The Ringer NBA Show - 'Heat Check' — Silver Medalists, the Draymond Green Award, and LeBron vs. New York (Ep. 161)

Episode Date: November 13, 2017

The Ringer’s Juliet Litman and John Gonzalez deliberate on who the second-best team in the league is (0:17), analyze the implications of the Rudy Gobert injury for the Utah Jazz (10:08), and debate the most essential players for each team (13:36). Then, they play "Real or Not Real?" with LeBron James’s comments on Dennis Smith Jr. (17:06), Lonzo Ball’s apathy toward his triple-double (19:43), and Rick Carlisle’s apparent dislike of Nerlens Noel (21:33). After, they heat-check Jordan Clarkson and the new-look Milwaukee Bucks (24:14) before running through the most intriguing games of the week (28:27). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Monday morning heat check. I'm Juliet Litman. I'm John Gonzalez. Let's talk basketball. I love to talk basketball. Let's start with the team we tend to ignore. Frequently and get yelled out about it. Yeah, thanks, Dream Shake. Rockets fans. The Houston Rockets. They are now 11 and 3. They're half a game up on Golden State, and they beat the Pacers, who are actually good. Yeah, the Pacers are pretty good. They didn't play well against the Rockets. The Rockets continue to play well. They're 11 and 3 now. And it turns out James Hardin is really good. James Hardin, good at basketball. Good at basketball continues to be good at basketball. He's pretty high up on the MVP rankings on NBA.com. They actually have Harden first.

When I say pretty high, he's at the top. He's number one. Which is pretty high. Do you enjoy watching James Hardin? I do. You do. I have a sickness for guys who can get to the foul line. That is really a sickness.

It's a weird thing. Watching guys shoot free throws and make free throws is not an exciting proposition. I like the art of drawing fouls. And he's a master at it. In addition to being just really good at, you know, passing the ball and making the right play offensively, not defensively. Defensively, he's still, you know, sometimes James Harden and doesn't move his feet. But he's an amazing three-point shooter.

All of the things that I like about the NBA game in terms of ball moving and stuff, he has. But that Euro step and him being able to draw fouls, it's an art form. I love it. I mean, it is certainly a skill. I mean, to be a top player, you have to be able to draw foul. It's not as exciting for you. you? I wouldn't call it an art form.

All right. He's so exciting for like the last two minutes of every quarter, but like the first 10, I'm just not that interested, which is part of my problem with the Rockets. And that's like the case against James Hardin. He's amazing, yes, but he requires you to be like a glutton for punishment, basically. Yeah, no, that's me. I do like watching some of his teammates, though. Like, it's exciting to watch Clint Capella get better.

Clint Capella. Clint Capella from last year, we saw some flashes. All of a sudden this year, I mean, he's really having an amazing season and to watch him work that two-man game with James Harden has been a revelation, really. Yeah, it's cool. And that's like the kind of player James Hardin needs for me to be more interested. Also, Eric Gordon is excellent. Killing it.

So the big, like, elephant not in the room is Chris Paul because he's not playing. Yes. I feel like Chris Paul will hurt someone like Eric Gordon more than he will hurt someone like James Harden. I wonder, and I've mentioned this to you and I put it in our little show outline. Are we sure bringing him back and incorporating him as a good idea? What's the other option? Like, let's just be realistic.

There isn't another option. But, like, if you could just press a button, if you're the Rockets, right? You look at the way things are going. The team is killing it. James Hardin is having another fantastic season. His P.E.R. is through the roof. His true shooting percentages through the roof. His usage rate, not surprisingly, he's getting a lot of usage rate.

But the way that he, like, makes that offense run. Sure. Again, still, defensively, not great. But the way he makes that team run, right now, streamlined. Sure. If you could press the button and, like, maybe just undo the whole. I mean, it makes it, like, it sounds crazy, right?

