The Ringer NBA Show - Wemby’s NBA Debut, the James Harden–76ers Standstill, and Changes to the 2024 NBA All-Star Game | Real Ones

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

Logan and Howard are joined by Sam Amick, senior NBA writer for The Athletic, to unpack how Victor Wembanyama navigated opening night jitters as a rookie and what the San Antonio Spurs are going to do to manage the spotlight that comes with a player like him (2:55). Next, they discuss reports that James Harden returned to the Philadelphia 76ers practice facility but wasn’t allowed to travel with the team for the season opener and that trade talks with the Los Angeles Clippers have stalled (24:40). Later, the guys talk about the series of changes coming to the league this season, including the return to the East vs. West format for the NBA All-Star Game (43:50). Finally, the guys close with their Real Ones of the Week (58:37). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout ringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Logan Murdock and Howard Beck Guest: Sam Amick Producer: Jonathan Kermah Production Assistant: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers from Offguard, and I've got some exciting news. Offguard hosted by me and my guide Pasha Gigi is officially moving to our own podcast feed. We are now dropping two shows every week. Me and Pasha go way back and talk so much hoops already that we figured it was time to fire up the mics and let you in on these conversations. Every week, Pasha and myself will hit on the biggest stories happening around the league. Tap into the show twice a week on our new Offguard feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. What's popping? Real ones. Logan Murdoch here. No Roger Bell. He is out with an illness. So we have Howard Beck in the building as our co-host. No MFN because, you know, it's Thursday. But we do have a special guest in the building with us. Should I sell the story? Should you tell the story, Mr. Sam Amick of the Athletic? Should we do this? Should we just get the elephant out of the room? But right here. We're doing it again? That was just the dry run? I know we're not talking about what we're talking about in the prepot we're talking about

oh okay you know what we're talking about um when I when I uh what Sam found out that Howard was joining the ringer um you know because he is is a he has a lot of sourcing I get a text from Sam Amick saying verbatim man I always thought I'd be the OG white guy you'd partner with on real ones because the box is check now so happy you guys got Howard that is just awesome. So this is the first full circle moment. How are you doing, Sam? How are you feeling?

Welcome to Rowan. I'm good, Logan. Man, you picked a good one. I mean, if it wasn't going to be me, Howard just joked off air. He puts the O and OG.

That's okay. We're not young anymore, Howard, but I love it. I mean, the Photoshop of him joining you and Raja was like, that was something with Howard looking like Snoop.

What do you mean, Photoshop? That was a candid shot. That was really. That was, you were laid out? Okay. Yeah, yeah, it was, uh, Malibu's most wanted, Howard Beck in the building. That was, that was, that was, we did that.

We flew him out to L.A. We flew Roger out to, no, I'm just playing it. That's just, that's just my everyday trip there, Sam. I love it. I mean, jokes aside, Howard's a legend and his inside his perspective, everything he brings to the table on this pot is going to be a lot of fun to listen to. It has already been a lot of fun to listen to. Uh, and Logan, listen, again, jokes aside, I've told you for a long time. the pod.

Proud of you, everything you've done, man. So this just kind of takes it up and out of the level. Thank you, man. We're really used to have Howard on,

man. He's always been an honorary rowing as you are, Sam, but now it's happy to be a part of the family. Now, speaking of new members of the family,

let's talk about Wimagnano and Wemianama's first game with the San Antonio Spurs. It was, it was an interesting night for him because, I mean, he finished with 15.

five, two, and two in 23 minutes. But he seemed to, it felt like we got the whole entire Wimbunyama experience where there were some parts that saw, we saw some of the game where he was a rookie, but there were other parts of the game, like down the stretch where he's hitting shots. It was like, oh, is he going to just meet his moment so early?

He's 19 years old. I'll start with you, Sam. What were your first impressions of the first time? You've seen him in a regular season setting. Yeah, I mean, like you said, kind of a mixed bag night, scoring flurry late a little bit in the fourth that shows you, you know,

some, a bit of a clutch gene, I guess. It's funny, though, if you go back to the start of the game, he blocks, why am I forgetting who he blocked? Maybe Kyrie. I think he got Kyrie,

yeah, blocks Kyrie, and you hear Ryan Ruko on the telecast go, you know, the first of many. And it was, uh, no, just one tonight. That's all there was.

And so, admittedly, it was a bit of a let, down for me, Logan. Now listen, the Wembe experience has already been a bit of a roller coaster ride. You had like the Summer League debut that everybody said was his kind of undoing and that was wildly off base. Since then, since then, good stuff. But the Warriors game that you and I both attended last Friday was so far like the most Wemby kind of peak moment yet. And so having seen that in person and seeing, I think five blocks, three on Wiggins, one on stuff. And

F-1 on Clay. You know, this game wasn't that, but again, it's the regular season. The Mavs got the job done, gave up a lot of points, but, you know, he was in foul trouble. So we saw a little bit of everything, but this dude is obviously pretty incredible. It's a reminder right off the bat that no matter how talented a guy is, no matter how from outer space he might be, rookies are rookies, and most of them are going to have some ups and downs, right? And the thing is, like, I know like waving away, asterisking away, the foul trouble is, is, is dumb because, hey, foul trouble is part of adjusting to the game too. But push aside the foul trouble for a minute.

