The Ringer NBA Show - Weakened Warriors, LeBron Flips the Switch, and the Sixers Soar | Heat Check (Ep. 235)

Episode Date: March 26, 2018

The Ringer’s John Gonzalez is joined by Kevin O’Connor to weigh playoff concerns for the Golden State Warriors with a sidelined Stephen Curry (2:35). Then, Joe House calls in to discuss how LeBron James’s recent hot streak bolsters the Cavaliers’ title chances (21:25). Finally, Jason Concepcion comes on to apologize for underestimating the now-potent Philadelphia 76ers (38:06) and explain how the Knicks fail at tanking (47:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's Ringer NBA show Heat Check is brought to you by Seatgeek. Seatgeek is the best app for buying and selling tickets to sporting events, concerts, and more. For $20 off your first Seatgeek purchase on any game or sporting event, all you have to do is use the promo code, Ringer NBA. Download the Seatgeek app or go right to Seatgeek.com. Heat Check is also brought to you by Theringer.com. On the site today, you can find an excellent piece by Haley O'Shaughnessy, highlighting the on-off lords in the NBA, players whose teams sync when they're off the court,

Spoiler alert, Joel Embed of my beloved 76ers is one such player. I didn't write this. My producer, Isaac Lee, knows me quite well. You're right. Joelle Embed on this list, you've got to read it. Also on the Ringer Podcast Network, you can find the wildly entertaining one-shining podcast with Titus and Tate, whose latest episode reacted to the Elite Eight Games from this weekend. They'll also be previewing the NCAA Final Four next weekend, so be on the lookout for that.

And now, let's go heat check. Heat Check. You know that was coming. It's heat check time. Welcome to the Heat Check podcast. I'm your host, John Gonzalez, joined as I am every week by our producer Isaac Lee in the other room. Hello. Hello, Isaac is enthusiastic. He had a great weekend. We had a great weekend on the site. There was lots of basketball coverage from the NCAA tournament that you can find right now on the ringer.com. Roger Sherman wrote about winners and losers from the elite eight and charks. Wrote about how zone defense saved Duke's season until it didn't. And of course, as I mentioned in the open before the program, Titus and Tate were all over the tournament with the one shining.

podcast. So you want to check that out. You want to check that out later on the week when they preview the final four as well. But we got NBA here for you at the Heat Check podcast. A lot of interesting things happening. LeBron James's post-all-star run has been absolutely amazing. And meanwhile, on the not-so-amazing front, the Wizards having some issues. So we go around the globe this time. We've gone international. We're going to go to Joe House, our Jamaica Bureau Chief. He's going to join us from sunny Jamaica to discuss some basketball. And Jason Concepcion will be here later on as well. We're going to play a new game with Jason Concepcion, Isaac.

We're going to ask him what he believes and doesn't believe because he's a truth teller. He's going to tell us the truth. But first, some big injuries to big players on big teams. And for that, we need a big basketball expert. Isaac, let's bring him in. All right, joining me in studio. He's our resident expert NBA senior chief top dog correspondent. I believe that's the main official title.

He's Kevin O'Connor. What's up, Kevin? How are you doing, Gons? Good, buddy. Better than Steph Curry and the Warriors. Apparently, the injuries keep happening for Golden State. They were sort of chugging along there, and then all of a sudden, the wheels came off with various injuries. First, it was Kevin Durant and Clay Thompson.

And now, Steph Curry, again, he has a grade two MCL sprain of his left knee, that he suffered a win over the Hawks on Friday. He's going to be re-evaluated in three weeks. The average recovery time is six weeks. I did the math. We're five weeks from the beginning of the second round of the playoffs. Whomp, uh-oh, how worried are you about Steph Curry? It's scary.

It is scary Gons because he's not the only guy banged up on that team. Yeah. Right? Durant has the rib thing. Incomplete rib fracture deal. Whatever it is. I don't know what that means, but it sounds bad. So six weeks. If he comes back at five weeks, that's the start of the second round, it's fine.

But what if it's a little bit longer than the six weeks? It's only seven weeks until the Western Conference finals. Not to mention that there's no easy outs in the West this year. Right. Unless they get matched up. with a team like the Clippers maybe. That might be a quote unquote easier out, but there are no easier outs on the Warriors this season.

There's a stat in my article on The Ringer.com where they outscore opponents by 14 points per 100 possessions anytime Stefan Curry's on the floor. But when he's off and at least one of their three other stars are on the floor, they outscore the opponent only by two and a half points for 100 possessions. That's less. Yeah, that's way less. They go from amazing with Steph to pretty good with everybody else.

Shoulder shrug. And that's the scary part for any first round matchup, which could be really hard, which OKC or San Antonio or second round matchups as well. Well, let's do the first round matchup as it stands right now as we record this, Kevin O'Connor. They'd be matched up with the Minnesota Timberwolves at a game a couple of weeks ago. That was a little scrappy game. Who knows what the Timberwolves are going to look like in the playoffs against the Warriors? And like you said, they're still an amazing team. They've got Kevin Durant.

I would bet on them over everybody else, even without staff. Karee. However, all of a sudden, you go, it gets a little dicey. So what do you think about that matchup if it holds against the Timberwolves? Any chance that the Timberwolves could pull a crazy first round upset? I think it depends a lot on whether Jimmy Butler comes back. If they get Jimmy Butler

back and if Jimmy Butler is Jimmy Butler, right? If he's himself, then I certainly think they're going to be a tough out because, look, Minnesota's been hard on Golden State in the past. Carl Anthony Towns is one of the few big men in the league who give Dream on a hard time. Sometimes he even tosses

him around when Towns is posting up. So they're tough. They still need Jimmy Butler. They need him to get back. Because like you said, Gold State still has a guy by the name of Kevin Durant. He's very good. I've watched him play basketball. And they need a guy like Jimmy Butler to at least hopefully neutralize him. But even then like, dude, like the standings are still so tight.

There's three and a half games separating the five seed and the 10 seed where this could get shot. A lot of movement. A lot of movement could happen. I think though initially when I heard about the injury, grade two, you're hoping he can get back and whatever. And initially, Steph said he wanted to get back as soon as possible. And I thought, oh, that's great. Steve Kerr said, there's no way he plays in the first round.

Immediately said that he's out for the first round. And again, as we mentioned, five weeks away from the second round, the average recovery time is three to six weeks. If you're not going to try to push him because you think you could kind of squeeze past the Timberwolves or whomever they play in the first round and just wait until he can like, you know, come back at his own pace in the second round, then he still has to get back in like a little bit of a rhythm, right? You've been on the shelf for a second. You've got to knock off some of that rust. Once he gets through this, can you even fully count on one, him being healthy or two,

him being staff again? Like immediately, like, how soon do we feel like, okay, we're comfortable relying on him if you're the Warriors. Well, when he came back in 2016, he scored 40 points on 32 shots in his first game back against the players.

