The Ringer NBA Show - Melo (Finally) Signs in Houston, Kawhi’s “THANK YOU” Letter, and Are We Sure ...? | Heat Check (Ep. 307)

Episode Date: August 15, 2018

The Ringer’s John Gonzalez is joined by Shea Serrano to discuss Carmelo Anthony officially signing with the Houston Rockets (2:28) and to parse Kawhi Leonard’s farewell letter to San Antonio (14:17). Then, Justin Verrier joins to evaluate the "Are We Sure" questions about the Lakers’ playoff contention, Markelle Fultz, Devin Booker, and the Trail Blazers’ stars (24:22). Finally, Paolo Uggetti comes on to make the case for the Toronto Raptors as the East favorites (46:29) and to discuss NBA players’ use of social media over the summer (55:41). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a heat check. You knew that was coming. It's heat check time. Welcome to the heat check podcast. I'm your host, John Gonzalez, is joined once again in his triumphant return from his vacation. I'm back from my vacation. Our producer, Isaac, Lee. Isaac, we're back.

We are back. It's been an extended break. I was on vacation first, and then I came back. Then you went on vacation. Yeah, we did a little high five at the airport and all that. It was like a baton toss on the vacations. I was coming back. You were going out.

But now we were back, Verno. KOC have been holding down the Ringer NBA show feed for a while in our stead. And now we're going to work back into the mix and we're going to reboot heat check for the rest of the summer. We'll be back periodically. Checking in with everybody talking about offseason storylines

and there's plenty of that. There's also plenty of content on the Ringer. As you know, the NFL is underway. Preseason is hot. We just had on Monday. Eagles Day on the Ringer. Frankly, and I don't think this is biased at all, Isaac. The best day in Ringer history. Ringer.com history. It was really excellent, some very good content.

I just wrote about the expectations for the Eagles and their fans. And there's a bunch of other things on there that you'll want to check out, including our continuing NFL preseason coverage with Robert Mays and Kevin Clark and our whole staff. We've also got the Ringer NFL show. You want to be sure to check that out while you're getting prepared for football that's coming. And of course, the NBA, it continues. It's the offseason, but basketball never stops. Danny Chow just did a piece in our continuing, are we sure series.

This one was called Are We Sure? Devin Booker is a franchise player question mark. Very intriguing. Danny Chow, we're going to get to that topic a little bit later in the show when we break down our Are We Sure series with basketball editor

here at the ringer.com, extraordinary. Justin Varyer will be on the program. We'll also have Palo Esco blog, Palo O'Getti to talk about his, are you sure, about the Raptors and whether or not they should be favored in the Eastern Conference.

And he did some offseason storylines that are intriguing. But first, I got a whole bunch of things that I want to get into. I just recently wrote about Mello joining the Rockets. that's officially happening. Kauai and the letter that he put out,

a bunch of things that happened in the offseason that I haven't gotten to discuss yet. And for that, I need a very special guest who's perfect to break all those things down. Let's bring him in. Boom, Shakalaka. He's heating up.

All right, joining me on the other line, one of my favorites here at the Heat Check podcast. I just saw his smiling face. We had our Ringer NBA meeting already for the season in August, which makes my head want to melt out of my brain. But it's nice to have Shay Sorano joining the program to discuss basketball

with us because it never stops. Shea, what's up? What up? You just said you want your head to melt out of your brain. It makes me feel like my head is melting out of my brain, or I guess my brain would have to melt out of my head, but as you can clearly see, I'm already flabbergasted by the whole prospect of the NBA

rebooting. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. It's like the finals are still going on, I believe, and we're going to start a new season while they're playing the final. The day that the NBA finals ended, I got on a plane the next day but that night I remember like feeling like this weight had been lifted

and I was super excited I was like it was a phenomenal season and I put it in Slack and Simmons is like what are you talking about? The season's not over and I'm like I know but just let me have this one little bit

Yeah it goes forever man that's the good thing about basketball though is it other seasons you have to take a break football is gone for half a year or whatever but basketball is just always there basketball is the best

basketball never stops and in that vein Carmelo Anthony, who was like sort of casting about, we knew that Oklahoma City was going to trade him, and then we knew Atlanta was going to buy him out. But we were sort of waiting for that third step, which was for him to sign with the Houston Rockets. And that's what happened. He finally signed his deal, one year, $2.4 million. This is your old hometown. You have since relocated to your previous hometown in San Antonio, which we'll get to in a little bit. But I wanted to get into Houston and Mello and their marriage and whether or not it's good. It's good for him, right?

it's great for him he's pretty great and it's not so great for Houston I feel like Houston made a bunch of curious moves this off season isn't they or is that just

it might just be in a jerk no no I think like well part of it was with Houston and their salary cap situation like once you go and you sign Chris Paul to his max and then once you go and you bring back Capella you're pretty much locked in with those two guys and James Hardin and it doesn't give you much financial flexibility so it always looked like

like, you know, all those, those reports about, hey, you know, maybe they'll figure out a way to get LeBron. That was going to be tough because they didn't have the money and LeBron wasn't going to take a discount. And that's part of the reason why Areza walked and went and took that one year deal for, what was it, like 14 million, 15 million to go to Phoenix. And then Bhamutei walked and went back to the clipper. So they didn't, yeah, like, didn't have a lot of money to throw around. So, like, part of this, I think, was, hey, we can afford mellows, one year for 2.4 million. I guess that's fair. Did Trevor a reason one, that one when I thought?

That sucks. He was big for them. He did all of this stuff. You needed a guy to do who plays with James Hard and then Chris Paul. He was great. And then so he left and then everybody went, oh, it's fine because we got Luke. Like he shoots better than Trevor and he can do the same thing as Trevor does.

And then Luke left. It was like, what the hell is going on? And it's just been weird. The Carmelo thing, I feel like that happened three months ago. Yeah. And then it finally did happen and there was no big, like, there should have been a big thing when they signed Carmela. You're talking about one of the best players of the last, you know,

15 years or something crazy like that. And it just, it just hasn't felt, it hasn't felt right yet. It didn't feel like when they signed Chris Paul. It didn't feel like when they signed James. It didn't even feel like when they signed Dwight. That was like real excitement when they signed Dwight.

And they had all these like H-town banners. Yeah. And billboards all across Houston and, you know, H for Howard and Hart. It was a big thing. Carmelo just sort of showed up. You know, fingers crossed that it worked out and they're really good. I wish they would have won the title last year.

It would have been so great to see them be Golden State, but I just can't talk myself into believing Carmelo's the guy who's going to get them over the home. No, and I think it really, like, it felt kind of anticlimactic, and I think that there's a number of reasons for that. Like, one, you know, you've got a different version of Carmelo Anthony. This isn't like Carmelo in New York. It's certainly not Carmelo in Denver. even when he went to OKC last year

that felt kind of fun and momentous because you were trying to put together a new group but then when OKC looks around and goes, all right, we're not going to go into the luxury tax this far for Mello, let's ship him to Atlanta and Atlanta takes him in a buyout and then lets him go and it's like, yeah, what are you really

getting from this version of Carmelo Anthony because last year by all accounts he had a decline in pretty much every statistical category offensively and he's never played defense and he's in his early to mid-30s now. and you just look at him and I go like, I don't know, is he washed? Is he done? I'm serious. He might be. I'm wondering what's going to happen when they ask him to come off the bench,

because that didn't work out so great in Oklahoma City. You just shut that totally down. It's just, I don't know, man, it just feels weird. And part of that was like the anti-excitment of them signing him. It should have been great. It felt like when one of your friends you're all hanging out and he's like, oh, guys, I have an announcement. I finally started dating Tiffany or whatever. And then everybody goes, I thought you'd been dating her for like six months. What's going on?

