The Ringer NBA Show - The Infallible Warriors Might Not Be So Infallible | Heat Check

Episode Date: March 11, 2019

Amid a dynastic run of dominance, the Golden State Warriors are starting to show some cracks (2:47). But is anyone a real threat to challenge the reigning champions (8:48)? Plus: Is Brett Brown the right coach for the star-studded Philadelphia 76ers (25:12)? Host: John Gonzalez Guests: Jonathan Tjarks, Tyler Tynes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of Heat Check is brought to you by Microsoft Surface. The new Microsoft Surface Pro 6 can help you get things done whether you're on the field or running a business. Take Brian Arakpo and Michael Griffin, two former NFL teammates who have opened a cupcake shop. I've seen this ad. I want to go there. I want to eat the cupcakes. It looks delicious. It looks delicious.

With the Surface Pro, they can do everything they need from setting schedules to creating promotions for social media and designing new flavors. Plus, it's light, super fast, and has a great battery life. Brian and Michael are proving you can tackle all your passions with the power and speed of the new Surface Pro 6. Welcome to Heat Check. I'm your host, John Gonzalez. Joined as I am every week by my producer, Isaac Lee. Isaac, what a weird weekend in the NBA. Extremely weird weekend. The Warriors lost to the Phoenix Suns at home?

Yes, yes. Which is incredible. We're going to talk about that a little bit later. But I turned it on because it was on and it was Sunday and I was bored. And I thought, this is kind of interesting that the sons are hanging. hanging around, but I turned it off at the half because I just anticipated that Golden State would do its usual Golden State thing in the third quarter and just throttle them. Yeah, I mean, we should have like years of evidence that they would.

Yeah. Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and checked the scores. So we're going to get into that in a little bit with Jonathan Charks. We'll lead off. But first, I want to say thanks for listening. Please rate and review us and all of our fantastic Ringer NBA shows and pods. And we have lots of great content on the ringer. We've got KOC on the Most Improved Player Race.

we've got Haley O'Shaughnessy on the Lakers shutting down Brandon Ingram and Lanzobal for the remainder of the season and waving the white flag. They've been waving the white flag for months now. Yeah, unintentionally. Unintentionally. We'll get into that in a little bit. I wrote about previously the Lakers and the Celtics having super weird seasons,

which has been excellent content for those of us who are not Lakers and Celtics fans. The more Schaden Freud, the better. And they have provided us with quite a bit. And of course, NBA desktop and Jason Concepcion had a lot of fun with the Lakers, so you want to check that out. Later on in the program, for the first time ever, Isaac Lee, we will have Tyler Tynes here.

So exciting. He comes in hot on Slack all the time. He comes in hot, all the time on Twitter. He's going to come in hot on heat check. But first, we've got some stuff, a potpourri of topics that we need to address. And for that, we need our resident, Popery correspondent, Jonathan Charks.

Let's bring him in. Joining us on the other line, he's one of our favorites here. two weeks in a row. We liked him so much. We had to bring him back. Staff writer from the ringer, corner three. It's Jonathan Charks. What's up, Charks? Gons, if the people ask for it, you got to give it to them. You got to give the people what they want. Also, there was an issue with one of the heat check guests this week. And so I said, we need to go to somebody who can come on immediately, who can talk intelligently, who knows everything

about the NBA. And there's only one man to call. It was you. You put the take sign up in L.A. and it came out to Dallas. I saw it in the air. I got home immediately. It was perfect. So this is a good time to talk to you because I was saying to Isaac, I had the Warriors' sons game on yesterday just because it was Sunday and I was bored and it was on. But at the half, it was close and I just turned it off because my wife had just gotten home. And I'm like, it's not going to matter because the Warriors are going to do what they always do, which is throttle them in the third quarter. And then imagine my surprise sharks when I check later on to find out that the Warriors lost at home to the sons who were on a back-to-back.

the sons had lost 18 straight to the Warriors and they had not won on the road in the Western Conference all season, all that's over now. That's crazy. I didn't realize that. That's our first Western Conference road game. First Western Conference road win all season.

Well, Gans, let me say first, like, as a married man, like, turning off a son's against time with your wife is probably the right call. That was probably the right decision for you. It wasn't really even a decision. It was kind of like Colleen came home. She was at South by Southwest with like, I guess,

half the world. And it was like, let's have a beer and hang out. And that was that. Plus, it saved me from Sun's basketball, although I guess this was the interesting time to see Sun's basketball. Devin Booker played lights out. 37 points. He was 9 of 9 from the line. 11 assists.

That's the key with Booker. Yeah. Those assists, man. He's really passed the ball well this year. He is. And I've said this to you before. I've said this a lot. You know, for all of the Sun's faults, filling up the general manager, the former general

manager's office with goats who then defecated all over it, giving away play. players for absolutely nothing in return. I like the Kukashkov has had Devin Booker in the de facto point guard role. And this idea, this narrative that they need a point guard to go with Booker, I've been against it the entire time. I like him in the Harden role.

I think they need guys who can play defense next to Devin Booker. Yeah, that's fine. Like get like a Patrick Beverly in there to let Booker kind of chill on defense. I think so too. I think that would be fun. Like any kind of like complimentary defensive-minded player

so that he can just go and cook and be Devin Booker is great. But this is, I don't want to talk about the Sun. What I do want to talk about, however, is the Golden State Warriors who seem to be in the part of the program where they're bored as hell. And I don't blame them because this for me is the worst stretch of the NBA.

The post-trade deadline pre-playoffs where we're all just kind of waiting around. I'm looking at the Western Conference standings right now, Charks. And it looks like we're pretty much locked into the eight teams who are going to make the playoffs. I doubt that the Kings are going to be able to have enough. They're four games behind the jazz,

and Clippers who are all tied for that last spot. I feel like, you know, we pretty much know what the playoffs are going to be. And there's roughly 18 games left for most teams. And like, now we're just kind of waiting. And they're bored and so am I. Yeah, I think you definitely want to be careful about coming with too many conclusions at this point in this season. Like for me, I always try to watch more March madness now because I figure at this time of the year, the NBA doesn't mean all that much.

