The Ringer NBA Show - Paul George’s Historic Start, the Sixers’ Angst, and Austin vs. Doc | Heat Check

Episode Date: November 18, 2019

Instant Replay: The Blazers sign Carmelo Anthony, Paul George’s Clippers debut, and Pop’s second-in-command (5:32). The Main Event: Pod Save America’s Dan Pfeiffer on the Philadelphia 76ers’ recent struggles and whether they can reach their fullest potential (18:00). Good Call/Bad Call: Jersey redesigns, Rivers-on-Rivers crime, and eating a waffle on the bench (37:03). Host: John Gonzalez Guests: Haley O’Shaughnessy, Isaac Lee, Dan Pfeiffer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ringer NBA show, Heat Check, is presented by State Farm, just like basketball. The Game of Life is unpredictable. Talk to a State Farm agent and get a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected and help you handle whatever life throws your way. Isaac, life threw a couple curveballs at your clippers, but Paul George came back. Paul George came back. He scored, I believe the mathematical term is a gazillion points. I think that's scientific, yeah. Right, right, right.

Cousillion points in his first two games, and I love him so much that it hurts. He came back. The first game, not so good, the second game much better. Get you a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected, just like Paul George. And the Clippers talk to a State Farm agent today about combining your home and auto insurance. Today's show is also brought to you by Brilliant Earth. Create your own, one-of-a-kind engagement ring with Brilliant Earth, the global leader, and ethically sourced fine jewelry.

Brilliant Earth's exclusive, unique designs are brought to life by master jewelers. And they offer free shipping and returns on all orders. order today for delivery by Christmas and receive a surprise gift with the purchase of an engagement ring to see terms for this special offer and to shop all of Brilliant Earth selections. Go to BrilliantEarth.com slash ringer NBA. And now, Heat Check. Welcome to Heat Check. I'm your host, John Gonzalez, joined Reunited once again with our producer, Isaac Lee.

Last week, Isaac, you were out. I think you were like flitting about with the stars in Hollywood. You were famous people. You were too good for us last week. Jim Cunningham filled in ably for you, but it's nice to see your smiling face again. It's nice to see your smiling face as well. I was not fiddling around.

I was producing another podcast in the same time frame. But they're superstars. They count as Hollywood stars. Yeah, I guess, yeah, Mali Rubin and Jason Concepcion of the famous binge mode podcast. Famous Bench Mode podcast. Star Wars this time. Star Wars this time. It's been going well.

It's almost as exciting as basketball. You are a hitmaker. You're basically the DJ Colour. of The Ringer where basically you produce all of the hit podcasts. I love that comp. It's like you could have gone with any successful producer, but you went to DJ Calais.

It was the only one I could think of on the spot. Not Max Martin. I don't know who Max Martin is. Thanks for listening everybody. A reminder to please rate and review us. I'm probably going to get dragged for not knowing who Max Martin is. Rick Rubin. Would Rick Rubin have been good? All right, you could be Rick Rubin then. Thanks for listening, everybody. A reminder to please rate and review

us. And don't forget about all the great NBA content on the ringer.com. Dan Devine had his early season pleasant surprises. That was fun. Our very own Haley O'Shaughness. He wrote about Andrew Wiggins, killing it, and whether or not he's for real,

I suspect you think he's not for real. I need a bigger sample size. You're a man who, you're a man of science. Much like Zach Cram, who wrote another very Zach Cram piece. It's never been easier to score 50 points in the NBA, and of course he has the evidence to prove it. How relevant.

And then later on in the show, we're going to have our good buddy Dan Pfeiffer to talk about a team we never talk about here at Heechak. It's in Philadelphia. It's a Philadelphia. Do they have an NBA team? They do have an NBA team or so I've been told.

It did not go well for them for much of the season so far. Now, they beat the Cavs on Sunday, which could slightly alter Dan's mood. But on Friday after they lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder, he and the rest of Sixers Twitter were having a complete meltdown. So I texted him and said, hey, do you want a vent? And within seconds, he was like, yes, so Dan will be on the program.

We love when Dan joins us. But first, let's review the latest news from around the league and bring in our regular, the singular this time. I'll explain why in a second contributor, Haley O'Shaughnessy. All right, normally we'd go to our heat check coast to coast regulars, but D. Dan Devine is out today in his place. Our producer, Isaac Lee, has joined the program as a fully accredited member of Heat Check. Wow, finally.

This is right. It took how many years. This moment. How many years for you to get a full seat at the table? third season producing the show. He'll be here for headlines and then later on in the show Good Call and Bad Call.

And then, late in the show, we're going to have a big announcement. Is it that big of an announcement? It's pretty big. I don't know how big it is. That's a pretty big announcement. This is called a tease, as they say, in the business. Yeah, yeah. A nice little...

