The Ringer NBA Show - The Nuggets' Greatness, Embiid's 50-Ball, and Suns in Trouble | Real Ones

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Logan and Howard dive into last night’s big win in Los Angeles, putting the Nuggets up 3-0 against the Lakers (02:00). Then they take a moment to reflect on Joel Embiid leading the 76ers to victory through injury (19:30). Later, the guys discuss what could be the future of the Phoenix Suns before turning their attention to Real One of the Week (33:00). Email us questions for Mailbag Monday! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Logan Murdock and Howard Beck Producer: Jonathan Kermah Production Assistant: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Your hopework is going on with Kate Middleton. Which cult is popping off right now? What the hell is a trad wife? And why are we so obsessed with them? I'm Jody Walker. And I'm Chelsea Stark Jones. And we're obsessed. Obsessed with all the pop culture happenings,

filling our group chats and 4 You pages. And we want to talk about them with you. Our new show, We're Obsessed, is for all the things we're loving, buying, watching, listening to, and spiraling over right now. Follow the ringer dish feed on Spotify to listen to We're Obsessed every Friday. It's popping. Logan Murdoch here.

Howard Beck there. Friday, Real Ones. Raja is somewhere on a recruiting trip. We will see him on Monday, which is going to be good because I think we're going to have, we have a slanderous episode. We have a slander Laker episode on Monday coming. I just have a gut feeling. But anyways, we're going to talk a little nuggets.

We're going to talk a little Embed, going to talk a little Kevin Durant. Let's start off with the Nuggets, Howard, who systematically dismantled Kerm's Los Angeles Lakers. Kerm looked really, really distraught when we got onto the call. So the Nuggets go into Crypto.com Arena beat the Lakers handily, 1125. I think the score was not indicative of the game. It was an overall dismantling of the Los Angeles Lakers at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. Howard, when I was watching this game, I think it was Kitty Smith that made this argument that was really, really good in that the nuggets simultaneously are a big and small team at the very same time where even when the Lakers go small against them, which is, I guess in theory, the logical step when a team goes big. You want to go the opposite and run them out of the gym.

But the Nuggets have the ability to have the athleticism while they're putting their big lineup with Aaron Gordon, alongside Yokic. And you kind of saw that in the second half, in the start of the second half. They were able to counteract the Lakers small lineup and just really just have their way with it. What did you see from the Nuggets of the second half?

And what do you think that this performance shows how and how dominant that the nuggets can be going forward? Well, first of all, it just shows that nothing has been lost in the course of the, what are we on, 10 months since they won the championship. There, I mean, there's nothing, I don't know there's anything new to learn about the nuggets at this stage, right? Like, they don't make mistakes. They function really well together. Everybody knows their roles to a T. And, you know, yeah, you're not always going to get a 20-point night from Michael Porter, Jr. You know, the shot's not always going to be there.

He may not always defend. Aaron Gordon is going to have big performances as he did last night at 29 points from Aaron Gordon. Like, if Aaron Gordon is scoring 29 points, 29 and 15 rebounds, by the way, you're, you're toast if you're the opponent. They don't all have to do that. They don't all have to be at their absolute peaks every single night. But when they are, it's just impossible.

It's just impossible. They're so well orchestrated. Everybody plays their role to the hilt. And they just fit. And there's just the lesson of the nuggets for everybody in the league. And I felt bad about how often I had to reference the nuggets than the story I did about the Sacramento Kings earlier this week. But I've realized recently that I'm not the only one. Like I'm hearing more and more conversations about people saying about Team X, fill in the blank.

You know, if they could get guys who fit together the way like the nuggets found when they went and got KCP and Aaron Gordon, right? Like there's there is something to this where you just have to put the pieces together right. first. And then we can talk about how great they play. But like, man, chemistry is everything. Guys knowing their role is everything. I think four guys score 20 plus last night. Like this, the Lakers can't compete with that. Not that anybody really was under the illusion that they could. You're so cold. You're so cold, Howard. Nobody was. Does anybody on earth pick the Lakers to win this series? I mean, I know it's going to be really, you know, it's a much more humiliating thing to go down in a sweep as looks highly likely. But I don't know anybody who thought the

Lakers were winning this series. Well, no, what are you, but the biggest takeaway that I get from the nuggets, especially when it comes to team building is the, and I know it, a lot of things happen for this to happen. But just how much they stuck with the group that they had. despite all, you know, criticisms of early criticisms of the Yokic Murray pairing or should Murray get traded or is Murray even in All-Stars? Is this caliber? Or, you know, can they win with the group that they have? And this is, you know, talking points from 2018, 2019. But they go in and they double down on the roster.

They go get the mid-season trade, I believe, in 2021 to go get Aaron Gordon to pair alongside. Yolkich. What do you think in the way that the Nuggets built this team and continued to build this team says about how we should look at team building in the modern era, right? Because you looked at the backdrop of what the Western conference is, right, or even the team that they're playing right now with the Lakers who there's so many pivots that happen, right? Even around Anthony Davis and LeBron James where there isn't that continuity. Or you look at it. look in Phoenix where every year that there is a trade to pivot, a major trade to pivot. And we all know that in this league, you need that continuity to be able to win it year

and year out. But what do you think that the nuggets, the way that they want about team building, says about how we should look at team building for the rest of the league? There's a lot of ways in which this sentence could end. The hardest thing to do in the NBA is, and then fill in the blank, right? The hardest thing to do in the NBA is like, get a superstar. The hardest thing to do with the NBA is find a co-star for that superstar. The hardest thing to do in the NBA is you keep a team together once they got really good

because the luxury tax and all this other stuff is going to get in the way or egos and blah, blah, blah. The hardest thing to do in the NBA, Logan Murdoch, is to be patient. That's the hardest thing to do. And that's what the nuggets have done. They, you know, injuries played a part in this, right? because Jamal Murray's ACL and some other bumps along the way in the earlier stretch. Plus, it's not like Yokic was like the number one overall pick and the clock was ticking and there was all the pressure to rush the development around your new superstar.