All these teams, as you said, are kind of locked in. I think for Golden State especially, they got nothing to play for. They don't care. Yeah. So afterwards, Steph Curry was saying, you know, that they really need to find themselves and play better. And Clay Thompson said they need more energy. And there were some videos that people were sort of Zeprudering where Steve Kerr was on the sidelines sort of like mouthing his displeasure with Draymond during the game. Are you buying any of this hand ring concern trolling over the Warriors? I'm buying the to Marcus Cousin's concern. That actually concerns me. The other stuff, we've seen it before, they'll be fine. but can cousins hold up on defense in the playoffs?

I'm having my doubts, but he's moving out there. We've talked about this before. I think we even talked about it last week where you were saying, you know, like some of these bigger centers that they concern you once we get into the playoffs because, you know, you can exploit them in pick and rolls and you can drag them further away from the basket. And I thought that Boogie looked pretty good post-injury when he returned to the fold offensively, but I still was worried about the way he was moving. he's still sort of like lumbering out there.

And what's crazy is, bogey's never played in the playoffs. Like this is like year 10 for him. Like he's never even seen a playoff series before. Oh shit, that's right. Isn't that insane? I didn't even consider that because, yeah, yeah. So even like a fully healthy boogie

has never really experienced getting like isolated and picked on that consistently over the course of a seven game series, much less this version of boogie. And the weird thing about the Golden State and you're like a slower big man, everyone else is so good around you. like teams are going to have to attack you, right?

And it's not they have too many other options to attack. So it's going to be all boogie all the time on that pick and roll. And that would be an issue for me. I'd be my concern if I was Golden State is, can we hide him? If we can't hide him. Do we have the depth to survive without them? I mean, they brought back Bogut. I don't know how much he has left anymore.

That was kind of a weird one to me. Yeah. And, you know, defensively, this hasn't been the type of team that we're generally used to with the Golden State Warriors. I mean, I'm looking at their defensive rating right now. they're 15th charks. Ian, I think Draymond and KD, they can step it up in the playoffs.

Like, I'm not too worried about that. Here's what I'm worried about. So if you're moving Draymond and KD to the four and the five, like who are your wings to fell out your rotation? Yeah. Once again, they have a bunch of bigs and they've got not too much behind

Steph, Iguodala, Clay. Like, you're looking at guys like Alfonso McKinney might have to play a lot of minutes for them in the playoffs. Damien Lee. Yeah. That's, I think my issue is they never really have replaced their wing depth. They've got a ton of bigs who probably can help them in the playoffs. And that wing depth could be an issue at some point, I think. Yeah, I mean, if we're looking for

reasons, and of course, it feels like we're nitpicking because we are. Like, I was listening to NBA radio on the way into the office to do the pod. And they were like, is this the season where the Warriors are actually vulnerable? Because you've got the nuggets who have been good all year. The rockets are on the come. The Thunder have been playing really well. And they're really good defensively. Could this possibly be the year? And I still, think no. For all of this, they're four and six over their last 10,

but they also did just beat the nuggets. And yes, the Rockets are playing better. And yes, the Thunder's defense looks good. But like, you know, you've got the Blazers and the jazz

and the spurs and these guys. Eh, it's still the Warriors. Even though they've been having defensive issues, even though they seem like they're bored as hell, I'd be shocked if they just don't run through everybody.

Well, they got to stay healthy. Sure. They don't have the depth to survive injuries. Like, I think if you go back and look, the games that Clay has missed have really hurt them.

And Clay is like a freaking tank. He's never hurt. But he's been banged up some this year. Steph is always an injury risk. Jemann's getting older. He's an injury risk. That to me, like, one of those four guys goes down. I'm sure they have enough piece to make up for it.

That's probably always the case, right? If you lose one of your big guys, if KD or Steph, God forbid, went down because you don't want to root for injuries or anything. But it's something like that did happen all of a sudden that does open the door. But shy of that, I would be floored. If they're not just still the Warriors, they turn it on the playoffs and off they go. And I don't even think this is like, this is one of those things where like, yeah, it was a mental lapse. They lost to the Suns.

It happens. Even to the Warriors, it happens. But in a seven-game series, it's going to be awfully, awful difficult to beat them. Meanwhile, Charks, the aforementioned Houston Rockets, after their awful start to the season, killing it, including stealing a game in Dallas where it looked like Luca might have a chance to win the game for them. and then Chris Paul, who's risen from the dead, blocks a shot and they win the game. Yeah, I mean, Houston,

they're number three seed in the West right now. They're a game up on Oklahoma City and Portland. And they're pretty much in a great spot. If they can stay in that two, three side and stay in the Golden State side of the bracket, right now the 23, 6, 7 is Denver, Houston, Utah, San Antonio. If I'm Houston, this is the ideal setup. You can avoid Oklahoma City

and you get a possible series with Denham for the second round, they've really given Denver trouble this year in the regular season. Like, Houston's in a pretty good spot to get back to the Western Conference finals. Yeah, I was just thinking that because I was looking at these matchups, and it's unlikely with the number of games left unless something goes terribly awry for the nuggets that they could climb into that two spot. But in that three spot, as you said, you avoid the Thunderblazers, which would be the four or five right now.

And then you've got Jazz Spurs and Clippers too. Jazz Spurs, Clippers are all tied. for that last three spots. But getting one of those teams in the first round, now you're off and running. And you seem like you're playing really well. They figured it out after that slow start. The defense has been better.

I like the rocket's chances now. The big concern I have if I'm Houston is just the amount of like work where they put on James Hardin this season. So the numbers he's put out this year are insane. So I'm doing this story in Chris Paul and I was looking at what Hardin did. Hardin has a second highest usage rate of all time behind Westbrook in a few years ago. 40.5. That's insane.