I'm a professional broadcaster. Yes. So we'll tease that and we'll have an announcement later. But also, joining us in the studio, she's a multimedia superstar. As seen and heard on the big leads Press Pass podcast, and she was also mentioned last week, Isaac Lee, by NPR's Gene Denby one half of Code Switch as one of our finest NBA writers.

Let's give it up for superstar writer, Haley O'Shaughnessy. I have two questions for you, Haley O'Shaughnessy. One, are you signing autographs and two, how much do they cost? Oh my God, please go. And by the way, I don't have any money, but my wife is good for it. I have stoop waffles for after the show. Stoop. Ah, see, she's good at this. She's very good at this.

That's a good tease. All right, let's hit the headlines from around the league with our segment, NBA, instant replay. Top of the headlines, Mello, Carmelo Anthony, one of our favorites here at Heat Check is back. He signed with the Portland Trailblazers. The 35-year-old is scheduled to play his first game on Tuesday at New Orleans, which frankly is a pity, Haley, because they play Houston tonight on Monday night. And that would have been a fun reunion. But he last played in an NBA game over a year ago with the Houston Rockets. What do you make of this?

How much do you think he has left? I have mixed feelings because on one hand, I'm happy. This should not have been how he went out in the league, even though I think he's consistently thought of himself a little too highly the last couple years, which is hard to say. I'm sure, like, after his career, you would want to maintain being that guy. but that's not how he should have went out. I mean, he's a fantastic.

He's going to go down in history. So I'm glad that he's getting another chance to maybe retire on his own terms. However, I think this is a bad situation for him because if you look at it, on the surface, it seems good, right? Like, oh, he has an opportunity to fill a spot for them, legitimately fill a spot for them. But it's going to be too big of a role again

and he can't fill it at this point in his career. I don't think it's going to go very well for him. it. I'll say that in the same way that every player in history who's coming to the preseason says they're in career best shape, Carmelo Anthony was not played in over a year, told ESPN, I'm in the gym every single day. When asked why he hasn't talked much over his year hiatus, he said, silence is not my surrender. He was silent for so long because he felt he needed to step away from the game to, quote, reevaluate myself, reevaluate my career, reevaluate my life. Isaac Lee, in addition to being the ringer's resident Rick Rubin.

You're also basically our Carmelo Anthony. Are you buying that he's in the gym every single day? Is that supposed to be a compliment? I don't know if that's a compliment to you or an insult to both. I don't know what it is. But you're our Carmelo. You're here. And he's here now.

And what do you expect? What do I expect from Carmelo Anthony? He was washed two years ago. So I think he's going to be still washed. This is clearly to me, this is the Blazers resisting. trading Anthony Simons for someone like Kevin Love or Gallo as it's been rumored.

They're trying to fill their front court void without compromising their back court hence bringing in someone like Mello instead of trading for Gallo or training for Kevin Love. And I'm not sure it'll work. Listen, Carmelo Anthony, great player in his prime

I think everybody has always couched talking about him. He was a great player. He really was. Past tense. Yeah, past tense. It feels a little panic movie. because the Portland Trailblazers

are 5 and 8 after making it to the Western Conference finals last year. They've only won one of their five games at home and I feel like they needed a little boost. They obviously, as Haley mentioned, have all these injuries. So Neil L. Shea goes out and gets the guy who's available. And we'll see how much Mello has left.

It should be interesting. A much more fun one for you to talk about. Another guy who's back. Paul George. Paul George is back. He missed the first 11 games with off-season shoulder surgeries, plural. He had 33 points in nine rebounds in his debut. It was the most points in a season opener in his career.

To which he responded, I thought I was terrible. The clips lost to the Pelicans, but in the next game, they smashed the Hawks. PG had 37 points in 20 minutes and declared, Isaac Lee, I'm back. Yes, he is. I am such a big fan of Paul George. I was a big fan of Paul George from his Indiana days, obviously. Just the fact that he's a two-way player, in my opinion, I think he's actually a much bigger addition on the defensive end than on the offensive end. Because he frees up so much on defense.

Like they don't need to rotate as much. They don't need to switch as much because he can kind of handle he's so big, he's so tall, he's so long. He can handle a lot of defensive players. And it frees up Pat Bev to do his thing. It frees up Tres to do his thing. A big fan of Paul George on defensive and as well as the 37 points in 20 minutes. He does so many things. Hayley, it's interesting that Isaac brings that up because Doc Rivers said that very thing. It's like you and Doc Rivers have a mind-mailed, Isaac Lee. Doc Rivers said that he's designed a lot of different offensive sets around PG, but mostly what he said he was excited about was with PG, Kauai, and Pat Bev.

