The Ringer NBA Show - ‘Sources Say’ — Eight Days of Drama: Syringe-gate, Salon-gate, and More (Ep. 150)

Episode Date: October 25, 2017

The Ringer’s Juliet Litman and Chris Ryan wade through the murky news surrounding Markelle Fultz’s shoulder injury (1:10), react to the bizarre schism between Eric Bledsoe and the Phoenix Suns (9:45), and celebrate the return of Draymond Green’s expert trash talk (16:30). Then they run through the trending topics from the first eight days of the young NBA season, including the joyless Minnesota Timberwolves (20:50), the ever-tumultuous New York Knicks (24:10), and the surprisingly competent Brooklyn Nets (29:50). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We want to have to date up. Yeah. We're here. For another source to say. I'm Julia Littman. I thought it was a cortisone shot. I'm sorry. I thought that was the sound of a cortisone shot going into my heart.

You know, I've never had so much occasion to use a syringe emoji, but this is the week. It's really working out for you. Yes. I'm happy it's in the arsenal. If we had had a slack back when Lance Armstrong was coming down off of the mountain out of the Alps. Metaphorically and literally. Yeah. I think you probably could have gotten some use out of it there.

What a time. We're going to talk all about Markell Fultz. We'll get into it. We're also going to talk about Eric Bledso, who is still on the Suns. Yeah.

Dremont Green, being in mid-season trash talk form, the misery in New York. And I just want to talk about LeBron. What about? What about Clay?

What are you talking about? Clay, too. I changed my background of my laptop today. Awesome. It's pretty big. Let's talk about Fultz. So,

should we just recount the last 24 hours? Sure. How do you want to do this? You're in an emotionally raw place. Let's recount the last five years. Okay. J.K.

Five years ago. No. Sam Hinky was in charge? No, he wasn't even yet. Yeah. I mean, we could go back basically to one night in Vegas. One night in Vegas. This past summer.

We were both there. Yes, we were. We watched Markell Fultz. He looked great. Suffered a ankle injury that, like, a lot of Sixers fans at the Thomas and Mac Center worried was going to be another season ending injury for a Sixers rookie. He was fine. Just hurt his ankle.

No more Summer League for him. Comes into preseason with some talk about how he been adjusting his shooting mechanics. A little independent study, an independent project he took on. How ambitious. And, uh... Great student. You know, Brett Brown was like he's been, he's been working on his shot on his own.

He seemed to be very, it was like that was a very pointed thing for him to say. It was that like Markell had gone off, off menu. Yeah. And then, uh, pretty much as soon as anybody saw any tape on Markell in a Sixers uniform, they saw that he shot free throws like someone who had only ever watched Andre Drummond shoot free throw. Rose. Eeks.

Yeah. Hello, Drummond. Now, now Drummond's great. But, so that's where we're at. And then starts the season. Yes. Looks really bad. Looks uncomfortable.

Looks uncomfortable. Looks timid. There's all this talk about, does he have a shoulder problem? Because he had said, I have a shoulder problem. I'm compensating for my shoulder problem. That's why my shot looks a little weird right now. Hadn't taken a single three-point shot in three games and was iffy from the line. So you're saying he should be on the Raptors.

He should be on the 2015 reference. Yes. Okay. And then yesterday, two reports from Woj, which I just want to note. A tale of two Woj reports. A tale of two Woj reports. If you go back and you look for the first Woj report, the Charles Darnay, if you will, you will not find it because that piece is now down.

And the second one, if you find the link, just redirect to the second one. So it's a really rapidly changing story. And the first one way of putting it, yes. Rapidly developing story? Yeah. there is like, well, we can have a larger conversation about media ethics. It's not ethics, but I think we can have a larger conversation about, we've definitely broken the seal now where a conversation between a reporter and an anonymous source is a news driver.

