The Ringer NBA Show - Internal Debates About the NBA’s Return. Plus: Pick a “Blow It Up!” Team. | The Mismatch

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

We discuss Kevin’s article about the debates going on within the league office about the best plan to bring basketball back this summer (1:42). Then, we open the mailbag back up to answer your questions about Matthew Dellavedova, which teams should blow it up, and whether Steph Curry could score 101 points in a game (37:16). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to the Ringer MBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. Joining me as he does every Friday from the Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Compter, Kevin O'Colmour, Kevin O'Compel, Kevin O'Conflict, Kevin O'Blessarian, Kevin. What's going on this Friday, Chris? I am going to start today's show with a grand compliment. I read the article on the ringer.com what the NBA is discussing about its restart,

and it is written by our own Kevin O'Connor, you yourself. This article is great. I'm being serious. I did not talk to you before we went on the air about this because I did want to save it for the podcast. This is extremely well researched. And you got a lot of information in this article that I think some things put on the table, some things put off the table that I had not read anywhere before. And so let's talk about this article that you put together.

You obviously talk to a lot of different people about this. And we'll kind of just take it one by one. And after you talked to a lot of people, you laid out a couple of different scenarios, one of which was completing the regular season and then completing a playoffs, one of which was going straight into the playoffs. And then one of them was like a play in tournament as it were before the playoffs. Now the play in tournament, the first time I've read, that was taken off the table. Like that's not really a possibility because that's not,

you wouldn't want to just throw something in now that has. never been done before, like changing the rules in the middle of things. But I ask you to start this pot off. Which of the scenarios for the NBA, when they decide for completing a season, do you think is most likely? The NBA, right now there hasn't been a plan announced because for Adam Silver and the team he's working with, they're essentially just trying to build a flexible plan that will allow them to react at the time it's actually time to make a call rather than laying out a

plan early that would end up having to be changed. Like their number one goal is to play out the rest of the regular season and the postseason involving all 30 teams and then going into the postseason as normal. I would say that's unlikely, as is most people that I've talked to, which would mean the next step would be, well, canceling some number of regular season games. and I would say that's certainly still on the table, trimming the regular season, then going into the postseason. But it does seem like most people I've talked to

believe there's a strong probability that the league will just cut off the teams at 16, top eight in these, top eight in the West and go straight to the postseason. And that would mean you only need to have 16 teams at this potential neutral site, Disney World or Las Vegas or somewhere else. and that would mean like less teams need to be tested. There needs to be fewer tests, less chance of, you know, coronavirus spreading and all that, right? That would be a good thing overall.

Of course, the bad part is you would lose regular season games on all the revenue that would come from that. And I would say that's the most probable scenario, Chris, and that's because of the people that have talked to and the input that I've gotten. But what's interesting, though, from that is if the NBA has, let's just say five weeks, starting in late July or early August at Disney World to finish the season. There's a window. Let's say there's a window there. They could say we're going to dedicate two of these weeks to packing in some regular season games and having all 30 teams there to get more revenue towards the regional

sports networks, the contracts that are owed there. Or, and by doing that, they could then shorten the playoffs, like a three-game first round, five-game second round and so on. Or they could just end up, you know, doing full-on playoffs with seven-game series throughout. They could shorten the playoffs or keep it the same. They could customize the schedule however they want to fit what is safest. And what's safest is probably less teams and what's most profitable, which is more teams.

So it's about finding the right balance here moving forward for the league, assuming at some point it is safe enough to play. and if it's not safe enough to play, then it's the last resort here, which is canceling games entirely. I would bet on, and again, like this could change,

depending on how coronavirus develops, but I would bet on there being a trimmed regular season at best, and more likely, though, getting rid of the regular season and going straight to the playoffs. From what I gather, if we're just talking about the money of this,

because that's clearly one of the components, right? If you're kind of laying it out, there's the money factor, there is the safety factor, there is the time factor, and then there is the emotional factor of just ending a season, right? It's very clear that the NBA, which is in the business of competition, doesn't want to have an asterisk next to a season where they, getting a champion some way, somehow. It is my understanding that that national TV contract, which clearly is the biggest factor in the, if we're looking at the money column, that a robust playoffs is what is most important for that contract. So I do wonder, like what you were saying, if the more likely scenario is maybe they do play 10 more games so that everybody gets, you know, square away with their RSNs, which is, is kind of a minimum of 70 games that are played for those. And for most teams,

it's about 70 games. And to make that clear, if a team will end up only playing 65 games, it doesn't mean it ends up being 0% of that contract has paid out. It means that the RSN would get a rebate back for those five games. So, you know, right now it's not like all these teams are at 0% because nobody has hit 70 games.

And some teams have different. contracts of different amounts, but it's roughly about 70 for every team in the league. Well, it is very lucky that it is about 70 is the limit that is more than likely written into the majority of the contracts. Most of these teams were between what, like 63 and 67. So, I mean, that is not a- Pretty close, yeah. Yeah, that's not a massive loss by any means. But that national contract is, and the percentage of that, and the regular season games are minimized greatly in that. I mean, having it here or there.

So I do wonder if the most likely scenario, because it does satiate that national TV contract, is to have a full and robust playoffs, which is the biggest component I can imagine of that national TV contract anyway. That's where the money is, is having playoff games. And those are going to be your highest rated games, much more so than whatever sparse amount of regular season games you could put on at the end anyway. it would be highest rated, but of people I've talked to, there is some complications here in terms of if you, let's say you have all 30 teams and you can safely do it. And you could bang out a lot of games in one day to knock out some of those owed RSN games, right?