They can get whatever they want defensively. It's been a good start for the Clippers, not a great start, much like the Sixers, who we'll talk about a little later on the program. They're eight and five, but how much does this change thing for the Clippers and their prospects? and their hope that they'll make it to the Western Conference finals. It changes everything. This is the actual team that they're going to be. And I think the, I mean, except for a scoring, on top of scoring 70 points in 44 minutes.

Is that good? It's pretty good. That's pretty good. We can check with Isaac again. He's already playing, he's already like playing through contact. He already looks really good. Like Isaac was saying he's already super aggressive on defense looking like his old self already. So it's super encouraging.

There's not going to be much of a wait period as he has to like slowly integrate himself back in. it looks like he's already ready to play through contact and be aggressive. I love Paul George. I thought that he was misused in Oklahoma City. In that first season, especially when he was basically stuck in the corner and deployed it primarily as their most prolific three-point shooter. You know who was on that team is Carmelo Anthony?

Carmelo Anthony. Maybe they should get the band back together. The clippers should think about him when he washes out in Portland. Another headline that I very much wanted to discuss with you guys. Interesting stuff with the San Antonio Spurs over the weekend. So Greg Pothovich got tossed and a lot. loss to the Blazers, presumably setting up Becky Hammond to fill in as the first female head coach of a professional men's team. Then there were reports that Becky and Tim Duncan shared

the duties with Hammond running the coach's huddle and then handing the clipboard to Duncan who ran the team huddle according to Jeff McDonald. But afterwards, Poppizarly shut all that down. According to Bruno Passos, after the ejection, Popovich said Duncan was the acting head coach. And according to Tom Osborne, this is what I really want to dig into here, he was asked if there was any consideration of allowing Becky Hammond to make history as the first woman to coach a North American male pro sports team to which Pop replied, I'm not here to make history. Haley, I'm groaning here. I like Popovich. His crumogenely like, you know, get off my back, get off my lawn bit, can be endearing at times. This was one I thought he should have and could have just played it

straight. He's been somebody who has been outspoken on social and political issues previously. He has hired Becky Hammond and empowered her, why not just let Becky Hammond take it and be proud and happy? I truly hate this. However, I do think that it's just, it has nothing to do with Becky Hammond, which it would have been a huge issue. I think it's just a thing we've seen with Pop over the years

that he resents being forced to do anything, and he resents narratives that are created by the media. So while I'm just, just let it happen, perhaps he will the rest of the season. I think it's just more of him not wanting to, have something created prematurely because the media wants it to. In defense of all of us in the media, not created by the media, created by Pop getting run from that game.

He said, he got tossed. And he also hired Becky Hammond as his primary assistant. Yeah. Why not let Becky do this and then applaud her, laud her, like let her have her moment in the spotlight? Like, why be in this moment the guy who's, I'm not going to answer your question during a sideline interview because that's my brand.

Why be that guy in that moment? Because he can be very thoughtful. It is strange. It's bizarre. I mean, just as like a boss to delegate responsibility to someone with lower seniority, that is itself just on an organizational level. Just a weird move as somebody who, like, manages people.

And, you know, he can obviously run his organization the way that he wants. He has no obligation. But, like, it would have been really cool. And it would have, like, made sense. No one would have said, like, oh, he's elevating Becky Hammond. just because she's a woman. It's like, no, she's second in line.

Therefore, she should have taken over. In that respect, yeah, also that makes me a little bit more okay with this because I think that he's also been someone who's like, let's not just make this about she's the first woman. She's a woman. I hired her because she's good. And I'm obviously a fan of that. Yeah.

You hired her because she's good. She is. I mean, just run with that, right? That would be nice. That's the simple way to handle this. It's very confusing to me. All right, last thing for headlines in NBA instant replay. We've got injuries.

Kyrie Irving is day-to-day with a right shoulder impingement. I don't know what an impingement is. It doesn't sound good. I think you'd probably prefer not to have an impingement because he's day-to-day. DeAngelo Russell, the hits keep coming for the Golden State Warriors. Out two weeks with a sprained thumb. Walking wounded. They still are fielding a basketball team, I presume.

It's the Walking Dead out there. It's Eric Pascal and the gang. That's not a good way to open up a brand new arena. I keep telling people and I will tell you again, watch them because they are actually, I don't know if I can go all the way fun, but these are players who are going to batter in a couple years. You're enjoying Garbage Time Warriors? Yes, I am.

And also, I'm enjoying this rough start to the opening of the arena because they should have never done it in the first place. It's extremely disrespectful to their real fans. I will say, as somebody who was an early adopter of Bad Sons Basketball last year and has been rewarded this year. Maybe you're right about that. Last one for you, this is very bizarre. I almost put it in good call, bad call, but I didn't have the heart to do it. Jonathan Isaac is out for a little bit. He got hurt during a jersey unveiling ceremony. Rolled his ankle. You guys are laughing at him, so you're much crueler than I am.