They didn't even know they had a superstar until, or a versioning superstar until a few seasons in, right? Like it took some time before Yokch became Yokic. And maybe that bought them some wiggle room. Maybe being in a smaller market buys them a little bit more. cushion. But the bottom line is, over the last few years, there was talk of should they trade Jamal Murray. There was talk of, do they need to really shake this up? Michael Malone is now one of the longest tenured coaches in the NBA. And I think there were certainly times when people wondered if he

was going to make it, not through any fault of his own, but just, you know, the usual thing in the NBA. Hey, you know, we haven't broken through. We've got to blame somebody, fire the coach. And they stuck with Michael Malone and they kept Jamal Murray and they really smartly built out the roster around those two guys and you know acquiring

KCP who you know I hate to note it but KCP who won a championship with the Lakers in the bubble in 2020 and then they turned over their entire roster again you go to the to the patience thing and the issues of continuity the Lakers in a very short span

flushed their entire supporting cast from 2020 after winning a championship. And replaced a bunch of shooters with a bunch of guys who couldn't shoot. It's the nuggets identified the kind of players they needed. They went out and got them. Those guys have to be available too, right? Like, you know, it's, but anybody could have had Catavius called Will Pope. Anybody could have had Aaron Gordon.

The nuggets got them. And so, you know, they've drafted well. They've been able to, you know, to make, you know, make their big bet on Bruce Brown, and then when they couldn't, you know, spend the money to keep him or because of cap reasons. And Jeff Green, they were able to just kind of plug in guys who they drafted Christian Brown and Peyton Watson. Like, if you draft well, draft smartly, develop well, it also gives you some wiggle room with regard to cap issues. But the patience is the big thing. You know, Yokic is in year one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

He's in his ninth season. He became an All-Star his fourth season and an MVP candidate that he finished fourth in the MVP validing his fourth season. But he doesn't win a championship until his age 27 year, which by the way is about the norm, right? Yeah. Jordan didn't win until 28. Exactly. Bron won until around 26, 27 as well. Yeah, exactly.

And like Kobe did it at 22, but he had Shaq with him. And Shaq was already like, you know, 26, 27. So it's the nuggets were patient. The nuggets were smart. The nuggets were methodical. Maybe you get a little lucky along the way too. Everybody has to. But they've just like I'm not saying that anybody could just replicate what the

Nuggets did. Like there's some model to follow here. But there are lessons to learn from it for sure. They have done a lot of things right. And you know, I said many times again in doing that King story earlier this week. And the Kings didn't disagree with me. Like I said, like, if you guys could just find your Aaron Gordon Contabious call well Pope, like, you know, because they've got the same problem, right?

De Manusabonis, like Yokic, he's not Yokic, but like Yokic is a offensive hub of a center who's not a rim protector. The Nuggets managed to build a pretty good defense without Yokic suddenly becoming Rudy Gobert at the rim. And, you know, the kings need to do the same. And I could say the same of a lot of teams. Like a lot of teams need an Aaron Gordon and Contavius call. A lot of teams need versatile wing defenders who are long and strong and interchangeable.

So there are some things that I think we can glean. Well, now it obviously helps that Yokic is one of the top centers of all time, right? Or top players of his generation. Because, I mean, when we parlay that and talk about the kings, they don't have that, but there's still the question of even with having a great, you know, number one guy, an all-time great number one guy, you can also see sometimes teams, and this goes back to the patience argument, that will say, oh, yeah, or make a quick fix and say, oh, yeah, we can get this all-time,

another all-time great on paper. We can get this other person to pair alongside him. That's been the norm of this star-chasing era that we have gotten. into it. And it's not even just the era that we're in because, I mean, the Houston Rock is the same thing in the late 90s to get Charles Barkley, right? But why do teams, for the, for the, listener, the novice, not even the novice listener, for the listener that's like, well, why didn't, why doesn't a team get player X? Or why doesn't my team get player X or try to get these types of players to pair alongside my guy? Why is it more important to, to round out

the roster with the Aaron Gordon's and with the KCPs or I even think about, you know, the Lakers of another era. I'm just going to make Kerm really upset doing this edit, by the way. But the Lakers of another era who bank on the Robert Ories

and the Glenn Rice's, although I know that didn't end well. But why is it more important to strive to get those guys to run out the roster as opposed to maybe the Phoenix Suns right now who says, oh, on a paper, I'm going to go get another perennial All-Star just to say I did it. And, oh, they're so good. The vibes will make it happen when everybody knows on paper that it won't. Like, why is, why do we see ownerships and front

office groups take the chance of getting the player that's great on paper as opposed to getting the paper, the player that fits the actual roster that will. make it better. It's a really interesting question. I think it depends on the team, but I do think there's the general tendency toward if I've got a star, I need a second star, and if I've got two, some other teams have two, I need three. But the problem is there's a salary cap in this league. And yes, it's a soft cap and you can go over it for all kinds of different reasons. But then you've got a luxury tax. You've got an apron, a second apron and all these other things that are kicking in in the latest CBA that make it really, really, really

hard to have multiple guys making the max. And when you do that, suddenly you don't have any resources left to get role players. The Nuggets could have at a given point in time, like, Jamal Murray still hasn't made an all-star team or L-MBA. We all know he's an all-MBA type player. He hasn't made it because it's mostly of injuries and just circumstance. But the Nuggets could have a couple of years ago gotten impatient and said, you know what, we found this diamond in the rough.

We found, like, we struck gold, in fact. Yokic is incredible. Unintended. Yeah. Nuggets gold. I'm sorry. Ah. I did not even know what I was saying.