That could end up being worth more than fewer playoff games, you know? So it's complicated here for the NBA, but so much of it is dependent on, you know, what happens with widespread testing in the United States, how safe it actually is for players and teams and coaches and everybody to go to one neutral site and to play games. How feasible is this really overall? That's the number one question of safety,

but then number two, though, is it's not necessarily that national games, fewer national games would be better than more local games. We'll see what happens there, and a lot of that will depend on the timeline. But for the NBA, these are the types of questions. that they're talking about now when it comes to planning ahead. And that's what's, that's what's been hard to understand, you know, for for us publicly, you know, as fans and media,

it's what's hard for players to understand. It's what's hard for everybody to understand is that right now, like today, three teams were able to open up their practice doors to players with incredibly strict conditions to allow them to be in there for only a maximum of an hour for their own safety. But there's still no plan for opening up training camp. never mind having games and that's been hard to digest but ultimately for the NBA it's about making that call at the right time when there's more clarity in what's actually doable for them in terms

of setting a schedule rather than setting something and then being forced to change it so it's about for Adam silver remaining flexible and I would expect some type of decision to come you know later this month or or in early June for what I've been told is early June, mid-June is the target to have everybody from their teams in their city. So like Luca Dutrich is in Slovenia right now and, you know, it's obviously a challenge for him to get back to Dallas. A lot of guys aren't home right now. They're home with their families, but they're not in the cities where they play games.

And getting guys back before early to mid-June, which is probably around when the NBA might be targeting training camps to get rolling. But that hasn't been announced yet. Maybe that's something that comes out in the coming weeks. But for the NBA, not setting a game schedule is a bit hard to digest, but it's also understandable. It's fascinating, too. I do wonder what is going to take place with this opening up facilities in the states that have loosened up on the shelter and home. because rather than give a standard time, universal time that everybody is able to do it,

I think what could come up, and this is going to be, you know, everybody loves to post their workouts and whatever else. And so as soon as somebody from the Trailblazers or, you know, one of these teams that has opened, you know, is in the practice facility and is posting, you know, great to be back or grind don't stop or whatever they, you know. know, whatever they post, you know, inevitably there are going to be other players that are like, well, damn, man, like, I'd like to be doing that too. And so teams are going to have to wrestle with this decision. I think it's obviously a bit odd that some of the teams are able to go to their practice facilities now and some of them are not. I will tell you that I know it's not true in your city or in Bobby's where you guys are right now as you're in Massachusetts and Bobby's. back in Los Angeles, but I'm in the middle of America in Memphis and businesses have started

to reopen. Some have chosen not to, but some have opened starting earlier this week. But I mean, look, there's no extra cars in the parking lot next to the practice facility today. I can tell you that. And so it's not true of the basketball team. So the grizzlies push to next week. Did the Grizzlies push the next week or did they just say to be determined? Yeah, it's a to be determined thing, I think. And they would have clearance though from the city.

You could do it if you wanted to. But I think everybody's doing it by their own guidelines and whatever they decide to do. But I just think when you're going to see players that are there practicing in facilities, you know the way that plays out. with other guys in the league and wanting to be able to do that also. And so I think everybody's just kind of figuring it out on the go and trying to be safe about what they do. And regarding that, because I talked about safety being one of the major components,

the play in tournament being off the table, that is certainly newsworthy from your article. But I thought the most fascinated I was is because you took on a subject. By the way, it's not that it's necessarily totally off the table. It's just likelihoods have shifted and the likelihood of a playoff plan tournament being used is considered highly unlikely because of the fact that the league has existing contracts

with regional sports networks, that has the national networks, that has these deals and contracts and obligations that have to be fulfilled and introducing something new is a, you know, there's already so much uncertainty. This would be another one on top of it. And not only that, it's just straight up not fair to change how playoff teams are determined

mid-season. It's one thing to change that rule after season before a new season. But right now it's just not the fairest thing to do, nor is it the most sensible in terms of the financial implications of it. Yeah, I'm glad you clarified that. Sometimes I will get to talking like everybody knows what we're talking about and has read the article already. So stop me on those when there needs to be an explainer.

Regarding, but one of the subjects that you took on that I was really fascinated by was getting real about a bubble. In the end, there's just absolutely no way to make anything zero percent risk, right? Like you're not going to be able to glass and close players and then transport them to, an arena. You don't know if the guy that is driving the bus to the arena or all the products that they are using or whatever. Like we do need to at least explain. Like, look, there's no way. This is going to be 0%. It's all about mitigating risk and risk reward in this. So are the risk after talking to health officials and deciding the way you want to do this, even with a bubble or whatever it may be,

are the risks so low that everybody agrees? Yes, there are risks. We are never outside of a vaccine. So unless you don't want to do this for two years, outside of a vaccine, there are going to be risks. But is the risk lower? enough that we all collectively decide that the risk is low enough when we do it this way, that we all agree we should try to do this.

Right. And I think it's always been presented as, well, the way to do this is just put everybody in a bubble with constant testing and then you're going to be, right? Then there's not going to be any issues. Like there's going to be issues no matter what you do because there's just no way to, right? It's just how low can we make that number? There's no right solution. There's no right solution here, you know, for society as a whole. And, you know, with states reopening now, as a society right now,

we're sort of in the process, we collectively are sort of in the process of determining what's a world, what is the world where relative risk is a world we're willing to operate in? And for the NBA, that's what they're sort of trying to figure out here. And that's one of the reasons that's been suggested to me, why open facilities now? It's about getting teams to figure out what is the safest way to get players in the gym, what precautions can be taken. They have all these, you know, extreme things they're doing, cleaning off the ball, cleaning the floors, not allowing guys in the showers and all this,

you know, all these extreme precautions to see what works. because what works on a practice facility you would think would be replicable in this quote-unquote bubble. However, as I mentioned in my story today, it's not like this would be something out of a sci-fi movie where you're in and nobody can come in, nobody can leave. To my understanding, and ESPN's Ramona Shelburne also had an in-depth article touching on this exact topic on ESPN today. from my understanding is that players would have freedom to move around. There would be precautions taken if a guy were to leave the neutral site. I don't know what those are specifically. I would assume there would be a lot of testing involved.

