The Ringer NBA Show - LaMelo Ball All-Star Ballot Stuffing. Plus, Will Zion Ever Get Right? | Real Ones

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

The pod opens with Raja, Logan, and Howard discussing a video of Raja getting hyped on the court after his son had an intense game versus another good player in Miami (00:57). The guys have a spirited conversation on how and why LaMelo Ball is getting so much All-Star love (6:09). The Pelicans suspended Zion Williamson on Friday prior to their matchup against the Sixers for a violation of team policies, but this has been a pattern for Zion. What’s next for his career and for the Pelicans (32:49)? Jimmy Butler wants out of Miami. Should he be careful about how he’s viewed across the league in requesting a trade (44:46)? Get you tickets to the live show at The Punchline in San Fran 2/15/25 here: https://www.universe.com/events/the-ringer-nba-show-real-ones-live-tickets-9NVPKF [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Logan Murdock, Howard Beck, and Raja Bell Producer: Clifford Augustin Additional Production Support: Ben Cruz Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's popping, everybody? Logan Murdoch here from Real On The Ringer MBA show, and I want to invite you to pull up and kick it with Roger Bell, Howard Beck, and myself during All-Star weekend for our live podcast. We're going to be at the Stork Punchline Comedy Club in San Francisco on Saturday, February 15th at 2 p.m. pre-giving all the all-star festivities, and you never know who might stop by. Get your tickets now by heading over to ringer.com backslash for Vince. That's ringer.com backslash events. To see you there. It was popping.

Real ones. Logan Murdoch here. Roger Bill there. Howard Beck and the motherfucking cut. Cliff on the motherfucking board. Raja Bell came in 11 minutes late, ladies and gentlemen, but he came in with a bang. We're going to talk, we're going to talk some stuff. We're going to talk all-star voting.

We're going to talk a little Zion. We're going to talk about a little this, little that, everything in between. But first, Raja, peak high school dad. in South Florida. Oh my gosh. Do you want to explain how you came up in here and just gave us great content to start? Yeah, I'll give it to you guys. I mean, I'll give it to the listener.

I was late. I've been fielding a lot of phone calls this morning about my behavior last night. It was excitement. Let's get that straight. It wasn't like I wasn't behaving poorly. It was all out of excitement. So we had a big game here. We played a team that's like top five team in Miami.

And they got a really good young player. My son's had a very good year. So the gym was packed. It was like one of those old school. Half of them were there to see my son. Half were there to see the other kid. And the other kid got out to a really nice start. Had eight or nine quick ones.

Was calling my son trash, telling him he couldn't play. I always been better than you. Like all the stuff that, you know, kids do. And his team was up 15. The spirit of competition, right? That's right. The spirit of competition. Team was up 15.

Ty only had two in the first half. It was like one for five. So like, hey, we got to sit there and take that. But coming out of the second half, we got a little in our bag. And Ty finished with 22, gave him the last eight, won the game with two free throws with six seconds left and was talking his shit. And then his daddy started talking his shit. So that's what happened.

The cameras caught me. And it was all in fun, all in good spirits. But I got a little rowdy last night. I get one per year. I told Ty, like, forgive me. That's my one time that I'll come out of pocket and come down on the court and hit him in his chest and talk shit with him, but I did it last night. Can you get a tech?

I'm just, rough the top. Can you get a tech as a parent in the stands if you go out? Like, what happens in a high school game if you're, like, out of control? Yeah, I don't know. You can definitely be asked to leave the game if you're, like, aggressive to the refs or doing stuff like that. None of that. I wasn't doing any of that.

I really was just, like, after the game was over, I came down and was like, was celebrating with him. But yeah, if you get too rowdy in the crowd, like you're aggressive to the refs or you're aggressive, I guess overly aggressive to a player or a coach in any way, they can ask you to leave.

But that wasn't my lane. I was just really excited and tripping out with him after he got the W. Good stuff. A couple of questions, and then we'll get to the shits. So the video you sent us,

first of all, Roger was very proud. Don't let Rogers act like, yo, I got calls. I was rep, da-da-da-da. This is my one-time year First of all, based on the video that Raj's sent,

Ty was very juiced to see his pops. Like, he was like, y'all both were locked in. You guys were both were locked in. Oh, yeah. So my question to you, I have a few questions. But my first question to you is, at what point, because on the video that you sent us, there is, there's two shots, which is hilarious,

because the first shot is you talking big shit in the stands. Yeah. At what point did you migrate your ass down to the court? Like, how do we get from there to here? Like, what did you like, was, was, was, Was it like we down eight now? Now you're kind of migrating. Like there might be something.

Like how do we get from here to down there? No. What's going on? Play by play for us. I sat in the stands. We're down eight with like a minute 20 to go. Tye hits a big three. That's when the camera kind of pans to me where I'm like hitting my vein.

Like yes, we got ice in our veins and then they come down. And then he hits another big three. Wait, wait, no, we're down six. So then he hits another big three to tie it up. And I'm still in my seat. Like we're just hoping to win. And then he gets the ISO at the end of the game, gets foul, knocks down the two free throws.

I'm in my seat the whole time. Only once the last buzzer went off did I ask everyone, excuse me, out of my way, excuse me, pardon me, excuse me, excuse me, made my way down. You know, a couple people you get to move around, you know, like got to your son. That's right, went to find Ty, who was in the timing was perfect

because he was just about to talk his shit to the opposing fan base. So when I showed up and I hit him in his chest, we got to do that together. Oh my God. Yeah. You know what? Oh my God.

That was like, that was like when, um, in the BET Seifer in 2013, when Kendrick was like rapping and like doing the freestyle and he goes and turns back around and find schoolboy cue and they do the high five perfectly. I don't know if you saw that, but it seemed like a moment like that. It was a good moment. It was a good moment. That was amazing. Thank you for that.

That was great. Thanks for sharing that with a group. Thanks. Thank you. Because it was fun. It was a good time. That was awesome. Every time, I just, I love seeing Raja every time he sends a text into the chat because it's one of two things.

It's, he's sending either one son, a video of one son's highlights or the other son. There's nothing else. Or it's during the playoffs where he was like, this motherfucker's week. No context at all. That's it. That was the only times that Roger text. Not a big talk. It's fine.

Okay. Let's get to like, let's get to professional basketball. That was very. Let's go. Let's get to the shit. Thank you guys for staying with me. What? That was awesome.

It's fucking worth it. Anyways, Eastern Conference voting. All-Star Varden in general. The Eastern Conference of Staff record label in a mother effing crew. I'm a little rusty. So last week we had the show

where Howard Beck was peppering me with questions, which I did pretty well, by the way. I was very surprised. I was very surprised myself and Raja. It was great. But one of the questions was, who was the leading goat getter among guards in the Eastern Conference? Right. And that answer was lamello ball.

And we didn't really, other than like a rant, we didn't really get to it. I think there's like there's a lot more levels, levers to pool in this conversation that I feel like we can have today and kind of have like a more meaningful conversation about what this means for all-star voting. And I think this is also coming on a great time to do it, considering Lamello. Last night, one of the things I was, you know, pissed off about last week was show highlights, great highlights of Lamello ball and, like, him crossing the shit out of somebody. And so many games that they lose. That's something I know Raja hates, right? Like, we're just rewarding these things, right? And I think that's a correlation to, like, the voting process because that's what we see.

Mel's a really good, exciting player who doesn't even win on a level that is. They're not even halfway out of the lottery. So that's kind of the conundrum that we face here. But I want to start with this with Howard. He is, Lamello is now still a top of the guards. And I think it's just only an Eastern Conference guards thing. Because if you look around the all-star voting process, it seems to be kind of in what it's supposed to be.