We've got Yokic. Let's parlay Jamal Murray and some other stuff into a real second star. I'm using like air quotes basically around real. He is a second star. But there was a point in time where you could have gotten impatient there and said, I don't know if this guy's going to be good enough. We need a second star for Yokchch's. I think that the 20, the 2021, and I know he was, he was injured in that postseason, but especially after the 2021 when you see what Dame Willard did to that team, right?

Right. And it just shows you, yeah. So the temptation would have been Jamal Murray and some stuff to go get Russell Westbrook or to go get Dame or to go, you know what I mean? Or trying to go get Bradley Bill. Yeah. And teams do this, right? All the time. Teams do this.

And the alternative. in this case is they not only stuck with Jamal Marie, who's great with, who's great period, who's great with Yokic and who still is young and as upside. It was going to get healthy. And you, like, you, you believe in this guy. And instead of, you know, so then the temptation would be to go get a third guy. Well, Jamal's not always healthy. So let's parlay some of our other pieces and some picks into a third story. The problem is, then you become what the Phoenix Sons are now. Top heavy, no flexibility. You don't have role players. In today's NBA, in particular, you really need to round out the roster.

You really need your third, fourth, fifth starters, and your sixth and seventh guy, the first couple of guys off the bench, to be the best at whatever it is they do, or among the best at whatever it is they do, the best is too strong. You need them to be really good. They've got to be either a great shooter, a three and D guy,

bring something to the table that is really essential around your two-star. And that's a better build now than what we saw in the 2010s when everybody was chasing super teams and trying to match the heatles. And if you don't have the right three stars, it doesn't work. We have seen more failed versions of a big three. And by big three, I just mean even the facade of a big three, three guys who have been stars, three guys who are on max deals. You could go wrong so many different ways there. There are more failed versions of that than successful versions in the 2010s when everybody was trying it. So I don't think that's the model at all.

I've never liked what the Sons did. And just imagine, I'm not saying this was actually ever something you could have done. But if you could parlay Bradley Biel right now into an Aaron Gordon Contavius Caldwell Pope and Michael Porter, like, it's not quite that at the salary level. Just two of them. If you could cash out Beal for two of those three guys right now or the equivalent of those guys, you would do it in a heartbeat. And Beale was the wrong guy to make the bet on obviously. Yeah, we'll talk about the sun Speaking of teams

Speaking of teams that we're going to be saying goodbye to And piling on soon Ooh, I mean, we're probably going to pile on In the next segment I'm ready, I'm ready to go But I think the other thing They get lost in this is And we'll move on after this point

Other thing that gets lost in this And you talk about the Healds I mean, they went to four They went to four finals But they only want two And considering the talent level that they had like that they you can make the argument

that they underachieved, right? Like, and I think that a lot of that had to do with. Two championships. I'm not, I'm like, I'm not gonna. No,

I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. But the teams that they lost to are, were the anecdotes of that were teams that had a more well-rounded out roster on the margins, right? You can talk about, you know,

the spurs of the 2014 spurs and things like, that. But all I'm saying is there are multiple ways of skin the cat. But don't, I think a lot of front offices, I wouldn't say got lazy, but saw the model of like, hey, this is a quick fix to get us good next season. And I think that they're the more patient way to go is probably the way to win. You need the stars, but also you need to have the people that round out the stars. And it's not, it's not going to be as quick fix as, hey, we can get, you know, three of the something best players in the league. can just expect for it to work. You got to have continuity and you got to have a roster construction that complements every player on the team. Let's go east really quickly. And, you know, one of the things, you know, when we were throwing around topics to talk about, we were both watching the Sixers Knicks series, which has quietly become among the most entertaining series to watch. There's just a lot of dirty play, a lot of ass kicking, a lot of just a lot of storylines within the storylines.

The biggest one so far is Joelle Embed who scored 50 points in a game three victory. One of the things that he's dealing with, and I feel like we're seeing this right now in real time, is just the desperation to become a better version of, the team that they've been in previous years. It's crazy to think, and I look this up. I keep looking this up again and again and again, and again. But still, Embed does not lead the Sixers past the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs and a lot of variables that we're about to get into have contributed to that. But you kind of see this desperation as he gets and approaches his 30s of how are we going

to get here? You know, you see the call, the controversial call that happened. in game two, right? You see he's dealing with an issue called Bell's Palsy, which has paralysis to parts of your face. I think Justin Bieber went through it as well a couple of years ago, but he's dealing with that. He's dealing with the pressure of not getting there, getting to the biggest stage. What did you think of his performance in game three? And what have you seen from and Bede during this series. I know you went to, I think, I believe game two.

What have you seen from him in this series and the desperation that he's kind of exhibited throughout these last couple of weeks? So I was at game two at the garden. But I watched game one from home. And I think we talked about this last week, like just how alarming it was to see him throw that alley hoop to himself off the backboard and then come down and look like, I just thought he was done. I just thought it was over and we wouldn't see him again.

this season. Like I lost, what's going to get lost potentially in all of this, the, the strangeness of all the observations about like, why he's only one eye blinking and then he finally discloses, he has Bell's palsy right now. You know, from everything we've all heard and read, like, it will go away. Like, he's going to be fine. But, like, that was a really strange thing. And, of course, he's been playing with this big bulky knee brace that's under that sleeve

on his knee. And sometimes he looks dominant. And sometimes he looks like he's. He's not even going after rebounds and they're losing fourth quarter possessions because of it. And so it's just been a really weird series. And then, of course, last night we get the whole dust up, multiple dustups, the Mitchell Robinson dust up, the Isaiah Hartinstein dust up, all kinds of different things going on. And we're going to get distracted from all that.

I think before we get mired in all that, I just think we need to recognize that this is a guy who has been through a ton of injuries, started his career with questions over whether or not he. was going to be able to have an NBA career because of his back and foot. And the dude is gutting it out. Like whatever else you may think of Joel Embed, you want to ding him for grifting fouls and all this stuff. Fine. You want to say that it was a dirty play last night with Mitchell Robinson.