He killed it. He was dominant. He was unbelievable. But he still lacked a little bit of the same juice that wiggle that did negatively affect him. It made it a little bit harder on. him against the Oklahoma City Thunder and then against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the finals, as we saw in that one of those final possessions when Kevin Love was able to defend him and

prevent Stefan Curry from getting an open look. So yeah, he could be 100%, but I don't feel totally confident that he would be based on the fact that he wasn't the same Steph Curry when he came back from a grade 1 MCL spring before. And here's the other part. Here's a guy that has had a ton of ankle sprains already this season. That's not going away. This is what I wanted to ask you risk for injury. So there was a period there at the beginning of his career where people were like, yeah, he's kind of an injury risk. And then he got through that, right? And he was a killer MVP. And everybody went, oh, you can't stop him. He's good. One of the best ever. He's through it. And now all of a sudden, we're starting to see these flare-ups again. And I'm wondering, like, not to say that he's an injury risk or injury prone,

but what's your level of concern for long-term injuries with Steph Curry? Because, as we've noted many times, with him on the court, the Warriors are damn near unbeatable. And with them off, you start to go, Maybe. Well, this is why I'm like a broken record always tweeting, don't take LeBron James for granted. Because it can all go away quickly. It can all go downhill quickly. And that's also true for Stefan Curry. Just because it's been a couple of years since he hasn't had the ankle injuries, just because it's been a couple of years since Kauai Leonard had quad trouble doesn't mean that stuff can't come back. LeBron James hasn't had the back problems for a couple of years. Doesn't mean it can't come back. So you can't take these star players for granted because look historically. Not all these guys last until their late 30s.

Most of them don't. It's so crazy, too, because at the beginning of the year, we had said, everybody was basically checked out, right? We went, okay, we know what the ultimate outcome is going to be. So we have to figure out other things to be interested in about the NBA. With the one caveat, and the one caveat was always, well, if the warriors suffer an injury or injuries, then you don't know, right? And now we're kind of in that scenario.

These aren't like the kind of injuries where you go, okay, stuff's out in perpetuity and he's going to miss all the, playoffs and now it's really in flux. But they're the kind of injuries that could be nagging through the season. You don't know how much they're going to linger. You don't know how much discomforts that KD is still experiencing. You don't know. And Steph himself said that he's not going to be able to get to 100% with his ankles.

This was on Thursday before the injury. Yes. That it's not going to happen until the off season. So we had previously talked, you and I and some other people on the heat check program about like what percentage chance or how much we think like the rockets could get past them. Now all of a sudden the calves are playing better. The Raptors were all already there.

You look at this mix for the playoffs, you know, not just in the Western Conference playoffs, but also the finals, the potential finals matchups, should they even make it that far? And now you've got not just, you know, maybe the Rockets, but now you've got potentially some other teams from the East who could give them problems if they're not fully healthy. Yeah. It's really fascinating. So I wanted to talk to you, too, about how they'll play Sands Steph Curry, if they'll change it up, if that changes their rotations, if it changes the way they play. They're five and five over the last 10. They're falling five and a half games behind the rocket. as we record this. That's a wrap.

Rockets got the one seed locked up. Will they play differently? Will they change their rotations? Will there be different minutes load? You wrote on your piece that's on the ringer.com today about Quinn Cook being a guy that they've had to throw. Quinn Cook is the answer. All of a sudden they've got to use Quinn Cook.

This is crazy. I mean, I think here's the thing about Golden State. You can say this about any team. Take away their best shooters. They don't have a lot of great shooters on the team. But it's especially true with Golden State. take away Steph, take away KD, take away Clay. There's nobody on that roster you're really sweating about when they're standing behind the three-point line.

I mean, Draymond can heat up and he has in the past. Eagle Dahl can heat up just like he has in the past. But these guys are struggling shooting the ball this year. And that's the thing I'm kind of worried about without Steph. Because with KD, he's going to have less driving lanes. There's going to be less open space when Steph. isn't sucking the defense away from the paint like he does. So will their style play change?

I think it does. I think you'll see more isolations with Kevin Durant, maybe a little bit less ball movement and less three-point shooting. They've shooting quite a lot more mid-range dumpers this season when Steph is off the floor compared to when he's on. So they're going to look a little bit different now until Steph comes back. And a lot of the reason why is because they don't have the depth of shooting that they perhaps did in the past when they had guys like Leonardo Barbosa coming off their bench.

So that's something I'm a little bit concerned about for them, and it speaks to how much I need Quinn Cook to really continue elevating his play like he has out of his way. I can't believe that we've spent this much time on the heat check program talking about Quinn Cook. Quinn Cook. But the one thing you mentioned there. He does. He does look good.

You're right now you're wearing a Yanna shirt. Next week when you come in, you're going to be wearing a Quinn Cook shirt. I love that. One thing that you mentioned that I wanted to talk about that we haven't talked about yet, But when we were at Sloan, Darrym Worry mentioned this. And he was saying, like, look at the way that the Warriors play basketball, right? And it's very pass heavy, share the ball, a lot of movement. And you mentioned that they might have to have some more ISO, which is the Rockets Ballywick.

It's fascinating that those two teams have been so good and played such radically different styles of basketball. Because when the Warriors are whipping the ball around the perimeter and sharing it and shooting well, it's a beautiful form of basketball, right? and it's starkly different than the Houston Rockets who are basically like, they're scoring off their first and second actions, and they're at the bottom of the league in sharing the ball. Well, I mean, both can be beautiful. I mean,

I know some people think the Rockets are ugly, but I like blondes and burnets. Okay. So, like, what difference is it like? What difference does it make? Look, here's the thing. Isolations are important. Sure.

At the end of the clock and the fourth quarter, when defenses are locked in, you need one bucket, and you need to go to your best guy. And that's why nobody's, going to say, oh, Gold State has no chance. Because they have Kevin freaking Durant. So they have one of the greatest isolation

scores in the history of the damn game, right? But the thing is, is you still need your offense. And that's where Nott's having Steph is going to hurt them. They still are stacked. Absolutely, they're still stacked. But it has, as you mentioned, thrown sort of the Western Conference playoff picture into flux because now, you know, if you're going to catch them in the playoffs,

you're catching them where they're a little bit banged up. But also... Isn't this nice, though? Is it great? You know what? Like I said, at the beginning of the year, it was cooked, right? This whole thing was baked. We knew it was going to happen.

We knew we were going to pull it out of the oven. It was going to have a championship for the Warriors. And that was going to be the end of it. Unless you are hot for Houston. Well, yeah. And Danny and Danny's defense, Danny Chow has been all over Houston from the very beginning. And then there was also the angle with like if Gordon Hayward and their chiroving, I mean, look, here's the thing.