Oh, we just made it. Like, that's what it feels like with Carmelo. I don't know. Yeah, it's this thing that we were waiting for. And I don't know, I'm with you. Like, on the one hand, so you mentioned ERISA. Maybe to some people, that doesn't seem like a big deal,

but you were 100% right when you said that he was good for that team and that he did all the things that you needed other guys to do because you've got Paul and you've got Hardin. And like when they put those two guys together, I was wondering, like, can you have two ball dominant guards on that team? How's that going to work on the floor? Is there going to be problems off of it? Is there going to be friction?

But that worked out really well. And I think part of the reason why it worked out really well is because you had all these ancillary supporting complementary pieces who just like knew their role and did what they were supposed to. And the reason was one of those guys. He played awesome defense. He was switchable and he shot threes. Great.

Wonderful. Bahamute plays great defense. You know who doesn't play defense? Carmel Anthony. And like, I wonder, like, this is an ISO ball team, but they like the two guys to be doing the ISO to be Chris Paul and James Hardin. And they're like everybody else to be like sort of outlet vows where you can just toss the ball and have them jack up threes. Now, Mello kind of did that last year for OKC where they were like, go over there, stand in the quarter, shoot threes. He shot the second most threes for them after Paul George.

But we saw that that wasn't really a good role for him. And he complained about it. And then on top of that, like you said, he doesn't want to come off the back. bench, even though he would probably be better off the bench. He said multiple times, I'm the only guy who's going to know when I'm ready to come off the bench, and he intimated that it wasn't now. I just look at this fit, and I go, what's he do? What's he do that Houston, that you want Houston to have, right?

He can score, but they already have a lot of that. What they really need is more defense and somebody to fit in seamlessly, and I wonder about it. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to watch that play. When they got Clint, that made me feel a lot better about them. he was definitely more important than or really is probably the third most important player on their team. But yeah, throwing Carmelo in there, it's either going to work out really, really

well, or it's going to be a total disaster. I think it can only be one of those two things. So, you know, fingers crossed that they're really, really good. That's just what I'm hoping for. I want them to be good because I like them as a foil set up for Golden State, but I just wonder, like, in the same way that I wasn't sure about the fit on-court or off-court with Paul and Harden,

I have those same resident. Now, we've already answered that. like Paul and Harden have been great, fine. But we're going to have those same questions, especially as it relates to Mike Dantonie. Let's not forget that Mike Dantone and Mello already tried this in New York and it didn't work out so great. Like, Dan Tony had that piece, did that piece with ESPN last year where he revealed like, you know, he was asked about his time in New York and he was like, look, I wanted Mello to play power forward. And Mello was like, nah.

And then Mello basically told the organization, you've got to pick one between us. and that caused Dan Tony to just go in there and quit. And so more recently, after this signing with Mello in Houston, Dan Tony was asked about what happened before. This is what he said. He goes, we never had a blow up before. So it's not he wanted to play a certain kind of way, and I kind of wanted to coach another way.

Back then in New York, there wasn't even analytics. I was going by my gut, and he was going by his gut, and it's just, you know, styles clash. I imagine this in our Slack. I'm like, so at first, there weren't analytics. I'm going to take umbrage with that statement. But so is he implying now that like analytics are going to save their relationship? I don't understand what he's saying.

You know what? The thing that will make me feel a little, I'm not so worried about Anthony, Dan Tony Angle, is because as you mentioned, he told New York, like, pick one of us. One of us is not going to be here next season, which one do you want it to be? He can't do that in Houston. Dan Tony is a perfect coach for the Hardin Chris Paul attack. He's very clearly, extremely valuable.

If Carmelo walks into Darryl Morey's office and says the same thing, like they're just going to ship Carmelo away. That's like a very low risk situation for him. So maybe because of that, he falls in line. Maybe he's excited about being on an actual for the first time in his career championship contender. They weren't contenders in Oklahoma. It wouldn't have any sort of intendor in New York.

But this is the first time he showed up to a team that should have been in the finals, that should have won the title. and he's supposed to be that piece. So maybe he just processes everything a little bit, a little bit differently now. Who knows, man? Yeah, and, you know, that's a really good point about how it be. It is low risk for them.

It's one year, 2.4 million. If it doesn't work out, you can kick him to the curb, and it doesn't really matter. But Dan Tony said, like, at the very worst, he thinks that this Rockets team will be great. Like, that's worst-case scenario is that they're great. We're just, we're doing this series on the ringer.com, shameless plug, an R.

Are We Sure series where we challenge, like, certain assertions, conventional wisdom. And the one of the one that I wrote was, are we sure that the rocket's window hasn't closed yet? Like looking at the shifting dynamics in the Western Conference. And this was before Mello got added. And I just like look at the Warriors adding boogie and now LeBron is in the Western Conference. And you've got OKC for whatever you want to think about OKC still lingering out there. And Anthony Davis is Anthony Davis.

And I just like, I wonder as Chris Paul ages out of being a superstar and you go and add a guy like Mello who is not exactly been known as a team first guy. Are we sure that Dan Tony's right? Are we sure that the worst that they'll be this year is great? Yeah, Dan Tony's right about that. If for no other reason, then because who leapfrogged them? Yeah. You know, who besides the Warriors can you say right now is better than the rocket?

Nobody. Not a single team. Not the Lakers got LeBron and he's the best player in the world, sure. But he's along, you know, 11 other, 10 other guys who can't do what he does. It's not the same thing. Rockets would have beaten the Cavaliers in the finals that they played before, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. There's just no other team that can beat the Rockets like the Warriors can.

So for that reason, they're going to be great. Their record will at least say, though, they're going to be great. They'll win somewhere between 55 and 63 games, I'm sure. And you'll say, okay, these are the guys who have to beat Colden State if someone's going to beat Golden State. So, yeah, he's right about that. I hope he's right. I really do. Like, I get a lot of flag from Rocket fans on Twitter,

about throwing shade at them, but I want them to be good because this whole inevitability thing with the Warriors got tired a while ago, and I'd like for somebody to at least challenge their supremacy, so that would be nice. All right, so that's the Rockets. That's where you were in Houston. Now you're back in San Antonio. I haven't talked to you since Kauai got shipped up north to Toronto, and I definitely haven't talked to you since he put out his thank you letter, and I want to go through

this with you because it demands the Shea Serrano take. So I want to read through the Kauai Leonard thank you letter to San Antonio. And we'll just, we'll just break it down line by line. And we'll just, whatever you think about it, you let me know because this is Taylor made for you. I feel like he almost wrote this with you on his shoulder. It's too good. All right. So here's the first.

All right. So San Antonio, I've been going back and forth the last few weeks trying to figure out the right things to say. And it comes down to two simple words. Thank you in all caps with an exclamation point. I'm going to stop here. He's been going back and forth the last few. Do you think he really worked on this like 47 word letter for two weeks?

I think he did. I want to imagine that anyway, that that's how it happened. I joked before that he was like in the mountains in a cabin. He grew a beard. He had a one of those very thick turtlenecks. And he was working by candlelight just trying to put this masterpiece together. He was in there like Ernest Hemingway style. just working and working.

And this is what he came up with after three weeks of total silence following the trade or whatever. This is what we got. It's a masterpiece. He finally emerged from the cab and his eyes were bleary and he rubbed them.