I have, no, what I'm laughing at. Okay, actually, yeah, that's fucked up. I'm sorry. I am laughing at that. I also apologize. But what's the funniest thing about this is that every time I read Magic City Edition jerseys, I think of the strip club in Atlanta. And I'm like, wow, those jerseys should be much different. A couple years ago, the city ones had like glitter on them. So that would have been much more appropriate. What an Orlando magic story, isn't it? Jonathan Isaac sprains his ankle during a jersey unveiling ceremony.

Listen, I'm pro Jonathan Isaac. Obviously, we share a name. I'm pro Isaacs in general. Right, yeah, you're pro Isaac. I want him to have a long and fruitful career. But this is just bad luck. Obviously, you hate to see something like this half. happen. It's still, though, like, my irreverent brain goes to, wow, what an Orlando magic thing.

I just want it noted for the record that both Haley and Isaac laughed at his misfortune, and I was the adult in the room. I'm pro-Johnathan Isaac. Pro-Isaac. That was NBA instant replay. We're going to bring in Dan Fyfer in just a second. You guys are going to take a quick timeout, and then you're going to join me later in the show for good call and bad call. But first, let's take a break for a word from our sponsors. Today's episode of the Ringer NBA show, He Check, is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Hiring can be a slow process. Cafe Altura's C-O-O. Dylan Miskavitz needed to hire a director of coffee for his organic coffee company,

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He's a New York Times bestselling author. He's got another book on the way. He's a former White House Communications Director. You can hear him on Pod Save America. He's a repeat offender here on Heech. this is a very long introduction. He's got so many titles. Dan Pfeiffer's on the phone.

Hey, man, how are you? Thanks for having me. I am thrilled to have you, although here's how well it's going in Philly, Dan. There's an impeachment inquiry underway, and yet you are taking time out of your incredibly busy schedule and an important and intense time in our country to talk about the Sixers who, thank God,

they beat the Cavaliers on Sunday because I feared for how Sixers' Twitter might have responded. They basically burned the whole joint down on Friday after the OKC loss. How are you feeling after the Cavs win? I feel like crisis averted because if they had, even if they had beaten Cleveland, but it had been a sort of half-assed down by two at half-time, sort of when like most of the wins have been in the last few weeks,

I would have felt even worse than I feel. So it's like I don't feel better, but I feel less bad than I thought I might with a different result on Sunday. You and a lot of people were feeling pretty sad after Friday's lost to OKC. there was some angst before that Sunday game that win much needed against Cleveland. So the Sixers started out 5 and O and then they lost five of seven

and their strength of schedule has been okay, not great, sort of middle of the pack, but that loss to O'KC really freaked everybody out because it came in a back-to-back loss. They had lost to the magic. Then they lose to the thunder. And I went on Twitter and Spike and Mike,

I don't think there was anything left of them after that, but ashes. And I texted you and said, do you want to vent? and you immediately responded, yes. I know that it's sort of tempered now by the Cleveland one, but what's your overall panic meter with how we've seen them perform so far this season?

I think I've said this on this podcast before, but my post-Trump view of politics, my rule is worry about everything, panic about nothing. And that is something that is actually, was just me applying a, like a lifelong Sixers fan mantra to Democratic politics. And that's where I fear, that's that sort of my approach right now. Like it's not panic time, but it is concerning because all of the problems that were present last year are still present now, even with a very new team.

And there is a different, like I tweeted after the magic loss, I believe it was, that the Sixers are a complete mess right now. And Nate Silver, obviously from 538, he has, does a lot of analytics of NBA teams. teams responded to me by saying they're not really a mess. They've had a pretty relatively hard schedule, all new teammates, and there's been such sort of chaos in the lineup with Embedd suspension, Simmons's brief injury, and then Horford, you know, Horford and Embed rest games. And that's all true. But if you watch the games, every offensive possession other than on Sunday has been a

struggle. And that is that is what is concerning. Yeah, for sure. And I would push back. I mean, you know, Nate Silver, not the only guy who can use numbers on this podcast. Strength the schedule for the Philadelphia 76ers 14th. So middle of the pack. I mean, not too terribly taxing. Could obviously be better. But I think your inclination to say that, uh, them struggling to score find offense is right. They are 18th in offensive rating. This is a team, though, that they decided they were going to build around defense. Their eighth in defensive rating, which is good, but it's, uh, you could even, I mean, top third of the league is is better than good, but it's not that like, you know, top five,

top three defensive rating that we expected from them, especially when, as you noted, they sort of struggle to find their shots, which even in that Thunder game, Dan, I think the most concerning thing about that loss was that they actually shot well that night. They had 50% from the field, 42% from three, and they still lost that game. And I just, yes, I worry about the offense in the same way that you do, especially when, you know, these games start to count when we get it. into the playoffs. And then what are you going to do with Ben Simmons? Where do you hide him? Is going to be able to be on the floor? Are they going to stick them in the dunker spot again?

