The Ringer NBA Show - The NBA Season Is Over, Yet the NBA Season Continues | Heat Check

Episode Date: June 17, 2019

The blockbuster Anthony Davis trade kicks off a sure-to-be-dramatic offseason (3:57) as the now-imminent NBA draft shifts into focus (46:56). Host: John Gonzalez Guests: Joe House, Jonathan Tjarks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of Heat Check is brought to you by Belvedere, part of a 600-year Polish vodka making tradition. Belvedere vodka is all-natural and made with 100% non-GMO, Polska Rai, and pristine water. Belvedere has championed Pulska rye vodka and superior natural ingredients since its inception and continues their mission with its new Belvedere single estate rye series. These award-winning vodka's Smigori Forest and Lake Bardazac are two distinct tasting vodas born from unique terror and expert craftsmanship. You know who did some good crafting? David Griffin in the AD trade. Nicely done by him, we're going to get into all of that and a lot more basketball from a surprisingly busy first offseason weekend in just a second. But just want to remind you to taste the difference and enjoy Belvedere's new single estate riveog because on the rocks or in a delicious cocktail today, Belvedere is a quality choice.

Drinking responsibly is to, and now a jam-packed heat check. Welcome to Heat Check. I'm your host, John Gonzalez, back in L.A., reunited. With my producer, Isaac, happy Father's Day to you as a father, right? You've got a bunch of kids, I'm sure. Yeah, I have a Chegildis Alexander's, my first son, my second son is Landry-Shammett. You've done an excellent job parenting them. I spent the weekend. I almost was in Toronto, had the Raptors not won, I would have been in Toronto.

Instead, I came back to the Los Angeles area where my father-in-law came in, my friend's father-in-laws came in. We did this thing called Dad Summit. Dad Summit. Yeah, trademark on that. So shouts to Chris Wessling from the Around the NFL podcast and his beautiful bride, Lakeisha Jackson, Wesleying for hosting Dad Summit. Basically, it's just a bunch of dads from around the country who put on Hawaiian shirts and talk sports and drink beer.

A lot of fun. It sounds like a good time, man. I mean, I would sign up for that right now. I'm not even a dad. Well, you are. You just outline them. I, next year, get a Hawaiian shirt for you, an SGA and Landry, and you bring your boys, and you could be folded into Dad Summit.

I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a lot of fun. we thank everybody for listening. Please rate and review us in all of our fantastic Ringer NBA shows and pods. My God, gang, how much content do we have on the ringer.com? We have all of the stuff from the actual season that just wrapped up. And then we have all of the stuff from the off season, which has completely gone bat shit already. We've got the AD trade.

KOC is all over it. Now that AD has come to Los Angeles, KOC says the Lakers are the present of the league, but the Pells are the future. We've got DJ Foster on how the Pells are planning to. give Zion everything Anthony Davis never had. Justin, Chris and Powell had the winners and losers from the blockbuster trade. We've got Jonathan Charks, who's going to have a LeBron and AD piece up there, just a lot of stuff.

Plus, we have all of this stuff from the NBA finals, if you're so inclined, I wrote a bunch of stories, KOC was on the road with me, Danny was in Toronto, Dan Devine wrote some stuff. You can find all of that on The Ringer.com. And of course, we've got the draft coverage coming up with Thursday's NBA draft looming. KOC, Danny, and Charks have a new updated post-AD mock draft. You don't want to miss that. And then on Thursday, we're going to have a live NBA draft show whereby KOC, Danny, and Charks will break down all of the picks.

And I will be your humble host. You're going to want to be on the lookout for that. Later in the show, as mentioned, Jonathan Charks will join us to talk about the NBA draft. But first, with so many other things to discuss, we've got AD, we've got the finals. We've got all the food I ate during the playoff. which is quite a lot of food, by the way. And for that, we need somebody versatile who can hit all those topics.

We haven't talked to him a while. I can't wait. Let's bring him in. Bochakalaka. He's heating up. All right, joining me on the other line from House of Carbs. He had a big weekend

with the U.S. Open and Fairway Rowland. It has been far, far too long. A happy Father's Day to one of our favorites. It's Joe House. What's happening, Juan, thank you for having me on. I just would like to say,

I would like to begin with this. It is so rare. It is so infarer. frequent, that I ever get anything in our conversations right, that I do want to pat myself on the back. I am going to wear out my right arm a little bit. Please. I know that I came on here over the course of the spring and the run up to the playoffs. We were trying to do some prognostication, anticipation, forecasting of how the NBA playoffs might play out. And I do believe on a couple of occasions that I share with you my enthusiasm for one,

Kawhi Leonard. And I'm happy to have seen myself get one right. Yeah. And by the way, congratulations to all of our friends in Toronto. They're having their parade today. It looks like everybody in Canada wants it. So that seems like a lot of fun. You want to do the finals component first or do you want to do Anthony Davis first? Anthony Davis is still like percolating, right? Let's do Anthony Davis. And then we'll work back to. the finals, which I just got back from the finals and spent a lot of time. I got some thoughts on the finals. And at the end, you and I are going to do a house of carbs, heat check, crossover collaboration, not our first. We did one on your show. Now we'll do one on this show. Can't wait.

It's going to be excellent. One of my favorite things. Food and hoops. What else is there to live for? Just golf. It's two of our favorites. But so we get back from the NBA finals, you know, we're all sort of talking about, man, you know, we're going to have a quiet weekend. It's going to be a quiet weekend for the basketball writers. And then boom, David Griffin, off the top rope decides to trade Anthony Davis to the Lakers. Lakers get Anthony Davis. The Pelicans get Brandon Ingram, Lanzobal, Josh Hart. And then the fourth overall pick on Thursday's NBA draft.

A first in 2020 one if it lands in the top eight. Otherwise, it rolls over to unprotected in 2022. A swap in 2023. And then another first round pick house in 2024 with the right to punt it to 2025 if they want. Rich Paul, clutch sports, get what they want for the Lakers and Anthony Davis. Who do you think won this trade? Which side do you like?