Because he's Chris Paul. Of course you'd want one of the great players on your team in a vacuum. But I wonder how it's going to upset things. Sure, absolutely. Also, he's not really like a new age player. Like, he's a very classic point guard, and this is a very futuristic team. Yeah. It's a clashing of styles, as you just alluded to.

Yeah. And last year in the playoffs, we saw it with the Clippers. I mean, we saw it every year with the Clippers, but specifically with the Clippers last year against Utah, when things would start to stagnate a little bit, it was Chris Paul all the time everywhere. And he just was taking over, and he was really good at it. I mean, he played well, but it wasn't,

he didn't play well enough to just, like, one man will a team to a first round victory. And, you know, part of that was owed to Blake Griffin going down. But really, like, it just wasn't enough for Chris Paul to be Chris Paul. And I wonder if he can take that step, if not back, then to the side. Sure. I wonder if he wants to. I don't know.

He's been a great cheerleader on, on the same. side. Right. Maybe that's just good enough now, right? Yeah. But I think also, like, the other difference is the Rockets made so many roster moves to get Chris Pollock. I'll never forget the day that they were doing it.

And you're just like, first of all, why are all these teams helping Darry and number two, like, did you even know these kinds of transactions were possible? Right. It was like the biggest day in cap nerdery history. Yeah, it was great. It was fun. And yet, like, the same, like, four essential people are still on the Rockets and they're basically the same as last year, even though it's a pretty overhauled roster.

And I feel like that's kind of like the James Harden effect is that he is so specific in how he plays that he just needs a certain type of player around him. And then that's it. And Chris Paul, I think is quite different. Like you can remember Chris Paul's teammates. Like he doesn't really rise above like the system he's in. You're like he was passing to this guy and he was yelling at this guy. Like he, you know who else is on his team in a way like James Harden you don't. Like it maybe it's a little heady for this early in the morning on Monday. But I don't know. I think it's relevant to are these, your question is are the Rockets the second best team. And I think it's important to think about those clashing of styles. Yeah. And look, to be clear, I mean, of course you want to welcome Chris Paul back in. If you have a chance to get one of the great all-time players and add them onto your team, especially when, you know, they're already a good team. And I like their top tier talent. But at the like the PJ Tucker, Lukenbaam-Mute level, that's when it starts to get like a little thin. So of course you could use a Chris Paul. Sure. Luke Mouetai. He's been good though. He's fine. Look, everybody, look, I like Luke a lot. Like, he's.

He's a really nice dude. He's a good defender. But when you're like, when you're like trumpeting Luke and Bamutei and being like, yeah, Luke. Great team this year. Right. Like, good teammate. Everybody likes.

I'm like, okay, like, that's when you probably get a little thin. We had this question on our shooter rent on the ringer on Friday. Who's the second best team in the league? And it probably comes down to these guys or the guys in the East. Right. The Celtics. Yeah. Which we talk about entirely too much on this podcast and at the ringer.

But for me, I picked the Rockets because, like, look, look what they're doing. It's a continuation. of last year, that offense is killer. The Celtics are 12 and 2. They've won 11 in a row. They've won 11 in a row tonight. They did without, basically, Al Horford and Kyrie Irving on Friday.

They did it without Kyrie Irving on Sunday. Squeezed out a win on Sunday. Squeeze out a win by one over the Raptors. I think I picked the Celtics over the Rockets right now. You would? Yeah, for their defense. They're quite good on defense. Their defense is fantastic. In fact, they have the best defensive rating in the NBA.

That game, too, like you said, they squeezed it out on Sunday where we like the J team. Yes. One more time to drop the J-teen drop in there. Yeah, thanks, John. I loved this so much. But we had Jason Tatum yet again.

I mean, I like Jason Tatum, as I've said. More than you'd like to. Frequently, right, more than I'd like to. Jason Tatum had what amounted to the game-winning shot against the Raptors. The Raptors had two chances, though, to win that game. De Rosen missed two shots. But still, it speaks to the depth of the Celtics. Yeah.