Janice is leading the front court in the Eastern Conference. Shea is leading the guards in the Western Conference. Nicole Yocke is leading the front court in the Western Conference. So like it seems like the guards thing is the only thing that is giving us pause. But what does this say about the NBA? Does there need to be some level of reform, Howard, and how we even look at we're voting? Or is this just like a glitch in the matrix? Where are we at right now?

What does this lamello voting process say about the NBA and its vote? I have this same question, and it's more like to the universe at large. So maybe it's to our listeners too. Listeners, if you've got theories on this or if you're like a big lamello ball fan and maybe you voted for him a few times and they also whatever it is. Hit us at Realonesmailbag at Gmail.com. Yeah, Realonesomell mailbag at Gmail.com. You know, they know what it is. Because, dude, I'm baffled.

Like, I get it. I get that he's been on our radar and in the public consciousness and an Instagram phenomenon since he was like 14 years old or whatever. And there's a following there. He's fun to watch on some level if you don't care about actually winning basketball games. But this mass appeal where he's leading all vocators in the East, where he's got a sizable lead on Donovan Mitchell as of last Thursday's returns, where he's got a huge lead on Jalen Brunson, who was only fifth of the MVP voting last season and is leading one of the best teams in the East. I don't even know what the lead is on Cade Cunningham, who went into the garden last night and kicked everyone's butts and also is deserving of a lot of consideration here. Lamello ball should not be in front of all these people. This is the epitome.

I'm sorry. I hate to say this. This is the epitome of style over substance. If you're a fan of his or if you are him, frankly, this is the epitome of style of substance on the basketball court because it is all empty calories. And to your question about the voting process, Logan, like the league already adjusted several years ago to try to wait this thing, right? It used to be 100% fan vote. They said, you know what? The fans are doing some weird shit sometimes. And there's some weird stuff going on maybe with like international voting on the internet or whatever, like ballot stuffing, whatever was going on. So the league tried to adjust it by saying, okay, fans, you only get 50% now. Players get 25% and the players don't take this shit seriously at all. So we've seen. still got issues. And the media has 25%. Somewhere in all of that, you hope to find the right balance where you can't get anything egregious happening. But this lamello thing, like, he's going to need a

big fat zero from both the players and the media to negate what the fans have done. And even then, I'm still not sure. Like, could he still squeak in? Like, I haven't tried to run the math on this. If Lamello Ball becomes an all-star starter, they have to reconsider this whole thing. They've got to reconsider the whole system. Maybe it should be one third, one third, one third. I get it. It's for the fans. All-Star games have always been about, that's the saying like, oh, it's for the fans. It's, it's for them. But it's not. It's also for history. It's for posterity. It's to reward players and then see how many of these things they rack up by the time their career is over because we consider it in Hall of Fame voting and all these other things. Like, it matters enough that I don't think we should have

a lamello ball starting in the All-Star game when there are at least like 10 guards who are more deserving than him. I may be overestimating, but I'm just going to say 10. Yeah, that, this one's a tough one for me, right? Because, and I want to be clear, Logan, I want to take it back to something you said. Like, I don't ultimately have a problem with the highlight in a game that you lost. Like, if you played fantastic in a game that you lost and you were making winning plays and giving your team a chance to win and you don't do it. I don't think because you lost, it should negate the phenomenal things that you did in a game. I really have a beef just with the fact that we don't celebrate enough the winning plays that the team who won

executed, right? Like so, you know, like people can have brilliant performances in losses, have their team with a chance making winning plays. And because for whatever reason, the other team play better. He doesn't have enough or he didn't make the shot than he needed to make fall short. So I don't always, I don't always say just because you don't win, you shouldn't be celebrated. This one's tough for me, Howard, because like if we're talking MVP and stuff like that, I wholeheartedly agree. I've already come on here and said multiple times that winning, you know, is really important and getting your teams to wins is an important. is an important part of the journey from any player trying to go from from one level to the next.

But, but All-Star isn't always about winning, right? Like, I don't think it should be. You know, the year where you had, I don't know, was it four players from the Atlanta Hawks in the All-Star game? And, you know, no disrespect to fucking Kyle Corver, but he was in an All-Star game. Like, that's bullshit. So, like, I don't always go with the, like, you know, your team has to be winning to be an All-Star. now where he ranks in terms of like the votes he's receiving as it relates to like the other

the other you know viable candidates in the eastern conference we can have that conversation like i don't think he should be being voted in ahead of some of the other great guards in the eastern conference but i am kind of torn because just because his team is losing um and those stats may be hollowed like i might be giving him too much credit because i want to really give credit to the player that plays his tail off does winning things, contributes to 29, the 7 and a half, and makes winning plays, but his team for one reason or another can't win.

And I'm not trying to reward the guy who's just out there looking for the stats, but you do have to acknowledge the stats at some point. And I think the All-Star game is probably where you would do that. I've got more. Yeah, no, like Logan, Logan, you want to go before I go because I've got, well, no, I, this one's bothered.

So I'm going to play devil. I'm going to play devil's advocate here. I'm not even sure if I believe this. I'm just going to, I'm going to pull a Raja here and just say, what if? What about this? So if you're making the argument that, and I think somebody can theoretically make this argument about all-star games in general, you're making the argument that an all-star game is a group of players that were important to that season. In whatever way, right?

would La Mello be a part of that conversation? No matter record or anything like that, if you're putting them all together and all these players that were exemplary and important to that season, could you make an argument for him being on the floor? Well, I... Listen.

It was more for Howard to ask that, but like, go ahead, Rob. No, no, no, go ahead. I wanted to hear... I was more devil advocate for Howard. And I'm not, again, I'm not even sure if I believe this, but I do believe that's a question that is at least worth asking.

I mean, if you were turning on, sorry, because I don't watch that much, I don't watch that much sports TV outside of the NBA. So this is no disrespect to ESPN. Does ESPN still do like the top 10 plays every night or whatever? Or if it's on NBA TV, they do in top of them? Like, yeah. They do. Okay. You're probably going to see Lamello appear a few times a week, right?

You might see them in some like season highlights or whatever. So when you ask the question, I'm trying to like expand the definition here or consider the full definition. Was he important to the season? Does he belong on the floor at the All Star at All Star Weekend because win or lose, playoff team or no, he is somehow an important part of the landscape. I don't know that that's the case. Highlights aside, because that's all he's got right now. I don't mean that as like, I'm not trying to just be that over hypercritical, but like that literally is all he has. They're eight and 28. So what else does he matter? other than occasionally a logo shot or, you know, a fancy move to get to the to the rack.

Like, what else is there to justify him being there? And again, like, it's not just that he's leading the votes. It's that he's leading the votes at the expense of a bunch of guys who are clearly, clearly more deserving. He's like, Damon Miller's third. Donald Mitchell might literally be the face of one of the, of the greatest team of all time, regular season. Yeah, 73 win pace or whatever they're on. Like, yeah, Donovan Mitchell, but like Damian Lillard, more deserving the lamello ball,

Jalen Brunson, Tray Young, even. The Hawks haven't been great, but Trey Young's having a better season and the Hawks are having a better season. Maxie's missed some games, but whatever, Maxie, better than La Mello Ball. Cade Cunningham, seventh in the voting, better than Lamello Ball. Then it's Jordan Poole. I don't know what's going on there. Darius Garland, ninth in the voting.

Darius Garland's actually good enough to start in the All-Star game. I'm just going to say that. Like, I'm torn between Garland and Mitchell on my own ballot that I have to turn in on Monday. Tyler Heroes 10th in the voting. That's as far as the league's returns go. Tyler Hero's having a better season. Lamella Ball is having a bigger impact on winning too. But again, it's how do we balance the All-Star game as entertainment spectacle versus All-Star selections as reward for great play that should go down in the annals of NBA history and become part of your resume?