Do you like both sides? Do you have one side that you like better than the other? What are your thoughts here, macro level? Well, in terms of an assessment of how the sides did, I think it was an entirely fair trade. You get so few opportunities in the NBA to acquire a super, super, super, super duper star. Anthony Davis fits that qualification. He is a top five player in the league. We just watched what can happen for a franchise if you are able to, through sheer dumb luck,

acquire a top five player in the league, a player with genuine playoff credentials, genuine franchise altering credentials. One Kauai Leonard just showed us, reminded all of us of what is possible out there. You pair Anthony Davis and his particular skill set with LeBron James at this stage of career and what he needs. Anthony Davis is arguably the best player that LeBron's will have ever played with. I mean, the 2010, 2011, Dwayne Wade might have a little bit of an argument with that, but I think it's pretty unquestionably the best player he's ever played with. I mean, yes, Duane has had a Hall of Fame career and has been wonderful. And LeBron and Kyrie had a nice

moment there before they had their falling out. But yeah, I think Anthony Davis is pretty safely the best guy. So in where the Lakers ended up, after this this spring where you know it was really an incredible daytime soap opera drama that we all enjoyed and anything that you know i revel in these giant franchises just kicking themselves in their own nuts repeatedly the nicks the nicks and the lakers especially because there's just nothing going on here in washington that i can stick my teeth into um hoops wise so watching the lakers bicker and fall into widespread ridicule right up my alley. But look, this trade to me always felt inevitable.

I always thought from the way that February played out, this was going to happen. From the Lakers perspective, there's just no price that's too high to acquire Anthony Davis once you have LeBron. So, like you get Anthony Davis back. It's a high price in potential, but you have Anthony Davis, that basketball player is going to play basketball with LeBron James starting in October in Los Angeles. That's pretty effing good. He is, and I love Anthony Davis.

I have reservations about this. From the Pelican side, I'm not super overexcited about Brandon Ingram because I still don't know what he's 21 years old, but I still don't know what he really is going to be. And he's got these injury concerns and fine. Lonzo, the ball doesn't stick with him and he's a good pick and roll defender. And I like him fine. Josh Hart is less, I guess, like slightly less than fine. But what I really like about this for David Griffin and the Pelicans is that they control

the Lakers draft till 2025. And at the end, LeBron's going to be 40 years old. And who knows if he'll even still be with the team and how this could potentially go south for them. So it could really set up the Pelicans future for the foreseeable future. And I think it's good for them. For the Lakers, when you're talking about kicking themselves in the nuts, I just love that Rob Polinka, who is a guy who was like, had fallen out of favor, not just around

the league, but in the organization to the point where Magic Johnson was like, I got a GtFO. He's the guy that's pulling this off, which is very much a, well, fuck it. If it doesn't work, they're going to fire me anyway. And if it does work, you know, I'm the guy who, you know, saved this from the brink. But I also like, did you see Magic's tweets for all of this? So this goes down. And of course, Magic who left the organization so he could tweet, tweeted Laker Nation, you wanted the great genie bus to step up and bring a championship team back to L.A. And she's doing just that. I'm going to hold on to that one for a second, because I'm not entirely in agreement there. And then the next tweet was, great trade, Rob Polinka,

job well done. The same guy he went on TV and said had stabbed him in the back. And then Rob had said that Magic never showed up for work. The Lakers are completely dysfunctional. I know that he's a legend. I know that he's Magic Johnson. But if I'm Jeannie Boss, I'm not going, they went out to dinner and posted it on Instagram and all this shit. I'm like, listen, I don't want any part of magic for a while. Like, just don't come around for a while because you're killing me here. But the reason why I had problems with the bringing a championship team back to L.A. And take Slate umbrage with you being excited about the trade is, yes, you do have. Anthony Davis and you do have LeBron and they didn't have to put Coosman in the trade,

which apparently was a sticking point, which is hilarious. But the way this trade is ironed out because of league rules, depending on whether the paperwork is officially filed on July 6th or July 30th will go a long way into determining how much extra cap space the Lakers had to fill out the rest of their roster. And they also need AD to waive a $4 million trade kicker. These things don't look like it's going to happen because it looks like the Pelicans even one, the part of the trade where it's like, if they filed the paperwork earlier rather than later, they make the fourth pick more valuable, which long story short, because this is complicated shit. It looks like the Lakers could go from having as much as 32.5 million in cap if everything went right

in terms of the paperwork in AD, to much more likely having closer to 23.7 million. And that difference is the difference between getting a max level player or filling out your roster with multiple role players. So it's going to be the team building aspect here is going to be tougher the Lakers. It looks like they've got Kuzma and A.D. and LeBron and now a big shoulder shot. Well, the other aspect of that is not like the Lakers front office covered themselves in glory with who they assembled blast season to put around LeBron.

Now, they did start off pretty good, right? Like Rondo and Javail and, you know, that's sort of a veteran group surrounding. the Lakers were on a pace to win about 50 games through the first part of the season until LeBron got hurt. And then really the season ended at that moment for the Lakers, which is, you know, a testament to how fragile that whole thing was. But look, I think that LeBron and AD immediately make L.A. a palatable target for other big-time players who will be potentially willing to, sacrifice something to just be in Los Angeles playing with that team. One guy I don't think fits that category is Campbell Walker. He'd have to take a lot less. I mean, he's on the, he could sign, even though for some reason, reasons, suppressing understanding, he told the

Charlotte media, yeah, he'd take less to stay in Charlotte. And I'm like, no, no, no, man, you've got this reversed. You take all of it to stay in Charlotte or you take less to go somewhere else and maybe win. He can get a five-year Supermax for 221 if he stays put. If he goes on the road and decides to, you know, join forces with some other team, he might consider taking less, but the Lakers would require him taking a lot less. And I keep hearing names like Kempa and Kauai and, Jimmy Butler and all these guys.

These guys are going to be way out of the Lakers' price range if they don't free up that extra money, which again, it doesn't look like it's going to do because according to the Los Angeles Times, here's a quote from the Times, I believe it was Tanya's story. Although the Pelicans are open to working with the Lakers and delaying the trade,

it's unlikely that will happen, according to multiple people familiar with their thinking. New Orleans's priority is to make the fourth pick as attractive as possible to another team. So it looks like this isn't going to work out for the Lakers, which again, as you said, they did not cover themselves in glory. This is a team that put out Javelle McGee, Michael Beasley, Rajan Rondo, and Lance Stevenson,

and grossly overpaid for KCP. I don't have a huge ton of faith in Rob Polinka, but I do want to ask you because you're an odds guy and you're a numbers guy and gambler. The odds, not surprisingly, have gone to the Lakers favor. They are the favorites to win the NBA championship after getting AD. they are 7 to 2 favorites

the Lakers followed by the bucks at 7 to 1 the Rockets at 9 to 1 the Warriors at 10 to 1 Isaac Lee's Clippers at 10 to 1 The Raptors also defending champs 10 to 1 76ers at 12 to 1 Your Washington Wizards Bringing up the rear at 100 to 1

Oh, I thought you were going to say 10,000 to 1 That's about the right number Roughly that but do you buy the Lakers as the favorites Even though right now they've got like three guys on the roster Who knows who knows it's really? a ridiculous thing to be talking about odds to win the 2020 NBA championship. There are so many chips yet to fall. I don't know who's on any of these teams.

