The Ringer NBA Show - Ep. 59: Knicks' Nonsense and Midseason NBA Hipster Squads With Jason Concepcion

Episode Date: January 12, 2017

The Ringer's Chris Vernon and Jason Concepcion discuss the Knicks' demoralizing loss in Philly (5:00), Carmelo Anthony's no-trade clause (12:00), Ron Baker's children's book (16:00), Mason Plumlee's triple-double pursuit (23:00), Bucks vs. T'Wolves for the hipster belt (34:00), Giannis Antetokounmpo's stardom (39:00), Joel Embiid's rookie season (42:00), and Chandler Parsons's virgin status (45:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NBA show. Today we are joined by Jason Conception. You can follow them on Twitter at Network with the 3 as a-O. Jason, it's good to have you back. Go New York, go, New York, go. Go, New York. I'm so ready for today. What a night in the NBA last night.

Let me ask you, Jason. There was nobody that we needed to get. I didn't even know. When I asked you to come on the podcast, little did I know last night would become this grand disaster with the New York Knicks losing to the Philadelphia 76ers. I was just going to talk about the Rose stuff, and then last night happened. It's a great capper. All right, so as you are, right, we're living right for that to take place last night.

So the New York Knicks, your beloved New York Knicks, what are we doing here? Well, let me set the stage. So Derek Rose disappears for a game, literally just ghosts. he comes back for Philly he's in the starting lineup he's hot I mean he's doing as typical as drives and stuff but he's hitting everything nicks are up by like 17 in this game late they're up by like 13 with eight minutes ago and then they just you know it's like they you just watch them you just knew too like as the Sixers started to come on I was like oh man they're gonna they're going to fall apart. And it came down to last second shot, my son in the corner, got a nice

open look designed by coach Jeff Hornacek. You can look at the video and you can watch Carmelo Anthony's face just curdle when he sees the play drawn up. And my son airballed it and then T.J. McConnell came down on the other side. He did that like right hand like Bob Coozy dribbling for five minutes thing seemingly that just and then put the dream shake on mellow who just fell apart and he sunk that game winner did the mj fist pump i've never seen anything like it one of the most disastrous losses and yet i still feel good for some reason i don't i don't know why the sixers were down 10 with they rallied from 10 down in the final two minutes and 17 seconds all right let me start at the beginning of the story derrick rose going awall

When you find out and you're reading, you know, because this is all happening on Twitter in real time the other night. And it's like, Adrian Ward Janowski's tweeting out, basically, Derek Rose isn't at the game and the Knicks don't know where he is. Well, when Woj didn't know where he is, that's when I got scared. You know, like the Knicks, you know, they might move like, you know, Phil Jackson doesn't strike me as a dude like with his finger on the pulse beat of like. of stuff going on minute by minute, you know, but like, Woege not knowing something that, that sent a chill down my spine. I was concerned. And certainly like when you, because he was, he was slated to start the game like up until, you know, like 90 minutes an hour before Tip. Like really they announced it just before Tip. Like, oh, it's going to be Brandon Jennings.

And so I figured, okay, somebody, this is a family emergency. It's serious. and as they kept on not saying anything about it, that's when it became strange because it became obvious that they didn't know where he was. And not only did they not know where he was, they weren't really sure what to say about it. Because, you know, if it's like a family emergency, you say, personal reasons, if he's away without leave from the team,

then you say, oh, he's, you know, he's AWOL and we're thinking about suspension. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But they didn't really have a line that they wanted to go by. And then, like, at the end of, like, after the game, it was just Jeff Hornacek parrying questions about where's Derek Rose when it's like Jeff Hornacek was coaching the freaking game. Like, why would he know?

It was, you know, the Knicks can't, I wrote about this, the Knicks can't just lose. They have to be really strange. They have to do strange things. All right. What about Rose's reasoning for not being with the team? Do you buy it? I give him, sure, I give him the benefit of. the doubt. Why? I don't know that it was necessarily the best way to handle. It was just like not

answer your phone. Like I was trying to think about like how many people probably individuals contacted him. Surely Steve Mills, who's like general manager of the next, surely like probably Noah, probably his agent, probably like his manager. Like how many people, how many people contact him? like Derek, what is going on? Not only that, but like if you don't want to answer the phone, the cool thing about like being a multimillionaire, like NBA players, you can just be like, call your agent and be like, hey, BJ Armstrong, just tell them this.

I don't want to talk to people right now. But he didn't do that, which is crazy. And then it's like you hear the reports recently, which is like he was thinking about walking away from the game. But also he wants a max deal. Well, I was reading Frank Isola. I was reading his arms. article this morning.

And it was basically like the Nick should have punished Derek Rose and karma's a bitch. And that's why they lost last night. Wow. That's a, that's a very New York tabloid angle. Yeah. I do think they probably should have suspended him. But I guess maybe they made the formulation that it would just be worse for the locker room if they did that.