If he just played a full complement of minutes, you know, we might have seen a box score and some other highlights that would have been more reminiscent of what we saw in the preseason. The fact is the preseason, I think, showed us definitively because the preseason is a whole other world than Summer League. struggling in Summer League is always one of those weird. Is it a red flag? Is it not? But the Summer League experience, that level of competition, the intensity of those games, the whole atmosphere is not an NBA game. To me, what we saw in the preseason was the proof that if anybody needed it,

that this guy is going to be an incredible player and a spectacular show. He's going to give us the entertainment value and great basketball. And he can do it at a level against him. NBA competition. That was the preseason. Opening night is opening night. Whether that's jitters, whether that's just, hey, just it happened. It's foul trouble. I'm not, I'm not worried about Wembe. I think we are still going to get all of the pyrotechnics that we were all expecting, that we've enjoyed so far. It's all to come. And as Sam said, like I, I like the fact that he hit a bunch of shots down the stretch there after coming back from the foul trouble, because it just

kind of showed a little bit of resiliency like his confidence wasn't hit and you know he's the the swagger is there and I don't I don't think we're ever going to doubt that about him well you know it's funny because

we've all were at Summer League and you know me and Sam were at the preseason game but every time you see Wimbunyama it's a moment right it is it's not like a moment that normal rookies get right he's already in the in terms of personality in terms of

profile. He's already in the tier one of that while trying to catch up to that with his game. How do the, Sam, how do the Spurs deal with that in this moment, right? Because they're saying all the right things now, but they've never had quite a prospect

that is more as comfortable in the limelight in the way that Wimby is, right? Where he, he's not Tim Duncan, where Tim Duncan actively. shied away from it, where Kauai actively shies away from it. That's going to bring a level of

attention, but also scrutiny to how the spurs go about things. How are they internally trying to handle this? No, I mean, it's a good question. And that honestly was my main motivation for going to that game on Friday. You know, you guys can relate this time of year. We got a lot of projects happening.

We got stories. You're busy. That night, I didn't have to be at that game, but it felt like this gravitational pull of Wembe was like, all right, You can't not go to that game. So I go, but part of what I wanted to learn was how are they functioning as a group, what's the vibe, and a couple of things come to mind. So Greg Popovich and the local media in San Antonio has written a fair amount about this.

It's pretty neat. He's kind of taking lessons learned from Manu Genoble over the years to apply to Wembe. When it comes to the creativity that brings to the court, the way he's going to handle him behind the scenes, I think that's kind of a great little parallel personality-wise. Manu, obviously English was a second language for him, but he became a charismatic dude off the court, had his own swag, if you will. So Pop is finding his way with Wembe. The teammates, though, I think it's going to be interesting because all year, guys, the spotlight

is going to be so bright on Wembe. There was a moment when Jeremy Sohan had his press conference after they played the Warriors. and he gets up there, feels a couple questions. By the time he got like the third Wembe question, you did see his body language change a bit. And you saw him, I guarantee you it's nothing towards Victor,

but you could already sense this idea that like, got it, I forgot, I played for the San Antonio Wembe's. You know, like that's the mentality of the outside world. Pops can have to manage all that stuff because if you actually talk about the way this team is constructed,

he's an incredibly important part. He's going to have the ups and downs, like we've already kind of highlighted. But the Sohans, even Zach Collins, you know, Devin Vassel, they've got some players, Calvin Johnson,

where Pop's job and Wemby's job is to make the collective work. And I think they actually could be competitive. But it's going to be tough to do because the hype is just so incredibly loud. It's going to be something to navigate all year. What is required of trying to, to coach up a guy like this, right? Because you see with Luca, when he was coming up, as you get better and as you start having more success at a young age, you start getting more power. How does that, how do you have that tried to navigate that dynamic with Wimby who was going to, I mean, we saw Spurs of it last night of how great he can be and should be. How do they, how do the spurs navigate that?

You know, one of the things that struck me last night and it kind of dovetails into this question, this discussion. It didn't look to me like even before he got into foul trouble. Like they were really trying to feature him, like saying, all right, world, all right, NBA. We have the new secret weapon and we're going to deploy him to his full extent on night one. Here we go. Like it wasn't like they were trying to force feed him or play through Wembenyama primarily. And they've got a great score in Devin Vassell. So they've got and they've got some veterans around, like, you know, younger veterans.

but they've got guys who have been around and who they can play through and who can score. And so the good news is, you know, yes, this is a team that's been in the lottery for a few years. And Wenbanyama is coming in as the designated savior as often happens. But unlike a lot of guys who have gone number one, he's not coming into a completely like talent barren team. He's coming into a team that was like pretty well constructed. They're young. They have to evolve. They're going to need to add other players over time.

