The Ringer NBA Show - ‘Heat Check’ — To Dame or Not to Dame (Ep. 156)

Episode Date: November 6, 2017

The Ringer’s Juliet Litman and John Gonzalez review the weekend’s exciting Thunder-Blazers matchup (1:30), laud the Celtics’ dominant winning streak (6:50), gauge their concerns about the precarious Cavaliers (11:55), and analyze D’Angelo Russell’s first return to Los Angeles as a Brooklyn Net (16:05). Then they play Real or Not Real with the Eastern Conference 2-seed Detroit Pistons (20:00), sensational Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell (21:35), and stats-stuffing savant DeMarcus Cousins (22:05). Finally, they heat-check the New York Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis (23:40) and look forward to the week’s most intriguing games (27:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Monday He Check on the Ringer NBA show. I'm Juliet Litman. I'm John Gonzalez. A lot of talk about from the weekend. So many things to talk about from the weekend. A lot of fun, close games. Specifically with two teams that we frequently pay attention to. Caped off last night with the Sunder and the Blazers, with the Blazers holding on.

It was a crazy game, Juliet. And the reason why I wanted to talk about this one is because I love the Blazers and you love the Thunder. Why do you love the Blazers? There's so many reasons. I like weird hipster Portland things in general, but also Dame. me and Lillard and C.J. McCollum, and NERC is now making a heel turn. Love Nerk. He's my favorite. He's probably the only good Blazer. It's not true. I just, I love NERC, though. E.T. is on that team. He's running around like the villain.

He's good. Saying crazy things and shooting three-pointers. But the Blazers upended OKC, and I need to know how you feel about OKC because all of a sudden, uh, not so great. I'm confounded by them. We'll talk by that in one second, but we're also just going to get into the Celtics, the Cavs, Drama. You were at T. Daniel Russell's return to Los Angeles. did. We have many things to discuss about DeAngelo's triumphant, well, semi-triumphant return. We need to discuss if teams like the Pistons and Demarcus cousins are real or not real. DeMarcus cousins is killing it. And we're going to do an actual heat check. This podcast is called heat check after all. We've got the heat check heat check. Yeah. But first, back to OKC in

Portland. Yes. Juliet, level of concern on your thunder. Like if 10 is extremely concerned and a one is the Golden State Warriors, I'm going to put them at six. So high. That's a pretty high. That's a pretty high level of concern as well. It should be because as I'm looking at the standings, the internet has so many things. You can find so many things on the internet. So much to offer. One of the things that you can find is the standings. Do you know where they are in? You do. Here are the teams. It's not good. Beneath them. Dallas. Horrible. Dirk is aged. They have one win. Phoenix. They still have Eric Bledsoe. And he's on their roster, but not attending any team activities. They've allowed him now, I think, to go to the facility and work. out, but just independent of the team. It's pretty great. Solo workouts. They didn't change the locks on the door. Yeah.

It's like a remarkable story. The fact that it's like he's still there too. He's later. Still there. The sons are a disaster. And then Sacramento. And there are no expectations for them. Also one win.

Also one win. So two one win teams, the Phoenix Suns and then the Oklahoma City Thunder. In 12th, the Oklahoma City Thunder. So we had a lot of expectations. You specifically had a lot of expectations for them. They go and they play the Portland Trailblazers. Mello gets tossed. Toss for a flagrant.

When he had the ball. It wasn't good. It was weird. That's when they get rescinded. And then they actually got better once Mello left, which is part of their problem. I used to be a Mello Hater, but now I like him. And they just don't have a system at all. And, like, I know it's hard to incorporate all these new players, and, like, particularly

when one of them is Paul George and one is Carmelo Anthony. But I think we just need to be quite concerned about Billy Donovan. At the end of the game, it turned into like a shootout with three is back and forth. There was a Russ three, then a C.J. McCollum three, and then Paul George three, and then another C.J. McCollum three's three's were second chance. He happened to be open after a rebound. And that's part of the problem. Like a defensive reading, it's like, I think they're third in the league. But at the end of games, they've lost a few close ones. They just totally fall apart. Like, they just have all these breakdowns, both on offense and defense.

