The Ringer NBA Show - Seven Players With the Most to Prove This Season. Plus, Austin’s Reaction to Noah Lyles’s NBA Comments. | Off Guard

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Austin and Pausha are ramping up for the 2023-24 NBA season and kick the show off with Austin’s thoughts on Noah Lyles’s viral comments on the NBA. Then, they talk through Team USA’s quarterfinal FIBA win and how a potential championship game against Canada may shake out.The guys also do some looking ahead and discuss which players have the most to prove this upcoming season before closing things out with some classic 'Off Guard' rapid-fire questions. Hosts: Austin Rivers and Pausha Haghighi Producers: Brian H. Waters and Ben Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, Humanoids. This is David Chewaker here with a very exciting announcement. Your favorite wrestling podcast feed, The Ring of Wrestling show, is now going daily. And you can hang out with me and Kaz on Mondays and Thursdays for the Masked Man Show. And you can join me, Peter Rosenberg, alongside Stack Guy Greg and Dip every Tuesday with cheap heat. And on Fridays, I'll welcome a friend or special guest from the world of wrestling. And on Wednesdays, we have a very special new show called Wednesday Worldwide that you're going to want to check out. Paperview reaction, one-of-a-kind interviews, fantasy booking, talking about bagels. That's what we do here on the Ring of Wrestling show.

Follow the show now on Spotify. And do us a favor. Give us five stars. And do us another favor. And stay major. What's up, everybody. Welcome back. It's been a little minute.

I'm excited to be back. I'm here with my co-host, Pasha Higgi. We run in another episode. Off guard, man. It feels like it's been like, what, a month? Definitely been a few weeks. Yeah, we were in the West Coast. Yeah, we're out on the West Coast.

But a lot has happened. Low key, you know, this is usually that time of the year where it seems it's a little bit dead, just in the basketball world of things and even sports a little bit. But now, you know, you got college football back. NFL is on the horizon. We got USA basketball going on with FIBA. So there's a little bit, you know, going on. And we've had plenty to talk about today.

So we're good to be back. Happy to be back. I want to talk about our L.A. trip. We were out there for a couple weeks. were playing pickup. I know a lot of people probably saw you, you know, highlights of you playing pickup with some really good players. What was that experience like? Because I know you've been in Orlando all summer working out, but it's different when you're, you know, you're playing pickup with like Katie, Devin Booker, Trey Young, people like that. Yeah, no, it was good runs. I mean,

that's the benefit of being in L.A. in the summer is just like you have everybody there. Whereas if you go anywhere else, there's good pickup. You can work on your game, but it's just, you know, obviously there's levels of things when you're playing against, you know, the best players in the world. So it was fun, man, just being out there competing, seeing where I'm at, just condition-wise, feel great right now. So it was a lot of fun going out there and playing, man. The day that I went and watched you, there was a lot of buzz in the gym. The way they do it, too, with KD's runs, there were, you know, four quarters. It just felt like a real scrimmage. Yeah. And Drake walked in, and the whole gym was buzzing. It was pretty crazy.

Yeah, that was a good day for y'all. That was a pretty good for, for y'all to pull up to and watch. I mean, I think that's the only day that happened. You know, the thing is, it's like the reason I like Katie's runs is because it's very exclusive. He doesn't have, you know, they get a list out, I think the day before, they maybe grab one or two players a day of. It's like 12, 14 deep max. And that way you're pretty much playing just about every game with maybe one or two alternate subs. Whereas, you know, Rico Heinz runs, which are great.

I love going to Rico Heinz runs as well, but that's like a whole different experience. There's a lot going on in the gym. There's like 200 people, maybe even more in the gym. So it can be a little chaotic at times where this is kind of just more about the basketball. Not a lot of cameras. Everyone's kind of in there. And you guys played four quarters. You guys were making adjustments.

You guys were, I mean, it was like a real game. Like we really did play four quarter. I think the score was like 120 something to, I think we go to like 135. So it's like a full game. So it was a guys were competing too. You know, when you set that tone early that today we're like, you know, we're going to compete. It's not going to be one of those like bullshit pickup runs or everybody's just focusing on offense. It was actually a good basketball. So it was fun to get out there and compete,

man. I was like Garden Trey and Terry Rozier and all these, you know, Jalen Green talented talented players. So it was fun to go at them and compete as always. I think it's definitely important, too, that they see how, you know, KD approaches it, how, you know, how he's playing. So if he's playing like that, everyone else obviously is going to play hard. He said the tone starts with him. Yeah, he's where the first, you know, at least five shots in a row. But the first five possessions, he didn't hit the net. Yeah. And like the whole gym was like, oh, Jesus, okay. So he's playing. And you could tell even before we started playing, he was doing a workout with Jabari, Jabari Smith. Yeah.

And they were doing like a whole workout. And you could already see like the tone in the gym was serious. He was quiet, had a full sweat going. The best pickup is serious pickup. There's nothing worse than like just lackadaisical bullshit pickup. So it was good to get out there and compete and work in your game. And Katie definitely set the tone. It was fun.

We also while we were out there went to the Drake concert. Yeah, we went to the Drake concert. Yeah, we saw Drake in the gym, and then he went to his concert that night, which was, which was amazing. We had a great time. You know, the concert was lit. At the end of the day, you know, you got all of his, he went through like the whole Rolodex of all of his song.

So I'm not even one of the guys that need all the visuals and like the dances in the background and the crazy, like theatrics. Like, if you have good music and you get a couple drinks in you and you're hanging out with good friends and you get the music going in there, the whole arena. I mean, that's all that's all you really need, man. Yeah, everyone was asking me how it was and they said they heard bad things. If you know every song, you know the words to like every song that you're going to a concert, you're going to have a good time.

Yeah, exactly. You're singing along until I'm mad. Yeah, this catalog obviously is unmased. So that was a great time for sure. It was. I feel like he's squeezing a lot in those two weeks. I'm good on LA for a while. I think I'm the thing back to Orlando.

That's because every night or every day when you're in LA, there's something going on. So while we were there, it just seemed like every day around five o'clock. It was like, yo, what are we doing? It's funny because every morning we start off by saying, we're not going to do anything tonight. We're not going to do anything tonight. Let's just hang out. And then like six o'clock is like, yo, I heard so-and-so's having a little get together. If you just want to, let's just know it.

Let's not drink. Let's just hang out. Three hours later, I look at you across the room. You're like, hey. No, but you know what, though? L.A., it feels like if you're there for the right reasons, you can get so much done just in terms of networking. Yeah. It's kind of how I felt in Vegas when I went out to Summer League.

I was there for two days. I felt like I was there for seven. All I was doing was talking, networking, talking, working, networking, working, networking. And it just felt like, even though I was only there for two days, like, I did a lot. You know what I mean? In LA, we were playing pickup, you're networking, you're meeting people, meetings, this. Even when you're going out and hanging out with people, you're getting introduced to people. Because there's all types of walks of life in Los Angeles, especially if you're like in that little scene. It's like a big high school where everybody kind of knows each other.

The entertainment business, that's what I'm going to call it. It is. It's the whole entertainment business is in L.A. And yeah, it was a good time. And we had a lot of fun. While we were gone and we took a little break from the pod, one of the things I saw that everyone was hating on Noel's comment. No, you jumped in on that on Twitter. You had something to say.

I did say something. Yeah, yeah. I was like, what is the delivery? Which was a big issue, I think. Even if whatever he was saying was right, right or wrong, the way you said it and you felt like it was like rehearsed. It just, it seemed not only rehearsed and forced, it didn't even seem natural coming out of his mouth.

And the way he talks, I think is also his voice, the way he sounds. He was like, champions of what? The USA? I was like, bro, just shut the fuck up and run. You just run in a strait. line as fast as possible, bro. That's what he's a sprinter. He's fast.

He's one of the fastest in the world. I have all the respect for that, man, especially to be in the Olympics. To be the guy like, you're faster than everyone you walk around. It's a pretty cool thing to say. How that translates to you knowing basketball or commenting on basketball to me is comical.

I understand what he's saying. I do think there's... So you agree with what you say. I don't agree, but I don't like fully disagree with what he's saying. Okay. The best league in the world is an NBA. everyone in the world knows this. Everyone in the world knows the NBA

is the best league in the world. Everyone knows that the best players in the world play in the NBA. Bar none. Is there a guy here or there that might play overseas instead of the NBA because maybe he's from over there? Amaritage, for example.