All right, next line here. My family and I want to say thank you again, all caps for thank you, to the entire Spurs organization and the people and fans of San Antonio. I believe the people and fan of San Antonio component. Do you believe the entire Spurs organization

given what happened. No, probably like three people in the Spurs organization. He likes, still, everybody else. That's a very different, blank you. That's not a thank you. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't understand why he decided to,

why every thank you is capitalized. It's every, that makes it feel sarcastic just a little bit. Less sincere. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But again, you don't know. You don't know if Kauai was like trying to figure out

what's the thing that regular people do to convey emotion. ocean. And he was like, oh shit, that's right. Caps lock. And then he did that and he thought it really were, I don't know, man. Kauai is a, Kauai is a, I remember one time Bill Simmons called them a capital, W weirdo. I guess maybe that's what we're dealing with here. A capital. Or maybe just the guy who's not good at the internet. All caps, thank you. I actually think about this sometimes, like, you know, like when you're texting with somebody in your family who might be older and they'll sprinkle in like extra exclamation points or emojis that seem sort of out of place and you're just like, oh, they don't know the medium. Like,

you know, writing, you got to play around with it. Yeah, that's what my dad does when he texts. Yeah, like six or seven commas in between words. And I'm like, what's going on here? Dad, why are the, why have you used to comment? Why did Kauai do it in blue? Did anybody ever figure that out? This is in the same way that, um, Dan Gilbert used the comic Sands font that nobody could figure out. Like, yeah, why was it in blue? I don't know. I don't know what it is. I remember a reason to think about if you send in comics science font, it makes people

less offended by it. So maybe that, I mean, that could be a reason that Dan did that. But I don't understand the different color. What he's trying to make it cheerier? Like, what he's saying he feels blue? I don't understand anything. There could be a hidden meaning here. I don't know. It's very deep. He could be doing

three-dimensional letter writing here. Next line here. Thank you, again, all caps, to every one of my teammates I've played with over my seven years in the NBA. wonder about every one of my teammates, given that Manu and Tony Parker, basically were like, yeah, he's not hurt. Yeah, I wonder about why didn't he add a thing like in there. Thank you for it to every one of my teammates that I played over seven years and also the

teammates that I only played nine games with this past season. Like, that would have been a great thing if you would have slid that in there. I would have loved that. So great. Then he's got, thank you, pop. I'll always be grateful for my growth under your guidance. I'm calling the biggest bullshit on this one. Dude, the two of them, like, without, like, actually fighting fought quite a bit last year.

Yeah, they did. But I think, I think Kauai is, like, probably a very smart person. He understands that had he gone to another team at whatever, you know, at the point of his career when he arrived at San Antonio, if he gone to Indiana, I think he understands he doesn't become this, the superstar player that he became in San Antonio. So maybe this one, he might be being serious here. This might be like a big grudging thank you. I understand.

I see what you did for me, but I'm still leaving. Like a little deference to the, right. I got to get out of here, but you definitely made me better. He gives another thank you to the fans. There is not a more passionate or dedicated fan base and what I've witnessed in San Antonio. That's fine. Through all the ups and downs, I'm glad there were many more ups.

Quick aside with an exclamation point, I'll never forget what we have shared and accomplished together. Yeah, that's accurate. Everybody has anything to understand the relationship with Kauai. got a little choppy. But we also know he won us the 2014 title. Without him, we don't win that title. We can't ever, like, ignore that part of it.

And that's a big thing. Like, that title was incredibly important because if we don't get that title and Tim Duncan's tenure ends with the 2013 finals and everything just sort of turning into mush, that's horrible. That's a horrible thing. When they went on to win the 2014 title, that wound that we had from 2013 healed over into like this very cool battle scar that you were proud to show off.

Like you survived the 2013 finals. There's no way to like overstate how important them winning in 2014 was, if not only for the fans, but for the legacies of like Pop and Tim and Mono and Tony. Like that was a big deal. It was like the last championship gas. So I mean,

you gotta love Kauai for that. If for no other reason, he's right, there were many more ups, that being the highest of all the ups. I like that you guys are coming out the other side on this. was a little painful at the time. He finishes it off. He goes,

well, I'm looking forward to the next chapter in my career. I'll always remember the city and the people of San Antonio. One more thank you with an exclamation point. Kauai and then his hand symbol.

Before we get to the hand, well, I'm looking forward to the next chapter in my career. Izzy, he's in Toronto. Yeah, well,

he's talking about past Toronto. That's what he's talking about. He's prepping the people of Toronto to, like, you guys understand. I'm not going to be here soon. So, you know, here we are.

How do you feel about the hand symbol at the end? It's a terrible logo. It's been terrible since he got it whenever he got it, you know, a couple years ago. It's just, it's bad. Because the fingers are a K and an L. Correct. It's amazing. It's a lot.

It's a lot. It's just, hey, hey, Kaua Leonard letter. You mentioned real quick before I let you go, because I know you have a lot of things going on. You're probably right. How many more books are you writing today? Three or four? Six books. Six books.

So did you see that the Clippers, and Isaac, feel free to jump in on this one, the Clippers let Bruce Bowen go because they're trying... I did. I saw that. So for people who are listening right now who didn't see this, the Clippers, one of their analysts is Bruce Bowen. Bruce Bowen obviously used to play for the Spurs. Bruce Bowen has been very vocal about Kauai Leonard being kind of a jerk last season or not

doing what he was supposed to do. He said on Sirius XM Radio in June, I think there's nothing but excuses going on with Kauai. it was while I was mixed diagnosed. Look here, you got $18 million this year, and you think that they're trying to rush you. You didn't play for the most part a full season this year, and you're the go-to guy, you're the franchise, and you want to say that they didn't have your best interest at heart?

Are you kidding me? So obviously, he's a Spurs guy through and through, but he, color analyst for the Clippers, but not anymore because they kicked him to the curb because they eventually hoped to court Kauai next off-season. What? That's a really, really, like, breaking bad, looking forward to all the bases already.

I think he's brilliant, and it's just kind of funny. But also, we got to make sure that we pay respect to Bruce Bowen, one of the best spurs of all time. Like, he's that dude, you know what I'm saying? Bruce Bowen's fantastic. I think, like, what you said about the Clippers, though, is right that they are like, okay, well, you know, shot in the dark, if we can maybe get quiet.

But how sensitive do you have to be to be like, yeah, Bruce Bone, you got to go because you dared question a guy who doesn't even play for us? Well, see, that's what, like, the brilliant part of it is they're establishing very early on, Kauai, come here, we won't let anything slide.

Not even the smallest microaggression against you will be tolerated. Come here, you will rule as king. It's brilliant. It's like a brilliant thing. It's also,

to me, very funny. It's like if you had a bunch of dirty kids and they've got their fingers crossed that the cool kid from school is going to come to their party, everybody knows that he's not.

He's never coming to your party. Oh, man. They're like, oh, his favorite soda is root beer. Like, we got a refrigerator full of root beer. And then they're just waiting and he's never going to show up. He's never coming to drink your rupeer, Steve Balmer. Shea, I hate how right you are. Yeah, I'm exceptionally right in this one regard.

Exceptionally right. In all regards, make sure that you read, Sheaerano on the ringer.com. He's got all kinds of stuff. He'll be back on heat check later on in the summer as it funnels towards the regular season. And you're unpacking. You're already fully moved into St. Antonio. You're ahead of the curve per year.

usual. Thank you for doing this. All right, boy, stuff. Take a dude. All right, there's Shea Serrano, breaking down all things Texas basketball for us and all things what won't happen for the Clippers. And then coming up, next we're going to get into our Are We Sure series

with the man who quarterbacked it, Justin Barrier. All right, joining me in the studio right now, the architect of our Are We Sure series basketball editor, Justin Barrier. Architect. Yeah. Sounds fancy. Why not? You put it all together. You mapped it out. You drew the blueprint and then we're building up the blocks around. We've had a bunch of them on the ringer.com. I encourage you guys to go check that out on our NBA page.

It's getting us through the dog days of summer. Some topics that we've been discussing. I just talked to Shea about the rockets and their window. Riley had a good one we can start with. We're here in L.A. The Lakers. So we've got LeBron. He's in the Western Conference. He's playing for the Lakers. There's a lot of drama surrounding it. But Riley's was, are we sure that the Lakers will make the playoffs? Yeah, and this was a Riley self-pitch. It was. He saw what was going on. He just felt like he needed to speak some truth into existence.

