The Ringer NBA Show - ‘Heat Check’: Jah, Boogie, and the J-Team (Ep. 176)

Episode Date: December 11, 2017

The Ringer’s Juliet Litman and John Gonzalez discuss the Stephen Curry–less Warriors (01:15), how the Sixers and the Nets have been adjusting since the Jahlil Okafor trade (11:00), and Victor Oladipo's impressive play for Indiana (19:15). Then they play an all–Boogie Cousins edition of "Real or Not Real" (23:30), talk about "the J-Team" catching on in Boston (28:15), and wrap up by looking ahead to this week's games (33:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let me tell you about Fat Head. They are real big wall decals that are life-sized action images that you can stick on any smooth surface. I know I have two of them. I've got Clay Thompson and Ben Simmons. Choose from hundreds of officially licensed athletes, team logos, and entertainment images or create your own customizable options. They're made of durable vinyl. You can move and reuse. Fat Head wall graphics are better, bigger, and tougher than that old school poster or a sticker. Plus, they're designed and printed in the USA. A fathead is wall decor that is sure to amaze. So, Go to fathead.com slash MBA ringer to place your order and get 20% off site wide. To the Monday heat check on the ringer NBA show, I'm Juliet Litman. I'm John Gonzalez. We're deep into the NBA season. We're in the second quarter, which is like when things really happen. Yeah, we have passed one quarter mark and now we are into another. We're an NBA Q2.

There's a lot of math involved in that, but you did it for us. Yeah, exactly. And we have a lot. There's like things happening. Things are happening. Notably, in Golden State, We're watching a Steph Curry Absent Warriors team now.

I feel bad for the Warriors. You do? What? Well, I felt bad for the Warriors because you don't want anybody to get hurt, right? You don't want Steph Curry to get hurt, and it's more fun when Steph Curry's on the floor. Of course, I'm anti-injury. I'm anti-injury.

I also feel bad. This is really the way of me saying that I felt bad for me because that injury happened on the eve of me filing last week's Warriors piece, which required quite a lot. This nobody... Still turned out great. Unless you're a writer, you don't care about this.

But like these things happen like, I was watching the Eagles game last night and there were so many different turns. Yeah. And I felt bad for the beat writers. Sure. So like, yeah, they started writing their gamers. Right. You're like, ah, God, I have to get me rewrite.

So that happened last week when poor Steph Curry went down with an ankle injury. But I thought he had like sort of an odd reaction. Like afterwards they were asking about it. And he said, he was making a joke about not being able to play golf with his dad because they were playing in Charlotte the next night. And I'm like, dude, this is the same ankle that you. had surgery on that threatened your career. But I guess it's good that he was upbeat.

A couple of things about that. Steph is really, I think, like, normal, which makes him weird at the media. Like he, for all of his fame and celebrity and, like, for all the, I mean, he speaks to the media every day. Like, and now everywhere he goes in the world, he's followed by like a scrum of people. Yeah. But he still, I don't think gives good quotes because he just. This is a great point.

Yeah. So he just, like, he says weird things and he kind of, I think it's a combination of being bad at it. and also at this point not caring. Like, there's literally no reason for him to be, like, giving, like, the kind of canned answer of, like, oh, I'll take it day by day, see how it goes. And it's like, yeah, stuff loves golf. And it's going to be fine. Like, that's, like, number one. And number two is don't you think he probably knew right away, like, if how bad it was?

Like, when you experience those kinds of injuries, like, you know, you know or you don't. Yeah. Well, he said initially, too, that. he felt that it was more, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he said it was closer to the severe end of the spectrum and then immediately stopped and tried to walk it back and say, well, no, I shouldn't, I shouldn't say that. It feels like it's not great here. So yeah, I think he probably did know. That's interesting, though, that he's not the world's greatest quote. That actually probably passed for one of his better quotes. Definitely. I think the best, like, public treatise we have from Steph Curry was

his Player's Tribune article from Veterans Day a few weeks ago. I don't remember that. He basically was using his platform to make a difference and what he wanted to do on that day. It was like shed a light on like the difficulty that veterans have and like reintegrating with like American society. You know what? I somehow missed this one. When it comes to Players Tribune, there are two that I have read and really enjoyed. One was Blake Griffin when he was apologizing for everything profusely. But the standard is Dion Waiters. Yeah, of course. That was the best. All other Players Tribune stories are just pushing us on. Just give me Dion. But I just bring it up because like I, I actually, I just bring it up. because, like, I was like, yeah, I agreed with, like, that kind of like that platform.