And by the way, he still played most of his career in the NBA and now he's finishing it up overseas back home. Are there those examples? Yes. Are there guys at the bottom, like the 12th guy who's like teetering back between like a two-way or a fully guaranteed

overseas deal, multi-year deal, maybe those guys, maybe a couple of those. But like the rest of the league, like the NBA, like the actual Hooper Hoopers, like, we all playing the league. That's just what it is. And when you win an NBA championship, you are the world champions because you're playing in the best league in the world. And you have all the best players from around the world in the fucking NBA. So that's why we call ourselves the world champions.

And if we took any NBA championship team and took the best Euro team, Euroclub, they would get the shit beat out of them in a 70 game series. They might win one game just off the strength of maybe hitting them every shot, especially if we're playing NBA rules where there's defense three seconds, can't hit the ball above the rim, the pace of the game, the speed of the game, two different leagues, man. There's no way. The best Euro player in the league is the 12th guy on an NBA roster.

And I'm not trying to be disrespectful. There's a lot of great Euro players. The best Euro player is a 12th guy. Who's the best year? Well, I just disagree with that part. Who? So I don't think, for example, Shane Larkin would be the 12th guy in the time. team. I think he'd be a solid backup point card in the NBA. Then he would be a backup point

guy in the NBA. I love Shane Larkin, but you're wrong. Shane was in the NBA for like three, four years and then he left to go overseas. He's gotten a lot better, it seems like. What EuroLeague player is coming in the league and is going to just get a backup point guard spot up contract right now? Are you kidding? No way. So I saw some people saying, taking this to another extreme. Dante X-em. Dante X-em. He's one of the better players. He's on a non-guaranteed, bro. A non-guaranteed deal in the NBA. I saw other people taking it to the other extreme saying the worst team in NBA would beat the best team. They would.

So let's say last year the worst team there was a Houston Rockets. They beat the best Euro Cup. And they would beat Real Madrid won the Eurole. Is there anybody on Real Madrid that's better than Jabari Smith or, what's it, Daylon Green, Kevin Porter, Jr.? Shangoon. Who I think would be an unbelievable yearly player right there. Not one of those guys, not one year old league guys better than anybody in the Rockets.

And that's the worst team to lead. I don't think they're going to be the worst team next year, but they were last year. And they would beat any team. in the Euroclub. And again, what I'm saying shouldn't be disrespectful, by the way. This is like common sense. All I'm saying is the worst NBA team, the best league in the world, should be able to beat a Euroclub team.

And your best thing was Shane Larkin, who, shout out to Shane Larkin. Got none but respect there. We had some battles in high school. Shane Larkin, Mike James, these guys were like 11th, 12th guys that kind of teetering in and out of the league when they were. Sometimes at best they were like a backup role for like a stint of games. We're not talking like a full backup role from all 82 games. in the playoffs they're relying on these guys that's a different thing bro there's a difference

between being a backup but a guy who like served as a backup because of injuries or this this and that or maybe had a little stint two different things so i mean that proves a lot right there but to noah's point i i understand what he's saying when you're not the world you're not the world champions but do you really want the nuggets to go on a tour on the world to just beat all the other teams too just to say the world champions it's obvious they would win it'll be a waste of time so but i understand what he said yokech couldn't get out of denver fast enough after the title he's not doing that he's not doing some tournament you're a champions league tournament it's not happening he had a beer waiting for him on the PJ as soon as that parade ended and that guy had

a couple beers waiting for him on the PJ to go back the back over the water and I'll say this I understand the Olympics and what they're doing when you're competing against the world it is just a different thing but in our sport of basketball the best play in the NBA where like in sprinting the best of the best really compete in the Olympics it's just two different things you know what I mean like gymnastics sure they have tournaments locally and i'm i'm sure in america but the best of the best what you get your credit for is every four years when you compete in the olympics whereas the olympics for basketball it's like well no one really i'm not people care but it's it's not like the NBA you know what i mean like that's that's that's the focus is the NBA

championship that's that's why it's just different i don't understand the comment was not only whether he was wrong or right it was just unnecessary you're a sprinter why are you talking about the NBA. He clearly wanted, he wanted to, no, he just wanted, like, attention. I don't even know what it did. And all he did is alienate himself from ever being cool with anybody really that's, like, popping or cool. Because, like, not a rapper in the world. Fucks with that guy now. Even Drake came out. I was like, bro, look at you, bro. You rehearsed this in the mirror the day before. I thought I was going to go well, huh? Like, bro, that's, that just tells you, like, no one agrees with it. And the Popovich even came back out. And like, that was an old Popovich

quote that he essentially said the same thing years ago, about something. You were wrong about something. You were to go over it? I don't think I was wrong about anything. 100%. I was wrong about, I said Brandon Ingram would be the best player and who did I say it was going to be the best player

in the team? Just so we can get that out of the way. You said Anthony Edwards. Thank you. Statistically, I saw something that come out today in that rating,

Halliburn's been the best player. And he has been hooping. Anthony Edwards has by far, by far been the best player. And he is by far the best player in that team. And there's not a player that's even in the realm

of being close to second. It's like Anthony Edwards and then there's a giant gap and there's the rest of those guys. I was completely wrong about Brandon Ingram. But you didn't think Bretton would be

struggling. I did not, I did not think Brennan would struggle this bad. It's to the point where it's a little bit like what's going on.

I also think because when you're on like a team like USA and you have so much talent around you, which they do. If you're not playing well, like they just have another guy there.

So now like not only are you not playing well. They're not getting them going. Yeah. Exactly. It's not like you're your own team where they're going to get you going. Like you're going to find yourself. Like there's no time

to find yourself in USA basketball. If you're not hidden, they got a, another star sitting on the bench. That guy's in the game. So now, like, Brandon's coming in the game. And now he's like, I know how it is, man. Like, now he's, like, caught into fitting in because now he doesn't want to mess up

because his minutes have been taking a little bit. So now he's coming in. This is a role that made you understand more than that. No, I know this role. That's what I'm saying. He's coming in the game, like, trying to be aggressive, but doesn't want to over be aggressive because when he was overly aggressive, it didn't work before. But now that's not who he is because he's a score.

Yeah. So, like, the other day, he had 10 points, four or six off the bench. Like, he played pretty solid. But it just, it seemed like he struggled to kind of find himself. It doesn't help that like Anthony's playing so well and that's the guy they're clearly playing through. So like Brandon's essentially like kind of playing off the ball and he's not really like an off the ball like spot up. That's not his game. So like, like you said, like who fits around Anthony Awards better?

Like this Brunson? I love Brunson, but he doesn't fit better than Halliburton. Does this do I like, do I like, do I like Brandon Ingram? Does he fit better than Cam Johnson or Reeves? Guys who are just going to spot up and shoot guys who are going to go in there and Johnabirdon. Josh Hart, guys are going to go get offensive rebound and kick it back out to the end, play off them, guys who are going to cut, come set them picks. Do you do what I'm saying?

No, absolutely. It goes back to our whole thing where you can only need players to compliment the better players. The better players. Yeah, you can't just put the best players on one team. You know, I mean, someone's got to give for it to work. So it's been interesting to see, you know, this team. I do like how they're constructed.

I know this isn't our A team and it might not even be our B team. But the guys that we have are like really good players, a couple of all-stars. the guys who aren't all-stars are like really good complimentary players and defensive first guys. There's a lineup where it's like Jaron Jackson, Anthony Edwards, Halliburton, the kid who's a dude from Brooklyn? McKell Bridges. McHill Bridges, like very long, athletic, all defensive-minded guys as well. Anthony Edwards, guys who can play both ends.

And I feel like that's their best lineup, especially in the fourth, Austin Reeves. But every game, the bench, the bench trio of Austin Reeves, Palo and Halliburton have come in, and they just start cooking immediately. Today it happened again too. They have a good report. Apollo's played great. Yeah. He's a perfect Fibah big.

He's played great, man. He's played big. He switches on the smalls. He's been aggressive. He doesn't force shots. You know what I mean? Like he's playing the right way, which any young player could go out there and like try to score every time he touches it.

Like he's playing the right way. He's really shown that he knows how to play like winning basketball. You know what I mean? This is great for him after a rookie. Absolutely. A rookie of the year. A rookie of the year going right into Fiba, going into a second year campaign. I think, you know, a lot of guys going to camp and go into the season, they start slow.