Sure. Right? Or even a reporter. Hence the title is podcast. Exactly. Exactly. But like I, you know, this was like, this was an anonymous. This is Markkel's agent. I'm going to say, this was not anonymous at all. There were a couple quotes from his agent, Raymond Brothers. Let me read some from you. This is from the first report that came out yesterday. from Woj. Markell had a shoulder injury and fluid drained out of the back of his shoulder. He literally cannot raise up his arm to shoot the basketball. He decided to try and fight through the pain to help the team. He has a great attitude. We are committed to finding a solution to get Marquale back to 100%. That was the first report. Right. Four hours later or so. Second report

from Wojch. This is now the only one you'll be able to find on ESPN.com. This story had the following quote. He had a cord zone shot on October 5th, which means fluid was put into his shoulder, not taken out. My intention earlier was to let people know that he's been experiencing discomfort. We will continue to work a Sixer General Manager, Brian Colangelo, and the medical staff. So let's run through some scenarios about what could have happened here. First of all, just because there was the change in the story, there is a possibility that this was a fluid conversation, not to put too fine a point on it, no pun intended, that, you know, was it, you know, as brothers and woe were texting and maybe like they're just like communicating about faults and some stuff got crossed up there, right? Sure. The other thing is he can literally not raise his arms up to shoot.

Immediately calls him to question the Sixers front office and the Sixers medical staff. Absolutely. If a guy can't raise his arms above his head, shoot. Why is he playing basketball? Especially on a team that has no expectations. It's the beginning of the season. You're not in a playoff race. Nobody is expecting the Sixers to light the world on fire.

Like, this is nuts. You shouldn't be playing this kid. He's too important. He's also not even starting. It's not like you would throw off every single thing you've been doing. doing since training camp. Right. Like he's he's not, you know, it's been like a revelation watching Simmons and Mbid is really fun. We can't wait for him to get off the minutes restriction, but it's, but they weren't even like relying on fault. But that's fine. Nobody relies on

rookies. Like that's the thing that's so nuts about this year is that we're all like, oh, is this guy a bust yet? And it's like, it's been three games. It's just, it's fine. Can you believe it's literally been eight days? It feels like, like, I feel like we were mourning Gordon Hayward's injury like a year ago. I know. I feel so long. I know. So then you have the second report that is about a cortisone shot. I think that one, you take your takeaway from the second quote is more, he's got some discomfort,

he's got some pain, we're treating it with anti-inflammatory shots or painkiller shots. We're working through it. It also, like the dating it on October 5th makes it seem like really ongoing issue that the Sixers were a part of or aware of.

So the first report was like, why isn't the team involved in this at all? like where are the Sixers? The second one makes much more collaborative and they've been involved. But overall, this just makes everyone look really bad. So then this morning you wake up,

there's a statement from the Sixers. Markell is going to be out at least three games as they've searched for a meaning of life in his shoulder. And Brian Colangelo gives a press conference. He insists there's no structural damage to Markelle folds his shoulder. He says that, you know, look, you can read between the lines a lot on these. Like he did a little bit of double speak where he's like

Markell's a confident kid, but then also admitted in some point in the conversation that his confidence was shaken. The problem isn't his shoulder. The problem isn't the first three games. The problem isn't even his shot. The problem is the handling of this entire situation.

It's just a, it's a PR disaster because it makes everyone look bad. It makes everyone look unprepared. Like there's no plan. And that's what's so, I think, fomixing for the Sixers. Yeah. Is that they are a planned team.

It's like, yeah, this, we're bad. because we planned on it. Well, the plan is the hook. Yeah. The plan is, the process is the hook. Sure. I mean, like, yes, Joel, yes, Ben,

but those guys have been, in a lot of ways, like coming attractions for themselves in the last couple years. The whole hook of the team is the process. Sure. I mean, even reading this quote

from Colangelo, which you can find this on the ringer, um, it's become very obvious. He just hasn't been willing or committed to shooting outside of the paint. We're trying to work on that. It's generally not normal for a guy

to average 24 points in a game in college and shoot over 40% from three and then change mechanics. He really didn't systematically go and change it. He may have tried to tweak some things. The fact of the matter is there's right now some irritation, blah, blah, blah. So like, this is even talking about how it's, this wasn't like, this wasn't planned. Yes. No one was like, Mark Howell change your shot? So, it depends on how dark we want to get here. It depends on how dark the six-

How dark are you feeling as a Sixers fan? Well, okay, so somebody tweeted at Palo after he published his newser, does anyone else find it weird that Fultz has favored tweets that reported the shoulder draining, but not the cortisone shot. That's weird. Now, maybe Markell was like, I favoreded this piece, and then since it's been changed, you know, maybe he doesn't run his own Twitter account. I have no idea. He did retweet the initial report as well.