Gold State, they never should have been considered inevitable. Favorites, yes, inevitable, no. They were very, very heavy favorite bordering on inevitability. But nothing's inevitable. You're right. And we're learning that now, and a lot of that has to do with injuries. But in addition to that, not only does it throw the playoffs into flux, and you mentioned this in your piece as well, and I highly recommend everybody on the ringer.com, all NBA got kind

interesting now. You might not have. Curry has only played 51 games, which is nine fewer than Irving, who will also miss the rest of the regular season with his knee injury. All of a sudden, you're looking at the six guard positions in the all NBA voting, and there are nine candidates. you've got Curry Thompson, James Hardin, Russell Westbrook, Dame Lillard, DeMarteroze, and Chris Paul, Kyrie, and Vic Oladipo.

You've got to leave three out. I think we need a fourth theme. It's really interesting that, like that, possibly, I'm not going to say probably, but possibly no Curry. I think Curry gets in. You think he gets it anyway. Even with that smaller, like he hasn't played a ton. I think the big name guy is getting in.

Westbrook gets in, Curry gets in, Chris Paul gets. And I think it'll be a guy like Oladipa who gets in. And then Irving, two consecutive seasons hasn't made it. So it seems reasonable to assume that perhaps for a third he won't get on. Also because injury issues. And let's get into Kyrie there too because he had a minimally invasive procedure on his left knee where he's going to be out three to six weeks as well. And we mentioned how that lines up with the playoffs.

And it looks like he's definitely going to miss around maybe more. But they removed a quote, tension wire from his knee, which I was like, what? I didn't know that that was in there. That's interesting. I was reading about that. I guess with the surgery that he had, it's the type of thing they put that in there to stabilize the tendon, but that can often break or need to be removed in the future. And that's exactly what happened. So the Celtics put out some vibes that they are. There were various reports

that the Celtics after this minimally invasive procedure and they keep using those words are optimistic about it. I'm like, well, no, you're never going to be optimistic when your best player has to get shut down for knee surgery. But sure, if you want to say that you're optimistic. There's the same thing that's stuff. Everybody on Twitter is like, good news. It's like, how is this good news? It's no such thing. Exactly right. So, but from the Sports Illustrated piece about this, they said that not only was it minimally invasive, this is like the Celtics spin, but the surgery revealed that the fracture Patelah that he was playing with in 2015 is completely healed. And this is reading the tea leaves, right? Like obviously

Sports Illustrated was talking to some people from the Celtics here. And they said the spin was that the Celtics can live with an early playoff exit in year one of a drastic rebuild. But to enter 2018, 19, with two stars on the men would have been a cruel twist to Danny Aanges slow but mass. of overhaul. I take on bridge with this, this take. They can live with an early out. I don't know, because at the beginning of the season, yeah, they lost Gordon Hayward, but all of a sudden they were killing it. They were on a long winning street. Kyrie Irvin was absolutely murdering people. It looked like a great marriage. It is a great marriage with Brad Stevens. They've got Jason Tatum. They've got Jalen Brown. This is a good team. This has to be a disappointment for them.

Well, so in my article in the Celtics last month, I wrote something that's kind of to your point where they are ahead of schedule in the grand scheme of things. But, yet there's also a feeling of disappointment based on the expectations entering the season. And I poorly wrote that paragraph and it made it look like I said the Celtics were behind schedule. So in my article today, I kind of touched on that same topic. You fixed it. You got a delete key and everything. So I fixed it in my article today and kind of focused on that.

And the season is a disappointment based on the expectations before the season. But the circumstances change the potential results. So you've got to look at what the cards that have they've dealt. That means Jason Tatum gets an opportunity to carry this team for a couple weeks. Jalen Brown sees an elevated role. You get to see what Terry Rozier is really about. There's other things to watch for with this team, aside from hoping they win a title if you're a Celtics fan,

because the thing is that's not going to happen without Gordon Hayward. It's not until next season that they're an actual title contender. Yeah, the storylines are different, and there are interesting things to look for. And on my way into work today, I was listening to Sirius NBA. and they were like, they were doing the more like silver lining thing. They're like,

this is good news because you get to see more Jalen Brown. And I'm like, I'm like, okay, and more Jason Tatum. It's not good news. I don't know about good news, right,

because especially because not to do too much of the what if game, but exactly what we were just saying, if you look at like the way that the playoffs are suddenly like up for grabs. And now the calves are playing well and like the raptors were there. And if you had a healthy Kyrie and or a healthy Gordon Hayward,

all of a sudden, the Boston Celtics are like really truly in the mix. And it would have been fascinating. They're probably pushing for maybe 60 wins of Hayward's healthy the entire season if Irving never gets hurt. As we do this right now, the way that the matchup would be

in the first round would be Boston Celtics against the Milwaukee Bucks. You are, as we record this, wearing a Yana shirt where he's in flames, he had a 60 minutes. He has his mean mug on. He's got his mean mug on. He had his 60 minutes interview yesterday.

No Kyrie. Are we looking at maybe potential, because the bucks have been sort of like like hovering around 500 post All-Star break, they've been fine. Like Danny wrote a piece about building around unicorns and how sometimes we get over-optimistic about unicorns

and what they can actually do with these teams that are middle of the pack. Do you think that they could pull the upset? I think on the unicorn topic, it's like David Griffin said it's Sloan 2017. It's on the front office. They're the ones who have the responsibility of building around these great players.

He was talking about LeBron. Sure. It's also true with Milwaukee. It's like, Yanis is the guy that he carries that team and he'd give them a chance in the playoffs. I think he'd certainly, he'd be the best player on the floor in a series against Celtics and anytime you get a chance. I still think Boston's team is overall better and deeper, probably even with Irving either just coming back because it was three weeks at the earliest. Right. You can come back six weeks at the latest. I think Irving perhaps has a better chance of

coming back early than Steph based on the history of their respective injuries, the situations rather. Just to serve as the Kevin O'Connor heat check translator because he kind of straddle a little bit there. Kevin O'Connor, who's from Boston, he just picked the Milwaukee bucks to upset the Celtics in the first round. This is amazing. We're breaking news here on the heat check program. It'd be tough. It'd be tough without Kyrie. It's the same thing with Steph, though, right? You need a guy who could score for you in the fourth quarter. The best player on the floor will be honest for the Milwaukee bucks. I mean, and I think that's indisputable. Look, I like what the Celtics have done all year. Everybody who knows heat check 1.0 when Juliet and I were hosting it

together regularly. We love the J-Team. J-team's great. They're going to be fantastic. I'd like to see them out there. But if the Bucks are going to pull an upset, this is the time now. This is it. It is the time. If it's the Bucks. The thing is, though, it's Milwaukee's defense is still it's still so bad. It's still scary level bad, whereas Boston, they are still an elite defensive team. They are tremendous. They can win a series on their defense in the first round. And yet you have your doubts. You've left Boston behind. You don't even care about that set anymore. You haven't even called your mother, your team bucks now. Yeah, I know Shay will want me to pick aside, but there's more gray area than there is black and white. We don't do nuance on the He-check program.