I think that's just, you know, that's a headline grabbing kind of thing where the books step in and like, let's get some free publicity here and set some odds that are just ridiculous on this news. Like, everybody's talk, we're talking about it now. So any kind of that free publicity for Las Vegas and the booksmakers, they, they don't miss that opportunity. But who the hell knows who the, who the favorite is to win the NBA championship? We can't seriously start having that conversation until we know who are on the rosters. Like the Rockets, who's going to be playing for Houston next year? I have no idea.

Who's playing for the Clippers next year? I have no idea. Ice, who's playing for the Clippers next year? I mean, I freaking hope that's Kauai Leonard. I know. That's it. That's right. But who knows. And, you know, maybe Kauai wants to come play with AD and, and LeBron. If that's the case, then sure that those Laker odds are going to go, they're going to be worse. They're going to be two to one remaining and they have to pay odds to get the, the Lakers as title favorites if Kauai goes there. But, I mean, it's, you know, this is not the time to be talking about the 2020 championship. Everything for every team is out there and available and hope runs eternal for all franchises except Washington.

Yeah, and I understand why you're saying that I just, my point of bringing it up was to say, I have concerns about who's going to pat out the rest of the roster and how they're going to pull that off, especially with an organization that has been dysfunctional. And I think that that's actually being charitable when you look at the way that the organization has been run. And we're going to say, okay, no, Rob Polinka, the guy who was last year sitting with Magic Johnson in that preseason press conference going, you know, the guys that we brought in and the ones that all that I just outlined, we brought them in because we looked at playoff basketball and we thought that's how the roster has to be constructed. I'm like, what league were you watching in the postseason?

Because none of these guys can shoot. I want to know, like, if you're going to go after like one guy at 23 million and just hope for the best, or if you're going to try to pat it out with like guys in the $10 million range and try to get some of those role player types. But they have a lot of work to do still, a lot of work. So the thing that we have to always remember is the role that Clutch is going to play in helping this team. come together. Like all of the clutch guys will be, we'll have open ears and open minds to coming to Los Angeles at prices that on the face of it may not seem like they're in their own best interests. And who knows what kind of deals are going on besides the deals, the compensation that

the players are actually going to receive. Like if Anthony Davis decides to waive that four million dollar trade kicker, do you think he'll make it back up? Do you think that he and LeBron will be able to come up with a way for Anthony Davis to get that $4 million back through the bronze billion dollar empire that's outside of the NBA? You know, I'm sure that's a collective bargaining agreement violation. But I bet A.D. finds that money if they're able to convince him that he ought to leave that alone.

And the same will be true. I think of other, like a lot of these role player kind of guys. I just can't imagine that he's going to pass up $4 million free dollars. I would be very, very surprised if he does that. But I do think that this whole thing. Do you think he can get it back? I mean, sure, but why would you?

get it back when you could just tack it on, right? Like you keep that $4 million and let's go get some more money while we're at it. I'd just be surprised if they did that. But I will say that like LeBron and Klach, you know, pulling the puppet strings and LeBron still being the GM is the same as always. So Bobby Marks from ESPN had a really interesting tweet where he had, LeBron teams have made 42 trades since 2010, which accounts for 11% of all NBA trades over that time.

And I'm here for it because thank you, LeBron. It's great for content for the ringer.com. We really appreciate it. As you know, I root for content. Well, how about this? It's also worth it. The guy went to the finals eight straight years. Like every franchise that he's on gets a run to the finals.

It's pretty good. L.A. is well positioned right now on June the 17th, 2019 to make it to the NBA finals as any other franchise. So accommodating LeBron has been a pretty good strategy for the teams that he's been on. Yeah. I want to see the bounce back and I want to see the rest of the team pat it out. But I do have high hopes for the pairing of those top two. But from the Pelicans perspective, and we had a story by DJ Foster on the ringer.com that I recommend that everybody read where it says that the Pelicans are giving Zion Williamson the future that Anthony Davis never had. I kind of like that idea. You've got Drew Lanzo Zion, Ingram, whatever you get out of the fourth pick, there have been stories about maybe they can flip the fourth pick for a plier. I know that some people are skeptical about that, but there are options here, whether or not they flip the fourth pick or they keep the fourth pick. And then now they've got this nice young core. Plus, they control the Lakers draft through 2025, which is incredible. I also like that. they inherit LeVar Ball who guaranteed that the Lakers will never win a championship because they traded

his son away. Do you like this deal for the Pelicans? Was it the smartest thing that they could have done or should they have looked around some more? Oh, I think it was an incredible deal for the Pelicans. David Griffin gets, you know, he already earned the entirety of his whole contract. And he held out. He had opportunities to go to other franchises after he left Cleveland. The Knicks tried to make a play for him. And he, he demanded, because he had the leverage, you know, total control over basketball operations. I think you could say safely that the Pelicans, in deciding to give him that runway, made a great call. And he's already outkick the coverage for whatever the deal is that he has, because the Pelicans are in the conversation now as potential,

they're not going to be just successful in the playoffs. This is like the process, but they skipped six steps of the process, right? All the assets that they have now, those are assets that you can flip into genuine, established, really accomplished basketball players for franchises, like, for instance, the Washington Wizards who are flat-footed and stuck with a superstar, well, maybe Beals on the brink of superstardom. He's a very, very good all-star who is in his prime and really ought not to be subjected to a rehab, a rehabilitation program starting from scratch, it would make more sense for him to go somewhere

and for the Wizards to get back a bunch of picks and be able to think about how to build a franchise from there. Those situations are occurring with a frequency over the last handful of years, especially as players grow disgruntled in their situations. This is why AD is leaving now. This is why Kyrie ended up in, Boston. This is why Kauai ended up in Toronto. If players now lose faith in a franchise that

employs them, they can go ahead and pretty much force their team to do something about it because all of the evidence we have of teams like sticking it out with guys is not good. I mean, the Pelicans fell apart after February and it grew to the point where they couldn't play AD because they needed to protect the asset. Cleveland wasn't willing to indulge the possibility. Cleveland wasn't willing to indulge the possibility that Kyrie was going to go get knee surgery. So they had to trade him to Boston. So I think all of these assets that the Pelicans have assembled, that's the stuff of trade opportunities. And it's all about opportunities right now. If they're smart, they won't use the draft unless another Zion comes along. They'll just keep flipping those