He's fresh off the Fiba. Sometimes those guys come out blazing because he just got done playing. You know what I mean? Like camp starts in like four weeks. This guy's going to start, this guy's playing for another week and a half. He's really going to have two week different time of like between Fiba ending and his season starting. For sure. So exciting times for the Magic fans.

Yeah. As a Magic fan, how do we get Halliburton? They play so well together. He's got to look great. Halliburton might have just checked in with his two, say, what do he sign? Two, he's not going anywhere, bro. Indianapolis is locking that guy down. And his personality and the type of person he is, like, he don't even care to be, you know, somewhere like in Florida.

No, I'm a little worried that people are going to start. No income tax, Tyler. People are going to recruit Palo. I know how these Olympic teams, people start recruiting. Oh, yeah, no, they're talking. What do you think they're talking on the bus all day? It's not good for Paulo. Powell's not going to do.

So, where you were wrong? I was wrong about Brandon Ingram. You were wrong on. What was that wrong? You told me, he told the audience that Austin Reeves wouldn't really be in the rotation. And he's been a big player. Did I say that? Yeah.

I was wrong about that. You were. He's surprising a lot of people. I didn't think so either. I thought Austin Reeves, based off of the footage that we were getting from the scrimmages in the early on practices, it didn't look like Reeves was going to be an initial guy who was going to be playing a lot. I thought him and Josh Hart would have like moments where they needed them. I didn't think they're going to be guys that.

we're going to be playing 25 minutes a night. But what happens is, like you said, you need guys to compliment. And what Austin Reeves has pretty much shown is he's a guy that you could pretty much put on any team in the NBA. And he's playing big minutes. He's aggressive. He's smart. He plays hard. He's competitive.

He doesn't force anything. Those five things. And he's not high in turnover prone. And he gets in the NBA, he's very free throw heavy. He gets to the line. I think that's his best attribute. He's so aggressive. Yeah.

It's aggressive always. You know, so I like, I mean, me and you have always been fans of him this whole year. When people were like trying to give him a hard time, you know, we were pretty positive about his play. I didn't think it would translate in him getting this much minutes and Fibba this early, but he's played really well, man. I mean, I got to tip my hat off. Do you think future All-Star or jump in the gun a little bit? The only reason I say we're jumping the gun is just because it is so competitive in the West. And in any conference, especially the West, for him to make an All-Star game, he'd have to, like, outplay.

like Brad B. I mean, he'd have to outplay some serious scores, man. You know what I mean? Like, he's going to have to outplay Brad Biel. He's going to have to outplay because now he's in the West. You know, you got Shay Alexander. You've got Steph Curry. I mean, the guard spot in the West is pretty much locked up, man. You know, if Damien Lillard's still there, he probably won't be. But, you know, Jamal Murray wants to be an all-star for the first time. Still hasn't made one. And he's healthy now. Like, but this is who Austin Reeves has to outplay. Yeah. It's just not going to-Jamonger is the best player ever to not make an all-star team. And obviously that's due to circumstance and injury.

But yeah, if he didn't get injured, he'd probably be a two-time All-Star by now. Yeah. But he'll be one next year. You thought Canada wouldn't have any chance at, you know, beating USA. Obviously, Lithuania just beat USA. Didn't they play Canada and USA? No. They haven't played yet.

No. They edit that out. They might play in the finals. Canada without Jamal Murray looks really, really good. They do. With Jamal, they would have been OD. And we all just saw USA lose to Lithuania. So now do you change your, you're changing your opinion.

bit. Obviously, Canada could get one off USA. Yeah, they could. Lithuania made their first- 90s. Anybody, anybody can win in one game, man. If they played Lithuania, bro, if they played Lithuania at best of seven games, it would be four games of one. So you're not worried about that loss. No, man.

That team shot their load. They are, they lost by 20 today to serve you. Yeah, they're, come on, man. The guys had to come to Jesus moment. Did you see the threes that they were hitting? Some guy banked it. Some guy was, you can see how gas they were, too, in the bench. They were like, I mean, they had the game of their life.

No disrespect, but all disrespect. They're a good team, but they're not beating USA again. If USA matches up with Lithuania again, it's going to be a blowout. Do you think USA is definitely going to win the gold? I don't think there is dominant enough, but I have them winning. I have them winning. I don't think it's like a for sure thing, like we're winning automatic. They can win.

They can lose to Canada. I mean, they got. I just don't like how it's almost becoming normal. France has been. Oh, there I am. What's been going on? I don't know. They look terrible.

Yeah, that was bad. They're getting beat by everybody. Yeah. Lafia beat them. Lathias ended up being good, though. They're good. They made the final eight. Yeah, man.

If USA had their A team, does anyone touch me? No, man. This would be a slaughter. What is it in office? Holster. What is he? Cornell, Holster, slaughter. No, seriously, though?

Even when they had our redeem team and the 2012 team, some of those games were close against Spain. Yes. Yes. Some games were close. That was prime Spain, by the way, with like the Gasol twins, the Gasol brothers. They had a, Rubio Fernandez.

I mean, they had like a really, and those guys have been playing with each other, their whole life, and most of them were pros. Or big time Euro pros. Like that was a good, and again, it's just one game. They don't got to beat them in a seven game series. That's another reason why going back to Noah's comments or why it's so ridiculous.

It's said in one game elimination, man. And the NBA, bro, you have to win four rounds of seven game series, bro. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, it takes luck. out of the equation. When you have to beat someone out of seven times, there's no more luck. Yeah, that's not a lucky Miami Heat Run. No, you have to win.

When it's like that's why people love the NCAA tournament. Anyone can beat. We lost to Lehigh, brother. That team was terrible. They had C.J. McCollum and a bunch of guys who work in cubicles now. If we played them again the next day, we would have beat, they lost Xavier the next time by 20. But that game versus us, they were up and we lost.

Yeah. That's what makes Feeba interesting. The USA can lose next game, and it's a rap. You know what I mean? But in the NBA, you have a lot. NBA, you have best of the best team wins. So who would be your A team for America? I mean, give me the lineup.

You got Stefan Curry, you got LeBron James, Kevin Durant. I probably put Devin at the two. My center would be, do we get Joel or does he play for that? Okay, so we get, who would be our center? Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis. Bam? And probably Bam.

I mean, we're, and then again. Off the bench, Damien, Lillard. And then Jason Tatum. And then instead of like a Josh Hart, I have like the best version of that guy. Well, like I got Jimmy Butler coming off the bench. Like you want to, you want a dog? You want to think about him playing that. Think about him playing that role.

Right now you got Josh Hart getting rebounds. It's a matter of Jimmy Butler grabbing in there. That's a good point. Two different things, bro. Like Paul George. Paul George. Like, bro, come on, man. Look at this team we're naming right now.

We win in every game like 50, bro. Are you kidding me? We don't even have our B team out there. I'm missing guys right now. We're not even talking about Donovan Mitchell and other guys. We didn't even throw them in the mix. Like, come on, bro. Get out of here.

How do you feel about Shea and Josh Deed be both hooping for their countries? I feel like that's going to be a really good back coordinator for the Thunder. I love Shea's game. Yeah. He is so fun to watch. He's must-see TV. Can go each way left or right. Stops on a dime.

Stops on a dime. His pullback is one of the nastiest in the NBA right now. Going full speed, pulls it back, especially going to his right. Three-level score. Shake you with the three because it's just a slow release. but is able to get it off just due to how quick he is and how lethal he is up to drive. You have to give him room.

So when he's hitting a long ball, he's pretty hard to guard. So Shea's impressive. I like giddy. You know, and I like, I played pickup with Chet. It was dominant. That's my rookie of the year pick next year. Yeah, Chet, that's a good pick, by the way.

I think, who was the number one pick this year? It was a, oh, yeah, Victor. I think check could win I think check could that that'd be a competitive between those two yeah it's going to be a unicorn race yeah speaking of next year what we got we got a little what I want to get let's get into you and me came up with a list of guys that we call it revenge year a lot to prove

guys that um they're going to be looking for payback this year this is the biggest year in a long time for the NBA because I think it is a huge revenge year for multiple star players And I think it's each year there's always a guy who is looking to settle a score or prove people wrong, but never have we had this much drama or this much anticipation going into a season. And in terms of revenge and payback, I really do believe this is going to be one of the most entertaining seasons in NBA basketball that we've had in a long time just due to multiple, multiple guys needing to have a big season. I'm going to name some guys and you're going to tell me what you think.