Well, I think we're having two different conversations, though, because like, you're saying having a better season as it relates to their team winning. And that. And statistically. Okay. What's what's Tyler Hero versus Lamello right now? I don't have it on my screen right now. But I do have a bunch of stats to give you as to why Lamello numbers are hollow. Well, listen, I mean, I don't, I guess we, we like in the end, Real real. Raw stats mean something to me. Like, and I've seen teams, I've been on teams where, you know, and I'm not, I'm not saying this is unequivocally the case here, but I've seen hellified players put up stats and bust their ass night in and night out in a league where it's very hard to produce

big numbers and produce those numbers and their teams can't get wins. Sure. And I don't, I don't, while I would hold that against them in some situations, I would say that in all-star format when we're rewarding like performances. Like I don't think that's where I personally reward wins more than the performances because then again, I get back to like you're going to have four, at least two marginal players from an Atlanta Hawks team make an all-star game in a year where they're just out in front of everybody when they were other deserving like people

that were carrying teams that just couldn't get the same level of wins that the loaded Atlanta Hawks would get. I totally hear you on this, Roger. So let me just throw this at you because like Lamello, you know, raw numbers. I mean, they do mean something, right? Like, you can say, like, the guy shoots a ton, but hey, you still got to be able to put the ball in the hoop enough times to register. And he's averaging a little under 30 points a game, which would be a career high by far for him. And which leaps off the page. He's averaging 29 points, seven and a half assists,

five and a half rebounds. But, and this is a big fucking butt, guys. Tom Ziller had it in his newsletter this morning, so I'll start with his stats. Lamello's leading the NBA and field goal attempts per game at 24.6. He's averaging more than three field goal attempts more than Yokic, who's number two. The gap between Lamello and Yokic, who by the way is the best player on Earth by most accounts, the gap between the two of them is as big as the gap between Yokic and the 19th player on the list of field goal attempts per game, and that's Jalen Brunson. Only three players in the top 20 for field goal attempts per game this season, again,

this is according to Ziller, have lower effective field goal percentage. than Lamello. So I went deeper. That boy is chucking. That boy is chucking. Since the 2000-2001 season, right? So the last 25 years, basically. Rogers' finals run.

Six other players. Six have averaged 24 field goal attempts a game. The others are Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant, James Hardin, Russell Westbrook, Alan Iverson, who did it four times, and Jerry Stackhouse. So everybody on that list was an MVP at some point aside from Stackhouse and McGrady. Everybody on that list aside from Stackhouse are either Hall of Famers or will be. Lamello's the first guy to average at least 24 shots a game since James Hardin in 2018-19. The Rockets won 53 games that season.

So you could say that Hardin was justified. Of that group that I just listed, Ball has by far the lowest win shares. That's an all-in-one stat. So it's just showing it's having no impact on winning. McGready's Magic won 42 games the year that he averaged 24 shots a game. Kobe's Lakers won 45 games. Russell Westbrook's Thunder won 47 games. That's his MVP season.

Stackhouse's Pistons won 32 games, so not great. Iverson's Sixers in the times that he did this, and Raja will remember it well. 56 wins, his MVP season. 43 wins, 43 wins, 38 wins. So for the most part, the guys who average 24 shots a game in the last 25 years, got their team a hell of a lot more wins and even a winning record sometimes. The Hornets again are 8 and 28. And for all of Lamello's offense,

they are the 29th ranked offense in efficiency. They're terrible. There's 7 and 18 when Lamello play. So it's not even just about his absences. He takes 13 threes a game and shoots 34% on them. If you're shooting 34% on threes, you should not be taking 13 a game. But we don't get to, we don't get to,

we don't like, that's all, that's all well and good. Look at their fucking roster. They suck. So like they. So like they suck. Look at their roster. Like I'm not saying that they, they suck in general. But look at their fucking roster.

So he should take 24 shots a game? How is that helping? Who to fuck out? He's taking them. You, like, Howard, look at that fucking roster.

But this is where we're operating in the space of you. Like, I feel you. You don't like lamello ball. I don't love Lamello Ball either. I don't like what he's doing. I have nothing against La Mello Ball. This is not a winning style of basketball

and it's not productive for rebuilding team. But so we're having two conversations because that's not debatable. What is debatable is whether or not statistically what he's doing should put him amongst some of the best players in the league statistically in the celebration of the best players in the league that year. And I would argue that even on a bad team,

when you're averaging 30 and 7 and a half, I can make a case. Now, I agree with you on a quarter. that fans have a problem when you got that man in the number one, you know, number two spot when there are other guards in the east. Like, I'm not debating you on that. I'm just saying,

like, I've seen it. Like, there, you can put up big numbers in efforts to win games at times. This isn't a lamello conversation. Again, I want to table lamello in that.

But you can be out there hooping and, and trying to win games and busting ass and producing. And you just don't have enough around you. There are other situations where, shit, my son's in one sometimes. where you're like, yo, I'm not gonna fucking throw the ball over there. Like, like, his coach is like, no, you shoot it.

You're like, I'm like, ah, that's not a great shot. And his coach would be like, I told him shoot that shit. You're like, okay, because they just devoid of talent in some instances. And so I want to be fair to LaMello in that. Like, look, a long way to go as a player. And I don't mean to be, I don't know how the fuck I became the lamello apologist here, but like, but I just, I just know that like in an all star, just specific to all stars, like,

like, you know, those are real things that are happening. Like those aren't, that's not 29.7. It's not happening. That's not like seven and a half eight that's not happening. Field goal percentage aside, shot, shot volume aside. I would still, I would argue like who else, who else is going to be doing that on that team. Okay.

I think that's fair to a degree. Although, again, Brandon Miller, their lottery pick from just a couple of drafts ago needs to get a little run. They don't have a ton of other time, you know, Miles Bridges is on that team. I mean, you know, it drops off after that, Cody Martin, whatever. But still, I would argue that on any team that is a losing team where one guy is taking that volume of usage rate of shots, if you redistributed like three or four of those

shots to other guys, somebody's getting an open shot probably that might be a higher percentage shot. And besides that, he's taking 13 threes a game, Raja. Like, there's another one. I could go through how many guys have taken at least 13 threes a game in the history of the league for a full season. And they all shot it at a better rate. than him and most of those seasons are Steph Curry.

Should he be, should the Melo ball be taking Steph Curry volume of threes? No. And cut out at least three or four of those per game. Those are not good shots for him. They obviously aren't. Look, I agree 13 shots is oh,

three's was OD, but like, I was watching a game last night. I almost had to turn the shit off. That's all they did. That's all they do. Like they're just running up and down shooting three. So we live in that world anyway.

And what you're not factoring in there is, again, like, Steph did that on a really good team. He's the best player on the planet at the time possibly. but like it's on a really good team where there's a there's a share of shots that has to be you know parsed out to everybody on that team like he is not operating in that space regardless of whether you know like miles and the other kids should get some like it's not like you have a well-rounded roster where that ball's going to be getting shared to the degree that would take you know a couple threes off of your plate and get you under the acceptable level

I just think that those are there are circumstances there that yeah he could be OD I'm not Like some of that is OD, Howard. Like if I'm calling a spade a spade, some of it's OD. But like it's still fucking like, it's still 30 and eight in the NBA. Like we can't, you can't just, I couldn't do that. I'm not, no. And I'm not dismissing it. I couldn't do that.

Yeah. By the way, quick note to the listeners. We're not filibustering here. Logan's having some connectivity issues. And he has disappeared from the Riverside for a little bit. So, but Rasha, let me ask it this way. I'm back. There's Logan. He's back. Let me ask Roger this one more question as Logan settles back in.