picks into more opportunities. Yeah, I mean, it's a nice hall, better than a nice haul. It's a massive of Hall to build around Zion with moving forward. I think Gryft did a fantastic job. I mean, there were reports out there that maybe the Celtics might have put Tatum in and maybe they weren't and maybe the Knicks were involved. Maybe they weren't. Maybe the nuggets were and maybe they weren't. I think he just got like absolutely

the most possible out of the Lakers who it felt like we're sort of bidding against themselves there. And on top of it, some of those assets as you mentioned fall into the purview of that window where we're going to get the double draft where high schoolers are going to be involved too. Yeah, exactly. Just like, just really maximizing. Yeah. And it's going to be a fun team

to watch. It's going to be a fun league past team with Zion and Drew Holiday and I think Lonzo fits pretty well there and we'll see what happens with Ingram if he can get back to the Ingram that we thought he maybe could be. Yeah, they have a lot of options now, which is really what all they need. And that brings me to the rest of the offseason because there are a lot of other things that will be discussing as this offseason unfolds. The Toronto Raptors, as we mentioned, they're having their parade today house. And everybody, including our esteemed producer, Isaac Lee, wants to know what's going to happen. with Kaui. KOC and I talked about it in San Francisco right after the Raptors won the championship where he thought like maybe Kauai should sign a one-in-one and stay put. I think if anything like the

championship makes it more like, and I'm just guessing here. It just feels like, hey, I delivered the championship. This was all gravy. We knew there was a chance I was going to leave. Like, we did it. And I'm off to Clipperland. I'm off to Los Angeles. I want to live in California. What do you think he should do? What do you think he will do? it's the same answer and I think he should do whatever it is that he wants to do with the rest of his professional basketball career

and I think that's what he will do like he is inscrutable nobody knows anything about Kauai's wishes or desires beyond this season and I don't know whether or not the championship alters the calculus for him about what he wants to do

he's beloved in Toronto he will be a king there in Canada for as long as he is alive. I mean, you know, if he leaves and then comes back, you know what he's going to get in his first game back in Scotia Bank Arena? A gigantic 10-minute standing ovation. They're going to go bananas for him.

He delivered them with a title. He's a hero. He's a lifetime hero in Toronto. So any move he makes will be the right move for him based on whatever he wants to do with his life. And that's, you know, congrats to the NBA All-Star. And really LeBron ushered this in. These guys have so much leverage now.

They're really able to self-define and pursue wherever they want to end up. I mean, KD's choice to go to Golden State put a bad taste in everybody's mouth. But I think he likes living in San Francisco. Seems like he's having, he had a good time during his run there. And who knows where he ends up next. Yeah, we'll see if that's still the case this offseason. The variance here, I'm with you that Kauai should do whatever Kauai wants to do. But the potential variance here for what the Raptors

could be if he stays as opposed to what the Raptors will be if he leaves is really significant. I mean, if he stays, obviously, you know, they're right in the hunt for another championship. And if he rolls, then the Raptors crater and maybe they just hit the reset button. And Fred Van Fleet was asked about that. And he had that same sort of like, yeah, we'll applaud him when he comes back. We'll try to kick his ass. But if not, you know, he's got to do what he's got to do. I think the interesting one here beyond Kauai, too, is Maasai.

There have been varying reports about whether or not Maasai would stay or go. the interesting thing was that Woj, in the middle of them celebrating on the floor, like, well, everybody, we're in Oracle Arena. We're all scrambling around. Kevin and I are running from, like, locker room to locker room and whatever. And they're, like, out on the court

doing their championship celebration. And as Maasai is out there on the court, like touching the Larry O'Brien trophy, Wodge drops a bomb that says, your Washington Wizards could offer him as much as 10 million to come and take your shit franchise and fix it. I know that you would pay him any amount of money

because it's not your money. Are you buying that Maasai? would jump ship and go to Washington? I have no idea. I mean, you want to, though. You want to buy it. Of course. This is the highlight of the Washington Wizards 2019-2020 season.

This moment right now, the possibility that Maasai Ujiri, who arrived in Toronto and the franchise won at least 48 games, each of the seasons, that he was there. And, you know, it's a combination of luck that goes along with the shrewd asset management. But like, each of the trades

that they did with the, you know, the only real knock on Messiah over the entire time is the signing of Damari Carroll. Otherwise, you know, he turned Valenciunis into Marka Sol. Was Marcus Sol in a crucial element of getting them over the hump through these playoffs? I would say yes, he was an incredible asset for them. Obviously, creating the environment there

that made DeRosen available and attractive to San Antonio just by sort of hanging in on the assets that he had. He signed Kyle Lowry and I think it was surge to three-year contracts, where it was basically like, let's just see, but those guys are always movable if they decide to hit the reset button.

I mean, the Godfather offer to Maasai out of Washington, I believe it's likely that Toronto will not give him permission to come down here and talk to the Wizards. But either way,

I don't think it's a serious thing, him looking at the situation, notwithstanding the Godfather offer that Washington is prepared to make. I mean, it's like $10 million a year plus equity in the sports entertainment franchise, plus obviously, you know, full control. And now the things that help that possibility are his wife is from here,

and he has a great role with basketball without borders. He plays a big part of that, and that's sort of headquartered in this area, the political platform here in Washington, and that outreach component is a lot easier from here than Toronto. Also, I've offered him, I'm adding in right now, Wong gone. In addition to what the Wizards have offered, Masai, hear me out. A lifetime. Any restaurant in Washington, D.C., you'll be my guest. You name it. You're in. I know you can afford to get yourself in, and you probably have more clout than I do,

but I just wanted on the record, House of Carbs, Joe House, any restaurant you want, Maasai. I'm here for you. I'll personally drive you to the restaurant. I'll drive you home. You and your wife have a wonderful meal. there are terrific restaurants in Washington, D.C. right now. I'm here for you, Maasai. So I hope it's possible, but I don't think so. This is sort of like your personalized version of the Kawyan Dine program that they had in Toronto. It's Maasai and Dine now. And I will say, as somebody who has dined with you, you are an excellent dining companion,

and you've got that whole city wired. So this is a good offer. It might even be worth the $10 million. I don't know. And I want to do some food stuff with you in a second. But a couple more off-season storylines that I just wanted to roll through with you. It looks like Kyrie to Brooklyn. I'm kind of bummed about that because I wanted bad things for Boston and Kyrie staying put would have been way more entertaining for the rest of us.