You know, a sulking, a sulking rose at that point would be worse. I did wonder because. Like, one of the great wrinkles to the story is that ostensibly the first contact Rose had with the team after he disappeared was, like, to call them and be like, I need a plane ticket back. And Ramona Shelburne tweeted this. And it was, so they got, they arranged a ticket for him. And she said he did not fly commercial. So we can assume like it was private and or charter. There's a non-zero possibility that the fine they levied against him was like less than the.

plane ticket. Like, how much is it, like, legitimately, how much is it to get, like, a private flight somewhere in, like, an hour? I don't know. I don't know the answer. Incredibly expensive. Right. It's got to be a lot.

Yes. Especially on those, in that amount of time. Yeah. And I mentioned this, you know, Derek's got an odd deal because he, I mentioned this when I was on the pod with Kevin on Tuesday. You know, he was born and raised in Chicago. he was a huge star there. He's like kind of, you know, their native son.

And then he goes off to college for a year, but then he comes right back. You know, and even, you know, his brother and everybody was with him for his college year. And then he went right back to Chicago. And he won the MVP, and they won all those games, and the Tibido teams were really great. And I feel like in Chicago, he got way more of the benefit of the doubt than he might have gotten in other cities, right? And so it's weird. And I get that he's, you know, a lot of. older now, but for the first time in his life, he's away from home. And that's not, that's strange,

I think, especially given his, given his profession, it is strange to be away from the first time for when you're like in your upper 20s. Yeah, it must be. I think there's a, there's a, there's a flip side, though, to that, to Rose essentially being the hometown kid, you know, playing for his hometown team is that it just put like an unnatural amount of weight on his shoulders. Like when he got injured in the playoffs, like that was like spiritually demoralizing in a way that like a lot of athlete injuries don't seem to be. You know, like remember that Adidas adidas ad where it was like the whole city grinds to a halt because Derek Rose like got hurt.

Do you remember that one where it's like people are just like frozen? And yeah. It was almost like the rehab video like he was going to turn into bang or something. Yeah, it was like all these like animated scenes and like people just frozen in their tracks and like slumped shoulders and like the bar just like that's not that's above and beyond like a normal experience I think for you know a pro athlete. And I think, you know, it was just like even for what a natural experience being a professional athlete is, it was above and beyond that. Like it just, it was, there was so much on him being the Chicago guy. That it's got to be, yeah, it's got to be strange. Like, the criticism you always hear about him is like he gets bad advice.

There's the people around him, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it's when you're 18, 19, 20 years old, you don't really get a choice of like the advice you get. And that, you know, and then you're in Chicago. The whole city is focused on you. It's like, I'm not sure what you do at that point. You know, it's tough. I think it was a tough situation, and I empathize with him over that. But answer your phone, dude.

The Knicks have lost 9 of 10, but you said you still don't feel bad about things. What? I don't feel that bad. I got to, because, and this is like a comment, this is a sad commentary on the state of the Knicks over the last decade plus, but they're in the best position they've been in in 15 years, despite the least. losing. They have their draft pick this year in a rich draft

studded with stars as the ringers Jonathan Charks, as told me. They have on their roster right now a burgeoning young star, one of the brightest young stars in the league in Christas Porzingis.

That's pretty good. Just don't re-sign rows. Just don't max him and re-sign him. Like, and, and we're okay. This is as good as it's been. Like, I've been, I've been following this scene my whole life when it's like, no draft picks capped out forever with, like, Al Harrington and a bunch of dudes that, like, are just bad.

Zeebo in his very bad phase. You know, Isaiah's sexual harassment trial. You know, like, I've been, I've seen things that were bad, you know, no future, capped out. Like that's not the case now. We have a nice young star who could be a superstar, and we have a draft pick this year. So, you know, if we're bad, let's get in the draft. Twofold.

Do you think Carmela would waive his no trade? If he did, would you be in favor of moving him? Yeah. I think they should have traded him. I, number one, don't think they should have given him the no trade. I think that was a shook move on Phil Jackson's part. Because I can't figure out why you agree, either why you put that in there or why you acquiesce to it. The only reason I can come up with is you give a guy in no trade because when you do end up moving him, you want it to be clear to everyone that it was his idea.

Like you didn't move the franchise legend. You know, the only other guys that had one were Kobe and Garnett there out of the league. So Mel is the only guy who has one. and it really hamstrings what you can do. Yeah, I would have been in favor of moving him last summer because you have a young star, let's build around him. It's just weird to try and build in two directions at once. But I just feel like he wouldn't waive his no trade clause,

like after everything that's happened. And even then, it's like to wear. Like the places that could take him with his salary and then the places that he would waive his no trade to, I just feel like there's not a lot of overlap there. Like the clippers? You know, like, I don't know. I don't know.

All right, well, let me ask you this. If you, if I told you right now, because you were talking about the draft pick, if I told you the Knicks, and this is extremely far-fetched, given that they've lost nine of time. I love it. But let's just say they won 12 of their next 15. I'm giving you a deal. They can win 12 of their next 15.