So he's taking the most shots since Kobe Bryant 0506. Sure. That was the 81 point game season, I think. And he's scoring the most points in a season since MJ in 87. Wow. So it's the number seven scoring season of all time. Top six spots are Wilton MJ

and that's hardened at seven. So are you worried about him? Because last year in the playoffs, it looked like he kind of hit a wall? Yeah, it seems like he's hit a wall. it seems like he's hit a wall a lot in the last few playoffs. And I feel like instead of asking him do less this year, you're getting ready for the playoffs,

they've asked him do even more. Would you maybe throttle back a little bit? Because on the one hand, everything you're saying makes sense, and he has kind of hit a wall in the last couple of years, especially last year where it seemed like after Chris Paul went down, and it was like, okay, now it really is all about James Hardin. And if he can't do it by himself,

they're not going to do it at all. But if they did throttle back a little bit on minutes or workload or usage rate, then all of a sudden you're, risking, you know, holding on to that three spot. Yeah, I think you want to stay at a Golden State side of the bracket. And I'm not even sure at this point they can throttle back that much. Yeah. Because you can't really throttle Chris Paul forward more, right?

It's all unhardened. That's just how it is with this team. So you're writing about Chris Paul. I don't want you to give away the store. What can you tell us about what you've discovered about Chris Paul? Well, I mean, like the big thing if you look at his numbers, it's kind of shocking just how far back he's gone as just like in terms of his effectiveness, scoring off the dribble.

So he's gone from scoring at the end of this season. He was in the 76 percentile last year and the 20th percentile this season. As a pick and roll ball handler, he's gone from the 91st percentile to the 36th percentile. So he's really just taking a step back in every category. And like what I've been thinking is like as I watched Houston this year, it kind of reminds me of the end of those Miami years when you had LeBron and Wade. And Wade was really taking a step back and LeBron's doing everything. and then it's like, oh, we're going to save Wade for the playoffs,

but in doing that, you're running your best player so low, it kind of comes back to bite them. Chris Paul, then, I mean, this is the beginning of that new deal. He's still got three more years after this at 38, 41, and 44 million on the back end, which is a player option, which, of course, he's going to take. Thank you very much, Darryl and the Houston Rockets. How much do you think that that hamstrings are moving forward then? Because, like, right now they're sort of in the sweet spot where you can still squeeze some out of Chris Paul.

He's still a useful player. they're going to need him to be effective despite him taking a step back and it is the end of that but they're also like locked into him they're not moving off of Chris Paul anytime soon here's the thing is like Paul I think they could keep Paul

somewhat effective going into the playoffs but like Paul has to be on the Tim Duncan plan now. It takes a step back he's being rest in regular season but the problem is he's being paid to be a workhorse right it's hard to pay a guy $45 million and be like just chill for six months and get ready for May

in June. We're paying you to carry the team all season long. And they don't have enough guys around Hardin and Paul to take a step back, right? Like when Duncan was taking a step back in San Antonio, they had a very deep team because he wasn't being paid that much money so they could afford to move the money around. Yeah. This team is like, we're going to pay Hardin and Paul $90 million. That's a lot of money, Charks. Right? If Paul can't do it, it's just on Hardin. And like, then you're paying Capella, like 20 million, but he's really more of a role guy. He's not a primary option. You look at like going forward, you've got Hardin making all this money, Paul making all this money, Capella making money, everybody else is kind of like a minimum salary guy. Because Houston's not

paying the luxury tax. They've really gone out of the way to not pay it. So it's a very thin roster. Yeah. So it's like, man, if Paul's taking a step back the next few years, Hardin's going to have to do everything like indefinitely. And that's a tough ask. The roster construction on that when you lock yourself into three big contracts, all of a sudden when you're filling out the roster, like you said, with these disposable interchangeable parts. It makes it really difficult, especially on your top tier star like James Harden. Plus, I mean, not for nothing. Chris Paul in the playoffs, like I want to see his health and his fitness, right? Like every year, it becomes a concern. So the rocket's playing great. We'll see if they can

keep it up. Before we go to a team that's not playing great, of the other teams in the West, right? Because like I said, we've pretty much got our eight playoff teams right now. But of the Thunder, Blazer, Jazz, Spurs, Clippers Contingent, which one would be your dark horse candidate to make a run the playoffs. I'm going to say Oklahoma City. I think just because of Paul George, if you look at like the rest of these rosters, besides Golden State,

none of them really have a guy to guard Paul George, right? The 6-9 mega-athletic wing who can stroke threes. There aren't very many big athletic wings in the league you can guard them. And the rest of the West doesn't have those kind of stoppers. Like Houston has got Amman Shumpert maybe. Denver has Gary Harris,

6'4. Portland. I have a couple guys. That's about it, though. And like you look at last year Utah had Joe Ingle's and he kind of killed Paul George I expect Paul George to kind of take a step back this year and be playoff P. If he can be playoff P, they're going to be a tough out.

He's been so good this year. I can't believe that I did not expect post-injury that we would get now maybe. Not maybe. I think this is the best Paul George we've ever seen. And also, KOC has a piece up on the ringer.com right now about the candidates for the most improved player award.

And Charks, I never think about the most improved player in this context, but he has Paul George in there. And it never would have occurred to me to think about Paul George in the context of the Most Improved Player Award. But there's a case to be made for that because he's taken such a massive leap this season. Gons, I'll be honest. I don't think about the most improved player award regardless.

But sure. He's been great. This is his age 28th season. And like your age 28 season is you expect that's when like your athletic ability, your mental game is both at a high level. And he's been incredible. Like he's been amazing. This is what you expect to speak.

I was talking about him in the MVP race, right? Like, oh, we don't give him enough credit. He should be in the conversation. Like, kind of like a pat on the head, you know, he'll come in third or something. And then, yeah, KOC blew my mind with, oh, we should be talking about him for this too. But, okay, so before I let you go, because you have many things you're going to go work on that fantastic Chris Paul piece, we must talk about for the first time ever. Isaac Lee is our resident, he check historian. Should we finally talk about the Lakers for once?

Finally, finally. For once. We've never done it. I've been calling for it. We've got to talk about the Lakers. We've never done it on this show. I like your use of must there, God. We must.

We're obligated to talk about them. 30 and 36, Brandon Ingram now out for the year with deep vein thrombosis in his arm. Chris Bosch had it in his leg. Chris Bosch was older, but it ended his career and it's kind of a scary thing. So hopefully Brandon Ingram will be our right. Lonza Ball also shut down for the remainder of the season with a bone bruise and an ankle sprain. LeBron James now managing his minutes might sit back to backs. All things have gone terribly charts for the Lakers, including, I don't know if you saw Saturday's game against the Boston Celtics, but very early in the broadcast, Mark Jackson brings up, hey, maybe the Lakers should just trade LeBron and get a bunch of shit back for him?