I would assume there would be some level of quarantine and all that. But guys aren't going to be locked in there. No coach or team player or whoever is going to be banned from leaving with like an armed guard at the door. that they're going to be allowed to go out. So I think a lot of it's going to be about making a neutral site as comfortable as possible for the players. And from what I've been told, Disney World is more probable than Las Vegas. You know, with Disney, it being a private property, you could theoretically have, you know, you could open up the movie theater at Disney World and bring players there if you want to.

You could open up a restaurant at Disney and have them go there. Uh, there's ways to have people moving within the bubble, if you want to even call it a bubble, um, to give them freedom to move around and they can still leave if they want to. Anybody can't choose not to play as well. Uh, granted there would be penalties like there would be if anybody else decides to sit out of games, um, without reason or injury. Um, I mean, we'll see, man. I think when it comes to that bubble, maybe we use that word too soon. And maybe it's a bit safer just to say neutral sight. without actually knowing what the definition of a bubble would actually be. Because it sure doesn't sound like a bubble to me from the conversations I've had. And that's partially because of the pushback from players. Like, I don't want to be locked away from my family for six weeks. Understandably so.

You also find some kind of a protocol that does not necessarily include shutting down the whole damn thing. If somebody does test positive, right? This is what happens with a player. If they test positive, we get them away from the team and quarantine for whatever it be three, four days. Because you got to remember, right? Like Rudy Gobert was touching everything and was in the Utah Jazz locker. Well, like, Donovan Mitchell got it.

Like Mike Conley and Joe Ingalls and those guys. Only Donovan Mitchell. Yep. Yeah, right. Only one other player. Only one other player. And so how can we do this in a safe way where we say, okay, this inevitably will come up? And so how do we protect our, how do we protect our players? How do we protect our teams if in the case that as we are doing this constant testing, somebody does get it rather than say, oh, God, we got to shut down the whole thing.

Hopefully by that time, there is more understanding and more testing to where you would have a protocol to deal with said situation, right? Because to me, to me, to me the greatest challenge, and this isn't something I hit on in the article at all. and I haven't read much about or even heard much about in the conversations I've had. But to me, the greatest challenge here is transporting players to this theoretical neutral site. If you're bringing, let's just say it's 16 teams. If you're bringing 16 teams to Disney World, are you testing these players in advance of bringing them? Are you bringing an entire team on the team's private plane at once? Or are you doing multiple trips to minimize the amount of people that?

that are in an enclosed space at once. How are you transporting them from the airport to Disney World? Are you testing them upon arrival? Are you testing them again at the facility? When is all this testing happen? Are there antibody tests? Are there just COVID-19 tests? Let's find out if somebody currently has it.

These are the technical questions that I've been asking around about but haven't been getting a lot of answers. And maybe it's too soon for that. Because, again, because the NBA might not know exactly what possibilities there are. Not to mention that that's, this still ropes around back to the fact that people can't get tested in every city or in every state right now. Testing is not, there is not widespread availability for testing right now. I can't go into a doctor's office right now and get a test unless I am displaying symptoms.

Certain cities, I think Bobby Los Angeles right now, you are able to get a test. I think in New York, you're able to get anybody tests, I believe, in New York, but not not in every state. And so for the league, when it comes time to potentially return to playing games, will the country be in a place where it is acceptable for the league to buy a bunch of private tests in order to test its players? My hunch, my hope more than anything else, that that answer would be yes. By that point, you know, MLB will likely have some sort of plan to return to action. The NFL just last night unveiled their scale. which also like the NBA has, you know, the flexibility to cancel or shift around and move games.

The PGA tour by that point is expected to be back. There are other leagues around the world that will be returned to action. The German soccer league, you know, Korean baseball is on, you know, already being played on ESPN right now. By that point, there will be more worldwide examples and examples at home of what works, what's not working, and what's acceptable or not. So I would expect in June or July or August that the NBA would be able to do something like that. It's just a matter of how you're going to do it safely. Two other things on this. The first of which is whether.

One second, Chris. One second. There's one other thing that you said that comes to mind. You mentioned if one player tests positive, you don't necessarily have to shut down the whole operation. And that's something that I see a lot on NBA Twitter. people, you know, will say if like one player gets it, it's all over. What's the point? How can you bring all these teams to one place if all it takes is one to shut it down? And I don't think that's true. If one gets it, from my understanding, again, the process of this is unclear. But my understanding is that if one player gets it, it means that player is sent away. That player is quarantined just like that player would be or that person would be if it were to happen to them now, just like it did for Mitchell, just like for Gobert, just like it did for very, Nets players, they isolated at home away from everybody else. And to my understanding, that's what would happen if a player did arrive at Disney World and was positive. That player would be kept

away from everybody else. And action could still resume as planned. So theoretically, if you had, you know, this area where nobody had it, it could work. It's just obviously incredibly complicated. And what level of risk are, is the league willing to accept, which is the same question that, you know, each state and its citizens are also asking itself, how do you operate in this new world with relative risk? All right. Two other things. The, it seems like Disney World and that whole complex and the wide world sports complex

has really gained massive momentum where at the beginning of all of this, there are a couple reports that, hey, this might be with the NBA's relationship with Vegas, with them already having the Summer League there with them already having the hotel space, that that seems like a likely place you could do it. You clearly have the TV component there where Disney owns your biggest media partner anyway, but they also have the facilities to be able to do this. I also thought it was very funny. You might have seen those quotes about Charles Barkley talking about how, he was talking about the falling out he had with Michael Jordan, but he did this interview with Waddle and Sylvia show in Chicago.