Would you rather them not do that? Would you rather them not do that? make the playoffs this year? Honestly, yeah. I want that draft pick. Like, Porzingis is 21. Like, let's build for the future. I don't understand why we're, you know, it's just, I think it's hard to do it the way

they're trying to do it, especially because you're asking a guy Mello who's done a lot in the league to eventually, you know, pass the mantle of being the guy. And I think it's a hard to ask, you know. And also it's like kind of unfair to both parties because Porzingis is not, arguably not developing at the pace he would be if he was just the guy, you know. Well, they didn't have direction, right? Because, I mean, listen, the Rose Noah stuff, that's win now moves. I mean, that is why they should be criticized right now because they tried to win now and they're not. And it's bad.

and it's like horrendously bad and Phil's you know handpicked guy to to run the defense has them firmly like in the bottom five

of the league in defense and just like absolutely terrible at it you know like bad switching at weird times bad scheme like

it's just a bad look for Phil Jackson in general all right when I went back and it checked out our podcast that we did before the season started to get our five guys that we were interested in for this season. We're going to get to those a little bit later on as it is

the midway point of the season. But one of the things was you mentioned Christavs Porzingis, your Lord and Savior, who you love so much. And the quote in there, which actually I'll give you credit, made me laugh once again, you said that if the entire Knicks roster was infected by Zika, the only one you would care about was Chris Stavs Porzingis. Yeah. I am interested in knowing, now that we are at the halfway point, of the season, does that still hold if the entire Knicks roster, is there anybody else that you would care? I mean, you know, Billy Herner and Gomez looks like he could be a player in the league.

Billy Hurley and Gomez. I'm just saying. Well, you asked the question. They got him for, you know, like, they got him in a trade and he's a second round picking a good value for where he came into the league. No, I'm just saying, I haven't heard people call him Billy. Well, no, because that's the way apparently, so this is, his mother is German when he's born in Spain, and apparently the W is pronounced as a B. Oh, really?

By the, by the German people. So he's Billy Hernan Gomez. Oh, I like that better. I do, too. Because it's like, you know, throws you off. Again, the Nick's weird. They're just weird. You know, so he looks, you know, like I would roll with him and see if you could develop him into a player.

I mean, that's really it. I mean, Mendouskas has had a nice season, but he's 27, you know, secretly very old. You're going to sacrifice Ronnie Baker? Hey, Ron Baker. Yeah, let's like, let's roll with Ron Baker. Let's see what he's got. Could he give you some, I mean, I hate to go, like, white guy to white guy comparison. but could he develop into like a scrappy deli delvedova type character?

Because I think a lot of the things that you thought about Matt Delvedova early in his career, like just not a step slow for the league, you know, not quite sharp enough to hang around, kind of apply to Ron Baker. But, you know, Ron Baker has shown flashes of the thing about Ron Baker is he knows exactly what he can do. and he stays firmly within that, knows how to run a team. He just is not, like, if you're looking for offense or if you're looking for a guy who's like,

all right, I'm not seeing anything, now I'm going to blow by my guy. That's not, Ron Baker is not going to do it. He's not going to hit a layup with anyone on him. What if I'm looking for an author? Oh, dude. Ron Baker, here's a thing, here's a great thing about Ron Baker,

the tow-headed Ron Baker, who's blue-eyed, Son of America, Ron Baker. He's, yeah, he's an author, You're Too Big to Dream Small by Ron Baker. They talked about this on one of the Nix Telecast, and I was absolutely blown away. It's a children's book.

I'm going to look at this on Amazon. The cover is a watercolor of a young, tow-headed boy standing at the edge of a golden field, you know, just gazing off into the infinite distance out there where the, where, his fate lies, you know, and so here's the blurb is from the small towns of northwest Kansas. Ron Baker has reached the pinnacles of basketball. I would argue with that, but let's, I'll continue.

He led Scott City to a state high school championship. He was a star player in the best era of Wichita State basketball history. He was even a member of the Team USA in the Pan Am Games. Hashtag Google the roster of the Pan Am Games, elves, as an aside. as he begins his journey to the professional levels. Ron's first childhood book offers some encouraging words to young readers. You're too big to dream small. I just looked it up on Amazon and it does not exist on Amazon, which is seemingly impossible.

You can only get it at Cracking Books, LTD. Let's make sure that Crack and Books, come on. You know, they don't want to break off a piece for Amazon. They're probably an independent publishing house. They need that. They need to kick up on their own. Cracking books. Cracking books?

Hold on. How much you think I'm going to be out for this? Oh, here we go, crackingbooks.com. There you go. You're too big to dream small by Ron Baker. There you are. There's the blurb. All right, let me click order and see what it says.

All right, take a guess on how much this book cost before I've pulled up. I'm not going to click on it. Yeah, 1599. It says 1995 and then it says in parentheses unsigned. Well, F that. I want the signed one. Yeah. Wait, if you're giving me the option.

Autographed, here we go. Oh, I'm 100% buying this. Autographed by Ron Baker 3595. That's not bad. That's good value. Ron Baker. Have you seen the picture of Ron Baker from high school with like the perm? Someone sent this to me and I got to find it.