Where are they going to get shooting from? Right now, they're super reliant on Josh Richardson and Al Horford as their main and most prolific three-point attempt guys. And I just wonder if that's sustainable. Well, it's also, I think the other thing, other than just Cleveland being bad, that was notable about Sunday's win was when Tobias Harris is really good, the Sixers are good, because he gives them spacing. You have to come out. cover him. If you close out too fast, he can go to the basket. But when he is bad, which he has been a decent amount this season. It was obviously, I think, 0 of 26 or something at one point over a three game stretch from three and was shot very poorly for much of last season after he came on the

team. When he is not shooting well, then the whole, like, we're very dependent on Tobias Harris, which you think would be okay since we're paying, since the Sixers are paying him $30 million a year for the next five years. But, like, he has not been consistent in a six-year's uniform, and that is worrisome. Yeah, he's hitting 25, a little over 25 percent from three on four attempts per game, which is not going to get it done. I mean, they really do, especially with JJ gone. I think, you know, JJ was periodically, even most of the time, a liability defensively, but that dribble handoff that he and N. Bede had working, whenever they really needed a bucket in some offense last year and things got tight, he was there. And now, as I mentioned,

It's very much Josh Richardson and Al Horford, who I love Al Horford. But making Al Horford, Al Horford is right now taking just, he's second, just like shortly behind Josh Richardson in most three-point attempts per game for the Sixers. And like, I don't know if that's like the best way to deploy him. So yeah, I'm with you. It should be Tobias Harrison that you're going to be the guy who provides the offensive umph. And it hasn't been so far this season.

And that's, that's concerning. You're exactly right about JJ on defense. But the thing about JJ is not just the dribble handoff, which was one of the only go-to plays the Sixers had last year other than a Jimmy Butler ISO, is, was the gravitational pull of JJ never, he never stopped running. Right. And you often will see, whether it's Tobias Harris or Horford or Josh Richardson, either standing in the corner or standing, you know, above the elbow at the three point line, just standing there. And because JJ never stopped moving and he scared the shit out of, out of defenses, then people, it created space for other people. And that, that is missing.

And there's also the two, like the two big concerning things. And I also have a glass half full take, which I'm happy to offer. But the two concerning things is Ben Simmons really looks like a shell of the player we saw in the last half of his rookie season. I was thinking back as I was watching that Oklahoma City game where he just was pretty good in the first half and then just sort of disappeared down the stretch. was like afraid of contact on transition layups. I was thinking back to that game when Embed was out in Ben's rookie year

when they had their winning streak heading in the playoffs, where he went into Cleveland and took on LeBron and won. And was so confident. And that confidence stretched through that first round series in Miami and then fell apart in the Boston series. And it feels like he hasn't been the same since. and that's a problem if he is your second best player, and it is a problem if he is someone that you have invested,

whatever is $170 million in over the next five years. Yeah, if he's your second best player, I think is interesting. And, like, you're starting to hear some murmurs from the Philadelphia fan base. And, like, you know, we're however many minutes into our conversation here about the Sixers, and we're just now getting to Ben Simmons and Joelle and Bede. But if there's a segment of the fan base that's fatigued by the whole Groundhog Day issues with these two guys, I don't blame them for that because we're still talking about the same thing. I'm glad that they're load managing Joelle and Bede this year because they got killed for not doing that last year.

And now Brad is sort of getting some heat for doing it this year. But I would prefer that they rest him early rather than late and keep him in shape and make sure that he's healthy. But I do wonder about these two together long term. And the last couple of years, if you brought that up, you'd get crushed by people in Philly. And now I think a lot more people are starting to wonder about the long term. viability of these two together for all the reasons you just outlined about Ben Simmons. I just wonder how much longer they can go with a point guard who can't shoot, who defenses sag off of where there's not a lot of room on the court.

It ends up screwing up and Bede and where you can put him. And then just everything that Brett Brown has talked about in the past, like this sort of cascading effect about the other pieces on the floor, I just wonder. It is that. Like Ben is a phenomenal talent. he can be one of the best defensive players in the league at any given time, like a 6-10 super athletic guy who may be the fastest guy into end in the NBA, who can cover a point guard and a center in the same switch is invaluable.