And I went and listened to the whole bit that he did. But at the very beginning of it, they were talking about the NBA returning. And he said this in jest, but I did think it was funny as I was reading in your article. It's something that you heard from other people too. He, Barclay says, I've already told my bosses at Turner, if they are going to do this and do it for two months in Vegas, I am not going. because I will lose everything I have. You cannot put me in Las Vegas for two months because I am going to gamble. And he said, frankly, they should not put the league there.

Because what the hell of these guys going to do? And you're walking around and it was super funny, but there is some reality to that. I mean, I've always thought it was kind of funny. years ago, there was an executive that told me about Summer League. I was in Vegas, and he was bitching about it, and he was saying, he's like, how is this possible? Like, we take these kids who have never, you know, this is the first time they're out on their own. We give them a huge check and put money in their pocket. And the first thing we do is we take them to Las Vegas.

He's like, where is the sense in this? Like, this is insane. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, and I was thinking to myself, God. I mean, if I was 21 and you threw a bunch of money in my pocket and then said, hey, go to Vegas, right? It's not exactly the best place for you to learn. I guess in some ways it's great to learn responsibility there.

And frankly, so many, so many of the players are underage now that are coming into the league. They're not even 21 yet. That I guess that benefits some. but anyways, yeah, regarding this whole where you would do it, what you heard from people is very real, and you heard from one of the most prominent broadcasters, and he said you won't even go if they do it in Vegas, and then it's goofy to put everybody.

You can't put them all there, like a week stretching it when it comes to Summer League. You can't put them there for a couple of months, you know? Oh, no doubt. I mean, I had a couple, yeah, there was some funny comments. said to me, you know, that I put in the story, you know, like with Vegas, it's the type of thing where naturally guys are going to want to go out. And, you know, one person said to me, would the, would the NBA rather have, you know, ESPN and Turner cut away to commercial

to the Magic Kingdom or to a Vegas slot machine? And it's like, well, obviously the Magic Kingdom, you know, messaging matters a bit here. But not only that, it's, you know, one assistant coach said to me, he's like, why would any players want to leave? Disney world. There's nothing to do with Orlando. Look, it's the type of thing where that's, that touches on what I said before about, you know, if Disney were used, you could make that a place that there could be more to do at Disney than there would be like in your home state. It's just a possibility. It would also be amazing for the players in the league with kids. Yeah. I mean, if families were allowed, which is

very unclear. I mean, it seems 50-50 on people I talk to in different, you know, branches of the NBA, you know, like whether it's team or league office. It seems very split in terms of what's going to happen with families. And that seems to me that that suggests that's something that will be an issue that's negotiated between the NBA Players Association in the NBA to figure out how to get that to work. Because one of the points raised to me by an assistant coach I talked to was that he thinks some of the guys on his team wouldn't want their families to be there. And, you know, maybe it's easier for the league and the players association just to agree. No families, no families period, because that could create issues for guys that might prefer to be away because some guys are more comfortable on the road.

It's easier, you know, for them to be in a hotel room just with their team and to focus on games and to be away from it all at home. and it could create new issues at home for some guys to say tell their families you're not coming when other families are bringing theirs. That's fair. Totally. You know, and that I never thought about that until I had that conversation because before I was like pretty firmly on the side of, you know, it makes more sense for families to come. But I hadn't thought about it from that perspective of the guys who wouldn't want their

families to come for any particular reason, whether it was a problem at home or whether it was just simply, I can focus more, you know, when I'm alone or just with my, my squad. I don't think there's any way they do this without families. I really don't. That's my opinion. I mean, can you see, like let's say. You have somebody like Chris Paul, who is the president of the, you know, the Players Association. And if Chris Paul and some of the others that are elder statesmen, veterans in the league,

that want their families to be there and they want to be able to. James going to want to be away from his family for possibly two months? I don't know. I don't see it. He's got to at least be able to meet up with him on Taco Tuesday. Yeah, I mean. At the very least, that's tradition. And that's what I wonder.

Maybe there's some sort of middle ground here where let's say the final eight teams. At that point, maybe it is considered safe to bring in families, right? I don't know. I'm just throwing that thought out there. But that seems to be an issue that is nowhere close to being resolved. And that's what this will be. It will be a negotiation. between the NBA and the NBA Players Association.

And they're having a call today. Yeah, and they're having a call today. Exactly. Michelle Roberts from the NBA, and Adam Silver from the NBA, among others, will be on that call. And I'm sure maybe by the time you listen to this podcast,

we'll learn something from what was on that call, from Woj or Shams or whoever gets the scoop. Yeah. They're probably on the call. They probably got the number to call into. Yeah. Hacked into the zoo. Zoom call, yeah.

Guaranteed. They're just going to show up, like their face is going to show up on the screen. They'll be like, hey, Sean. They'll be like, hey, Woj. They're going to use a fake photo. They're going to catfish it. All right. Last thing I do want to ask you about on this subject.

Did you, from those that you talk to, find any consensus? One of the things is we don't know the timeline on this or when it could all finish. But we do know on the other end, there are going to be real challenges. on how this all affects next season. Did you find any consensus on when, I know you mentioned December, you also mentioned January. So we know,

or it sounds like you know now from talking to people, next season is not going to be starting on time. And so it will be pushed back. Did you hear any consensus on when people think or how a next season would work. And beyond that, do people think that this may legitimately change the calendar for the NBA season going forward? Yes, people do think that this could change the NBA calendar moving forward. As recently as two, three weeks ago, pushing the start of next season to December was considered unrealistic.

