff picture that we've seen so far?

Like, in the last few years, because now, like, I still think it's the Cavs to lose because of Playoff LeBron. However, like, kind of a grab bag of teams. You could see anybody really facing off against the cabs, depending on how it shakes out, like, playoff seating-wise, for the finals. Totally. It's been a fun few weeks. I feel like the NBA is really heating up. Sixers are playing well, eight and two over their last 10.

The box have fallen off a little bit. Who knows who's going to be in this? I know. It's like all the games are fine because they all matter. They do. Like we talked about last week when you have so many teams that are kind of in the middle, a lot of ramifications for each game. That is one thing about, like, that Wizards, Heat, Pacers, Sixers, like, mid-tier. teams like on any night when they're playing each other it's like oh this is going to be i have no idea

what's going to happen these teams are all like pretty similar in terms of like they could beat each other on any given night in a seven game series who knows how it would possibly shake out that's why it's like you know accepting you know the warriors this has been a really interesting season for the NBA because who knows what's going to happen yeah i think it is good for the NBA and on that note let's talk about the all stars in a real or not real all all star edition that's hard to say thank you I garbled it the first time, in fact. You did it.

That was good. Thank you. So here are our starters. On the west, we got Seth and K.D., boogie and AD, and James Hardin. In the east, we got LeBron, Janice, Kairi, M. Beatt, and DeMarosen. You did that off the top of your head. I did. Off the dome.

I could watch you do that. Thank you. That was very impressive. I just want to say I picked nine out of ten of those. That's one of the reasons easy for me to remember. Before we get into the real or not real, the Pelicans having two starters. And being 500. It's amazing, but also a little sad.

Like very pelicans. Totally. But, you know. Peak pelicans. Sorry, there are three games over 500 now. That was very rude of me. And they're sitting in seventh. Right.

But it's like, like you have two starters, two of the most dominant players in the NBA. And this is the best it's probably going to get. Listening to Bill and Zach talk about Anthony Davis on the whole portion of their home and home, I was like, I really don't appreciate this guy enough. I was like, I was like, thank you for teaching me like what I really should be paying attention to. Should they have two starters real or not real? No. So do you think Jimmy should be in there? I don't like the way they do.

Like if they're getting rid of the actual teams, like for this draft situation, like, let's get rid of like front court and back court. Like we're in a positionless basketball moment anyway. Let's just pick like the five most popular. And like, and so then I think Jimmy could have made it. If it was three guards instead of two, I think the fact that it's three front court and two back court is like stupid in this eight day and age of basketball. I am 1,000 percent on board with this.

I think just have the best players. Yeah. Regardless a position. Throw them in a grab bag. I love this pickup philosophy of we're going to. to pick our teams. Isn't that also like literally how GMs think now? Like Darryl Morey was like, let's just get the best player we can.

Just get the best players. Yeah. And also, Steph was asked about it. He went the opposite of Chris Paul. And he said, you know, I don't know how I'm going to build my team. Maybe I'll just pick all guards. And I'm like, that's fascinating.

Yeah, fun. Yeah. That sounds like a lot of fun. Yes. Do that. Like that sounds like something that'd be really excited to see. Like let's get Steph, Kyrie, Hardin, DeRosen. Do it.

Who's playing the five? That's a great. That's a fun five. Yeah, right, or maybe, you know, maybe LeBron goes the other way, takes Janus. Point Yonis with four point guards. It would be great. That would be really awesome. Real or not real?

KOC was right, because KOC, when he put his all-star starters together, he had Horford over Embed. No. I like Horford a lot, and obviously he's essential. He's like one of the most crucial cogs to the Celtics to the extent they're having any success. But the Sixers are a completely different team without Joel and Bede. Like, they transform. I think also Kyrie is the most important.

player on the Celtics and Embedd is the most important player on the Sixers. And so if we're just going for like sheer talent, let's go with Embed. A lot of Embedd shade about him being a starter, another one on this front, real or not real. Porzengis was right. He should start over Embed. He was asked about this. He said, the players know that's all I'm going to say. No. Okay. Yeah. What are you doing? I know that the players, that is true in the voting, the players sided with Porzingis over Ambide more. But take off your Sixers fan hat for a minute. Like, who would you rather have Porzingis or Embed on your team? Who would I rather have on my team for the Allstar?

No, just like period. Period. Yes. On your regular NBA team. It's very close. I'm going to go Embed. Yeah, me too. I actually don't even think it's that close.

I think there's like a lot of things about MB that I find really impressive and I know his health is an issue, but so is poor Zingis is. I mean, they're both extra, like you can't go wrong. They're both young and extremely talented. I was thinking health as like my consideration. Yeah, I know. If Embed, if you could guarantee me that they'd have the same amount of health, it would be Embed all day every day.

I think Porzingis is on like the Blake train of like many small injuries. Small little nagging injuries. Yeah, he does have those. And like while Embed had like much more glaring ones, like the small one sideline you too. The numbers argument on this too. Like I don't know like Porzengis is like, well, the players know. But Embed is he's got him in rebounds and assists. He's got him in box plus minus.

Win shares, true shooting percentage. Like the advanced metrics like Embedd better. The counting stats like him better. I like them better just like as a human. social media. I think that we're focusing on blocks a little too much this season. This is one of my takes. Tell me.

I just feel like as a defensive metric, obviously it's important, but like four blocks per game is important, but doesn't like swing a game completely. And so there's just been a lot of talk about like, Porzingis leading the lead in blocks and like, wow, Katie has how many. I don't know if this is like the kind of thing.