Roger, put all that aside for a minute. Put our debate aside and reset here for a second. You're now Raja Bell, fourth, fifth year player, and you're on the Hornets, this Hornets. You are the Roger Bell who played when you played. Are you happy about what your teammates doing night in, night out? Are you, are you, are, is the locker room happy about it or is this an issue? Well, I've been on good teams where I wasn't happy about what, with what was happening night in the night out. I mean, let's be real. Like, I've been on some really, really good teams where people are a lot of,

a lot of players aren't happy, bro. Yeah. But with Lamello specifically, if you're his teammate, are you fine with this or is this a problem? Um, or are you saying, like, hit me a couple more times a game, bro. Like, but, but no, yes, I would certainly be hit me a couple more times a game. But I want to be clear.

that happens in every single locker room. Yeah. Every single locker room, people are saying, yo, bro, hit me, dog. Like, like, I'm open. Is it worse if you're losing? Is it worse when you're losing? Well, I mean, everything's worse when you're losing.

The food doesn't taste as good when you're losing. The flights suck. Like, the beds aren't, you know what I mean? Like, the sheets aren't as soft. Like, yeah, everything sucks when you're losing. So, yeah. But, like, you know, there's a pecking order. We talk about this all the time.

Like, there's a clear. pecking order, right? And things get sorted out in this jungle that we call sports, basketball. You roll a ball out, like, you're going to play open gyms, you're going to have practices. And the person that is the best player in that usually winds up being the alpha and getting the most opportunity. And so I imagine that most people in that gym have had their ass busted by LaMello enough to concede that when these fucking shots are going up, Lamello's going to shoot the most of them. 24 again.

And another thing, no, one other thing, though, one other thing, though, like, I do think with bad teams, too, like, we also got to, there's two things with it. You got to understand, not a lot of people are built, like, Rajin that they want to win. Like, there are some people just the reality situation or they're just there to collect a check and just like, oh, I'm good with this, you know? Like, that, that exists. And, um, I will, I think I'm somewhere in the middle. Like, I do believe that Lamello is a, like, is a, like, is a, a, great talent. And also, I don't think that, like, he's been, at any point in his career, has been coached up enough in all these things, right, to be, like, this efficient player. But also, I mean, when you put a fan involved in this voting process, they're not going to go, like, read the newsletters and put up the, like, well, you know, those stats don't really, aren't really weighted like you guys thinking. They're not going to do that. They're like, oh, shit, Lamello's averaging 30. I like a few of his highlights. I'm going to vote for him, you know, And I think one other thing that I would like that I that I've noticed is like and the reason why I wouldn't I guess this goes to Raj's point of things kind of always go back to the center.

Like for the for all intents of purposes, this is only just one part of the voting part, right? Like the Eastern Conference guards, it's Shea at the top, right? Like if you put it, it's Yokets at the top for the front court and the Western Conference. And it's Janus, and it's Janus at the leader of the front court in the Eastern Conference. Now, all that tells me is, you know, one, like, we can hold back on the reform right now, I'm answering my own question. And we'll just see what happens with the other things, right? Because we know the coaches ain't going to vote Lamello in if he doesn't get the fan vote.

Like, we know that that's not going to happen. And, like, if he does get the, the, um, all-star game, you know, he's an all-star game type player. Like, it'll be entertaining. You know, and I agree, look, I agree with both of you guys. I agree with Howard in terms of like, that's not ideal. Like it's not an ideal situation for winning basketball games. I would just argue that there's more, there's more to them losing basketball games. Oh, of course.

Than Lamello, right? And so like, you know, as it relates to just All-Stars, I don't, you know, I want to simplify all the shit I just said. is like winning and losing isn't the end all be all for me about all-star games is all I'm saying. Yeah. All right. Let's take a quick break. And we're going to talk about somebody else that's just like kind of not living up to their potential or something like that. If you're in need of a midweek boost, Fanduel, America's number one sportsbook has you covered with the NBA hump day parley profit boost.

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Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. When I saw this story, this was right in Roger Bell's wheelhouse. They already got me fired up. What else we're talking about? The New Orleans Pelicans. I just, I'm about, I'm just, before we get to the story, I'm about 30 seconds away from just saying, we need to blow this up and just trade everybody. Like, it's clearly this thing is not working in New Orleans. It's just not, it's not a, it's, there's a ceiling there.

I'm tired of everybody talking about potential. And if this thing happens and if this person gets not, gets injured, they are who they are. Jesus. And in the latest headline of they are who they are, New Orleans Pelicans have suspended, this is from last week, this is just, suspended Zion Williamson for one game for violation of team policies. Now that wound up coming out via Shams that he missed a team flight. And apparently this isn't the first time he has done sort of things like this in violation of team policies. We know this, not just because their coach Willie Green said this, but also because of a star of that caliber,

there has to be something egregious for you to suspend him. It has to be something that's over multiple times. The Pelicans are in a lot of trade rumors. This going into the trade deadline, you know, they traded for DeJante Murray and then they might trade. Brennan Ingram, it's probably not going to work. Like, are you with me, Roger, what they should just eventually bro this thing up? And like, what does it say about what Zion is or isn't in the league at this point in his

career? Oh, man, that's my guy, Griff. I love Griff. and in fairness, because they've been so bad this year, I haven't really been all the way locked in on the Pelicans. So I would say this. You remember Life, the movie? Martin Lawrence.

Yeah, I watched it again the other day. I know one thing, Roger, you're not going to eat my fucking cornbread. That's right. You better get to taste it. Anybody want my cornbread, better get to taste out. They mouth. So on God. Yeah.

He just can't get right. he can't get right boss like he just i've come across them in my time like no matter what they might get on the straight and and narrow for a minute you might get them bought in you might get them you know acting and conducting themselves like a pro but it's just everything in their world or in their nature is pulling them away from that center and he strikes me as that i don't know him I do have some, I have heard reports and stuff about difficulties. You know, this is obviously one that's public, but I know how hard of a struggle it's been at times for them to have him conduct himself like a pro, like the cornerstone of your franchise

should conduct himself. And that's a shame. And it just makes it really, really difficult. That's why it's so valuable for organizations to get pieces like the LeBron's, to Steph Curry's, the Tim Duncan's, like the, the, the, the, Dirk Novitsky's people that come in there are in like your hardest worker

and your, your most consummate pro and set examples by being in places where they're supposed to be on time, the Kobe's, MJs. Like, that's why it's a talent, not even factored into the equation, just the human being, the worker that they are. Like, it just sets such a great precedent and it's a shame, but he just can't get right.

I, before we were going to, to Howard, it's just disappointing because, Raz, you're like, I mean, I know you're, you're not close to the situation, but you have people that are in your orbit that are close to the situation. And, you know, I've talked to a lot of people within that, that, that situation. And every time you bring up Zion, it feels like, I'm sure you've had a similar experience, Roger, but every time you bring up Zion and ask a question about Zion within anyone to anyone within his orbit, there's just a, there's just a sigh, right, before they even get to

verbalizing their disappointment. And this is on Zion, man. This isn't on anybody but him. Because Griff has done, and Griff is somebody that is very well respected in this league. I feel like Griff has done every single thing he could do and that Pelicans organization has done

pretty much everything that they could do to put people around him and coaches around him and even secure. around him to try to mitigate that whatever he's got going on and trying to get him to mature. And every time you, after you hear that sigh, Roger, you hear that kid needs to grow up every single time. And I just, I don't know because he's a singular talent that is so great and so, it can be so dominant. But I don't even know, like, if he can get his stuff together because he's clearly he's a number one in terms of talent, but he's not a number one in terms of just being

anything else. Just anything else. So I don't know what that reckoning is going to look like, right? Does he get traded somewhere else? And does he succeed in that way? I don't know because the ego of being a number one is there because he has the talent to be a number one, right? So I don't know what the future holds. I guess that I'm talking all of this to throw this question to Howard.

