The Ringer NBA Show - J.R. Smith Might Be Joining the Lakers to Replace Avery Bradley. Which Other Players Sitting Out Will Have the Biggest Impact? | The Mismatch

Episode Date: June 26, 2020

After the first wave of news about which NBA players are opting out of the Orlando bubble plan for the season’s restart, we discuss whether our view of the competitive landscape of the league has changed at all (1:20). Then, we open back up the mailbag to answer your questions on Vince Carter, the NBA teams left out of the bubble plan, tampering in Orlando, and more (27:50). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Liz Kelly. Make sure to subscribe to the Ringer's YouTube channel to watch the newest episode of Slow Newsday with Kevin Clark, featuring NFL MVP Lamar Jackson. And in anticipation of the NBA's return in late July, NBA desktop with Jason Concepcion is back to posting weekly episodes. Also up on our YouTube channel are the best clips taken from this week's Bill Simmons podcast, rewatchables, and higher learning with Rachel Lindsay and Van Lathen. You can find all these videos at YouTube.com slash The Ringer. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon and join him as he does every Friday from the Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, A.K.K. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Champer, A.Kever, A. Kavanaugh, Kavanaugh. Chris, now that we do this show live on Zoom, recording on video and posting clips on YouTube, I get a kick out of seeing you, not just hearing you, but seeing you say all those nicknames every time. It's funny to make.

We got some news to get to since we last spoke. One of the biggest, I guess, news items was players continuing. We continue to find out about some players that are not going to be involved in Orlando. One of them, I thought of real significance towards a championship possibly, and that is Avery Bradley. For the Los Angeles Lakers, as we know, they're the one seed in. the Western Conference. It was immediately reported after Avery Bradley said he was going to sit out and he wasn't going to be part of the last eight games in the playoffs in Orlando, that J.R. Smith is going to

be added to the Lakers roster as a replacement of sorts. But I think you and I both know, Avery Bradley is an extremely good perimeter defender. and he is also a role player on a team that has guys that they can score, right? You know that team is going to go as far as LeBron and Anthony Davis take them, but I think this is a significant loss for them. I really do. Now, I probably have a higher opinion of Aver Bradley. I saw him the last 30 games in person last year,

and he was really, really good. But I just think that he's the kind of guy you want on your playoff roster. Well, first of all, good for Averbrose. Bradley making the choice that he did. He said he wants to be around his family. He has a kid that's had some issues getting over respiratory, you know, health problems on the past. So he wants to be with his family as much as possible, you know,

obviously a great personal decision for him to do that and be with his family. And for the Lakers, there's already been those rumors about re-sign or signing J.R. Smith, LeBron's old buddy winning a title with him. That would be a smart decision. You know, JR has chemistry with LeBron and he would be a nice fit on that team. However, to your point, Avery Bradley did have value, and there are always critics of him because defensive metrics don't like Avery Bradley. He is an average or above average at best offensive player, shot only 36% from three this year. It doesn't do a lot for you off the dribble.

But the fact is, is that in a playoff series against point guards, and there are a lot of good ones in the Western Conference, if the Lakers were to face a Chris Paul or Damien Lillard in the first round, or even a John Morant in the first round, or if they were to face Mike Conley suddenly being 100% healthy, that's when Avery Bradley becomes a guy who has immense value where he is grinding and going hard, locking in on opposing point guards. And that's what's going to make what the Lakers do so interesting moving forward. If they sign J.R. Smith, where do those minutes go to? Does he just get Avery Bradley's 24 minutes a game?

Or does Rondo play a bigger role? Or maybe does Alex Caruso get an even bigger role? Caruso being one of the best defensive players in that team this season, a bigger guy, a more versatile defender, and a guy who on the offensive end of the floor, the shooting percentages aren't necessarily a knock down for him. He's only shot 36% from three, just like Bradley. But he does a bit more for you overall. And if I'm the Lakers, I'm looking towards Caruso and Smith is the guys that I would want getting minutes, assuming they do sign JR Smith. It hasn't happened yet. I would rather see Caruso and J.R. Smith get those minutes instead of Rondo, who has his issues as a shooter and as a defensive player. He's really falling off. And just let Rondo be coach Rondo from the bench with a limited role in certain minutes when it's necessary. Another one that we have that is not going to be participating in Orlando is Willie Colley Stein for the Dallas Mavericks. And Collie Stein, though he is not some kind of massive contributor, is certainly a big body that if a team is consistently, going to the basket or a team is going big against you for an amount of time or you've got

a center that you need the fouls against and somebody to be able to bang with for a little while, he can be of value. He is about to have a child. His wife's about to have a child. And so he doesn't want to be a part of this. And so we've had some, we've had a myriad of reasons. We've had, you know, the Areza in a custody battle. You have had Avery Bradley and the reasons that he has given. You have had Davis Bertons and a contract year, you know, that's currently going on for him. And now with Colley Stein, you have one of these real family moments that is going to take place. And so he's not going to take the risk and go and play in Orlando.

though. Dallas is, you know, obviously for their sake, they want to get away from the seventh seed. But as I told you, if they can get away from the seventh seed and not have to play the clippers, I think that's a very dangerous team. I don't think they can beat the clippers. But I do think they could be dangerous against anybody from three to six if they could somehow maneuver their way up a little bit in those eight games that remained. But anyway, the Collie Stein loss, what do you think? I mean, for Dallas, he, you know, with Dwight Powell out, he was playing the limited minutes for that roster. Maybe they envisioned a larger role for him, but I think ultimately Rick Carlisle historically has been a guy who goes with those players who he trusts. And right now, that's probably not Willie Colley Stein in that rotation moving forward.

It's probably more maxi, more Bobon, going KP at the five more often in a playoff situation. I wouldn't have necessarily expected Willie Colleystein to have a major role in the Mavericks playoff rotation. But much like with Bradley and any of these guys, it's great for him to make the, obviously, I mean, of course you want to be there when your child is born. And, you know, that sort of touches on what we've hit on a bunch these past couple weeks. There's a lot of reasons for players not to want to go to Orlando. The biggest one that a lot of guys have is family, just being away, whether it's for important family milestones like the birth of a child, whether it's just the sheer, you know, basic fact of being away from your loved ones for so long.