I'm not going to disagree. There was a bunch of shit going on, but like I'm not going to disagree. I'm not going to make excuses for him. But put all that aside for a minute. That dude is is busting his ass right now at a time when he could have easily, easily said, I need to protect my knee and my future. And he came back. I was talking to somebody from another team yesterday

who basically just said, obviously, it's somebody from a different front office and in the other conference for that matter. So they don't know anything specifically about his medical condition. But this is somebody who's been in the league a long time. And he said, if that were our team, I don't know if we'd let him out there. And of course, that's without seeing any imaging or anything else.

Like, he's speaking in a vacuum. But watching the way that M. Bede was moving, especially those first two games and how just awkwardly he was moving at times. Gingerly and not attacking tells you that he is not 100%. And he's a really big dude with a history of injuries and a knee injury that he'd just come back from a couple weeks ago. In today's NBA, like it would not have, nobody would have blinked. I just done it again. It did not mean to invoke blinking.

Nobody would have flitched if Joelle Embedied. you're all one today, Howard. I don't do it. I don't know. It's a subconscious thing, I swear. I'm not trying to make blinking jokes. That would be rude. That would be obnoxious.

That's not cool. No one would have flinched if Joel Embed had been shut down either before the playoffs or after that whole sequence in game one, where he's laying on his back and it looks like it's over. And he came back in that game. If nothing else, we should be able to conclude that Joel Embedd. is like a serious competitor with a lot of pride and who wants this. He wants this badly. And he's not willing to say, oh, you know what? Tyrese Maxie just broke through.

We got the hardened cloud out of here this season. Daryl's got all this cap room he's sitting on. We're going to go get Paul George or somebody this off season. Let's just pack it in and play for next year. He could do that. And no one would flinch. Very few would. And he's out there on what's clearly a bad knee with a big-ass bulky brace.

and scoring 50 last night. It's crazy. I mean, I'm impressed, I guess, the point. I just couldn't imagine trying to, like, shoot a basketball or do anything basketball related when half of my face is paralyzed, right? Like, that is, and you're starting to see just, I mean, just to your point, it with the competitiveness. Like, it's, it's, I know that he is battled against that narrative, you know,

know, in previous seasons, if he is competitive enough, if he wants it enough, or if he can reach that level. But, like, I think that that should also go by the wayside right now. But I think more than anything, like you, you see from, you know, a guy like M.B., just a player fighting against his on-court mortality in real time, right? Like, somebody that's like, it's, it would be convenient for him to say, like, oh, yeah, like, my GM has enough cap space, you know, for next season. First of all, these players aren't wired like that. And second, like, he's like, forget next season. This might be my last shot at it. He's seeing his body break down in front of the world and is like, yo, man, I got to, I got to lock in. Do you see the Sixers of making a run again, you know,

after the game three victory, which was a hard fought victory? This has been a tough, tough series that, you know, me, you and Rajah have talked. talked about this in previous episodes, just like what it's like to get your ass kick during a postseason series and what the ramifications, whether you win or lose, those ramifications on a team's body and their psyche even going, advancing into the playoffs.

But the Sixers team has a lot of heart. They can very well tie this series up to two, and go back to the guard and see Howard Beck and all their favorite New Yorkers. That's very plausible. But where do you see from the Sixers team? And where do you see that they can go after this last game three? I don't think they're winning this series.

But I don't think it's impossible either. Like, you know, the Knicks are obviously down Julius Randall. They may be, you know, who knows? I don't know what Mitchell Robinson. I'd be down to Mr. Robinson, yeah. Yeah. Which obviously against the Sixers in particular makes it pretty tough. You know, after Hartinstein, it's, you know,

precious to Chua and, you know, I don't know, Josh Hart. Can you give them 10 minutes? Can you give them the next 10 minutes right now? I don't know about that. I just, you know, I think the margin for error for both these teams is pretty thin. The Sixers certainly could have won games one and two. you know, and as much as Nix fans are now, you know, understandably upset with some of the officiating issues last night.

And even with, you know, Joelle and Bede getting a flagrant one when it could have been a flagrant two, you know, the Sixers had, by definition, they had a case because the last two-minute report said they missed multiple calls there when they blew that five-point lead in the last few seconds. A quick tangent really quickly on the officiating. We'll talk about this as something real quick. But like, if I'm a player, I don't want to hear that shit. Make the call right.

I don't want to like, you know, and I get, and I, I get why the NBA is doing it for transparency reasons that I'm okay with that. But like, dude, get the call right, man. How many times are. They can't win on this one, Logan. They can't because I covered the NBA in the era where there was no last two-minute report. And they came. People have forgotten about this part back before the last two-minute report. Here we go.

We're going back in time again. Let's get it. On a couple of occasions, very rarely, if it was a really egregious call that decided a game in like the last minute or last seconds, they'd put out a single like statement the next day saying, yeah, we missed that foul on Derek Fisher or something. And so there were a few of these. And those were almost like the precursors of the last two minute report. They were not comprehensive. and it was only about like a single call sometimes if something was really egregious in a playoff game and only in the playoffs, I think that they ever did this.

And it was weird because then it's like, well, hold on, you guys blew some calls in my game last night. How come you're only acknowledging that one? And so the last two-minute report, if we didn't have it, people would be screaming about the NBA is not accountable. The NBA is not admitting when they've screwed these things up. And it was so obvious. We've watched it 50 different ways on our high definition, 100-inch TV screens in our living rooms,

and we can see it. How come you can't? And the league would say, no, we saw it too. But, you know, what are we going to do about it? It's already over. So if you don't do the last two-minute report, the complaint will be you're not accountable and you're not, you know, admitting when things have gone awry.