What do you think his future holds as immediate future holds in the NBA? Is it you're the Pelicans? Do you start from scratch? Do you put him somewhere else? What does he do? Because you've also, you have been around Zion. You've wrote a great piece for him back at Sports Illustrated.

What is it about Zion that he needs to do? What's the future hold for this guy? Yeah. He's on track to become one of the most frustrating players in recent history. history for maybe of the last 20 years. He's on track to become one of the most disappointing players of the last 20 years. There have been other guys who were drafted number one or drafted in the top three who got that bus label. I hate that word because I think a lot of busts aren't bust because of what they did or didn't do. Their bus because a team overestimated

them. Like the players don't put themselves there. But Zion was the absolute overwhelming, not just consensus, but unanimous number one that you. Like everybody would have taken him number one. The talent is obvious. And so at that point, this is one of the places where the bust label would apply if he doesn't turn it around because it's on him. No one overestimated him. He was the real deal. He was supposed to be not just a perennial all-star, but an all-timer. And he's 24 now. So whatever, you know, critiques or observations we can make about him early and early on, well, he gets injured a lot. Well, he gets injured a lot partially because of his build. Well, his build is what it is in part because maybe he doesn't take good enough care of himself.

Or if you have that kind of build, you've got to do even more work to make sure that your body can take the kind of torque and just pressure you're putting on it. And so we're five years in. And every season feels like a replay of the prior one. He gets injured. He comes back. He plays. He plays at an awesome level. We say, this is it.

This is the guy they've been waiting for. And then that guy goes away. And then there's, you know, then there's more murmurings about some off court stuff or maybe some on court stuff. And like our buddy Chris Haynes reported in the wake of the suspension that there has been multiple, multiple instances of him being late for team things. You're 24. You can't have that going on anymore. You're not just 24. You're 24 and you're supposed to be the franchise centerpiece. You just can't have that going on anymore. And I know like in the statement the Pelicans issued, he's got this nice heartfelt apology and I want to be accountable and I'm glad they're holding me accountable. my apologies to my teammates and all that stuff. The words mean nothing.

Conman vibes. Yeah. Big time. Scammer vibes for show. It just doesn't mean anything if there's not any action behind it. And how many times we can go through this where it's like, well, maybe this is the season he turns it around. Maybe this is the season he actually plays, you know, most of the games and stays in shape and, and, you know, and is reliable.

I won't even get into a lot of this stuff that's circulated around the internet about other off-court stuff regarding Zion, but that also- This isn't the podcast for. that. No, it's not. This is not the podcast. But that, but all that stuff casts a certain light in terms of his maturity level and the way he's conducting himself. And he just doesn't seem like he's got it together or is, you know, is focused on the right things. So that's the alarming. He's the guy in the class that's like, remember you guy in the class that just would always fuck up and like you would bring him, you would bring them, the teacher would bring him in front of

the class or her or them. And they'd be like, you know, I'm sorry. They would give the heart for apology and then like today homie they would wink like I got them again. Yeah. Zion, man. Howard, were you done? Because I just wanted to add on like, go ahead. No, I don't finish your thought. Well, the only I thought I would have is this because Logan asked, you know, what do you do?

And I actually do think like there's, it's interesting. So Griff to his credit and that front office's credit, they were able to put in all those qualifiers conditions in his contract that says if you don't play X number of games or if you don't stay at X weight and X body fat, we can waive you with no obligation. The rest of the contract just disappears. The fact that we even have to have a conversation about that, and ESPN wrote about it a couple weeks ago about whether, is there a trade market? Could you just waive him? Would you just wave him? Like, you can't, right? Because he's, he's too great a talent to just say, you know what, let's cut our losses. But, but the, the horde, I think one of the

hardest questions to answer the NBA right now with regard to any single player is what is Zion worth. If you're the Pelicans, how much is it worth holding on to him? If you decided, do you want to trade him? How much do you need to get for him? And then if you're any of those other teams try to trade for him, how much are you willing to give up for him? Because no matter who's got him, he is a huge risk. And the risk of trading him or cutting him if you were the Pelicans or letting him walk would be, yeah, he might go blow up and finally become that perennial MVP candidate somewhere else. But keeping him and at that number, you're hamstrung forever. So yeah, if it's me, Easier said than done.

I would offload him and Bradden Ingram tomorrow if I could. They need to start over. They've got a bunch of other great ancillary pieces, some other great players who are really promising. And I just, they need a fresh start. He needs a fresh start. And another thing, though, like, if they say if, because they're already in like lottery, there's no question there in the lottery this season, right? So as a, say if they get the number one pick, raw, and Cooper Flagg is right there.

Get everybody out the building. Get everybody. Get him away from a lot. lottery pick. Real talk. Get him away from it. Like if you're going to get a Cooper flag-ish type of dude and this is, look, Zion, I hope you figure it out, man, 24 years old, relatively speaking, is still a young man. I guess there is a world in which what Howard's talking about could take place. I would say you've been, you've been in an NBA franchise for as long as you have, and they've made the type of accommodations that they have and put the support around you that I know

they have to try to get you to be right and you still can't get right, I don't think you're getting right, but there's a world that could happen. I ain't gambling, putting a lottery pick around that. I'm not. Nope. And yeah, nah, not happening. Some news that is circulated. I love when this happens while we're recording the podcast, because I really, I hate when this happens, when we're like not, right when you, you know, I send it in my sound in the cliff and, you know, some news comes out. Jimmy, news on the Jimmy Butler front.

He has had a face-to-face meeting apparently with the, with Pat Riley and the Miami Heat Brass and says he wants to be traded and he won't sign a new deal with him. Is this just like a leverage play at this point? Yeah, but like, hey, we got the, this is apparently news today, right?

This is this is the news today. So he's not, he's not opting in, he's not opting into 50 million. Yeah, that's bullshit. Well, he said he's not going to resign with them. That doesn't mean he wouldn't opt into his 52. And then they could trade. We could just only do two minutes on this because I know you guys have talked about that length.

And I know Rogers having like it. He's having that vein pop out of just annoyance coming here. That was just me. I did that myself. Is this a leverage play? He has no leverage. He just has no leverage, bro. Like, what are we doing?

Stop. His leverage is to be a pain in the ass for the rest of the season if they don't get him traded by the deadline. But if he does that to, you know, and crosses certain lines, then he can be fined and suspended again. So, like, this is now a really,

really shitty staring contest. But he met his match. Like, they're not scared of him, like how these other teams were. Like, Pat's like, oh,

are you sure? All right, bet. Bye. Yeah, this one was, that's a thing. This one was destined to be,

like, an ugly one. Because Pat, you know, we had the, who do we have on? Logan, you weren't back yet.

And we had someone we were talking about, he had met his match in terms of Pat, you know, standing up to 100%. It might have been when we had Jamal on. Yeah, but that, that, it might have been Jamal.

But just from Jimmy's perspective, look, man, I, maybe the pot calling the kettle black a little bit because I didn't ingratiate myself necessarily to the Utah jazz fan base when it ended there. But like, you know, I wanted to be there. Like I, they, they asked me if I wanted to trade. I told them, no, I could work this out. Like if, but it still got portrayed as it being really messy. And I was like public enemy number one. And so I, I don't mean to. but Jimmy's...

You're still a jazz man, though. But Jimmy's the type of player that I never was, right? And this fan base loved him. Like, he was next to D. Wade. You know, like, he was like a god down here. I mean, there's some other guys, Eudanis and Alonzo and stuff. But like Jimmy was... And it's kind of sad for me to see, like, people...