Nuance is actually a thing. Except for when Kevin O'Connor is here. He wrote an excellent piece on the ringer.com per usual. Check that out today. Check out all his stuff later in the week. Kevin O'Connor, thanks for joining us, buddy. Thank you for having me, Gons. This is fun. All right, before we bring in Joe House on the road via remote, let's get a quick word from our sponsor, Google Assistant. Today's heat check is brought to you by the Google Assistant with the Google Assistant, you can complete over a million actions on your phone, in your car, and around your house. Living in L.A., we spent a lot of time driving.

One of the things that I love about the Google Assistant is that I can send a text hands-free, very handy, and I can just say, hey, Google, text Bill Simmons, I'll be there in 10 minutes, and Bill texts back, stop texting me, how did you get this number? But it's very convenient. Download the Google Assistant now, and now, back to the show. We've decided to go international with heat check. it's just like the old NBC sports spanning the globe. You know him from House of Carbs and Shaq House, which you didn't know.

He's also the ringers Jamaican bureau chief. He's in Jamaica right now scouting a location for the filming of Cool Runnings 2, where he's going to take on the role of John Candy. House, how's production going there? Great? Production is great. First of all, I'm pleased to join you guys today. I'm happy to say that I have not yet consumed anything that might alter my state.

But I have to tell you, I'm in a hurry to get this over with so that I can consume something that might alter my state. I'm also pleased to announce that I will not be attempting a Jamaican accent out of respect for all the good folks here in Jamaica because that's just rude. It is called the Heat Check podcast. I just assumed you would, you would have already consumed something. But if you decide during the program that you want to partake, please do. We'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. All right. So for the Cavs, Joe House, I don't know if you've been watching them. They've been sort of up and down post All-Star break with all of their changes and injuries and there was the trade and they were trying to fit some

pieces in and then of course the ty lu thing went down and and last week lebron james said you know it was one more thing that they've had to deal with but in the midst of that all of a sudden kev's sort of sneaky good one five in a row and joe house lebron james looks absolutely amazing right now well i'm gone let me tell you something that i did yesterday even though i'm i'm in jamaica actually it should have made the transaction a little bit easier there it's easier to tap the international wagering markets. Interesting. Maybe when you're not

stateside. Let me tell you a thing. This is a 100% truth. I legitimately did this yesterday afternoon after the Cavs victory over the nets and after yet another performance by LeBron

James that continues to defy father time. I'm knocking on wood because we cannot have anything to interrupt that, especially after the $200 that I put on the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the NBA final. at 10 to 1 odds, Wongan.

I did it. Here is the story. Here's our narrative talking about the heat check. How about this, Wongan? It was barely three years ago that we went through this very same scenario, Wongan. Barely three years ago, two years ago even. The Golden State Warriors are all of a sudden very vulnerable. We have Steph Curry with a bulky knee.

We have Clay Thompson with a bulky thumb. We have Draymond with a bulky Draymond. I don't know what's wrong with Draymond. Now, of course the Warriors do have Kevin Durand. But now we get to see whether or not that gamble that they made will pay off. It very well may, but I just like the way things are shaping up. This is a Cavaliers team that I can believe in, so much so that my hard-earned American dollars were invested. I'm looking for a nice ROI.

This is a lot to unpack here. I like that you're putting your money where your thoughts are. I was very much out on the cavaliers. I wrote a piece for the ringer.com a couple of weeks ago where I spent time with them while they were out on their Cali Road Swing and they looked completely out of sorts. And this was pre-Tai Liu deciding that he was going to take some time off to worry about his health. They hadn't incorporated any of their pieces the way that they wanted to.

There were a lot of injuries. Kevin Love wasn't back yet. Now all of a sudden they've won five in a rojo house. And as I mentioned, LeBron James, he is absolutely murdering it. Simmons pointed this out in our slack. LeBron post-all-Star run is an all-timer even for him. He's averaging almost a triple double. He's over 30 points per game in that stretch, over 10 rebounds per game, almost 10 assists,

a steal and a block per game about. And then he's shooting 56% from the field, almost 38% from 3. His free throw rate still needs a little bit of work. It's just under 70%. But on the whole, he's crushing shots from everywhere on the court. He's murdering people. Zach Lowe mentioned this yesterday on Twitter that when they're running Kevin Love at the five and LeBron James is out there sort of marshalling the offense. Good luck

scoring with them. You have to win a scoring bonanza as Zach put it. And all of a sudden, a week and a half ago, it looked like the calves were finished. And now like you're putting money on them. Never sleep on the goat. This was always waiting to happen. The playoffs were less than 10 games out from the start of the playoffs. The goat is stepping on the pedal. Now I want to make a quick sidebar. Kevin O' Hyperbole went on the Twitter this morning and went out there and said, Kevin O'Connor, of course, I'm talking about. He's sitting in the studio right now, by the way. Kevin O. Hyperbole, let me tell you, my brother, there's only one goat in all of NBA history, and it will always be that way. It's fine, though, to pay proper respect. You know what?

LeBron's going to be, he's going to be the all-time endurance goat because nobody in his 15th year has ever played at this high a level. So obviously, we love it. This is exactly. the Cavaliers team that seemed like could be waiting in the wings long ago back in October. And really, it's a reminder. All that the Cavaliers need is a functioning LeBron James. And to me, that makes them the favorite of the Eastern Conference. Of course it's the case now as these playoff seedings line up that the gosh darned Washington almost bullets look pretty well slotted into that sixth seed.

and the mother effing Cleveland Cavaliers are slotted into the three seed. And now I was saying earlier this late winter here that there was no team in the East I feared. I have to amend that. I now fear a team. It's the Cleveland Cavaliers. And I'll be gosh darn if the Wiz aren't prepared to face them in the first round. Yeah, we're going to get to your wizards. I've got many questions for you about them.

But before we do, the calves right now are an interesting case study because you mentioned, you know, what you need if you're the calves. And this is an obvious point. but an important one as a dialed in LeBron, right? And before the trade deadline, there was this narrative that, like, LeBron was sort of in regular season checked out mode and he'd revisit in the postseason as he sometimes does. And then they made that trade and he got some new guys to play with. And it seemed like it had revitalized him at least temporarily.

But they were sort of hovering around 500. And I wonder if, like, when he was out in L.A., he sat there and he goes, look, we don't know what we are because we've been so banged up. We've been so hurt. We're running out all these crazy lineups. We don't know which ones we're going to use in the postseason. And I kind of felt like it was a little bit of, like, LeBron talk, but maybe not. Like, now that they're starting to get healthy and I can't believe I'm saying this.