That they can lose certain guys for certain games. And still, with these rookies go ahead. and win against good competition. I mean, like, the Raptors aren't a pushover team. They've been a perennial playoff team in the East for the last few seasons. So that's a pretty good win for them. I think 95 points without Kyrie Irving is like pretty impressive. Pretty good.

Yeah. Because you're not like, oh, wow, what an offensive dynamo they've got over there. I mean, if you're relying on, you know, Market Smart to give you 14 points every game, that's, like, pretty good. I mean, like, if you can count on that, that's great. Yeah, I like their supporting cast, I think, better than I like. The Rocket's supporting cast. but the difference is how do they deploy those players?

Like if you were just going to, in a vacuum, say, do I like the J team and Marcus Smart and Al Horford and those guys, more than I like, say, Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson and Trevor Risa, yes, but I really like the way the Rockets play. Now, you mentioned the Boston Celtics defense. Their defensive rating is considerably better than everybody else's defensive rating. They have a 95.4 defensive rating per 100 possessions. The Thunder are second.

and then everybody else is like way behind. That speaks, by the way, so much the thunder's offense problems. Like, it's insane. Yeah. The thunder, every week on this podcast, we go, we like basically shoulder shrug at the thunder, and I don't understand what's happening. We'll come back to them next week.

So aside from the second best team, you went with the Celtics, but so you would rather have the Celtics roster and their coach versus the Rockets roster and their coach? Yes, for a couple of reasons. I think even though Hardin is an amazing score and can get to the line, I just think that Kyrie is like the ultimate, I will score now if no one can stop me. Are you coming around on the art form of getting to the line? And he like, he finishes so often in a way that no one else does.

Whereas with Hardin, like you're like, oh, he's going to the line now. But you're with Kyrie, like, right, that's going to go ahead, of course. It's just different. And then I think I would choose Eric Gordon over Mark is smart. Yeah. But I think I just. But they're like hugely different players. Yeah, they couldn't be more different.

They each fit their team. perfectly, honestly. In that Eric Gordon makes three-pointers and Marcus Smart just takes them. Yeah, sure. Good for Marcus Smart. But, yeah, I like the intangibles that Marcus Smart brings. And also, he's switchable on defense. And, you know, he's an absolute dog at that end of the floor.

And I love that about him. And the Rockets, that's not their game. Like, they're a go-go team. Yeah. I just think, I actually don't even sound like a better bench. And Coach Brad is just really good. Yeah. It's a weird thing for me because if we're talking about, again, like, which team is the second

best team in the league, I'm going to go with the Rockets. But if I divorce myself from just like, how are they playing in their offense and I could just in a vacuum look at the pieces and the coach, yeah, I would go with the Celtics, you know, reluctantly. But I just like the way, I like the way that the Rockets play. I like that style of offense especially. I think that you're just like addicted to basketball and like you're a junkie. And so you're like, yeah, give me the Rockets.

I could go either way, really. Like, I like both teams. They're both. They are both fun. We'll talk about them both so much more. Should we move on? Rudy Gobert is out four to six weeks. This is a tough one.

This is tough. So he's basically blaming Dion Waiters. Did you see the play? Yes, I did. There's going to be some conspiracy theories on this. I actually... Where are you on Waiters in general? I like him, but I also really like Gobert.

So it's like kind of, I feel impartial here. It's like two of my children. I love Dion Waders. I loved everything. I told Chris Ryan I wanted to be the Dion Waders Bureau Chief and like just go down to Miami and plant down there after he wrote that amazing Players Tribune story over the summer. It was fantastic, and if you haven't read it, you should absolutely go back and read it. In addition to that, Juliette, you know where he's from?

Philadelphia? He's from Philadelphia, so I have to like him as a rule. The play was weird, though. He took a very odd route to that ball. Like, he deviated from a line that you would have otherwise expected him to be on and crashed right into Rudy Gobert's knee. And I would not call Dionne Waiter's a dirty player. But if you're a Utah jazz fan, you're wondering.