And I was like, the acknowledgement that you have a platform and then trying to, like, do something with it is cool. But, like, other than that, he is not a good. And I like, I did not use to like Seth, but now I like him quite a bit. And he's just bad quote. Like, he just doesn't, he's not. Great player. He's kind of like aloof, but like in a way where he's uncomfortable. But anyway, we won't be hearing from him for a while because he's injured.

Right. He's hurt. And so the warriors will just have to muddle through being the warriors with KD out there. They said he would be back. they would reevaluate in two weeks, but he's still in a, like, a walking boot, basically. So I'm going to go with six weeks, is my personal guess. You're ballparking it at six? Yeah, which I think would be beginning of February, basically.

This is a lot of math for this show. Sorry. I can't, like, there's quarter poles and how many weeks he's going to be out. And, like, what time does the train leave the station and arrive at the other one? Well, a lot of it depends on how they do with Adam, right? Like, what's the point in rushing him back? Because they're doing just fine. And they still have Kevin Durant.

NBA finals MVP. Who turns out has been really good. He's been a monster since Steph went down. He had a triple double in the very first game. Against the Hornets. Against the Hornets. And then he almost had another one against the Pistons. Remember last year when KD went down and it went back to it reverted to just Steph being

the main guy. They went 15 and 4. They're going to be fine. Although it is an interesting thought experiment, like how they look with KD as the main guy because we saw what it looked like in previous seasons. And then also last year was Steph being the main guy. And Zach Lowe went and talked to Warriors GM Bob Myers about it and said, look. And on one hand, it's like kind of a silly thought experiment to go, like, how are the Warriors going to look?

The Warriors are going to look amazing. Yeah. But even Bob Myers cop to it. He was like, yeah, of course, I'm curious too. His actual quote was, I'm always curious. I was curious when Kevin went down. But I've seen what our team looks like without Kevin. And now this will be new because they have Kevin and no Steph.

What, yeah, what do you, I mean, like, how do you think this will look? I mean, the Hornets game was the most excited. I've been to watch the Warriors in a long time, and it was really fun. My favorite Kevin, this is really random. My favorite Kevin Durant performance ever was in February of 2014, the night before All-Star. The Thunder beat the Raptors in double overtime on the road, and it was like, and Russ was out, and it was like an incredible KD performance where he just, like, lifted them up and wouldn't let them lose. And I feel like he's kind of re-engaging with that.

mode where he's just like, I'm going to push us up the hill. I don't care what happens. And it's really fun to watch. Kevin Durant is a really good at basketball. This, the part that you just mentioned about, like, this is the most excited you've been to watch the Warriors is right because the Warriors have somehow made being really amazing kind of boring. Yeah.

Yeah, we actually wrote about this on the ringer last year. We're like, the Warriors are boring. And we wrote about it last week. Yeah, I wrote about it. Yeah. Yeah, you did with a different, different head. line. I just, I actually just copy and pasted the one that went last year and put my name on it. But yeah, like we, they're excellent that we just take for granted. And so it's kind of cool that I see them a little different.

Plus, you just get used to like, well, you don't get used to it. They're still amazed by it. But like there's certain actions you just expect. And like when other teams look bad, you're like, well, this is what pure basketball looks like. And now it's like a little bit different. And it's exciting. I wonder, because the premise of the piece that I wrote when I went and saw them, right before Steph heard as anico was, like, they seemed kind of bored. They flat out admitted it. I mean, they were talking about all these different things that they were doing to, like, keep themselves engaged. And, like, there was the Steve Kerr rituals with the pregame, you know, like, you can

tweet out your injuries. I'll give you time by playing with a slinky. The thing that you hated, the performance are. There was a fanny pack bat between Javelle McGee and Steph Curry. Right. They all, to a man, were like, yeah, you know, when we're off the court, we try to goof because, you know. Try to have fun.

It's the fourth year. Sure. It gets a little monotonous. I wonder if this will somehow like snap them out of it. Maybe. Or if they'll just be like, oh, yeah, we're still really good. Like, we're fine. What were they like, like, what was like their shoot-around vibe?