I think you mentioned it last time you were on Heechak, I said, you know, how much do you believe in Kevin Love is like the panacea for what's ailing the calves? And you went very much. And now it's kind of true. Right. Big surprise. Kevin Love. Perennial All-Star Kevin Love is going to help the team.

Like, what a revelation. The guy's been to the finals, however many consecutive years. ever since he joined Cleveland. I think he's a pretty important part of the puzzle. When they get healthy Tristan Thompson and they have Kevin Love and they have LeBron doing LeBron things, that's a pretty formidable team. Definitely formidable enough to win the Eastern Conference. I'm sure that, my man, Wong-Gon, that's the Cleveland team that is going to give

the Golden State Warriors all they can handle in the NBA finals. I like your enthusiasm. I like your confidence. I think you might be getting a slightly ahead of yourself because before they can get to the Warriors, they do. do have to get out of the east. And I'm not, I'm not crazy about any team in the East, except for one, are you saying all of a sudden, like, you're out on the Raptors? The Raptors have been the most consistent team in the Eastern Conference this year by a considerable margin. And one of the

best teams in all of the NBA, I think they present a problem to the Cavaliers. I admire the Raptors. Honestly, I admire all Canadians. I like Drake. I like Patrick Mayo. I like J.E. Skeets. I like the Raptors and I like Canadians in general. They're just not there yet. They need to go lose in heartbreaking fashion in the Eastern Conference Finals and then return this team. This is a team that is built for the regular season success that they've experienced. Kudos to Maasai.

Kudos to Dwayne Casey. Kudos to their outstanding bench. They ain't beaten LeBron this year. I think that was everybody who's ever been to Canada or lived in Canada. I was waiting for the Michael J. Fox reference. Well, I left out a few notable and very worthy Canadian. Steve Nash and Mike Weir also shout out

honorable mention to both those homies. But look, the larger point is this Toronto Raptors team is a wonderful story. I'm very happy for them. We the North, God bless. It's going to be a fun playoffs. But they ain't making the finals this year. That's all. LeBron's still playing.

As long as LeBron has two arms and two legs and ten fingers and all that stuff works, the Cleveland Cavaliers are making the finals. Even if he maybe didn't have all those fingers, he could probably still pull it off. But you bet on them. You bet on the Cavaliers, which I feel like kind of puts a little bit of the jinks on them, but that's a different prospect. What'd you get? What were the odds? 10 to 1? 10 to 1. Good odds. I like that. Those are good odds. I like those odds. But that's a different prospect than saying like what percentage chance would you actually give them of doing this.

So if you had to ascribe a percentage, what percentage would you give them of winning it all again? Because you're saying not only are they going to get past your Canadian friends, but then they're going to get past the Warriors who you say are too banged up to beat them. So what chance here? Yeah, just to be clear, I'm not saying the Warriors are too banged up to do anything. The Warriors can beat everybody if Steph Curry doesn't play another second of basketball this whole season. They are that skilled. If Clay Thompson and Jemann are healthy and Kevin Durant is ready to just take over and dominate, there's no doubt the Warriors can three-peat.

But I would say to answer your question, the Cavaliers as we sit here today on March the 26th. And again, I have not yet started consuming. can't wait to start consuming. I give them about like a 35-ish percent. They're to me 100 percent going to make the finals and 35 to 40 percent-ish going to win the finals. So maybe like a one-and-three shot roughly, a little bit more depending on if you want to go up to 40 percent. All right, I could buy that. I think that's fair. And that's why I like the 10 to one odds. This is a good bet for you. I like it now. All of a sudden, maybe I'm going to send you some money down there. You're going to put some on for me. It's interesting, though, because you did mention,

the first round matchup for the Cavs. If it stands as it currently is at present as we record this, the Cavs would be the three seed. Your Washington Wizards would be the sixth seed. And Joe Howes, things in Washington, not so great. I love to talk to you about Washington because it always makes me feel better by proxy. Four and six over the last 10.

They lost their last three. They fall into the sixth seed. In addition to this, they just lost to the Knicks, which I didn't even know was still possible at this point in the NBA season. And Bradley Beal, who had previously said, hey, everybody eats, isn't this great? We're all getting along. Maybe not as great because Trey Burke was kind of giving them a little bit of heat in that

game. And so afterwards, Beale was asked about, I'm going to read you this quote. He said, we looked like we didn't give a damn, honestly. This is from Beal. We just thought we could show up and play because they don't have anything to play for. So we just thought it was going to be a cakewalk and the Knicks smacked us in the mouth. Joe House, are you just going to stay in Jamaica now? How depressed are you?

Well, this is the state of affairs as an almost bullets fan. It is the cognitive dissonance of on the one hand feeling irrationally excited about the playoffs because with the playoffs comes the return of John Wall. There are already reports of John Wall being fiery in practice. And these almost bullets have tricked us in Washington into believing that anything is possible. anything is possible shout out KG when the playoffs arrive

because they have this ability to flip the switch. Now I hate them flipping the switch. I don't enjoy it. I don't like these mediocre efforts

in the regular season. On the other hand, guess what happens when you miss your very best player for 25 consecutive games and a guy who's always in the top five

assist-wise? Nobody eats. Okay? It was wonderful when they were out there doing their thing and sharing the ball and the, you know, Satteransky was running around. There you go.

But look, at some point, it's going to catch up to you. He's their best player and also their true leader. And I think Wangan, you and I had this conversation before, they don't have anybody on this team that's really a winner. The best winner on their team is, Yon.

Mahidmi, who won a ring, I believe, in Dallas. So if that's the guy that you're taking your cues from, that's the most accomplished basketball player, the guy on their team who has achieved the most in his career, you kind of got some issues, right? There's a leadership problem in Washington that still needs some solving. You've been very consistent on very few points on the heat check program,

but one point that you have been very consistent on is that if you lose John Wall, who's your best player, you're a worst team. And I, like, you know, busted your balls a little bit about it and your Satiransky love and all that stuff. But you were right. John Wall, of course, they would be better with John Wall. But Simmons kind of mentioned this in our Slack about the Western Conference. I'm going to apply this theory to your team, the Wizards, and the Eastern Conference.

As we do this, right now, they are one game up on the Bucks for the seven seed, right? So they're in the six seat. Would you rather play Boston in the first round? Yes, yes, yes. How quickly can I say it? And how emphatically, how loudly? Yes, I would love to play Boston. Give me Boston a million times out of a million.

The Celtics are great. And by the way, if anybody who thinks that coaching doesn't matter, just pay attention to what the Celtics have done over the last dozen games as important player after important player falls out, some of whom are going to be gone for this season. And look at the effort that the Celtics to continue to deliver and look at what Brad Stevens manufactures. All you need to do is look at that road victory they just had against the incandescent Portland Trailblazers. who've been really serving notice that they're prepared to do something these playoffs. Boston went in there, depleted as they are, and pulled out an unbelievable victory. So all respect to Boston, but they just don't have the horses. So that's the team that I want.