Yeah, I'm watching this on a Giff as we speak just over in a over and over again. Yeah. What do you think? It's a little curious, right? It's a little curious. He kind of, like, throws his body, but I think, I don't think he's like, I'm going to take out his knees. It's more like, I'm just going to protect the ball, the kind of thing. I don't think Dionne Waiters would have wanted to injure Rudy O'Ber and have him out four to six weeks. But it was a weird path that he took. It was a real, like, football, like, I'm going to block you kind of play. I don't know how it happened or why it happened, but it did happen. And all of a sudden, the Utah Jazz, that's really bad for them, as it turns out, Juliet. They need Rudy

go bear because that team, game to game, I'm not sure what to make of them. They're using Ricky Rubio, who I love, who's my favorite player and has been for a long time, they're using him as all of their offense, which you generally do not want to do offensively. Sure. Yeah, Danny wrote about this as well with one of the best headlines. He did. It was excellent. History of the ringer, scared shotless, scared, comma, shotless. I think the jazz are bad in their conference. They are not good enough. And that's not a surprise. Like, I believe in Ricky Rubio, is a bigger stretch than being like, oh, right, the jazz aren't that good.

I won't have any Ricky Rubio slander on this podcast. It's just not the kind of player he is. That's true. He can't be responsible for scoring. Like, it can't be his primary function. Not known as a shooter, as it turns out. Defensively, though, this is a huge hit for them because that was where they were winning games.

They were the third best defensive rating in the NBA with Rudy Gobert on the floor. Yeah, I mean, he's just like, he alters shots. He does, in fact, alter shots. And now you've got Derek Favors who's going to have to eat up a ton of minutes. And Derek Favors was fine. in the NBA like three years ago, but he's had some injury issues.

He's not a rim protector like Rudy Goberas. Nobody is really. That's a big loss for them because that's defensively where they were going to win games. I guess now you've got to like really get after it, quote, offensively. You've got Ricky Rubio and Donovan Mitchell

has gotten a lot of run for them and I guess they're still hoping that Rodney Hood is going to be something. Donovan Mitchell is good. I like Donovan Mitchell. Shout out to Louisville. Yeah, he was my pick for... Ricky of the Air?

Well, like outside. side of the main guys. Sure. We had like, who's going to be your rookie surprise this year and Donovan Mitchell was my rookie surprise.

I just think that Gobert is their only legitimately good player. Like everyone else is like, yeah, we can make this work. Like Rodney Hood, been making it work for several years now. Right.

Favor's is good, but like not like, you know, a cog. Here's when you know you've got issues over the summer after Gordon Hayward left. Their number two priority

was Joe Ingalls. Joe Ingalls. And if you watch the jazz broadcast, the announcers love Joe Ingalls. They love Joe Ingalls. They're just like, everyone in Utah is just amazed by Joe Ingalls. And he is like essential. He's probably their most essential player more than Gobert. Joe Ingalls is fine. But I think when like you're getting super charged up about getting Joe Ingalls to come back.

Yeah, it's a problem. Then when you're, you should probably take a step back and what are we doing here. So I think we need like a new category in the NBA of not like the MVP, like the staffs, the LeBron's, maybe the Janice is. But like the most essential player. The most essential to their, to what their team does. Like it's the dream on. Green Award, basically. Because Draymond is not Staff or KD, but as we saw in 2016

and in some earlier games this season, Draymond is the most essential to the warrior's success. He makes them unbeatable. Yeah, and I think that's a fun idea. Because I have a couple that I would run through here. Okay. Not to be predictable and like mention the Portland Trailblazers, but I would throw

Dame Lillard in that mix. But also look at the San Antonio Spurs. Like, there's still the Spurs, right? But Kauai takes them from being the Spurs and they're going to be in the playoffs and they're going to be in the mix and they're fine to being, hey, yeah, this is a team that could potentially challenge in the West. Sure. I feel like the difference between like a Kauai type player and a Dremont is like someone who is a paradigm shifter who won't necessarily be fully appreciated in their time, but they'll become like an archetype. And I just feel like Kauai is more like, yes, he's top five player. So we have to take, so it has to be like not a top five player then.