Like, do they, like, even. Goofing. Just totally goofing. Like, just the entire time. I mean, so most practices, the media isn't allowed to watch, right? Like, they let you in for, like, the last. 10 minutes and you see them like, you know, taking extra three-pointers or, you know, shooting half-court shots and not doing much. But so they shot around at Staples Center that morning

before they beat the Lakers in overtime. And they had the media crowd sort of off to the side with the curtain drawn. All you heard while we were standing there waiting to go in was them laughing the entire time. I mean, it was, I don't know what they were doing back there, but they were having a damn good time doing it. And yeah, I mean, it's like, good for them. Yeah, like, they're the warriors. They know what they have to do. And the regular season is just, like let's get through it and we'll get whatever our win-loss record is and then we'll crush everybody in the finals. Right.

And it's interesting, um, Kerr is like the opposite of Tibbs and like his rotation is so big. But so as a result of No Curry, we've gotten a slightly more Nick Young. And I've just been like, wow, Nick Young's a really good shooter. It's sort of like he has no business being that good of a shooter. And I'm shocked by it because like you really, the people at the end of their career, who you think about being really good like that, like Curry, who's on at the end. People like Corver, people like Ray Allen. They just are like crazy people of routine.

And like it becomes like a legend of like how they get their shots up and how like they just find their motion. Like it's hard to imagine Nick Young being like, okay, I'm going to take 200 shots per day and I won't leave the gym until I'm done. Honestly, no shots at him. But he's just not kind of like. That's not him. You don't think it was like a model of discipline.

So many shooters you think of like for their discipline. And so it's so funny that he is a great three point shooter. Yeah, no. And he's really, you know, a good fit for that team because they, have so many veterans and they have so many guys who are like pretty relaxed and it's not a Tibbs team like you couldn't have Steve Kerr is the perfect coach for that team because you know what they've gone through you want to give them a little bit of leeway Steve Kerr you know talks about it all the time that like I can't be on them all all the time because look what they've

gone through look at how many games we're playing like you've got to give them a break can you imagine Tib's coaching this kind of team I know that it's like a totally different set of circumstances in Minnesota and he's trying to marshal these young players and snap them out of like whatever their defense of malaise every night. But you couldn't, you could have Steve Kerr coach the Wolves. You could never have Tibbs coach the Warriors. No, never, never.

I just want to say, not that he's taking so many shots, but Nick Young is shooting 40% from three. You love Nick Young. He's like the 10th man on the Warriors. Yeah. So. Katie Baker wrote that piece, right?

Yeah, she did. Yeah, go back and read Katie Baker's piece about Nick Young with the Warriors. It's fantastic. Yeah. Moving on to your hottest topic of the week, Jaliel O'Kerker. is gone from Philadelphia. I didn't want to put the Sixers in another show,

but I think we have to discuss this because Jaliel Okaford has been freed. And this is also a Nets conversation. Yes. Because it's interesting that, one, Brian Colangelo managed to pull off the trade. But two, that Jalio Lofa landed with the Brooklyn Nets,

who have quite a few cast-offs on their roster now. Yeah, so now they have DeAngelo-Roscelo. DeAngelo and Nick Stouskas. So they have three former number one your first round draft picks, early lottery picks, on their team. That's a weird, it's a weird group. Definitely a weird group. Also, like, it's kind of funny that Stouskis is, like, even mentioned in this,

but I just feel like he's, like, an internet sensation more than, like, actually a valuable basketball player, but perfect for the city of Brooklyn. Internet sensation, that's, like, where he should be. Yeah, send him off. Like, they can have Stauscus. The Joth thing I think is interesting, though, because I have, my whole contention was that The Sixers should have just cut him. I mean, like, they decided they weren't going to pick up his option.

They weren't playing him. It was, you know, put their feet in the sand and, like, draw on in the sand, whatever. I'm mixing my metaphors here. But the whole point was that they refused to give up, like, and just give him away for nothing. And so instead, like, it felt like Brian Colangelo going, look what I did. I finally moved Julia Loca for when nobody said I could. But the asking price for him last year was a first round pick. Then the asking price for him this year was a second round pick.

then the asking price for him this year was a second round pick. So they had to hold on to him and to get rid of him. They had to give him up and Stascus, who fine. But then they also had to throw in a second round pick. So they didn't get one back. I felt like this was Brian Colangelo going, I did the impossible. See, I did it when you could have just cut him and kept a pick.