So you would advocate for a slight, in-progress, playoff positioning tank effort to fall one game back so that you could play the Boston Celtics and no Kyrie Irving. Well, how about this? I don't think the almost bullets have to do. do anything. Just be you. You can call it whatever you want. They don't have to take nothing. All I have to do is continue to have these efforts like they've had against, you know, the Knicks and, you know, these lackluster appearances. They're just going to end up where they're going to end up. You got to bring some of that stuff back from Jamaica for the playoffs because I feel like it's going to be a tough slog for the Washington Wizards. I am. I appreciate the boat of confidence. He's Joe House. I wish you love.

luck with your bet. I wish you luck with the Washington Wizards. I think you're going to need both of those, but you can listen to him on Check House and House of Carbs. And soon, cool runnings too. You can watch him in that. He's going to be excellent. Joe House. Thanks, Juan, God. Thanks, Isaac. Thanks, buddy. All right, thanks so much to Joe House. We're going to bring in one of our favorites, Jason Concepcion to play a fun game. But first, one more word from our sponsors. Today's NBA heat check is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Are you hiring? Are you posting your position to job sites and waiting and waiting and waiting. some more for the right people to see it. Well, guess what? ZipRecruiter knew there was a smarter way,

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ZipRecruiter.com slash ringer NBA. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash ringer NBA. ZipRecruiter. It's the smartest way to hire. And now, Jason Concepcion! All right, joining me in studio from binge mode, from NBA desktop. Yes. Jason Concepcion is here. We're going to do a new thing where I run stuff because you're somebody who tells the truth. You tell the truth, you're a truth teller. And there are things that you believe in and things you don't believe in.

And sometimes those things change. They do because, you know, evidence arises and things happen and you're forced to change. You changed and it's, we're going to do a little believe it or not. I got some fun music to set it up. Believe it or not, I'm walking on air The sixers are 42 and 30 Anytime I can get an excuse to bring that song in I knew that you'd love that

That's my sweet spot That's a great American hero That's you I would say A, I don't want to say greatest But I'll throw myself out there in the mix Because the birthplace of American Freedom, Philadelphia Back in the playoffs Congratulations to the 76ers who were in the playoffs

for the first time since the 2011, 2012 season. I did it. I marshaled them into the playoffs. At the beginning of the season, you did not believe in them. Now you do. Let me say something about this. Say something, please.

Over under episode with House and Simmons. House and L. Hefebill Simmons. I said the Sixers would go under 40 wins. Here's a reason. You rarely see this happen with young players. The Sixers have a core of players that are like 24 and under, right? You rarely see teams with that kind of core

with that kind of unproven talent. Ben Simmons had essentially not played. Embed was coming off various injuries. Multiple injuries. Sorich has, you know, like we hadn't seen him play with the other guys. Fultz was untested. It's still untested. Really, you have to go back to that early Thunder team

when they put their core together and went from like 24 wins to 50 wins. That was a rare thing. And they proved to be wrong. They're 42 and 30. They have an extremely young core. There are starting five is by net rating the best starting five in the NBA. This doesn't happen a lot. My argument was, hey, you know, these guys are untested.

I don't believe in it because we just haven't seen it. And they prove me wrong. And I want to apologize to you. Yep. I want to apologize to Chris Ryan. Chris Ryan. I want to apologize to Kyle Newbeck to Mike Levin, to Spike, to everyone. You don't have to apologize to Sam Hinky.

I want to apologize right now to everyone who's associated with Philipsy. Philadelphia and the Philadelphia 76th Rocky Balboa to the art museum. I'm sorry. I didn't believe, but now I believe. And inanimate objects? You got everybody in there. It was really impressive. It's more than I could have possibly asked for. I want to apologize to steak on a French bun with cheese on it. I don't know what that is. Is that a not a cheese? Is that not what it is? A French bun? It sounds great. Why not? We'll do it. I look, I'll take all of it right now because we're playing with House Money in Philadelphia. Post Super Bowl. Everything is coming up Sixers. Everything is coming up Philadelphia.

They, as we do this, Jason Concepcion, they are into the four seed. That means that they would play. They have clinched the playoff spot, as have the Indiana Pacers, who are another surprise team. Big, big time spread. Do you believe in them? And who do you believe in more? Should they play each other? I believe in the Sixers more.

You know your audience. I know my audience. I can't pick against them again. The Pacers are a fantastic story. Great story. Also, an incredibly young core, Ola Depot, really blossoming in this. mid part of his career, shocked by them,

especially with the loss of Paul George, but I have to, I have to go with the Sixers. You got to stick with the Sixers because you know your audience and you know how they're doing. That's going to be a really fun one. I want to get into some Sixers'

storylines here because we never talk enough Sixers on the He Check podcast. Ben Simmons really feeling himself right now. I don't know if you saw what he said. He had his 10th triple double on Saturday versus Minnesota. 15, 12, and 13. Only Oscar Robinson is the other rookie in NBA history to average a triple double over a seven game span.

He tied, this blew my mind. He tied Charles Barkley. This is his first year in the NBA. I went and checked. Yeah. I looked it up. I'm a reporter. It is his first year.

I looked it up. This is his first year playing. Technically. He's already tied Charles Barkley for the third most triple doubles in Sixers franchise history. This is his first year. Wait, in Sixers? In Sixers franchise history, he's tied with Charles Barkley for the third most triple doubles.

Wilth didn't have more? This is, well, I mean, I'm sure Willt did have more, but they're tied for third on the list. So there's two other people. I don't know who those two other people are. Ben Simmons tied in his first year. It's really amazing. But so he said, he went out and he was really feeling himself and he said, I'm doing things that haven't been done in a while. I mean, that's fair. Are you believing in Ben Simmons, even without a shot, Ben Simmons? Yes. And this is part of the thing that I am going to be writing for the ringer.com, which is there's just a lot of things happening in basketball right now that are taking things that were formerly, you know,

preconceived notions, I guess you'd call them, which stuff like your point guard needs to shoot in the modern NBA, ISOs are bad, and those things are getting turned on their head. Ben Simmons should not be as good as he is, technically, because he doesn't have a shot, and it hasn't really... Does he not? I haven't noticed. It hasn't really matter. He's taken one three-pointer. He's taken one-threatener. Honestly, there are times in games when I'm watching him. He's taking one. There are times in games when I'm watching him, and I'll go, oh, yeah, that's right. He still doesn't shoot. But it doesn't matter because he's doing all these other things, and he's so fascinating to watch. He can get wherever he wants to go on the floor. At this point in the season,

to this point, you'd figure teams in the playoff certainly are going to back off of him, back five feet off him and just let him make him make him a shooter. The thing that he's managed to do thus far is, number one, he's so tall you can see over the defense. And number two, he can get when, if you give him that step, he can take the step and get where he needs to go. Now, in a seven game series, when a team can really focus on him, is that going to change? Perhaps. But we haven't seen it yet. And he's been incredible. Perhaps. Perhaps it will. Right now, though, I'm riding a high. It's been great. It's been so great that the whole Fultz saga hasn't even really gotten to me. And I need to ask you whether or not you believe in this because there was another NBA.com headline. And you know what? Fool me once. Shame on me. Fulme on me twice. Shame on me again. Fool me a thousand times. Shame on me still. The 1,000 one time, Jason Concepcion, I didn't fall for it. The NBA.com headline said that Foltz was nearing a return. Do you believe it or not? Oh, they got to, listen, this is what, nine, ten games left in the season?