Do they need a revenger? Are they going to have a revenge year? I'm going to start off with John Morant. John Morant's number one. Okay? We all know what happened. We're not even talking about him, potentially being on Team USA. Like, people are just forgetting about him. Like, as far as like a future,

the future of the week. That's actually a great point. We just had that whole team we just put together and didn't even think of Joe. Yeah. And he's one of the most prolific athletic, you know, star guards in the NBA right now. Jaws had a rough summer.

Obviously, the way the season ended last year, there's a lot of drama going on with that team. It seemed like they were always in the papers or in the news. papers is nuts. The papers is insane. They were always in the media and in the spotlight, but for the wrong reasons last year. And whether it was Jah, you know, T, a lot of those guys were always in the face front of that. Dylan, obviously, he's moved on in Houston, but he was a huge part of that. And then they got smacked by the Lakers who just had got enough to play in. It's a big

year for him. He's had a lot of bullshit going on with him off to court, and it's kind of gotten to the point where enough's enough. I think it's good that it's been quiet on his I think he's done a great job yeah and it goes to show that his actual apology everybody's like oh we heard this before like bro he's 20-something years old the guys making mistakes man he's got all the money in the world at his fingertips he's got all the access he's probably got very few people around him that's really telling him no or that's not a good idea because he's John Moran people you know and people can take that one way or the other I'm glad that this we and we talked about this this is this is like his Iverson moment you know what I mean like Iverson went through a little shit before a like he got his shit together and like really just continue to excel. We talked about winning makes everyone forget about everything. And if he comes back and he's dominant and stays out of trouble and they're winning and they're a good team. They should be. They have Desmond Bain on a long-term deal now.

You know, Jan Jackson Jr. He's playing Fiva. That's a player of year. They should be near the top of the West. And if he's a big part of that, I want Jha to be what everybody wants him to be. And that is the next Derek Rose. you know prior to injuries that is Russell Westbrook both of those guys have MVPs I want Jada have an MVP like season I want Jada to come back healthy I want Jada to stay out the

fucking club I want Jada to lay off the alcohol I want Jada to be focused I want him to be in shape I want I want his jump shot to be improved I want him out of the media show up and who be all be all be all be all be all be all in the media just due to how great you're playing yeah and there's other guys in the west that are coming up you know Jumal Murray just want a title D'airn Fox had a hell of a year big year and these guys are all we didn't name we didn't think about him he didn't even in the USA team right people People are going to start, you know, they're going to do their preseason rankings. I'm sure we'll do something like that too.

People are going to start leapfrogging John. Yeah, for now. Yeah. But I want John to really be on some revenge mode. That's what he's number one in the list. Next. Jordan Pool. Absolutely.

Jordan Pool's another name. You are part of a championship organization, a top tier organization. It seemed like a little weird towards the end. And it started in the beginning of the year with all, we all know the Dremont incident. That kind of like kicked it off. And then from there was just like stuff getting technicals for throwing us. mouthpiece, it shoots a shot. Yeah, it just got weird.

And there's like the first time in a long time, we've seen the Warriors have like a chink in their armor. And I'm not counting the years when they were bad when everybody was hurt because that doesn't count. This is the first time with all their guys playing that like shit wasn't going right. And it looked like it was more of a chemistry thing. Right.

And they ship you off across the country to. It's just not, it's very rare when a young up-and-coming town like that gets weird. It never happens. I mean, unless something's wrong. Yeah. It's the only time something happens. James Hardin going from the Rockets.

It's all financial. Yes, and he wanted to leave. When else have you ever seen a young rising player who's got drafted through a championship organization and they just shipped them off? Yeah. To hold on to the older guys who probably only have a how many years left? Yeah. Of playing elite basketball.

I love Clay. I love Steph. I love Draymond. I don't know how many years left they have of being like dominant dominant. They're still going to be in the race. We all thought Jordan Pool would be carrying it over. Yeah. Him and Camiga and those guys.

will kind of be like inserted within the mix too wiseman's gone like they got rid of those guys they kind of went a different direct bob myers dipped you know what i mean like he what he's doing espion next you know this is like it's like a whole new thing over there so i want jordan pool to go to dc and average 25 i want the wizards actually compete yeah i'm not saying they're going to win anything they're not going to win any fucking championship i don't think anybody believes that but the wizards need to be in the playoffs they need to be in the playoffs or playing playing or playoffs and with coos who can average you just got to do you just got to new contract, a guy who can give you 20 points a game. You got a pool who can give you 20, 25 a game.

Tyos Jones. Yeah, we're both big fans of Tyos, a really solid point guard. You know what I mean? Like that, that is a team that I feel with all the right things in health being considered, I think they can make the playoffs. Jordan Poole needs to have a big year. He needs to like, I want him to like, he needs to make the warriors look bad, essentially. Because in what world does a top tier prospect get just for what? What did they trade him for? Well, I ended up being Chris Paul. It's a strange trade.

So Chris Paul, one more year left on his deal, it's financial. But it's still just a weird deal. And the fact that you're receiving someone who's 38 and you're giving away someone who's in their young 20s who's not even had his best years in the NBA yet, there's flags there. Yeah, it's got to help you win a title. Huh? Yeah.

And he absolutely did. Jordan Poole's not on that Warriors team a couple years ago. They don't win. I don't care of anything, but they lose to Boston. They lose to Boston if they don't have Jordan Poole in that team. People could say whatever they want about Jordan, but he was unbelievable in that playoffs. He had so many big games, bro.

So I like to see him have a huge year in D.C. Next guy up, we have Zion. Zion Williams, man. This has to be a big revenge year for you, bro. Each year you've been injury prone, each year you have not shown up to play and work to the point where you were supposed to be like the second coming of LeBron James. And I'm not saying your games are similar because he had LeBron's more

a point forward who could pass. And obviously Zion's like a point or not a point. He's a power forward. He's, you know, whole different game. But in terms of you're a surrogens in the league, your name, your likeness, your hype, your buzz, you were not in the LeBron level, but whatever you want to call it, it was very, very high. It was a Barclay, Blake Griffin. Blake Griffin. I mean, Sean Kemm. And people were excited about you and they want you to be one of the faces of the league and I'll give you credit every time Zion plays every time Zion plays he's dominant with his numbers that's not the issue the number one skill in the NBA or any professional sports is availability and he has not been available bro and then to cap it off this this

fucking summer it's been a shit show for him off the court yeah so now that that's again he's also been quiet and I've seen photos and videos of him lately he's in the gym he looks like he's in shape I need Zion to play 70 games man when he went out of last year they were kind of a sexy pick for a title contender. Do you remember the start of the season last year? Remember the 360 windmill to beat the Phoenix? I mean, they were one of the best teams in a league. I mean, this guy looks, that's what I'm saying. When he plays, I got nothing to say. I got nothing to pick at or point at when Zion's on the court healthy to play. He's a beast when he plays. But he don't play a lot. He's hurt a lot. He's hurt a lot. They baby him. They said they don't listen to

them. He doesn't listen to them. New Orleans is saying it's his side. Zion's saying, It's New Orleans side. I don't know what's going on, but you got a talented young coach in Willie Green. You got a talented young player in Zion Williams. You got Brandon Ingram. You got young talent around you with who's Murphy and then who's the other lanky guy. Dyson Daniels. Dyson Alvarado.

You say C.J. McCollum. Who's it? They have two. It's Trey Murphy and then who's the other guy? Herb Jones. They got like talented lanky guys around that can play on both sides of the ball. Like, bro, go to the playoffs. Go do something.

Go play 70 games. I don't need 82 when you. It's unrealistic with his body type. If you give 70 games from Zion, you should be a top five seat in the West, and he needs to be an all-star and have like a dominant, like first team,

second team like season. Because his numbers point to that when he plays. So I'm excited to see Zion be healthy. They say he's healthy now. We'll see what happens. I want to see Zion have a big playoff moment. I want to see him in the playoffs. That's what I'm saying.

I want to say Zion. That's how you create your legacy. That's what the memories. Exactly. I want to see Zion in the playoffs, you know, at the peak of his powers. Exactly.

Exactly. Next guy up, I have DeAndre Aten slash Bradley Biel. Okay. Tell me why. Both of those guys for different reasons. DeAndre Aiton, I feel like people are, you know, I feel like it's a lot of blame. You got a lot of negativity. Every time Phoenix has a shortcoming in the playoffs, they point a finger at him because I want to point it at, you know, Kevin Duran or Nevin Booker.