So, you know, for these guys, I would expect more players to drop out. But part of me is honestly kind of surprised, Chris, that more haven't already. I'm a little bit surprised by that. But we'll see how this develops over the coming weeks. Yeah. And you might see you guys go to Orlando and then say, yeah, I don't want to do this. I mean, it's possible. It's always a possibility.

Yeah. Yep. One of those guys that we talked about earlier in the week that was going to be available. When Colley Stein is gone, it is reported that Tim McMahon from ESPN reported that the Mavericks are going to add Tray Burke. And Trey Burke has had moments over the last couple of years, right? He was one of these guys that was looked at as a bus, somebody that was taken way too high given their production level. and he has been very honest about it, talking about losing his way and everything else. And then he went down to the G League, you know, in conjunction with the Knicks and really

worked his way back up. And he's had, you know, he played some time with the Knicks. He played a little bit with Dallas before. So Carlisle is familiar with him. I could see Trey Burke, you know, helping the Mavericks. I could. I could see that happening, especially alongside a big ball handler like Luca. He's just got to be able to knock down, you know, standstill jumpers.

And I think that that's certainly likely to me. I mean, I think he'd be able to do that in spells, in spells. I'm not counting on him playing 30-something minutes. And Fort Worth with this signing for Dallas, Courtney Lee's out. Rick Carlisle announced that Jalen Brunson will be out because of the shoulder injury that he suffered in February. So they need another ball handler in that offense. And Trey Burke, as you just said, you know, he's had those positive moments. So, I mean, like if you're rolling with, you get options now after Carlisle, whether it's Burke or or J.J.

Berea, who, you know, still getting his way back. And then Seth Curry, Seth Curry, who has weirdly become an underrated overall player. You know, he's a very, very high-end shooter like his brother. I mean, he's not, he's not Steph, but Seth Curry is a really good role player in this league. And I do wonder if maybe he can do more with more opportunity that he hasn't been provided other than his two years in Dallas, two years ago or three years ago in the 1617 season and then this season with Dallas,

he's been very good. So I'll be curious to see. It almost is sort of like we just hit on last week, Chris, with Luca, that there's more Lucas game than we've been able to see. If Seth Curry or is Trey Burke is able to really perform well on that offense,

you can get creative with Luca off ball. So I'm excited to see whatever Carlisle has in store with that offense. Yeah. To your earlier point, about guys not dropping out. There was a memo that came out about coronavirus and the league-wide testing that was done. We have seen some names surface.

You saw the guys with the Sacramento Kings, Buddy Healed, Javari Parker, Alex Len, and some others. And then the league put out a memo speaking about the amount of players that were tested and the amount of positive results that came back because this is clearly going to be different than just the names that we hear that have been made public or have been willing to say

that they tested positive for coronavirus. So what did we learn? We learned that 302 players were tested on Tuesday, June 23rd, and of those 302 players, 16 tested positive for coronavirus. So that's about 5% of the NBA's population. And right now, if you're looking at the United States, according to John Hopkins University, 6.1% of the over 600,000 tests that were conducted earlier this week were positive. So the NBA's 16 of 302 is pretty consistent with what we're seeing across

the United States right now. And of course, each state is different in the United States. There's rising, you know, positive percentage of tests in Florida and in Los Angeles County. And other states are going down. Massachusetts is at its lowest that it's been, for example, New York has gotten significantly lower since its peak a couple months ago. But the NBA is consistent with the general population, 5% compared to about 6% for the general population. So do you view that as a positive? Certainly, regarding the league as a whole, what you don't want is that to be off kilter for there to be, because it stands to reason a lot of these guys have been playing basketball some way, somehow, already,

and probably not just alone. and so it would lead to the transmission. If the idea is the transmission would be easier playing basketball against people, then I think you might be able to see a higher number there. And again, time will tell. Time will tell. But for the first go round, 16 of 302 players that are going to be performing, I mean, that certainly is not a shockingly terrible number.

I think that's what I'd say. No, it's not. No, it's not. And that's something that's manageable. If it were up to like 25% of players, this is positive, the NBA would have a significant problem on their hand. And any single number one,

one positive test is problematic. You know, you don't know what can happen. One person leads to many others that can test positive. But for the league, this is a manageable amount of people. All right, Kevin.

So I do have a little news for you regarding Tuesday. Okay. So we were talking on Tuesday about players that we are excited to see coming back from quarantine. In the midst of that conversation, we mentioned that there are a select number of players that we have seen shocking photographs of on social media or wherever else. We mentioned James Harden. We mentioned Nicola Yokic. And then at the end in passing, I mentioned Mark Asall. And I said, look, this guy might be 70 pounds less than whatever he was at his heaviest when he was in high school.

And you said, want to find out? And so, I will tell you, I did reach out to Marka Saul. And I asked him, I said, I guessed 70 pounds less when we saw the picture. and I said, how close am I? And this is what he told me. I don't think he'd mind me revealing this. He said, don't believe everything you see on the internet. It is amazing what great tan lines and a lot of hair can do.

That's what he told me. And so we will see. Hey, look, now I'm fascinated to see what he looks like in person, right? Is that just an unbelievable photo that looks very shocking? because he wanted to make me believe that it's a lot of hair and great tan lines and it's not nearly the stark contrast that it appears to be from the picture.

But we'll see. We'll see, right? Because he looks like a cyclist in the picture that he comes out. And so I guess we're going to find out, is it tan lines and hair or not? The other thing is, interestingly enough, I had mentioned to him when I talked to him that he was, I want to mention this because I heard actually this would be good because Bill was doing a

advertisement for it on his podcast last week when I was listening. And so you've heard of this whoop strap, right? The whoop strap that it can monitor all types of fitness things. It monitors your sleep. A lot of athletes got into this. I will tell you, Markesaw was so far ahead of the curve on this thing. He was wearing it two, three years ago. Crazy. And I remember when it came up, because he was always trying to get an edge,

always trying to figure out everything. And the reason that becomes relevant now, because I mentioned to him, man, you were way ahead of the curve on this whoop strap thing because I don't know if you've read, but this PGA tour event that's going on right now, a lot of their guys are disciples of it.