You got to shut him down. You got to shut him down. I mean. Can I read you what Brett Brown said? Please. Brett Brown said, there's no clandestine conspiracy theory motive. You know what I know. It's fluid.

I think he's quite close and that it's just something that when Markell Fultz feels like he can go, when he really feels good about himself and his health, the shoulder, everything in the medical people that support him. And he knows that the coaching staff and a team that will welcome it back. When he says he can go, that's when he can go. Yeah, I think there's two sides to this, right? The risk reward is really an interesting proposition. On the reward side, you might say, well, the Sixers are not going to win the championship this year, right? Throw him in there if he feels ready. You get some reps, plays in the playoffs a little bit, gets some confidence. What's to lose? I think on the other side of that is, man, if he plays badly in a playoff game or down the stretch, that could really hurt a guy's confidence in a situation where we assume that confidence. has a lot to do with the reason that he's not playing right now. Listen, the season, this is the last days of the season.

Just shut him down and be like, hey, man, come back next year. And the really great thing about this is the Sixers are such a fun story that this, the number one pick in the draft not playing for the season for reasons that we're not sure about is not that big a story. Because they've played so well and because they've, they have, I had them at 40 wins as well. And they've gone past that. They've surpassed expectations. Simmons has been better than I could have ever expected.

And Bede is everything I ever dreamed. He is a star. He is absolutely murdering people. I look at this and go. It's a wonderful role player. 100%. I look at this right now and go, they're playing really well.

They're playing together. They know what this team is. And we don't know what Fultz is. We don't know how they would incorporate him. I don't want to mess with the kids' confidence if he is already shook. And yeah, he's coming back and he's looking better. I see all the videos and the videos look better.

Why mess with it now? because here's something else. Right now it's not about Markell Fultz. Beginning of the season, it was about Markle Fultz. Right now it's about this team is the four seed in the Eastern Conference. I want to see what they can do. That's a great point because like let's say they want to get him like one or two games at the very, very end of the season and say, well, we'll see you about the playoffs. And then if you play as well, now all of a sudden it's will he play, will he play, will he play?

That should not be the headline. The headline should be. This young Sixers team is really fun. Let him run. They're going to do some damage. And nobody wants to play them. Nobody wants to play them. wants to play them. Leave them alone.

Lee Fultz alone. That's the last Sixers thing we're going to mention, but I do feel like we need like a little Sixers music, Isaac, maybe to like get excited about this. You know this song? The Philly Sound. Do you know that song? I have heard it briefly, but I had not heard it all the time. It's catchy. It's a little jingle.

Who did this song? I don't know. I do know that when the Sixers new ownership bought the team, they had to buy that song, the rights back because they didn't even own the song rights, but now they play it all the time. You hear it all the time in Philadelphia. I don't know if the Knicks have a song. They have had several songs over the years. They shouldn't have a song.

Shouts to Go New York, Go New York, go. My 90s heads out there. I want you to explain to me whether or not you believe in the Knicks tanking or not, because I don't know if they know what they're doing. They won a game that they should not have won. They beat the Wizards somehow. Joe House, we had on earlier in the program. Very upset about that outcome.

As were you. They should be. Shouts to my guy, Sataranski, who had a nice game. Also, shouts to New Yorker writer David Gran. We briefly commiserated over the. the Twitter app talking about why are the Nix not good at tanking? Why are they not good at tanking? Nix could not be better.

The Sixers are doing well and the Nix are terrible. First of all, I know that I've, there's been some dissonance in my thoughts on Emmanuel Moudier who now all of a sudden is not playing. I'm fine with Mudié playing as long as Frank, Frankie smokes, Frank Niela Kina also plays. Moodye is a great weapon in the tanking war because he's bad. Yeah. Boudier now not playing and the Knicks winning games, that's bad. Guys, what is going on here?

Why are you winning games? This is absolutely terrible. Jeff Hornacek. Do you think that's why O'Quinn was yelling at Hornacek? Like, we shouldn't be winning games and he's just screaming at him. Well, O'Quinn favoriting tweets and various social media posts that are critical of the Knicks coach, which is bad. I think this is a thing, you know, the Knicks should take a page from what the Sixers did, which is this. Brett Brown lost a metric ton of games, right?

I think that's the official number. But he never had that vibe of a shook coach, right? No. Because Hinky and the Sixth's front office were like, hey, man, just go out there. Your job is safe. Just go out there and develop these players. Hornacek obviously has never gotten that from his front office. It's weird.

Because the guy is like, oh my God, my job is on the line. We need defense. Why are we defending? Why aren't we doing this? He's pulling guys. He's tinkering with line up. Hey man, just develop your young players, develop your core. Like, someone in the Knicks front office needs to go to him and be like,

everything's fine. Like, we're not going to judge you on this season where obviously we need to get a high draft pick because that's how teams win. One of the ways teams win, you need to get lucky in the draft. So just go out there and develop your players wink, wink, wink, wink, wink, wink. See if they can run. Wink, wink, wink, wink, wink. Don't be out here, like, yelling that the defense is falling apart.

Just try and see what these guys have. See what you have with Frankie Smokes. do some stuff. Why are you beating the Wizards? They beat the Wizards. They have in defense of the Knicks and they're losing effort, they have lost seven of their last 10. They won that one game, which was crazy that they beat the Wizards. But still, it always puts them in the same, like, mid to back end of the lottery position. At present, they're the ninth worst team in the NBA, which is like such a Knicks territory to be in. To be fair, they've picked well in that range over the course of their history. Yeah, they've been okay. I mean, like, listen, would it be nice if

they would have picked on Donovan Mitchell, sure. It would have been nice if a lot of teams picked Donovan Mitchell. So I don't kill them for that. But yeah, come on, you guys, you got to tank. You got to get up there in the top one, two, three, four slots where you're just more likely to get a franchise altering player and they're not doing it. It's really as good times for Philadelphia and not so good times for New York. I want to get a couple of other things that you believe and don't believe.