So, like, I don't think there's any winning here. And I think airing on the side of transparency and accountability, generally speaking is the right thing. Yes, if I'm a player or coach, it's just, it might just piss me off. more. On the other hand, I'll be happy to hear that, oh, yeah, I was right. You did blow it. Everybody likes to know that they were right. So it's fine. There's no, there's no perfect answer here. And the Sixers can make the case that they got hosed at the end of game two. The Knicks maybe

want to make the case they got hosed in game three, whatever. These teams both have very small margin for error for a variety of reasons, injuries chief among them. And I think the Knicks are winning this series. But if Embed, M.B. Embed looks like he's getting stronger as he goes, weirdly. And they've got, you know, another home game Sunday, obviously. Like, I don't know. I'm not going to be surprised if they come back to New York tied two, too.

And then it becomes the best of three. And the Sixers have played pretty well at the Garden. So, I mean, this ain't the Cavaliers. I'll say that. Wow. Howard is all one this morning, guys. He's taking shots. I don't know what I'm on.

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Nothing serious yesterday. Just like, what are we going to talk about? And I said, we're going to talk about this, this, this, and this. And then we're going to make some predictions. And immediately Howard Beck was like, can we not do it? And then on this on this pre pod or this this pod break that we just had, I made fun of Howard because kind of made a prediction last last segment. And he says, no, he was merely being speculative and that he wanted to have the floor to just eviscerate predictions. So the floor is yours, sir.

All right. So predictions are probably the dumbest thing we do in this industry. just dumb. We have to do it because people expect us to. And predictions are kind of fun, right? And especially if you're right, they're fun. Oh, I think, you know, the one prediction I got in years was a big one.

And then you can just trumpet that one until the end of time. But there's different categories of this, right? Like if someone says before the first round starts, hey, we're all, we're doing a round table with the whole ringer staff. Let's pick every series. you know, team that's going to win it in how many games? That's fine. Like, I'm comfortable with, like, you know, nuggets in five.

And I would have been wrong because it's going to be nuggets in four. Sorry, Kerm. You know, I could say, like, Mavericks in seven. And if the Mavericks win in six or the Clippers win and say, I don't feel bad about that. Like, one, it's just a guess. And two, you're trying to get a sense of or convey the sense of how close a series is going to be in that case. Right. But once you're within a series, going game to game, as we did earlier on the real ones earlier this week,

and as Logan, you were trying to get me to do again as we were texting last night, in which I said, no, here's what it does. Best of Seven series could go any number of ways, right? If a team wins in six, whether it went one, one, two, three, three, or one, two, two, and then three, four, whatever. It could go in any order. You could be wrong every single game prediction and then still be right potentially on the overall series prediction because the playoffs are weird and there's weird momentum swings. And what we all have a tendency to do, and I'll get to the exact example in a second here, is a team wins a game, but it's pretty close. And you thought, you know what, man, that thing went down to the wire. I think the other team is winning the next one.

Or a team's up 2-0, but you know that the other team is pretty good. Now they're going home and you go, you know what, they're going to get game three. It would have been really easy to say, you know what? I don't think the Lakers are going to go down in a sweep again. They're winning game three. You asked me to pick a game. All, fine. Lakers are winning game three and then they'll lose the next two.

It'll be a gentleman sweep. But they didn't. So now you're wrong. Ooh, who, wrong. Which brings me to this, Logan. Do you want to know why I don't want to make picks? It's because of at Sam Leo Rob. Oh, shit.

Oh, shit. Hi, Sam. Oh, shit. So, Logan, you tweeted, quote, we still don't trust you, heat to Boston a couple days ago. Yeah. At Sam Leo Robb says, nice, I wasn't even in this tweet. So he's responding to you, but he's tagging me. Nice peels pick last night, at Howard Beck.

I'm like, and I was to. Nice pills pick, asshole. That's really what he's saying. It was really like at asshole. So I'm looking at this. I'm like, did I pick the Pelicans? I don't remember picking the Pelicans. When did I do that?

I must have been on the podcast. Did I do that on the podcast? So I tweeted back in him. I said, I honestly couldn't tell you now who I picked on a show we taped three days ago, nor would I care. And not sure why you would either. It's just all off the cuff guessing, which frankly, folks, it is. I'm not a prognosticator. I'm not advising you on your bets.

I'm not a gambling guy. Like, the pick means literally nothing. I don't know why you care. Shout out Fandul, shout out Fandul. If you like to do that sort of thing and you're a responsible adult by all means indulge. However, my picks mean nothing and they are not for Fandul purposes or anybody else's purposes. It's just a pick. I didn't even know we were going to make picks.

But then Raja said, I took the time to go back and listen because I was not sure. Like, did I really say that? Roger picked the Pelicans first. And Logan, you go, what about you, Howard? like, yeah, I think the Pelicans too, because it had been really close in game one. You know what I think, though? I gave, I gave 0.1 second of thought to that. And so now, so yes, so at Sam Leo Robbs that says, you picked the Pels, it was a bad pick.

So I said, finally last night, I said, I sincerely apologize for my thoughtless, spontaneous off the cup pick of the team that you don't root for. And any discomfort or lost wages it may have caused. He says apology, except to just don't let it happen again. Sam, all I can say is this. you for listening to the real ones. I thank you again for listening today. Give us a great rating and review on whichever podcast platform you happen to use. I appreciate it. If I make any more picks in the future, I hope they're ones that do not cause you any emotional discomfort or lost wages, but just realize at the end of the day, I do not give any number of flying bucks

about my picks. I just don't care. If you use them for betting purposes or something, something that's cost you money, that's on you. I'm sorry. And the words of the Immortal Too Short, get up off Twitter. That's the lesson in all of this. Yeah, that's the lesson. That is the lesson in all this. But there you go. You want to know I'm not going to make picks. It's because of at Sam Leo Robb. Just one guy. Actually, it's because years ago, sorry, quick aside on this, I'll stop. When I was at Bleacher Report, we did a shit ton of videos. And at one point, we were picking every game of every series all the time.

and I absolutely hated it. I loved a lot of things I did there. This is not to criticize anybody there, but it's just what we were doing at the time. We were pumping out a ton of video. And so literally, like, it's the cheapest, easiest thing to do is just like pump out predictions. And you're just going to be wrong a lot if you're picking every game all the time.