Yeah. Kind of. That's sort of what I'm getting at. Because like, I think with the Celtics, like, is like Al Horford, like their most essential player? I mean, it's still probably Kyrie. But like without, without him, do they struggle more? Like, like, do they lose to the Raptors if they have Irving but not Horford? So this is an interesting thought experiment because then you would look at like a team like the Knicks and go, okay, well, like Christaps is getting a lot of love. He could potentially one be, one day be a top five player. He's certainly the most essential right now. Hands down. You take Christops off that team and the Knicks are really like, yeah, all else. And they have five already. I just feel like there needs to be a new tier to appreciate greatness that's not like being like the kill shot. Like of course Kevin Durant is Kevin Durant. Like it's not fair to compare all the other players to him who are like also extremely important. It's sort of like a regular season award. I know that all awards are regular season. But it's sort of like night in, night out. Like who gets you to where you to like the fifth seed on your team. I like this essential idea. We'll have to revisit this as the season goes. I just feel like we too quickly jump into the MVP race, and then there's, like, no room to talk about all these other, like, exciting players. This is one that maybe we throw into the mix,

because right now we had said previously, like, the Charlotte Hornets are, like, I don't know, kind of sort of interesting team, and Campbell gets a lot of love on that team. They're about to get Nick Batume back, and I think Nick Batum is a hugely underrated player. I loved him in Portland. I loved him on that team. Yeah, like I would like to see what the Hornets look like.

Jeremy Lamb has gotten a lot of run for them. They brought Malik Monk back in, but they're going to get Nick Batoon back ostensibly on Wednesday, Wednesday. And he does all of those little things as a wing that you'd want. He moves the ball really well. He rebounds. He pushes the floor. Like, I love Nick Batum for all those reasons. So maybe he's in that dream on Nick. Sure, maybe. The Hornets are bizarre. Just like a bizarre team. Definitely overachieving right now. I have love for Nick Battoon. I think there's a lot of Kemba love out there. Like a lot. A lot of people are like, yeah, I love Kenba Walker. Where are you on Kemba? I like him. He's

got a good swagger. Yeah, he's good. He's fine. He's like, he's not as good as many. in his cohort, but he's still good. Let's move on. Real or not real? Oh, yeah. We got some good ones this week. I'm excited. Yeah. So, LeBron is really high in Dennis Smith, Jr. Super high. After playing the Mavs. And he said so. Here's his quote. The Knicks pass on a really good one. And Dallas got the diamond earn rough. He should be a Nick.

He's going to make some headlines, but he should be a Nick. but Dallas is definitely, I know they're excited that he didn't go there. I love Dennis Smith Jr. I wrote about him on the Ringer. I think he's a really good player. He's super athletic. I think he's got a better understanding of the game than maybe a lot of people give him credit for. He's right now fighting his own Dennis Smith Jr. Demons because he's so athletic and he wants to dunk on people all the time. And he has to sort of rein that in.

We're starting to see that now where he's playing more within the confines of the offense. Not like that's manifested in itself in wins and losses for or wins for the Dallas Mavericks. But I like him. I think that the shade thrown at Frankie smokes here, though, is very. interesting. Yeah. And then the, uh, Nick started rallying around him, which is, Ines Canter and Christavs. They were, they were like really pissed. And then LeBron weighed in again today because he, they were playing. Well, I missed the update. What did he say? Uh, via Rachel Nichols on Twitter, for clarification of people who just live in a box and for Ennis Cantor who

always got something to say, I don't know what's wrong with him. I love it. I'm glad that this has devolved to LeBron versus Cantor. That's a weird thing. Normally like gripes and fights go up, not down. You're LeBron. Like, how is Enis Canter even on your race. Bef up. Don't beef down. Right. Yeah. How is Enis Cantor on your radar?