But I'll just describe it from memory. Oh, here it is. I'm going to send you this link right now. Hey, hey, we're going to sell out on these, by the way, because it says limited quantities. So anybody that's... Right? We're getting autographed Ron Baker. You're too big to dream small books.

All right. I just sent you... I don't know if you could see it in the Zencaster link there, but I sent you a link. Anyway, I'll describe his hair because it's like amazing. It's very like Ronald, but blonde? Like, I was not aware. I don't just it kind of threw me because Ron Baker has a very distinctive right floppy style very like 2006 like high school student like just got into Eminem kind of thing and

then you look at his is early curly hair and it's I just don't know what to believe anymore about anything I wonder when he wrote the book I guess when he's I don't I'm gonna buy this I'm a spare time so with ship many talents on the bench you didn't he didn't he I'm playing a lot. With shipping, $40. I think a hell of a deal. Hell of a deal. Autographed.

I mean, buying the non-autographed one just seems like a waste of my time. That's a mug's move. Why would you do that? If you have the option to get... You know what, shit. Now that I'm on this website, I may buy the other books. We got My Mommy Burnt the Cookies. I don't know who...

I don't think that's buy an NBA player. That's just buy another guy. My Mommy burnt the cookies. We've got the rightful air, the brave journey, the traveling carnival. These books are fire. I'm going to 100%. My mommy burnt. There is no, by the way, there is no autographed version of my mommy burnt the cookies.

That's not a Ron Baker book. Man, I don't, you know, like, I don't want to be part of, I don't want to be part of this kind of like domestic. You know what piss my wife would be if I bought this book? My mommy burnt the cookies. All right, all right. I'm just getting the Baker book. No big deal. All right.

So you feel okay about the Knicks. We're saving Billy Hernan Gomez. We're saving Chris Debs, Porzingis, and we're saving Ron Baker. And by the way, like, if it's a Zika situation, you know, if it's like, if I had to choose, like, Billy's gone. The whole, the whole roster is gone. Like, you save Porzingis and you save the draft pick. That's it. For the NBA shoot-around this morning, uh, there's a whole, you know, there's a whole roster.

There's a bunch of things that went on in the league last night, but I do want to ask you about Mason Plumley. That was what you wrote about. Mason Plumley and did Mason Plumley record a triple double? The answer last night was no, but big win for the Blazers. Oh, they just cut the, they cut the calves up. They cut them up. Here's my Mason Plumley thing for people that don't know what it is.

Before the season, there was a story that ran. at I think it's like CSN NW, whatever that stands for. And the headline was Mason Plumley and the pursuit of the triple double, a question of when, not if. And it was just about how Mason Plumley this season is going to be featured as a hub of the offense and that kind of like Joe Kim Noah, you know, point center kind of role, guys cutting off of him. And he is going to be a legitimate multiple triple double.

double threat this season. Putting aside the fact that he had never, like, he had never had a game with more than seven assists, like ever in his career, whatever. I read this at the time, I was like, yes. Like, I don't think that Mason Plumley is going to get multiple triple doubles, but I just love that the Blazers are feeling themselves to this level. Like, they're not, they didn't even win 50 games last year, and they're like, yo, Mason Plumley, is he going to get five triple doubles this season?

Is he going to get, you know, is he? The question of when, not it. It's a question of when. There's so many great, like, quotes in it. Like, Damien Lillard. Oh, I can see him getting a lot of them, Damien Lillard said. Which is, like, you were the greatest teammate of all time, like, as far as I'm concerned. And so I've just been waiting for it.

Like, I can't wait for it to happen. I really hope it does happen. It almost happened against Detroit a couple days ago, but he shot four of, like, 12 or something like that and missed it by two points. I need that triple I'm just very excited about it It's one of my subplots of the season Mason Plumlee getting a triple level One of these days

You did not think it was significant though The way the Cavs lost I don't know I think they'll figure it out over time And it was a weird deal right Like they were talking about canceling the game Before it ever went off Yeah I mean it's like they

Portland had a Just a huge blizzard Both teams got in super late And yeah they were talking about perhaps canceling the game. They were tweeting out like, hey, if you can't make it, tell us so we can make your ticket available, blah, blah, blah. So it was like a weird deal.

And they're going through with, you know, it's like post-trade. They're not as deep on the wing as they were, the calves. You're finally starting to see the strain of J.R. Smith being out. And, you know, I think over time, though, they're just too talented. who, you know, Kyle Corver is not going to shoot, what do you shoot, like 105? He's not going to continue to do that. Last thing before we get into our five guys that interested us before the season even started. Isaiah Thomas went crazy last night again.

You think he should start alongside? Kyrie's probably going to get it because he's going to get the fan vote. And then coaches will vote him and the players will vote him too, I'd imagine. So it's probably Kyrie. And then you've got this open guard spot. You've got Wall, you've got Lowry, you've got Isaiah Thomas. You've got a bunch of guys that could vie for it. Who do you want to see Start along?

