The Ringer NBA Show - The NBA All-Entertainment Team and the Über-competitive Coach of the Year Race | Heat Check

Episode Date: March 25, 2019

Who have been the most entertaining personalities in the NBA this season? (4:01) Plus: our pick for Coach of the Year from an unusually stacked pool of candidates (43:10). Host: John Gonzalez Guests: Ian Karmel, Chris Almeida Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of He-check is brought to you by Hotel Tonight. Hotel Tonight makes it easy to book awesome hotels at amazing rates. They're like a matchmaker between top-rated hotels with unsold rooms and people who want to book those rooms. And Hotel Tonight isn't just for last-minute bookings. You can book for tonight, tomorrow, and beyond. It's perfect for planners, procrastinators, and everyone in between. I'm one of those in-between people. I did a big piece on Rick Petino.

How to Fly to Greece for it? Guess what? Didn't have a hotel? Hotel Tonight to the Rescue. Find sweet deals at cool hotels you'll actually want to stay. at go to hotel tonight.com or download the app now. Welcome to Heat Check. I'm your host John Gonzalez, joined as I am every week by my producer, Isaac Lee. Isaac, unbeknownst to either of us, we were both on the East Coast this weekend.

Yeah, I didn't tell you in advance, but I did go to New York City and you were in Philadelphia. I was in Philadelphia. I saw that you were checking in with the New York office, and I noticed this because you were tweeting about it, but mostly you were just tweet complaining about how cold it was. You went to school on the East Coast. Yeah, I was there for four years during Congress. college, but, you know, when I moved back, I immediately reverted to my soft ways. And if anything, I got softer. You got softer. Well, luckily you made it through. You saw the NYC office, shouts to everybody over there at the ringer. You caught some basketball, I assume?

I caught a lot of basketball. Most of it college, but I did watch a lot of NBA, especially because the clippers were still on a roll, and they were there. They were in New York City while I was there. I did not plan it that way, but they were playing the Knicks and got a victory out of that. I assume that you went to Madison Square Garden to sing, sell the team to James Dolan, correct? I didn't go anywhere near 32nd and 8th. That is unfortunate and disappointing. Make sure you turn your phone off, gang, when you're doing the podcast. Yes, that's a good idea.

All right. Thanks for listening. Please rate and review us in all of our fantastic Ringer NBA shows and pods. There's lots of great content on the Ringer. Of course, it's March Madness. We've got one shining podcast with Titus and Tate. Roger Sherman did the winners and losers from the first weekend of the NCAA tournament in professional basketball realms

Boston Celtics They go down to the San Antonio Spurs Kyrie Irvin tried to coach him up again Helio Shonise wrote about how the Celtics basically tuned him out completely I love all of this as you've probably noticed here on heat check

Can't get enough of it Maybe they could get some more plane rides Maybe maybe maybe Kyrie should stop posting Instagram photos like cryptic messages with the weird symbols. Like the stone masons and shit like that. I love that stuff. But they need to get back on another plane

and that'll fix everything. Isaac Lee, you busted my chops because I put together the show outline and you control left per usual looking for the clippers. There's nothing clippers. Guess what?

I wrote 2,500 words on your Los Angeles Clippers in general, but specifically I wrote about Doc Rivers and his unlikely coach of the year candidacy. Isaac, I cannot believe

that Doc Rivers is one, still with the clippers. He's the last guy standing from the Lob City era. And on top of that, they're all thriving. They're all getting along. They're all excited to have him. He's sticking around for the foreseeable future.

I did not foresee this coming at all. I'm more shocked than you are. Obviously, I follow the team. I'm shocked that Doc isn't playing golf right now as you speak. Golfing, doing TV. That's what I predicted, but he's going to coach for a little bit longer. So check that out on the ringer.com. Later in the show, Chris Almey, first time ever from the NYC office.

We'll join us to talk about the coach of the year race, of which Doc Rivers is a part. He'll also be here to talk about his wizards because they're terrible and we always like to laugh at the wizards. But first, we've got to start it off big. And for that, we're going to bring in the most famous man in Heat Check History. Boom, Shakalaka! He's heating up.

All right, joining me in the studio. I'm very excited. He's a repeat offender. He's the head writer of the late late show with James Corden. He's the host of All Fantasy Everything. As I mentioned previously when you're on here, the most famous man in He Czech history. Thank you very much.

See, and Carmell's here. I'm easily. the most famous person, probably who's been at the studio. Yeah. I mean, if you really want to like get into the history of the Sunset Hours studio. Yeah. I can't think of anyone. Frank and you.

Me and Frank. That's it. And many people consider me the Frank Sinatra of the podcast where people fantasy draft things in arts sports. Yes. Mill You. Millew is also a fantastic word. You're coming in hot with the vocabular.

Early on a Monday with the word milieu. I was also thinking about as everybody's favorite, is it Portlandian? Portlandian. I wasn't sure if a Portlander. All right, you're a Portlandian. Now that Paul Allen is dead, that's probably you too. It's me. I took the throne. Yeah.

I don't even know if Paul Allen was ever living in Portland. I know he had a condo. It was like Portland adjacent. He was Portland adjacent. I think he was like in a super yacht that could get to Portland within 24 hours. He had two different super yachts that guy. He had two yachts. Two different yachts.

You got to switch him out sometimes. Absolutely. I mean, the one starts getting stale. You have to light some like $900 candles, leave it to air out. It's always weird in this age where income inequality is such a big issue. to be like, he had two yachts, isn't that cool? Two super yachts, it's pretty nice. But if you just zoom all the way out and, like, don't think too hard, that's kind of cool.

I would definitely like, if I had enough money for one yacht and I could get another and get another yeah, just like, get two. Get two yachts. Why not get two yachts? You also have been hanging around one, Isaac Lee. You guys went out to dinner. We went to spoon by age. I've heard about this.

Oh, my God. Have you not been yet? I have not been. We've got to take you. We've got to see. Have to go. You have to go with Isaac. We just rolled in.

There were like eight people. It was a bunch of ringer people. Me and my friend Mike Maloy, who's another stand-up comedian. And then the Shivattani siblings? Amazing. Who I guess Isaac just knows. Is that true, Isaac? Yeah.

Well, I got to know them through the ringer. I'm not going to take full credit for them. He discovered them as children and taught them how to figure skating. He coached them up all the way through the Olympics. He coached them up, got up at 4 a.m. and drove him to the ice rink. Ice time is hard to get. It's hard to get, especially in L.A. You have to sacrifice.

Isaac was willing to do it. And now look at all of them. He should get a medal, too, in my opinion. He's a gold medal winner. And the third ship, Sibb, Isaac League. brought us all to a spoon by each. It was so good. Yeah?

It was this, what was the dumpling dish? The dumpling soup. It's their signature dish. Holy shit. It's so good. It's so good. I think about it at least twice a day.

It's like, it's the meal that stuck with me more than any other meal that I've had like in the last five years. And I've been to like a lot of great restaurants because I'm very fat and have a lot of money. You're a, you're a healthy appetite. I have a healthy appetite. I'm softing. I'm chubby.