Sure. Yeah. Losing a pick is pretty bad. Process trusters never want to give up a pick. I'm like, I like to hold on to the pig since I've been conditioned this way. Trevor Booker's fine. I know people are like. about it.

There's a lot of Trevor Booker excitement. I think, like, this is part of the 76ers fan base, like a rational fandom where people are like, yay, Trevor Booker. I'm like, fine. He's fine. He's going to get Amir Johnson's minutes and he's fine. But is he really going to, like, supercharge the Sixers? They've lost four in a row.

I mean, it's fine. Yeah, sure. Are you worried about the Sixers having lost four in a row? There's a little bit of regression here. I'm more worried about Joel Embedon's back soreness. Yeah, so what's going on there? Bad yesterday for Philadelphia fans. I'm sorry, man.

Really tough. Like almost at the exact same time, Carson Wentz went down. And as we're recording this on our basketball podcast, we don't know what happened to the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, but they think it's maybe an ACL. So we're waiting on the MRI on that. But almost at the exact same time, Keith Pompey tweeted out that Joe Al-M-Beed was out with back soreness. It was like a perfect storm of awful. Yeah. And meanwhile, Fault is still out.

He's no longer experiencing shoulder pain, though, and all of his muscle problems are apparently gone. but he's not expected back before Christmas and probably not until 2018. I don't know. I've got a lot of questions about this one. Has anybody checked on Chris Ryan? Is he still breathing? Like, what's happening with him?

I don't know. We probably need a future segment though for me, which is just like my favorite Ben Simmons moment of the week. Because I just am obsessed with him. I don't even care about the Sixers. I'm sorry. But like, I'm like cool Sixers, but I love Ben Simmons.

You really need to know your audience? Yeah, sorry. I just, he's doing a rondo, the fake behind the backpack. Did you see that clip? He's really good. The Sixers are really good

when he's out there and Bita's out there. I feel like he's added muscle like since the season began. I just feel like he's continuing to like bulk up. He's a real NBA player. He's trying to become like

the LeBron body type and I support it. He's taller than LeBron too, isn't he? Which is why I am less concerned about the Foltz issue because the more I've watched this team the more I've seen

like it matters. What matters is those two guys. It matters Simmons and Embeddon. If those guys are healthy, they've got a shot. And whatever they can get, if they can ever get anything out of faults, that's sort of extra and good for them. What do you think, though, before we get out of this segment, what do you think Jaliel Ocoffour can ultimately be? Like, because there's this. Honestly, like, it's really hard to say because I've watched him play so little.

And, you know, he needs to like, like, this is like a really dumb thing to say. Like, he needs to, like, develop skills. He's not like a very skilled player And given his size and his reputation He like really needs to like Mass becoming a master of like the craft And like a really, you know what I mean? Does that make sense though?

He's a large human being who's somehow a bad rebounder He doesn't play defense and offensively he's a ball movement killer But other than that he's great I want to see though like maybe you know We saw him in Philadelphia and it was a different situation And like they rightly soured on him and buried him at the end of the bench and decided to move on. And I thought that that was always the right move.

What percentage chance would you give of him having some sort of renaissance in Brooklyn, like 15, 20? I don't know. It's hard for me to imagine. They're a weird team. I am like, are they well coached or are they just a disaster? I like Kenny Aikinson. He's fine.

Yeah. I think that maybe I wanted him better than he is. But like, it just has a really weird collection. I think that Sean Marks done a really good job for like getting discount deals, basically. But like they're still not a good team. I don't know. I would like them to do it than they are. That draft where everybody in Philadelphia was really hopeful that the Lakers would take Julea

Loka-Fort and DeAngelo and Russell would fall to them at three. And now those two guys are on the same team together, like how the mighty have fallen. I know. It's so bizarre. I want Russell to come back soon. Godspeed, guys. She is fun. The East is kind of weird, though.

Like the Raptors are now in second, which is pretty bizarre. Like, I just didn't expect. It's not bizarre. I'm sorry, Toronto fans. Raptors fans are going to, your mentions are going to be blown up. RIPR's my mentions, but I wasn't expecting the Raptors to be in second right now. I would just like to say, I love the city of Toronto. I'm a big fan of all of you guys.