And if you watch Paul George, he just looks confused. He's just sort of like, what's my role here? And I think that that was part of the concern going into the season. Like, how would they all mesh? Like, whose team would it real? Of course, it's going to be. Russ's team. It can't be your team if you miss three free throws in a row at the end of the game. That is a major knock obviously against Russell Westbrook. Also, he's a really good free throw shooter, so just really weird. It was unusual, but I think it's weird that it hasn't really worked out for them considering, as you mentioned, like you look at their metrics and you go, okay, well, this team should be a little bit better. I mean, they're net rating. They're third in the league

and net rating behind only the Warriors and the Celtics. This is a team that you would go, okay, they've got three really good players. They've been playing good defense. Like, why hasn't it really worked out? Why are they still like lumped in with the suns? at the bottom of the Western Conference. I'm less concerned than you. You had 6.5. I'm like a 2.5. Really?

Yeah, you know what? Like, you don't give the Blazers enough credit. The Blazers are good. Sure. I like the Blazers. They lost to a good team. It's not like they lost to. And I know you're like all about the Knicks these days.

But we're going to get to that. But like, it's fine. These things happen. The NBA is good. Sure. The Blazers, I think, played the level of their opponent. And that's bad. That's not a winning team.

That's one of the reasons LeBron is amazing. It's because he's always playing at the highest level. It's why the Warriors are. so impressive. Why the spurs are so consistently good, except for this season, is because they always play at the same level. And the Blazers go up or down based on who they're playing. Like, they almost lost Kyle Kuzma. Do you put any stock into O KC being undefeated when Russ has a triple double and O and five when he doesn't? I mean, it's early. It's not a coincidence, right? And not like the triple doubles he'd have last season with like 50 points, but it's more like a more

all-around game. For me, like I don't put a lot into it, but I think the one thing it does speak to is just like how much Russ has to do still to get them over the finish line to win a game. Like you said, like down in a couple of games here, like towards the finish, it was either Russ is going to do a bunch of stuff or if Russ misses free throws and doesn't take over the game, then all of a sudden the thunder are on the outside looking in. The problem of this team is probably the fifth most reliable players, Raymond Felton. That's a problem. Yeah.

And I'm putting him above Andre Robertson, but below Stephen Adams. Have you taken a look at Ray Felton did not get in career best shape for this. season. He looks like he ate an old version of Ray Felton coming into this year. Like the old Russian nesting dolls, that's what it looks like. It looks like he's a bigger version of the older Raymond Fitt. I'm like, what kind of health diet plan is he? Obviously none. A bigger problem is that that was partially because Mello was out. That's why they were running that five because he's ejected. But a bigger problem is that Felton is so essential because he, he's like the only other reliable playmaker they have on the team. Like Paul George could be in that role, but they haven't

really found that fit for him. And so I think that kind of speaks to the Ross triple double problem. They don't have an offense and they don't have like multiple people who can like, who can get it started. Yeah, I think eventually they figure it out. But you're right about the Paul George component. Yeah. I want more Paul George and I don't just want him playing.

He's really good. Turns out he is. I mean, it's fine. He can shoot threes and they need outside shooting, right? But the idea of just limiting him and marginalizing him to go over there and stand in the corner, we can do more things. Yeah, they need a far more dynamic offense. More dynamic. Yeah.

I think they'll probably figure it out. I don't think they'll remain 12th in the West. But that's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. It's also just, this we knew this coming into the season. The West is stacked. Indeed. You know what is not stacked?

The East. All right. Let's move on to the best team in the East, the Boston Celtics. I think we wrote them off too early. We definitely did. Gordon Hayward went down and everybody went, oh, this is it for the Boston Celtics. And we forgot a couple of things. One, they play in the East.