Like, who would have expected that in March? That is an amazing tape. That's awesome. Yo, Mark Jackson, go on desktop. If I may request this on behalf of Jason Concepcion, please do this. Because who would have thought Charks, in March, the young guys would be shot down? down, they wouldn't be trying to make the playoffs or safely ensconced in the playoffs. People would be openly calling for tanking.

I mean, this could not have gone worse this year. I'm just picturing, like, Magic and Rob, call LeBron in the office. They say, look, you know, you get a little older. Ingram's pretty great. We got this draft pick. We're really going to move around. We're going to rebuild. And you can come if you want.

You can be your veteran leader, but we're going to move towards this rebuilding program. It's great. I mean, like, like, so obviously. they would never entertain moving LeBron. But there's something to be said for like academically thinking about the idea because he's going to be 35 next season. Now all of a sudden you have to wonder how many people actually do want to go play with him.

The Lakers haven't been the Lakers in a long time. Kevin Arnovich, shouts to Kevin Arnivitz on ESPN just had a great piece about, hey, like the luster of this organization and like the esteem and the pomp and paddry and the idea that like we're the lake show and you're just going to want to come to L.A. and play here. L.A. is still L.A., but the Lakers haven't been the Lakers for a while now. And I just, I wonder, like, if I'm a really good player who's not in my, you know, mid-30s on my way down and in decline, if I'm a top-tier player who's in my prime, do I want to get into that? I don't know.

Well, that's what you wonder if they're going to have to trade for, you know, get trade for that guy. Yeah. That's what the whole Anthony Davis thing comes in, I guess. I also really like Jeannie Buss telling the athletic that rival teams planted stories in order to hurt the Lakers chemistry. And then the athletic had one Pelican store said, yeah, but as soon as we got off the phone with the Lakers, like a minute later, all of our offers were out there. So, Jeannie also at Sloan had said, it does not help team chemistry when players have to read about possibly being traded. Jeannie, the calls are coming from inside the house. Yeah, I don't think that's the new thing.

I'm guessing that was an issue in 1980s, too. Like, there was newspapers back then. People heard things. As I said, I wrote about this last week. when the Lakers are bad, like obviously at the beginning of the season, and I will fully cop to this, I will cop to it because Paulo O'Dgetty

will not get off my ass about it. But I had the Lakers finishing third behind the Warriors and the Rockets in the Western Conference. Boy, was I wrong about that. However, I would submit to you, Charks, and this is what I wrote, when the Lakers have a season this bad,

it's almost as entertaining as if LeBron had just been really good and revitalized the Lakers. The content is always there for us. The content is king. Yeah. We've got all kinds of great content on the ringer.com, including Jonathan Charks, who's always writing.

He's going to have a Chris Paul piece. He's going to be on the corner three on Friday. You've got to listen to him. Charks, you are the absolute best. Thanks for doing this. Yeah, thanks for having me on. All right, so that was Jonathan Charks. We thank him as always.

He's always excellent. Before we go on to Tyler Tynes, I want to tell you about the NBA watch of the night. Isaac Lee. Yeah. Your clippers have a very important role. Yes. So I write this story about the Lakers and the Celtics in free fall. And per usual, the Ringer curse rears its head.

The Lakers are still bad. The Celtics all of a sudden are rattling off wins, not only rattling off wins, but doing so on the road. They beat the Warriors on the road, the king's on the road, the Lakers on the road. Now they've got your Clippers on NBA TV tonight. We need the Clippers to stop their winning streak. Well, first of all, let's address the first part of that. The Lakers are so bad that they're beyond. the ring of curse. Not even the ring or curse can bring them back to life. Number one. I just wanted

to put that out there. And number two, the Celtics, did you hear our boss, Bill Simmons's podcast last week where he said? Did I? It's appointment viewing for all of us here. Of course, it plays me to sleep at night. The legendary plane ride where Kyrie did this powwow and now they're apparently they all get along. It just took one plane ride. Only one plane ride across the country. That's the only thing that they were missing. You know, they hadn't taken any plane rides this season. That was their first plane ride and they're like, we should do this more. Also, you noted in Slack because I'm constantly forgetting to give the Clippers their due. The Clippers themselves are on a winning streak.

Yes, they are. They've won four in a row, seven of their last 10. They host the Celtics this evening in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. I'm actually rooting for the Clippers to put the Celtics back in a free fall. It's up to Doc's gang to stop the winning streak and do the Lord's work. So Celtics at Clippers on NBA TV this evening. And remember, gang, if you want to watch every NBA game, please subscribe to NBA pass on MBA.com or from your preferred video provider.

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ADT, real protection. Visit ADT.com slash podcast to learn more about how ADT can design and install a secure smart home just for you. All right, joining me on the other line, he's a newish, relatively newish, staff writer at the ringer.com,

one of Philadelphia's favorite sons. I've known him for quite a while. Frankly, I am remiss for not having him on sooner, and I apologize. It's Tyler Times. The streets, no. What up, man? I'm good.

I just came back. from Philly. I got this Wawa sandwich in front of me. I don't know if I could eat on this. I don't know the technology that we have. Save the sandwich, which I'm sure is delicious for afterwards, but tell me about, because we're going to just go full Philly on this podcast now, which we've never

done before. We've never had anybody from Philadelphia on this program. And you and I, I think, are the only Philadelphians who work at the ringer. What did you order at Wawa? What is this, John? I got a little 10-inch drawn, and what's this? This is an Italian. Classic roll. Nice. Like it.

pepperoni, the Swiss. It was that bacon. Wow, you put all kinds of stuff on there. Pepper, cucumbers, lettuce, barbecue sauce, you know what I'm saying? So, look at it. Wait, you put barbecue sauce on your Italian hoagie? What you put on yours?