Let's just, let's presuppose that Kyrie is going to be one of them. Who should the one next to him be? I would go, Isaiah, simply because, you know, little guys, and what do they list Isaiah Thomas at? Like 510, 59 or something like that? And he's not. Yeah, and he's not. I don't know if you're going to see this season from Isaiah Thomas again. And that's no shots.

What is he, 27? He's averaging 28 points a game. He's, like, one of the best fourth quarter players in the league. Little guys, little guards, they fall off real fast. You know, like. So I would hope, I would like to see him start. Just because, you know, like, I don't know when. It could be one moment in time.

Is he going to average 28 next season? Like, no shots against Isaiah Thomas. This is his year. This is his year. We'll look back and go, Jesus. What a good season. Yeah. 28?

Yeah, I mean, like, he's one of the most... I love watching him because he just uses his body so well. He uses contact, like, which is kind of like a counterintuitive thing, I guess, when you think about, like, little guys. But he uses his body to kind of, like, wrong foot defenders so they can't get up to block his shot. You know, like he'll kind of nudge into them and they can't get up over him and he just squirts the ball up in his little spaces. He's so fun to watch. Yeah, I was talking to simple.

last week about it and he was like he arm bars you and then he's got like these deceivingly long arms for a little guy 28 points a game that's crazy i mean it is it is crazy like yeah i'd like to seem you're not going to see this game what do you have like 38 last night he's had a 44 this year he's had a 50 this year i mean he's he's just having a ridiculous season to say the least all right i've got to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor when we come back we're going to talk about uh jason's pick for the hipster team this year and how he feels about that and the five guys that interested us before the season was even going to start. Today's ringer episode of the NBA show is brought to you by Dunkin' Donuts.

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All right, Jason, at the beginning of the season, you named a hipster team. It was the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves season has been a disappointment, I think it's fair to say, to all observers. I think everybody thought they were going to be better than what their record is now. Even though they did get a big win last night, for sure. That being said, does it make them more hipster that they have a bad record? Like, I'm trying to figure this out. Like, my mind kind of went in knots as I was thinking about asking you about this. I'm like, all right, because the hipster thing, like you want to be in on it before it's cool,

but it's not real cool if it's not as fun. I don't know. It feels weird because I think we thought they would be maybe. be more fun this year? I think that was a little unfair to them, to be honest. Like, we, people were talking like 50 wins for the Timberwolves.

And like, you know, that would be a historic, that would be a historic progression from losing to winning team. I mean, over one season. Yeah, I'm still absolutely on them. Like, they've got, I mean, Levine is any time on the break, he must watch. Carltony Towns is absolutely like an MVP level like young player.

Wiggins, it's just fun to like wonder about him, like how good he actually is. I am still in on them as a hipster team, although I will admit that some of the blush is off of them. But you know, like I think it was unfair. I think it was unfair to expect so much of them, to be honest. I kind of feel like Milwaukee's that team. No, Milwaukee 100%. The NBA fan that, you know, they're never on national television, so you've got to be a hardcore fan to check them out, right? You're watching Milwaukee on League Pass, right?

Same with Minnesota. I mean, these teams are not on national TV all that much. But they are, like, it feels like Milwaukee is the team that people are going out of their way to check out more. Maybe I'm wrong about that. No, I think you're right about that. Like, you know, Giannis is one of the, absolutely one of the stories of the season. You know, like the Lee Jenkins treatment. he's

he's like nobody thought that he would be this good and like I was looking at that that draft 2013 like if you look at it if knowing what we know now

does Giannis go first or does he go so far first that he actually goes like three years early that they actually pick him like in 2008 or something because if you look at it it's a crazy week that's the Anthony Bennett draft

And Giannis went 15th. Well, you know what else is crazy about that one? It's because it seemed like, you know, everybody's really high on the overseas guys or were for a while, right? And then it kind of tapered off. And I know he wasn't playing in some kind of great league by any means. But if you look at that draft, it's like the one where the guys didn't go as high as maybe they usually would. And it's him at 15th. And then like the very end of the first round, it's Gobert.

And it's like, why the hell was this the only year that these overseas – like, it was the year to take the overseas guys super high, and they didn't go high. Well, I just think, you know, it's like there's a lot of – for a lot of the overseas guys, it's just a gamble, you know? I think there's like all props to John Hammond for Giannis and for Jabari Parker who's blowing up this year and for Malcolm Brogden who's playing like great. But the Braggen thing is like a lesson. To me, the honest thing, I think you get a lot of credit for it. The Braggna thing, it's good they took him. But, I mean, I don't know how many times people have to learn that lesson. My Uncle Braggle was a frigging ACC player of the year.

He's a defensive player of the year. You know, like, we see these guys. Draymond is like the best player in an awesome conference. Surprise, he's good. Chandler Parsons was the, you know, SEC player of the year, gets taken in the second surprise he's better than most of the people take in front of him. Jay Crowder, right, plays at Marquette. He's the best player in the Big East and surprise, Jay Crowder's really good in the NBA.