Well, you can't point it at, can't point it at Devin last year. He was about as perfect of a basketball player as you get in the playoffs. I was insane. People don't even talk about that, by the way. Yeah. People do not talk. about what Devin did last year in the playoffs. Do you remember he was having like 34?

It was a nutty shit he was doing. And when they got smacked at that deciding game against the nuggets, if you think about it, they won the most games against the Nuggets in the playoffs. For them to get all that flack, you know, they got blown out by the Nuggets at elimination game. They're the ones that only got two wins on the Nuggets. No one else even did that. Your Timberwolves got one. We almost got two.

Lakers couldn't get one. No, no. Yeah. But I just feel like he gets a lot of blame. and when they went to the finals against the bucks, people were looking at him like he was, you know, one of the next, you know, best big man. Yep.

It would be nice thing. He signs his offer sheet with the Pacers, Phoenix matches, a lot of issues with him and Monty Williams. Yep. I'll have to see him succeed. And on the flip side, Bradley Beale, you know,

there hasn't been a lot of winning in Bradley Beal's career. They had that won really good year. They went to the second round, lost to the Celtics, Kelly Lennig game, game seven. I've got to see that in 2017, something like that. I want to see Bradley Bill.

You're on a winning team now. This is your Ray Allen, to the Celtics and potentially, you know, buying in and playing winning basketball. Okay. I see what you're doing. I want to see Bradley Bill, you know, have some meaningful moments in the playoffs too. So Aiton took a lot of blame, fair or unfair. There's a lot of plays and highlights of him where he was like really lackluster on

defense, like not getting rebounds like Yokic. It looked like he kind of gave up versus Yokage. There were reports of issues between him and Moni. The reports and videos of him getting into it with other star players on the team. then he doesn't want to be there. He was mad that the max offer didn't get offered right away. Remember that that was the drama the year before. My thing is, brother, you got paid.

You got $137 million. Two years ago, you were one of the most promising bigs to your point. Versus Milwaukee, he was fantastic. And that whole series, he was. Go have a big year. Go be a really solid piece. You're not the best player. You're not the second and you're not the third.

But the team you have is super loaded and you have a chance to go win a title. Go be a big piece. peace on that team and you'll get another max and another max and another one on the way out. You know what I mean? Like just go play basketball and be a good, good solid player. And he even came out and said it's been tough. He's got a lot of negativity. It seemed like everybody wanted him to fail and it kind of messed with him. We are all human. I think there's like this thing out there that people think like we just don't see any of the negativity that comes. I think NBA players because of the wealth and the busyness of their life,

they're able to push a lot of it aside, but make no doubt about it. We're in our inboxes. We look at our comments. We see. that stuff, man. Maybe not all of it. Maybe it doesn't stick as long as it might stick to somebody else. But like, shit does bother us. And you could, especially the level of hate that he was getting last year, I'm really looking forward to him turning it around. I want him to have a positive year. And as far as Brad, Brad's been a top tier score in this league for since he's been in. But he hasn't been on really like a really winning team. He had a year or two there with the Wizards where they were him and John were kind of like carrying them just to the playoffs. But this

is like championship time, you know, for the sons. They have a chance to go win. Brad doesn't have to be the best player or the second best player. This is a whole new situation for him, but this is a guy who can shoot the shit out of the ball and can score with limited amount of dribbles. There's any player that can fit in with Kevin and Brad, I mean with Kevin and Devin, it is Brad. So I look forward to Brad having a big year, man. I think he's going to be a good piece for them. Next guy up, Janus, obviously lost in the first round, was injured some of those games. But he's had some recent comments in the media about, you know, it looks like he might be having one foot out the door with the bucks.

Yeah. A little shaky about your bucks fan, not loving that. It's getting a little weird. Definitely. You saw they signed the third brother. Yeah. They're going to sign another one too to make it. I'm about to change my last name now.

I'm going to go to Coupo. For sure. They're obviously going to do whatever they can. They're going to do whatever they can. Absolutely. Right after he says these comments, right after this guy comes out and says, listen, unless they show me love, you know, I don't really know if I'm going to be back here and playing with the bucks.

Maybe I have to look out a week later. Buck sign, and Janus' little third brother. I'm like, but how many brothers is he going to get on this team? As many as it takes to keep him, man. Because both of those brothers,

listen, man, do what you got to do. To do what you got to do. I'm not here to, I don't get up by putting somebody else down. But Janus, a big year for him, man. I mean, you got knocked out first round in the playoffs. It's not even that you lost first round.

It's how you lost. It was a weird one. Like, it just seemed like. It was unfortunate he was injured for some of those. It was about to say he gets the benefit of the doubt because he was hurt. So that's obviously a big deal. But the way Jimmy was just bullying that team, it was kind of weird. I was like, what's going on here? It was an alpha showdown. It was a alpha showdown and Jimmy won. I mean, he bullied that team. So big year for the bucks in general. But yeah, Yonis. And he even had comments.

He was like, wait until next year. I'm going to show y'all next year. I'm going to bounce back. So I mean, he didn't play, he didn't play Fiba. I mean, he's putting all it into this year. I mean, he's going to come out ready to go. Yonis is big MVP's in the head. That's the way I have is he's going to be in the race every year. So that's not really a headline. But yeah, I think a big year for Yonis.

Jalen Brown. Absolutely. You're the biggest contract in NBA history and you're not the best player in your own team. Yes. People are going to be looking at him. And the whole kid dribble with his left hands. People just dog him all the time. Obviously, you know what man.

Social media. It's there. Genobly never went right and you couldn't guard him either. And by the way, I never go left and they don't stop me from going right. Okay, who gives a fuck? Listen, does he need to work on his left hand? Maybe, sure, I don't know. But clearly he averages 20-something points again.

We live in such a like, what can you do for me lately, world? Right. That people forgot that the year before in the finals, he was the best player in the finals for the Celtics. He outplayed Tatum. The reason he got that contract is second team all-em-in-eat. The guy had a great year. Unbelievable year.

He just people are picking up. just struggled a little bit versus Miami. And that's because he had Jimmy and Bam out of bio hounding this guy. You know what I mean? So he had, you know, he had an off series. Yeah, big year for him. You're our highest paid player ever. Yeah.

And like you said, every time he has a bad game, it's going to say, biggest contract to NBA history off night. It's just, it's going to follow around. Good problem to have. Jaylon's in good hands, bro. Jaylon's going to be all right. You know, you're going to get 24 a game,

23 to 25 points a game. He's a two-way player when he needs to be. Celtics are going to be right back in the race. They had a weird year last year. Their chemistry just seemed just, they had a lot going on. They're questioning whether the coach is going to be there or not long term. Now that's kind of not really an issue. If they don't come back down 3-0, Joe Mazzul is probably out of a job.

But they come back and Joe's a young, talented coach that they're building up. He's still learning, by the way. It's his second year coaching, head coaching. And, yeah, Jalen Brown, big year. ask me some rapid fire questions. Let's get into it. Do you think Luca has anything to prove coming in the next year? Absolutely.

I was about to say, why is it Luca on this list? Why aren't him a career? The only reason I didn't put him on the list is because I think it's four years in a row now. He's been first team all NBA. It's the guy, I guess, I guess it's an unprecedented level of dominance in your first five years. Getting four-time first team all NBA in your first five years is crazy.

Individually, he has been absolutely dominant. I mean, the way, it looks like he's bored sometimes playing in the NBA. No, no, no, seriously. It looks like his feeble highlights. I think Jamal Carver's in his head. He's a prodigy. He's already figured it out. He's always like a Bobby Fisher,

chess champion prodigy. Like, this guy's already figured out basketball. He has, though. I mean, he plays at his own speed. It looks like sometimes he's out there just trying shit. I don't even know how to explain it. I felt that the first time I played to him when he was a rookie, when we played against him in Houston,

I was like, God damn. I remember with Seths like, man, no, he could play, bro. He just plays like, he just plays like a grown man's been playing. It looks like he's been playing in the NBA for 30 years. It's just the way he plays.

He has a level of comfort you can't really teach. I guess as an individual note, I don't really have anything to say. Just because, like you said, four first teams in your first five years is like unprecedented. I mean, that's just, that is crazy. I guess the team success. Yeah, and you're in your fifth year and you don't make the play in, that's not, that's not, everyone else's his career is pretty linear. You know, LeBron, once he didn't make the playoffs the first two years, he was in.