Most of the time, I swear to you, Juliet, when I'm watching the Knicks and Enis Cantor enters the game, I always go, oh, yeah, Enis Cantor's on the Knicks. Like, Enis Cantor is in the league and he has a job. He's a great rebounder. He does nothing else. But he's a great rebounder. That's all he does. And also, I think, a really good hype man.

He's a very good height man, which is applicable in this situation. So real or not real, they should have taken Dennis Smith, Jr., instead of Frankie Smokes. What do you think? I think real. Yes. Look, I like Frankie Smokes. I hope he's good for Jason Concepcion's mental well-being. He's a good defender. We've seen that. He threw that beautiful lob

to Christaps Porzingis the other day. In one short week, he went from flashes of defense to actually defending. So that's a very quick improvement. Good for him. Right. I like him at the end of that end of the floor. He looks, if not lost on offense, reluctant. Yeah. Shy. Yeah. And maybe he'll get there. I don't know. The Knicks are not really noted for developing players, but who knows.

But they could use some offense. Like, nobody else's shot. Like, go and why not, take some shots that KP isn't taken, like, you know, assert yourself at that end. You don't believe that Tim Hardway, Jr. will give them what they need? I do not. Oh, wow. I do not.

So, yeah, I'm on Dennis Smith, Jr. over Frankie Smokes. Another one. Lanzo Ball recorded his first triple double this weekend against the bucks in a loss. And afterwards, he said he didn't really care about it. Does it feel significant to you in any way to be the youngest guy to get there? To be younger than LeBron back five days when he did it? I mean, I don't matter to me, to be honest. I just wanted to win tonight.

I thought we put ourselves in a good position. I'll get it, but it didn't happen. Just wants the win. Shocker, as athlete cliches go, that's my least favorite. What would you prefer them to say? I mean, of course that's what he's going to say, right? My problem with this quote, first of all, I'm not real on this. I think that he was excited about getting the triple double

and just sort of like decided to take the very stoic, monotone athlete company line on this one. But is there a bigger gap? This is my problem with Lanzo ball in general. Is there a bigger gap between the amount of attention he gets and the personality that he actually is? He's kind of a boring human being. Super boring, but he's also like a basketball test tube baby.

He's like been bred to do this so he knows all the predictable lines. Yeah. And all of the ones that he shouldn't save and beat out of him. And I just want to say, rather if you are rooting for the ball family, you'd rather him be giving bad quotes than shotlifting in China. I was going to say too soon. It's not. They got to figure out how to get those kids out of China.

It's actually not funny. It was like sensational, but I'm actually worried for the three UCLA players. I have seen enough movies about Chinese prisons to know that you don't want to be in one. There was spy game when Brad Pitt has to liberate his paramour from Su Chow prison, I believe. Su Chow shouts to Su Chow. And also, what was the other one? Brok Down Palace, I believe it was in Southeast Asia, though. Okay.

Not China. But that's a great movie. with Claire Danes. No, you don't want to go to a foreign country prison, general, or prison in general. Avoid prison if possible. Well, the last one, this is a real, this is wild. Rick Carlisle is basically not playing Nerlin so well. He had six minutes against the Wizards.

He had a DNP CD versus the Cavs and two minutes versus Oklahoma City. This is a guy who declined in extension and decided to play for new contract this year. So he's in a contract year. And the Charks went to the Mavs game on Saturday night and he got those quotes. in his piece that posted yesterday Sunday. From Rick Carlisle. Look, minutes have to be earned. At this point, if it's between him and Sala,

Mesri, Sala has earned the minutes. There's no doghouse here. There just isn't. It's pretty simple. You compete. And if you earn minutes, you get minutes. And if you've got to compete to keep them because it's a competitive situation.