I'm bright. But it was crazy. And then the, there was like a kimchi risotto. that was amazing. Yeah, fantastic. That dumpling dish, this sounds gross, but I mean it in the best way. It tasted like if you took like a really good sausage pizza from Roundtable and like liquefied it and then put dumplings in that.

This is amazing. It was so good. We should end this podcast immediately and go do it. I like the national NBA podcast has now become a provincial food podcast. Yeah, it's just about that. I just want to do that. Come out to L.A. and eat some of a fine restaurants. Come visit.

There's a lot of good options. I also want to thank you, Isaac, I want to get your opinion on this. Ian and I were texting back and forth. He texted me the other day. He had read something that I wrote. I don't even know what I wrote. By the way, thank you for patronizing the ringer.com.

Always, yeah. But he texted me, Isaac. He said, I have such a conversational writing style, which translated in my mind to, you don't sound anything like all those smart people you write. They said they are super smart for you. That is what I meant.

I was trying to cut you down in a subtle way. You write words good. Yeah. I knew what was coming on in the podcast. I was like, I'm going to tell this guy he basically has the vocabulary of a third writer. And I'm coming by Loo And I was like

I gotta look that shit up By the time I'm leaving I will host heat check I hope you do First of all First of all it's mill you Millio And also like

I feel like that says more About your deep-seated insecurity It's about your own writing prowess Than actually I wouldn't use the word prowess I meant it as a supreme compliment

I appreciate that I often get stuck Because I'm not I guess I'm smart But like trivia smart You know what I know like I love a trivia smart I do too

That's the only kind of smart But like if I took an IQ test, I don't think I would do like real grade on it, but I know that Tallahassee is the capital of Florida or whatever. It's impressive. Thank you very much. I'll pull out. I know, I know all the capitals. All trivia everything.

Yeah. I'll trivia everything. It's really good. We should do a trivia night. We should go and have the dumplings. Are you kidding me? And then trivia. I'm already in.

It's wonderful. All right. So we got to, we're going to do a couple of different things with you. Oh, wait. Let me finalize the compliment. Tell me. I'm sorry. I didn't finalize a compliment.

Yeah. When I read your writing, it's so conversational. It feels like I'm talking to you or listening to you on the podcast. It's really accessible. You manage to say very smart things, but in a way that, like, anyone could understand. And that is a skill that I think is more valuable than somebody who can, like, speak smartly about smart things. But you can speak about smart things in a way that's very accessible and fun and breezy. By that time I'm done reading something you've written, I'm like, oh, where did the time go?

So I really enjoy your writing. That's why I texted you that. That's you and my mother. I'll take it. Everything you said was a lie, but I appreciate it. Later in a little bit, we have to start with the Blazers because you're a Blazers super fan.

I want to get a little Blazers talking. Okay, great. Everybody knows how much I like the Blazers. But we're going to do after that, we're going to do, I thought about this for upwards of seconds. We're going to put together our all entertainment team because we're sort of an NBA lull waiting for the playoffs to start.

And I thought, what could we do with Ian? And then I thought, he's in show business. I am. You are in show business. I'm the most show business person I know. I'm the most famous person who has ever been in the studio. Ever been on this show.

So we'll do the All Entertainment Team in a second. But first we have to talk about your Blazers. How do you feel about them now? As I look at the NBA standings, they are solid fourth place, which would mean that they'd have home court advantage in the first round, which is good because they're much better at home than they are on the road. They're 28 and 9 at home. They're 17 and 18 away from their arena.

Although if you look at the fifth seed, we do pretty good in their arena too. So as we speak right now, this is why I'm glad you brought this up. You are going to be hosting this show by the time we're done. That was a great transition. That was really good. As we speak right now, it would be. You versus Isaac. Blazers versus Clippers.

Oh, my God. Loser leaves town match. L.O.L. I don't know where Isaac would go. He's from L.A. He would go back to New York. You can go to Portland, Isaac. Yeah.

I mean, I think I would love it, I'm sure. It seems like a beautiful town. I like Seattle when I was there. We're not talking about Seattle. How do you guys feel about that matchup? No. Again, love the Blazers. Love everything about Portland.

The aesthetic, the whole bit. The Clippers, as people who listen to He-check know, is the team that if I were, any team that's not the Warriors and Rockets, the Clippers are the team I'd least want to face. You think so? They're playing great. They really are playing great.

And they got nothing to lose. And they're so grimy, yeah. They're so, like, who do you key on? Doc Rivers just got an extension. He's feeling himself. I mean, is Patrick Beverly and Danilla Galanari like this year's version of Drew Holiday and Anthony Davis? It's a weird thing.

Lou is killing it. Yeah. Oh, Lou's so good. Yeah. I mean, all of a sudden, Landry Shamit and Zubach and like, this is a nice fun team with interchangeable parts. they're super deep. They're a professional team.

I don't know who you'd key on. They are deep, but like when the bench gets a little bit shorter in the playoffs, you know, when all of a sudden you're playing seven, eight, nine guys instead of 10-11. This is how it works. I think then maybe the Blazers have an advantage. Also, if we have home court, honestly, I just hope they play the Clippers, because I haven't been able to go to a lot of Blazor games this year. And I love going to Staples Center.

You could just come here. You wouldn't even have to leave. I wouldn't have to leave at all. I wouldn't have to fly up to Portland. I could bring Isaac. This would be great. I could wear like a full Portland Trailblazers's uniform. I'm planning on getting the shorts.

And you get kicked out of Staples Center by me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just assumed that you would have that stuff already. I've never broken out of the game. But I'm ready to go full, like the warm-ups, the shorts, everything. Everybody knows you and Myers-Lennard, best friends for life. Great friends. So I just assumed that he would supply you with all this gear.

I wonder what his gear would look like on me. Like those shorts would be very, very long, I feel like. He is the most ripped-up NBA person I've ever seen. It's crazy what he looks like. Yeah. He's like an action figure. I feel like if he played in like the 70s, he would have been putting up Will Chamberlain numbers

just because nobody'd seen what he looked like before, you know? It's interesting that you mentioned the uniform thing where we've immediately veered off topic. But when I was watching the NCAA tournament this week, and did you watch any NCAA tournament? I watched a little bit of it, yeah. I watched the Duke game last night. The short short thing?

Yeah. Kind of coming back in the power. I love it. I like it too. If you're a grown man, shorts shouldn't go past your knee. Yeah. It's something I've read in both GQ and Esquire at the airport. Yeah.

Always at the airport. Yeah. You got to get it. I like showing a little leg. You're an amazing athlete. You got like fantastic thighs. Why not I like those shorts up a little bit? Show a little late.

Isaac, where are you on short shorts for NBA players or even college players? I think if you're a phenomenal athlete, you're allowed to show however much of your leg as you want. If you're not an NBA athlete, you know, keep it out of moderate amount. I disagree. I think everybody should go the shortest shorts possible.

I'm talking, I want like Rocky and Apollo running down the beach. John Stockton. ass shorts. I always liked it. Celebrating in the surf. I think if it ends up as Blazers and Clippers, you got to both do the short shorts. You go together the game. You'll sit together. We'll get your seats. You can wear an old and Paulinez throwback.