The East is terrible. Two, Kyrie Irvin is killing it. Three, Brad Stevens is a really good coach. and coaching these guys up, Juliet, their defense is really good. Their middle of the pack offensively, but like it works out to second overall in net rating. The Celtics are legit. The Celtics are legit. And most importantly, Kyrie Irving is playing defense in the first quarter in games in November.

So shout out to Brad Stevens. Yeah, Kevin O'Connor wrote about this on The Ringer today. And I had to look at it twice. Because like anecdotally, I've watched them and he has played defense. But still like your lion eyes, right? you look at it and you go like, can this actually be real? It kind of is real. I don't know what Brad Steeves did. Like, he's the Kyrie whisperer. It's pretty amazing. Also, I think this is what Kyrie wanted. He wanted a team where he could be number one. He is clear their number one option,

but he has good pieces around him so he can cheer for them. I don't know. I guess I just underrated him vastly, but I had like written off Jalen Brown in my mind. So every time he does something good, I'm like, wow, the Celtics were right. You weren't on board with Jalen Brown previously? I was like good athlete, no skills. But he obviously really worked on his skills over the summer. I love him. I don't love him quite as much as I like Tatum though. Yeah. You love Tatum. I really do. It's like a covetous love for you. You know what? It is. And I feel dirty about it. I feel like I should take a shower afterwards because what could have been, Juliet? Meanwhile, who knows where Fultz is these days? He's out in the wind. But every time I

watch the Celtics, Tatum does something amazing. Like he plays great defense. He's got an NBA-sized body already at 19 years old. He can play inside and outside. I mean, he makes smart plays. Also, having an NBA body is anomalous for a Duke rookie. He's an anomaly. It's weird just for 19-year-olds in general. Like, look at this class and how many of them have to put on weight. So much. They look super skinny.

I mean, just still, Brandon Ingram is a couple years into the league and looks like he's terribly mild. Let's get him a part-time job of Bay City so he can get some extra sandwiches or something. He needs a godmother. The godmothers are excellent. I would like to buy some for him. That's a great idea. I'm going to bring those to practice next time I'm out there.

I'm happy Harry's playing defense. I'm unhappy. He's still questioning. the shape of the earth and the moon landing. But let's talk about his outfit choices. That's kind of where I'm at with Kyrie right now. So in the last week, there's been two that have come to our attention. One is like he was dressing up as Gabe Kaplan and Welcome Back Cotter.

He was wearing like a white, just like a plain white turtleneck with like a... It was like an off color. It was like a cream. It was like a cream. Yeah. You're right. It was a cream. I couldn't tell the material.

From afar, it didn't look like cashmere. or whatever. But it wasn't like in the spectrum of like mock turtleneck to full on almost comes up over your ears and eyes turtleneck. It was like pretty much towards the ladder. And as somebody who likes a chunky 70s Steve McQueen sweater, I would normally look at that and go, okay, yeah. But really, he went out there with that, where are you on turtlenecks in general? I'm so pro. I'm so pro. But it's hard to pull off. I would say the leader in the turlnecked space right now is Alex Rodriguez. I haven't seen him in a turtleneck. Well, I guess you haven't been reading Vanity Fair.

He loves a turtleneck, and he wears, like, not like a foldover, but it is pretty high, and it's ribbed. And he pulls it off really well. I think Kyrie could use some lessons. I don't know how I, and I know that this is not the show for this, but I don't know how I feel about the A-Rod Renaissance. I'm so in, because I love him in J-Lo. But that's besides the point.

That's for Jam Session. You're welcome to come on Jam Session anytime you want. I need to go on Jam Session to talk about A-Rod and J-Lo and Turtlenex. Yeah. Yeah, got you. Deal. So the thing about Kyrie's white turtleneck is then he was wearing like a jacket that was sort of like military inspired but also denimy. It was like a light military green that looked like a denim material with white buttons and white stitching.