But I am, we always say like Ben Simmons can't shoot, but that's not the problem. The problem is he won't shoot. And it is like, it is reaching, I mean, I'm a, if anyone from Philly hears this, I may never be able to return for Thanksgiving, but it's reaching a false level of weirdness. Like anyone who has ever played any level of basketball,

right, even if you were just going to the Y on a Sunday, every person who was open will shoot. The fact that Ben will not shoot an open three or even put himself in a position to shoot an open three, like he avoids going to the place where he would be put in that position. And that is problematic.

And that extends to free throw shooting. If he was someone who could make his free throws, it was not afraid to take free throws and would go to the basket at full speed, like LeBron style full speed, then he could average, he would up his average because he would be shooting five more free throws a game.

But he is constantly missing transition opportunities because he's, or turning the ball over by trying to throw a tougher pass as opposed to just going to the basket, knowing he's going to get fouled. that that is a problem. And it would be better if he, if he would take those shots now and miss those free throws now in order to improve.

But it's like he puts himself in this stasis where whatever he is, like, whatever he has done to improve his game by the first preseason game, he will nothing else. He will not work on anything else during the season because he does not want to fail. And that, Yonis, like it's unfair to compare Ben to Yonis.

It's fair to anyone to Yonis. But Yonis, missed threes all the time in an effort to be in his first couple years to be better at shooting threes in his fourth or fifth year or whatever this year is. And that's what Simmons has to do. And even a miss three from an open spot in the corner would be a better offensive opportunity for the Sixers who are theoretically a very good offensive rebounding team than going to a place in the dunker spot or somewhere else where there's no room and clogging up the lane for Richardson or Tobias Harris or drawing your man over to a

beat. All of it is tremendously problematic. And I'm not exactly sure how they fix it under the current, with the current roster. Yeah. I mean, we're another year now into kicking it down the road, the can of, oh, maybe he'll shoot a three next year. And it's always next year. And I know that it's only been a couple seasons with him since he came back. He redshirted that first year. But still, we're another year on. I would be so thrilled exactly what you said. If he would just take a corner three, imagine how excited everybody in Philly would get about that. But you mentioned the personnel and how they are kind of locked in. They're limited things that they can do because of the roster construction

and how much money they have allocated to all these guys. So then naturally, because that's the way things work in Philadelphia, a lot of eyes are going to turn to Brett Brown, who I have consistently defended and will continue to defend until I no longer host this program. But where are you on Brett these days? I worry for Brett's future if this does not turn around. When you were texting me, like you knew this was like a real

six-as moment because you were. texting me about doing this podcast. I was in communication with Spike and Mike of the rights of Ricky Sanchez about my panic level. We're going to start a group chat. Other Philly fans of my life. And I predicted to someone that if this does not pick up, I think it's unlikely that Brett is the coach at the All Star Break because they can't fix anything else in the short term and that would happen. Now, I think that would be a mistake for two reasons. one who I don't know who your other coach is like there is not some you know of like for years I mean tibodeau was you know pre-temberwolds tibodeau everyone be like well if you fire your coach

you can get tibito then you will win there was not and obviously you don't want tibodeau now that has been proven but like there's not a coach sitting out there who would be the person that you'd like want to pull out of TV or take somewhere else and it's not so I don't know who you were placing them with but also like I remember our friend Kevin O'Connor right a piece last year about the Sixers offense and why they don't do more pick and roll with Ben setting the screen and all those things that put Simmons more in the Draymond Green type role of someone who would roll to the rim. And like it all seems when you say that like patently obvious, like why wouldn't you do those things? But I don't think that's Brett's fault because I think

it's probably more the team's fault and maybe Ben's fault. But if you like two of the best coaches in the NBA over this season are Lloyd Pierce and Monty Williams. Two people who have sat next to Brett Brown in the last few seasons, and they're running smart schemes, clever offenses that are maximizing the talent of their players on the floor. So there's nothing about Brett Brown that tells me that he's like vetoing smart ideas from these people. I think it's more of a roster problem than it is a coaching problem. I don't know who you're replacing Brett Brown with, it's going to get you a better result, particularly on an interim basis on a year in which you have to, like, things get harder next year when Ben Simmons' extension kicks in.

Yeah, and Brett, I mean, he did phase in more pick and roll late last season and then into the playoffs. It's not still, it's still not really his bag in the offense, though. And I, like, I want to defend him. It's becoming harder, though, as these things continue to sort of, like, amble along in the same way that we've seen previously. I hope he corrects it, though, for all the reasons that you just outlined. Last one for you. Expectations sort of change everything, and the Sixers obviously have outsized expectations. Everybody picked them to be one of the top two teams in the Eastern Conference and have a real shot to make the finals. They haven't gotten out of the second round with this group. They almost did, but Kwai Leonard shut the door on that with that

crazy four-bouncer in the second round in Toronto last year. How do you see this thing shaking out ultimately. And if they don't say even make it to the Eastern Conference finals, what kind of sentiment do we do we have looking back on this team? Well, I think, I think there was definitely a misalignment between national media expectations and hardcore Sixer fan expectations. Because I, you know, I listened to, I remember when, when it was Ryan Rosillo and Bill doing the Over Underpods and everyone's like, and they're like, Sixers to the finals, Sixers to the finals, Sixers in the East. And my expectations were less,

or at least more tempered than that. But I think if this team does not make the Eastern Conference finals, then everyone in Philly's will be rightfully disappointed. And I think therefore, at that point, undoubtedly you're going to have to make a change. You're going to have to make a change in roster.