The Blazers and the Thunder had a great game the other day. Mello, not shooting well recently, missed some free throws against Boston, missed a bunch of threes against the Blazers. He said that he's not going to beat himself up over it or second guess. You believe that, right? I do. I do. Let me just say. You know, Mello in press conferences is an interesting thing. He's the best. He's very good at saying the thing that kind of makes fans mad at the same time. What is he supposed to say in this situation? Like, Mello is not going to be like, yeah, I'm killing myself over these misfree throws. And he shouldn't. At the same time, like, you know, fans are going to be like, man, I wish he was hurting over those free throws.

throws more. I do believe what when Mello says that. I believe him when he says that. At the same time, it's been very, it's been brutal to watch him. It was brutal to watch him take that three at the end of the Pacers game. It's been brutal to watch him clank bricks all over the rim and generally be the player who doesn't play defense out there. You wonder at what point the Thunder tinker with the lineups because he just can't be out there closing close games. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see what kind of rotations they put together in the playoffs. If it stopped right now, it would be Thunder Pelicans in the first round, which would be fun. Also fun, potentially, if it stopped right now, my adopted team, my West Coast team,

the Portland Trailblazers that I very much believe in would face the San Antonio Spurs. Shea Earmuffs, if you're listening to this, I don't know if I believe in the Spurs. And that Kauai situation makes me nervous. And what do you make of the team meeting that was supposedly was a team meeting? It was emotional, but it wasn't emotional. But they spoke like adults, but actually everything was fine. but then there was imploring him to come back. Let's do Spurs first.

Let's do Spurs first. Is Quay coming back? No. You don't believe in him coming back. I don't, at this point, like, I just don't see it. Is he Spurs Fultz? No, I just feel like if you're going to stay out this long, then just stay out. That's why I mean by Spurs Fultz, yeah.

Yeah, I don't believe he is coming back. Do I believe in the Spurs? I can't pick against him at this point, but, you know, the Blazers look incredible. Nurkich looks like a true mule down low. Yeah. And, of course, Damien Lillard, in a hot streak that is, truly unbelievable right now. McCollum hitting stuff.

McCollum hitting stuff. E.T. doing E.T. stuff over dribbling. E.T. bringing the ball up. It's unbelievable. I love him. We talk a lot about the Blazers here at the Heat Check podcast. Really fun team. A really fun team. Really, really fun. I think Zach Collins?

Zach Collins is doing stuff. They like him quite a bit. I think the most surprising thing for me in what I did not believe in them in the beginning of the season that I very much after a full season. Their defense. Their defense is good. They play defense. And, you know, Dame Lillard was a terrible defender previously and is now at least not a somebody who's going to kill you. He's giving an effort. And as you mentioned, you know, Nurk is a mule. And like, this team is a really interesting team going into the playoffs. And I would feel a lot better if I was a Blazers fan than if I was a spurs fan, especially when you've got Genobley saying that for sure Kauai's not coming back. And Tony Parker, who somehow is still in the NBA going, my quad injury is a thousand times worse than Kauai's. That is some crazy stuff.

Well, he was a ruptured quad. And he was out. Exploded, I think. It actually, the medical term. Yeah. It was spread his quad all over the floor. Bits of quad everywhere.

Discussing. Yeah. I mean, that is a really interesting situation. Also, what an incredible plot twist for the Spurs for actually the quietest spurs player, maybe in Spurs history, being the bad seed. How's that possible? Very, very, very strange. One of the quietest superstars in NBA history.

Certainly. You never hear anything. from Kauai. I don't know what his voice sounds like. I really don't. He's the Jared Kushner of the NBA and that if he spoke right now, I wouldn't know what his voice is. Unfair to, right, this is what Kushner's voice is, hello. I think that was like Kushner is right here. I want to do one more before we wrap it up here because I feel like this is perfectly in your wheelhouse. There was an undefeated headline that made me laugh. We were talking about it in our slack about the Pistons. Sure. And the story was, Blake Griffin feeling at home at Detroit.

Come on. And I went, nope. I don't know where he's feeling at home at, but it ain't in Detroit. Are you buying even a little bit, do you believe even a little bit that despite the fact that the Detroit Pistons have fallen off the playoff race and that they are now five and a half games behind the Miami Heat and we'll be going home to play golf early? That somehow Blake Griffin is like, you know what I like? Detroit, Michigan. I 100% disbelieve that and shout to the fine people of Detroit, Michigan.

I do, however, believe that the Pistons have a robust PR team that, You know, you know how the sausage gets made, John Gonzalez? You know how it gets made? Hey, I'm working on a story about this or that. Maybe I could. Sure, that'd be great. Also, what do you think about this story that Blake is very happy here in Detroit? Yes, sure.

Well, I'll write that story. That's the thing that happens in the business. It happens. You know, but here's the thing, though, as somebody, aside from the fact that I know how the sausage gets made, and this is a podcast, so you can only hear us, but you have to take my word for it, I have two eyes, and they function. And you have two eyes. between us, that makes four eyes.

And I've watched basketball in Detroit. You know who doesn't watch basketball in Detroit? People from Detroit. Nobody goes to those games. It's very sparsely attended. Sparsely attended. The team isn't good. SVG is still doing SVG things.

If you're Blake Griffin, you've got to go, oh shit, I think I'm stuck here because who's going to trade for my crazy contract? How soon after the Detroit season ends does Blake Griffin fly home? I think he gets on a flight wearing his game gear. I think he's got a car. He walks directly out of the locker room. He doesn't even do press. He gets it.

If the game ends at 10 o'clock local, the flights at 10. He's got a TSA pre already. Right. He goes right through security. I think it's like that Batman Dark Knight technology where he has the hook. He walks out of the facility. The building explodes off the side. Right.

He has a hook attached to a harness that he's wearing. A balloon goes up that carries the hook up into the air. A C-130 cargo aircraft flies over. head at just that moment, picks up the hook. He is reeled up into the belly of the plane, and he flies to California. He comes to LA. It's literally 10 seconds after he walks out of the building. I think it's going to go great for him there. It's going great for him there. We actually do believe that he's having a great time in Detroit. We had a great time on today's heat check podcast. I want to say thanks so much to everybody who appeared, Kevin O'Connor. Joe House came on the

program from Jamaica. What a life. He called in from Jamaica because he's dedicated to the heat check into the ringer, as is Isaac Lear producer. What a flex by Joseph House. Who killed it per usual. A total flex from Jamaica. He even waited to partake until after he did his hit, so it was nice. Thank you also to Jason Concepcion. He's on binge mode. He's big binge mode time right now. What do you got on binge mode? We're going to be answering your questions on the latest edition of Ask the underscore. So please send us your questions. And of course, we'll work on Harry Potter. That's coming soon. And an NBA desktop. Make sure to check out all his stuff. Make sure to check out all of our stuff on the ringer.com.

We will be back next week on the heat check program. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Bye.