When you get your team and you take over the east, you can wear whatever you want. I guess because then a few days before that he was wearing like homeless chic. He was wearing. Yeah, you're not on board with this. No, I don't. I'm not on board about. It's the gloves without the fingers that. flap over and you can like wool gloves that have the fingers cut off and then the flap for

warmth if necessary. I have friends in Boston who wear those. Is it a Boston thing? I don't know. It's really cold in Boston as it turns out. We don't have gloves here. It's cold and damp. Cold and damp and awful. So I don't begrudge anybody wearing anything warm there, but it was kind of unusual. He also paired it with a beanie kind of like not properly on his head, like trying to look hip. But then like his own Nike clothes. Like he was wearing a Kyrie Irving branded T-shirt and then like a red Nike hoodie. So it was just kind of like a mess. I think if he'd gone all in on the homeless look, I would have been more into it. But the fact that he was mixing it up with Nike, I was just like, no.

I'm on board with all things, Kyrie right now, up to and including the weirdo turtle neck, because we have a pod called Heat Check. He is like the walking embodiment of a heat check right now, as are the Celtics. So I say do you, Kyrie. Let's do a quick two minutes on the Cavs. Quick. Very quick. Because we've been like super Cavscentric.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. put up 57 on the Wizards on Friday, and they won. And that was sort of like a statement game. And then? And then they lost to the Hawks, who are basically like the Mavericks of the East. To Mavericks of the East. I don't know who that's a bigger indictment of the Mavericks of the Hawks.

They've lost to the Hawks, the Nets, the Magic, the Nicks, the Pacers and the Pelicans. That's not a good group of losses. No. It's rough. And then there's an article from Dave McManerman on ESPN yesterday where basically Dwayne Wade was like calling out the starters for not being as good as the bench. And I guess yesterday, the starters were outscored by the bench, 61 to 49. So props of Dwayne Wade for being the head of the bench mob, even though he got demoted like one week ago. Like, cool. And second of all, is this shots of Kevin Love? Because I was, who could he be calling out here? It's not LeBron. Yeah, I was trying to figure out who's he calling out. And you're right, it's not LeBron. So who else would it be? But also, like, the Kevin Love hate has gone too far.

I know. They ask Kevin Love to do things that Kevin Love is not designed to do. He's not a room protector. He's not a center. He should be playing power for it and like, you know, pop in threes and like he's not Minnesota Kevin Love anymore. Like, what do you want from Kevin Love? That's kind of like the question they need to figure out. Like, what do they want from Kevin Love? Stop moving him around. Put him in a position to succeed. Literally put him in a position where he will succeed. That would be nice. I think Kevin Love would like that. Maybe that means that they have to move Kevin Love. I don't know. Maybe like it's not the right spot for. Yeah, maybe it's not the right spot because every time you turn around, with the exception of the season that they won,

like, they traded for him, and he got heat in that for its first season. They won the second season and like everything was copacetic. Uh, and now like, shm-er. I know. And then he, he, he left the game with an illness and went to the hospital, but then was released. But I hope, it, apparently he's fine. And so I feel comfortable questioning why he left the game, went to the hospital. That was weird. Like for upper respiratory cold. Like, is that, is that a hospital? Maybe he needed a time out. Who knows? And like if he needed fluids, don't they have IVs, like, at the facility there?

They could just poke them up. I don't know anything about, like, medical procedures or IVs or poking them up. I don't think that's the technical medical term, but sure. All right. What's your calves concern level? One to ten? Like one and a half. Okay.

I mean, like, they can't play defense. They can't play defense. This is my, and I wanted to bring this up to you. So, like, Brad Beale recently gave an interview where he said last year. Remember last year when they, like, basically tanked out of the first pick? because LeBron wanted to rest and he's like, we don't care about seating, we're still going to win, and they did, because he's LeBron.

That's kind of where I am now, but Brad Biel said that they purposefully did that to avoid the wizards. What did you think about that? That's completely absurd. That's like the most gratuitous self-dap I've heard of from an NBA player the season yet. But you want to know what? What? If you got to motivate yourself somehow, good for you, Bradley Biel.

Fine. Tell yourself that and see what happens. I don't buy it. You don't buy it. I don't think LeBron bought it either. We actually have LeBron's reaction to it. it. Is he having a lot? Are you having a lot?