You probably have to make a change in coach if Brett Brown is still there. Because you have, like on this team right now, are five players who are, at least, were they on their own teams, would be in the All-Star conversation in the East. They have a deeper bench than they have had before. I mean, they are playing, it is not the best bench in the NBA. It's not, you know, the Clippers or, you know, Toronto, like, something like Toronto's bench last year.

But Netto, Trey Burke, Kyle O'Quinn, James Innes, Mike Scott, are all NBA veterans who can play quality minutes, right? Last year, you were returning to Jonah Bold. in the minute, you know, you know, like some, you had to play a lot of players who were not ready to play last year, at least pre-buy-out. And then to the Sixers credit, the Horford signing, I think, is still ultimately very smart because it allows them to win games when on rest days for Embed, or at least be in the, like last year, Absin Horford, if you rest and be, the Sixers loose. That's just how it would be. And this year, they can win games and they almost won a few

in the stretch without Embed. You also can, you put less pressure on the bench by having Horford on the floor when Embed is off the floor. But if they don't make the, at least these are covered finals, then I think everyone will rightly see

it's a disappointment. I think then you will start to hear very real conversations about whether the Sixers should trade, should break up the Simmons Embedd pairing. And I was watching, when I was watching the OKC game, and I was watching Shade Gildress,

Alexander just destroy the Sixers. Like, are the Sixers a better team if SGA was on this team instead of Simmons? Or if Deeran Fox was on this team instead of Simmons, even if Simmons is a better player all around than those guys with a higher ceiling, is this team better with a more traditional point guard slash scoring two? I mean, and the bummer of it is like with the McHale Bridges trade where they ended up with Zaire, they could have just taken SGA, which would have been nice. But on the whole, especially considering that they won against the Cavs, I feel much better about the Sixers today than I did after Friday Night's loss.

This is a good therapy session. I love having you on. You've got your new book on Trumping America in the pre-sale period. It's out in February. Your first book, Yes, We Still Can was a smash success. It was very smart, very clever, very funny. It feels like, Dan, you've got a real future in the communication game. I hope so.

It's less a future in the communications game. than just a missed opportunity to be in NBA media. We got a chair for you on heat check whenever you wanted. Thanks for doing this. Awesome. Thank you, John. Boom, Chalaka. He's heating up.

All right, joining me once again in the studio, Isaac Lee, Haley, O'Shaughnessy, through the magic of podcast editing. It's almost like you didn't leave. Almost. And like you were here the entire time. It's really impressive. It's time for everybody's favorite segment on Hitchek. Good call, bad call.

What a bold call. here. All right, continuing the heat check tradition of discussing a visual topic in an auditory medium, let's discuss some of the jerseys that were rolled out. Sure. Let's do that in this audio-only medium. People should go and check this out. The Dallas Mavericks continue to have just the worst jerseys regular or new or city edition or whatever you want to call them. They tried to do what the Nets did with the YOM TV Raps font, which I liked quite a bit. They came out with a new one with like sort of a neon green that look like sort of kind of a knockoff font of the fresh prints of Bel Air. It's interesting.

Good call, bad call on the Dallas Mavericks New Jersey's. Bad call. It's just sad. It's just sad to see Luca Donchich being wasted in in these not cool jerseys. Honestly, like the Mavs need to rebrand themselves. Haleo Shaughnessy, G.CBC. I want to start off by resenting that you started with Isaac after starting with me. the every other episode

Power struggle I'm bitter Well we've got a big announcement coming And so I thought I'd throw it to Isaac first But I look you put me in my place I won't forget this in the future Spoiler alert heat check is pregnant Extremely bad call

What the fuck makes Dallas think that they could do this Of every team use this font And also look I'm sorry I'm going to be the first to say this Luca needs fashion help. Look at his Instagram. Yes, it's bad gons. I haven't really paid attention to his off-court stylings, but I will now.

I just wonder, why is this so hard for Dallas? Like, even their regular uniforms with, like, that sort of spacehorse logo where there's, like, the effect. I hate the spacehorse anything, right? Like, the Patriots have that same deal and the Broncos. And, like, they all used to have these classic, clean uniforms. Classic and clean and simple is all. always better. Yeah, it is.