It is now considered extremely realistic. one of the reasons why is because A, this season could have to be bumped in order to conclude it, but also B, because of the possibility that it won't be until who knows when, March, April, May, until fans are allowed back into arenas. And gate revenue from ticket sales,

from, you know, parking, concessions, suites, so on and so forth at arenas, accounts for about 25% of total league revenue, about 25%. It varies for every team, but that's an approximate number. And that's a huge chunk of money coming into the league. And so for team owners and for on the business operations side of every individual team and the league, there is incentive to pushing the start of next season to naturally maximize the probability of getting fans back in arenas. and therefore getting that revenue from those games rather than having empty arenas for most,

if not all of next season, rather than just the end of this one like we're currently having. I mean, look, a lot of the season has already surpassed, you know, 65-ish games for every team. But if you're having only 15 games, you know, with fans next season, there's a lot of jobs that are going to be lost. And that would have a ripple effect, you know, for many years to come with potential earnings for players as well because the salary cap would drop.

So for the NBA, especially the owners and Adam Silver, there is incentive to push the season to December, but January is also considered an increased likelihood as well for the NBA to start then. And whether that would happen in every January, every year moving forward is unknown. But starting next season in December or January is a strong probability. Hey, Chris, before we move on, I have to tell the listeners about today's sponsor Roe. Two-thirds of guys experienced noticeable hair loss by age 35. Most guys assume losing their hair is inevitable as the age.

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Bobby Wagner is here. Bobby, what do we got? All right, guys. Let's start with some follow-ups from the last couple weeks. Kevin, we got a lot of people asking you to pronounce various words. These come from Colin and James, respectively. This first one to pronounce R-O-O-O-M. Room. Totally normal.

And T-O-U-R-N-A-M-E-N-T. Tournament. Tournaments. Tournaments. That's normal, too, right? Chris, what do you think about that one? What's the verdict? We're a little strong on the R. Tournament. How do you say it? The NCAA tournament. Yeah,

I say tournament too. The NCAA tournament. Torn. Yeah, you do it. Whatever. It's not that. It's not that.

It's not that bad. It's really just mom. It's really, yeah, it's really just. Mum. Mama. Hey,

Mum's day is Sunday, Kep. Mother's Day. Moms Day. Moms day. Moms day. Mummy's day, Mama's day. Today is a day for you, Mum.

Speaking of Mother's Day or Mum's Day, happy Mother's Day to my mom. She's wonderful. I love her so much. In this past year, you know, with my dad and everything, you know, we went through with him being diagnosed with cancer. Like, what a superhero moms are, you know, just seeing her wear different hats, you know, being nurse to my dad,

being, you know, mom to me. It's been, it's been really inspiring, seeing her just, just kick ass this last year. So love you, mommy. Oh, that's beautiful. Great stuff. Okay, this next question comes from Adam. I love my mom, too, by the way.

And you love your wife, who's also a mother. Yeah. What did you get her, Chris? What did you get her? Who? My mom? Your wife. Your wife?

Oh, my wife, I got her a bike. I got her bike. I mean, that's what everybody's doing outside, right? You know, everybody's trying to get outside and do things that you could do in the open air. And we got two little kids of both that bikes. And so she needed a bike. And so I went and I got her a bike. I had to, no lie, I went and got it at like a bike store that that was open.

I went to one of the big box places and like one of the, like a sporting goods place. And the sporting goods place is probably the size of a. Like a Costco or something. That's huge. But they're only, you only let like 15 or 20 people in the store at a time, you know, and you got to be wearing a face mask. But I walked in there, Kevin. There were like, imagine there's like a rack that goes all the way down a huge like Costco like length aisle.

And on the top and the bottom racks. So there's two racks, right? And that, and there were four of those. There were no bikes. Wow. It's totally like sold out of bikes. Like the bike industry has done killer. They've done killer throughout this whole coronavirus thing.

They have, I tell you that the whole place was sold out of bikes. I was like, you got to be kidding me. So I was able to get one at a bike store. So yeah, I got her bike. That's a nice gift. Yeah. Yeah, that's really nice. Yep.

My mom, it'll be cooking stuff. My mom loves to cook. Sure. Right. So it's always it's always cookbooks, supplies, cooking like, you know, like lessons they do at like a Viking cooking school or whole. She likes to go to Whole Foods to do those, you know, different things, whatever. So I'll probably get her something like that. Kev, I like how you just went out on a limb and assumed that Verno's wife or mom would not be listening to this podcast.

You don't know. They could be mismatch fans. They do. Sure. Never one episode. Not one. Unless I've like replayed it and been like, hey, look at this funny thing I said. They're sitting around listening to this.

They're listening to what I'm always, she's got all these podcasts on her phone. I'm like, how the hell are none of them me? I do two. It's like Dax Shepherd. Screw him. That's funny.

Oprah, Dax Shepherd. You know, some, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. She's got a bunch of them. I don't know. All these things that are like more popular than me.

All right. The next one comes from Adam. This comes from Adam in Australia. He says that he's from Tasmania and he listens to our podcast on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Tasmania. Tasmania. Shout out to Tasmania. Did he go to the blitz last year in Tasmania with R.J. Hampton and Lamello Ball. Yeah.

Anyway, I want to go someday. That'd be great. His question relates to Aussie players specifically. Specifically, Delhi. This is an insane email, so I had to read it. It's not... Looking at the Cavs game logs, their late season resurgence, if you can call it that, seems to very well coincide with Delhi playing reasonable minutes.

Let's go. How much of their success can be attributed to this? I know you talk a lot about their three big lineup with Nance at the three, but I feel a lot of their success is due to the point God, outbacked Jesus, running the show with his whole. Hustle and unselfishness. I just had to read that for Albaq Jesus. 100%.

And praise be to J.B. Bickerstaff for realizing he just had to unlock it. I actually do think that they're like, look, that's a super fan. He loves Delhi. He's rooting for Delhi. Probably much more of a player fan than he is the team fan. But look, they're playing two point guards that don't pass. So putting Matthew Delevin's, Dova in there to run some level of offense and move the ball around and pass.