Yes. Like the first one that said he had drained. Yes. So there's just a lot of conflicting information. Like literally the first report and the second report directly conflict. So that is suspicious and just makes everyone involved look bad. Yeah. They literally, they have to put this kid on ice.

They all have to shut up. They have to hope something else happens in the NBA, which I guarantee it will in the next 48 hours. For sure. And then next Thursday or next Tuesday after that, Mark Hill can pop up at some game. And you're like, oh, look, that kid scored nine points or 11 points. And he played 19 minutes.

And they're bringing him along slowly. Because the fact of the matter is, is that we freak out over Mark and we watch this Dennis Smith dunk or Deerrin has a great game. But like, these kids are going to have ups and downs. Absolutely. And there's just such an absurd amount of scrutiny right now in the NBA, I think because it is really an antidote for what has been a pretty depressing NFL season.

And the NBA is back. Every night the storylines change. Every night there's a new hero. Every night there's a new villain. Last night we were celebrating the magic and Aaron Gordon. Yeah. Even though they lost. They lost, right?

They won. The magic beat the Nets. But the Nets, it was like a super competitive fun game with lots of good players. It's so fascinating. It's also just a continuation of the summer where like there's just, there's been no off period. Like there has just been like spotlights on these kids and all the teams. since June, since the draft. And I think also,

it's like we can get into the second segment here, which is the amplification of like agents, you know, does player power equal agent power? Does the access that players have to addressing fans or NBA fans directly also equal agents going over the top and being like,

I'm briefing independent of the 76ers? Right. Okay, so in that case, we can go right into the Suns. Sure. Who have had the only team that's had a worse week than Philly is the Phoenix. Phoenix Sons.

And I am certain Philly wants to have faults and wants to re-filtate the situation. The Sons do not want Eric Bledsoe. They are like, no. You know, Ryan McDonough said that he'll never play for them again. And yet he's still on the team. And there's no, they have no leverage because everyone knows he wants to go. There's no reason to give the Sons a good deal and to help them out. Right.

And they've gone from having Bledso involved in trade talks for like Kairie and Kevin Love and who knows what else. Yeah. to now being like, you hope you can get, what, like 50 cents on the dollar on him? The Knicks are telling them that they can't have Tilaquina. They can't have Frank in return for Eric. Yeah. So what are the Knicks trading then? I have no idea.

Ron Baker, like, what are we talking about? What's the market for Bledsoe? This is nuts. But let's go. What is the market for Bledso? So in this week, we've basically had the Sons getting absolutely worked, like, throwing off the point differential of the NBA. Like, every team that plays the Sons, you look at them, be like, why is Portland plus 26?

It's like, oh yeah, they played the Suns a couple nights ago. Same thing for the Clippers. Lakers got to win. Yeah. And the Suns, they suffered three blowout losses. Bledso tweets, I don't want to be here. Which has 46,000 retweets. The next day, they fire Earl Watson.

Yes. Comes out. Not the next day, hours later. Hours later, they fire Earl Watson. Let's just note, they have the same agent. Bletso and Watson. Yes. Rich Paul.

Yes. And then a couple hours out. after that, Bletsow doesn't show up for practice? What was that the story? They sent him home. They sent him home. After like 15 minutes. And I think that there was, and where did the hair salon thing come out?

Oh, that was his excuse for why he said I don't want to be here, is he was talking about being at the hair salon. Yes. Ryan McDonough's words. Yes, Ryan McDonough is relying all this information to us. Right. Now, I think that this is Ryan McDonough's last lap, I think. Because he's definitely going out like a guy who has very, very, very. few options left to save his job.