It sounds a lot like Rick and Jervais. I don't think we expected that. He's not buying it. I'm not buying it. The Cavs are going to be fine. They're still going to be, look, I don't know if they're going to win the East because the Celtics are really good.

Yeah. And also trying, just trying Carter. I don't think they're going to be this bad. I was thinking about this. Like, it's more important for a team like the Celtics to try hard now than it is for the Cavs, right? I mean, A, because they have LeBron, just trump card for everything. But the Celtics have basically entirely new team.

And the Cavs have a lot of new players, too. but for the Celtics, you know, to really, like, maximize their young duo in the J-team, they... You love the J-Chene. I do. I'm on board with it. I'm trying to make it happen. Any excuse that we can use to get the A-Team drop in, I'm on board.

Exactly. But so it's more important for the Celtics to be playing harder now than initially the Cavs. Like, I agree with you, they'll be fine. Yeah, like you said, Kyrie has something to prove. He has his own team. I picked him for MVP, so I hope he has a really good season. Did you? Kyrie, yeah.

That's a bold move. I like it. I think it's so possible. It is. At the beginning of the season, I would have been like, eh, Juliet, but now. Also, he's getting on the touches. So much of it is about, like, who's in a position to look like they're important, you know? And he certainly is. Okay, let's keep it moving. Let's talk about your trip to the Staples Center on Friday for the Barnburner, Brooklyn Nets versus Los Angeles Lakers. The game itself was kind of anticlimactic. But it was really interesting to see DeAngelo Russell back because even after DeAngelo Russell left Juliet, that Magic Johnson, who everybody keeps, and look, Magic Johnson really is a super nice guy.

I mean, he does treat everybody wonderfully. With the notable exception of DeAngelo Russell, who even after he traded, he continued to throw shade at and Lonzo Ball threw shade at. And there's no shortage of people around the Lakers who like to say things about DeAngelo Russell. And look, DeAngelo Russell, there's a lot of things to say about what kind of teammate he was, but he was super young. And he's still only 21 years.

years old. He was 20 when the Iggy Azalea thing went down. And I wonder if, like, he got a little too much heat, if it went too far. I think that we don't understand how much players were furious with the Iggy Azalia thing, with him snitching on Nick Young. And that's because that's, like, the NBA code, but it's not the real world code. Like, in the real world, the bad person there is Nick Young. Straight up. But, and I'm team DeAngelo Russell, 100%. But I think players, like, were so angry and, like, horrified that, like, someone in the locker room would do that. And they just, like, can't forget. and I feel like Maddoch Johnson's a big code of the NBA guy. I get the locker room code. I get that you have to keep it in house. All of that makes sense to a point.

DeAngelo Russell learned a very valuable lesson in being a teammate. But what you're saying right there is super important. I remain sort of mystified by the fact that the guy who got the most flak was the messenger and not the guy doing what the messenger put out in the world. Yeah, not the flanderer. Right. Like the guy who cheated on his fiance, got no heat from the internet.

And the 1920-year-old kid who made a massive mistake, no doubt about it. But the 19-20-year-old kid was the one that everybody continues to focus on as being the bad guy. Like, all right. I know. It's fucked up. Was he being booed? Did he get booed? There was like a smattering, but mostly it was pretty positive.

I mean, he got some applause. Okay. The one thing, though, was so after, I think he's really done with talking about it. Good for him. I'd be done to. He talked about it beforehand. You know, they brought him in. He answered all the questions before the game.

And then afterwards, it was kind of like, you know, we said, you know, did you hear the, the cheers for you? And he said, I don't recall. He didn't say he didn't hear it. He didn't say he did hear it. He said he couldn't remember if he heard it. Has he been talking to a lawyer or something? That's like a perfect legal defense.

That's what I was saying. Like, are you testifying before Congress? What's happening right now? How do you not remember what happened two hours ago? I'm really worried about your memory. That's really good. That's funny. I hope he finds success.