I'm sure that the guys like Nance, the guys like Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, they enjoy his presence on the court much more than a first and second year guard that are still trying to figure out the league. I think it's totally reasonable to think that Matthew Delavadova helped things by getting more minutes. Adam, you could be right. You could be right. this season, the cavaliers have been outscored without Delavadova on the court by 10.5 points for

100 possessions. Awful. Miserable. Miserable. Awful. But with him, they only get outscored by 0.1 points for 100 possessions. What a jump. I mean, look, this is MVP of the league stuff.

I know. I mean, I know he's not in the conversation, but hell, it's quarantine. We can put him there. I'm willing to put Delavadova in the MVP conversation. I mean, those are like Janus-esque numbers. I know. Outback Jesus is canon now. Now we have to call him that every time he comes up.

That's good. Shout out to Tasmania. Shout out to Tasmania. Shout out to all of our listeners in Australia, of which there are many. This next question is from Jim, who says, I was listening to Kevin talk about all the teams with bright futures last week. And it made me worry that Chris will soon have to drop Kevin. Obama from his list list of nicknames. Prove me wrong, Kevin.

What is one team that has a reasonable shot at competing in the playoffs next year that in your mind would have a brighter future if they blew it up? He thinks you're not blowing it up enough. Let me go through it in my head. Could Houston fall into that conversation

after the next season? I mean, I'm talking about let go Morey out Dan Tony out Harding out Russell Westbrook's team I mean

O KC they don't really fall into the blow it up category to me because Chris Ball's older and all that they're not necessarily a blow it up team they would be a reshuffle team I mean they've got 700

draft picks going forward yeah and yeah and same with Toronto. It's like a soul's older, Ibacca's older. I'm not, Lowry's a free agent. Those guys, that doesn't really count as blow it up to me either. Yeah,

Houston is of 16 current playoff teams and the teams most likely to compete for the playoffs next year. I would say, I would say Houston because of the because of the situation that they're facing. Boy, these Houston fans, they've hated me for the longest, so let them get on your neck. I do not.

Houston fans, I don't agree with him at all. it's it's not that look let me just be clear here it's not that husson should blow it up if you have james hardin one of the best players in the world it's it's just the situation at hand that if i'm forced to answer the question that's what i would say but i would go back to what i said before there's going to come a time when there's going to be a wave of teams that do need to blow up and by the way this point was raised in one of my conversations that i had this week for the story we just talked about. An assistant coach said to me, and I haven't thought about this, he said, if it's harder for teams to be making money now, will they be trying to go on the fast track

to win now in order to get fans interested, get more eyeballs on TV, you know, TVs to watch a winning team? Will teams not be willing to do the four, five year rebuild plan if there aren't fans in aren't aren't fans in aren't, if, you know, you need to get more people watching? And that is the type of environment that would create teams that need to blow it up if teams are making short-sighted moves that are are meant to get them to 45 wins you know as a as a six seed you know what i'm saying and and that that is where a year or two or three from now you could have like a wave of teams eight nine 10 teams that it's clear they should be blowing it up so we'll see what happens but that's just one thought that came to mind this week that i hadn't really thought about um because

of the situation the NBA is facing, that it might change the way teams are deciding to build moving forward. That is a totally legitimate subject. Given all the circumstances that has taken place, it's fascinating. No, it really is. No, it truly is. That's a good idea. It's something that I had not considered,

but it's totally realistic. Yeah, it's like Atlanta, for example, would Atlanta, you know, are they more likely now to try to sign guys, to win sooner with Tray Young, even if it means they're going to a bit later. I don't know. They're going to anyway.

They're one of the few teams with cap space this summer. Absolutely. Depending on what the cap looks like and we'll see. All right. Bobby, what's we got next?

Stephen wants to know, in hopes that the season will resume and we get an NBA playoffs, how will you guys feel about the winner? Is it situation based? For example, if the Lakers win, would you feel like that title is legitimate or deserving of an asterisk,

would you feel different if Milwaukee won? Legitimate, totally legitimate, because everybody's facing the same exact situation, and this is the hand that everybody's been dealt. Just like the shortened season after the lockout in 2011, wasn't necessarily an asterisk for Miami that year, because everybody had the same schedule and the same situation. I wouldn't look at it any differently.

I agree with you. What would be fascinating, though, is if they did take the eight, And let's just say you played a couple regular season games. Imagine if like Brooklyn dropped down to eight and all of a sudden you've got Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant playing Milwaukee in the first round. My God. That would be nuts.

You know? And we're always going to, we're always going to think about this differently. There's just no way around it. It's going to be that season. But I don't look at the Spurs title during the lockout season as illegitimate in any way. I don't. Obviously, it's different than the others, but they won the title that year. And so, yes, if the crowned champion this year, everybody's under the same circumstances, it's a legitimate title. I'll tell you what, though. I mean, if, if, uh, there were, you know, another championship for the Lakers here and LeBron James gets his, you know, first title in L.A. MJ stands and you know would probably use that

against him because his first title with Miami after the 2012 NBA finals was after the lockout short in season of 66 games and then people would probably use this against him too to say two of his titles came in in shortened seasons

should it be used no I don't think so at all but it will be used by some people. Fair enough. Bobby? All right Drew says well I do agree Vegas is a great choice for an expansion team. I was saddened as a Pittsburgh native

and diehard Pittsburgh sports fan that Pittsburgh was not even mentioned in the discussion with even Billings, Montana getting a mention before it. Pittsburgh has long been

an excellent sports city with five World Series, five Stanley Cups, and six Super Bowls. Pittsburgh did briefly have an ABA franchise in the 60s and 70s. Guys, do you want to make amends

with the great people of hardworking Pittsburgh and apologize for naming Billings, Montana? I didn't say Billings. I said Billings. It was a joke. Yeah.