Just full kit. That's good. That's good institution memory. I'll do like a, I'll do a darnel Valentine look. Is there any consternation for you with C.J. McCollum? Oh, like am I upset that he's heard or like worrying? Are you a little worried? I'm a little bit worried. Yeah. I mean, the last few games, it's been like Dame Lillard Unleashed, which has been.

been pretty crazy to watch. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'm a little worried. A little nervous. A little nervous. I mean, that knee injury, who did it keep out of? It's kept like Kevin Garnett out of a full run of playoffs before. Sure. That knee injury, but he was a little older. Yeah. He's a lot bigger. A lot bigger. Yeah. And, I mean, CJ, like, I guess that's what you hear about shooters.

If, like, one nagging injury is there, it can throw off their entire, like, the mechanics of their jump shot. And I'm a little bit worried about that with CJ. But even just having them out there in some aspect, just having the threat of CJ out there, even if he's not at 100%, I think that'll still be good enough to get us past the first round. You're very optimistic. I am very optimistic. I'm knocking on wood, though. It's a tough spot for me. It's like choosing between my

two favorite children here between you too, because I want good things for Isaac and the Clippers. I want good things for the Blazers, of course. I'm a little worried about what happens to the Blazers. Like, obviously last year, very disappointing playoff performance. Good news. No matter who you play, Anthony Davis won't be on that team. He won't be there. Won't be there. However,

I wonder what happens if they have another disappointing first round playoff performance. Like, is Terry Stott's the scapegoat? Does Neil O'Shea have to trade one of the two big pieces? Does he move Nirk around? Like, what happens with the Blazers if this isn't a good performance? And I think there's some people who would like some Blazers fans who would prefer that. But I fall in the other camp.

I'm somebody who just enjoys, I like going to the playoffs every year. I like getting like one, sometimes two rounds of the playoffs. So personally, I would hate if that happened. But I think it probably would. If they get knocked out in the first round again, something's going to happen. It's such an interesting perspective on fandom that you have. We've talked about this before because the Sixers forever in a day, especially in the aughts during like the Doug Collins era, like that group, they were just kind of like semi-relevant, mediocre middle. Like there was a year where they almost made the Eastern Conference finals.

I remember. I was talking to Thad Young about it when the Pacers were in town to play the Clippers they lost. But we were like, oh, remember that team like, like it had Spencer Hawes and Drew Holiday and Igwadala and Evan Turner. They were like, they were a good competent. They were almost kind of like the Clippers are now. where they were like good and relevant. You didn't want to play them, but they probably had a ceiling that was lower than it should be.

They had a lower ceiling, but like there were no bad players, right? Yeah, they were just good. And that kind of got boring to me after a while, but the Blazers have essentially been that for as long as I can remember. They've been, I mean, some bad players on the Blazers. Yeah, but they've been like recklessly competent for like almost my entire life

as a Blazer fan. We've been in the lottery very few times. You had the Batum and the LMA era where it was like, it was a fun group. Those teams were really fun. fun. Wesley Matthews was on those teams. Yeah. I don't know. They've had like really good personalities and there's something about the way the city just wraps its arms around the team and the team sometimes wraps its arms back that like, I don't know, in Philly where you have

like other teams that there's no arm wrapping. No, there's not a lot of arm wrapping and like, I'd prefer you didn't touch me. And battery throwing and booing. Of course, yes, yeah. But in Portland, I don't know, maybe it's because it's the only show in town, but like I've just been like, great. You know, these guys seem like good dudes and it's fun to watch them in a round the two of the playoffs. But I think I'm alone in that. I don't know. Paul Allen passing and like the questionable ownership situation does like, if it is time to fire Olshea, who's making that decision?

You are a famous person as we've established. You have multiple jobs. Right. Super rich and successful. And you have your start, you're about to get a starter yacht. I'm working on my first yacht. So maybe you allocate some of those funds. You buy the team.

My money's all tied up in gummy beers right now. I'm not liquid. That's the problem. You need to diversify your portfolio. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some gummy worms, a yacht, and a team. Soda bottles, a yacht, yeah, and I'm looking, I'll try to buy the blazers within the next 20 years. Before we move on to all entertainment team, between the two of you, you forgot about it already.

Between the two of you, should we have a little wagers? There's going to be a wager if you guys play each other? Yes, absolutely. And what should we bet? Maybe a dinner at this wonderful restaurant that you're talking about. I think we have to go to Spoon by H wearing jerseys of whichever team wins the first round series. Oh, that's good. That's good.

And then whoever wins. I know whoever loses will pick up the check. Whoever loses picks up the check. Yeah. And the good part is I am not involved in either of this. So you'll just pay, either one of you will pick up the check for me. You come along, but you do have to wear the jerseys.

I'll wear the jerseys, but I want the free meal. And this is a no undershirt jersey situation. This is arms out. Oh, I take this. Yeah. All right. So we're an agreement on this. No undershirt jersey.

Yeah. Pick up the check. Pick up the check. Isaac, you're on board. Yeah, here's our audio handshake right here. All right. Isaac makes a lot of money, too. Yeah.

The ringer pays him big bucks. He's pockets over there. It's going to be excellent. He's actually part of the team of investors I'm putting together to buy the trailblazers. It's him. Minority owner. Kerry Brownstein, me, and Art Alexakis from Everclear. I think you're there.

I think you're there. I mean, I think you're already the top bid. I think Portugal the man puts out one more big single. They could probably scoop up the blazers pretty easy. This is fantastic. All right. Let's do the all entertainment team. Let's do it.

Talking about this. This is a theme that I write about a lot for the ringer. There are some people like, Zach Cram and Charks and Kevin O'Connor, who really get super into the numbers. Right. They don't have a conversational writing style. They are very smart and understand numbers.

I am aware that numbers exist. I try to pepper them throughout my pieces, but mostly I see the NBA as entertain me. Yeah. Right? I'm the exact same way. I watch the games. I watch the games,

but I like the whole world. I like all of the things that are involved, including the basketball, but the things that are swirling around it. The extended NBA cinematic universe. Yes, please. Yeah. So let's put together our all entertainment team, and we'll do it as a collaboration.

Beautiful. It could be anything. I don't even know if we'll feel the full team or if it'll just be fans. Yeah. We should go 15 deep with a D-League, too. Exactly. And we have a lot of G-League guys that we want to get onto the team. Oh, G-League, my bad, my bad.

It's been updated, but it's the same. You start, you're the guest. You pick somebody first for our all-entertainment team from this season. All right. Well, for an all-un Entertainment team, you need a coach. And I think there's only one coach in all of NBA who's qualified to have the all-ent entertainment team. It's maybe the funny. man in the NBA, coach Greg Popovich.

You know what? This is a good point. He is the funniest man, because some people get a little upset about his style. I fucking love it. I love it too. I don't have to interview him, you know? Also, I feel like at this point, I feel like there's a chunk maybe in the like mid to early 2000s where like maybe he meant it and he was kind of being a prick a little bit.