I said this a couple weeks ago, and it's only getting worse. They're, like, turning on him. And it just seems to get ugly with him in a lot of his... And a lot of stops on the way out with him, it gets ugly. And that's unfortunate. And like, here's the thing, though, he ain't 28 no more. He's 35. The writing is kind of on the wall right now, right?

Like, ain't nobody going to pay him? That's the reason why he's not coming to Golden State, right? Like, they don't want the headache and they don't want to pay him. Jimmy should be very careful. And I mean this. Like, Jimmy should be very careful because he's about to quickly fall into the category of overvaluing yourself. Like, and he's still a really good player. and I'm not saying he's washed

or anything like that. He's still a really good player. But it happens to everybody and it's on a scale, right? Like, you can be a really good player and still overvaluing yourself, right? And you think that the market is this and you think people will accommodate by doing that

and you think that you can leverage someone into doing this. And then you realize like, oh shit, people don't see me like I see myself anymore. To your point, Logan, at 35, you know, you're on the wrong side of it now. You might have some left, but it ain't what you think.

He's gonna fuck around and be Will Smith on that last episode of Fresh Prince just fucking standing around in an empty room like what? Just whoa shit, what the hell? And he's too good of a player and I want better for him, I do.

I mean, sorry Howard, I want you to go but genuinely I feel like like you don't want you don't want that Jimmy, you don't want that. I think it would be good for your sons though. I think you would be. It's just not going to happen. I think he would be good for that group though.

Yeah. He can be good for a bunch of teams But it's clear that some teams are steering away now thinking like we don't necessarily want to take this on and not just, you know, you'll get a honeymoon if you trade for him, right? Like he'll probably be the best Jimmy once you when you get him. But the reason he's trying to get paid. He's trying to get paid. The reason that this is gone this way in the first place in Miami is mostly about them deciding not to extend him. But yeah, he's 35. He never plays a full season. He's got a lot of miles in injury history. So everybody's already kind of like where are you? I know he's a pain in the ass. And he can be a pain in the ass. So like it's, yeah. And that and and Raj's, Rogers of course,

absolutely right. Like the league can turn on you very quickly and suddenly you find yourself, either you're on minimum contracts or you might just have teams who are like, yeah, you could probably help us win, but we're just not interested because we don't want everything that comes with it. Very quick. By the way,

since we name check Jamal, uh, the other news this morning, uh, Jamal Crawford, uh, a few days too late for us to have discussed it, um,

on the pot or a week and a half too late. Um, all officially announced now as a lead analyst for NBC. Hey. Love it. So congrats to Jamal. Love to see it. Happy for him.

We knew that was coming. Now it's official. Two other things before we go to the know back. One thing to me and how we're talking about yesterday when we were like kind of playing if I was. Was Anthony Edwards out here just paying people because he can't like stop. He can't stop yelling at the ref and just throwing gestures at the ref. Roger, are we like just at a point right now?

Like, this is what I like, like kind of hypothesized at how are. Like, are we at a point right now with Anthony Edwards where like it's getting to a distraction or should, is he still in the aunt is his aunt and we're chilling right now? Like, it's okay. Where are we at right now with him? If you're a teammate and also by the extension of league, because those are two different questions. Yeah, it's a distraction now. You know, like I would imagine in the locker room with his peers, it's Ampy and Ant. From the, from outside that locker room into the coaches locker room and beyond, it's a distraction now.

And we got to figure out how to- Because everybody, every time you come to town, everybody's asking, what the fuck's up with him? Yeah, we got to stop. We got to get it under control, man. And, you know, I was a fiery player. I got a lot of texts, and I didn't always see eye to eye with those refs. So, again, I'm not cast in judgment. I would just say to aunt, you know, it's time to, it's time to kind of just chill that out.

Like you're not going to win with them. They're just going to keep taking your money. It doesn't feel like much probably to you, but why give it to them? And it's not changing anything. So it's time to stop. As you guys know, I'm pro profanity. I'm also pro guys just being themselves. And Anthony Edwards is one of the more fun, colorful players we've got in the league right

now who's who's happy to express himself and just be himself and is not like so buttoned down there's a Marshawn quality to aunt that I love I just I don't I don't like the over PRification of of the NBA where everybody's just trying to do exactly what the PR person told them and they're all trying to be like so corporate I want guys to be themselves and I appreciate that Edwards is is it's just being himself most of the time he's been fined over like 200,000 for multiple incidents of like cursing, cursing for the media, cursing at refs, just whatever's, gestures, this, that, like, I don't mind most of that myself. I am not offended by it in any way, shape, or form. And I want Anthony Edwards and everybody else to just be themselves as much as

possible. But there is probably a point of diminishing returns. And also, those things are, are more, you can get away with a lot more of that if you're winning. They're not winning, not winning enough or winning at the level that they're expected to. And so that's when I think, like, you know, if you're getting fined every day and you're getting into it with reps and everything else, that's when it maybe can start to be a bit of a drag. I'm not overly concerned about most of what led to those fines. But yeah, I think especially when you're also supposed to be one of the young ambassadors of the league, right? We're at this inflection point where LeBron and Steph and Katie are all going to be moving on. Not everybody is as tolerant or as embracing of public profanity as I am.

And so you have a public to worry about. And if you're going to be one of the ambassadors of the league, you do have to rein it in a little bit while still being yourself. So he's got to find the balance. He does. And I agree with you 100% that I am not offended by language either in my house. Everyone here knows that. Like I have no problem with you dropping an F bomb and shit like that. I'm not offended at all. I was speaking more towards, you know, when the referees, the gestures and stuff like that.

Because you hit the nail on the head. You are in the running for face of the league. And there's a responsibility that goes with that. And so it's just time to stop. Like, I ain't beefing with you. Like, I'll drop a curse word. Shit, I got to, I got it. In certain instances when I was on TV, I had to make sure right before I went on air,

I said, hey, bro, keep it G, keep it clean. But, you know, so that doesn't bother me. But the rest of that is time to clean it up a little bit. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Still love that. No doubt. He's still the one. Before we get to Mailbag, I'm excited.

It was supposed to be like a bigger segment, but, you know, we just talked about Lamello for 45 minutes. I do want to acknowledge that, you know, there's going to be a great basketball game being played this week. The Cavs versus OKC, part two. I saw something on Instagram recent. This is probably one of those, like, meme, like few cards, whatever the hell. And it was talking about just like how this is a marquee, you know, like, obviously it's a marquee match yet, but one of those like ones where the whole league is,

is watching. And the way that it used to be when, like, when LeBron would play against, uh, when LeBron will play against KD or like, um, you know, just,

just, just, like, where you just get the whole, like when Kobe would play against, uh, LeBron, things like that.

Do we need more, what, what we've been hearing about, like, just how the league is marketed and things like that. Do we need more of these types of matchups? Howard Beck, do we need matchups like this to where we have the focus of the,

the basketball world actually what's going on the court? Is that what this game provides for us? I'd like to think that most seasons we just kind of get this organically, right? You know, like the, and the funny thing is we don't need to go down this avenue too far, but like we manufacture the NBA Cup to try to put some meaning on the regular season at a time when we don't think there is. And yet a game like this is way more interesting, right? Because you don't know who's going to end up in the NBA Cup.

up and you don't know whether that that result is going to have any effect on anything. But this is a finals preview, potentially. And it's the second time they're meeting in a week. And this is two teams that are on pace for a shit ton of wins who are both on historic paces and who have some of the brightest young stars in the league. So yeah, the league needs it. You can't manufacture it. It has to happen organically. If anything, I wish these games were actually had been more spread out, but you can't do anything about that. You couldn't have known the calves were going to have the kind of season they're having. We knew the Thunder probably would, but the Cleveland has been a revelation. If anything, yeah, this is the kind of thing where you think, oh, man, we've been great if we had like a couple months between these.