Leave me, leave me out of this. I didn't say Billings. It was a joke. I'm sorry. Sorry, Drew. It was a joke. I want to apologize to the people of Pittsburgh. I do.

I do. Yeah. You know, I would, my question would be is I'm ignorant here. I don't, I don't have the knowledge here. Like, what is the NBA fan base right now in Pittsburgh? Is it mostly Sixers fans? Because, you know, Pennsylvania. Or is it, you know,

Cavaliers fans closer to Ohio. I mean, what is the NBA fan demographic right now in Pittsburgh? And is there a vacuum needing to be filled because it is a great sports city? And if that vacuum does need to be filled with an NBA team, then certainly Pittsburgh should be in the conversation there for an expansion team. Yeah, we have another question here from Ryan who asks, who should he be a fan of?

He lives in Pittsburgh. Should he be a fan of the in-state Sixers or the cats? Or should he go all the way down to like Washington? Tinder, Chicago. Wait, he listens to this podcast but doesn't have a favorite team? I think a lot of people probably feel that well. A lot of NBA fans are player fans, not team fans. Like, who's Adam in Tasmania rooting for in the NBA?

I guess the Cavs because of Delhi. Yeah, that's right. Outbacked Jesus. That's right. I would, look, I would obviously encourage you to become a Grizzlies fan in Pittsburgh. The brightest future of any NBA team. Company man. I don't know what to tell you.

I don't know. I guess, look, if you want to be able to go to the games, what's closest? Wherever you could drive to go to games, you know? I think Cleveland is actually probably closest. I have a friend who went to hit for college, and he's a Sixers fan, but the only games he could get on TV were cast games. Perfect. Then get you a Colin Sexton jersey and drive on down. I would say go with your heart. What's your heart telling to you?

as The Bachelor says, listen to your heart. Just listen to your heart, Brian. I mean, look, they got Cleveland, you're getting there on the bottom floor. You get the 19-win team, right? Like, you can, you can come by this honest. And so whenever the good things happen for the franchise, you can say, I was there.

I was there when they were winning 19 games. True. That was my team. There's something, there's something fun about that, you know? When LeBron comes back, with brawny and LeBron buys the team from Dan Gilbert years from now. Bronny's the star player. Hey, you never know.

Can't rule it out. That's right. All right. All right. Ethan says, recently on the Flying Coach podcast, shout out Flying Coach. Steve Kerr said that Steph, Clay, and most Bates all have absolute cannons and can throw a football 70 yards.

I don't know. I'd like to see someone. I'd like to see them throw at 70 yards. But is there any connection that you guys have seen between a strong throwing arm and natural shooting talent? So I think the answer to that, he says, for example, would NBA players who pitched in high school be better shooters? That's probably a no, but I think it's an interesting question. I wanted to put this on the doc just because what do you guys see as being the benefit of playing different sports growing up in terms of you evaluating guys coming into the draft or coming into the NBA?

Does it matter a lot for you guys? Do you look out for it? Everything has become so specialized right now. So it is a different, this new generation of players is much different. I was actually having a conversation with this yesterday, where I used to always talk to players about their exploits while they were in high school. And the amount of guys that are playing, and most would play like baseball and basketball, right?

Now, we just got done, in fairness, having a guy who went number one in the NFL draft, who also happened to go number nine in the Major League Baseball draft in Kyler Murray, which is absolutely unbelievable. But there is a real lack of guys. Most guys are not playing football at all. And that was not true. Even when I first started covering the league, you would find a large amount of the players that played football or baseball,

certainly on the high school level, or at least their freshman sophomore years before somebody decided to tell them to play basketball all year round. But the truth is, I don't think you can look for that. I am a great proponent of this. I think it is of great benefit that you play all of the different sports. both coordination-wise, discipline-wise, and then all of the different things that you work out and you give yourself more.

I think the team dynamic in all of those sports is much, much different. And so I am a big proponent of playing all the different sports, and I do think there is great benefit to that. That being said, I also understand the best basketball players, because I have a 10-year-old son now. The ones that are the best of basketball right now, they're already playing year round, year round.

The best basketball player on our team, he does not play football with us. He does not play baseball with us at all. He plays basketball all year round, and he plays AAU all year round. He plays it in the spring, he plays it in the summer, he plays it during the basketball season.

And so I understand that specialized and specialization has come into what everybody does, but I am a proponent of playing multiple sports and for many, many decades, and this may change, but for many decades, what you found is a lot of the best athletes in the world all played multiple sports when they were certainly on the high school level.

And I think there's something to that. So I am a proponent of playing all of the sports, but I do understand, especially in basketball, it has probably become more specialized than the others. And I say this to tell you that, like, even just with my son. My son, you know, wanted to play a quarterback. He could not throw very well.

And I remember him telling me, this was over a year ago. And he said, I'm never going to get to play quarterback because I can't throw as well as blank, blank, blank. And I said, look, man, it's all practice. Baseball season helped him. By the end of the baseball season, he was getting to pitch. And then the last football season, he got to play quarterback because his arm got so much stronger. And also, like, catching and all of. All of that coordination just helped him so much from playing a season of baseball with the other sports.

And so that's what I'm a proponent of, but frankly, most of these guys don't do it anymore. I think the last player I talked to, like there was a guy that was drafted years ago, played at UCLA's shooting guard, Jordan Adams. It's drafted by the Grizzlies, and his career was destroyed by injury. but Jordan Adams is a really good quarterback in Atlanta when he was in high school. But I can't really think of he might be the last one that I really remember talking to about playing football when they were in high school. And that's several years ago now. You really don't come. Most of these kids, they don't play it.

It seems like it goes the other way, though, you know, like football players seem like they all play basketball. You think about Joe Burrow. Think about someone like Terrell Pryor. These guys are like all state quarterbacks who also are really incredible at basketball. So I wonder if it's just an injury thing. What do you think, Kev? I would say to Ethan, based on his question, he may have already read the book or he would have interested in reading the book range by David Epstein released last year. It touches on exactly this topic about generalists versus, you know, specialists.