It's odd that the Sacramento Kings fan on staff would posit this theory. But it is interesting because, like, I think that we automatically assume because they've got LeBron that it's, you know, a guarantee. Where do you fall on it? Yeah, he brought up a really good argument where if you looked at statistics, where the calves were last year, if they just played in the West, they probably wouldn't have made it. And you look at the supporting cast,

around LeBron, they're younger and probably more talented, but I'm not necessarily the pieces fit. Maybe you've heard that argument before once or twice around the NBA A sphere. I think they'll make it simply because LeBron is just that good. I do think they're going to have a lot of competition

because every team in the West is going to be competing. And so some of those gimmee games against Orlando on a Tuesday night, that's not such an easy win anymore. So you look at the Western Conference. I mean, so when Booky comes back, the Warriors will be starting ostensibly five All-Stars, which is crazy. They were already the Warriors.

Like, it's going to be tough. Then you go, all right, with the Rockets, they were the best team in the regular season last year. They came within one win, one elusive win of getting past the Warriors. They're going to be good, even though I'm still worried about the mellow fit and, like, what he does to them and whether he comes off the bench. And if he's a pain in the ass and like, but fine, they're still going to be really good. Portland Trailblazers finished third in the conference and then got rocked by the Pelicans. And then after that, it's like a potpourri of like, who knows, you've got the Thunder, you've got the Jazz, you've got the Pelicans, the Spurs, the Timberwolves, the Nuggets.

I mean, that popery of who knows is where I slack the Lakers automatically. Yeah, I mean, I think the Thunder and the Jazz are going to be really good. I wouldn't be surprised if they both get a first round by. I think both teams have the potential to be really good on defense, especially. If I look at the teams that are soft right now, it would be Minnesota and, San Antonio. I'm not a huge believer in what San Antonio is kind of doing. I know that... What is that, again, that they're doing? Aside from getting rid of Kauai. Playing toward the middle, or shooting for the middle here. I just think, like, they lost enough

defensively with Kauai and replaced them with one of the worst defenders among a regular in the NBA. And so I think that's going to take away their main advantage. And I think Minnesota, meanwhile, still hasn't figured things out and seem like there's still enough kind of unrest there that I might keep them from ever reaching their ceiling. But you look at not only the, the Lakers trying to get in, but what about the Nuggets? What about the Clippers? A team that doesn't have a lot of good players, but they have a lot of above-averageness. And I feel like that's the type of team that could surprise out of nowhere and all of a sudden,

like, they're a little more frisky than we expect. And worst case, the Lakers have to play them, what, four times a year? And those aren't just gimmee games. And so I think those sort of things might add up and work against the Lakers. I just love how the Clippers and how desperate they are to like cling on to relevance. We were just talking about, I have to just bring this up again. We were talking about it with Shay, but did you see the Bruce Bowen story? Yeah.

It's so great. It's like, it's one of the most clipper stories of all time that they would fire a dude who does color commentary for them just to maybe have a shot at a guy who probably is never going to go there. Yeah, on the other hand, I didn't think Bruce was that good. Bruce is fine. Bruce is fine, but I do find it hilarious. So, but no, like, I thought the, you know, I'm with you on the Spurs. Like, I can't, I'm really looking forward to DeMarre to. Rosen and Lamarcus Aldridge, like, elbowing each other out of the mid-range.

Like, there's only so much space in there to shoot those jumpers, so good luck with that. Who knows what happens with the Pelicans? The Timberwolves are interesting because, like you said, there's so much drama there, and it's like Jimmy G. Buck, it's really going to want to stick around. It doesn't look like it. It doesn't sound like it by any indication. I wonder if that team is already done before it even starts, and they have to reboot it again. That's why I just, like, the Western Conference is, yes, it's the better conference by

a considerable margin. There's all these really good players who play there. I think Zach Cram went through like the last of the last however many years, the vast majority of MVP top five finishers are in the Western Conference, with the exception at the time of Isaiah Thomas, who now is also in the Western Conference. So the predominant number of MVP, top five finishers are in the Western Conference. But I just don't look at anybody after the first two teams with the Rockets and the Warriors

and go, oh, yeah, this is going to be a significant change. He's still abroad. Right. there are five teams that I would say are locks, the top five that we mentioned. I think the Pelicans are almost assured to get there just because I'm assuming Anthony Davis is going to have a big year. I think it's a big year for the franchise. I think it's a particularly big year for him and his trajectory. If he's not top three in MVP again, I think we start to knock him a little bit, fair or unfair. From there, it's a little soft and that's where I give the edge of LeBron.

It's what we were saying last year when in doubt, like when we don't know what's there, there's always the LeBron factor. making the play. If we went by last years, because you were mentioning Riley's, if you just went by how Cleveland finished, they wouldn't have done it in the Western Conference. The Lakers had 35 wins, so they're going to need to improve by 12 wins going by the standings. significant. It's a significant bump. And the one thing we bring up, the Lakers are not only, maybe not as talented as some of these other teams. They also are young, comparatively. And I would give the Lakers a little bit of an advantage there because in the second half of the season they were so good at defense. Well, not good, but they were above average at defense. Yeah, there you go. And so that signal to me that even though

they are young, they can do some things on that end, which is where teams tend to get in trouble early on. but still they're going to make mistakes and while LeBron is there to correct a few of them Lonzo Ball still has to get in there and play through some of his errors I mean he played what half a season last year you still want to see some development and development doesn't necessarily lead to wins

it'll be fun though it'll be fun to see how that goes especially because like I can't imagine that this roster this meme team is what he's going to take into the playoffs with him for me it's going to LeBron will look around at some point and go yeah we're going to need more and then he'll make that happen

and they've got plenty of flexibility, so that'll be one that we're watching. Another, are we sure? This one was by the venerable KOC. Are we sure that Mark Kalfolds can't be the third star in Philly? You go ahead on this one. I've got a lot of thoughts on Mark Elfaults.

I kind of have the same thoughts that I've always had on him, where I look at what he actually did last year, which was not that much. And you saw an NBA athlete. You saw why people were interested in him to begin with. I am significantly concerned about the shooting. And particularly in that lineup, I think it presents a lot of issues.

They lost Zaire, so that opens up more playing time ostensibly, or at the very least someone who wouldn't get in the way of his playing time, if they're going to work lineups around Ben Simmons. He has the opportunity. He has the talent. I just don't know. It's really a guessing game. It would be so sad if he isn't.

If we reverse engineer this, they drafted him and traded up. Way to go, Brian Klan. your legacy is that you not only passed on Jason Tatum, but that you gave up another pick to your division and conference rival in order to secure it. Not great. Not a great look. Almost as bad as maybe having several burner accounts and tweeting out from it or having

your wife tweet out from it. But I'm rooting for Markell because if it doesn't work out, this will be an all-time misfire. It'll be an all-time misfire for the six years franchise and it'll be an all-time. We'll look back on it in the same way we look back on Anthony Bennett and go, oh, man, this is like one of the great misses as a first overall pick in NBA history. And that's just such a burden to carry. Like if that poor kid has to be that for the rest of his life, that would suck.