And like the rematch was like maybe in March or April before we hit into the playoffs thinking like, you know what? We might see these guys again in a couple months in the finals. But regardless, like it's just great to have moments like this where it feels like there's a lot on the line. Like, yeah, it's just another. It's one of 82. but there's more meaning in this game for sure. That's fun. Yeah. All right. You got something on that wrong? Negative. And before we go to, before we hit the mailbag, Logan, can I just throw one quick thing in there?

Logan, you got a really nice. Is it, is it, oh, go ahead. No, I was going to say, you had a really nice public service announcement. You did a quick PSA heading into the pod you guys did on Friday, just about the fires and everybody affected and how you can help and everything else. We know there's at least two members of our Ringer family who have been affected, who have lost their homes. They both have GoFundMe's going right now. So if nobody minds, I wanted to shout those out. Yasi Salick, incredibly talented host of Bansplaine. She's awesome. It's one of my favorite podcasts long before I ever got to the Ringer.

She lost her house in Altadena, and there's a fundraiser through GoFundMe for her. So you could just search on her name, YASI, Sallick, S-A-L-E-E-L-E. Kay. Also, one of our podcast managers, Chelsea Stark Jones, her family lost their home as well. There's a GoFundMe for her as well. It's Chelsea C-H-E-L-S-E-A, Stark-H-H-N-Jones. I just wanted to shout those out. And, you know, if folks can do something there or just to any of the organizations

that Logan listed last week, and I think all of us got a lot of people in L.A. And it's been really sad and just stressful to watch at a distance and just, you know, heart going out to a lot of people. I know way too many people to name who have lost their homes. And it's still going, by the way. And it's still going by the way for everyone.

It's awful. I feel like it's been starting to get a little forgotten in the public consciousness. But like here in California, that shit is omnipresent. So like it's not over by any stretch of the imagination. All right. Let's get from the somber note to a mailbag. Cliff. What's going on?

What we got here? What's good, fellas, man? Since you want to start off with, uh, with aunt here, since y'all just talked about them for a second. So let's go to the mailbag. This is from Rob in England. Evening Friends, I sent an email a few weeks back criticizing Anne for how vocal he has been in the press despite underperforming himself.

Obviously, recently it has shut my mouth. Anyway, my question is to Raja. As a role player, sorry, Raja. How did you react to the public criticism from the star of your franchise? Or were things done in-house more from your experience? Thank you so much for the show. Damn.

Yeah, well, first of all, thanks for the question. I'm not offended at all. But I do think it's funny that this is bigger picture. It happens all the time. Like if you call someone a role model, you apologize because you think, I mean, like not a role model, but a role player,

you apologize as if it would offend them. Like, I find that fascinating. Like, do you know what I mean? You made it to the league, bro. But no, but in any, but on any team, like it's almost like it's, you don't have to be league bound.

Because, no, but the thing is, though, Roger, you notice, like everybody is, the goal is to be the star. Everybody always says, no, like when we're kids, right? When we're kids, everybody's goal is to be like

main character syndrome. We're ingrained in this, right? Even at camps, I remember I was at Glenn Graham's camp back in the day, and they was like, yo, you can be, it was in Richmond

and somebody was like, yeah, man, like, you know, you could be a role player and like just be a superstar on your role. I remember like, B. Shaw said that at Glenn Garan's camp and all the fucking,

all us kids was like, I'm about to be Kobe. Yeah. You know what I mean? But I think that's just the culture that we just build as a society. It's just fascinating though, right? Like not in, no disrespectful way to the, to, was it Rob, who asked the question? Like, I mean, it's not, Robin English. Yeah, Robin English, shout out again. But like, I just think that's just a fascinating thing. I try to tell kids. Cheerio. Like, in high school and stuff like that. Like, man, we all have a role to play. Like,

the star player is a role player. I mean, he's just got a different role than you. Who? You know? Put the Coofee on Roger right now. That was game. That was some bar. That was the coldest bars you ever give it. That was some bars right there. But it's real talk.

So here's what I would say about like how I felt when our star role player would get up. And I always liked them. And what I try to teach my boys. So if they would ever become stars is that when things are going well, it's we. And you shower everyone else with the praise and you keep it humble and humility is key. And it's all inclusive at that point. And when things are going wrong, it's me. I need to be better.

I should have, you know, made sure that this happened. I need to. And so that's what I like my stars to do. I played with both. And I think the better leaders are the ones that would shield the, the players that didn't have as big a role as themselves from the criticism and put it on their shoulders because they had the bigger, broader, more capable of carrying the weight shoulders. All right.

Next mailbag. Fellas, I'm curious, how on earth all caps, EMA moves Aman Thompson back to the bench and what the dynamics are like behind the scenes for Desbarry Smith. Does he just deserve to get a spot back? Also, side note, how has the nickname Tackleberry not happened for Julius Randall yet? Are people too young for Police Academy references? Thanks, J.R. Tackle Berry.

Who's that again? What's his name? Jackle. J.R. J.R. That's awesome. Tackleberry. Go ahead to everybody.

Go ahead. Rasha. No, that sounds like a Raja question for me. I kind of got lost in the question. Amen, Thompson, going to the bench. There's, you know, what the hell? And then stuff that's going on in Houston. Does Jabari deserve a spot back?

Amen, Thompson, go to the bench. I think that's a question for the coach. I don't know if that's a question. Yeah, that's what I'm going to say. Like, no, that's a, that's a, I, every team dynamic is different. Roger, call Emma right now. Get them on the phone. Yeah.

Call them right now. I actually, as much as anybody in the league, I trust him A. to know his, know his dynamic on that team and to know, you know what levers to pull and buttons to push. So I'm going to trust them on this one and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, And look, like, yeah, yeah, I was watching last night, man, he's a problem in transition. Like, he's just downhill. But, but anyway, yeah, I don't really have a great answer for that.

I got a question for the question. Yeah. Because I'm probably, it's probably because I'm young. What is Tackleberry? What's that? What's going on? What's the thing there? Yeah, I said the same thing.

It went completely like, over my head. I don't know what it is. What's going on? Anybody? Any old heads going on? That was, that was, that was, he's from the police academy movies from like the 80s. If you Googled Police Academy Tackleberry, you'll see. It'll all make sense.

Those movies featuring Steve Gutenberg, by the way, a long-forgotten comic actor who more recently has been on TV again. Unfortunately, because of the fires, because he lived in Malibu Palisades area. And he was like, man on the street interview where the guy didn't know who he was. He just thought he was just talking to some dude. And it's Steve Gutenberg. but then again, in defense of the TV guy, it's just Steve Gooden. Okay. Sorry, Steve.

Okay. I'm Googling right now. Next last question. I'm Googling right now. All right. Last one. Hey, Raja, Logan, and Howard. UK rowing from the jump and was on the what-up back train since full 48 and crossover

with Pena. So love you guys all together. Appreciate. My question is, if you could take an all-star player from the past and put them on any team in the league, who would you choose from and where? Obviously, we can subtract Superstar players like MJ, Kobe, Bill Russell, Shaq, Wilt, Magic, and Bird, etc., if you like, because any of them would make any team a contender. But all stars that might have not won chips, but improve current teams like John Stockton on the Suns, Prime Penny Hardaway on the Timberwolves, LaTrales Freewell on the Bucks, Charles Brewer on the Bucks, et cetera. Keep up the amazing work, Andy. P.S., congrats Logan on joining the Dad Club. Happy for you, man.