It's like they hold it against these guys if they're, you know, the upperclassmen in college. And it's like, you know, man, like you saw the guy he could clearly play. Like I don't, the Malcolm Brogdon stuff, that just seems goofy to me. Like, yo, what were you watching last year? This guy was like the best player and the defensive player of the year. on a team that won like 30-something games. I still say, though, like, if you follow picking Giannis and Jabari with that, I mean, that's like, you just hit.

For sure. Well, we don't even know about, and we don't know about Thaun Maker yet, right? Like, what if Thawn Maker turns out? Huh? Yeah. Like, yeah, absolutely. That's another thing. Another long, athletic guy that who knows, like, how good this guy is.

Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of teams. I've seen a lot of fans from a lot of teams. I'm like, oh man, if we had picked, you know, like Boston fans being like, oh, man, if Aange had picked Giannis instead of Kelly Olenick, it's like, nobody knew about Giannis. Nobody knew. Nobody knew this guy. Like, I mean, he was on people's radars, but he was not, he was absolutely a gamble. He was on, he was on Fran Frasilla's radar. That's about it.

Maybe. No, like, I remember that draft. They went back and, like, showed his video. And it was like in this, it was like this grainy video in what appeared to be a practice. gym playing against like, you know, five, nine white guys and it was like, wait, what? 45-year-old Greek dudes, yeah.

It was like something out of a movie. Like, it was, you know, like, look at this, look at this diamond in the rough playing in this league. Like, how could you even tell? It was just, I mean, you look at that draft and it's Anthony Bennett, Oledipo, Otto Porter,

Cody Zeller, Len, Len, Neerlens, Ben McLemore, KCP, Trey Burke, C.J. McCollum. Holy mack. Of those, of those 10, I guess you'd say that CJ and Otto Porter would definitely they'd move up for sure, but they'd be in the top 10 still. New Orleans probably also.

Giannis would be number one. Stephen Adams, who got picked at 12, would like leap into the top five. Who else? Gobert. Gobert is like probably the number two pick maybe. Yes. Alan Crabb at 31 jumps up.

Like it's just a, it was like a crazy, crazy draft that just looks like very, very strange at the top, especially. Well, that night, that night was weird anyway, because remember everybody, everybody thought it was, I recall that draft. Everybody thought it was Nerlands. And then, like, during the day that day, it was like, oh, it's McLemore. It's McLemore. And then it's like, it gets to the draft, and I'm like, who the fuck is Anthony Bennett?

Well, I love, wait, let me do my, let me do my, I'll do my bill impression. Whoa! Remember that? From the, from the, from the Bronx? Whoa! Whoa. I mean, it was like, that was everyone's reaction. Like, whoa, Anthony Bennett, okay.

And I've said this before, but like Chris Ryan interviewed Anthony Bennett after he was drafted at Grantland, RIP. And this is when I knew I was out on Anthony Bennett. He asked Anthony Bennett. Make it clear. Chris Ryan is not dead. Anthony Bennett. No, no, no, no, no, no, Gratlin, RIP. Chris Ryan is alive and well.

But he interviewed Anthony Bennett. And he asked him, and I may be getting this wrong, but I think it was something like if you had to choose, okay, so you can be league MVP, but you have to wear like the Craig Sager suits like all the time. Do you choose to be MVP? And he said no. He said he would not be league MVP in that case. And you knew. That was when I was like, I'm out on Anthony Bennett. I'm out.

I can't have a guy who would choose not to be league MVP under those circumstances. I can't do it. And that's when I knew. I knew. It's probably all over for Anthony. I don't know. Maybe you could have a renaissance. Who knows?

Yeah, I hope so. He's only however old he is. 23. He's the same age as Ron Baker. Hey, at the very worst, we know he can write children's books. Hey, come on, Anthony. He showed flashes in Brooklyn, but, yeah. You know who we need, you know who Anthony Bennett is going to get signed by?

Cracking books. way. You're too something to don't let this get you down by Anthony Bennett. It's never over. Four teams in four years by Anthony Bennett. I feel bad now. I feel, I'm sad now. Five guys we were interested in at the beginning of the season. All right, let me do some quick hits on these.

At the beginning of the, before the season ever started, here are the five guys you told me that you are keenly interested in. Okay. Chris Taps, Porzingis. He's averaged 19.7.5 rebounds, 45% from the field, 40% from 3. I do feel like this late swoon has probably killed his all-star chances. I think I'm wrong about that?

No, I think that's probably, I think that's fair, honestly. He's been, yeah, he's had like a sore Achilles, and he's fought through a couple of little tweaks to his lower leg areas. He's kind of dipped off a bit And certainly as Derek Rose's looked to solidify that max contract But being interested in him is paid off to this point

Sure, I'm still interested in it I'm still wildly interested in him I'm wearing a shirt right now with his face on it Janice 23 points 8.8 rebounds 5.6 assists 53% from the field and he will certainly make the all-star team

this is a massive leap for him And he is, he's serious. I said this the other night on Twitter. I happened to be watching the Bulls and the Wizards. And I feel like I've flipped around a lot on league pass and ended up watching a lot of John Wall lately. And I always think like, damn, man, this guy is like so super awesome. He really should be on national TV more.