But now anymore, it's like, I think he's in on the joke. I think he's fully in on the joke. He plays with it. I mean, going all the way back to like the hack of shack in that first game back after the finals. that one year, that's hilarious. He clearly has a great sense of humor. He seems like he'd be fun to get a bottle of wine with, maybe two bottles of wine.

He would have at least two bottles of wine. He'd come to spoon by H with us, no problem, I think. He would also go without the undershirt on his jersey? I feel like he would. Also, all those weird CIA stories he probably has in his back pocket. He's a really fascinating human being. He's a fascinating person. I do have to interview him.

I have found that if you are asking something thoughtful, he'll give you a thoughtful answer. However, I have been party to many different interviews where somebody's asked a question and I go, oh no. Even before he answers. You're about to get popped.

Most recently, when they came to play the Los Angeles Lakers and the Lakers beat them, this was like, you know, mid-season or something. And LeBron just went nuts in the fourth quarter.

Right. And he said something like, this poor kid, he was like, I think it was like a super young reporter guy and he goes, hey, you know,

what happened there with LeBron in the fourth quarter? And his response was, have you seen LeBron? Do you know who LeBron was? And he, like, cut the interview off and went into the locker room. And then he came out.

And he started recreating the question and answer where he was doing, like, a one-man routine. It was fantastic. Even that is hilarious. I feel bad for the guy. He was making fun of the guy to the guy afterwards doing his bet. Greg Popovich is, like, one of those restaurants you go to with a service or root on purpose. And you just kind of had to enjoy it, you know? But it's the best hot talk in town.

You go and you want him to heckle you. Yeah, right? That's a right of passage. Exactly, yeah. When you see that happen, do you, is there like a vicarious enjoyment for you? A little bit, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think for anybody, right? I mean, me as a comedian, maybe, but just watching it happen.

Or just like, I don't know, his entire existence, even when he is being like a jerk to someone, there's always like this little grin right behind the surface of it where like I would want him to roast me, you know? I would love to go ask a stupid question and have a dog on me for half a while. We need an Ian Carmel roast by Greg Popovich. Hosted by Greg Popovich. We're going to make that happen. I love it. We can have it on my yacht.

Which one? All right. Let's start with, this is a guy I've written about the entire season. I can't get away from him. And normally, I would not wish good things for him because he plays for a team that I do not enjoy. Sure, sure. But I love what he's doing to this team, not so much for this team. Okay.

That's one, Kyrie Irving. Oh, yeah. He's got to be on our All Entertainment team. He's been doing it all season. Like he said, he had a commercial at the beginning of the season where he wanted to have his number retired, right? Like, I hope one day, my number will be in the rafters. Shortly afterwards, he followed that up by, I don't know if I'm going to stick around. Ask me on July 1.

Yeah, ask me at the end of the season. I don't know anybody should. He made a call to LeBron, pining away for LeBron. He called, hey, you up? There was a video at All-Star game where it was him and- him coming around the tunnel? And we were Zeprooting it. Yeah. Did he just say that there could be two max slots? Most recently, he was trying to coach them up before the San Antonio Spurs game.

Yeah. Talk to young guys, hey, you can. can do this, blah, blah, blah. They didn't listen at all. No. Got blown out by the Spurs. And then on top of this, I'm going to show you this. It's a podcast, so this is going to go over great for everybody listening.

He put something up that was like on his Instagram that had like the all-seeing eye. Oh, yeah. And it looks a little bit like some Stone Mason shit. And he says, I'm most grateful for my time capsule on this motherly earth. Did you see this? No, I didn't see that. Oh, my God. He's the zodiac.

Yeah. Wow. Rest easy, Ted Cruz. it's now Kyrie Irving. Weaving spiders internot here. What is that thing that the... Is that not incredible? That's crazy.

So he just posted this. I have no idea what any of that shit means. It's in the middle of the Star of David, so I'm in. I think what he's saying is the team he's signing with next is the Jews, and we'd love to have him. We would love to have Kyrie Irving. He's going to have to change his name from Kyrie Irving to Erving Schlossberg or something like that. It's going to go great. But he can keep the Irving.

He's halfway there. Yeah. He's halfway there already. This guy has single-handedly torpedoed the Celtics. Simmons, who bless his heart, the checks keep clearing, although who knows this might be my last he check, as Isaac would say, don't get fired, has said repeatedly that he thinks he probably would want him to go. It might be addition by subtraction. It could be a Ewing theory thing. I hear a lot of that. I want them to resign him. And I want him to, now I do want him to be a Celtic for life.

I do too. Oh, yeah. I want that jersey up in the rafters. Come up there. Even if it's like in the hall of mistaken jersey retirements or whatever. But like he just keeps creating content. All season long, it's been content, content, content. It's incredible. There's been ups and downs. You know, it's like there's been a strong act two where everything got really dark.

Yeah. And then there was the plane ride. They had the plane ride that was supposed to fix everything. And then it got dark again. They got to get back on the plane. They got to get back on the plane. They need another long road trip. But he is amazing.

I mean, from flat earth all the way up until his little, like, plane ride that fixed everything. I think I know your sensibility here. Yeah. I love that flat earth shit. I love the Stone Mace and shit. There are people at the ringer. It drives them fucking insane.

I see people tweeting about it every now. I've even seen people say it's like irresponsible for him to push that. Like Chris Ryan is not here for it. And I'm like, I want all of it. I love it. Oh, I hope he comes out saying dinosaurs exist still next. And that Boban Marvajanovich is one of them or something like that. I want all that craziest stuff.

I'm not trying to get my science facts from a point guard on the Celtics. Yeah. I want the opposite. I think it's hilarious. The more wild shit that he can. get into the better. Kyrie, thank you for everything for your service.

I wish Steph Curry never would have walked his take back on. Yeah, let it out there. Give me somebody else for our all entertainment team. All right, for our all entertainment team, I'm, uh, okay, I'm going to take somebody who is entertaining when he's on the court, but has no choice but to focus on entertainment now that the Lakers aren't making the playoffs. You are very excited about this.

Taking LeBron James. Oh, I love it. On the all entertainment team. Of course, on the basketball court, amazing. Still, every now and then, you know, got the springs. He can go for a big dunk, make a super athletic move, but, uh, just... Watching the Lakers fall apart like this. Yeah.

Has warmed my Portland Trailblazer loving heart so much. I believe it was the ringer account that when they were officially eliminated from the playoffs, we sent something out. And I saw one of the very first replies was one Ian Carmel. Yep. And it was just basically that in Tweet for him. You're just laughing a bunch. And then you said, yeah, but seriously, you hate to see that or whatever.

Yeah, I hate to see it. It's unfortunate. I mean, I do hate to not have LeBron James in the playoffs. He's an amazing basketball player. Listen, this season of the Lakers has been like watching a great episode of Kirby enthusiasm. You cringe all the way through it, but at the end, you're very satisfied. Are you surprised?