Sure. Because alienating Rich Paul doesn't seem like a great idea. No, he also represents LeBron. Right. Not that they were necessarily in the LeBron sweepstakes, but it just seems like you, Rich Paul is like an increasingly powerful agent. You have to play ball with him. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. And now they've got J. Triano coaching. And apparently, you know, they got a W the other night, right? The first game with Triano. And apparently just like very basic, like accountability things and being told, Like apparently Marquis Chris didn't like something that was happening in a game or a practice.

And Earl Watson's response to that was to like take him out to dinner and tell him he loved him. Oh, God. And just sounds like there's just like very basic, like it just wasn't ready for primetime stuff with Watson. So it'll be interesting to watch the suns going forward. But this is a really tight spot because they've gone through a couple of different rebuilds, a couple of different flirtations with big players like Kyrie, like Love, like Aldridge they went for. and now they're on rebuild number 2.5. Everybody they trade seems to do really well for themselves outside of Phoenix.

Absolutely. Like Zaya Thomas and Dragich. And yeah, I don't know if this guy's going to be around to finish the rebuild. I don't know if he will be either. I kind of feel bad for Eric Bledsoe, which I don't know. Well, anybody who fights through injuries, like the ones that he's had. Yeah, he was exciting. And he's a really exciting player.

So you kind of want to be like, go to the Clippers, go to the Cavs. He's only 27. I feel like he's been around for so much longer. It's interesting. He is with clutch and he went to Kentucky. And I feel like he doesn't get the kind of the bounce that a lot of players who have those two things on their resume get. In a weird way, like I think being in Phoenix,

it's just really buried him. I wouldn't want to be there either. He's really talented. Yeah, but they were so fun when they had that 48-win team with the three-headed point guard. Sure. And it's just been a disaster ever since. Yeah.

Where should he go, though? Like, what is the right place for Eric Bledsoe? Denver. Yeah, Denver. Let's get him there. Let's get the Mike Malone rehab touch on him. Yeah, man. Him throwing lobs.

Actually, I don't even know who he threw lobs to. Everybody there stays in the ground now. No, but he'd play with Millsap. He'd play with... Now it'd be a team with, like, really good fundamentals. Jamal Murray. Yeah. Because you've had Yokic, Milsap, Blatso.

Fun high altitude player, I bet. Get the ball going. All really like competent players. Yeah. I mean, Yokch is more than that. But it's pretty remarkable. I don't think we've seen this much like power politics so early in the season before. I know DeAndre tweeted that he wanted

Blitz said to come home, but I have to admit, after watching the Clippers, I'll be it only for three games. I wouldn't mess with the chemistry there. Yeah, they look pretty good. They look really good. They look like they're having fun. Blake seems to really enjoy being in control. Gallo back.

They're super deep now. Yeah, it's weird. Austin Rivers is playing pretty well. How long will it last, though? I don't know. I don't think they play the strongest schedule yet. Don't you think we begin every Clipper season with hope and optimism? Not like this.

Because usually it's just like, oh, this starting five looks great and they can get away with having no. on the bench. Is it because Kendall Jenner's been on the sidelines the whole time? Did you see her eating a candy apple? No, but I saw that she bought an $8.5 million house. Yes, she did that as well. That someone famous used to live in. Of course,

it's, you know, it's Hollywood. It's Los Angeles. It's Hollywood. Did someone famous live in your apartment? No, I don't think so. Unless you count me, of course. Tristan and Chloe having a boy, by the way. A future basketball player? He'll be tall. Chloe's quite tall, unlike her sisters. Kendall's tall too. Or her Kardashian sisters.

All right, let's keep it moving. The sons are a real mess. I'm just sort of like over it too. I mean, it's only been happening for like four days. Like how much time have you spent thinking about the suns? More than I planned on. Okay. Like, just wake me up when Devin Booker's going off. Do you feel like, I get the feeling like sometimes you get annoyed when teams that are not worthy of your attention demand it. Well, like, Philly. I feel like sometimes you're like, wake me when the Sixers are good. No, Philly's worth it. I mean, I'm really into Simmons. You also have a lot of Philly friends now. I have a lot of Philly friends. I'm really into Simmons. Mb is obviously great.