Not barbecue sauce. This is a radical order. But this is what you can do at Wawa. You could do whatever you want. You can personalize it. I've known Tynes. I've known you for a while now. We were both at the Inquirer many moons ago.

I was a columnist. You were an intern. I was the first black intern in like 10, years. So shout out to Stephen A. Smith. You were there and then you rose up through the media ranks and now you're at the ringer and you're killing it. And so like I said, I apologize for not having you on sooner because... Yeah, man, that's fucked up. It's fucked up because you are perfect for this because you basically came in, I forget when you got hired, but like mere seconds later

you were just throwing napalm all over slack. And this is called He Check. So I should have had you on before because, and specifically, you have many Sixers and Brett I need to get into you. I do. I do have those takes. All right. So let's start with the Sixers. Isaac Lee is our resident heat check historian. Yeah. Correct me if I'm wrong. First time ever, we've talked about the Sixers.

The Philadelphia 76ers have never been mentioned on this podcast. Never been mentioned. They go out. They had a big game against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday at home. They beat the Indiana Pacers. They are now tied with the Pacers for that third spot in the Eastern Conference. So, Tynes, I'm going to start you off with this. They had a bad loss to the Bulls in Chicago. You immediately gotten slack and just threw all the heat at Brett Brown. Then they go and they had an even worse loss

against the Rockets in Houston. But they go home and they beat the Pacers in a game that was important to them. And would you now like to apologize to Brett Brown? No, fuck him. All I'm saying is don't give us a G-League coach at the most important moment in team history

since Alan Iverson got his hair corn road. You know what I'm saying? Like, Brett Brown was great for the process. And now that we're assuming the process is possibly over or we're coming to the end of what Sam Hinky died for, I just think maybe we shouldn't have some developmental-ass coach with a shitty beard being the guy that runs our team forward. Elton Brand's doing a great job. That's just what that is.

Maybe we should hire somebody else. I am of the idea and stay with me here. I'm of the idea that if we launch Brett Brown into the sun, Monty Williams will be a fine coach in his stead. I think Monty would be fine. but I think that you are emblematic of the strain of Philadelphia fan that blames every loss that the Sixers have on Brett Brown and forgets that he's still the coach during the wins.

Like, I think Brett is actually... Oh, no, I remember. So a couple of things here. One, I'm not sure how influential coaches are writ large. Two, Brett Brown is a fine coach. Like, let's look at some of the coaches that the Sixers have had prior to Brett Brown. You've got Doug Collins, Eddie Jordan, Mo Cheeks, Cheeks, who was a delightful human being.

not a good coach. Jim O'Brien. I mean, Larry Brown back in the day, fine. Larry fucking Brown. But what I'm saying, if he should coach the Sixers again. Bring him out. Bring him out of wherever he is to do this. What I'm saying is, like, I had a conversation with Steve Kerr earlier in the year where we were talking about like what the most important thing for NBA head coaches is. And his thing was he wanted to, and I led the story with it where he was like, I think people should call me a manager because I do less, quote, coaching than I do managing, that it's more about personalities and making sure they fit together and communication.

And on that front, the players love Brett Brown. He's really good at that shit. So I'm not sure, like, wherever you might want to rank Brett Brown, because I don't think that there's a lot of, we don't get as much data on coaches. There's a lot of things that's behind the scenes

that we aren't privy to, as opposed to players where there's like a preponderance of data where we could look at to decide who's good and who's not. I don't know where Brett Brown falls in your personal ranking or even in my personal ranking of coaches, but I think he's perfectly fine, and he's a nice dude and they like him, and I don't get the hate for him.

Where was Ty Liu on this list? On my personal list? Like, if Tai Liu is still coaching, right, where is he on, like, the list of coaches in the NBA? Is he top 10? Is he bottom 10? I don't know, because I'm mostly coach agnostic. I don't know how much they actually influence. I mean, like...

Is Brett Brown a better coach than Jerry Stackhouse? I don't know. Okay, right? And I think that's important in so much that we don't, know. And if we don't know, I lean that he's trash. So, if I can't definitively be like, yeah, my guy

Brett Brown is wild better than Jerry Stackhouse. But who could you say that about, with the exception of like three or four? Brad fucking Stevens. Okay, that's one guy that everybody always focuses around for the last 27 years, apparently? That's one guy. That's one guy

out of 30 that everybody always focuses on. Kerr would be on a list. Spolster would be on a list. Pop would be on a list. After, say, four or five top guys in the league. There's just a bunch of coaches in the league who may or may not be good coaches. And like, again, back to Kerr's management point, if he is good at these other intangible things

and the players like him and it seems to be like a mostly symbiotic relationship, like, what's the problem? Here's my main gripe. I don't want bearded Scott Brooks to be my coach. It's that simple to me, right? Why do you not like his beard? His beard is good. I like, you know what?

I'm even Brett Brown, beard, greater than symbol Brett Brown clean-shaven. And that's right. But that doesn't mean that, you know, like if you put perfume on trash, it doesn't take it away from the dumpster. You know, like, it's still trash. It's just nice-smelling trash.

And that's what Brett Brown is. He's nice-smelling trash. Even now that you live in New York, you can't take the Philadelphia out of you. I knew you were going to throw shaded his beard. So I wanted to bring this up. Of the personal grooming slash aesthetics, looks on the Sixers. I think that there are a couple that need discussion. You brought up the beard.

I like the beard. J.J. Reddick's latest haircut is an interesting one. J.J. Reddick looks like he cuts white hair in Harlem. When they put whole foods in Harlem in like black neighborhoods, but then they also want to like copy black. Jay J.J. Reddick could have waves in AirPods, right? Like he's the walking meme of that thing. And I think he cuts other white dudes who look like shitty waiters. I think he cuts their hair. I think he has an entire manual for barbistry, for bad white people and their bad hair. I think that's what it is. So you, as

a Philadelphian, are aware of, you know, like, I went to school at LaSalle, which is in North Philadelphia, and so because I went to Which is a bad school. Look, don't throw shade in LaSalle. But having gone to LaSalle, I went to school with like everybody who

went to Catholic high school. Like a zillion people from Father Judge. And it was funny because when JJ debuted his latest haircut, Chris Ryan, who is also from Philadelphia, sent me something from at Chubber Lang on Twitter, who's a Philadelphian. And at Chubberlang noted, did J.J. Reddick recently moved to the Northeast, he looks like every dude that's ever gone to Father Judge, which for those of you who are from Philadelphia is a hilarious goddamn joke. I mean, J.J. Reddick looks like he sells hats in Frankfurt.