I'm super surprised. Where did you have them before the season? No, I tweeted. I thought they were probably going to make the playoffs, but I thought it was going to be like a six, seven, eight. Okay. And I also thought like the team was purposely constructed so that they weren't a serious contender. One of my favorite moments of the season happened before the season when we were

at Media Day and Magic Johnson was talking about. the roster construction, the rest of us were like you. I'm like, I thought that they were still going to be good because my whole, the only math equation that I've ever needed was LeBron James equals playoffs. Right, exactly. Plus whoever equals playoffs, doesn't matter. But so we're sitting there and Magic Johnson's like, we constructed this roster, me and Rob Polenko, based on what we saw in the playoffs?

And I'm like, what playoffs were you watching the EuroLeaks playoffs? Right, exactly. Were they like the 1988 with Adidasthorpe dialed up on like the VHS? None of these dudes can shoot. No. Who did you put on this team? You got Rondo, you got Beasley, you got Lance. It's crazy. You brought in Jabel McGee.

To be fair to the lake, there were a lot of injuries. Of course. LeBron missed 20, Lonzo, Ingram, and all that stuff. But even if everybody had been healthy the whole season, I'm not sure. Also, everybody's saying, oh, LeBron, you know, he missed 20 games and that's why they missed the playoffs. He's 34. He's got a lot of miles on him. A lot of miles on him.

Like, him missing a lot of games is that's going to be part and parcel of the whole LeBron James' experience from here on out, I think. So it's not really a great excuse either. But, like you said, this is the All-Enertainment team. And now he's got a zillion things going on. Oh, that production company can really kick into high gear. So in addition to the shop and uninterrupted his podcast, I'm giving him like a free advertisement on the Ringer podcasting.

Listen to all the ringer podcast first and then all-fancy everything. He's doing Space Jam too. The thing I'm kind of interested in, though, because I've been watching the Instantobloyalty tournament, and they've been fucking bombarding us. What is that Miles show hosted by Tim Tebow? I don't know. It's crazy.

We have to get together and watch that. Yeah, watch parties, absolutely. I'm fully in on it. What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? I don't know.

I guess it's kind of like a ninja warrior, but not. It's a ninja warrior. It looks like you have to run a mile through a ninja warrior course. That sounds hard. Wow, an athlete is chasing you? Tim Tebow is chasing you. Yeah. Yeah.

What if it's Vince Wilfork, though? Depends on you right. It's just kind of easy. Well, if he catches you, though, and you're fucked. Then you're completely fucked. You don't want that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But so good luck with LeBron and his entertainment endeavors. Absolutely.

That's great. He's got more, like, shows and movies and development than people who are, like, just producers. Yeah, and he plays basketball on the side. And he played basketball. But a couple weeks ago or a month ago, whatever it was, he goes, you know what, you really got to focus and ask yourself, is basketball the most important thing to you? Because if not, why are you doing this? Yeah. Meanwhile, I was like, I got to go.

Space Jam 2 call time? I got to get out of here. By the way, I got to go to look at stuff. for Lola Bunny's outfit. Yeah. So, shout to LeBron. All right. Another person for our,

we've got two players of coach. Yeah. For entertainment, right? You got to, you have the people who are doing the entertaining, the entertainers, the people like me

who are being entertained. So I would say that we need somebody to be entertained. We need a fan. Sure, sure. So I'm going to add a fan to our team.

Oh, great. And I've been thinking about this a lot because as a Philadelphia and you don't get a lot of famous people. No, no. Yeah.

Like Will Smith is from there, but Will Smith doesn't really go back much anymore. Will Smith is from Mars, I think. Sure, sure. But he would like pop in sometimes. He doesn't really pop in anymore.

Mnight Shyamalan for a while. Sure, right. Before Meek went away and Meek was with Nikki, Meek and Nicky would set court side. That was fun. I remember that. And our announcer, Mark Zumovka,

used to get very excited when Nicky would show up. Oh, yeah. He'd be like super thirsty. Just because he's a big fan of the music, right? Loves the music. He's always listening to music. But I'm going to go with our current super fan. Okay.

Kendall Jenner. Oh, yeah. Who sits courtside. They have her and Ben Simmons are together. They call them Bendell. And according to Lindsay Zolads, who wrote the most and best investigative piece in Ringer history. Yes. She went back and looked at this.

Apparently the Sixers, and this might be updated if they played more recently. But apparently when she's in the arena, they're 15 and three. That's crazy. She should be up for sixth man of the year. They should put her on the plane. They should bring her with. Yes. She goes on the road.

There's no excuse to not have her at every game. Is she the billionaire or is that? Kylie. I'm not good with them. It's Kylie. It is Kylie. Kyle is the billionaire. Yeah.

So Kendall, you know. She probably needs to work. And they're definitely different, right? They're definitely, we're sure about that. They're two separate human beings. Yes. Yeah. Recently, whichever one is the billionaire, I remember I got a push alert.

Yeah. And it was the youngest ever self-made. And I'm doing the quote thing. Self-made billionaire. We're using that loosely. Self-made. Yeah. You've got to get them in the investment group for the yacht and the team.

They should buy the team. Wow, if the Jenner's bought the Blazers, I'd be very into that. How soon do you know them? I'm great friends with the Jenners. Chloe Kardashian, when I used to be on Chelsea lately, Chloe Kardashian hosted a couple episodes. Chloe Kardashian is funny. Yeah?

Oh, yeah, she'd come into the morning meetings and, like, talk a bunch of bullshit for like an hour and then take off. It was amazing. She was like hilarious. And then she showed back up and host the show and do a good job. Chloe Kardashian sincerely entertaining. We've got to, I need you to circulate them into our world. But as fans go.

for Philadelphia, as you mentioned, I mean, most of us are just, they give us a battery, we're throwing batteries, right? Who are we in the stands? Tass the sandwiches of people? Of course, yeah, you eat part of it and you toss it. Right. You go to Denex, you get one to go. You know about the next.

This is good Philadelphia knowledge. I appreciate, do you know your audience? But for us to have a Kendall, not Kylie, who are two different people as we've established. Courtside, that's big for Philadelphia. That's wonderful. Great, great member of the team. So I'll take it. All right.

I'm going to put, I think we need a shooting guy. I'm going to go get Victor Oladipo and his amazing singing voice and his raunchy lyrics to his songs. I love you for this for multiple reasons. One, just an inspired pick. Oh, yeah. Two, we talked about this at length on this program and also I went on NBA desktop to break down the lyrics. I had since forgotten about it. Yeah.

Listen, the heat check listeners. If you have not heard this. Oh, man. It is just eight or ten tracks of straight up Victor Oladipo being the third. to the weirdestiest hornyest motherfucker on the planet. Straight up thirst. And not subtle. No.

There's very little poetry to it. No. He attacks the lyrics like he gets to the rim. It's reckless. It's physical. It's downhill. We won't repeat any of the lyrics on here, but do yourself a favor and go look him up.

Also, beautiful singing voice. How many gifts should one man have? Pretty good, actually. I would have perhaps counseled him about, like, tweaking something. He could have used an editor. As a writer. Definitely could have used it. I will tell you that a good editor is worth his weight in gold.

somebody who can save you from yourself. I don't think anybody looked at this thing before it went up. I think this was Victor Oladipo Productions presents Victor Oladipo singing Victor Oladipo's hits. He did the auto tunes in his basement and he put that shit out. It is really good though. He can sing, he can play basketball. He's the Isaac Lee of the NBA. He's amazing.