And it's finals, finals. No one, his, for him to go in his fifth year and not make the play in, is it weird? Yeah, look at that blemish, like when we look at his Hall of Fame career, we're going to be like, oh, that was that one weird year where they got to play. They didn't make the play. Him and Kyrie got to figure that out, though. They're too talented of a back court. Well, Kyrie got his contract. So hopefully there's not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, they need to go play. And Kyrie's been playing all summer. He's been playing in like, you know, proams. They have sidebar. I love watching this. Whenever I see a Kyrie really highlight in the on the Instagram.

People made fun of me. People made fun of me because I said he had the most sexy basketball game. And everybody was like, pause, bro. I'm like, bro, I'm not calling him sexy. I'm saying his game style. the way Kyrie plays the game, it is the most enjoyable thing to watch in terms of basketball. There is not a player on the planet that I'd rather watch, if you had to pay,

or if I had to sit in a chair and watch any NBA player play pickup for two hours, it would be Kyrie Irving every time. He's just, he has a really nice, and then Paul George might be right behind him. In terms of like nice games

that just look clean, just smooth, like just an all-around game, although Donovan Mitchell's New York highlights have been silly, but yeah. Who was that guy that he hit with the cross and made him like He hit somebody with some nasty cross last week

He was another NBA player Anyways yeah, Kyrie Kyrie's definitely good Did he do that too? Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, of course He hit him like the movie like that Like that guy like ran the other way

I was like who was that that was doing that That doesn't matter but yeah it was a Yeah I got Kyrie Uh over anybody in terms of guys I want to watch But him and him and Luca need to have no playing is insane. And they have good role players, man. They had last year, they had Finney Smith,

they had Reggie Bullock, Josh Green. You know what I mean? You had like really solid role players around them. Now they added Seth Curry. They lost, I believe, a couple of those guys. But they still have the majority of their role playing cast. They picked up Grant Williams. Picked up Grant Williams.

That team needs to be a top five seat in the West. Seriously. The next star to ask out, is it going to be Embed or Yonis? Embed. You feel it. Indeed should have been asked out. Yeah. I'll be honest you.

You have that MVP year. Now he got it. And the team is his sidekicks have been James Hardin, who's historically been, I guess, I'm reliable in the playoffs. You know, he has great numbers in the playoffs. You look it up. And, you know, obviously before that, Ben Simmons, he's probably feeling like the organization's letting it down a little bit.

What else can you do besides be MVP? That's the highest of the mountain top. The top of the mountain is winning the MVP. And right now it looks like he's over the slope of that roller coaster. And it's starting, that drop is. is like getting ready to go down. I mean, who does that team have right now? But here we are. So I don't understand

what Philly's doing. I don't know the direction they're going in in terms of like what they're building around Joel. So if you're asking me between him and Janus, you know, over Milwaukee man, they're signing Janus's cousin. They got Janus, they got Janus's grandma in the kitchen cooking. They got, they got. And they want a title. And they've already. He's already got, he can say, we got you to tie.

And he's already got. That's why no one talks about Janus. When it comes to winning or all that, once you get one, like Yokage, this is off the hook now. Yeah. You got to get one. He had an MVP-like season. They gave it to Joel. That's just kind of off of,

can't give us this guy three times in a row, off the back-to-back MVPs. Yeah. Could have won a third one. And then what he does is after he doesn't get one, he goes, okay, and goes to the playoffs and dominates everyone and then wins. And everybody's like,

okay, that's the real MVP. Side bar, if Yokic was playing for Serbia right now, they'd be dangerous. USA would have their hands for. Who does Serbia have? Bogdan, Boganovich.

The team looks good. Nicoliovich. They have both Bogdons? No. And Nikoliyovic, the young guy from Miami, might be in the Damian Worlder trade, but that's still on. No one knows what's going on.

They look good. They just beat Lithuania by 30 points, and Lithuania beat USA. So that's a sidebar. If Yoko's just playing for Serbia right now, that'd be must-see TV. Sidebar, must-see TV. All right, next question.

Everybody, every summer, this guy's been in the gym. You saw it with Zion, and Luca every year. This guy looks different. our body actually you only agreed that danzel russell actually does look different looks fantastic yeah he looks swole yeah have you ever had a teammate come into the season actually with a big improvement look completely different yes he wasn't um i've had to happen multiple times um i think off the bat

the first player that probably comes into mind where i've really seen i saw yokech one year the second year when i came back he lost like 23 remember that year he was like skinny a couple years ago he they really came in like crazy shape. You won MVP that year. And you're like, wow, you know, he lost 20, 30 pounds. Other than that, man, most guys usually come in. I mean, most of the pros, man, most of the really good players, they come in a camp ready to play.

Even if they're out of shape, it's only by a little. It might just be rhythm and a little rust. That's what preseason's four. But like, it's rare you see a guy coming to camp just looks nasty. Like, it's just so unprofessional. We're not in the 90s anymore where we're doing conditioning tests and we have these crazy training camps, man. We have one a days now.

When I first came in, it was two a days every day for like a week. Now you might get one two a day, maybe just one. And the second part of that two of days is just a scrimmage. It's like a fun. You know what I mean? And it's stopped and controlled and they got all the recovery now. Training camp's ridiculous now. It's not that hard.

So there's really no excuse for you not to be coming into camp already in shape, man. So I haven't really been with someone where I saw someone like so crazy insane reforms. Like usually guys are already where they need to be at, but yokech out the top would probably be the one I've seen. I've seen a lot of videos of guys in the summer acting like they're doing a lot. Yeah. You want to talk about that. I see everybody on Instagram looks like they're in top tier shape comeback season. Yeah, they're going to count me out now.

You know, the little hashtags they have on their pictures, all their little fucking corny slogans and quotes from songs and stuff. And they're in the gym. And then they come in, they like suck. So I'm looking forward to seeing who actually is putting in the work. You know that saying there's a time where winter will come and ask what you've been doing all summer. I've never heard that. You like it or no? Did you make that up?

No, I didn't. I didn't. I wish I could because that was smooth the way I just delivered that. But it's a truth, man. The winner comes and it's going to ask every time, what are you been doing all summer? And it'll be seen. So we'll see who's that. Even like Jimmy Butler, who you see at every U.S. Open match,

then you'll see a video with him with Chris Brickley working out. He's getting his workout today. Yeah, guys like that, I don't work out. He's still having a good time. Jimmy's had a hell of a time. This guy's been hanging out with Jay Baldwin, wearing cowboy hats. And I'm in London with my fiancé, and I'm walking around. And I see Jimmy just walking around, al-a-fit hanging out with Carlos Alvarez and all these dudes.

I'm just like, bro, this guy's living the dream. Because no one's questioning his work ethic. That's why. You don't have to. This guy just carried his team to the final. last year in crazy fashion. The way he put a team on his back has been seen very little. It reminded everybody of like

Kwai-like Raptor season. That shit he was doing last year. The only person we could compare it to in recent history was like Janus and the Bucks. Yonich was doing it too, but he's a center. In terms of like a forward, like you thought of Kwai. You're like, well, this dude is just carrying this team. And they almost got it done.

I mean, they just ran into, you know, they ran into that Nuggets team, which just wasn't going to lose. But yeah, Jimmy, Jimmy looks like he's been having a good time in the summer. But he looks in shape. It looks incredible, bro. That's the number one thing that fans don't understand. They'll see someone, you know, out of the bit. Why aren't you in the gym? You're supposed to be in the gym? 24 hours a day, bro?

He's like, I have the next four months off. You want me to just, what, live in the gym? People don't also don't understand that he could have woke up at 6 a.m. Had breakfast, went and did a whole lift, hard conditioning workout, then went to the gym for two hours, worked out, and then he could go to the beach after that. People see him the beach like, why aren't you in the gym? He'd like, what? I just left the gym. Andy go back and shoot at night and then get done, shower and go to a late night dinner and see him out at an event. People are like, oh, Jimmy's partying. Like, bro, he's been in the gym all day.

Relax. You know what I mean? People just don't really understand. Those are idiots. I hate that. It's like a pet peeve of mine. You want to talk about pet peeve? I cannot stand when someone else comments on someone else's work and why you're not doing something considering they had zero knowledge and that field.