Although I just feel like you have to pick aside Simmons versus M.B. No, you don't. Why? Why are you making a binary? I just, I don't know how that's going to go when MB's... Why do we have to do this to our teams? Like, why was it Kevin or Russ? Why was it, is it Joel or Ben? I was never a Kevin or Russ person. You were both. Yes, exactly. So I'm just saying it's not always a binary, but... I wasn't anti- Kevin. I was just like, this doesn't have to come at the expense of Westbrook. Of course not. Let's move on. Let's talk about Jarmine Green and the Golden State Warriors

who opened up the season, oh and two. Yeah. Not so worried about that. It's fine. You want to know why I'm not worried? Because today, an advertisement for the Bay Area News Group surface online. I got jumped up so far up the rundown. Sorry.

From off the sheet to third. Clay Thompson's a star, my friends. Don't I know it? Oh, man. So he's in this commercial talking about his pre-game rituals. And his includes reading the newspaper. Take that, the athletic. It's incredible.

It's just so... I stole that joke, by the way, from somebody on our slack. Yeah. I think I stole it from Verrier. You stole it from Justin Barrier. our comrade. So Clay is sitting alone in the locker room in one of the rolling chairs.

I'm always surprised at the chairs. What's it an advertisement for? The Bay Area News group. Oh, okay. Like, it's actually for newspapers. Yeah. Like for the San Jose Mercury News.

That's great. Yeah. And I'm always surprised that chairs in locker rooms are not like fancier. They're just like really like nice. Like an Ames chair? Yeah, they're just like really nice like office chairs. I think it's probably because they get a lot of wear and terror.

Those are big guys. They're usually like sweaty. They need ergonomics. Yeah. What are you going to have like a rabbit fur look? recliner. Maybe. So Clay is sitting in the middle of the locker room. It's empty in an ergonomically sound task chair. And he's wearing anti slides and a shirt and like some sweats. And he's just talking about his pregame ritual. And he was like, you know, some guys like peanut butter and jelly. But me,

I just like to read the newspaper. And then there's like all these glamour shots, like his VO and him bringing the newspaper just sitting there. And you just started doing that every afternoon. I might. You know, like a nice afternoon break on the couch. Maybe I'll just incorporate the newspaper. It was just amazing. I love Clay. I think he's going to have a really good season. He's shooting quite well. So Draymond. What? Dremont. Who?

Green. Who's that? Just kidding. Dramon Green is taken names and doesn't care who you are. Dremont's just like he's ready for his move to TNT whenever TNT's ready for him. Like he's just going to be the best when he moves to TNT. I would prefer him to Shaq and Charles at this point. Yeah.

I mean, I think that he might get himself in a little bit of trouble. But okay, so the two big things that Dremont did this week, one was Dennis Smith kind of went in for a layup, but like I think thought about going for a dunk. And Draymond was just like, you will never dunk on me, like ever, don't ever dunk on me. Certainly made him a justice shot. Yes. And Dennis Smith, shout out to him was just like, I'm going to dunk on some guys. Like, I was going for a layup. We'll find out, like, next time I try.

And he was like, and he fouled me. Yeah. Which she probably did. Yeah. It's fine. He's a superstar. He gets the calls. And then in the second game, I think that was the one where Durant and Curry both got tossed.

And Durant did the middle finger ring thing. And Curry threw his mouth guard at a ref. $50,000 fine for that is absurd. It seems like we have moved into the world. Warriors are not going to take the regular season quite as seriously as before. I'm okay with that. I'm fine with that. Me too.

It makes it more interesting on a nightly basis. But Draymond kind of waited afterwards and he was like, those guys got to be smarter about getting kicked out of games, which is hilarious. He was being sarcastic. So nice week for him. Steve Kerr seems completely at ease with where they're at. If you're Steve Kerr, like, what's the point of worrying? He was like, we're still in training camp, which is like a great attitude.

And one thing I really like about Steve Kerr is he just like always takes responsibility. He's like, it's my fault for not making it more fun. for not playing with enough joy. That's interesting. What a great leader. I don't know. I'm going to start trying that. That's my fault for not making work more fun today, guys.