Isaac, as our resident, heat check musician and singer, you have multiple platinum songs out, including Selva Team and the Lucas song. Of course. What did you make of Victor Lollipo? Oladipo's turn as a musician. Oh, I love his voice. He has a great voice. I do think he was a little too, what's the word,

upfront about his dehydration. I think he should have requested hydration a different way, maybe a little more subtle manner. Can we please get, and I think I speak for everybody here, even if I may be so bold, can we please get a Victor Oladipo ice-to-ice crossover collaboration? Oh, that has to happen this summer. Listen, I'm down to.

for it if Vic is Tommy Alter, one of our guys here at the ringer. It's good friends with Vic. So, you know, what's going on, Tommy? I'm calling you out. Let's make it happen. All right, so I love that. I love Victorola Depot.

I feel like we need like an owner here. Oh, yeah. Right? You got to have an owner. It would be you. You haven't bought the team quite yet. Thank you. I'm not in the game quite yet.

But I would pick you. I'm still selling off. I told my broker to sell off some of these gummy bear assets, so we're in motion. You're going to get a lot for it. I'm excited about it. I got to go to New York.

Oh, yeah. I got to go to James Dolan, who is in the entertainment business. Sure. He's an accomplished musician in his own, right? Straight shot, and also one of the more thick-skinned owners, right? Like, doesn't let much stuff get to him. Speaking of self-made billionaires. Self-made billionaire, hasn't tried to kick out basically all of New York from both his Knicks games and his performances.

And his concert. The JD and the Straight Shots. That really hurts. Not being able to see a Nick game, whatever, but not being able to see J.D. in the straight shot. We should go to that as well. I would love to. As a performer in your own right, you have, I'm sure, been heckles.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You still want people to be at your shows and listen to you, give your performances. Could you imagine stopping and being like, you know what, maybe you should go. You leave forever. You get out, you get out and don't come back. You roast him back a little bit, you know, yeah.

Maybe you coach him up a little bit. You turn it. I would love, if James Dolan is listening to this, and I'm sure he is. This is a big fan. Billionaires, respect billionaires. I would love to come over. We'll do like an MTV made.

I want to be a stand-of-com comedian. Me and James Dolan. And I'll teach him how to take heckling. Also, you were in New York, right? It's the heckling capital of the world. Fucking heckling capital of the world. Where else would you... People are shouting each other all the time.

I get off at the train station. I'm just like, well, I'm probably going to get heckled by some rando. That's right. Go back to Philly. All right. That's a good point. I understand where I am. I'm not to pronounce water.

Right. I love James Dolan in the same way that I love Kyrie Irving. Right, exactly. Same way. Wouldn't want to be friends with him? Pure entertainment. I might want to be friends with Kyrie,

but definitely wouldn't want to work with James Dolan. But I'm excited that he owns the Knicks and I hope he never sells. I saw, just real quick, when I worked for Chelsea Handler again, her manager was Irving Azoff, who is friends of James Dolan. I think they own the forum together

or something like that. So the Eagles were getting back together to play a concert for the reopening of the LA Forum. And there was like a invite only. There were big tables. And Chelsea bought one of the tables. It was to raise money for a cancer charity.

And we all went to it, a bunch of the writers. And we sat there. And Irving and I think, and James Dolan spoke a little bit. It was really nice. And then Joan Baez went up and sang three songs. It was a beautiful. I bet. Joan Baez still got it.

Amazing pipes saying, what are that song? Diamonds and Rust. I'm sure I'm fucking that up. But anyway, amazing. Joan Baez went up, and then we were sitting there like, surely the Eagles are next. Yeah. Because this is the Eagles concert. Joan Baez just saying, who would go up between Joan Baez and the Eagles?

Jady and the straight shot. Shut the fuck up. They went up and played like 10 songs while James Dolan stood up there with his hands in his pockets the entire time singing with like a pretty good band behind him. But like him, and they did like 10 songs. And then the Eagles went up and did like five songs. I think I would rather see Jady in the straight shots than the Eagles. I think I would have been like, ah, the Eagles, fuck the Eagles. Yeah, I mean, I'm no huge Eagles fan, but the gall to be like, all right, Joan Baez goes up, and then me.

And then the Eagles, of course. Yeah. What a maniac. Balls. It was crazy. James Dolan. They played more songs than the Eagles and Joan Baez combined. It's really amazing.

The stones on that, dude, bless us hard, stay with that team forever. I know that you have to go. I wanted to run one more quick thing past you. Just as I would like to add a social media team to our team. Oh, yeah. To our team, because we've got like two players and just like a whole front office structure, and then a fan. So nobody's actually playing on our team. I wanted to add the Orlando Magic social media team for sending out a tweet on behalf of Markell Fultz.

Last year they sent out, congrats to Shelvin Mack for leading us in assists. I remember. And it was like 2.8 assists for a game. It was amazing. This year, they sent out a tweet on behalf of Markell Fultz. It said the Markel Foltz effect. Yeah. And then it had him in a magic uniform.

Along with the quote, I'm just glad to be here to be able to support. support these guys as we push for the playoffs. Wow. Fucking amazing. Magic, social media team. Welcome to the All Entertainment Heechek team. They're like the Harmony Corrin of Twitter. It's like heartbreaking.

It's incredible. Poor Markell Fultz is just like, yay. Yay. Oh, he's become a mascot. Even in Orlando. Yeah, it's really tough. Getting Magic Shade. Shout out to the Trailblazers social media team.

They're very good. They actually are very good. They're the reverse of the Orlando Magic. He's the head writer of the late late show with James Corden. He's the host of All Fantasy. Everything. a stand-up special on Netflix. He's everywhere.

He's also, if I may be so bold. Please. Handsome, smart, rich, funny. Absolutely. If I may say, this was a terrible day for your enemies. This was yet another terrible day for enemies. It's Ian Carmel. Shut out, Mike Balloy.

Ian, we love you, buddy. I love you. Thank you so much for having me on. All right, thanks to Ian Carmel for joining us before we bring in Chris Almeida. We want to tell you about the NBA watch of the night. Sixers at the Magic on NBA TV. As we mentioned, the magic social media team sent that thing out about Fultz. This is basically Fultz's revenge.

He's going to root them to victory tonight, Isaac. Yeah, just playing from the bench or something like that. He's going to cheer so hard. No one has ever cheered harder. And really, like, that's what you need from a guy who the Sixers spent two first-round draft picks on. You want him to be on the bench in Orlando just rooting real hard at this point of the season. So I think that that's a success for everybody. He's here to do two things.

He's going to kick ass and cheer. and he's all out of asses to kick. It's the Markle Faults effect. Be sure to check out the Sixers at the Magic on NBA TV, followed by the Nets and Ian Carmel's Blazers on NBA TV, big double header. Remember, gang, if you want to watch every NBA game,

subscribe to NBA League Pass on NBA.com or from your preferred video provider. Before we get to Chris Almeda, a quick word from our sponsors. Today's episode of Hewcheck is brought to you by ADT, Real Protection. When it comes to something as important as your family's safety,

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And now let's bring in Chris Almeida. All right, joining us on the other line for the first time ever. I'm very excited to have him an editorial assistant. Chris Almeida is here. What's up, Chris? Hey, happy to be here. This is exciting. The last time I saw you, we were both in Washington, D.C. You are a wizard super fan. You were one of several. We actually have an unusual proportion of Wizards fans between you and House and Quack.