It's not like to have that scenario of your schedule. They have no idea what to do anyway. You don't even know how to work out. Like, what are you talking about? It's funny, man. I don't ever see a doctor hanging out like, hey, why aren't you at the hospital? Yeah. You see you got a happy hour.

You're like, mm, they got to get back in the hospital right now. Like, what are you talking about, bro? I don't watch Gray's anatomy and think I can perform open heart surgery. To all the people who just like just watch basketball and then now become an expert, it blows my mind. And I say this, even TV personalities, man. There are some top tier. And everyone's like Jaylor Brownie's a work on his left hand this summer.

It's like, oh, yeah. She's never done anything with his left. Yeah. It's comical, bro. It's comical. That's exactly great point, man. That stuff right there. And there's ESPN, Fox News, all these, you know, big time networks, man.

They got great TV personalities, guys that get views online. They go on here and their job is to not, I want to say talk shit, but it's to be very highly opinionated in a fashion that gets attention. I'll put it that way. And a lot of times, these guys have no idea what they're talking about. But it gets clicks and views and whatever. And it's a pet peeve when I see like guys like that. It's one thing to attack.

someone's performance, that's fine, that's your job. It's another one to attack another guy's work ethic when you don't know his itinerator. You don't know what he's doing on a day-to-day basis. And by the way, you don't know what you're talking about in terms of what you need to do to get better. So that's, that's annoying to me. Last question for you. Who's the guy you've seen this summer either played with or even saw on social media or whatever? You think he's kind of a great year.

Awesome Reeves. Yeah. I think he has a really, I think he caps off what he, I think he's in line to be most improved. Last year he averaged like 9, 10, 12. So he had a really solid year. I think he could be like 16, 15. And the people...

And LeBron seems cool kind of playing off the ball, letting him rock. I think so. Especially at LeBron's age right now, in the regular season especially, any help that he can get that can kind of keep the load off of him a little bit and where he's kind of relaxed a little bit

is a win. And it looks like Reeds is kind of heading that direction, especially this Fiba stuff, is really boosting him. I think even his confidence, all this positivity he's gotten from Laker Nation, just from the overall sports

media. It seems like everything he does is on the internet. And I know that bothers people. But for him, it's got to be encouraging, you know, just positive reinforcement. We talk about the Aitin side and what that does to you. The other side is when the people do fuck with you and they do boost, you know, embrace you what that can do for a player.

And it seems like everything with Austin Reeves is positive and embracive. So I just see him having a you know, if you improve your points per game by five, six, seven points. That's a big deal, man. That's an extra two, three, four baskets.

The team's doing good. We already talked about the Lakers. They had a great off season. They're going to be a really good team next year. And he's going to be a guy that's going to be playing big menace in at the forefront of that. I think it's set up for him to have a most improved like year. I've awesome raised winning most improved.

I'm about Anthony Edwards. Anthony Edwards, it's tough just because he was so dominant last year. They do that. They do that. Most improved. They do that. John Moran caught it where they got the guy goes from, you know, a certain amount

of points to 20 to 30 and it's, you know, they'll give it to that like that. Yeah. But what do. What did he average last year? 25? Something crazy. 26. That's a great year.

There was 30 in the play. I don't know. The guy was so dominant. I don't know how he gets most approved. I think to your point and what people are talking about with Ann is you go from being an All-Star, a guy who climbed in there last year. Yeah, he didn't initially make it. He didn't initially make-

We actually did the pod with him right when he didn't get selected. Remember, he didn't get selected. And then someone got hurt and he got in. So he kind of got it. It's kind of like those. Remember the first couple of Devin Booker All-Star games? Yeah. Like he kind of climbed in there.

And everybody, like, if everybody's healthy, he wouldn't have made the game. Right. And then the following years, he made it clear, like, no, I'm like the best two guard in the NBA. And now it's not even like a question. Like, Devon's in the All-Star game. He would have been last year, but if he wouldn't hurt. He didn't make it last year, but that was because he missed a whole bunch of games due to injury. Right.

But before when he was playing, he was averaging like 32 or something nuts. So, like, that's what I think people are expecting of aunt. That jump. They got to clean that shit up, though, with what they got going on in terms of, like, the bigs and the spacing for him. Because I don't know what they're doing with that. The spacing for him to get to the basketball, to get to the basket is awful. Right. I was just there.

No, I'm just saying, I'm just keeping it 100. Well, you know, Carl's been playing great for Dominican Republic. I know that, but that's, I don't even know if that's a good thing. I think they're going to, he's going to be out of the perimeter a lot. I hope. I mean, we can't be down low. You already got someone else down there, man. His name's Rudy.

He's already down there clogging shit up. Now you got Carl bolting in with his size 24 shoe just running in there and ants trying to go in there and lay it up. It's fucking chaos, bro. And here's the problem. Carl needs to understand he has to be a four. He has to play a four. I know he wants to play the four, but you got to play like a four. Can't go down there for the post and call for the ball.

You're not a five anymore, bro. We need you to pick and pop. We need you to be in the floor. Handoffs, pass. We need you to play like a four. So like that that's the only way that situation can kind of work. I think you start Carl and Rudy and then immediately like three, four minutes in, one of them's got to come out.

And then you stagged, you keep them stagged. You keep them stagnant. And then that way you can play both of them. otherwise it's just too the the paint is like this for aunt and he's in there trying to make magic work bro it's hard so that's going to be that's going to be a thing for them next year is spacing for him but yeah and has a chance to be like what db did a couple years ago you go from being like a guy who's kind of getting in the all-star game talented and then now it's like you're the guy right that's that's that's rich paul's comment recently where he said that if lebron if step

curry would have won the bubble no one would have said it was oh it's a bubble title they discredit LeBron. Do you agree with that? No, I don't agree with that. I think anybody who would have won the bubble would have got slided. And that's because the bubble was ridiculous. I don't know how else to say that. I was in there. I was in there for 70 days.

Yeah. Without food, water. Without food. Isn't that it? Don't tell me. Don't tell that to Stephen Adams. He's like, it's not that bad. Yeah, that's ridiculous, man.

Stephen has no kids. First of all, easy. We're not going on Stephen Adams in the sense of this. I mean, I was, stand for it. That's true. I don't want to have to be for that guy. You know, but no, it's, it's a, but when he said those comments, everyone was like, come on, Steve. I know he grew up in like New Zealand with like 20 brothers and stuff and like him going to a resort for 70 days is like his, that is perspective.

He's actually right, by the way. He's like guys, guys are acting like we're in hell, we're not. We're staying in a luxury Disney resort. But it was more the aspect of you not being able to have freedom of doing anything, going anywhere. You were locked inside of a room, essentially, but you were. You had to get tested three times. a day couldn't really see a couldn't see your family you know going guys who have kids and family going 70 days without senior kids that's not that's not cool bro you know what I mean like that was crazy so I think that's where we felt miserable guys had anxiety guys were depressed in there guys weren't playing good basketball a lot of guys didn't want to be in there that whole clippers team

they like just fell apart they're like half their team didn't want to be there those guys eating wings this guy's over here this guy's doing this I never had the wings at Magic City this guy's shooting the ball at the backboard I mean that that whole team just like they were like, we're out of here. You know what I mean? That was the end of my pop's there. You know what I mean? So like that, but that wasn't the only team that was like that.

Every team had that a little bit in them. When you losing the playoffs, you feel shitty. You feel sad. And you're like, God, man, I want to play. Like, I want to be in the next round. I want to be in the conference finals. I want to be in that light. I want to be in that stage.

When you lost in the bubble, you had guys like, all right, man. I'm a holler at you boys, but I'm out of here. Hey, I'm out. Help free. I'm going to tap back in with y'all, man. I'm going to check in. Like, you felt like you were leaving jail. Right.

So, guys were getting their papers. It was nuts, bro. So it's for that reason alone, I don't want to say the bubble has an asterisk next to it. Because for those same reasons, you could say it's really hard to win. You had to keep focused. And the heat and the Lakers both show that they're, obviously, they're both in the conference finals.

Again, last year, yeah, they're top tier programs. And at the end of the day, man, we were all in there fair and square. We all had a chance to go win. whoever won won, they won. So you can say, again, I'm sitting over here at the other side, like guys, they want to be there. That's not the fucking Lakers problem. At the day, they wanted to be there.

Their team fucking won. You give them credit. I wanted to win. It's not like I wanted to lose. I wanted every game I was in there, but we lost. We lost the Lakers. You know what I mean? Like, they beat us in five games. They've smacked us. Well, you guys beat them in game one, though.