Yeah, it's a really good attitude. Also, because I just feel like... Isaac, I hope this podcast is fun for you, man. And if it's not, it's my bad. I'm going to start saying it's your bad, too, if it's not more fun. I'm going to turn it around on you. Also, Nick Young seems pleased as punch up there. Sure.

He's getting his touches. He said that he compared the Warriors' locker room atmosphere to playing with Kobe. and there's like no comparison. He said it's a lot more friendly. Which is not surprising. It's like Nick Young found a home and he's back with his good friend, Jabel McGee. It's pretty fun.

One thing I also like but the Warriors not taking the regular season seriously is then they're more fun to watch on the bench. Like we haven't gotten a lot of shots of Steph just sort of like dead eye staring straight and like not talking to anyone. He seemed a lot more engaged. They're much more into it.

It's funny. I feel like we're really watching a stuff transformation. I'm interested to see how the rest of those season goes. Transformation into what? Being less bland publicly. That'd be interesting. Yeah, we'll see. But so far, we got a fine.

Twitter sparring with the president. Yep. A foot fetish. Apparently. And, yeah, I don't know. I'm just really into it. I'll just want to note that Clay is donating money for every point he's donated $100. So you're just deaf.

Can we just do a quick review of trending topics for you? Uh-oh. I don't know. Is it going to be embarrassing? No. I want to know, like, who's kind of like caught your eye so far this year. I'm really into Ben Simmons. Like, I really am.

Okay. He's my favorite sixer. Thanks. You're welcome. I love Clay. I like the Warriors being jerks. I'm shocked. I'm really seeing Daniel Russell Russell.

I'm shocked by Jalen Brown's improvement. Yeah. That's to me the biggest surprise of the season. He's so much better. I just am shocked by it. I'm not into this. Okay, sorry. No, it's okay.

It's just like really tough for me. It's true, though. Yeah. I've abandoned my interest in Kyrie because I'm like, oh, Jalen Brown's good. That's so surprising. I was told he would be and I didn't believe it. What else am I really into?

Thanks for taking an interest in me, Chris. Of course. I'm really... It feels like you're a little bit like you haven't quite centered in on the nuggets? Not quite. Have you watched any wolves? I have watched the wolves.

I'm supposed to say I'm really anti-clippers. I'm rooting against them. Hardcore. What? I just don't. No, I just can't get behind them. You know, like Gallo? No.

Pat Bev? I like Pat Bev. He's a good clipper. But that's it. Have you watched the wolves? I have watched the wolves. Tough watch. Not fun.

Yeah. They don't play with joy. I don't think Tibbs imbues his team with joy the way that Sir, I have like, I'm working on a pet theory that basketball emotionally has passed Tibbs and Van Gundy by. Interesting. thing. SVG.

Yeah. Because it's like, it's, guys just don't want to get their balls broken every single minute of every single day. And maybe that's just like a superficial read of what it's like to play for those guys. But just like those dudes are perfectionists. They believe in like perfection through repetition. They believe that like their best players, well, Tibbs definitely believes that his best players should play the most minutes. And I don't know. It's just like it was the Thunder game. They won. Wiggins had that crazy shot from a little past half court. But the gears are grinding over there. You can watch, you can see the seams. Towns is going to leave. It's going to be sad for Minnesota. There's going to be a big, big man, like switch up because he'll have Towns,

boogie. AD. Well, AD's still got a couple more years. And he's frail. Sorry. Um, I was really, I watched Thunder Wolves in a bar on Sunday. Great game. Great game. I knew that was an illegal screen. I was pissed about it. Raymond Felton Renaissance. Raymond Felton Renaissance. I love the Thunder. The Raymond Sons? I really want the Thunder to work. We have that going for us. I really, really do. I like, I like, I think Russ has transformed a little bit. People aren't giving him credit for it. He's more... He tried taking over at the end of the game, like, pretty hardcore.