Kind of bummed out about that. Well, I mean, it was a gamble that was worthwhile for Boston to undertake and they lost. As is what happens when we gamble. I mean, it made sense for them to go ahead and give it a try with Kyrie. It turns out that he is not a leader of men. it turns out that if a situation, you know, if he's put into this alpha dog kind of role, he's not really comfortable with it. I'm not sure what role Brooklyn imagines and how they think that they can kind of shape his

contribution to them in a manner that doesn't have that same self-sabotage, that same destructive element where the young guys who've achieved some things without Kyrie's input and expertise may feel like they're capable of achieving something. They want to pursue their own path. Now, the thing that Brooklyn was missing during the playoffs was a score, and now they have a score. And I guess DeAngelo Russell is going to move on. I guess, yeah, because they have so many guards.

They're like, I can't imagine that they're going to keep Kyrie and DeAngelo and Caras Lever and Spencer did what he. I mean, like, at some point, they're going to need some front court help there. And I don't think that would quite work out for them. But one of their strengths last year was that three guard rotation. that they were super speedy and, you know, shot a lot of threes. And I guess Kyrie plays into that. But yeah, you probably have to move one of those guys out.

Yeah. And so there's still a move for Brooklyn to make. I've been impressed. I mean, you know, they put themselves there. They're so far ahead of where any of us might have expected them to be post the disastrous trade 2013. I mean, to be back in the playoffs already is a real accomplishment. So shout out to Sean Marks and to Trasian Langdon, the new. GM of the Memphis, I mean, of the New Orleans Pelicans. How dare I? How dare you? Incredible.

I was, like I said, I was hoping that Kyrie would stick around in poison Boston from the inside, but I guess I'll do that for the nuts now. So Godspeed, Brooklyn Nets. Last one for you from the offseason storylines ESPN has an interesting story up there right now about the Houston Rockets and their unsettling vibes. An unnamed high-ranking rockets official was quoted as saying, too much damn turmoil. There's some hard feelings right now everywhere. And he goes to outline how it's Mike Dantony versus Darrell Mory because of Mori forcing these five coaching changes.

And also they gave Tillman Fertita offered Mike Dantone what amounted to basically a bullshit contract extension, which would have had like a $5 million base, which is low for him and then incentives. But they could fire him and pay out only half of it in the story. Tillman Fertita, the owner, there's some question about it whether he's cheap, which I guess really pisses him off to even be asked about that. Hardin and Paul. I thought it was going to be a problem between those two immediately.

Instead, it took two years. There was a quote in here that says, Chris wants to coach James, says a source familiar with the Stars dynamic. James looks at him like, you can't even beat your man. Just shut up and watch me. Amazing.

And also in the story, Mori is apparently reportedly aggressively shopping CP and Capella. Not all as well in Houston. How do you feel about those Houston rockets? Well, the one thing that we've learned during the Darry tenure is to not underestimate their ability to re-rack on the fly. I mean, the situation that they found themselves in last year and this year, like being on the cusp of taking down the Golden State Warriors two consecutive years,

that's no small achievement. And, you know, they built a team with that particular goal in mind. They assembled the very best kind of lineup, Notwithstanding, to me, the still head-scratching maneuvers at the beginning of the season that just concluded with letting Trevor Areza and Luke Mabamute leave, they decided not to invest in either one of those players. And Houston paid a price for that. But I don't underestimate the ability of Houston to reassemble with additional, I don't know about Super Duper Star, but players that are going to keep James Harden relevant to the Western Conference, finals, for the foreseeable future. I just have no idea what the hell is going on.

It's apparent that they're not going to get value out of CP3. I don't know who the trade partners are other than like Washington and Memphis with Conley. I have no idea how you know you can work something out for a guy that's going to get $40 million next year and can't deliver even sort of half the value of that contract. There are only a handful of teams in those dire straits. I don't know if there's a pathway for CP3 to end up on the Lakers. But that feels like a logical destination for him. Yeah, I mean, that'd be interesting, I suppose,

but he's not the same guy, and that's just a massive amount of money for any team to have to eat for a guy who's post-prime, for sure. Speaking of eating, by the way, as transitions go, the last thing I wanted to do with you is that when you're on the road for playoffs

and specifically the finals, you end up having a lot of meals, we were in two really good cities in Toronto and San Francisco. So I wanted to tell you about two of the more interesting meals that I had during the finals, and you're the host of House of Carbs. So what we're going to do is we're going to turn over this portion of the program to you, Joe House, and House of Carbs.

We're going to play the music, and you're going to ask me questions, and I will answer them. Wangan is always a pleasure to have you on here. On House of Carbs, the food podcast for the hungry people, by the hungry people. You are a hungry homie. You came on after your trip to Greece, and you shared many tales of your eating adventure there pursuing Rick Petino, who managed to find Italian food even in Greece. Congratulations to Rick. Now, you've just concluded a tour of two of North America's finest eating cities.

Like in the NBA, the destinations, the top five are Toronto and Golden State and New Orleans and Los Angeles and New York. And Houston is bumping up into there too. You can't leave out Houston is a great eating destination. But you just got to go back and forth between Toronto and Golden State. I bet you had a couple good meals, huh? I did. We had some wonderful meals. One of the things you do on the, you work on the road, and then you gather your writer buddies

and you go for food. So most nights, it was Dan Devine and me and Paul Flannery from SB Nation and Andrew Sharp shouts to former Grantland staffer, C, S.I. Stafford, Andrew Sharp, having dinner together. So two of the spots I wanted to tell you about, the one in Toronto. And we ate a lot of really good meals in Toronto, including a really wonderful Greek meal. But I had never had, and I know this is going to sound basic to people in Toronto and Canada, but I had never had Poutine.

And so our buddy, James Herbert from CBS Sports, he's Canadian. And he was like, well, there's this place that has a Poutine, a roast duck Poutine pizza. It's called Bannock in Toronto. And I'm like, well, that just sounds gorpi as hell. We got to go eat that. And so we had, you know, giant Moleson beers. and we had a roast duck poutine pizza. So that was duck confi with caramelized onions, fries, and curds, and house.