Right? I want to say first, though, to our Ringer teammate, J.J. Reddick, I'm rooting for you, buddy. I don't think the hair is nearly as bad as the joke or Tyler indicates, but of these things that are happening, Sixers-related, you've got the beard, you've got JJ's hair. And then here's the third one I wanted to bring up to you,

and I wanted to see where you stand on this. Jimmy has recently gone, at times, with the karate kid headband that Drew Holiday has used periodically. West Matthews had one of those on the other day. That to me is the most egregious of all three. Like, I don't understand Best of all three. No, it's the worst.

Best of all three. Best of all three. It's a weird look. At least Jimmy doesn't look like round SpongeBob anymore, right? Like, Jimmy has kind of never known what to do with his hair. And as someone with fantastic hair, it bothers me. I was younger and I had, you know, the curl sponged hair. And you have to take care of it.

You know, you need your shade moisture. You, you know, you need all the essential oils. Or you need to pay someone to help you be better at taking care of your hair. And every time I see Jimmy Butler's hair until he put the cornrows in, I just think of sad children. I like his hair. I liked it fine.

I didn't think he needed the cornrows or the karate kid headband. For me, I don't understand where this whole thing came from. Like Drew Holiday put one on and then like now all of a sudden it's spreading. Isn't it like a Nike thing? And also Montres Harold did it at first.

Oh, he did? Yeah. Where are you on the karate kid headband? I like it on Montres Harold. I don't like it on anybody else. It looks like it's like a Rambo holdover. Well, here's the thing, man. Let me ask you this, God.

Tell me. Would you say you're stylish? Would you say you are a stylish, man? You drip swagoo. Drip too hard. Don't stand too close. I'm not anti-style. I've got some style.

It depends on what's the day. Scale one to ten. Every day. Every day. I don't walk out of my house and I'm not stylish. I got this velvet du rag on right now. And it just drips swagoo. I don't have any velvet.

It's a velvet. Okay. See, well, there you go. First step is wrong. It depends on what the occasion is. The occasion is you woke up. I woke up and I look great. No, that doesn't work.

It's effortless. That's not made. How can we confirm that? You're in New York. This is a podcast. We can't confirm that you're wearing a velvet durette. Run up on me in these streets. Do all of the heat check listeners a favor.

And later on, when I tweet out the link for the show, do us a favor, take a picture of the velvet head gear and then put that out there. I have so many pictures. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But with you in it for the podcast, for the listeners. Because as Isaac said, this is an auditory medium. I wanted to bring up Jimmy, aside from the headband, so this is my whole thing about what you were saying about, to bring it back to Brett Brown and coaching. I don't know what people who are anti-Bret

Brown expect from him. So in this game, like, their roster has gotten better this season, and it's also gotten thinner. They add Tobias Harris and Jimmy Butler, but look at the way that the rotation has now been settled into. They basically have to play their starters, heavy, heavy minutes because they don't have any options. I mean, you've got Mike Scott having to play 26 minutes off the bench. First of all. James Ennis is a guy who's in your rotation.

Amir Johnson and T.J. McConnell, you've got to get minutes out of them. Bobon, who bless his heart, hopefully comes back soon. They're going to need him to play as well. So, like, I don't know what people expect from Brown beyond, like, hey, man, I hope the first five guys play really well

because you don't have many options after that. I expect him to stop drawing up out-of-balance plays that don't make fucking sense. Like that's literally my only ask of him. Which one are you talking about? Because the Chicago game wasn't his fault. Jimmy fubble of them. Literally all of them.

I mean, I feel like every time I'm watching a game for the Sixers and they find a way to almost lose the game before someone has to fucking save their sorry asses. I'm looking at Brett Brown running out of bounds plays. And I'm just like, this always reminds me of Scott Brooks running, like drawing up 33 foot jump shots to Kevin Durant with five seconds left in any moment.

Like all of them just seem dumb as shit. And I could easily be wrong here. I don't think I am. But they're all dumb as shit to me. And all I'm asking for Brett Brown is to dress better, to do something with his beard, and to make better out-of-bounds plays. That's all I'm asking for this man.

These are many s. Let me ask you something, though. So you've got to your point about sunlight out of balance players or after timeouts. They have that redo, that do-over, in the game against Chicago where they lost it twice. And that wasn't Brett Brown's fault.

They had a play, designed that Jimmy Butler on the inbound pass from Simmons ends up fumbling the ball and they end up losing the game and not for nothing. Something's weird with Jimmy Butler post all-star break.

Do you know how many times he's made a three-pointers since the All-Star break? He's made one? Two. Two three-pointers in all of the games post-all-star break.

All of a sudden he's not shooting anything and when you don't have Jimmy Butler shooting three-parts, pointers. And Ben Simmons can't and doesn't shoot three pointers. And by the way, JJ Reddick, as his hair grows out, I'm hoping that his shot will return to him. He's been, admittedly, he even talked about it on his podcast with Chris Paul. He's been in a slump lately shooting. You don't have any shooting

off the bench. You can't just conjure shooting out of nowhere. So again, I think Brett's getting a lot of heat for things that are beyond his control. Well, I mean, when Jimmy Butler just decides to play in the fourth quarter every game, that's always great. I love why watching Jimmy Butler have six points until seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. Yeah. And then he just magnificently has 18 points before the game's over.

Look, look here, man. Jimmy Butler is not only unerring, he's infallible. I am Jimmy Hive. All right. Let me ask you, where are you on Jimmy this offseason? Because it's been my contention. I don't want them to give back. Oh, you don't?

No. No, not at all. Okay, so now, so this is a rational position. This is very anti-Tyler-Tines. I would have expected you to be like, fuck it. sign him to five-year max. No, I mean, look, Jimmy Butler is 47 years old, and he's got bad hair. And that is, I mean, I can't ride out super hard for somebody like that to make more money than they should, right?