Rory McElroy, Justin Thomas, etc. Well, this guy, Nick Watney, who's a PGA Tour pro, Rory McElroy did an interview two days ago and said the way that guy found out that he had coronavirus was because of his breathing speed the night before when Woop was tracking his sleep. So when it was tracking his sleep, it was monitoring it and he started breathing more rapidly. The guy didn't even feel sick. He didn't even know he's sick.

But something was off on that Woop strap when he woke up. And so then he went and got tested. Turns out he had it. it. So the PGA has now given these to all of the guys. Every one of them is wearing it because of the hope that it will be able to early detect on some of these things. But I know there's NBA guys that wear it. I thought of that. When I saw that come back up, obviously Bill was doing the advertisers for it, whatever, but then I saw the PGA and that becoming a big story there because Saul's been wearing that thing for a long time. Interesting. Yeah, right, for sure. I mean,

the more data you have, the better. And that's why, I mean, the NBA has that smart ring from some company that they're giving players an option to wear. No player has to wear this ring. But I was shocked by the outrage against

this ring with, you know, people like Kuzma saying it could be a tracking device. It's like, what is it any different from this ring than the wristband that so many people around the world already wear that it gives you additional data for your own personal health.

It's just a ring instead of a wristband. That's the only difference. And really, like, if I'm on the campus, uh, I believe everybody else besides the players has to wear it. I'm not totally sure on that. Here's a big question. But the point is, is I would wear that. I don't wear any of those wristbands.

I've considered starting because I think it would be valuable. Because even if, look, some of those things like you mentioned that story of him catching coronavirus because his breathing changed, most people. it's probably not going to catch. But if it can catch, you know, hundreds of people or thousands of people, that has immense value. And for me,

like, if I were able to catch that thing as soon as possible if I were to test positive and if it's because of some weird breathing pattern in my sleep, I would like to know that. So I've considered in recent weeks

buying one of those to wear, and roll with it and see how it helps. Here's a thing. Where the hell is Kyle Kuzma trying to go that he's worried about being, like there ain't nobody trying to try to crack you. They're doing this for your health. They're not worried about it.

Like, he sits there and views it through the prism of, what, if I sneak off the Disney World campus, they're going to know where I am, and that's why they're having me wear this ring. Like, bro, they're just trying to stop you from getting sick and hopefully be able to catch it if you do. And for months, people are saying, well, how can the NBA, you know,

assure a safe environment? They've done, they've done, went above and beyond with some of these protocols that they've put into place. The NBA has, look, this is not being like, biased NBA reporter or NBA fan here because I went into this unsure if the NBA would do a good job at all and I'm not sure they're going to be able to do a good job next season but right now for this Disney World plan this is a good plan

and they've done a they've done almost everything they can in terms of creating a safe environment for the players it's going to be a far greater challenge for leagues like NLB NFL NCAA NBA NBA next season in which there's no single neutral site in which people are staying at and quarantining at with all these protocols. When you're traveling on planes and there's hotels and all those variables, that's going to be hard for leagues. It'll be hard for the NBA next season if that's the path they have to go. Assuming coronavirus is rampant in the United States later in the year as it is now,

or even half as rampant as it is now. But right now, the NBA is got a damn good plan on a lot of it is because of those over-the-top options that people have to have additional data on their health in addition to getting tested every single day. One other thing I want to mention before we get to the mailbag is officially, officially, Vince Carter retired on the Winging It podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network that he and Annie Finberg do. So I have an interesting perspective on this. I think like everybody that was a basketball fan, Vince Carter, at one moment in time was as big a star as there was in the entire NBA. In fact, one year, he led the entire league in All-Star voting, and he as a Toronto Raptor

when Michael Jordan was also on the ballot. So keep in mind, like, I think his, I think how big a star he was at one moment in time is sometimes forgotten in extremely accomplished. NBA player that then played 22 seasons in the league. It was, to my great benefit, to have been around him for three years. And I will, I want to say this on the podcast. In all the years and all the players that I have dealt with, there is nobody that was ever more helpful, more available, always classy,

in a good mood and kind than Vince Carter. Honestly. Like I have never dealt with somebody that was better to deal with. And then just watching him be a true professional on and off the court. He is the guy that even though he was, you know, he's 40 years old. He was in the wait room after games. He was the earliest one to the arena. And the example he set for young players.

and I watched them take, I watched him take players under their wings. Like he had, there was a room in his house where he let Deonté Davis, who was a rookie out of Michigan State, who this was now walking into the real world. And he didn't come from a situation that had a tremendous amount of guidance in his life, right? And Vince took him totally under his wing. And I still hope it all works out for Deion. one day. But like he had a house in, he had a room in his house where he was letting this kid come and stay just to take care of him, right? Show him the way and be a good veteran for the team.

He just always went above and beyond. And I wish him all the best in retirement because he was an absolute dream to work with. And I will tell you this, there is not one person in the Grizzlies organization, or I'd imagine most of the organizations that he played for, that does not absolutely swear by him. And I'm talking everybody from the ushers all the way up to the salespeople, all the way to people that cover the team on a regular basis. He made a massive impression in just the three years. I was around him, and he made me a much better, you know, person and media member for being around him and just watching how he interacted with. people daily, total class act.

And I wish him all the best. He's 22 years is unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. No doubt about the longevity and the success even later in his career being a role player and transitioning from superstar to guy off the bench. That's incredibly difficult for guys to deflate their ego and to do that. But from the beginning, when he was a superstar in Toronto, think about what he did for the overall game of basketball and the lasting impact. had on so many Canadian kids, you know, making basketball as popular as it has become in Canada.