I'm rooting for that next team. I just have an infatuation with Sean Marks. He's like my favorite executive. It's a really like tough haul, right? Like to be in charge of that team when Billy King basically just took all of their assets and let them on fire. And then poured gasoline on the ashes and then let those on fire. That's a lot to do. But so far, I like that they went out and gambled on DeAngelo Russell.

I think it could. I mean, he needed a fresh start. They needed a player that they could try to build around. And again, not to keep harping on his age, the dude is 21. He was the second overall pick. he's got a lot of talent. I think I'd rather have him than Lonzo. Certainly for the Nets. If we're just talking about talent. Yeah,

I think I agree. Lanzo started taking some threes last night. I was happy to see when they were playing the Gris. But Lonzo's problems, that he's just, Kyle Kuzma is like way more important to that team right now. I can't do another Lonzo conversation. I will say this real quick. He took, he way over

compensates sometimes. He went from not shooting the ball to shooting it 15 times against the Nets and making three. I don't know, there's a happy medium in there somewhere, Dude, like, you have to figure out the balance between no aggression whatsoever and too much. Right. It's tough. He, yeah, let's move on.

Too bleak. I can't do it. Lightning around of real or not real. Do it. The Pistons, real or not real? I'm out on the Pistons. They're second in the east. There's seven and three behind only the Boston Celtics.

NBA.com has them, I think, fifth on their power rankings. I'm not, I don't buy it. Yeah. Fifth in the league. Fifth in their power rankings. I just want to make sure. Yeah, they're fifth behind the Memphis Grizzlies and their NBA. Power rankings. NBA.com is the Grizzlies 4th? That's completely absurd. I've watched more Grizzlies

games than I'm proud of, and that's ridiculous. They go Warriors, Celtics, Houston Rockets, then the Grizzlies, and then the Detroit Pistons. I don't, I'm not on board with any of that. They're definitely better, and Avery Bradley had a really good game last night, but Stam Van Gundy, like, feuds with his players. It's like a thing that happens to him, and I just don't think that you can have long-term success when that's part of the alchemy of your team. I think Reggie Jackson is playing better now, but I don't know that Stan Van Gundy buys into Reggie Jackson, so at some point it feels like there's going to be a move there. And there were rumors that he hated Stanley Johnson, too. And then like him and Dwight had a hard time back in Orlando back in the day. Like that's a tough look. I frequently forget that Stanley Johnson is on that team until I look up and I'm like, oh yeah. Now, Tobias Harris, he's killing it.

Avery Bradley, perfect fit for them. They're asking Andre Drummond not to be like all world, everything. Just go out and do what you do. rebound the ball, protect the rim, you know, score occasionally. It's fine. Fit in the league. It's fun. That's why I'm not real. I put the hornets over them. Yeah, it's not real for me.

It's not real. Nick's real or not real. This is your team. Not real, but fun. We'll talk more about them with Chris Saps in a second. Donovan Mitchell, real or not real. So real. Extra real.

He's good. He last night was making the most of garbage time. I liked it. He is like at the beginning of the year, he had like a little bit of a slow start. And now all of a sudden we're seeing the athleticism. He's shooting a bunch of threes. He's really active. which I think is like, it's kind of like a buzzword, but for someone like him who, like that will get him where he needs to be. So it's really, it's really positive. We've been thinking about the idea of Rodney Hood for a couple of years now. I think Donovan Mitchell is going to be better Rodney Hood. Rodney Hood's not real and never has been, never will be. Boogie's crazy season. He has, his numbers are like out of control. And there's meanwhile rumors about him being traded to Washington. Yeah. Well, I think Bill Simmons started those rumors on his podcast.

but I'm okay with it. Roar is all the same. I'm okay with it. I would love to see him on that team. Julia, look at what he's doing. 28.6 points per game. He's blocking almost two shots per game. He's averaging almost six assists per game,

13.7 rebounds. He's killing it at the free throw line. He's getting to the line almost a little over nine times per game and shooting over 80%. He's also shooting, this is crazy. He's a massive human being. Massive. He's taking seven three-pointers per game.