And there's a great quote in that book. Um, by Epstein eventual elites typically play a variety of sports, usually in an unstructured or lightly structured environment. They gain a range of physical proficiencies from which they can draw. And point being, you know, whether it's, you know, someone like Kyle, Kyle Murray, who plays an incredibly structured, you know, at the college level, or it's somebody who plays, you know, college basketball, but also is playing baseball growing up, or playing football with friends, you know, non-tackle.

There are skills that can be taken from those sports and adapted to their main sport of choice. We see that with footwork, you know, for guys who played soccer growing up, like Joel Embed or Steve Nash or Hakeem Elijah won, and how they incorporate that on the basketball court. So there is immense value in having range, which is what David Epstein's book is about

and what it does such a tremendous job of detailing through stories about sports and through stories not about sports too. So I would encourage you, Ethan, or anybody listening to the podcast that is looking for a book to read during our time at home, I would pick up range by David Epstein.

That's one heck of a book that touches on this really fascinating topic that applies to all of us and not just athletes. Last one, Bobby. All right, this one's been on the dock for a long time. Haven't found quite the right time to ask it,

but I think today is the day, guys. David wants to know. Steph Curry wakes up one day decides he wants to score 100 to 1 points in a game. He shoots every time he gets within 30 feet of the, with the team trying to help him. Could he do it? Yes.

Of course. Of course. Are you saying that's the only goal of the game? The only goal. Oh, God. Of course. Yes. Yeah, he could.

Why don't you think anyone's done it then? Well, the only is, because. Selfish. Yeah, it's selfish and it's a team sport. You're saying he gets to shoot it every time he comes down the court. Harton could do it too. He tries some games. But, um, yeah.

We saw like how when Devin Booker scored over 70 a couple years back, they were really force feeding him the ball towards the end of the game. And they got him to over 70. You know, you could, if a player, let's say Steph is having a really hot night and he's got 40 at half. Let's just say that happens naturally. you could really just funnel the ball to him in that second half and be like, screw it, we're going to try to get this dude 100 points.

Yeah, in the same way. When he scored 100, he had 63 shots, 32 free throws. In the same way with Thompson, when he had that 37 point quarter, like you saw it, they were looking for him every time down the court. He was on a heater and they were just going to find him. He had 37 in a frigging quarter. You know, I mean, Curry could do that. don't you remember in the all-star game

when Paul George was about to break the record for single game points in the all-star game and they just started doubling him and checking him off ball. Don't you think that would happen to Steph if he started getting near 100? Nobody wants to be the team that someone scored 101 against you.

Yeah, but no, you find one of these mega shitty teams at the end of the year that's just giving up and they're playing like 10-day contract guys. You know what I mean? Like where you got to find, no, it has to be a lost hope team that doesn't try. And not only that, I mean, the, the answer to the question is, is yes, he can do it. Could he do it? Yes. Will he do it? I don't know. There's a lot of

those variables that you're mentioning, whether it's the team, the strength of the opponent, how they would defend him, how they would react, whether they've given up on the season already, that would determine whether it actually happens. But can he do it? Sure. He has the potential. He's one of the few guys that I would say that about. Okay, so let's just say this, Bobby, I know, because I feel like you're being a little bit skeptical about this, but if I told you that Steph Curry is played in a game and he went, it's halftime, and you just saw on Twitter where you still, I mean, of course you went, oh my God, but if I told you he went 17 for 20, he took 23s in the first half of a game.

So he took 10 each quarter and he went 17 or 23 and he's. He's got 51 points. Like, of course you'd be like, oh my God. But it's not the most implausible thing. It's really not. It's not because I doubt Steph specifically. I think if you shot every time and he was only getting single or even double covered, I think he could do it.

But I really just think that some team would just bring in like the Dante Jones from the end of the bench to just wreck him out of bounds. Like nobody is letting him get over 100 points, especially since a lot of NBA players don't like Steph Curry. Oh, I think he's generally very well liked within the league. Like, Booker, they ain't getting 100. Well, I'll be saying the guys that don't like Steph really don't like Steph, though he's generally well liked. But like, all it takes us one guy to be like, F this. Yeah, that's fair.

No, you're right. I mean, once you get to, so that's why you got to find somebody like mega crappy. Yeah. Like, with, it's filled with like 10-day contract guys or guys that like, maybe against Dallas because his brother. others on the other side and it's not going to let them injure him. Yeah, or like one of those like, you know, nine or ten wins, six or teams. You know, it's like, oh, what the hell?

Who cares anyway? And it's game 70 something. And then at that point, they're like, well, hell, we'll just be part of history. You know, somebody that really is just giving up. Here's the thing, though, like, do you have any idea who Wilts Chame won't scored 100 points against? The Knicks, right? It was the Knicks.

But I don't think that's something that's on people's mind, like, ah, Wilk Chamber, and scoring 100 points against the Knicks. The Knicks have far more embarrassing things that have happened to them. I mean, no, it would be if there was a video of it. All we have is that, you know, that picture of him holding up a piece of paper. Yeah, man. Jalen Rose still gets 81 point comments in his mentions. Yeah, that's true.

That's true. That's true. He does. But that's an individual guy. Would the entire team get it? I don't know. I'm not so sure. But the individual player certainly would, especially because, uh,

with Jalen Rose. Yeah. All right, guys. Poor, Jaylon. Have a great weekend. Thank you to all of our listeners. You could still keep on sending in questions to the mailbag, NBA mailbag at gmail.mail.com.

Kevin, Bobby, I will talk to you on Tuesday. Have a good one. I'll see you all later. Stay safe and have a great weekend, everybody.