And I'm, again, I'm not a prognosticator and I don't care. And I'm not trying to see the future. And if I can see the future, I would just retire from journalism and make a shit ton of money, betting instead and live a life of luxury. but I can't see the future. I'm sorry. I apologize for not being able to see the future. And I apologize for triggering you.

Shit. Hey, Kerm, every rundown. If you see predictions and Howard is on the show, take them motherfuckers off. Anyways. Speaking of which, we are going to predict the fate

of the Phoenix Suns really, really quickly. Also, real quick, tangent, I don't, they get in my mentions. They get in your, mentions. They don't seem to get in Raja's mentions of real ones. I think they scared of Raja.

I think they scared of the clapback. I think they're scared to Raja. They also know he does not ever, ever, ever tweet and he'll never see it. Yeah, also that too. Only person that sees apparently the tweets because like, bro, I'm going to be honest with you. I've been off off that shit for

a long time for the most part. And yeah, like it's been great, Howard. Not being on Twitter has been great. I'm sitting there on the couch. It's a timeout. I'm like, oh, let's see what's going on before the game comes back on.

Then, you know, this happens. The only reason why I even said the tweet that got you messed up is because I've been listening to this new, we don't trust. We still don't trust you by Metro Boomer in the future. I know this is not your bag, Howard. But I've been listening to it. You see the like expression on my face. And I just wanted it.

And I just wanted to like, I thought I was watching the boss of the e-game. And I was like, I got to get this bit of. weak fake creativity off and I need to send this tweet. And it was, it was regrettable because now we have this, we just spit 15 minutes on it. Trust me. Amix burner. I'll say I may and mix burner.

I would have, I would have been, I would have been telling you no more predictions regardless, but I'm just going to blame that Sam Leo, Rob. Okay. All right. Anyways, uh, back to, uh, back to the Phoenix Suns. who I'm going to predict loses this series, which I double down on.

But one of the things that we were talking about even in the text exchange yesterday was just like, where do the Phoenix Suns go from here? Right? Like their roster, especially in the Western Conference, despite the scoring talent that they do possess and Katie, Devin Booker, and Bradley Bill, their playing team, it seems like, at best right now. They're borderline 6C playing team.

That's not what Matt Ispia signed up for. Yet he is in hell going into this offseason with this roster set up. You have Kevin Rennie's 35 years old, Bradley Beale, who has a no trade clause. Why do we do that? How do we make that happen? What the hell? That's the real things that need to be, to be, figured out in the collective bargaining agreement.

Who and who should not have a trade, a trade clause in their contract? And then you have Devin Booker who is just still there. Just, you know, occasional great scoring binge. And then, you know, it's just there. He's just there. The sons have officially hit a ceiling. Put your GM cap on. What do you do to this roster?

I just think, honestly, this roster. Just begs you to break it down to the studs. Trade away everyone. Put Devin Booker in a place where he can be successful. And just make the roster kick rocks, man. That's all. Make the NBA better by dismantling your franchise and starting from the ground up. Full.

Yeah, I just want to just throw the caveat on this conversation that as we discussed this, it is only 2-0 and they're going home and maybe the sun's a nasty 2-0 though this is a bad it's like a this is like a you talked about the lakers down being down too will coming back to the lakers this go back to l a this is kind of similar territory we're in right now i have not believed in the suns from the beginning so i'm not about to start believing now um maybe they extend the series and everything and then they they may well but i don't i don't expect them to win it and so no you don't spend eight billion dollars or whatever and every draft pick you have until the end of time time to go out in the first round. And if that's where this is going and certainly seems to be

the case, yeah, there's a, like, soul searching in the offseason doesn't even seem strong enough. And I don't know what you do. I really don't. Bradley Beale's making way too much money, even without the trade clause. It would be really hard. Like, a team is not going to want to acquire him without getting something for it, meaning picks, which you don't have. So there's no way. That's a lot of money to pay somebody who averages 17 wins a game right now and can barely stay on the floor. With an extensive, extensive injury history and more. And a no trade clause. Right.

But I'm saying, dude, we could wave. We could magically make the no trade clause disappear right now, Logan. You still won't find a way to trade him. You just won't because nobody wants that contract. And again, if you were a team, if you were rebuilding team, like the Thunder, like, did a really good job of in their down years, like using their cap room to take on other people's bad contracts and take picks with them as payment for it. And some other teams have done that along the way too. But you can't even do that. His contract's too big.

And again, the Sun's case, they don't have any picks to induce you with. And they can't afford to use them that way because they need them to use whatever they might have. they would need to use to get other players. So Beal's just going to be there until he retires. Not a bad place to be until you retired. I'll shout out Bradley Billver get into the bag and get into a good situation in terms of money. Some people like the weather there. I guess there's a lot of good golf if you're into that sort of thing.

I think the real issue is like the clock's ticking on Durant. And, you know, you don't have really the tools to, to, fix this roster. I don't know how you get there. And I think there's a legitimate, like, Bill already started to go down this road on one of his podcasts this week. You know, you start going down the road of and trust me, my mind's gone there too. Like, who's asking out first? Booker or Durant or both? And I know that feels incredibly premature and Durant just got there, but it's not outside the realm of possibility for a guy with his history. And, Booker's been through all kinds of stuff, including a finals run, but things have gone really

badly since that finals run or just really wonky since that finals run. So I said this, I think I said this on Bill's Pot a couple weeks ago. Like, I know everybody like says like, oh, the Nets, oh, they're screwed. You know, they, you know, they sent out all their picks and on the Hardin deal and all this. The Nets own all those Sons picks from the Durant deal. And if I were a third team, I think I would rather have the. the Nets cash of Sun's picks than the Sun, than the Rockets' cash of Nets' picks at this stage.