You know, the amount of young Canadian players that we have in the league now, many of whom grew up idolizing and loving Vince Carter as a player, or they really discovered the game of basketball through Vince Carter. And his style of play, I mean, drafted in 1998 Vince Carter, I was eight years old when he was a rookie. There's certain players I don't really remember young in their curb. but I always remember Vince Carter just as how exciting of a player he was with the athleticism with the cool Raptors jerseys. I think I might have seen Vince Carter alive when I was a young teenager or even before I was

a teenager. And it was just fun to watch him play, man. He helped grow the game. Even to this day, you can go back and watch it on YouTube. That 2000 dunk contest performance is in my opinion, the absolute great. one. I know that you can argue about, you know, better dunks being done. But everything he was doing, we had not seen before. Everything he did was 100% clean. No miss, no even near miss. And the balls were just getting spiked into the ground. And the absolute ultimate showman in all of it.

It is, in my opinion, like, and again, I'll hold on to that one forever. I think it is the greatest dunk contest performance of all time. And obviously he had much more accomplice than just the dunk contest. But in terms of the cool meter, you can't get. I mean, hell, he jumped over a seven-foot guy in the Olympics. So, I mean, he already, you know, he had that span there where nobody was cooler than Vince Carter. And I will tell you, you would never know, never. Never.

You would never know if you're around there. him. And he has every reason to be arrogant. He has every reason to be, you know, I mean, disgrunt or resentful, right? Like, you know, what used to, what it used to be like or whatever else. But his transition into role player and locker room and team leader was absolutely unbelievable. And that's why he got to play 22 years in the league, truly. Not to mention it. It's hard to believe when you really think about it. It was the 2011, 2012 season where he first started to regularly come off the bench. That was a long time ago, man.

A long time ago, man. He played a lot of years off the bench. Yeah. And he did it well for a number of different teams. Some good, some teams weren't good, but he did it well. And he took young role players, like you mentioned, Deonté Davis under his wing. I mean, what a complete career, man. Happy, happy to have been allowed to watch him through it all.

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Finally get the thickest greenest lawn you've always dreamt of. And with Squat's no quibble money back guarantee, if you're not satisfied, you get your money back. Get thicker, quicker, and grab a bag today. Make your yard a Scots yard. All right, let's get to the mailbag. Bobby Wagner, what do we got this week? Well, it's fitting.

We could start with a question about Vince. And I just want to say really quickly about how long he played. I saw in Liz Rocher's Yahoo Sports article, a stat that she shared. he played against 37% of the history of NBA players. 37% of the guys who have ever played in the league. That came from NBA Reddit. That's incredible. That's wild.

That is crazy. You know, I also saw last night he is the last player in the NBA as he exits to have played for Dean Smith. And you're talking Michael Jordan, James Worthy, San Perkins, you know, Antoine Jameson, Rashid Wall, like all down the line. He is the last Dean Smith player that was left in the NBA. So that connection to one of the all-time great coaches in college NBA basketball history now goes away with Vince Carter's retirement also. I saw that he was also the last player to appear in an NBA game on Nintendo 64.

That's great. All right. So what's the question, Bobby? This comes from Justin and Fah, married couple that listens to the show together. Shout out to them. To honor Vince Carter officially retiring, I wanted to ask both of you about the greatest single dunk

you've ever seen in a live game. Who slammed it and how did they do it? I will tell you that I have seen a lot of shocking ones. There is one, you could go look it up. I was at the SEC tournament a year ago. This is a non-N-BA one. I was at the SEC tournament a year ago, and Admiral Schofield,

in the middle of that tournament, spiked one that was so, it was so shocking. It's funny that that's one of the first ones that come to my mind, but I was just so absolutely shocked by what had taken place. Stromile Swift on Yao Ming, I was there for that. And I mean,

he just absolutely cranks it on him. Two hands, Yao Ming is like, you know, this giant that we've never like seen before. in terms of combination of being that big and that awesome. And Stroh Miles Swift cocks one back behind his head and just, I mean, waylaid him. That was great.

Those are two that come to mind right off the bat in terms of in person. My memory doesn't work the way to recall, like a specific dunk in person. But I do know, like, generally, every dunk in the finals last year is something I'll always remember because it's like dunk on cancer and all that. So I found myself really rooting. for dunks and getting super excited. Anybody that was sitting on Press Row with me during the finals could attest. I was like, yeah!

Every time there was a dunk. So that was, that's something I always remember. I was, I think I'm someone who I always remember great passes for some reason. I don't know. So there's, hey, so those are three. Those are three you can look up on YouTube. The Admiral Schofield won from the 2000

and I guess it was 19 SEC tournament. Stromile Swift on Yao Ming, and this year, Brandon Clark over Ian Maheen Me, he almost killed the guy. Like, absolutely. It is a maimic. That dunk did not get nearly the amount of love that it should have gotten. You know, again, it's a Grizzlies' Wizards game.

The only people that are watching it are fans of those teams or people that happen to be on league pass. But Brandon Clark almost killed Ian Mehemean in a game this year. I mean, just demolished him. Legs spread at his shoulders. He's like flying backwards. It's, I mean, it's unbelievable. And if I remember correctly on that dunk, I believe he kind of hop stepped from right outside the free throw line.

Yes. Into the middle of the paint and launched from there. It's an outrage. I mean, Brandon Clark is going to, he's going to have a lot of those in his career, man. Boy, I love Brennan Clark. I love him so much. I can't wait to watch Brandon Clark play basketball. again.

Yeah, especially because you're not going to get to see Larry Nance. I mean, Larry Nance is pretty good. Those two have some similarities.

I'm just saying, versatile, undersized bigs. Okay, I'm going to stop now. All right. What's the dunk that you would have wanted

to be in person most for that you couldn't have been in person? Yeah, John Morant over Aaron Baines. It's the, look, it won a game. It was a game winner.

And it was, it was the first time Jha had dunked on somebody. We had had so many close calls, but the first time that he actually dunked on somebody was a set-up last possession of the game. He drives in and demolishes Aaron Baines on the road. So I was watching it on television. So you've got all that combo.