It was every bit as delightfully messy, gorpi, cheesy, the gravy on top, the whole bit. I mean, it was excessive to say the least. And I don't regret any of it. It was wonderful. Well, that's the way it's supposed to be. I'm glad to hear it. Now, that's a poutine derivative, though. Did you at any point sit down and have like just the straightforward poutine with the cheese?

curds and the gravy and, you know, just a Canada right down the middle deliverable? Right next to that roast duck putteen pizza, Poutine. Okay. We got it because I was like, well, we also have to just try the original. Yes, yes, exactly. It was wonderful. I really didn't have a bad meal in all of Toronto. I just wanted to shout out that, that weird Frankenstein creation that they had at Bannock

because I'd never seen or heard of anything like that, and it was every bit as wonderful as I expected. But the meal that I really wanted to tell you about was in San Francisco at a restaurant called Dosa. So all the people that I mentioned came with me. It was sharp and divine and flannery. And then my buddy, Kevin Alexander, who's a James Beard award-winning writer, who was a chef friend named Arun Gupta. And Arun is the chef at a place called Dosa, which specializes in southern Indian cuisine. I've eaten a lot of Indian in my life. This is the best Indian meal I've ever had.

They just redid the menu. And so we went in there and Cheferun, who's, by the way, a ringer super fan and a basketball super fan. Oh, man. It was incredible. It was a perfect night of we're going to overeat and then talk too much basketball. And he sat down with us. He's a big Knicks fan. And his question to us was, how are you guys on spice?

And I love spice and Kevin Alexander love spice. And Dan Devine's face went white. Oh, no. Yeah, he's like, I'm not really a spice guy. And I'm like, well, if you're going to suck up. Come on, Danny Dee. But he did. But he did.

He sucked it up and he... All right, good. We had so many things. I'm just going to run this through for you. Cheforoon, luckily, I had to go back and ask him for notes because there were so many things he brought out. It was kind of like the night where you and I went to dinner where you ordered everything on the menu.

Yeah, well. We didn't even get a menu. Chef was just like, put those away. I'm going to bring you a bunch of shit. So for small bites, we had grilled prawns with green garlic and coconut. Yes. We had bite-sized bottle psal sandwiches, which are like, Indian food. in street food, but he high end, it was like his take on it with pickles and chutneys.

A little elevated, yes, sir. Yeah, incredible. We had grilled house panir with Meyer lemon chutney, grilled lamb, and then he brought out, and he even prefaced that he's like, this might seem like not what you'd expect for Indian or even just like a little chicken, but he brought out grilled quail, grilled mini quails with dates and apricots. Wow. House, incredible.

Like, basically the best miniature chicken wings you've ever had in your life. That was like, just some starters. What aspect of it, and it's not requirement that you're at an Indian food restaurant, and so there needs to be some kind of preparation of it that identifies it as Indian. And what you just described sounds like in terms of that quail, something that could be at a French restaurant, at an American bistro, an elevated American bistro these days. Was there some defining attribute characteristic trait that made it, you know, you could identify it as an Indian dish?

Yeah, I mean, he did the whole, everything had an Indian flair to it. obviously the spices and the curries and the bread that he'd bring it. And like for dinner, we did family style everything, which that's how I love to eat. That's the right way to eat. I love it. Put all the things in the middle of the table and everybody will pick and choose as they go. I love to eat that way when I, when I'm in Greece. And Chafferun did a wonderful job with that family style for dinner. So the main courses were roasted lamb ribs with black pepper honey, a brazed lamb shank that was so tender. It was like you touch it with your fork and it comes right off the bone. with a Mangalore-style curry.

And then he did a duck breast with rice, turnips, and orange, and then a phthalmy plate with lemon rice, green herb rice, cherry-pacchati, Persian cucumber pickle, like all these different little kuchermans, green garlic, kuttu, coconut and tomato chutney, a samba and paper dosa, because obviously dosa's the name of the restaurant.

Gotta have a dosa. House, there was so much food they had to roll us out of there. And Dan Devine's still alive. The heat didn't kill him. He took on all the spice. He probably navigated it carefully. He did. What they did was,

are you aware of the Lossies, the yogurt drinks? Yes, yes, very familiar. So that's always good to kick back the heat a little bit. You have a little of the Lassie with your hot spicy food. And then, you know, we had a dessert, a coconut and tapioca, panny curry bite. I mean, it was just soup to nuts beginning to end, just an incredible Indian meal by Cheferoon.

And we talked about his awful New York. Nick's, which warmed my heart as a Philadelphia 76ers guy. It was kind of him to not poison the food, as all of you made relentless fun of him for his Knicks fandom. Clearly, I'm kidding. I'm interested in this aspect of it. Now, you guys got some special cheferoon treatment. How does Dosa, if I was to walk in off the street and not identify myself as the gourmet that I am, could I experience that entire array? Is that the way that they do their thing there? Yeah, they just redid their tasting menu. So everything that we sampled,

basically we got the whole thing. It was like instead of picking options, we just tried everything. But yeah, you go in there and you could do a la carte or with the tasting menu. And again, it's a nice space. It's a very cool restaurant. They have two locations. We went to the one on Fillmore. Cheferoon was there. And if you, you know, go over there,

see him, mention that you like the ringer in basketball and he'll talk basketball with you and serve you a delightful meal. House, you've got to get on a plane. We've got to go there. This is the thing. You know, I had a milestone birthday this year, Wang Gan. I know you did. Happy 50th, by the way.

Yeah, it's in there. So I'm celebrating for the entire rest of the year. And I have designs on getting back out. You know, the U.S. Open was just competed at Pebble Beach. And watching that for four days and nights, God, the primetime golf is so glorious for us, golf lunatics, watching it from bed with my pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Always the way, you know, if the good Lord wants to take me, let it be that way. Let me, let me be in bed with.

the Pine of Benigeries in the U.S. Open on in prime time. But I have designs on getting out to that area, returning to Monterey and celebrating, you know, on the entire beautiful peninsula with a golf experience out there. And that delivers along with it a trip through San Francisco, which could have its own little eating tour and maybe even a little trip up to Napa. I mean, like, you know, why, why put a ceiling on this thing? We're going to celebrate 50.

I'm only turning 50 once. This is the last birthday. and I intend to celebrate for the rest of my life. Let's just go all out. So, Chef Perroon, I'll give him two months notice so we can start stocking up for the visit. You send up a flare. I'll meet you there.

Joe House, make sure to listen to him on Fairway Rowland. We just had the U.S. Open. And of course, House of Carbs. And then right here on Heat Check, he's going to be back. It's going to be a very busy off season for us. So we'll have him back regularly. There's no man who could hit golf and food and basketball in one pod.

Just one. It's Joe House. House, thanks for doing this. Wang gone always my pleasure. Thanks for having me on the heat check. Ice, I'm rooting for your clippers. That was Joe House. We love when House comes through. Before we continue and we bring Jonathan Charkson, let's take a break for a word from our sponsors. Today's episode of Heat Check is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Finding a new job is a lot of work.