I wouldn't wish that on anybody. So I'm really rooting for him. I just wonder because in order for him to become that third star, he's going to have to develop that jump shot because there's no, like they already have Ben Simmons. Right. Ben Simmons, if it's going to be two guys who are ball dominant who can't shoot, Ben Simmons is a much better version of that. player. They already have T.J. McConnell, which is essentially an insult, sir. And I take umbrage with that on behalf of all Philadelphians. Right now, yeah, T.J. is a better version of that. Like, you'd probably feel better about him out there. And they did feel better about him

out there in crunch time in the playoffs and moments when it mattered. Like, he played against Boston. Markell didn't. So these things happen where you look at it and you go, like, I wonder, it's such a critical time for him. Obviously, he's been working on a shot all summer. if it's not right right away, then how nervous do you get? I think the two advantages that he's going to have are similar thing that we were just saying with the Lakers or the opposite,

where there isn't a huge incentive to be amazing right now. They didn't get Kauai Leonard. They didn't really fill that third chair, and thus it's wide open for Fultz to take it, and maybe they have more of the reason to not necessarily shift to a developmental strategy, but at the very least take their time

with him and both the team overall. You could take a little bit more time with Joel. They have enough depth at this point that they can kind of just kind of coast to the regular season. The East is soft. They can shoot for maybe the three seat or something yet again. And on the other side of it, the original conceit of this was, can Markle Fultz still be a top three player in this draft class? Which KOC correctly pivoted from because it's a little bit wild.

But I think the fact that that is, it's out there, but not all the way out there, just shows how much talent he still has. And you look at the draft class, I mean, it's getting to be pretty top-heavy where you have two likely formative players and Mitchell and Tatum. Tatum. Just the fact that he's even in that conversation, even if you could bring that up,

at least points to that there is still something there to tap into. The question, like, as we wrote it was, are we sure that Markelle Fultz can't be the third star in Philly? Just from the Sixers' perspective, I'm not sure that they're sure, because they had all this money in the offseason. and they're going to have to roll it over. And that's through, you know, they figured,

hey, we could be players in free agency or if not they went and got that unprotected Miami pick and they figured that they could put it in a package and go out there and get another player. And it didn't work out for them. They're going to have to roll all this money over in the next off season, when really that window to secure another superstar

will close because the year after that, they'll have to give Ben Simmons his money. And if Dario Sarich is around still, they're going to have to give him a new contract. And all of a sudden now your financial flexibility goes out the window. So next off season really becomes, the big one because they couldn't get anything done this year.

My point here is that several times Brown said, we need more. Right? Like he flat out said, like for everybody who says, for the fans, for the media, for anybody who says we're good as currently constituted, that this thing is homegrown, that we don't need anymore, I disagree. And I think not to say that that is, it wasn't meant as a shot at Markell. I think it was just him going, what we have now isn't enough. And that includes MBE, that includes Simmons.

They need more people around them. So I don't think that they even know or believe for sure that Fultz is going to like fix everything that went wrong and all of a sudden he's going to be a superstar. Like that's a lot to ask. It's a lot to ask of a kid who still acts like a kid and plays like a kid. And I don't know. If I was them, I'd be worried. I'd be hesitant. Not in a lot of vocal leadership to be expected from Markell Fultz next day.

No. But I think it brings up an interesting question with Sarich. Like if we're saying the question is who could be the third star in Philly. Can Sarge be that guy? No. I've never been a huge believer. I really like his game. I love Dario.

But it looks like he's running in quicksand a lot of the times. Yes, he's not fast. He's not fleet of foot. I really like Dario. His shot has gotten a lot better. He's a really good passer. I think he's like a good 1A slash 2 option, right? Like if he's going to be the complimentary piece to your real superstars,

great, fine, good, I'm in. Yeah. If you're asking him to be the third superstar, I just don't see it. I mean, I don't think that he's got that. I think, like, his ceiling is lower than that. But he's really good, and that's fine. I think it's okay for him to just be really good Dario Sarich

than rather than, like, projecting that they have to have him develop into this third guy, because then I think you're setting yourself up for disappointment. Yeah, I've been surprised that positionally he doesn't overlap with Simmons more than, let's say, Foltz or another guard. Yeah. Just considering how they have a lot of wide bodies out there on the defensive end, and they weren't losing a lot, especially with Embedged. back there to race things. So that's encouraging

if you are going to view him as a piece of your core going forward. I like to be encouraged by the Sixers. When we're talking about superstars, there's another one that we threw out in our Are We Sure series? We were wondering about Markell if he could be one. Are we sure this is by Danny Chow? Are we sure that Devin Booker

is a franchise player? This was a spicy tomato. I was very surprised by this that this showed up in our Are We Sure series. He got five years, $158 million. Devin Booker did, not Danny Danny Chow is worth more than that. And in this, Danny asks,

is he a good stats, bad team guy? Only 15 players in NBA history have averaged at least 24 points for rebounds and 4 assists in their third season and in the NBA. The only player to do it who was younger than Booker was LeBron James. That sounds good.

However, like Danny said, not exactly a lot of competition for the ball or to put up numbers in Phoenix. Where do you fall on Devin Booker? Yeah, I think Danny brings up a really interesting comp, which is James Harden, just in the projection of Devin Booker's career, he's going to have to play more like that.

And if you look at Hardin's trajectory, yeah, he was a little underrated in Oklahoma City, but I think a lot of the people that adopted some of the advanced analytics early on knew that there was a star there just waiting for the opportunity, whereas a lot of the stats with Booker don't necessarily suggest that. And so I do feel like he not only has to play more like Hardin, he has to run an offense,

he has to be better in the pick and roll. He has to do some of the more nuanced things that we associate with Hardin, but also kind of be a more complete player. And so that's going to be tough to kind of manage there. So I think he is a really good score. I think you can count on him to fill it up as we've seen over the past couple of years.

But I do feel like he needs to get guys involved better. And I do wonder with this sort of team that they're building around him if they might be disappointed because it really needs a Hardin S player to kind of get guys in there. Yeah, like when we're talking about Superstar or Star, like that's a conversation where I go, yeah, Devin Booker can be that. Franchise player, though, is that next step, right?

Like, franchise player is the guy who you're going to build around him. He's going to carry the team. You're going to be playoff relevant. You're going to be title contender relevant. Like, that's the one guy that you wouldn't trade for anybody. You can't move him. Like, I look at Devin Booker and think he's really good and he's really young and he's better than I think most people anticipated coming out of Kentucky. but then I go franchise player

and I start to squint my eyes a little bit and wonder about it. But this team that they're building around them is at the very least going to be intriguing. It is the off season, so I think sometimes we're skewed by what things we're interested in. Because when we had our NBA meeting

for the season for the ringer, everybody was talking about the sun's being interesting and being league pass relevant. And I'm like, we're a bunch of NBA nerds. I wonder if that's actually true. I mean, they'll put up a lot of points, so hopefully people will tune in.

Do you still think we're going to be interested by, this is like a complete side note, are we still interested intrigued by the Sons in December? Oh, that's, I would say January. January. Definitely out because I want to follow Ait's projections and just like Josh Jackson's kind of development there. But I think it is a good point looking at their supporting cast. If Booker isn't going to be the franchise player who is, I'm not a huge Aitin believer and he kind of only reaffirmed some of the doubts I have about him kind of stepping into that sort of role with the Sons. Yeah, yeah. He seems like, like high ceiling Tyson Chandler,

which is damning the same phrase. It is. It's well damned. Like he's athletic, but yet he's like, his movements are a little stiffer than you want from like a supreme athlete, which is he was Bill Daz coming out of Arizona. And I just don't know. He just seems limited. And it brings you back to like,

why didn't they go for Luca? And perhaps part of the calculus there was just they thought Booker would be able to kind of control the offense. They wanted him to be a hardened. sort of guy, and they didn't need a Luca, they needed someone more download to maybe play off him in the pick and roll. Right. Having said that. The classic guard combo that you want to build in the NBA.

But yeah. No, you're right. And that goes back to the original point, which will be whether or not we see Devin Booker emerges that franchise player. All right, the last, are we sure that I wanted to run past you? And this series will continue throughout the summer or the next couple of weeks. The last one here is, are we sure that the Blazers need to break up their backcourt? There's a little bit of confusion about this on social media.