That's certainly true of Janus. But I don't, you said earlier, like, I don't know if we could have expected this kind of a leap. I mean, he's one of the best players in the league. Absolutely. I mean, if he gets his jumper together, forget it's over like your MVP level player. And like his dunk off one leg after the Europe's Euro step move is like one of the most physically spectacular things you will see in any sport.

I mean, it's just like an incredible feat of athleticism. He's incredible. I remember, I'll give a shout out to David Thorpe of ESPN who it was like the preseason of his rookie year and he was like this guy could be like a Durant. And I was like, that's asinine. Like, what? Like, you know what I mean? Like, the ceiling seemed so high.

Like, I get it. But, like, at that time, Durant was in the argument for the best player in the world. And I was like, God bless. But he saw it, man. That kid had, he had all the tools. And it was one of those, if he figures out how to put that freakish athleticism to work, and he certainly has. I mean, he's still so young.

What is he going to look like in four or five years? Good grief. It's the playmaking, honestly, that shocked me because that no one saw that. Maybe, I mean, maybe a few people did. And the other thing is he's no shrinking, he's no shrinking violet. You know, he goes up against LeBron. He goes hard. Well, I called that, too.

I'm giving myself a lot of credit. But I said, like, I, this is back when he was, like, enthusing about drinking smoothies and just amazed by them. I was like, just wait, this is the young innocent, Giannis, the dark. the dark Giannis is coming out, and it happened, you know? I think it really happened when he threw Mike Dunleavy, like, into the first row hard during the playoffs. That was when you first saw it. And now he's just busting people. All right, so you nailed those two, Porzengis, Giannis, two guys that you were going to be interested in.

The next guy, where are you at on Devin Booker? You know, you go look at the numbers, and it's 19 points, three rebounds, three assists, 41% from the field, 34% from three. but it doesn't feel like there's been a lot of Devin Booker talk this year. Yeah, I mean, I'm still there for Devin Booker. I think he needs to improve defensively. I mean, that's not a mind-blowing statement. But, yeah, I mean, the sons have been. Here's my question.

Have you sold off a little Devin Booker stock? I've sold off a little bit on Devin Booker. But some of that, you know, some of that is just, like Eric Bledsoe has been great this year. I don't know. Yeah, I'm still on the, I'm still on Devin Booker Island, absolutely. But if there's one guy of the five that I picked that the stock has gone down a little bit, maybe it's Devin Booker. Although I still really like him.

The team's not as good as we thought they were going to be, but he's averaging 22 and 12 and 48% from the field. Yeah, that's pretty good. And he's still like, you're flipping around on lead past. He is one of those guys that you go out of your way to watch for sure. Absolutely. MVP level player, one of the brightest young stars in league. And the last one. Do you want to do it?

Who was it? It was Joel L. Embed. Oh, yeah, that's, come on. Joel Embed. Joel Embed. Like, Joelle Embed, he is processing me. Like, every moment of the day, I feel processed by him. He's still like.

25 minutes per game. 25 minutes, 19.7.5. three-bounds, two assists, two blocks. Yeah, I mean, it's like, I, like, when you just said those numbers, I was processed even further. I've been processed even more. He's processing me like moment by moment. I'm learning, I learned from him about how to live. He might be like the greatest social media player ever.

I think you might have named, honestly, the two most interesting guys in the league in Janus and him, right? I certainly this season, yes. This season. Who is more interesting? If I have to give myself more credit, yes. How about his dancing last night? Unbelievable. How about the way he gripped T.J. McConnell's throat and gazed into his eyes, like with this intensity of victory.

It was like, Joel and Bede, man. Get about it. I don't know if, I wanted, I meant to send this to you a couple of weeks ago. But there was this stretch where he. and Ben Mac, Ben Simmons and Chandler Parsons and all these guys are getting on Instagram live. Do you know about this? Yes. And so Embed was just going on everybody's Instagram feed and was writing,

Are you a virgin Chandler Parsons? I think Chandler, I think Chandler might be a virgin. No? Whatever is the antithesis of virgin? What is the antithesis of virgin? Right. Okay. He's the anti-vergent.

I don't, I think, I think, Chandler Parsons has had sex every day for the last 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. I have joked in the past about a thing called the Chandler Parsons. No, and if he hasn't,

it was my choice. Right. Chandler Parsons, when he, you know, when he was trying to convince DeAndre Jordan to come over to Dallas, I think that might have been,

if we could get a 30, but for 30 or some, if we could get a ringer documentary. Oh, God. He told me the story. About that four-day stretch of like whatever Chandler Parsons was like running DeAndre Jordan through. He said, he said not that much. And I remember asking him.

I was like, so it was done. And he was like, bro, I was drinking patron shots at nine in the morning with him and his mom. I love it. It was done. He was drinking petron. I know. I was like, good grief, man. Nine in the morning.