His first dunk on somebody, and it happens to be to win the game. and he demolishes a guy. Like, I would have given any. I might have run out on the frigid court. Like that gets the rucker. I might have run out. How about the,

the DeAndre Jordan dunk against the pistons? Oh my God. During the height of Lobb City. Yes. The lob dunk thrown to him, I would have liked to have been there for a really. I think those Blake Griffin,

DeAndre Jordan days, it would have been great to be at any game. Oh, and see those guys go crazy. I'll say this, I would have run out of the arena if I would have been there for the LeBron Jason Terry one. Oh, I was going to say that one too. I mean, that is an absolute maiming.

That's especially great because it's in Boston too, so you get to see those fans who are so passionate. And they actually really hated LeBron at the time a lot. Yeah. To see him dunk on Jason Terry like that. Yeah. I mean, that was... Some things were up at the time in that game, too,

when he murdered Jason Terry. I mean, it's just a little guy who's like in the air. And so there's just no way to brace yourself at all. And you get trucked and you get dunked on. It's just, it's unfathomable. Last one that I would have killed to be at is, is Dwayne Wade over Anderson Barrageau. Oh, great, great don't.

Unbelievable for sure. All right. Next up, here's a little plot twist from listener Harry. It sounds like you're calling KOC Kevin O. Blazerian. In fact, it's Billzerian, I-L, not L-I. Mark 1 in the Verno column for mispronunciations. The battle rages on. Is that true?

Yeah. Is that true? Yeah. It's Billzerian? Yeah. Well, that is so much less cool to me. Blasarian kind of sounds like a blizzard, right? Like, I mean, it's like a, it's almost like it could be your wrestler name, right?

I'm Dan Blasarian. Like, that's how I look at him. Dan Bilsarian? I'm kind of with Chris here. I'm looking at his Wikipedia. It says his other names are. Instagram's Playboy King, Instagram King, and Blitz. Blitz is B-L-I. So even he kind of reversed the B-I-L-L-I for his nickname Blitz.

Yep. So, and the other thing is that sounds like almost like a wrestler name, like something that's, you know, larger than like. Blizzarian. Yeah. Like that. Dan, Dan Bilsarian does not sound nearly as cool. Dan Balsarian changing something to make himself sound cooler. He could never convince me of that.

I don't know. the Instagram king there you go okay back to basketball this one's from listener Leonardo do you think the situation

the NBA is returning to favors younger teams or more veteran teams does it matter oh that's an interesting one and by the way thank you Leonardo DiCaprio for the question

I've always known Leo listen to the show big NBA fan big NBA fan of course he listens um star of the last dance I actually think veteran teams, and here's why.

It's less in the flow of the season, right? Because inevitably, if you've got a bunch of young guys on your team, it all kind of, as the season goes on, you have that moment where guys will hit their wall or have their downturn at some point, and then they'll kind of get it back together. They'll go through their struggles. You're not going to have time to figure things.

out when this comes back, right? Young teams still are figuring things out and most especially when the games matter most, which will be for a lot of these teams, eight games, and then a playoffs, and you've got to figure things out on the fly. Veteran teams typically know exactly what they want to do and how to do it and who the guy to go to is. Young teams, you figure that stuff out. That's why we always talk about taking your lumps. And I just think, given the situation, I get it where they have young legs and so they could be

fresher coming back. But I just think that there's going to be, look, high leverage games always favor veterans. Young teams don't win big, usually. You know, they just don't. And so now, all we're playing is high leverage

big games. So I think, without question, it would favor the veteran teams. I'm with the 100% 100% even maybe more so than a usual playoff situation with a typical format, you know, I think for these veteran teams that have either experienced players or great coaches, those teams, that edge is going to be a bit wider for them than it normally would be in the postseason. All right. Here's a question from Zachary.

How significant is the loss of Avery Bradley to the Lakers championship hosts? We started with this. I mean, they could still win a title without Avery Bradley. I mean, that's not, it's not too mean. I don't think you look at it and go, oh, they can't win the title now. I mean, the truth is, me, us three could play with LeBron and Anthony Davis

and we got to crack at it. You know what I mean? Like, we'd probably lose, but we'd have a chance. I mean, that's what matters with that team. I do think that when, if they are going to end up going up against, as Kevin mentioned earlier,

rightfully so, an amazing point guard, if they're going to go up against an amazing, shooting guard, of course. It's a lot harder to do it when you lose what is theoretically your best perimeter defender. And a guy that doesn't need a lot of shots. Like, I think that's the other thing. You know, you got to have stars and role players, and Avery Bradley is a role player, who is also an extremely good defender, who you can put onto point guards too to harass them throughout a game. So I do think it matters. I do. But I certainly don't think it takes a

out of title contention by any means. The title's got to be decided by having two of the best five players in the world. Yeah, I'm with you there. I mean, in certain situations, for example, let's say they have a finals against Milwaukee. I think Avery Bradley's importance in that series would be less than it would be in a series, say, against, you know, Boston with Kimber Walker or Toronto with Kyle Lowry. I think his importance would be less against Philadelphia than those aforementioned teams, too. It's all about matchups and which team you're facing where Avery Bradley's role would grow or diminish.

But ultimately for the Lakers, assuming they do sign a replacement in J.R. Smith or somebody else, getting guys the right minutes and getting Rondo. Rondo's role is important here. Rondo can be and needs to be better on the defensive end of the floor, especially without Bradley. He needs to become more of the guy he was before, which was a great defender against opposing point cards. If he can tap into that in a playoff situation, really grinding, really playing hard, that's going to help the Lakers replace Bradley pretty easily. Interestingly enough, it actually affects the first round. They're not going to lose in the first round,

but it affects their first round matchup maybe a little bit more because if you take any of the teams that are most likely, Memphis with John Morant, Avery Bradley guards John Morant when the Lakers play against the Grizzlies. If they play Portland, it's either McCollum or Lillard. alert. And if they play New Orleans, they put him on Drew Holiday. So, you know, like that's... Even Sacramento, D.R. and Fox. That's right. So that's where it comes up. It may actually

come up less in a second round if you're facing Denver or if you are facing Utah. It's possible. I mean, they would put him on Conley though, too, or Mitchell. So I guess it does matter, but you've got dynamic guys that he really does a good job of slowing down even in their first round matchup. You know, that's where he's really valuable because he's bigger than them and he can stay with them laterally.