I was like, oh, man. I'm okay with that. He's... I mean, it was just, it was like, Mello brought them back into the game, and then Russ was like, I'm going to shoot every time down at the end of the game here. Yeah.

And then Mello hit the three to win it. And then Wiggins hit the three to win it. Yes. I'm okay with that, though. Like, don't you think that's what you have an MVP for? I just, I really like that team, like, top to bottom. Like, I like watching Abrinas.

I like watching Ferguson. I like watching Stephen Adams. Ferguson's pretty good. Yeah. I'm impressed by him. I just really want them to work. I still think Paul George will be their leading score, but I don't really know where he fits in.

Exactly. Well, this is what we wanted for them, off the ball scoring defense. It's true. It's true. Each of those guys are going to get more than 20 at night. There's not going to be an issue. Right. I don't know.

I just, for some reason, I just really, really root for them. The one thing that's been nice about the NBA this year is, I think when we did ringer NBA preview Paloza. we were like doing the Eastern Conference teams and like we're like oh man there's going to be a lot of bad basketball but it's been fine

well it turns out most of the teams are fine except for the Knicks the Knicks are a mess and here are some quotes from yesterday these are courtesy of Al Iazone on Twitter shout out to you Al Courtney Lee said some players

don't know the plays and they need to pay attention more in practice after the loss of Celtics after the loss of the Celtics Tim Hardway Jr. said we're all out there just running like we don't know what's going on and additionally

Chris Stops Porzingis was very mad he didn't get more calls. I am very out on Chris Stops, Porzingis. So I'm trying to figure out from, let's figure out, let's do a little serial season three here. Okay. Who is Courtney Lee talking about? That's the sound of me, Googling. Who's Courtney talking about? Courtney Lee, Ron Baker. He's probably not talking about himself. So let's take Courtney Lee out of it. Ron Baker? Seems like he would know what's going on, but actually low-key, I thought he was pretty out of control against the Knicks. Yeah. So maybe Ron Baker doesn't know what's going on? Sure, perhaps.

And he gets a lot of playing time weirdly. Timmy? No. Dougie McDee? Because he agrees. I feel like McDee's a coach of son. He probably knows the plays. McBuckett's studies.

Kuzminskis? Does he play? A little bit, yes, he does. Ennis, maybe? Ennis definitely doesn't know the place. Empty Calorie 2020s? Ennis Cantor doesn't know a single play from any team he's ever been on.

But yet gets 20 and 20 every night. Yeah, I bet he's not well-liked. Willie Hernang Gomez? No, he doesn't get to play, which is bizarre. So then, Who is he talking about? Michael Beasley? He's not playing?

Like, I heard it. I don't know. This is a really rough collection of players too. Don't forget Joey Kim Noah is still on this team as well. I bet Joe Kim Noah has a,

like a fundamental understanding of basketball playbook. I just don't know who Courtney Lee is talking about here. I don't know. Courtney is definitely just really pissed. Let's get him out. I kind of like Courtney Lee.

He was on our podcast before. What if we just get Misfit Island, all the guys who were unhappy? So Courtney Lee, Eric Bloodsoe. Oh, interesting. Who else do you think is,

who's your thing is next to be like, I don't want to be here. A big player or just like a role player? Either one, man. Alfred Payton. Mm. Yes. I don't think he's like a disagreeable person.

Let's send him to Europe. But it was like very obvious that the magic playing better with DJ Augustine and Evan Fornier than Alfred. I'm not sure he's compatible at the modern NBA. So I suggest we send him to Europe or perhaps China. Yeah. Okay. He's out.

I think that there will be a next superstar to complain. I'm going to say Anthony Davis. To complain? He doesn't complain, but I think we'll start getting sources to say Anthony Davis wants a trade. Who else? Because I don't know. I'm a little worried about Kyrie and Boston in that experiment. Why?

He's already been fined for fighting with a fan in Philly. The narrative is that the Jasons are carrying them. Sorry, Jason and Jalen, the Jays. I have to say I thought that he had, he was very supportive yesterday during their game. Like he would like, there would be a couple plays. I saw like those guys playing really well and he seems psyched for them. Good. Okay.