Boy, Raptors fans, you guys are fantastic. They just seemed like they were a sadness team at the beginning of the season. It was like a little rocky, but they pulled together. You know, the Cavs were at one of them, like, tore off 14 once in a row. Like, they're doing great. And meanwhile, I think like everyone's favorite topic in the league right now, might be like Victor Oladipo in his Renaissance in Indiana. This brings us to a new segment called Teams we don't talk about enough.

And it's going to be Indiana. But first, let's talk about our sponsors. All right, do you go into a game? Don't be the guy who winds up parking 15 blocks from the arena. It's far. It's probably cold out. I wouldn't know about that. I live in Los Angeles.

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Teams we don't talk about enough, aka teams that you think we hate. Why are you the way that you are? It's time. We haven't talked about Indiana once since the season began. Maybe we've mentioned them in passing. I would say in the Ringer NBA Slack, the most intense anxiety that I derive is when Russ is playing badly

and Ola Depot is playing really well. And I'm just like great. Now I have to talk about how Ola Dippo set free by leaving the Thunder. But hey, it's true. He's back in his state of Indiana and he's doing great. Yeah, the Pacers are one of many teams that we sometimes skip over. We hear from different fan bases on Twitter wondering why we don't talk about them and thinking that we hate your team. We don't hate the Indiana Pacers.

We actually like the Indiana Pacers. They're surprisingly good. Seven and three over their last 10. They won four in a row. They snapped the Cavs their team game streak. And like you said, Victor Oladipo. So we just did last week our top 25 so far players. And Victor Oladipo came in at what, number 22,

just ahead of Nicola Yokic, Kemba, and Brad Beal. Was he too low? He might have been. He's been really good. Last night he had 47.7 rebound, six assists, two steals in one block in 45 minutes. I will say he had to play 45 minutes, but 47 points from Oladipo? Career high, 47 points in a win over the Nuggets. He had 20 of his game high, 33 in that win over the Cavs, which was in the third quarter, which was really impressive.

But so far, Juliet, he's averaging career highs and points per game, rebounds per game, field goal percentage, three point percentage. I wonder, because you mentioned, like, how it gives you a little anxiety to watch him play really well, and Russ not play so great. Like, is every game that we watch that Depot plays well an indictment of Russ? Kind of. Yeah. Yeah, but I also think the Thunder obviously have a culture and, like, system problem. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah.

But, you know, we should spend a positive, like, all credit to the Pacers. Like, it doesn't always have to be about the Thunder. But it's, like, it's just fascinating. He had so much potential coming out of Indiana, and he just really languished both in Orlando and Oklahoma City. He was fine in Orlando. He was okay. He couldn't shoot. He was okay.

Yeah, you're right. He had some shooting issues. And now he's a little, he's scoring 47. He's killing it. Yeah, he's a legitimate, you know. know, first option for the team. And he is for the team. Like, we really, I really expect this to be Miles Turner's team this year.

I did too. Yeah. And it is not. It's Victor Olipo's team. I think that it's interesting, too, that he's really, he's really finding a rhythm, but also kind of feeling himself because after the game the other night, he said he's sick and tired of comparisons to Paul George. Yeah.

I'm sorry. Who? Are people comparing him to Paul George? Like, did I miss something? Like, he's good. Let's not get crazy here. I know. Yeah, like, Victor Oladipo is like, listen, I'm me, not Paul George? What?

I know. It's like, I haven't heard that comparison once. No. I mean, maybe it's a thing in Indiana that people are really talking about, but like nationally, I don't get a lot of people going, you know what, maybe he is the new Paul George. But good from Victor Olipo. They're definitely not. The Pacers are fun. I wouldn't say they're like must viewing for me in the same way I find like the bucks and the calves and the Celtics to be. Right. But that, you know, that's like, that's like a wrinkle. I wasn't expecting. the season, that's exciting. That's, that's kind of where I'm out with a lot of these. And here we are in NBA Q2. I'm like very thankful for all these wrinkles. I love the Q2 abbreviation. Thanks. I like the shorthand. No, they're, they're, the Pacers, we do kind of skip over them.

And I think maybe you're right. Maybe that is because like league pass wise. They're not like appointment viewing. But they're solidly in Eastern Conference playoff picture team right now. Yeah, they're in the fifth in the conference. I mean, ultimately end of season. Where do you, where do you think they finish in that Bucks, Wizards, Pistons, grouping? Would you put them ahead? I think behind the Bucks ahead of the Wizards, not sure about the Pistons. I think, I mean, with John Wall, I like the Wizards better. Yeah, of course.