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He's one-third of the corner three. It's a very busy time for him. It's Jonathan Charks. Just got done writing a story about LeBron and Anthony Davis that you'll be able to find on the website. And of course, the draft is coming. We just finished the friggin basketball season. And the NBA draft is fast approaching. on Thursday.

Charks, first, your thoughts about the trade that shook everybody's weekend. Man, these folks just have no regard for our schedules gone. It's crazy. I know we got off that, like, I got back and like my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, and one of my best friends all came into town. We had this big gathering of various dads for Father's Day weekend. And I'm on my way to a party when the news drops. And I'm like, well, the basketball season is over.

The basketball season continues. Yeah, it's funny. like I'm at my with my in-laws at a lakehouse and I'm like oh, Andy Davis got traded. You're looking at me like, okay. You immediately threw your phone in the lake. Yeah, and I'm like, don't you get it? Yeah. What did you think?

Who do you think won? Oh my gosh. I mean, I think everyone won kind of. LeBron got his co-star and the Pelicans. They got the kind of deal to sell this got from the Nets. I mean, they have freaking like eight first-round picks now on this roster and are coming up from the Lakers. It's amazing.

Yeah, it really is. amazing. And I think, like, it's going to set them up for the foreseeable future. But for our purposes and your purposes right now, it may have thrown a little wrinkle into Thursday's draft. You guys, along with KOC and Danny, put out immediately a new updated mock draft. You can find that on NBA draft.The ringer.com. How does this potentially change what we might see unfold on Thursday? A number of people had said with the fourth pick that maybe Darius Garland or Kobe White could be in play because other teams were looking at them. Maybe the Pelicans still flip them, but assuming because we can't really forecast trades, assuming that the Pelicans keep the pick,

what do you anticipate will happen there? I think we have them right now taking Jared Culver, the wing from Texas Tech, who played in the national championship game at number four. But my guess is if they keep this pick, they're going to have to find some shooting. Because you've already got Zion, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and like your long-term core. and none of those guys really knocked down three-point shooters. So you've really got to space the floor at your other positions. And the tough part for New Orleans is there's no obvious shooter at number four that makes sense to take.

Yeah, that's interesting too, because that's something that I've learned as we've done a little bit of draft coverage together. We did a mock draft with KOC that you can find on the Ringers YouTube channel. But the shooters, if you were going to go and target some quote-unquote shooters, it would be later in the first round, correct? Yeah, like the best prospects right now that are concerned. considered in those lottery range. It's a bunch of like point guards and like wings with questionable jumpers and like more project big men. So they're just not like a player with that kind of like sweet

spot of size, athletic ability and shooting. Like if they can get like Lorry Markinen, that'd be perfect, but there are no Lari Markanans in this draft. So what do you like? Okay, so we have at present, we have Jared Culver going there. What do we like about despite the fact that maybe he doesn't fill that classic shooter, space the floor thing that would be. perfect for the Pelicans at the moment, given how we anticipate and forecast the roster to fill out. But what do you like about him and what could he do for the Pelicans? Well, Culver, he's a really good defensive player and two-way player. He's very smart. He's got a good body. I mean, maybe that sounded weird. Hold on. No, I like it. Divine has set the bar for creepiness on heat

check. So I really, I really, anytime you could say that this teenager has a good body, I'm here for it. I didn't get out of sleep last night, so I'm just freestyle in here. So Culver, he's got, he's very long arms. He's athletic. He's a smart player. He's a good defender. I think he has a pretty high floor as an NBA player. And he could develop into a shot creator who can pass the ball to others as a kind of a secondary third option.

The question of him is that jump shot. He was not a great shooter in college and not have to move into that role in the NBA. And we've seen over the years that you cannot count on these wings to develop jumpers, right? They've got Stanley Johnson or Kelly Ubray or Justice Winslow. There's a lot of guys who are like, oh, if he turns to shoot, we're really good. never really happened. Yeah, we've got comps for him for Chris Middleton and Malcolm Brogden, which I think is interesting because those two guys do shoot,

and that's one of the things that makes them so versatile. What else has changed here for you? I think, you know, as we go through from the beginning, you know, maybe in the winter months into now the summer months when the draft is fast approaching, you start to look at these players different. Maybe you changed some opinions for yourself or what you thought you knew. You get new information.

Who's on the rise for you personally, that maybe you didn't expect or that now you're just getting even even hotter on. I think the big thing for me over the course of this year with the draft is like I'm just trying to move off. I think everyone kind of agrees

to players we all predicted high the start of the season besides Zion have kind of underperformed. So you're Cam Reddish, R.J. Barrett. And then Garland only played five games, all those kind of guys. So there's a lot of them cars moving up and down. So to me, which I'm writing about for Wednesday,

is that I think this year in the top of the draft, you kind of have to be more outside the box with who you're going for. And the two guys who really got no buzz to start this season, I really like now, it's Brandon Clark or Gonzaga and Kobe White from UNC. So those are two guys that I wanted to talk to you about because you are, and we mentioned this on our video draft show,

you are higher on Brandon Clark than basically anybody you have in third on your big board. Last year, you raised some eyebrows for me when you were like a plant the flag on Triple J, not to say that it was a bad call. In fact, it was a great call, but you were just one of those people who were like, I like this guy. What is it about Brandon Clark that you like that you think everybody else is missing? I will say this.

Clark and Kobe White aren't Jaron Jackson. Like, Jaron Jackson seemed like a risk, but we looked at his game, it really wasn't. Because he was so well-rounded, he was such a good shooter. He was so big and fast. Like, that's a pretty safe call to make looking back. I always start at the time even. Clark, I really like, but he's much riskier than that. So Clark is a 6-8 guy.

I'd say he's the second best athlete in the draft. Like, in terms of athletic ability, he'll be a top-top. athlete in the league right away. He's six foot eight. He moves like a guard. He has like a 40, 45 inch vertical. He can probably cover three or four positions on defense and he's a really smart player. The question was Clark, which is like, just kind of tells you where this draft is. Clark is an older guy with a questionable jump shot and a thin frame. Like, he's a project. The fact that I have number three is just saying, I'm not loving any of the guy as top of this draft. Oh, wow. That's interesting, like, that it's sort of by default rather than like I'm

super high on him. But I mean, I think he'll be really good. But I'm, but I'm not. I think he'll be really good. It's a much more of a risk than Jaron's action, for sure. You also mentioned Kobe White, who's a guy that I'm very intrigued by, and I think that this whole situation with the Pelicans and the number four pick has had this ripple effect where now we're starting to see, at least in the ring or mock draft, a guy like Kobe White fall a little bit, and a guy like Darius Garland do the same. Let's start with Kobe White. He's a speedster.