And so these dynamic, shifty or point guards, Bradley can really cause a problem for them. It's kind of wild how just from extenuating circumstances and attrition and the salary cap situation with LeBron and AD that they've ended up with all of these guys. These dudes of NBA Twitter, Dion, Rondo, J.R. Dwight.

The fact that LeBron and AD are surrounded by this cast of guys specifically, I think, is designed in a lab to explode NBA Twitter if they win a type. It really is. What they call them? They call them the Monstars when it all started out, right? Oh, yeah. That's right. Okay.

Here's a question from Logan. Obviously, this isn't the main storyline right now, but I feel like no one is talking enough about the fact that teams like the Hawks. and Bulls won't play a game from March to December, if play even resumes in December. That's nine to ten months without hitting the court to play meaningful NBA basketball. Sorry if I missed this, but would love your thoughts on that. Yeah, Kev, you would know more about this to me. Those teams were all getting together to try to figure something out, right?

Yeah, the teams are the eight teams that aren't in the playoffs, the delete eight, as I believe it might have been John Hollinger, dubbed them. Delete eight. Yeah. these teams like have already had conversations with the NBA about you know having some sort of fall league and we'll see how that takes shape if it takes shape at all but teams do have a desire to get together and have an opportunity to develop their younger guys um whether the summer league simply becomes the fall league and it ends up becoming like non starters that play in it I don't know that remains to be seen uh But, you know, look, it's the type of thing where sometimes guys, you know, get hurt in March and they miss the last month or sometimes a team tanks and they sit the guy out the last month too. So it's not like it hasn't happened before where a guy has missed his final month of a year or has had to miss the start of another year. But with so many guys, it certainly is concerning.

So I do hope the league can get some sort of league going on. But, man, I mean, with the health risks of simply getting back to play at an Orlando. know, I kind of do question if it's worse the risk of doing this again somewhere else. Or maybe it's best just to deal with the circumstances and invest as much as possible to get guys in the gym on a local level like they currently are with all the testing procedures. Maybe that's something that you can do. And maybe you can allow teams to have inter-squad scrimmages or something like that if there are cities nearby each other. I don't know. But I do question if they're going to end up having like a big.

the biggest summer league, you know, at a neutral site. I have a hard time envisioning that because of all the risks. Man, this isn't the nicest thing to say, but, like, oh, they're not going to play basketball for now. What are they going to do? Suck worse so they didn't play? Come on. So the reason they're not there in the first place.

A bunch of rat teams. Who cares? Oh, my God. Well, you, I know what are you? What are you talking about? The Bulls and the Knicks playing each other? I mean, come on. You're telling me it wouldn't be valuable for Trey Young to get some minutes of

I'm not losing sleep over it. Do better. Then you wouldn't be in the situation you're in. Oh, please. We got another one about kind of related to Vince here. This one comes from Brian. In honor Vince Carter's retirement, do you have a favorite team that never won an NBA championship?

I really love the Vince Carter and Jason Kid Nets. It's a good question. I like this one. I think, I just think those early 2010 Thunder teams with Katie, Westbrook and Hardin. I'm not sure I'd call them favorite, but that the first team that came to mind

when you read the question, just because I loved watching Katie, I loved Harden and coming off the bench on that team. Never was the biggest Westbrook fan, but that's beside the point. I like the team overall. And I think it's a shame that they weren't able to win a title. A team that did not win a title that I really liked.

So obviously, I'm not going to talk about the team I deal with all the time. Right, because that's too easy. Let me try to find one from either when I was, I'm going to jostle my memory here, trying to think about teams that I really liked at the time, even during like my childhood or something, that never won.

Probably Shaq Penny Magic. You know, I mean, I was a massive hardaway. I loved Penny Hardaway. My father went to Memphis State, now the University of Memphis, and so my dad would take me to go see them and took me to see Hardaway two years in a row. And I just, you know, attached myself to this guy. He was going to my dad's college. We went, I got to see him play in person. They were talking about him being the next Magic Johnson. I mean, I was all in on Penny Hardaway. And so I really, really rooted for those magic. teams when he went there.

I didn't have a team, you know, it's, you know, Jordan's gone. And so, yeah, I guess, I guess the Penny, the Penny Shack magic. I loved Penny so much. He was my favorite player. And then I'd say, I loved Iverson, too. So that Philly team, I just loved him, you know, at the time. Yeah. I think Iverson's the other guy who came to mind for me.

They had that finals run in 2001 against the Lakers Had a couple other short playoff runs But I would have loved to be able to see AI win one Okay, we got one from Christopher here Since the NBA salary cap is likely to go down for a few seasons Barring a miracle that allows fans to be in attendance like normal Do you think this will make NBA draft picks more valuable to teams And potentially used as better trade assets

Since teams can get quality rotation players On inexpensive rookie scale contracts yes but I think we've already seen that don't you kev I mean like it used to be yes yes but also we'll see what happens with the rookie scale though too it's undetermined how exactly the salary cap will change moving forward it's unclear how the rookie scale could change as well whether revisions will be made to the cb a right now rookie scale is calculated based off of the salary cap and the increases that happen with the cap. That could change. So it's to be determined with what's going to happen. I mean, for the NBA, are you going to suddenly drop rookies in the 2020 class?

They're expected salaries because of a loss in revenue or you're going to keep it artificially high remains to be seen. But generally, as you said, Chris, rookies are already a bargain. When a rookie becomes a good player in your rotation, you're able to have them for like $3 million or even $8 million, when they, those guys on an open market would get far more than that from a team perspective, oh, already a bargain and that'll continue, especially if the rookie scale drops accordingly with the salary cap,

assuming that also drops. I mean, to be determined. This has already happened in the NBA. I mean, I recall, I recall covering a playoff series years ago where people were complaining about Dave Yeager not playing the rookies,

like in the playoffs, right? and I remember going back, I can't remember the exact year, it's whenever Capella was a rookie also. So whatever year that was. And I remember going back and I went through all the NBA teams in that playoff year, right? And I said, here, let me list off the players that are getting regular minutes

in the playoffs that are rookies. And he was the only one. And he had not played during the season a ton for them. He had gotten, you know, D-League time before he. he came up. He only came up at the end of the year. And Capella was the only one that was getting some minutes for what you would consider a good team. That is, we are so far removed from that in five, six years. You can't find a good team that doesn't have a rookie, you know, hardly.