So if Jimmy Butler wants to come back for one year on a team-friendly deal, yeah, dude, come through, right? But, like, otherwise, I don't see the need of keeping Jimmy Butler when Tobias Harris exists. Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's perfectly reasonable. Also, I've talked about this with Dan Devine. It's my working theory that the Knicks will strike out twice on their two max slots and look around for a consolation prize and Jimmy Butler will just be staring them in the face. And that would be perfect. For every putrid New Yorker that exists, I hope the Knicks get Jimmy Butler.

Oh, it would be so great. I hope the Knicks get Jimmy Butler. So Sean Fennacy is miserable for two straight years. I hope that so much. The only thing I would hope more is that Jimmy's, Butler goes to Boston. That would be great too. That won't happen, but the other one could.

What I really like is that you now recently hired have decided to attack both your bosses. Fantastic. Something else about shooting that you put in Slack that I wanted to bring up. So Ben Simmons, as we mentioned, he's not inclined to shoot three-pointers. See, you got to the facts. There you go. He's not inclined to shoot three-pointers. So Kobe Bryant recently gave, I think it was to bleach a report, said that Ben Simmons has got to get a jump shot.

to which you responded. And I normally wouldn't pull things out of Slack because what we talk about on Slack should stay on Slack, but this is too good, so I'm going to do it. You responded. Kobe shot under 30% from three,

six times in his career and ended his career shooting like Russ Westbrook. I don't respect glorified J.R. Smith's opinion and he wasn't born in Philly. Oh my God. Go on desktop. I don't respect that, man. Jason called me, put me on desktop.

I don't respect that man. But like as an actual basketball place, even though it's not divorced from like the infantestimal reasons why I don't respect that man. I don't respect people who aren't from Philly as a general pathos. And I barely respect bald people. So I super am not rocking with glorified J.R. Smith. It's not my fault that Kobe Bryant's entire career is the summation of the first three seasons of Jared Jack. That's not my fault.

It's just a good thing that he had shack with him or he wouldn't have as many rings as he does. Kobe Bryant's not even a top five Laker. Wow. I mean, I don't respect that, man. I don't respect you and you're not even better than LeBron James. I don't respect you and you're Brandon Roy with a 16-year career. I don't respect Kobe Bryant. Fuck Kobe.

This is an all-time heat check rant. Isaac, turn your microphone on because you're cackling from the other room. A couple of things here. One, you just made, you're probably now Isaac's favorite ever guest on this show. Two, glorify J.R. Smith is hilarious. Three, I think both things can be true. I think Kobe's shooting under 30% from three, six times can be true at the same time. He can be right about Ben Simmons needing to get a jump shot.

He's right about that. Four, as a Philadelphia, I don't understand. I covered Kobe in high school. He went to a rival high school. I was a year older than him. I covered him coming up. He was amazing then. He had an amazing NBA career.

I don't understand Philadelphia is anti-Cobie. He's not a real Philadelphia. take? Like, why do we get all worked up about it? Like, the majority of South Jersey claims they're from Philly. That's fine. And they're fucking wrong too. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. You know, the shit that I hate? Tell me. You know the shit I hate? A lot of things. A lot of things, too. But the shit I hate gods. I went to college out in the mountains, right? Where'd you guys? It's like, I went to Kings College up in the Bookst Bridge Grant. It's like, I know, Kings. How are you going to throw Shade at LaSalle? You went to Kings? I don't know. You have you,

you have bars on your windows. I don't respect to the fuck what? And so, and so, you know, going up there, the people would be from, like, all over the state. You know, they're from Jim Thorpe. They're from, Airy. They're from Scrant. You know, whatever. And so I come up there, being cool like I am.

And I say to these folk, I'm like, hey, where y'all from? Oh, I'm from Philly. Okay. Well, what part? Oh, you know, Cherry Hill. Okay. So back the fuck up, right? you're claiming you're from a city

and you're from a separate state. I mean... Fuck that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You claim the place that you're from. Do not attach yourself to me and my iconography as a Philadelphian. You're saying?

I want your zip code. I want to know what type of cheese steak you eat. And I want to know if you think that Larry Brown should coach the fucking sisters again. That's all I want to know. Right across the line. So you can claim shitty ass lower Marion where you went to school.

Yeah. And don't claim my city. Claim what you know. Don't claim what you think you know. You know what's amazing. Like all these people who, and I know a lot, I mean, like, you basically sound like every family member that I have. All of them, like, I grew up in media and then went to LaSalle and, you know.

You grew up in media? Yeah, I'm from outside the city. Went to school in the city. That's fine. Lived in the city, bought a house in the city. Like spent all my time in and around Philadelphia. And my family members would say the same shit. They'd be like, ah, he's not from Philly.

I'm like, we're in Belko, right? right now. You're not. You're from Delco. But that's the same. Like, everybody claims Philadelphia from that area. It's fine. It's fine.

And everybody's a fucking liar. If Kobe had embraced Philadelphia, they would embrace him. Kobe's named after a piece of beef. I don't respect that, man. Last one before I let you go. Back to the New York Knicks. So there were a couple of things here. At Sloan, Adam Silver, who would talk to Bill Simmons,

the boss man, had said that player movement at some point does matter what players are saying. And in terms of our brand, this is Adam Silver right now, our values and what we stand for, it's fine if there's speculation, like where's LeBron James going, but it's not good when a player who's in the middle of his contract, his agent shows up in a city, he doesn't live and announces this player doesn't want to be there anymore. That's bad for the fans there. It puts the league in a difficult position because it's an entertainment product.

See, I say it is an entertainment product. Like Steve Carr right before the All-Star break, it said they're all actors in a soap opera, which I believe is true. Which brings me back to the Knicks. Like, they've got these two Macs slots. They want to bring people in. I think they're just a shit show, and it's better for an entertainment perspective

that they be a chef show because they've got an owner like James Dolan, who did you see what he did over the weekend? A guy said he should sell the team and he kicked him out. I mean, he does that, like, all the time. I think it's amazing. Like, keep the Knicks, the Knicks.