Great. I just don't know. I don't think he's playing that well. It would not be a good look for Kyrie if he left LeBron and went to a team that was like a little bit above 500 and got eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. That would be a real step back. He went to the Celtics to unseat LeBron. Sure. So if Kyrie carries a team, even if it's heroic because he doesn't have enough support.

Like Kyrie wants that team to be as good as possible. Yeah, absolutely. And his usage rate, I'm sure, is like sky high. I haven't checked it. But it's like he dribbles a lot. lot. He's involved in a lot of plays. I'm sure he dribbles more than Coach Brad, President Brad would like. That's not really his style.

I don't know. I just, we're certainly headed for so much more drama. Like we said, it's been eight days. And like, this is more storylines than we had through eight days last year. So on Bill's Pod today, we were talking about like the Sixers trading Reddick. Who wants that contract? I guess it's only one year. But for like if you were the books and you thought you could win and get to the Eastern conference finals if you had a shooter, like maybe you'd do something like that. I don't think it, here's, here's my counterpoint.

Not sure it's going to be player-oriented. I'm curious whether there's going to be some team, like, ownership problems. Like, well, certainly Memphis. Memphis has the minority owners can make bids now or something. But, like, I did not know that Robert Perez's personal wealth had increased quite a bit recently. Even though his company is doing quite poorly. And then, you know, there's Kevin Arnavitz had a piece about the bucks and it seems like the ownership groups there. It's like weird, like you run it for two years and then I run it for two years.

Is that like what's happening there? It's strange. So I think that there's a couple of teams like that. I think that the Sixers need to get out of this tailspin in terms of their ability to manage the media and manage their own storylines. I think Hornacek loses job. So I think like there's a lot of teams that the drama could come off the court.

But if I had to pick a player who's going to ask for a trade, I'm going to say Jimmy Buller. Oh, Jimmy Bucketts. I like it. Interesting. I was going to say I feel that this Tamerroll situation is pretty an extra. and unfortunately Upper respiratory illness

three days and three games into the season Is Minnesota that cold Jimmy? That's weird. It's weird. I agree with you. Where would you like to see him? I don't know but I think that this wasn't his choice right? He didn't ask to be traded to Minnesota. Yeah. We actually

talked about this in the Palozo. And Wiggins actually closed the game like he was definitely the number one option against the Thunder and I was just like yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, because that was obviously a play it's like, you know, like a X number of seconds left play that they run. Yeah. And it was for Wiggins.

During the Palozo, Butler was my choice for a superstar to be traded as well. Okay. I think the Minnesota situation is bad. I think they have a real ceiling and that tips is the ceiling like you said. It's sad. I feel bad for Shrewster and Haley. It feels sad for them too. But like I really want the best for town.

So just seems like a great dude. So I want him to be free. Let's end on a different kind of note. What are you looking forward to for the rest of the week? Any game? Any player you're going to be watching? Any storyline you want to see unfold? I'm in on the nets, man.

They were like... Give me some basketball. We're not being weird. Like, this was actually like, they are fun. Levert, Ronde, and DeAngelo were like, it's just really exciting. They're all like kind of six, four to six, seven. They're dunkin.

They're shooting threes. They're running all up and down the court. When we were in Vegas, you were really taken by Quinn Snyder and his tan. When I was there, I was really taken by Sean Marks. I just saw him strutting around, taking phone calls. He just made a deal.

Yeah. Like the day before. I think it was the DeAngelo It was the DeAngelo Brooke Lopez deal And he just looked like He had no cares of the world He was in total control

He's very tall He just was like Living his life looked so relaxed Like I believe in him Like he's like He's a leader I could get behind So I have faith

Okay What about you? You need to pick me up Coming off this fault situation I, the thunderer Must eat TV for me right now I agree I'm really excited to watch them

And I need the Sixers To just level out Cool Thanks for listening We'll be back with more drama. Every other Wednesday. And gossip, every other Wednesday. And on those days, there's not supposed to say.

Check out Jam Session on Channel 33. Please. It's a good celebrity gossip listen. So basically gossip Wednesdays. Yeah.