So we put this out, and then C.J. McCollum liked it, which got people thinking that C.J. McCollum was endorsing that they break up the back court of... He's been doing a lot on social media. And Damien Lillard. But the actual premise of Haley's piece was that, no, they shouldn't break it up. That as she put in the piece, they should continue to risk being bad in the playoffs over being bad altogether. She says, and this is from her piece, I'm quoting. Right now, they're the fallback boyfriend, the Blazers are, waiting around just in case the current one doesn't work. workout or gets drastically injured. That possibility is likely why Olshey, Neil Olshey, the general manager will see it through.

Why throw away something that isn't necessarily broken? I'm with Haley on this. Don't break it up. I like them together. I'm even wearing a blazer shirt. This was accidental. I didn't think that through. But I like all things Blazers.

I didn't like their playoff performance, but I would keep the status quo and just take another shot. Is that how relationships work in 2018, by the way? What's that? That there are backups? I remember reading that line. I thought to myself, I just have no. hope for humanity. Not in my household.

My wife would end up cutting me. But maybe in other places, I guess people have backups. I don't know. What would you do? I do feel like they've bought themselves some time here, just in some of the moves that they've made around them. I think Zach Collins is the type of young guy. They like him.

Yeah, you want to invest in some guys that you could build around them. And I think he's the perfect kind of complimentary guy who could space the floor a little little bit on the front court. I am a little bit confused with the Nerkich move because it seemed like it was similar to some of the mistakes they made in the past. Where they saw, rather than lose an asset, they signed a better deal. It wasn't one of these ones that's going to hamstring their cap, and maybe they could trade it later on.

But I just don't know what he does for you, and he kind of limits their ceiling. And it almost, it seems like they're playing to take advantage of this window while they have Lillard and C.J. under contract. I believe it's until 2021 or 2022. I forgot when. And they're trying to do little things to make adjustments. until then, I like some of them,

but some of the bigger moves, they kind of worry me. Yeah, I was really high on NERC when they got him from Denver because he had that stretch towards the end of this regular season and then in the playoffs where he looked really good

and that team was a lot of fun. And then this past year, they looked great and fun and they surprised a lot of people, and then we got into the playoffs and we saw, oh, right, exactly what you just said, that all these pieces that aren't C.J. McCollum

and aren't Damien Lillard are maybe less useful than we anticipated or thought or at least they appeared to be. It was kind of like objects in the mirror are closer than they appear to be. They were a little bit farther away in this instance than we anticipated. Yeah, I mean, if you're going to be encouraged by anything, is this the defensive progress? Yes.

They made this year, that was always the issue. Yes. And I guess Norkich is a big part of that. But you look at the playoffs and the way that the Pelicans were able to run off some of their bigs off the floor, where Elferukamino at times was forced to play center and ostensibly was a three next to Anthony Davis just a few years ago. maybe they don't have the sort of wing depth that they try to ensure by bringing back

some of the guys in 2016. You're Mo Harkless's. You're Alan Crabb at the time. You're Evan Turner. I like Mo Harkless still in theory, but I just don't know if you have the right pieces in today's NBA. But that brings me back to Collins.

I think that is the type of guy that can maybe help lessen the blow there. But I don't know. I'm confused even as I'm trying to make the case for them. I'm going to roll the dice again with the Blazers. I'm all things Blazers. I say keep them together and move the other pieces around Dame and CJ, but I like them together.

All right, so we've got more, are we sure is coming out? Can you want to tease a couple? What else is in the lineup? You've got one coming out, right? Yeah, I'm doing one on Boogie Cousins. Buggy Cousins. And whether or not he'll ruin the Warriors. Will he ruin the Warriors?

And then on Monday, I've got, are we sure that the Lakers won't make a mid-season move on their roster? So that is kind of running counter to Riley's. Are we sure that they're going to even make the playoffs? I'm going to just take it. It's going to be a whole hit piece on Riley McAtee, so be sure to be checking that out. But Justin is quarterbacking our Are We Sure series,

and that's going to continue for a little bit, yeah? Yeah, just check us out in August. We're still here. Check us out. We're still talking about the NBA. We are still here talking about the NBA. He's Justin Varyer. Be sure to read his stuff on Theringer.com,

and he'll be back on Hecheck as the summer continues. Thanks, man. Thanks. All right, that was Justin Varyer. And now we're going to bring in one of our other favorites to discuss all the other things. this offseason that we haven't discussed yet. Let's bring him in. It's Palo.

All right, joining me in studio, the final guest of the program, better known as Shea Serrano coined him as Palo Esco blog. It's Palo Getty. He's one of our favorites here at Heech. You know, hearkening back to when I was a fact checker here, I'm going to have to fact check you because it's actually Jason who coined the name, Palo Esco blog. Did he? Yes.

Oh, Concepcion. She just kind of publicized it, but it was Concepcion. She likes to take credit for it. all these things. It's shameless. I can't believe he would do that. And so now you're right. It's trademark infringement. But nevertheless, you're still one of our favorites. Thank you. I appreciate it. You have a lot of favorites.

We only have our favorites on here at the heat check program. Everybody, if you're not on the show, you're not one of our favorites. It's an automatic. It's one of our rules. So we've been doing this, our we share series. We did some of them with Justin Barry, who's been editing all of them here at the ringer.com. The one that you wrote, are we sure the Raptors aren't the favorites in the east, in which you make. a compelling case for the Raptors, who are perennially being one of the best teams, or in

recent vintage, been one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, that we've sort of kind of forgotten about or overlooked because, you know, we've got the Sixers and we've got the Celtics, but they did add Kawhi Leonard, and you make the case for the Raptors staying at the top of the conference. I think it's easy to forget how good Kauai is. Like, in my mind, it's basic addition, where it's like you had a team that won a lot of games last year had the one seed, you add the best player, one of the best players in the league to that team. Exactly. He immediately becomes the best player in the East to me. Like it's not even close.

Like, yeah, we have to see if he's healthy. And like I mentioned in the piece, like provided he's healthy, this is all the things that he brings. But if he's healthy, I don't know why it's such a hard leap to make to say the Raptors are the best team in the East. Yeah, you know, like initially when you said that, I had to think about it. Because you're right. It's been a second since we've seen dominant Kauai and like we forget because Kauai was, you know, rehabbing last year and he was warring with the spurs and we didn't get to see the best version of him when he did actually play. We forget the Kauai that showed up in the playoffs and would like, you know, make an amazing play at one end of the floor offensively with a three-pointer or a dunk and then race to the

other end and like record a chase down block or lock somebody down as one of the great perimeter defenders in the NBA. He is a dominant player. He is, you know, not just a top five player, but one of the preeminent two-way players in the league. And like, initially when you said that, I looked at it, I'm like, can that be right that he's automatically the best player in the East? And like, yeah, he's better than anybody that the Celtics have. He is better than, you know, apologies to Philadelphia, anybody that the Sixers have. The Cavaliers, probably better than Kevin Love.

Yeah. Not Old Depot, the heat, same thing. I got to the box and I went. Is Janus there yet? That's where he gets interesting. He's still better than Yonis. Yeah, I think he's better than Yonis, obviously. but I think Janice has a chance to get to his level even this season.