I just think they have more talent on that team. So, you know, if the Wizards can get Wall back and healthy and, like, get moving. But the Pacers are sort of the surprise of the East for me, them and the Pistons, although the Pistons, who we're going to get to, really, fall in on hard times. Maybe our fault. Unclear. Unclear.

Let's just move on to Real or not Real. We'll come back to the Pistons shortly. We need to talk about Demarcus cousins, The Man, the Myth, the Legend. Boogie now production,

doction, It's an all-Buggy edition. This is wonderful. So Boogie's been doing a lot of things, Juliet. Yes. So real or not real, all-Bugie edition.

Boogie got into a fight with Kevin Durant and tried to keep it going in the tunnel afterwards. That's real. We saw a photo. It's real. That's very real.

Boogie got after it with KD and it was like a hold me back situation where they had to, the security guards had to close the doors. I think it was an actual hold me back though. Like very often it's like a fake like, hold me back, but like no one's a fight. They were actually holding him back.

Yes, literally. And Justin Barrier used to cover the pelicans. He did. He was saying that the hallways in the smoothie king arena are very narrow. So it is like, you know, tight quarters for a fight. If you were into fighting, one might say it's a good venue for a fight.

However, I don't want... Better for him. He's a large man. I don't want any suspension. So I'm glad nothing happened. Yeah, I'm also glad nothing happened. Also, smoothie king center, arena, whatever. Is there a worst name of an arena?

It's pretty high up there on the worst name. Sleep train was worse. Sleep train's pretty bad. Now it's the golden one, isn't it? Golden one center, yeah. Yes, that's better, but still poor. Yeah. Smoothie King, at least it's like weird, so you can't ever forget it.

Yeah, it's not a great one. Real or not Real Zebo, Zach Rand, told Boogie where I'm from, bullies get bullied, and my hood, bullies get bullied. Also real. Real. This is some real stuff that happened for Boogie this week. I love Zbo in general.

Me too. I really love that, like, right after Boogie Cousins tried to get into a fight with KD, Randolph was like, I'm not having any of this. Yeah. I don't buy your bullshit. Like, you think you're the bully? I'm the bully. Yeah, I liked it too.

also I just feel like Zeebo's had such like a revolution in the last like five years. He's the best. Yeah. And like he's sort of like he's now like an enforcer. He's not a bully. Or at least that's the way that it kind of comes off. Who knows what it's like when you're actually around him. But and I love it.

He just is like the sort of the enforcer teddy bear of the league and I hope he never goes away. Enforcer teddy bear component like Steve Kerr has talked about him because I used to play together in Portland. I talked to Bonzi Wells recently who was talking about like everybody loves. Like, if you've played with him or interviewed him or know him, the teddy bear component, like everybody's like, he's the greatest dude. And I just love that he was like, yeah, cut it out, Boogie Cousins. Yeah.

Interesting week for Boogie. Last one on the real or not real. You might be sensing a trend on whether or not it is real. Boogie did a Siskel and Ebert style review of Titanic. It was incredible. I loved it. Let's hear it. It was devastation everywhere.

It was a lot of people out in the water. There was some debris floating around. It was just this door. was this one door. Jack being the player that he was, you know, he let the lady Rose sit on the door so she wouldn't be in the freezing cold water. Rose, she made Jack stay in the water.

So Jack froze to death, and Rose lived on to tell this beautiful movie that I'm telling you guys about nothing. Do you guys know what this movie is called? Yo, Jack being the player that he was. Incredible. That was amazing. It's just incredible stuff.

I don't know what he's doing post-NBA career, but he could do a whole, like we do the rewatchables at the ringer. I know. And I know that, because Bill talks about it a lot, that Boogie blocked him. Yes. They need to get him involved in the rewatchables. I know.

Could he do a trailer for every episode of the rewatchables? We do the table reads. Like, we got to get Boogie Cousins involved in this. Totally. That was really good. I was thinking about what other movies I would like for him to, like, explain. I think we, I think the Interstellar would be a really good one. anything that doesn't have a lot of logic.