I love his game. He's super fun to watch. I want good things for Kobe White. I want to end up on a good team. Right now, we have him falling to the Chicago Bulls. I don't know what that would be. In that scenario, is Zach Levine still around? Like, how does everything work out?

Do you like him to the Bulls? And what do you like about Kobe in general? First off, like, when you watch Kobe White, you'll know who he is right away. He's a 6-5 guy with a massive afro who's just running around the court at full speed. Like, yeah. Like, he catches your eye and's like, who is that guy? And actually, I love White to the Bulls. I think it'd be great fit for him.

So Kobe White, 6-5 guard, super fast, good three-point shooter, kind of a strickey decision maker. That's really the big hole in his game right now. So if he went to Chicago, he could play off like Otto Porter, Wendell Carter, Lerie Markinen. He could kind of share the playmaking responsibility, hunt for his own shot.

And I think he'd be better at defense than Levine, so you could hide Levine off the ball. I think that'd actually probably be a pretty ideal spot for Kobe White. What about with Darius Garland? He's a guy who some people are really high on him. Some people have question marks because of what happened with Vanderbill. we have him to the sons.

Isaac and I were talking about this before you came on. Isaac doesn't like that fit with Devin Booker. I think it would be kind of intriguing. Where are you on Darius Garland? I know you have him on your personal big board behind Kobe White, but what do you think about if he did end up with the sons and also pluses and minuses for him? It's really tough because he only played like four games this year

before he tore his knee. Right. So like the NBA guys who watched him in high school have a lot more going than I do. So I'm just going to like kind of go off what I've seen, what I've heard. I think with Garland, he's gotten the Damian Lillard comparison. But I think probably C.J. McCollum is a better kind of look at his ceiling. He's a really small guard who can really shoot it with really good handles.

The question is how good of a playmaker is he? And maybe even average on defense. I think what Isaac is seeing, if you got Garland and Booker and Port and Phoenix, it would kind of be like Damien, CJ, in terms of no defense. But at the same time, who cares is Phoenix? Like, if they have a good player to Devon Booker, at least he can score. That sounds fun.

I want that. I mean, I know that everybody wants to throw a traditional point guard next to Devin Booker. That's been the cry for a while now. I was out on that. I was in on Krakashkov, making him there Hardin and just being like,

yeah, man, go. Here's the ball. And you can have it as much as you want. And if they were going to run, like, a poor man's version of CJ and Dame in Phoenix, I'm here for that. That sounds fun.

It's just tough, though, because, like, imagine if Hardin played with an atrocious defender next to him. And then you had Dionje. I mean, that's tough. Like, that's why Garland's a very tradeoffy draft a guy like that. Yeah, I mean, I'm less concerned about that for Phoenix than I am for me watching them on

league pass. And I enjoyed an ordinary amount of Suns basketball last year just because I did like watching Devin Booker, like fire 28-foot heat checks. So, like, I don't give a shit if they're bad or if they don't play defense. For me personally, like my own selfish reasons, like, yeah, man, let's just have more offense. That sounds fun. Can you imagine if they had said that at the press conference, there is Garland.

Like, let's be real people. you just want to get some buckets. You don't care about defense. We heard Gonzalez on heat shack and we're like, why not? Let's do it. All right. So what about a couple more for you?

Because as we know, like we said, it's a busy time for you. Who's somebody that you think might be like the biggest gamble in the draft? Like it's going to be home run or absolute strikeout. So here's the guy.

It's Cam Reddish, the third Duke player. I think right now he's the swing spot of the whole draft because if you look at the top 15, he's the one guy with the combination of size shooting ability that you think,

okay, this guy could be a really good NBA player who has a really high floor. You'll talk about the Pelicans. They need a player like Cam Reddish. But is Reddish actually as good as he could be or is he just like the version we saw at Duke where he kind of disappeared for long pitches of the game, made really bad decisions, didn't finish at the rim.

But that combination of size shooting ability, I think he'll go higher than most people have him mocked. It wouldn't surprise me. We have a mock to the Hawks at eight, but I could see the Hawks trading two picks to get up higher in the draft to make sure they get Cam Reddish. So I think he'll be like really the turning point of the whole draft. That'd be a fun spot for him.

I'd like to see that one. All right, last one for you. Who have you changed your mind about? Because I think whenever we're going through these things, you know, it's everybody, their opinions are malleable and you get some information you like and some that you don't. Is there somebody that you maybe were high on that you're not as much anymore or that you weren't and now, you know, he's your guy? I mean, to me, it has to be R.J. Barrett.

I mean, at the start of the season, we all thought he'd be the number one pick in the draft. You go back to his time at Team Canada, where he was like his point forward, do everything monster. He upset Team USA and like the World Championship, which is incredible. Like, that's like basically the same level of talent as if Canada be USA and the men's and the Olympics in 2020. Because it was like RJ versus the world. The problem is then you saw RJ at Duke and it was still RJ versus the world when he's playing with two other first round picks. Right. So it's just like watching RJ.

I just a guy like, if I had watched him less this season, I'd probably like him more. Like, if you look at his numbers, like, dang, look at all those points, assist rebounds, look at his size. And you watch his highlights with that athletic ability. He can make all the right plays. But he doesn't make them consistently. His jumper comes and goes. So to me, like, if I was the Knicks to start this season, I would feel pretty good with taking Arjit number three. After watching him at Duke, it's like, man, that's going to be tough.

Him and Dennis together, it's going to be a lot of guys jacking up jump shots. I love it. That's put that in the same category for my league pass rankings as the Suns. I just want to see nonsense garbage basketball out of New York. That'll be fun. All right. So you've got a lot of stuff going on this week. Make sure to read his AD and LeBron piece on the ringer.

com. And of course, there's going to be a ton of draft coverage. You'll be back with, we're going to do a video draft. We're going to do or draft reactions. You're going to have corner three. There's all kinds of stuff coming from Jonathan Charks.

So be on the lookout for that. Charks. Thanks for doing this, homie. Yeah, no problem. Man, have a good one. All right.

That was Charks. we thank him, we thank House, we thank Isaac Lee, we thank all of you. Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. If you'd be so inclined, please read all of our content on the ringer.com. Another reminder that we've got a live NBA draft show this Thursday with reactions from KOC, Danny, and Charks, I will be your humble host. And then, of course, we'll have a corner three reaction pod to the draft. We'll have the mismatch. We'll have group chat. The NBA season is over, but the NBA offseason is in full swing. Key check will be back with Isaac and I next Monday, gang. Thanks for listening. Bye.