It's hard to find a team that doesn't have a rookie or second year player getting minutes. sometimes in Donovan Mitchell's case, he was in his second year is the go-to guy in the playoffs for a team. And so you've already seen it. You know, they are the greatest value, as Kev mentioned, and the league has just changed so dramatically. I think it's easier for rookies now. The learning curve is less steep because of the way the game is played. But also, teams' attitude towards rookies. You used to have a bunch of old school guys in front offices and old school guys on the bench that believed in, you know, taking your lumps and you don't play immediately when you're rookies.

And now you have a bunch of guys in front offices and on the sideline that believe that's how you develop. And the sooner we can develop this guy and get him into games and rotation, the better. And I think younger guys are coming into the league better. They're going into college better for that matter. too. More resources at a younger age, more accessibility to learning from, you know, YouTube or star players, you know, running virtual camps or going to camps. There's more resources for players to get better sooner. So you're having young guys eventually enter the NBA with a more established foundation of skills oftentimes, or at least there's more players for teams to draft from. So for the NBA, it is an interesting time to bring in rookie players, especially this year where there's no clear cut star prospect, but there's a bunch of guys who project as at least quality role players. I would be willing to bet that the 2020 draft class is going to have a handful of guys that immediately add rotation guys to some good teams.

Okay, time for a couple more here. This one comes from Sammy. if the Disney and ESPN team were to show some behind the scenes footage of life in Mickey's house, which two players would you most likely want to see an interaction between? Is there anything that tops a ping pong game between CP3 and Hardin? That's a good example, actually. Most want to see, I'm trying to think, who's really gotten into it, or we know there is strife between them.

that is, I mean, I mean, Butler and towns, but I mean, look, everybody's, everybody's on town's side now. You know what I'm saying? He's not there, though. Yeah, I know. But after everything that, you know, that kid's been through throughout this summer, I can't imagine. Because he also got into it with Embedd, right? This year, remember? Like, I was just trying to think of scuffles.

I mean, I think that might be it. It's related to Embedd. Maybe it's a Hassan White Side. Oh, that's good. somebody like that. I think White Side and B, those guys crossing paths in the hotel. Or like the only two guys in the cafeteria at the same time. I mean, like, something like that. I'm trying to think if anybody really slandered anybody else or if there was, because I know inevitably we're going to, there's going to be people who be like, I can't believe you forgot about.

But like, I'd like to top of my head about, I'd like to see the truth about Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons. Like, how would they interact? in an off-camera moment, you know? There's a lot of rumors about that one. Yeah, and especially because Butler and Embed seem to be such a good friend still. They sure do. They do.

What if it's like Embed and Butler having, you know, socially distanced dinner together? Well, okay, so here's the next. He's walking to the cafeteria with this tray. It's like high school all over again. Here's the next question. He's like, oh, you're not going to sit here. It kind of relates to this.

This one comes from Jude. Who do you think? is going to commit the most egregious tampering in the Orlando bubble. LeBron. He's like a minus 1,200 favorite. For sure. Also like Janus

as well. A guy who. But don't you think they're going to tamper with him though? Not the other way around. Yes. But they could go the other way too where Janus is being tampered with but he's also tampering back. Like, why don't you come to Milwaukee?

That could have. as well for reverse tampering. Yeah, I think that's probably pretty fair. One of the LA teams that are fighting with each other, they just did it with Kauai. And so now it's the who gets the next one up, right? Kind of the battle rages. And they both got outstanding teams.

So you know they're going to be, you know, try to fill out that roster over the course of Paul George picked there, Kauai picked there. I mean, it was. So that kind of creates that whole L. thing anyway, so I could imagine you'll see those two teams going after some guys. Jimmy Butler, too.

Oh, Butler. Trying to get somebody to Miami. Yeah, I mean, there's already the rumors. I believe it was the athletic reported that they want to sign Janus and Oliobo. That's been floating out there in NBA front offices for quite some time now that that's a rumor. I mean, who wouldn't want to sign Yon San DiCompo? It's not a

shocker, but Jimmy Butler with the positioning that Miami could be in in a couple years, that's another guy that I would expect be doing some tampering. Well, and I look, like I hate, all right, dude, this cannot be left out of our conversation. Like, Worldwide West just officially got a job.

I was just going to say, he is a NICS employee. It's going to be really suspicious when he shows up to the Orlando bubble, even though the NICs aren't there. I mean, it's unbelievable, right? I mean, you got Worldwide West and Leon, I mean, and they got to fix the NICs. They got to.

And that's their thing. They're player getters. They have been for 25 years and they're buddies with everybody so you can say, I have a prior relationship with him. Yeah, I happen to help run the Knicks now, but like, that's not why I'm talking to him. I know his mama, you know, right?

I mean, they really get to come by that honest. That didn't work for magic, though. He got fined after he said he had prior relationships with these guys. Oh, it didn't work. He got freaking Anthony Davis. What are we talking about? It worked. It worked.

You get, one of the top five players in the NBA to sign up with you, it worked. I just meant it from a rules perspective. The NBA didn't see it Magic's way. I don't know if they would let Magic fly in there and recruit for the Lakers. That's ashtray money to them. One other name, Chris Paul, he wouldn't necessarily recruit people to OKC. But if he's like, I got a way out to get the New York who wants to come with me,

that could be a way for Chris Paul to start doing some recruiting. That's a good one. in Disney. What else we got, Bobby? All right. We got time for two more fun ones. We'll wrap up real quick on two more fun ones.