Keep the league dramatic. First off, I don't like Adam Silver that much because I don't like... You don't like him either. I super don't. I mean, I also don't like Steve Curry either. Like, so... We should one day,

just have a list of people you do like, it'll be like two people. It'll be like five people. They're all great people. They're all great people. Fantastic. My mom, myself, all good people. Okay. I don't like Adam Silver that much because I don't like the representation that Adam Silver stands for in so much that what he breeds, right?

Like Adam Silver in one etching is like, oh, we the best league compared to the NFL. That's like being like better than a dirty sock. Like you're not saying shit at all. And so it's very weird to me that so many people, especially white fans who kind of huddle around these black entertainers and these black capitalists who make all this money to entertain these people, then want to also kind of spout liberalism as if they are better than something else when they are truly just another company. And the problem with that is that the NBA kind of build stuff off of this ideology that they are a better league than almost anybody else because they allow their players to speak up. And so when this trickles down, right, you get comments like this from Adam Silver who believes it's bad for business that things are entertaining.

Look, man, y'all are winning the race by osmosis. Just shut the fuck up, right? Like, that's a piece of this, is that the NBA does way too much to believe that they're actually better than everybody else, but their actual product and the people keeping the game upright would suggest they're not. They're as similar as business people, as owners, as CEOs as every other league. They don't want players to actually be super, super, super free and make super, super, super, like, crisp decisions based on individuality.

They want to keep their players in check. That's what the NBA, just like the NFL, just like any other league run by white people. Like, it's very simple to me. And so I always get a kick out of these Adam Silver comments when they come up because so many people are kind of like taking a back. Oh my God. Adam Silver would say this? Dude, yeah, what? I'm with you in that, like, I think that it's pretty obvious hypocrisy when you have owners wanting to maintain control and agency.

and then players trying to assert themselves in a similar way, all of a sudden being like, you know, challenged and thought of us, well, why would you want to control where you play or who you work for? Like, that's kind of crazy to me. I mean, look, all I'm saying is this is the dude who literally, when Colin Cabernic-Neil, he sent around a memo to all the teams reminding them and they had a 30-year anthem policy on the books, right? Like, like, this is the dude that we're going to cape for, and his glasses suck?

No, man, fuck out of here. Yeah, I'm not going to cape for Adam Silver, but my point about Steve Kerr stands that Steve Kerr was right on this point that everybody in the league is actors and the soap opera and the more drama and the more storylines the better and that is up to and including players going

I don't want to play here. I love that shit. I was talking to Charks earlier on in the show about this. There was a possibility the non-zero chance this season that LeBron would have marshaled the Lakers and they would have been good and made the playoffs and that would have been like one storyline.

I submit to you and wrote about this last week that them being bad and shit going completely awry and then being at each other's throats and magic openly talking about trading everybody was as if not more entertaining. Like, I love the chaos. I want it all.

I love when LeBron does this shit because it's so funny, not only to watch people react and be mad, especially Lakers fans, but equally, I love that LeBron can do this shit. Like, LeBron can walk on any team he wants and just as like, oh, that's the second best player on his team,

oh, he's been an all-star, for the last eight years, yeah, trade them. I want Kendrick Perkins to be my starting shooting guard, right? Like, LeBron can do that because he's LeBron and nobody has had this type of power

fully and transparently this type of power since Michael Jordan, right? So I don't really understand why people wouldn't want chaos, right? Like the NBA leaned itself into being the most entertaining league because it's nonstop, social media is better, and the fullness of the league

is something that anybody can kind of dive into. Okay, cool, let's put that over here. In the reality space, It's that you can't call for the, like, siphoning and censoring of these players while also wanting to commercialize the chaos. Like, this is supposed to happen. When you try to trade seven people, those seven people should probably jump you. Like, that's what's supposed to happen.

And so the league would be smarter in a 360 sense if they just shut the fuck up and get out of the way. Right? Like, this is the most entertaining sport we kind of have as one of the main four sports. don't mess it up. Just shut up. Move. Let LeBron trade whoever he wants

to assemble a team of what is basically the Lakers. The Lakers are like a G-League team. And so that's funny to me. We hear all the time that it's a business and it is, but I think that people often forget

that it, and I talk to players about it all the time, like, there's still people. And so, like, having to uproot your life and like, you know, what do I do for a new house and what do I do about the house

I just had? And like, all the shit that like normal humans have to deal with, in their everyday life is something that they had to deal with too when they're traded and like, to just forget about that or when there's speculation about them being traded. So to just forget about that or marginalize it, I think is ridiculous. But that said, we can talk about this all day, but we can't because the podcast can't go on forever. And you also have, and frankly, for all of the

hot takes that you had on this program, the one thing that you're, I anticipate you'll get dragged for most is getting a Wawa Italian Hogi with barbecue sauce on it, which is unheard of. But Godspeed to it. Port Kobe Bryant, I will probably get dragged for Kobe Bryant. Go eat your barbecue sauce, Italian Hogi. Are you working on anything you want to pub? I just came back from Mississippi, the University of Mississippi, after players and students protested on campus of the University of Mississippi because of the pro-Confederate rallies down

there. And so I'm sure that'll be on the ringer.com soon. Can't wait to read it. Your intersection of sports and race is your corner and you kill it and you hold it down. And I'm throw that you're on here. I can't believe it took us this long. You're going to come back on more and yell at me about various opinions.

I heard you were on the debate team? You were the president of the debate club? In high school, I led a full life just as I do now. And this is why you're swagless. I'm every bit as cool as people think I am, which is not at all. Tyler Tines, thanks for doing this. I want to thank Tyler Tines,

first time ever on the program. We're going to have him back for sure. Of course, I want to thank Jonathan Charks, who's a repeat offender, And I want to remind everybody, if you're so inclined, please rate and review us on iTunes. Please read all of our wonderful NBA content on Theringer.com. And don't forget, as we funnel towards the playoffs, we're going to have a lot of stuff for you, including all of our NBA shows on the Ringer podcasting network.

You can catch the mismatch on Tuesday, group chat on Thursday. Corner 3 on Friday. Isaac and I will be back next Monday for Heat Check. Thanks for listening, everybody. Bye.