I would love Boogie to tackle. I loved how we got into the relationship between Jack and Rose, maybe some rom-coms. Who knows what we could get into? Maybe a little How to Lose a Guy in 10 days. I feel like he would have a great take on that one. We're going to put together a whole list, Boogie.

Come at us. Okay. It's time for the heat check, heat check. He's heating up. He's on fire. Starting with a heat check for us, really. It's a very meta-heat-he check, heat-check this week.

I was so excited to see Abby Chin from NBC Sports Boston tweets, quote, the J team combined to force that spurs turnover and then Jalen hit the three to make this a one point game. Tune in now. So this is a win for us because she referred to Jalen Brown and Jason Tam as the J team. As the J team. Can we play the sound? Yeah. I love that job. I love that job. I haven't checked in with my buddies in Boston. Do we think that this has been happening independently and organically or are we taking credit for it? I'm 100% taking credit. Are you joking? I spent like literally hours thinking about this one day. Like there was one day where I was just like, okay, I'm going to come up with a name for them. And I landed on the J-Team, as you know, after discarding many bad ones. And I will 100% take credit.

And when you told me about it, I was completely on board. One, because as everybody knows, I'm a big fan of those two players. But also, I really truly large fan of the A-Team. And like my Twitter avatar is literally two of the four A-team members. So funny. So I was completely on board with this. It's a win.

It's a win for us. It's a win for the Jays. Yeah, we'll save it or share it. Abby Chin, you're welcome to it. We should have trademarked it, though. We should have. I just want to do a very, a 10-second Jason Tatum check-in by referencing his 3.0% right now.

Please tell me. 52.3% from 3. It's insane. I think he's like maybe, he's not the rookie of the year, but he might be the he-check rookie of the year. We both really like him. I really do like him, yes. He probably is the rookie

we've talked about the most on this program as well. Another heat check here. So we mentioned the Pistons earlier. They had been playing really well. Yes. And then all of a sudden they started playing not as well as Reddit had noted.

Recent Reddit headlines said Pistons haven't won a game since the Ringers article. It's time to take Andre Drummond and the Pistons seriously by one Danny Chow. Danny Chow has apparently jinx powers. Yeah.

They've now lost six in a row. And I'm really, I love it. I'm happy that we could be contributing to M-E-Narratives in any way. This is the worst, as any writer would know, like, you write these things and you try to time these pieces, and you hope that as you write them, that, like, what you wrote about stays relevant. And sometimes it goes the complete opposite way.

Like, last year I wrote a Lakers piece about how young and exciting they were. Sure. And they proceeded to lose, like, 47 games in a row, and they tanked at the end, and it was an absolute disaster. We skipped over them meeting the Sixers, by the way, which was a really fun game. Yes, they did. with a Brandon Ingram game winner. Yeah. And I was like the Sixers are going to torch them.

Another blow to Philadelphia fandom over the weekend. Tough one. Tough one. I enjoyed that. All right, we've got two more. Isaiah Thomas's mom. Yes. Original Isaiah Thomas, not new calves, Isaiah Thomas.

Zeeke. Pistons, Isaiah Thomas. He was by Zeke, doesn't he? I guess. I don't know. I don't know. Achilles Isaiah Thomas. Yes.

Not hip Isaiah Thomas. So he was on Fox Sports one of their many talking head panel shows. Really letting loose. And talking about his mom coming to games, because the reason why they were discussing it was Levar Ball. And he was like, you know, it could have been worse. This has been going on forever. My mom used to come to games and do all kinds of crazy stuff.

Your mom would show up at games eating non-stadium food, which sometimes they frown upon with a gun, packing, packing, packing. And sometimes she would drink a little alcohol. A lot of alcohol. And then she would like... His mom brought a gun. A gun. And just got hammered.

That sounds unwise. I don't know, like, I kind of want, I don't know if his mom is still alive, but I kind of want to hang out with her. Sure. Unwise maybe, but fun maybe. Let me know how that goes. And we can talk about it on the future heat check if you track her down. Listen, Isaiah's mom, if you are out there and alive, you have an open invitation. Your gun, the chicken, and the booze, bring it all the heat check.

You are welcome. Lastly. Last one. Let's talk about Zaza, but Julia's hair dryer. So there's a fun story in the New York Times about Eric Housen or Houston. the director of team operations for the warriors and all the different things that he does for the warriors but buried in there was a note

that because this guy he knows that certain players like certain things to eat or like they like certain you know like extra pair of socks or new pair of shoes for games or whatever. One of the things he said though was that Zaza-Pachulia is the only guy he's had in over 20 years who blow dries his hair.