And he was like, and then. And then he bolted, and then he was gone, and then, like, the phone calls stopped being returned. And he was like, oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. See, I'm just, like, picturing Chandler Parsons, like, in pajama bottoms, pouring Patron onto, like, corn flakes. They're like, we got this sewn up. Let's go.

All right. My five guys were these. Jabari Parker, talk about coming through for me on my five interested guys. Great pick. Listen to this, 21.6 rebounds, almost three assists, 50% from the field. And then the shocking one is 41% from three. Like he is, they're going to have two all-stars on that Bucks team. I mean, Jabari won't make it this year.

But if you're forecasting ahead, Jabari Parker looks like the guy that was going to be an all-star. And how about this? I wonder in three years when we revisit the Wiggins-Jabari argument. I think there's going to be some people that might say Jabari. I agree with you, by the way. I don't even think that's that controversial. Like, if you really look at it right now. Right now?

That's not controversial. If we redid it, who would you want? Jabari. I mean, like, at this point, I would have to say yes. Just because, you know, Wiggins, his scoring has been fantastic. His shooting is obviously vastly improved. But when you look at the other things, rebounds, assists, he doesn't give you a lot of other stuff, like either.

he's scoring or that's it. You know, he'll throw that pass around the perimeter. Jabari is more part of the team. He does stuff that helps you in other ways. And, you know, like the 41% three-point shooting at three and a half attempts, like that's legit. That's exciting. And he lost his whole first year.

Yeah. You know what I mean? He lost an entire year of development in the NBA to that blown out knee. All right. My other four guys, I'll go through these quick. Gordon Hayward, I think Hayward might make the All-Star team. I mean, they're going to get a rap, right? It's either going to be him or Gobert.

And I don't know how many centers are going to make it. They're going to put Mark Gasol on it, I would think. Probably DeAndre Jordan. I mean, do they have Jordan, Gassal, and Gobert, all his front court guys? I mean, I kind of think Hayward will make it. I think he will make it, too. Career year? Another career year again?

Well, and we said, what I said on the, what I said on the, the on the podcast before the season was, can he be the best guy on a really good team? Because everybody was projecting them to be really good. And I think that the answer, at least through 40-something games, is yes. Yes, he can be the best guy on a really good team. Yep. Blake Griffin, I mean, I was interested just because I wondered if this could be the end. I don't know with the way this has played out with the injuries.

What it, I'm still confused as to what's going to happen with Blake Griffin. Is he going to sign some kind of massive extension with the clippers? Would they trade him? Like, I really don't know with Griffin right now. Man, we picked, we were good with our picks, but I think they should keep him. I think you have a guy like that he keep him. Like, they're so close, you never know what could happen. Oh, here's another one that I said, I don't know what the hell is going to happen with him.

Boogie. And I really have no clarity on that either. There's like these ideas that he could just sign this $200 million contract, and it would give Sacramento some stability. And you see that thing the other night where he asked reporters, do you want them to resign me? That was amazing. That's the wrong group of guys to ask, right?

Because he's been a dick to all of them. And the one was just like straight up, no. So I don't know if you saw that whole like, you know, the kingdom or whatever the blog is. The big blog, sackdown royalty or whatever it was. Yeah, the one that he got super mad at, like the guy, the guy. I wrote this blog post. I went and looked at it and it was like, here's what he got pissed about. And I went back and read the article.

And the article was basically, Boogie's numbers are better after he gets a tech. I mean, it wasn't even like, I didn't even think it was killing the guy at all. And angry boogie is a thing. And like, people have, lots of people have noticed this. Like he, when he gets mad, look out. It shouldn't take that, but it does. Now, he's mad at me. See?

See what happened? Just now. He'll never talk to us again. I think he blocked Bill Simmons. He did block Bill Simmons. My God. I think it, I asked somebody about that when I was out at the ringer, and I think they said that it was, I think it was something like he didn't vote him all NBA or something.

Well. Seriously. It was something like that petty. Whoa. Well. Last one was Dwight Howard. This has been a good Dwight here. 14 points.

13 rebounds, 63% field goal percentage, and we have heard literally nothing about him the entire season. Is that fair? I think that's fair. And, you know, like, assuming that the Millsap smoke is actually fire, Dwight's going to be the guy. He is going to be the guy. Give me those post-ups. And I don't think that. I wonder if they'll move Millsap.

I mean, hell, the truth is they can't stop winning. So now, like, I don't think they probably want. They're a top four seed. possibly. If you can get home court advantage, I don't think you move off a Millsap. Yeah, I just think they need to, they just need to figure out, like, do they care about their ceiling with, what is their ceiling with this crew and how do they move past that? Right, that's for sure. Jason, you demand. Hey. Good luck with your Chris Dap's Porzengis love, and I hope things turn out the way you

want them with the New York Knicks. and I am deeply appreciative of you coming on the podcast today. Thank you for sharing the process with me. It's going to do it for today's NBA show. If you like what you're here and hit over to iTunes, give us a rating and review, and we will talk to you tomorrow.