Alex wants to know what are your second favorite sports? Football. Both football? Yes. No love for baseball. Not even close really. Yeah. Baseball used to be my favorite sport in the late 90s, early 2000s,

and then basketball gains steam, and then, you know, football as well at the same time as basketball. And just over the years, football and basketball, became I 1A and 1B and this decade basketball became my clear number one.

It's, you know, it just did even before it was my job. But, you know, basketball and football are easily my two favorite sports. I wish I could love baseball still, Bobby. I really do. I'm going to get you back into it this year. 60 games.

The Mets and the, the Mets of the Red Sox are going to kind of be in the same division with the whole shortened schedule situation with the AL and NL East. We'll get it gone, Kev. Bobby, you want to like... That's pretty good. You want to help me out?

I'm thinking I'm thinking I should hammer Cardinals over 31 and a half. That's my team. What a ridiculous number to say out loud. That's my team. Over 31 and a half. Act like I don't know it. Act like I don't know it. Look, 40% of their schedule is against

like the White Sox, the Tigers, the Royals, and the Pirates. You should hammer that. The only problem is like, everything's so up in the air. What if Jack Flaherty just decides he doesn't want to play. Baseball bets with Bobby.

That's what we need to do. Hey, look, the number one team, though, it's 37 is the number for the Dodgers. That still seems low. Low. They might win like 50. You know, they're low. Okay.

Final question. This is a ridiculous question. It came so out of the blue that I had to put it on our doc. And I feel like I want to hear your guys this answer. This comes from Shane. Didn't even try to fake it like writing an NBA question in. How many tater tots do you think you could knock back in one hour? more than you think I could probably

this is interesting because my daughter got tater tots from Sonic on Sunday that's the guy you'll have sonics yeah you do you do you got Sonic up in Massachusetts Kev I don't think so not many not many if we do have them there's not many of them to drive in so I actually

within the last week I have actually eaten tater tauts. And I quite enjoyed them. And I would say conservatively, I could eat in an hour, over a hundred. Definitely over a hundred. Over a hundred. And so I put my over under it like 150. And that's not I'm stopping eating because I can't eat anymore.

it's because like I can't, like I'm sick. Like I'm going to get very sick if I keep doing this. I'm with you. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like there's only so, and it's potatoes. So it's got, and it's fried. So it's going to get really heavy. I don't eat.

I don't eat. I don't eat a lot of fried foods. You know what I mean? I really don't. And so that would be, I mean, I guess if you, yeah, if you baked them, I'd have, or air fried them, I'd have a better chance. but if you had like a real tater tot, like a fried tater tot,

I would get sick by the time I got to 150 of them. I don't know. What's in a pack? A small probably got. You would take the under for yourself then. You would take the under for you set the over under at 150. You would take the under, but you'd be close. What do you think a pack?

Maybe like 10 in a little thing, right? 10? You mean like if you ordered a small at Sonic? Yeah. Yeah, probably like 12. Maybe 12? Yeah. I don't think I could get 10 of those down.

That number is low. Yeah, that makes me feel like $150's a lot. It depends on the size of them. I couldn't eat. I couldn't eat 10 of them. I could do over 100, I think. I can eat. What could you eat the most of?

And not like jelly beans or some crap like that. Like a substantial thing that you believe you could. Goldfish, goldfish probably. I could just pound bags of those bag after bag after bag. Do you think you could eat the big box? Look, look, look. got two kids. We got goldfish in the house constantly. You mean like a single, a single big box?

No, no. No, the huge box. Oh, no, the big, the big. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's like the like the milk carton open. Yes. Yes. Oh, easily. No doubt about it. In 100%. In one sitting. No way. I mean, how is the sitting? I'm saying I could. Yes. Would I? It's not a good idea. Could I is a different conversation. And I would expect that I probably could. cheddar? The standard flavor, yeah. No.

I don't mess around with it. I don't mess around with their alternate flavors. Oh, you're bland goldfish guy. No, you're thinking of cheddar. No, I like the toasted goldfish.

Those are my favorite ones. The toasted goldfish. Yeah, I don't know what the, I don't know the proper name for the goldfish. I'm not a goldfish expert, dude. You're talking about one that's like a saltine. That's what you're talking about.

Oh, is it? Get the name. cheddar is the one that's that that is the gold standard the cheddar goldfish that's cheese though but there is an original flavor that's kind of like unflavored it's just like a cracker oh yeah no not that one the cheddar one obviously that cheddar is the standard nowadays isn't it yes i believe so i mean who considers the original like saltine flavor goldfish the original anyways now you know hey you know who eats those you know who eats those you know who eats those by the bag, by the bag, original.

I'm talking the original, my father. But my father's like, just turned 73. But that's what he eats, regular goldfish. You know what I could eat, like oyster crackers. I could eat a lot of oyster crackers too. Then he is talking about original, Bobby. Because oyster crackers are exactly like original goldfish. They're the same as original goldfish.

Yes, they are 100%. Oyster crackers have a very distinguished flavor compared to other saltine-like crackers. You know what you'd really have to worry about, though? If you chose crackers or if you were trying to eat 100 tater tots or whatever, salt, man. After a little while, that salt would really start to give you some heartburn or start to dry you out.

You'd have to drink water and then that would fill you up more. It'd be really tough. And look, people have reached out to me over the course since our Tuesday show about when I mentioned a 10 o'clock chip club. like you're sitting around watching TV and you go grab a bag of chips or something. I will tell you that my most common

like snack to go grab is cheddar cheese goldfish. They are always at my house because of the kids. And I grab them all the time and I eat the hell out of them. I love them. The ones that I love that,

I looked up the name, the whole grain cheddar. Those are my favorite goldfish. Whole grain. The whole grain cheddar. Those ones are great. And watermelon is enough. thing that I think I could eat like two whole

watermelons. Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. Just powing watermelon. All right. Bobby Wagner, thanks as always. Kevin O'Connor. I will talk to you on Tuesday.

Looking forward to it. Have a great weekend, everybody. Thanks, everybody for listening to another Ringer MBA show. You dig what you're hearing. Go give us a rating review. Five stars. Five stars. Early Help. So we'll talk to you next week.