Look at the best in the league, Philadelphia's 76ers uniforms. As a Kentuckian, how dare you slander all horse content? No, no, just the space effect. Like the Mavericks, it has nothing. It's anti-horse. Sounds like anti-Haley today.

Wow, this took a crazy turn. It's really escalated. We're ganging up on here. Fine, you know what? I'll lean into it. Down with all horses. Except for, well, they don't have a horse logo. They have a king logo. The Kings in Sacramento.

See, now they did something. That's what we call a forced segue. Also, that was not a smooth segue, but we're going to go with it anyway. It's jersey related content as well because we're going to do another jersey. I am not a fan of the regular King's jerseys. Black and purple in general in the same way with the Ravens, and this is another team that you can't stand those jerseys. Black and purple is bad, but they had, they debuted or rolled out once again, their old school

blue jerseys with the white script and the red piping, GCBC, Haleo Shanasi. my lesson on them going with the old school classic clean jerseys. The Ravens jerseys are perfect, as is Lamar Jackson, as is the entire team. Good call. That's a GC. JC, yeah. I'm going to go BC on this one. I just love, I love black and purple.

I think that's actually a good color way. It's a terrible combination. That's a BC for me. I like the color purple and I like the color black. I'm sorry. Yes, independently, fine. Together, absolutely not. And for the record, I was also a BC on the Mavs jerseys.

quickly to Austin Rivers versus Doc Rivers and a game between the Rockets and the clubbers things got heated. Austin, the son lobbied for his dad to get a technical foul. Helio Shaughnessy, Rivers on Rivers Crime. Good call or bad call? Extremely, G.C. I love all family competitiveness. My family is extremely competitive for Thanksgiving.

We'll probably just, this is what we do. We land. We play basketball. We play football. We play cards. We bet on the football games against each other. G.C. Bring the family together. Isaac Lee? I am going bad call on this for obvious reasons. I just heard the name Austin Rivers, and I was like, all right, bad call. Immediate Pavlovian response.

I'm with Haley because I have to be now. She told me, so it's a good call for me. I love when Austin and Doc get into it. Last one for you alluded to by Haley O'Shaughnessy in an excellent top of show Tees in the fourth quarter against the Suns. Robert Covington appeared to be eating something that looked like a waffle. someone called it a Stroop Waffle. I don't know what that is. Our guy, Paul Flannery from SB Nation, I used to do a podcast with him, by the way, shouts to the now defunct drive and kick podcast, did it well actually on Twitter and said, well, actually, that's probably a Stinger Waffle.

Endurance athletes have known about it for years. And then he said, can't these guys get a moment of privacy? P. Flans, I love you. He's on the NBA bench in the fourth quarter. Of course he can't. There's cameras everywhere. But I want to know, G.C.BC, Haley O'Shaughnessy on Robert Covington taking a little snack break during the game. G.C., I encourage all snack breaks. B.C. on a B. Call is Stinger Waffle? It sounds painful. Good call on eating a waffle on the bench. I'm pro sustenance and nutrition. You've got to keep your blood sugar up.

I'm also a G.C. This was almost, but not quite as good as Nerlin's Noelle's last year, halftime hot dog, which remains the best in-game eating experience I've ever seen. That was good call, bad call. I want to thank you guys for participating. This was wonderful, which brings us to our announcement on the show, our longtime producer, Isaac Lee, we've done this show for how long together? About two years. Like 10 years, 15 years,

He-Chek's been on. It's the most famous of all basketball podcasts. I am sad, however, to say that you are so famous, as I mentioned, as our ringer Rick Rubin, that you have been stolen away from Heech to go and do binge mode and devote that with your full-time attention. I've always been on binge-mo.

road. You've never done it previously, and now you're just doing that and only that. It's just a Mandalorian schedule overlapping, and that's why we're very excited to have Steve Alman producing our show right now. He was here the entire time. And now you'll be with us moving forward in the future. Yeah, it's exciting. This is my literal first day. So you've got me going on. He's doing a great job. He moved down from Chicago at the perfect time because as I understand it, it's cold there and it's not here. It is not. Welcome. However, we're sad to see you go, buddy. We're writing you off the show. I think that's it for you.

Definitely. I'm dead. I'm dead on the show now? Well, we'll have a script where you rise from the dead. Lazarus, like. Right, right. And rejoin the program eventually. Zombie Isaac will join us one day, but we are said to see you go.

You've done excellent work here. Thanks, Hans. Isaac Lee, Haleo Shannessi, Steve Alman. Thank you guys. Thank you also to Dan Fifer. And I want to thank all of you guys for listening to Hecheck. Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get fine podcast. Read all of our content.

on the ringer.com. Listen to the ringer NBA show all week on the ringer podcast network. He check. We'll be back next Monday.