Like, I think those, like, especially right now, the worst this looks, the more possibility of a crash and burn in Phoenix and them just being in purgatory, the better those picks that the Nets own of the Sons look. So, I don't know how you get out of this is the thing. You got to trade Devin Booker and Kevin Duran, bro. Like it's not even,

to replenish. And I think, yeah. And I think even if they acts out, I don't even think it's a matter of bad will or ill will. I think by all accounts, Matt Ishby has been a great owner in terms of like the way players see him, right? Like I'm not saying he's made the right decisions.

But at this point, it seems like people like playing for him. So I don't feel like this would be a notion of, this is just, oh man, this is terrible. I got to go. It's more of like,

it's been real. We've hit a ceiling. It's time to part way. And I do think that if you do have, if you have that attitude with it, I think it'll be fine. But like, you've got to get those assets back. And here's another thing. If you trade away KD and Devin Booker, I got to think that Bradley Bill is also going to be like, yeah, man, I don't want to stay here.

I'm going to demand a trade too. And maybe he works with, maybe he works with. maybe he works with why are you laughing Howard I'm trying to make a case here trying to make a take I'm not laughing at you I'm laughing at you I'm laughing at the idea of Bradley Beale wanting to be

traded to where exactly to say I want to win nothing suggests that I'm thinking about it Bradley Beale signed extension after extension after extension after extension with the Washington Wizards he doesn't go away

Howard as soon as I said that I just I got a mental picture of Ava Wallace and Candace Buckner just looking at me in the face like I'm stupid just looking at me like are you serious are you serious right now? Can I just remind the listeners?

I just want to remind the listeners Bradley Beale's making 53.6 million insane. Excuse me. 50 next year then 53.6 and then 57 in the 26 27 season at age 33. He will be making 57 million dollars.

Shout out to him, though. Like, I'm not hating as a general premise. Like, go ahead to get your bag. It ain't my money. But like, if no team is going to want to acquire that.

None, even if he doesn't have a no trade clause. Who's acquiring? For 17 points a game. We've seen the proof of the put. But anyway, the point of saying is, you know,

there is a plausible thing of like, hey, man, it's been real guys. Let's, especially Devin Booker, who is a guy on record and off the record, is a guy that really wants to win, right?

Or at least wants to be a guy that is contending for championships. He's not going to do that in Phoenix with this roster. KD, he only has a couple, a few more years left at this level. Now, we keep saying that and he keeps balling despite all the odds, but there's only so much, I can definitely see them both asking out in May and it not even being as big of a deal as it was in Brooklyn. I just don't know where would they go, though, right? Like, I don't know where Devin goes.

You could probably have a thing that. It was Kevin say, like, I want to go to the Warriors. You know? Does that happen? There's, I mean, it would, it would definitely, it would be an interesting thing. Booker to the Knicks seems like the most obvious thing in the world, right? CAA ties. They've still got those draft picks that they've been sitting on.

They've got some interesting young players they could deal. I don't know if it's enough. That's the thing. Like the second, if Booker is on the market, the Knicks are going to start, you know, they're, you know, they'll throw everything at it. The Nets have all those picks. I don't know that the Thunder would go this direction because you could just sit on the young guys that you have, but they have all the picks in the world. Like the Thunder could win any bidding war they want to if it's about draft capital. I just don't know what if and when they'll ever want to do that. I don't think they would do it for Booker, though. They have Shay Gilgis Alexander.

They're pretty stout. They're good. And Jalen Williams, right? Like, like, you know, you're going to stick with the young upside. Yeah. And, like, I just don't, I don't know. I mean, I could definitely, that would be plausible, I think, for the Knicks to, for Devin Booker would be probably, like, the best case scenario for all involved, right?

Like, they get their, the Knicks get their star. You still have a, you could pair Devin Booker alongside Jaylen Brunson. and they'll still be a factor, see what Julius Randall is looking like next season. That would be fun. And then, I mean, I don't know where else Durant would go. And, you know, don't out. Please don't, don't aggregate this, please.

I'm just talking. It's two buds talking. But I think that's the only path for the warriors to get back to where they want to in the time period that they want to be in is trading for KD. Now, I don't even know they have the draft. I mean, they have the capital to do that.

Like, do they do the, um, do the, um, do the Phoenix Sun just asks for a shit ton of all, like all of the warriors picks going forward? Like, is that, they do the next five drafts to get Durant and then say, oh, I'm going to get come. I want comminga. We'll take, um, Wiggins's deal too. And then, you know, we'll get moody. We'll take half of your roster.

But like you get KD and you guys know how to play alongside each other and maybe you guys can make a run at it. It'll be interesting. I don't know where else like Katie would go, but the top of mine will go like, does you go back to the Warriors? Back to the Warriors would be fun. Like I'm always a sucker for a good like just symmetrical. You just want to come back to the Bay, man, and saying hang with your butt. Like that's really what it is.

Just come through. Pull up. It absolutely paves the way for me to, uh, to, uh, to grip more trips to the Bay Area. But, um, but no, I just, I love the idea of like, listen, he, I, he never should have left in the first place and maybe a few years later he thinks about it differently. Who knows? That's the most fun version of it. He's not going back to Oklahoma. He's not going back to Brooklyn. So there's no other storybook endings, you know, a la LeBron back to Cleveland, right? But Durant back to the Warriors would be fun. I'm looking at Bobby Marks' asset Roundup or his offseason roundup with all the assets. Warriors are allowed to trade their 2025 first

round pick starting on the night of this draft and then they have a maximum of two firsts in the next seven years after that so they can trade like three picks I think um so you know and they've got some interesting young players like the the words could do a picks and players package if the if the sons weren't known we'll see what's the worst case scenario what's another team you see for durand like what's another another team that might be um that you could see is it Miami maybe i don't I don't know. Like, man, I mean, as a team that. The heat are going to be on every, every type of conversation like that.