And you were not excited about the way that the Wizards played last year. No, not really. Yeah, all of our Wizards fans seem to be in the New York office. We all sit in one room and kind of rile each other up. It's for the best. We keep you guys cordoned off. We're just going to send house up there and he'll be in the office with you. Oh, that'll make things a bit louder.

So you were not thrilled with the way they played last year. You were clearly not thrilled with the way that they're playing this year. But you're muddling throw. Yeah, I guess so. You know, I've gotten used to it at this point. I was kind of early as far as Wizards fans go on the This Isn't Working train. And so I guess I haven't been too disappointed with last season or this season, really. I'm more focused on where the team is trying to.

go and I don't think they know. Yeah, which is par for the Wizards and I really enjoy it in the same way that I enjoy when Boston fails. So Godspeed to Washington, to you and to all of our Wizards fans. You wear a lot of hats here at the ringer.com. You edited Dan Devine's piece breaking down the coach of the year race. So I wanted to get into that with you because I also similarly just wrote about Doc Rivers, about how he signed an extension unbeknownst to a lot of people with the clippers that took away his out clause. Doc Rivers, not just with the clippers, but thriving with the clippers. And so I just wanted to talk about the coach of the year race with you. I assume that you think Scott Brooks should win it, but we'll just put him off to the side. Yeah. Scott Brooks is having a killer season.

But let's go through the different candidates and you start off and walk me through who we think will be in this race. And then at the end, you and I'll discuss who we think should win. So yeah, obviously Dan's piece led off with Doc. And I guess we have to talk about him, not just to cozy up to Isaac, but there's a case to be made there, certainly after the Clippers have succeeded a lot more than we would think. This is absolutely a successful season for them. Like, I wrote up in my piece, depending on the forecast that you liked, 538 and ESPN had them around 33, 35 wins.

Neither of them forecast that they make the playoffs. I for sure as hell didn't think that Doc Rivers would still be around right now, let alone have them in the five seed about to challenge the Blazers. Like, they are for sure having a good season. Yeah, they're really in the thick of it. Even after offloading, you know, their best player in the middle of the season, they've really kind of just seemed to go here to get behind Doc system. And I got to admit, I wasn't very high on Doc any time in really the last few years.

I thought, oh, like, he in Boston was blessed with a lot of talent, and he had a good roster there. And that can explain a lot of his success. And especially after the Lobb City area didn't quite work out, I thought that this would be the end of him, at least in the Clippers organization, after he got stripped of his managerial duties. But, you know, they've been really impressive this year. And I'm sure that, like, now they have the assets to kind of improve moving forward.

So he's certainly a contender in this race. He wouldn't be my pick. But he's up there, yeah. Right now they are 44 and 30 as we record this. They've moved just ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Jazz, San Antonio Spurs into that fifth seat. You mentioned the personnel. I thought that that was going to spell curtains for him because the knock on Doc for a long, long time,

whenever you would talk to people around the league, you mentioned Boston and then like the Lob City era. He always had super high top end talent, right? And as a result of that, those were teams that were trying to win right now. And they weren't really focused on later. So the knock against Doc was, oh, Doc doesn't want to develop the young guys. He doesn't want to play any young guys.

He's not interested in that. It was sort of a chicken or the egg scenario. Was it because of the guys that he had? like he always had a big three or big four. So why would he play them? Or was he just like not interested in it? And so when they started into this transition period, people expected, oh, well, this is not for Doc.

This is not what he does. And somewhere along the way, after they stripped him of his title, like I thought that that was going to be an insult too far. But somewhere along the way, he just started coaching. And he's been really good at dealing with all these interchangeable young guys. And like, kudos to Doc, kudos to the clippers. Somehow this works. It works.

Yeah, maybe this is what you need it all along just to get Austin out of there, then get the stars out of there. Free from all your constraints. Bless his heart. Bless his heart. All right, give me another candidate. Who else is on our list? Coach Bud would be the next guy we need to talk about.

The Bucks are the best team in the NBA, at least by record. They look like the favorite to win the East, perhaps. I don't know, with the slew of recent injuries, I guess we'll see how well they fare, especially in the seven-game series. We'll see how quickly Brogden gets healthy again. Yeah, that's a killer. Yeah.

But the way that he's built that system around Janus, I mean, you talk about the other big teams in the East, or at least Boston and Philadelphia, being teams that have too much talent and they don't quite know how to work with it. And I think that what you see when you look at the Bucks is they know exactly how to work with what they have. So that's what you saw with Buzz.

a few years ago when Atlanta had that 60-win season. You know, you had a great system. Everyone knew how to play within it, and that worked until you got to the playoffs where if you don't have a really great player, it's probably not going to work out for you. Now he is a really great player. So I feel a lot better about how this is all going to go moving forward. But certainly in the regular season, what he's done looks incredible. Yeah, I mean, as you mentioned, best record in the NBA,

best defensive rating in the NBA, best net rating in the NBA. I think it's really not to oversimplify this, but the idea of, okay, we've got this superstar and Yanis, how can we optimize what he does well? He does a lot of things well. He does basically everything well,

but shoot from the outside. So what should we do? Oh, you know, it's fairly simple. Let's just surround him with a bunch of shooters. It's not obviously that simple, but for Bud to bring in a system that amplifies everything

and complements everything that Janus does well is fantastic. I mean, this is the Bucks team that was promised forever. We thought, like, oh, what would happen if they, like, surrounded Janus with some really good guys. Turns out they already had a lot of good guys in Chris Middleton. I'm not huge on Malcolm Browden, but he's more useful than I give him credit for for sure. Eric Pledso is having a comeback season. Fucking Brooke Lopez, like, which the Lakers would.

You can shoot the three now, yeah. Can shoot the three. I mean, it's been a really fun year for them. So kudos to Bud, kudos to the bucks. All right, next one on our list. Nate McMillan and the Pacers. Yeah. So this isn't the sexiest pick, but.

It is not. It's a really interesting one because when you talk about, oh, it's easy to get somewhere when you have a superstar, when you don't have a lot of egos to manage. Well, when you look at what he's done with Oladipo going down in the middle of the season and he really being, I think, on at least like a heart level, the driving force of the team when he goes down like that and then you're trying to keep the team moving forward with so many guys on. a contract year. You have eight Pacers going into free agency this season. So you would think, oh, the superstar goes down. You would think that the team would all think, oh, that's it for the season. Let's get our buckets. Let's get paid this offseason. They haven't had that problem at all. And I think that's got to go to the coach because it's hard to manage personalities. It's hard to manage individual interests. And, you know, while the Pacers, I don't think are going to be a major

player come the postseason, I think that what they've done with what they have is, tremendously impressive. Yeah, I think so too. I mean, when Depot went down, I thought for sure that that would be the end of them. And instead, they've been consistently in that three, four, five mix with the Sixers and the Celtics for seating in the Eastern Conference playoffs. As we record this, they're in the four seed. They're two and a half back of the Sixers. They're two up on the Celtics.