The one thing that I think is important with Kauai is that not only does he have the playoff experience before, but we kind of trashed on the rafters for losing so poorly to LeBron last season and being so bad in the playoffs in that situation. And Kauai has the pedigree of succeeding in the playoffs, but also he has that style of game where you just need somebody to create their own shot and he creates not just shots, but efficient shots that he makes. So I think that when we take that into account, we're like, okay, we're really good. going to take the Raptors, when we're going to take them seriously is when they win in the

playoffs, and he gives them the best chance to do that. It's also sort of a little bit of the Eddie Murphy meme situation where like he's pointing to his head. You can't lose to LeBron in four games in the playoffs if LeBron isn't in your conference anymore. So congratulations on that to the Raptors. I just wonder like, I look at the other two teams that would be ostensibly challenging them. And apologies to, you know, Janus's Bucks and Olinipo's Paisers, but I still think that the conference is top heavy with three. teams. And the Raptors, you add Kauai, they're better. They have to be better. He's an infinitely better player than Demar de Rosen in every respect. That has to be a better team. And then, you know,

like you look at the other pieces that they've got around him with O. G. Nanovi coming up and you've got Van Blede and you've got, you know, Kyle Lowry is starting to lose his step a little bit. But I like him paired with Kauai and Abaka the whole bit. I've never really been a Valanchunus guy. But still, I like this. And then, you know, God bless Dwayne Casey, but also Godspeed. They needed a change they are fine. So I like that. However, again, I look at the other two teams and I go, especially with the Celtics. The Celtics were so good last year and surprisingly so. And despite the fact that they didn't have their top two guys and they're adding in two all stars. So while I think the Raptors were the best team in the conference last year and why they're getting better with Kauai, I just look at

some of the parts with the Celtics are the deepest team in the conference by a lot. Here's the thing with the Celtics. And I mean, I agree with you. They're deep. They should be a top two. favorite team, all of that, probably have the best chance of getting out of the east eventually. I think we're overlooking

the meshing of the parts of how Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown after getting a season full of like starter minutes because they had to are going to have to now incorporate Gordon Hayward

and Kyler Irving into their team. It's kind of a dumb reasoning because you're like yeah, they're just adding more star power so they should be fine. But I think there's

going to be something there where we might see like, oh, is Jason Tatum unhappy that he's only getting such and such minutes. I think those storylines are going to pop up, and I think it's going to be interesting to see whose team it is, because I think Tatum is kind of

almost ready to take on that mantle, but you have Kyrie and Hayward, who are the incumbents, if you will. I'm less concerned about Kyrie and Gordon and Tatum playing together with Horford. Like, that's a killer starting lineup. I think that they'll figure that out.

The question is going to be whether or not Jalen Brown is ready to take a step back to the bench and go, okay, I'm going to be your main six man when he's a guy who doesn't really seem like he would fancy himself that. But this really, frankly, is Brad Stevens' problem. And, like, finally we'll see if that guy can coach. Yeah. Because I don't think anybody thinks we know enough about him.

Can he be a good coach? Frankly, as a Philadelphia, and I've been looking at him for a while and going, I'm not so sure about that guy, like maybe they were going to move him out. This will be his hardest job. One of these posts that we're doing, are we sure, should have been. Are we sure Brad Stevens is the good? There's the fraud. I don't know. I don't know. Initially, I've got for Monday and are we sure about whether or not the Lakers will make a move, maybe I'll just do the Brad Stevens one. There you go. And then the third team, like I said, is the Philadelphia 76 years who were an ascended team last year. You're going to get another year of Ben Simmons and Joelle Embed together figuring out how that goes. And you've got like two guys there who are really good. Yes, Kauai is better than either of them. But those two are better than the next whatever that the rapid. have on their team, so I think it's going to be interesting.

Plus, and I don't know if you know this, Powell, Philadelphia, City of the Champions. I mean, the Philadelphia Eagles are the defending champs. The Philadelphia Phillies are doing well. It feels like it's really time. It feels like I'm in the Philadelphia podcast over here. The Sixers, we're renaming it. Heat Check will no longer.

It'll be the Philadelphia Freedom podcast moving forward. I veto this. Isaac doesn't have a vote, luckily. But I look at that and I go, I don't know. Maybe it's the Raptors time to shine, or maybe. I think with the Sixers, it has to be a bit. about health too. They got lucky with, not lucky, but you know, they had a good year with how much they didn't have to miss games and beat in Simmons. You know, it was a very healthy year. And I hope

for the sake of the league and the conference that that continues, but you never know, right? That's one of those things where, like, we've already seen a precedent of injuries. I mean, we just, I would start a year again, too. So, yeah, it's just, I don't know. I just have a weird feeling about that. Like, I hope it doesn't happen. But I also think that it could have been their conference to take had they made a move in the offseason. They kind of just brought, mostly everybody back and you know there were circumstances why they couldn't make that move obviously but there's still some room for them for growth they obviously need a third guy and i mean maybe forever i don't know if we want to mention his name on this podcast here who markell yeah we just

did a whole thing on him with barrier there you go you mentioned them staying healthy the sixers should just like at this point like with all the injuries they always have to their rookies they should just draft and orthopedic surgeon and when he gets hurt he can just operate on himself and they'll save time as a quick addendum to this rafter's question that you posited jalen Brown recently predicted that the Celtics are the favorites. So he already took umbrage. He must have known you were writing this. He reads Thebringer.com and he said, oh, we're getting to the finals, no question about it. Do you like that kind of overconfident position by him in the dead of summer? It's really funny to me. So some inside baseball here with Justin Varyer, who he just had on.

Yeah, I know him. I know him well. I like him. He's talented. There was a day where it was two news stories where it was like, Jalen Brown said that. And then I think it was Burke Lopez, who's now on the Bucks. said, you know, I think we can win the East. So it was like, okay, the East is so wide open, everybody thinks they can win the East. And then Justin goes, well, let's wait for John Wall to do this. And literally, like, a few days after, John Wall had the quote, he's like, yeah, I think we're right up there in the East.

So, like, it's so wide open that everybody can just say this, and we can be like, yeah, yeah, probably. Like, if, like, Miles Turner came out tomorrow and was like, you know, I think we can win the East, like, that's not like that big a bar. Yeah, exactly. Go get their afternoon at Starbucks. It's interesting that you mentioned this. It's a very good transition by you, Palo.

I wanted to go through like the Popery storylines that made me smirk or laugh that we haven't gotten into. And to the point that you just mentioned about everybody in the Eastern Conference thinking they they can win. So recently, Meta World Peace said on SportsCenter, I believe, that he believes that the Pacers and the Knicks will be in the Eastern Conference finals, which is kind of ridiculous. And that got Spencer Dinwiddie LOLing and he went on Twitter and said the Knicks aren't even the best team in New York.

And that got Enis Cantor to respond and said, it's too early to talk shit. I got this saved, though. You just poked the wrong bear boy. And he did boys spelled out like Flav a Flav with a fire emoji. Of course, because what other way would you do it? Obviously, Enos Cantor is excellent at this. Let's unpack this. A lot to unpack here.

First thing, chances that the Pacers and the Knicks are in the Eastern Conference finals. Can I go lower than zero? I mean, like, that's just not happening. Negative chance. not going to be in the playoffs. So no. I love that. Spencer did you in these line.

The Knicks aren't even the best team in New York. This is getting a little spicier, but it's interesting. But it's interesting because I think the Nets are better as a team. The NICs have probably a little more potential star power. Maybe not Star Power right now. Do you have a healthy KP or no is the question. Exactly. That matters.

But also just you have Knox who looks to be very interesting and very good going forward. Whereas the Nets have a nice foundation, if you will, but no real. huge star. I guess the angel Russell, if you want to think of it that way. I mean, I'm all for Spencer Dunwoody

getting his shots off on Twitter. Like, we're only going to care about the Nets and Knicks for like half of the season maybe. So, you know, bring it on.

Under. Yeah, under. But, you know, I was trying to be generous. Right. What about where are you on Enis Cantor and his social media

warring slash B-thing slash pick and fight? Not so much pick and fights is responding to people. Like, obviously he... He's very online. He is very online. He's constantly online.