Huh, it's competitive. You don't say. So real or not real that it's actually about minutes earn and that Rick Carlisle doesn't actually hate Norland's Noel. For me, Rick Carlisle hates Nirlens Noel. He's clearly pissed off about what happened. Look, Nerlins, I saw them

when they were in town. I talked to Nerlin's about it. I know him from when he was at the Sixers. He tried to be a good company dude about it, but there's obviously some friction there. Norland's made a mistake. I like Nerlin's. I think he's got a really good game.

He had a four-year, $70 million offer on the table, and he bet on himself, and he bet poorly. He really did bet poorly. I think the thing I believe the lease is that there's no doghouse. Of course there's a dog house. Yes, he's in it. He's redecorating. He's there so long already.

He has decorated it and then climbed underneath. He's dug on. underneath the doghouse, and now he's renovating the sub-basement to the doghouse. Juliet, six minutes versus the Wizards, two minutes in this past game against OKC. He caught a DNPCD against the Cavs. It could not be more glaring if Rick Carlisle put it up in lights. I don't like you, Nerlin's Noel. The Dallas Mavericks have two wins.

Two. They've played 14 games. That's tough. You're telling me that Nerlands Noel can't help you on the floor? Of course he can. There's obviously something going on here. dying to know what it is. It's also like two things. One, I guess the Mavs are tanking and that's fine.

I feel like Derek can't be happy with what is presumably his last season. It's like hard to watch Derek now. It's not fun. Not riding off into the sunset. No. Unless it's on a jazzy scooter because he does not move well. I know. And he just like shouldn't even try to play defense. Like he should just stand aside. He'd play four people. He never really kind of played defense, but he moves like the mummy.

He doesn't really have lateral movement anymore. They did, which by the way for Halloween. The Mavs did an in-house production of Dirk Nowiskey as a mummy. and I thought it was really amazing and I don't know if that was just supposed to be a Halloween promotion or like spoke to the greater movement of

Dirk Nowitzky these days because he sort of like lumberes around the court. Not good. Not good for the Mavericks. They're not fun. They're not pretty. And it's a bad way for Dirk to go out. Putting Noreland's on the floor. Yeah, or trade him or something. Something.

Let's move on to the heat check, heat check. I love it. NBA jam. So in this segment, it's our specific. What's happening around the NBA that sort of heat check-ish. You want to go first? Sure, I would love to.

I'd like to talk about Mr. Jordan Clarkson, who for like one year people were really into. Just for one year? In Los Angeles. When they were like, it was like two years ago, and people were like, yeah, this guy's going to be good. Okay, here's Jordan Clarkson talking about his motivation, what keeps him trying to stay winning and all that.

The females, you know what I mean? I love women. They don't like you when you're down. So I just want you to know, Jordan Clarkson used to date, Kendall Jenner and she's now dating Blake Griffin or at least they go out for dinner a lot together. I don't know if they're officially dating. So that's a big L for Jordan Clarkson. So if that's what's keeping him motivated, I'm concerned for him. Is it an L. because like you said Kendall,

like he had previously dated Kendall Jenner. Now Kendall Jenner's dating. To a bigger star here in L.A. Yeah, I mean, like he's farther down the NBA pecking order than Blake Griffin, right? Yeah. I think the Lakers should trade him. Jordan Clarkson? I think you get something back for him. I'm actually kind of surprised that Jordan Clarkson didn't fall into the Lou Williams role from last year. He kind of is in that role, but on a limited minutes basis. Lou Williams was getting more run last year and being more productive in that limited time on that second unit as the instant offense score. Jordan Clarkson provides that same kind of thing, but he's playing like roughly, you know, 21, 22 minutes a night. I like Jordan Clarkson fine.