Incredible. How is that possible? I don't believe that. First of all. Maybe it's true. Why would he make that? up. But, like, also, what is Zaza doing that's so special? Like, I look at him, not like, oh, what a wonderfully quaffed mane you have. I would like to out myself as a blow dryer

user. Like, I like to blow dry my hair. Uh, put a little product in it. Like, you're telling me that nobody, like, look at all the, like, soccer players. Um, oh, yeah. All those guys, like, are, they do their hair up. Rinaldo's got to have, like, five blow dryer at all times. How long does it take him to do his hair before a game, let alone after? We're talking about after a game. Zaza's the only one who blow dries his hair in 20 years for the Warriors? We also, we just need to hear Gordon Hayward weigh in on this. He's a clear, obvious blow dryer, and I

would just would love to know his take on, like, the pre and post game hair situation. Right, yes, like, the grooming techniques, like how he's doing that whole bit. He's got the time now to tell us. Absolutely. Gordo, get at us. Okay, looking ahead. Tonight, we have Pelicans at Rockets.

James Hardin's amazing. Like, he's just so good. I put him number one in my rankings in the top 25 ahead of a Ron. Yeah, I did too. I had him number one. Clearly the MVP, as we talked about last week. Just for this season, we're talking about.

I'm not saying, like, you know, obviously, Ron's still best player in the world. But yeah, I'm excited to see that game too, because now you've got Anthony Davis back and and it's an interesting style matchup. Blazers at Warriors. Warriors, again, just KD led. That's fun. That's always a good matchup for them. The Blazers, I think, you know, I think they play up and down depending on who they're playing.

And I think that'll be a fun one. Tomorrow we got Lakers at Knicks. Yes, Lakers at Nicks. Lakers after losing five in a row have now won back-to-back games and I've got a big Lakers piece coming out on the ringer so that'll be interesting to see how they play against the Nix.

Next kind of a little... It's running before the game, which I'm happy about, because the Lakers, I know, will have been in New York for two or three nights, so who knows? Who knows how that's going to go for them? New York Nightlife.

And then potentially tomorrow we get Kauai back with the Spurs at the Mavs. Yes, targeting tomorrow at the Mavs for his return. I need Kau in my life. Me too. I know that Lamarcus Alders is playing better and Chase Serrano is very pleased about that. I'm not buying Lamarcus Aldridge leading the spurs anywhere.

They need Kauai. And it's more fun when he's out there. I totally agree. And on Friday we got the jazz at Celtics for a great rookie matchup, Donovan Mitchell versus J.S. Tatum. Is Donovan Mitchell better than Rick Rubio already? I call him Rick. Rick?

I call him Rick. I dropped the Y because I thought that he was like... Rick? Yeah, I thought that he was... Ready to grow up? I thought that he was, and I was super excited about him. He's one of my favorite players ever. I really like good passers.

And he went to Utah, and he had a really hot start to the season. And it's since been garbage. Ricky Rubio, what are you doing? He might be garbage. I think Donovan Mitchell is certainly more valuable. He's killing it. Yeah, he's great. He's probably like top three rookie now.

Is he the rookie that we don't talk about enough that we should? Yes. Because he gets over, like maybe part of that is the jazz component. it. I think also the internet talks about him a lot, though. So I don't, I feel like he's getting plenty of attention. We spend so much time talking about Ben Simmons and Jason Tatum and for a lesser, for other reasons, Markell Foltz.

We haven't talked much about Donovan Mitchell. I would say Donna Mitchell took the Dennis Smith Jr. airspace. Yes. Like he's kind of like been pushed to the back burner. And now it's like, oh, Donna Mitchell is like is the best small guard from that. Right. Like super athletic, like really exciting. Yeah.

I'm going to call him Don, too, by the way. Don and Rick. Great. Don and Rick take on the Celtics on Friday. This has been the heat check at the Ringer MBA show. I'm Juliet Lippen. I'm John Gonzalez. We got pods for you all week long.

So if you haven't subscribed to the Ringer MBA show, please do. And we'll be back next Monday. If you are out there and alive, you have an open invitation. Your gun, the chicken, and the booze. Bring it all the heat check. You are welcome.