He obviously has had those exchanges with LeBron that are kind of ridiculous. In a way, this is probably Enos Cantor's biggest contribution to the NBA. Like, he rebounds and he tweets, and that's basically it. He rebounds any tweets. We should actually, like, put, like, on basketball reference, that should be included in there. That's all he does. Honestly, like, it's kind of annoying, but at the same time, the NBA doesn't really have

many, like, quote villains, so, like, why not, you know? He's kind of, like, almost like a W-W-E villain. And it's, like, there's, like, a wink and a nod with it. Right. You know, he's got his tongue firmly planted in cheek. while actually typing out these stupid things. Less good at social media because at least Enos Cantor is

self-aware and does it sort of knowingly and winkingly. Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah Thomas That's where you were going with us. Back out there on Instagram Live called Cleveland, and I've been to Cleveland many times

in the last few years, called Cleveland a shithole, I would never use that word, and said I could see why LeBron left again. Immediately people got on him about it, went back on Instagram live, I said, I shouldn't have said that. That was my fault.

Cleveland was actually cool. It was all right. The situation just wasn't the best. I apologize for saying it was a shithole. It wasn't a shithole. The team was dope. The players was filthy. My guy, Gio, training staff was cold.

Nah, Cleveland was cool. I shouldn't have said that. I'm doing it exactly like Isaiah. That was my bad. I was just talking on Instagram live. I didn't think it was going to get to where they're posting it. It's like, damn my bad. Yo, Isaiah, buddy, home.

No. Easy. Pump to breaks. like I feel like at this point I'm really shy I don't think anybody has fallen in on court esteem or off court how they were revered as far and as quickly as Isaiah

because he went from really beloved in just about every way to kind of reviled because he keeps stepping all over himself and like he was like this guy you could root for and it was exciting and then all of a sudden like he says this thing and I'm like all right who cares but then he tries to walk it back immediately with a bunch of platitudes that he can't possibly believe

there's like a sad aspect to this, which is the one you kind of just telling them. There's also just a hilarious aspect to this, which is just like, dude, like, why are you putting this on Instagram Live? Why did you not think it was going to be published? Like, do you not know how like social media works in like 2018? Like, everything is getting out there.

He just kind of says what he's thinking, which like I commend and I like. Look, I'm four, like, players should do that. But like, when he's winning, it's literally what I wrote about when the trade happened during the trade deadline is it's like, when you're winning and when you're the, you know, beloved underdog story, you can say,

pretty much whatever you want. Pretty much whatever you want. But when you're on your third team in the last year and we don't know if you're going to be good again, maybe just put the phone down. Well, I mean, it's just so disingenuous. Like the apology was so disingenuous. Like, he obviously didn't like it there.

We knew he didn't like it there. They didn't like him there. So for him to say the team was dope, the players was filthy. No, it wasn't. And no, they weren't. The team fucking sucked. Yeah.

And, like, there's a reason why they had to, like, unplug everybody. and make ridiculous trades for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance and everybody else that they went out and got. It just wasn't a good fit for anybody. And he spent all his time shitting on the coach, the players, the organization. It just didn't work out. I'd rather own it, right?

Yeah, at least he didn't apologize to Ty Lou. He kept a real on that one. All right, two more quick ones for you because I think this is hilarious. Gordon Hayward on Fortnite, he was playing Fortnite. He was on his Twitch channel, and he was saying to people, if any of you guys are going to the games at TD Garden, you got to get a Daddy's Always Happy chant going.

That would be awesome. You know what I mean. No, I don't know what you mean, Gordon Hayward. I don't know why you would want people to chant Daddy's Always Happy. It feels like this is a mistake. So do you know the backstory to this a little bit? Which is like when he had the gender reveal for his next kid, it was a girl and apparently he looked like he wanted a boy or whatever.

And then his wife said, Daddy's always happy. It's amazing. Chance are always great when you need a long backstory behind them. So I actually, I reversed position on this. They should put it on the Jumbo Tron. I say to everybody in Boston and everybody who came up with the, remember in the playoffs they had those stupid shirts that said it was a giant C. And then it was us rise and it was supposed to be C.S. Rise.

But it looked like Cuss Christ. Yes. And everyone was like, what the hell is Cuss Christ? In the same way that that was awesome, I root for you guys, Celtics fans, to do exactly what we're. Gordon is endorsing here and advocating for and chant. Daddy's always happy. There you go.

I'm sure Sixers fans will do it for you. Oh, yeah, for sure. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. When they go to Philly, that's 100% getting chanted, I'm sure. But like, it's just the most Gordon-Haver thing ever. Not just to say that,

but also like to do it while playing Fortnite on Twitch. Just really completes the full Gordon-Haworth circle. It's incredibly Gordon-Hawood. Yes. All right. Last one for you, because you have to go off and write many things, I'm sure. Bigger cause for concern in Washington.

And Joe House, if you're listening, you're a big fan of the Heat Check podcast and one of our great contributors. I want you to think about this one too. Bigger cause for concern in Washington right now. Fat John Wall. John Wall has showed up looking like he could play tight end for Washington's football team.

Or Dwight Howard, and Dwight Howard's trainer, recently said that Dwight has decided he wants to evolve into Anthony Davis or Kevin Durant, but Dwight's own version of that. An all-time quote. It's amazing.

It might be the quote of the summer. There is so much going on. there because as Sean Yu on our NBA is like pointed out he's saying he wants to evolve that is like grow into Anthony Davis who's a younger person than him both of them are younger than him and it's just like what are you

saying like it's like a Benjamin button scenario where he has to age backwards right exactly and it's also like why is your trainer saying this like is he now the voice for Dwight because we just think that everything Dwight says is ridiculous which it is it just it makes no sense but I'm here for the content

what I love about the Wizards, and I love all things about the Wizards. I spent some time, like, kicking around their last postseason. And they had this, like, drama all season long, between John Wall and Bradley Beal and then also Marcy and Gortat. And do they like each other and do they not? And John Wall came in, a little out of shape. And now you've got John Wall again, looking, I don't know if he's out of shape, but he's bigger and thicker and like. Maybe he just wants to go to the room more. He looks a little. Banks and bodies down low. Maybe. He looks a little bit doier. Yeah. But they've decided that the best way to fix.

this scenario was by ejecting Morsin Gortot and adding Dwight Howard into the mix because that's going to make it better. It's so perfect. What could go wrong in Washington? I already want to just cover the Wizards. Just like Dave, just have me follow them. You'll be the wizard's beat writer.

You and Chrisel Mata. It'll be perfect. All right, Powell, you're going to go and do other stuff. What do you have coming out this week? You want to plug anything? Well, I was writing something this morning, actually, which kind of connects to what we were talking about, which will be up later on the site,

is about how the east is so depleted in terms of star them that it's almost hard to find who the number of all stars are going to be. So there's like six spots up for grabs that probably won't make it again or that are not in the conference anymore. So basically going through all the different possibilities,

dark horses and all that, who could make those spots. You're going to break that down. Be sure to check out Powell on theringer.com. Be sure to check out all of our fun ringer podcast feeds. We've got the NBA show that you're listening to right now. We've got the NFL show

and the run up to preseason and then regular season, NFL football. We've got the MLB show with Michael Bauman. All kinds of stuff, all kinds of content. Be sure to check all that out. I want to thank Shea Serrano for being on the program. Justin Vario, Palo Esco blog, as coined by Jason Concepcion, not Shea Serrano. And of course, back from vacation, my partner in crime, Isaac Lee. He Check will be back. We believe, alternate weeks, because we're going to alternate with Chris Vernon and Kevin O'Connor. But be checking out your Ringer NBA show feed for the next Heat Check podcast, for the next NBA

show podcast. And thanks for listening, everybody. It was really great to be back. Bye.