I can see the Sixers doing it, too, by the way. Like, I don't know how they get the, the Sixers is tough because I don't know if they've got the means to trade for him. They've got all that cap room. So they can actually make, you know, they can make an imbalance trade where they absorb his contract, I think. Honestly, I haven't looked at the math. I take that back. I don't know if they could actually absorb it. But it would be a lot easier, given all the cap room they have.

But like, who are you sending back that the sons actually want? But, like, you know, Durant with Maxine and Embed would be amazing. But I don't know if they've got the means to pull that off. You know, it always comes down to two things like, where is he willing to go? You know, because, like, ooh, like the Grizzlies have a lot of intriguing possibilities. And they could be a team that could just make, you know, snap back right into the thick things in the West. But like, does he want to play in Memphis? Like, I don't want to assume.

But most of these guys, especially that stage of their career, are looking to. to bigger markets or, you know, straight up just contenders. Do the clips do it? Maybe Paul George goes to the Sixers as a free agent and the clips somehow pull off a deal for Durant? All for them to go potentially lose in the first round again, right? Like the Clippers. The Clippers are who they are. Did you see the trailer for the Hulu show on the Clippers based off of Ramon Shelfare and

Hey, hey, that's, that's, there we go. I found my ruin of the week. Thank you so much. Yes. But yeah, that's going to be fun. That's going to be fun. I did watch the trailer. My homie, we'll just keep that for one of the week.

But, yeah, I think it's just depressing when you start talking about these trades. We'll see what happens. I don't want to say too much. We'll save that for the group chat. Let's get to a segment we like to call. real one of the week. I'm going to go, I'm going to start it off because I don't think Howard has his yet. I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do one. Speaking of the clipped FX show, I'm going to give a real one of the week to my guy, Rembert Brown, who was a writer on that show. And also, I believe in producer, I got to check. But I know he was a writer. He's involved in that show. He's been working on it for a few years now. And he's, he's, he's, I can't wait.

to watch it, uh, clipped on FX coming out, uh, June 4th, I believe. And also speaking, if we're going to keep it in LA, man, I just, before the episode, Kerm brought up Simply Halsom in Los Angeles on Slauson and immediately got me hungry. And I just want to give a just a shout out for no other reason than I love Simply Hulsome. If you're in the L.A. area, tap into Simply Halsam on Slosson, um, get to shrimp tacos or to fish tacos. I fuck with them. heavy. I miss him so much. I'm going to tap in next time I'm in LA, bro. But shout out to Simply Halsome. Black-owned. And who was your ruin of the week? That was even a paid segment. We should get paid for that segment. You should get them as a sponsor. Maybe, but I mean,

you know what I mean? But it ain't even about that. It's an organic lifestyle. You know what I mean? It's not even about that. That's how good Simply Hulsome is. I don't even need to get paid for it. You know, shout out to Simply Housom. Shout out to Simply Housom. Shout out to everybody. of South Central. I see you. Ah, all the shits. Phenomenal. So if my real one of the week is slightly self-indulgent, I apologize in advance, and I'm doing this off the top of my head because I wasn't prepared. It's your real one of the week. Be it correct.

Here you go. Real one of the week. Ben Anderson. Who's Ben Anderson? This is who Ben Anderson is. Ben Anderson is a guy who when I was riding the F train the other day, going into Manhattan. I'm about to get off

switch trains at J Street Metro Tech. A guy who was sitting across the way looks at me. I'm standing up. And he says, are you Howard Beck? And this doesn't happen to me very often, Logan. So when it does, I always appreciate it. I don't believe this. I don't believe this. It was a stressful day.

I was having a rough one. And Ben Anderson made my day. So I don't know who this person. He says, you Howard Beck? I said, yes, he says, and I quote, he said, I love your job. journalism. And the great thing about that is when somebody has occasionally, like, I'm not on TV. I don't usually get recognized. Occasionally it happens and it's cool. It's fun. It's nice. It's very flattering. But usually it's like, oh, man, I love those, like, you know, this video or

that podcast or whatever. But like, I'm, I'm a career journalist. When somebody actually uses, like, invokes that, that word, it wasn't just like, I loved, I loved your journalism. Oh, that was really nice. Thank you. But, uh, so I said, we're chatting for a little bit before I get off the subway. I said, what do you do? he's an actor on Broadway. He's in the production Stereophonic. That's the one that's loosely based on Fleetwood Mac. Oh, wow.

Has gotten fantastic reviews and everything. I have not seen it yet. So shout out to Ben Anderson. And shout out Stereophonic. Absolutely, I'm going to go now. Now that I met him, like, I think that was a sign. I got to go check it out. But I made my date.

It was really cool. So there's my real one. That's what stuff. Shout out to the homie. And also shout out to journalism. because it is not just some novelty. You know, the shit is real. We out here.

And also, Howard, just know. You're Howard motherfucking Beck, bro. People know who you are. You know who the fuck you are? You know how juiced we are? I'm not on TV. I'm a byline. I'm just an anonymous, baseless byline.

That's all I am. But occasionally somebody. Every time I go into my YouTube, I see an algorithm of Howard Beck on Rich Eisen or some shit. Some ways, some shit. Like,

just shit that's just far out there. You know what I mean? Like, people don't, don't, don't, don't, don't get me started on the Illuminati life that you live

off this podcast. Don't let me expose you. Don't, don't do it. Don't let me, don't do it. Anyways, um,

uh, I'm going to say this because Kerm will kill me before I, before I, if I don't say this before we leave, real ones mailbag at gmail. com. Real ones mailbag at gmail. com.

Real onesmailbag at gmail. We'll be answered. answer your questions on Monday. Tap in. Ah, all the shits. We will see you on Monday. I think Roger will be back. He better be back.

We'll see you guys on Monday to find out. All right. Talk to you guys soon. All the shits. Bye. Let's be 21 years and older. 18 years and older in D.C. and President Select States.

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