They look like they're headed for a first round matchup with the Celtics. And for them to do that with no discernible top player, like I saw them play the Clippers. And I've seen them play a bunch this year. And every time I watch them without Depot, I go, oh, who's going to be their best player tonight? night because you just don't know. And not for nothing. They got hit twice. Last year this happened to them.

It happened to them again this season where the NBA schedule makers absolutely fucked them at the end of the year with a really tough, long road trip as they go into the postseason. It didn't end up affecting them too much last season. This year, they're sort of struggling to get across the finish line. But for them to, like, overcome all of these hurdles, kudos to Nate and those guys. But you're right. Not quite the sexiest pick.

All right. What else we got? Mike Malone? Mike Malone. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, every time I look at the standings, I can't quite believe it. At the beginning of the season, when people were talking about the Nuggets as a contender, as like a team that was, you know, at least in a numerical sense displacing the Warriors,

I always thought that that would kind of pass, but they've really kept up the momentum going through the season. And Yokic is obviously a top-tier player. He's really come along. But I think that there's been a lot of injuries on that team, you know, Millsaps had timeout, Harris's had timeout, Will Barton's a timeout, Porter hasn't played at all. I think that a lot of this is a, again, a system thing. Yeah, it is. I mean, that's pretty big when you're beating all these teams out West that are stacked with talent

when you really have one major guy who's been healthy the whole year. And look, I love watching the Nuggets. I think Yokic has been a revelation. I love the system, as you mentioned, like on any given night, aside from Yokic, you could have any of those support cast guys just go off and you're like, wow, this team is super deep and they are. And I like the way they play in the whole bit. I'm less bullish on Mike Malone's candidacy than I would otherwise be for a team that's been this good and has been challenging the Warriors and the Western Conference all season long for the top seed. Because when I look at the rest of the Western Conference and the playoff picture, I think the Warriors and the Rockets are going to advance.

And I'd bet quite a bit of money on that. Certainly the Warriors, almost certainly the Rockets. with the rest of them, the other six playoff teams, toss them in a hat. Whoever advances, it wouldn't surprise me. And the nuggets, for whatever reason, are kind of one of those teams. Like, if the nuggets end up matched up with the spurs or the jazz

or the thunder or the clippers and they end up going down in the first round, would that surprise you? No, of course not. And I mean, this is kind of the quandary of the modern NBA. It's like you can see whatever happens during the regular season and you don't really believe. Yeah. I don't think there's any point where you ever believe

that any team besides the Warriors is going to the finals. And even when you had an Oklahoma City team, a 2016 Oklahoma City team or the Rockets more recently, you don't believe that they're actually going to beat the Warriors, even though they get damn close. But also, that team is always a clear second. And then there's a huge drop-off to what's next. And, yeah, I don't believe in any of the other teams that are next.

So I think it's hard to make the case. Yeah, I would like to make the case. I mean, the nuggets have been a lot of fun and they've been a good story, but I just wonder what happens in the past. All right, last one, who's our last guy? Popovich. Oh, you got, so we're not talking about Nick Nurse?

You're laughing at me. Let's do Popovich. We can talk about Nick Nurse. No, no, no, no, no, no. Just do the pop one. Got it. I mean, there were points during the season where I think a lot of people thought

the Spurs were going to miss the playoffs for the first time in 2000 years, but they've recollected themselves. And, I mean, there's been a lot of words spilled on how great of a coach Popovich is. So I don't think I have to remake the case there. He wouldn't be my pick this year

just because I think that you need to be a bit more successful than they've been. But I think it's impressive that they're still managing to stick around with a hodgepodge cast of whatever is left through the years. You know, you lose your best player and pick up a guy like DeMar de Rosen who's very much not a Popovich guy.

you know, he's a high usage, relatively low efficiency guy, and they still have managed to do pretty well. I think that is good for Pop. He's definitely not above any of those other guys we mentioned here, though. Yeah, yeah. This is sort of like head coaching emeritus nod here. We had mentioned when Ian Carmel was on earlier, we put it's okay because he's not going to win the coach of the year this year,

but he was the coach of the all entertainment heat check team. So that works out great for Pop. I think it's interesting, though, you're right because a lot of people wrote them off. And as Dan Devine is happy to do it every single turn and bust my balls about it, in December, I wrote a piece about how no cavalry was coming for the Spurs. And immediately they got really good and, like, thundered into the playoffs, and they're going to be in the playoffs again.

And Dan loves to bust my balls about the ring or curse. So congrats to the Spurs. Congrats to Pop. Another good season for them. They'll never die. It's really, I have no idea how a roster of Rudy Gay, Lamarcus Aldrich, and DeMar de Rosen makes the playoffs in the Western Conference, but it does, and then, you know, credit to pop. We'll also mention Nick Nurse, because if not Toronto fans will get very upset with me.

But I can't imagine that Toronto is going to end up with the head coach of the year, two years in a row. So Nick Nurse is just sort of like a dark horse candidate out there. Before I let you go, let us both pick our coaches of the year. You tell me, you go first. You're the guest. I like Bud. I think that's the easiest pick. I think you need to look at how successful the team's been, and they're the most successful

team. That's an easy one for me. I think he probably will win it. Maybe he even should win it. But I'm not going to do that because we don't do the easy thing here on Heechak. In the interest of domestic bliss, because as we say on Heechek, you got to know your audience. Isaac Lee, would you like to weigh in on who you think should be the coach of the year? I don't know about should, but I would love it if Doc River is actually one coach of the year just to reward the really shocking success of the Clippers. but I do think Bud deserves it. Although the case against Bud, I will say,

and I can't believe you guys didn't mention this, but the whole merit of Coach Bud is that he's not Joe Prunty. Is that he was better than Jason Kidd and Joe Prunty with the greatest player in the NBA right now. It is a very low bar to clear. I was looking at this day. I cannot believe Jason Kidd was coaching the Bucks last year. That feels like 15 years ago.

Coach the Bucks. Congratulations to the Bucs. You're in a much better spot now. Forget about deserve. I'm just declaring it. The heat check coach of the year, Doc Rivers, congratulations to the Clippers on an amazing season. Isaac Lee, you really live in your best life.

Chris Almeida, you're working on a piece about one Brad Beale, who was having a killer season. Bless his heart because it's the only bright spot for the otherwise dimly lit Washington Wizard. So be sure to check him out on the ringer.com later on this week. Chris, you are the best. Thanks for doing this. Thanks for having me.

All right, I want to thank Ian Carmel. I want to thank Chris Almeida, Isaac Lee, of course. Just want to thank all of you for listening. If you wouldn't mind, please rate and review us on iTunes and read all of our content on the ringer.com. And don't forget, you get the mismatch on Tuesday, group chat on Thursday, Quarter three on Friday. Isaac Lee and I will be back next week for Heat Check on Monday.

Thanks for listening, gang. Bye.