Not sure about his motivation, but, you know, you got to do you. Who knows? I think he just needs to maybe check himself a little bit. A little bit. Yeah. That goes with maturity. Also, he's in L.A. and not surprising. Maybe it was an off-the-cuff remark. He gave that quote to Tanya Tanguli from the L.A. time. So maybe, like, they know each other. Maybe it was just like sort of an off-the-cuff thing. Come, Jordan. Never let your guard down. That's another heat check then. Don't let him see you sweat. Mine, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Might be a little too soon to get back to Chinese prisons. The Bucks. The Bucks decided that they were going to throw a major shade at the Lakers and the ball family. The Bucks mascot held up a sign Juliet. And on the sign, it said, Leangelo Ball is leading the Ball family in steals. Boom. Roasted.

Ouch. That's a little bit much. I actually, I was ready to joke about it. And now I've realized after talking about broke down palace that I'm not ready to joke about it. I don't know about you. I would not do well in prison. Yeah. Per TMZ, Donald Trump, thank goodness, is getting involved trying to get them out of the country.

Certainly, that will take care of it. Prison is really scary. It's no joke. And I can only imagine in China. Foreign or domestic. No, thank you. Really bad. Seriously, good luck to those kids.

I hope they get back to America. Yes. Also, kids, don't shoplift. Don't shoplift. Correct. I think the bucks in general, I'm putting the whole team kind of in like the heat check box. Yeah?

They're good, but I think we overestimated them a little bit. I actually, I think Blood Soe will be really good for them. Love Blood So with them. They're fine. Excited about it. Yeah. But I feel like that'll take just like a minute to sort of really take hold. Yeah.

They'll be fine. And also for all the Bucks fans who are like, yeah, I wouldn't trade Malcolm Brogden for. Eric Bledsoe. You didn't have to, but come on. Maybe you wish you did. I mean, no, I mean, like, it's fine. Like, they have extra talent now and that's good, but like, let's not say that Malcolm Brogden is even in the same category of player as Eric Bledsoe. Certainly not. What seed would you give the box right now in the playoffs if we're jumping ahead? Like, where do you see them? Four? Five? No, I think they're probably going to be in that bottom four in the East category.

I mean, I think for me, it's in the top four in the East is still going to be the Celtics, the Cavs, the Wizards and probably the Raptors. So you're going to go Raptors for? I'm shock on this. I'm shock on the top four in the East. Pretty static. I agree with you. I just think the bucks are too young and inconsistent

to be at top four. And I like the bucks. And I think they're going to be in that mid-tier mix and maybe they have an upset in the first round or maybe they make it through the semis and surprise some people. But it all depends. You're going to get Jabari Parker back.

How does Jabari Parker look with Janus and with Bledsoe and with Chris Middleton? But they've got enough talent. to make some waves in the east. So, yeah, I like the bucks. Cool. Me too. Why not?

This week on the schedule, tonight, Monday, the calves are in New York for the Knicks. Frankie Smoke's revenge against LeBron James. I hope so. I'm excited to watch Porzangus against LeBron. I just feel like LeBron will want to like stake his territory. I'm like, no, it's still my league. Like, back down, dude.

But I'm excited to watch them go up against each other. Enis Cantor all the revenge rebounds he can handle. That's exciting. Also on Wednesday, we've got the Spurs and the T-Wolfs. That's a good game for this week. Two teams in the Western Conference that are in the mix. Yeah, absolutely. The wolves are fun.

Yeah, I like the wolves. They look good for one half against the Warriors. Although their defense is still a hot mess. And every time you turn around, either Tibbs or Jimmy Butler or both is complaining about it. So that's still a little curious, but yes, they're playing better. Warriors at Celtics. That's what you want to say. Yeah.

We previously had said we know who the best team is, of course. Are the Celtics the second best team? Let's see them against the best team. I also think that Coach Brad is the best game planner against the Warriors. That's on Thursday night. It's a national TV game. Yeah, hands down. He prepares the best for them.

And I'm excited for the Warriors to go against the best defense. Something to see. Work for it, guys. We like basketball. There's some good games coming up. We really do. This has been a fun one, Gonzo. Always.

We'll be back next Monday. I can't wait.