I thought there was a chance. You got a little shaky. Hey, listen. We beat them game one and we beat them bad. We won by like 15, 16. And even when it was close, like, we just, like, we beat them. Like, a small ball shit was fucking him up. Yeah.

We got, your tallest player was Jeff Green. We, Robert Covington was our starting, Robert Covington was our starting center, bro. We won that game and went back in the locker room. I'm not going to lie. I had a good little game at like 12, 13 off the bench. I walk back in the locker. I'm like, I put my feet down.

I should have listened to Kobe, job not finished. We needed a little bit of that in our locker. We didn't have that. We had, yo, we better beat your shit out of this thing. You know, next thing you know. four games in a row. It got nasty out there. Yeah.

Next thing, you know, I'm beaming a head off LeBron's head because I'm frustrated we're getting our ass cake. Oh, I forgot about that.

Did you think for a second LeBron was going to come out of you? For a quick second, it looks... No, not at all. I really didn't. I swear to God I did it. Also, he's not going to like

what hurt his legacy. He's going to fight. He's going to punch me in front of a whole bunch of people in front of the national... It was on TNT. My life's in danger. I've never been scared of about...

Let me just say this publicly, bro. I have never, ever, ever, ever been scared of any NBA basketball player ever in my life, and I never will be. All that tough, raw, raw stuff on the court is garbage. I'm just tell you that right now. Now, if I'm off the court and I'm locked in a room and a locker room and me and Stephen Adams are in there and no one's around, we're talking shit, then there might be like a little nervous feeling inside, you know what I mean? But if it's not that extreme case, I'm not worried about nobody.

First off, secondly, I didn't mean to like do it to like. You went in there apologizing, hands around. Well, that's because I didn't want to get a tack, because the rest all looked at me. First off, it's LeBron James. ball beating that he gets mad, turns up and squares at me. Rest, I jump in. I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no. I wasn't trying to do that one.

We're good, we're good, we're good, we're good. Inside my head, it was a little frustrating moment. I definitely, I meant to smack the ball. I didn't know he was going to hit his head. Right. I hit the ball up top. How did I know where the ball's going to go? It just hit him right in the head.

I was frustrated. We were getting our ass kicked, bro. That's crazy, man. You hit the ball in frustration and just landed on maybe the best player of all time. It's beating his head, bro. That's crazy. It was crazy. It was crazy.

After that he was just like smiling, laughing and breathing. It's like, all right. All right. I'm like, bro, it ain't that serious, though. We got four minutes left. You could have hit him on purpose if you wanted to. Anytime I had the ball, I could have thrown it at him. What he's talking about?

Clearly, I didn't mean to do it. And my thing is like, bro, we got three minutes in this game left. We're down. That game was nasty. Game five, we were down like 28 at one point. I was playing so hard at the end. You got to ask, we got to get somebody in this pot. I was trying to pick a fight with everybody in their team.

Why? To the point where I heard somebody on the bench, I think it was Jared Dudley. I got under, I was me and Dwight under the rim. We were like going back and forth. And Jared Dudley was like, do I, do I? Don't even, don't even get, you know what he's doing. He's trying to get under your skin. Two minutes later.

Dwight Howard, technical foul. I was looking at. Why? Why are we trying to fight everyone? I was, I was, I was, I was being petty.

I was being a sore loser. Yeah. 100%. I was shitty and mad that we were going to, that we were getting our ass kick. We talked a lot of shit game one. You remember Russ was like, barking at Rondo's brother, like all that.

And they came back and smacked us. And it wasn't one game. It was two. It was three. It was four in a row, bro. And the fourth game, we're down like 30. And they're on the sideline just letting us have it, bro. I remember one time I got in the corner of their whole bench was like, I don't know. I'm just over like, shit.

And I missed it. And I look back to like, sorry. You know, it's there trying to talk. You can't say nothing. You just got to take it. So at that point with two minutes left and I'm still in the game, down 27. I'm shitty. For sure.

So I'm being, what's it like when you're in the game with the game? I'm being petty. It's nasty. It is, it is a circus. It's free for, it's a free for all. It's a mix between do I play hard to show I'm still, you know, doing everything the right way? Or is it getting mine time. Do I pack up the box score a little bit?

That way when they see, we lost by 30. Austin had 14. It was an awesome. It was an awesome. It's, what every player is. There's two choices that guys go into. It ain't going to be my fault. I got buggin.

I don't know about them. That's, that energy would usually losing teams have that. Yeah. That's, it's one of the other. I was on the work hard. I was just, well, I had like four offensive rebounds in the last four minutes. I've never got, Josh Hart. That's Josh Hart out there. And I've never gotten rebounds like that in my life. That's the worst skill I think in my game as I've always been a poor rebounder. I'm in there battling for rebounds with Javille McGee and direct, pulling it down like, it's mine. Going it out, running back out to three. Like, I'm playing a style of basketball that was so chaotic in like LA fitness like that I was just, I was bumping into people.

like what you're going to do they're all like oh my god bro i'm just trying to start shit with anybody it was bad i had to like look at myself in the mirror after that game like who are you i was like silver lining you're out of the bubble the next day and you're right you're fine no but i was like pat babley the last four minutes of the game i turned into like a little pbav i was out there's just nasty basketball bro just chaotic man it was crazy no yeah they kicked their ass whatever man i'm sorry i didn't even mean to bring up some water what just happened bro he just brought that's a terrible memory from that bubble shit for me was bad bro i didn't mean to ruin the rest of your day i also was killing in the bubble

You had your career high in the bubble. Well, yeah, that game. You remember I went to your career high before and what you did? Yes, you came. It was right after my other career high. Yeah, yeah. So I went to, it was against the Grizzlies, run the clippers. I had, but I was courtside.

Yes. You made your career high. I was sitting next to a guy that used to train your coach Irwin. You bring this up every time. And you bring that part up because you love to finish it off with how I... You walked over, took off your jersey. And who did you hand it to you? Coach Irwin.

Yeah, you said it. What the hell was that? That is because you being a very close friend of mine, you have access to like any jersey. Like there's a hundred jerseys I have that I've worn in there, game worn. And you could just scoop one right now and grab one. Yeah. Where like Irwin, he came to the game.

I'm like, he's in Memphis. I had to give me one. And he was more aggressive to us, but he kind of met you halfway on the court. Halfway in the court. This guy was at the free throw line right out to the game. Like, what's up? And before the game, while I'm in warmups, he was like, let me get that jersey. Before he knew you were going to get a career high.

Yeah, before, before that's what it counted. You know what I mean? Before the career high, he wanted. the jersey. Then I put up 38 and he wanted the jersey. And the night before, I had 37 versus the rockets, yeah. What a time to be a lot. Last thing I want to bring up, we played pickup last week together.

I was guarding you. Let me tell everyone what happened. You did strip me once. Once? I was, come on. You only stole it the one time. The other times it got a little sloppy and I grabbed the, you know, I scored both times. I played some good defense. Let's not act like it wasn't just scary hours out there.

Was it not impressive? I'm gonna, first play in the day, everyone's watches you. Everyone's there lining up. People were watching all around the gym. First play, you try to ISO me? Is this still a popular term? Cookies? It was bad.

You knew I was gonna shoot and I wasn't gonna drive and you just stood there. You know when you do a crossover on someone that's, this isn't you, but do you know when you do a crossover on someone that's like really sorry and they don't go anywhere because they're so bad. They didn't even know how to go for the crossover. I could have just drove right by you. I'm like giving you the jab and you're like, and I gave you like three of my herky jerky jabs and you're just like brother on right here and you just

ripped down and grab the ball and like three guys we're like going back on defense one of the guys was like what was that what just happened i was like i don't need i just got podcast beef that's what that was yeah posha just ripped me i was like fueled the rest of the day for me i turned up the next time after that that in that end up good man this was good this was good this was good this is a good this is a good i think next episode we're going to do a uh let's do a season preview that works i want to get all your predictions i want to get that you know prediction The champion, sixth man, Ricky at the year, the whole thing. Okay.

Well, that wraps it up for this week. It was fun to be back, man. We got another episode coming next week. We'll be back in the swing of things, especially after our little hiatus that we've had. But a lot going on in the basketball world, especially with the season on the horizon. So we look forward to getting back into this

and getting y'all more consistency in which I want to hear from us. So appreciate y'all, as always, man. Offgar.