That's crazy. it's also he's alongside another massive human also shooting a lot of threes. It's so weird. I love it. I didn't really like it last year when they made that trade. I really like it now. I don't think he's going to stay there. I think they have to unload him.

I really do hope he lands in Washington because pairing him with Bradley Beal and John Wall. All of a sudden, like, the East becomes a lot more interesting. And now it's not just like giving it to LeBron and the Cavs or saying like Kyrie and the Celtics are off to a hot start. Now you have a legitimate three team contention. deal for the East, that would be a lot of fun. I would like to redistrict the NBA. I would like them to call on me to redistrict. You're going to gerrymander the East?

It just doesn't make sense. Why is Memphis in the West? Is this solely a geography thing for you? Yeah, geographic. And then we can also just balance things out a little bit. Were you a geography nerd? No. I am from New York.

I can't point out all the different states. Like, we just not something we learn to do. Let's do an actual heat check. Heat check, heat check. We need to start with Christop's Porzank. the new mayor of New York and the love of many people's lives. He scored 15 straight points last night. He's second and scoring the league. He's third in blocks and he's got the highest usage rate. So we're in Christop season and it's fun. It's really, really fun. This is a heat check within a

heat check because he had an amazing game and also blocked Lance Stevenson who was going for a heat check dunk on him. It was amazing. I don't know what Lance was thinking that he was going to post her eyes, Chris Stavs. But Chris has. was having none of it. It was a fantastic play. We thought that Chris Depps was going to have to really marshal the Knicks and do it all himself. He's doing it. He's doing it. He seems to be relishing it, which is also really fun. He has a game face that, you know, when he's like locked in, you see it. And then after the games, he's, like, very, like, calm and, um, well-spoken in interviews. Like, he's a good celebrity. Like, he's a good star. He will definitely have another,

like, Instagram scandal, like, within the next three months. But that's great. Like, if that's what fuels him and, like, keeps his star shining, I totally support it. it. And he also, he's officially in the zone of making his teammates better. Like, the Knicks are good and they look good when he's in his peak form. And that was what the second half was yesterday. Him in Nillikina are like, exciting.

Frank Nilekeen can play defense. Yeah, he's good. He's gone from flashes to playing in one week's time. I like that he's really just focusing on that into the floor and like you could go into MSG and see the lights and be overwhelmed and try to do too much because you're a point guard and like New York is a city of point guards

and they love them. and, you know, like, maybe you'd have a tendency to be focused on the offensive end. He's gone the other way. He's decided, look, KP's got that offensive end. I'm going to play defense. I like it. I like Chris Taps in general. I'm really glad that they decided to make it his team and not Phil Jackson's or Mello.

Sure. Like, they made, for the first time in a very long time, the Knicks made the right decision. They did. They did. Basketball's more fun when the Lakers and Knicks are relevant. So, like, this is just great. Like, let's keep this going for as long as possible. All right.

So that was your heat check, he check. My heat check, heat check was, I don't know if I've mentioned this guy to you. I like him quite a bit. Who? Who? Don't throw a shade of Damian Lillard. He made a game-winning three-pointer. Actually, he's basically won the last two games for them, but the most interesting one was

against the Lakers where he walked down the floor and he jacked up a long three. And I was like, no, no, no, no, and then it went in. Damn, they love him there. It's exciting. You have to get on board. I'm not going to, but I will say he is really like one of the most video game like players. Like he's in like the Steph realm because so many of his shots just seem so ill-advised. And the reason I don't like him is because many of them don't go in.

But when they do, it's like really thrilling and exhilarating. And he's like, I think also because he's so small. Like you're just like, wow, so much power from a undersized guard. I've thought a lot about not just Damien Lillard, but also trying to get you to embrace Damien Lillard. It's just not going to happen. So I prepared for you some. Not only did I have them pull the three-point game-winning sound,

but then some other sound, because I imagine him hitting the three and then going home and spitting some bars, so I just want to put some Dame dollar out for you. Showing his muscle? I like the beat. He's got the pieces to the puzzle. Good producer.