Like everyone NBA rats and be like, shut up, you've no idea you're talking about. But like who builds a team around who's the best, who averages the most blocks. You know what I mean? Like I just feel like. It's a helpful thing when, like, It's like an interesting metric to evaluate a player,

but it's not like going to change. Yeah, I mean, like rim protection numbers obviously matter. And we have like field goal percentages at the rim and all those things. Those are useful metrics. I think like if you're just talking about like counting stat blocks. Yeah.

Then like you have to apply to like which player. Like poor Zingis getting a lot of blocks is more interesting and useful than say. Like a point card. Well, I was going to say then just having D'Andre Jordan out there who like that's swats away. that's what he's doing and that's it. And like, you can't use them, you can't deploy him more than four feet from the basket.

It's more like an important condiment on top of like a player's like what they offer. That to me, then like sort of the basis of evaluating someone. But whatever. That's just sort of like personal criticism. Because you brought up KD another real or not real all-star edition for you, KD should be the first pick in the draft. Definitely.

Yeah? Yeah. I think there's a really good case for it. He's the most talented overall. I'm most intrigued by Yannis. Also, I want to know. What about Hardin, though? I just think Hardin might be the best one-on-one player, like, right now, not like in the

league. An All-Star is not really like a motion offense situation. So I would maybe want Hardin for his. My only like really like line in the sand real or not real so real. All-Star Edition is that they should just televise this thing. What are you doing Adam Silver? Hashtagetel. Please.

Let's move on. A lightning heat check. Lightning heat check. Boom, Shakalaka. He's heating up. He's up. Back to where we began, Carl Anthony Towns is rapping hard for the Eagles on social media. Yo.

What's the derivation of that? I think he's from Jersey. Oh, right. So he grew up watching the Eagles, which is cool. It's fine. You might want to pump the brakes a little bit on it. Real dicey, man. You're in Minnesota.

You're in Minnesota. Like, I respect his loyalty to his, you know, and I'm using this very loosely. Not so much hometown as home area team. Sure. But, you know, like, you've got to show a little deference to you. Like, they're playing the Vikings. and they got smacked, like, maybe don't rub their faces in it. Also, like, just get off M. Bede's corner.

We got it. He's the NBA is Philly's fan. He's the NBA Eagles fan. Yeah. One without much of a claim. You know what I mean? It's a little bit much. It's a little bit much. I like it, though.

And when he first came into the league, M. Bid said that if he made it all, or Rianna said if he became an all-star starter, she would consider dating him. And now he's no longer interested. He's no longer interested. Your team is trying to cool you off here. But years ago, you were denied by a young woman who told you to come back when you were in All-Star. Is there anything you'd like to say to anybody on T&T right now?

I mean, you should deny me back then. So why go with her again? So I might have to pass that and move on to the next one. I don't know, man. I think Rihanna is still the queen. I think she's still pulling celebrity rank and like importance over Joel and be as much as I love Jojo. Yeah, she's going to be fine.

Another heat check. Your boy, Rob Polenka. Rob Polinka says that the Lakers probably. will not be involved in the trade deadline. And here's what he had to say about that. I don't know if this is the perfect metaphor, but maybe a nod back to Dr. Bus, who we all know love to play cards. The trade deadline, you almost have 30 GMs sitting around a big card table and they all have their deck of cards. We're trying to do as a player is analyze the other 29 players. What may they have? What may they move? What may be their next move in this card game? Sometimes two players across the table do a trade and reshuffle

cards that changes the scenarios you're looking at. So right now, I think everyone is assessing the other 29 teams and what they might do. Usually you see in that last week is when most of the major moves are made. And again, our goal is singular. It's climbing up to Larry O'Brien, trophy mountain, getting to the top. Along the way, we have to show improvement, blah, blah, blah. Rob, I don't know who you're talking to with this. Is this like for the fans? Is this trying to remind people he knows who Jerry Boss is. Like, he remembers that he's there to win. I don't know who this quote is supposed to come for it. I don't either. My favorite part about that whole thing was also that he said he wouldn't get involved in the trade deadline unless it improves their

championship outlook? What? What? Like, I don't know. I've watched a lot of Lakers basketball this year at no point that I consider their championship outlook. I'm concerned about the Lakers. I just want them to be fun. And I don't, I don't know that they're heading the right direction. Like I was watching their game yesterday in, you know, like during commercials for football. They beat the next. Yeah. They beat the next fine. I just wonder what this team is. Yeah. It's the same per usual. I don't know if they know. Let's talk about this week in basketball. We're going to the Celtics at Lakers tomorrow. Group trip. I'm excited for it.

I'm pumped too. I hope the Celtics win. You're going like you're going to be journalist Juliet. Yeah, of course. This is excellent. I wasn't sure if you're going to be in the stance. No. Okay. Well, this is better. Thanks to the Lakers for hooking me up for the press pass. Thursday, wolves at Golden State.

I'm excited for this one too because I want to see the wolves as they've been playing better. And Jimmy Butler has sort of marshaled them and the defense has been better. Like, this is a real test. I'm looking forward to it as well. Yeah. The wolves are a little in the clipper zone for me. They don't look like they're having a great time on the court, but that also kind of makes them intriguing to watch because I'm like,

oh, okay, you guys are playing well, but you still don't like each other. Interesting. Yeah. Friday, Rockets at Pelicans. Interesting. Lots of All-Stars. Yeah, the Pelicans are now like, yeah, maybe they can win. They're just a real, they're a 50-50 team.

Run them out there. You just never know. The NBA is really fun right now. It is. I'm very much into it. I'm excited. Thanks for listening. We'll be back next week.

I actually will not be. You will not be. I will be with a co-host to be determined. Yes. TBD. TBD. Thanks for listening and check out the Winger NBA show all week.