Appreciate you guys. Can I start this? I have one. Oh, good for you, because that's a crazy. crazy big question. I don't know if I got a It's not a, Andy, great question. It's not an all-star necessarily. Not an all-star, but like, I think you guys will feel me on this. Lamar Odom on the 2017 Warriors would be nasty. Lamar Odom on today's warriors, they could use him. They could probably use him, yeah. But like, I don't know, because this,

Lamarro usually did good with, like, he would make good teams better. I think with this team, they would kind of like, they would suck. But, like, you put him on that, if you put him on that 2017 Warriors team, put him at the five, you know, where, like, even if you swap Draymond out, to be honest with you, and you put Lamar Odom there, nuts. There you go. No one else. I'm trying to figure out where you found that pool from, you. That's a crazy pool. I've been, that is a crazy pool.

I've been, no, I've been long. I've been, I've been, yeah, man, what's up? Yeah. I like that. Yeah. I was always a big T-Mack guy. I loved watching Tracey McGrady. There's some others that came to mind.

But like Prime T-Mack, put him on the Lakers where he's a different version of LeBron, you know, tall, you know, guard forward type who can make plays, get out of a shot from anywhere, make his teammates better. T-Mack, it was always that case during his career where it was like, is he, is he, Jordan or a Pippin because back then everything was Jordan or Pippen, right? The whole post-Jordan era was like, who's the next Jordan? But it was also like, oh, if you weren't quite enough to lead a team, then you're more of a Pippin as if that were an insult and shouldn't be. But like McGrady because of injuries, because of circumstances, because of Grant Hill's injuries. Another guy

I'd like to bring into this conversation. Also had the work ethic bug too, lack of work ethic bug. You know, Tracy did. So. Dude was so talented. You put Tracy on a team with LeBron. just like, you know, Kyrie was with LeBron. I just haven't like a replacement. No, no, no. Like, because the, the listeners question, what was this? I'm sorry, what was his name again?

AJ? No, something, Jay? Andrew. Andrew. By the way, thank you for the full 48. Shout out, Andrew. Meets a lot to. To Andrew's question, though, like it was, I think it was like taking

an all-star from the past to put him on a team today. So I'm thinking about the teams that could really use that boost right now, too. So like Team Act on the Lakers as a tag team, with LeBron would be tremendous. You could put Team Mac right back on the Houston Rockets, too. Yeah. I have one more, Roger, before you go. Yeah.

What if we put, what if we put like 97 Nick Van Exel on the Minnesota Timberwolves right now? No, real talk. Real talk. They were a team. No, I'm serious. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. By Mike Connolly. Let's put, let's put 97.

Ninetylinson on there. Crazy pool, yeah. It's tough. Yeah, quick was tough. I'm locked in. That big lefty pump fake, like, more athletic than you thought. Mixy, offbeat,

herky jerky. Stop. Yeah, quick was tough. Also had the fire to like offset aunt too. Like, yo, I'm riding with you. What's up? Yeah, yeah, quick. Right, right.

What's up? You don't want to fuck with Nick Van Exel, bro. If I, Roger, if I won the 80-deck question, what all-star today would you put on the 0-1-6ers to win the championship? What all-star today would I put on the 0-1-6ers? I'm trying to think. today's all-star? Like, would you do like a Janus type, like a forward?

Yeah, you know who I was thinking. I wasn't doing today, but like for the 0-1-6ers, like Amari Stademeyer is a nice 0-1-6ers. That's a good drawing. Yeah. Especially in that time when the post was meant a lot more. Yeah, and he's downhill. Like, I like to marry.

Do you guys win 0-1? I'm about to say, though. Maris Stadamire, do you all win with O-1? Amari swapped in the night of hell. When you think you win with? Yeah, I think, yeah, I think because defensively you kept Dekembe, yeah, if you gave us a bona fide four that could score, I mean, they'd obviously have to run different offense. But if he was involved, if Amari was involved and used to Amari's level, I don't, I can't tell you whether we win it or not, but we got a much better shot of winning it. If we're tap, hey, hold up, but we're tapping into your old sons teams.

Wouldn't, wouldn't Matrix, wouldn't Sean Marion actually be like the better fit? Because also like he could have guarded Kobe? Yeah, no, Sean Marion is you drop into any, like, and he's going to make it. But I think from a scoring perspective, like, probably go to Mari, right? Because we were so AI dependent. The defense wasn't a problem. Like Kobe, people are going to kill me. But I don't think that was ultimately the issue as much as it was point production for us outside of AI.

And trying to stop. I'll say what. Amari would have caught a few bodies in that finals. Amari would have caught a few bodies in that O-1 finals. Robert Oreo on the suburb of the screen. Rick Fox, come here. Devin George, like a couple of dudes. And also, Sean Marion on those, if you put Sean Marion on those Warriors teams, too,

and kick out of Jurymond, that's not bad either. It's not bad. You can put him a lot of places, man. You put, you take. Y'all want to do one more? You put Boris Diao. You put Boris Diao in Denver. Yeah.

We're like... But it has to be motivated, Boris, okay? Yeah, it's gotta be... It can't be French Polynesian. Boris. It can't be Charlotte, Boris. It can't be Charlotte, yeah. It can't be Charlotte Bobcast, Boris.

Wait, let's do one more. Let's do one more. Let's do one. All, you want to do it. Another Rockets one. Hey, y'all, this is from Robert. Hey, y'all, big fan of the show and big Rockets fan.

My question is, why does Shingoon's analysis always compare him to Subonis? I think it's unfair to both players. Sabonis is better on offense, but I think Shangoon is way better on defense at age 22 that Subonis will ever be. as evidenced by the Rockets, ranking, and record. If five is the most important spot on D, shouldn't Shingoon get some credit for that?

The ceiling, in my opinion, is just way higher with Shingoon. Thanks, Robert. I'm just going to tap in real quick, Robert, I'm going to give you guys the floor. What you're comparing Subonis, right? You're talking about the... I think DeMontas, probably? DeMontas, I'm assuming the current Subunus now. He's a dad.

Oh, yeah, that was pretty good, too. Yeah, I thought he was talking about the dad. All right, sorry. Not our Vetus, Devonis. Sorry, all right. Go ahead. Then you guys go ahead. My point would be moot.

because we ain't see him at his prime. No. The dad, we got the, yeah, like in his prime, he was a monster. Appreciate the question. Appreciate this is one of my buddies from Blue Sky who hit me there before he realized that he should have sent it via email instead. So thank you for that. This is one of those questions like this are tough because it's like, why are people

doing X? And it's like, well, I don't think any of us on this podcast have been the ones comparing him to either Subonis. So I don't know how to answer that. Like, that's, like, this is clearly a beef with somebody else's, uh, characterization or comparison. So I don't, I don't know where that's happening. I always hear Shangoon is being referred to as like, you know, discount Yokic more

than anything else. Um, not the sub bonus, uh, comparison. But like, there are some similarities in the, in the way that they, in the way that impact, the, the way they impact the game with both, you know, passing and scoring and a little inside and out. and I don't know. I don't know. It's an unfair comparison,

but I also am not the one making it, so I don't have anything. Okay. I don't have anything. I know Roger doesn't. No. Roger checked out on my own. I got that daughter date in 30 minutes. So I'm right.

Oh, oh shit. Let's get the hell out of here. Real ones mailbag at gmail.com. Real ones mailback at gmail.com. Real onesmelbag at gmail.com. That has been the Tuesday episode of Real ones. You know what it is. Every Tuesday, we have.

me, Rajah, Howard, mother fucking Beck. And that means on Friday, it's going to be me and Rajah, mother freaking, Bell, the Friday vibes episode. We will see you guys then. See Howard next week.

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