Juliet. Yeah. This is, you're warming, I can see. You're really hard line stance both against Portland, against Damien Lillard, and then against dogs. Like we've had conversations about this. So I'm going to get you to warm to all of those things.

That's my goal here at the heat check pot. None of them will happen. And the thing is more, I'm also incredibly stubborn. I'm just like a really stubborn person. I know. The more I try, the more you push back. Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to be subtle and cool about it in the future.

Okay. I'll notice that too, though. Just see you now. All right. Games of the week, newly titled Back to the Future. We're piloting that title. It's workshop. Workshop.

It's workshop because we're going, we're looking ahead. Yeah, we're looking ahead. Tomorrow night, Tuesday, we got Bucks at Cavs. Jason Kids is on the hot seat. He could be out. You think? Yeah, absolutely. Bucks are four and five, much like the Thunder.

And I think Billy Dollyman is a problem there. So why wouldn't it be Jason Kidd? That's an interesting thing to say because they put so much into Jason Kidd when they brought him over. So now I wonder, like, the way they built that team too is so kid-esque. There's just been a little shifts behind the scenes, though, there. I just don't, I don't know whose guy he is. Yeah.

Also, I thought he was a good. the game coach. I thought he was a good bench coach and making adjustments. But I don't know what the plan is there. I don't know. I think the plan is go Janus and hope for the best, which is why we have this on the list because anytime you have LeBron and Janus appointment viewing.

It was a blowout last time or it wasn't close. It's like a 20 point game. Still appointment viewing. I'm with you, but I'm just saying I think Jason Kidd needs to get like a good win under his belt. Also last week we had no Sixers on our paying attention to games list. So I put the Sixers and the Jazz in there

because I love Ben Simmons. You love Ben Simmons. I like Ben Simmons. I really like Ricky Rubio. Okay. And so I get both Ricky Rubio and the Sixers in the same game. Give me all of it. It's really weird watching Rubio now because he just looks different. It's not just the hair. It's like his whole physique, the way he plays. It's like a new guy. It's very strange. Offensive Ricky Rubio jack and threes and getting like a ton of usage rate. Like, well, who is this Ricky Rubio? I don't know, but I love him. Do you think Quinn Snyder and Ricky Rubio do their hair together? I hope so. I like to imagine them talking about hair products and, like, grooming them. I love it. Wednesday, we got Knicks at Magic. That's now a good game. It is now a good game. Oddly so. I think the Knicks win that game. Okay. Sure. I'll take the magic. Why not?

Okay. And yeah, sure. A little office bet. All right. And Friday, this is a big one, Clippers at OKC. A little of the shine coming off the clippers recently. A little. Quite a bit of the shines off the clippers. And OKC, same. Oh, yeah, totally. So early on in the season and week through must win for both teams. Who do you think will win? I don't know. One of them has to win.

I'm going to go with O'KC because they're at O'KC. I think so too. I really want the idea of Blake taking over the clippers and making them good to be real. And it looked like for like a hot second it was. And now I don't know. Kardashian curse, man. It's just not good. Are you buying that?

Oh, 100%. Sorry, Jeff Van Gundy. But nothing good is but fallen a Kardashian significant other. It's bad news. You got to go just go out there and worry about you, Blake. It's rough. One of my biggest takeaways from Thunderblazers was that the Thunder will be beat by a team with a skilled point guard because of the Stephen Adam switch, which is like their fatal flaw. And I don't think, and the Clippers just don't have that.

So not Austin Rivers. No. All right. Well, then I guess the Thunder won in that game. This has been the Monday morning heat check. I'm Juliet. I'm John Gonzalez. Tomorrow you got Chris Vernon and Kevin O'Connor.

On Wednesday, you got Sources Say with me and Chris Ryan. sources say he's back. And on Thursday, it's the NBA group chat with our gang of MBA writers and personalities. Thanks so much for listening, as always. And we'll be back next Monday. See you. I'm never going to like the Blazers.