But I don't think they need Wembenyama to carry them night in, night out. He's going to just by virtue of his talent at times. But they don't, you know, they're not, I don't think they're going to force feed him. That's not the spurs way anyway. And they're not going to overdo it. So like just that alone, the fact they have other guys to lean on helps. The fact that it's San Antonio and it's a bit of a smaller market. I mean, the funny thing is the irony there is it doesn't matter what markets you're in.

like there were the reports I saw it was like 200 media members there for opening night yeah and that's not going to tail off much over the course of the season and I can only imagine by the time the spurs come here to play the Knicks which is just like a couple weeks away like that's going to be just insane and and everywhere he goes it's going to be but especially like here in New York and some other big markets um in L.A. when he gets there so like there's no putting a lid on it. Like, the hype is there. The Spurs as an organization are very good about keeping us in the media at arm's length and tamping things down.

You know, Pop will snap our heads off if we ask too many Wemby questions at some point. So he'll be fine. See, Howard, real quick, I need, I need from your past life, your BR life, I'm now envisioning like a game of zones, you know, animation of pop snapping Howard Beck's neck off. That's quite a visual. Game of Zones, the spurs were the White Walkers. And the first time they were featured, it was like Pop and Duncan and maybe Genobley as White Walkers kind of like marching toward the camera and all of a sudden

Pop's mouth just drops open and there's like this like squawking noise that comes out. That's what's going to happen. Too many Wemby questions. Pop is just going to eat you alive. Speaking of Greg Popovich and, you know, tearing off people's heads for Wemby, I asked Popper. I asked Pop

prior to the Warriors Spurs game and Sam has given me a lot of stuff about this but I asked him if he was rejuvenated and he wouldn't actually answer the question. Everything all seems to be pointing towards Greg Popovus being rejuvenated to coach

Wemby signed a five year deal all these things but he's getting a little long in the tooth and I'm not here for ageism at all but in a perfect world I would love to see the wrong crowd. Popovich. I would love to see Popovich coach

Wemby as long as he can, but we don't know how long that is going to be. Does the Spurs have a contingency plan of what they're going to do after this? In the long term? Because five years goes by really, really fast, and that's only his rookie deal. So how do the Spurs manage

the present and the future, Sam? What is there? How do you manage that when you have this all-world guy? Yeah. listen, it's not I guess hyperbole to say Greg Popovich is not going to be Victor Weniana's final coach

obviously. I think they want to get him going down that incredibly special elite road that is first and foremost driven by his talent, but, and this is what's pretty cool about this partnership, you know, also very importantly,

is buoyed, if you will, by their history and their program and their personalities and their kind of ethos. And the fact that Victor, and not to generalize, but as an international player, you know,

and it's a global game, but his depth of knowledge of the Spurs program, the Spurs history, and why he is such a good fit for them, I think only strengthens that connection because, you know, it's one thing if the Spurs think

they can do great things with a young talent, for him to come in like he has and really understand the history of, you know, Timi and Tony and Manu and all that stuff, obviously his close tie to Tony with the French background and plan for his team plays a part.

They want to get him going down that special road, get his career off to a fantastic start. And then from there, you just figure it out. I mean, Pop, he's not going to verbalize it all the time, but there's just no way he's not in a year-by-year mentality, regardless of what his

contract says. You know, at that stage of life, you are going to reassess every single summer. So in that regard, I would say, I have no idea if he'll be, you know, Wembe's coach in his second season, but it's going to, I think, put him off on a great foot. Pop was already the oldest NBA head coach in history as of a couple of years ago, I think, when he was, like,

in his age 71 season. He's 74 now. He'd be 75, I think, in January. And so he's already exceeded, you know, by historical standards. Everybody who's preceded him, and there have been a lot of great coaches who hung out for a long time, And this is a young coach's league, especially right now, I feel like. I think it really has trended very young the last five to ten years.

None of that seems to matter. Like, Pop is Pop. Pops a breed unto himself. And clearly, Logan's obnoxious questioning notwithstanding, Pop's got all the energy in the world. So he didn't need to be rejuvenated, Logan. I don't know why you even implied that. Or you or Steve Kerr.

Oh, God. I mean, you know, Steve Kerr's, old too. He need to rejuvenated as well. I know he's listening. You can tell him I said it. Dude, I'm going to need to be rejuvenated way before pop is at this stage. I will not be covering this league at 75, I don't think. See, Logan left, Howard, Logan left the most important part out. It wasn't on the transcript sheet. You know, the truth is he walked up to pop and he kind of tapped him on the

shoulder and he's like, hey, hey, sir, are you awake? Are you still with us here? Trying to speak with you. Like, are you doing okay? Do you need to sit? Can I get you anything? Do you need a blanket? Do you need some tea? Yeah, straight up. Have you taken your meds? You don't look very juvenated.

I've heard that maybe you've been rejuvenating. When we were at the, it was so, I didn't even know that the moment happened until Sam said something in the pre-med media availability. Because I just thought it was a question, right? And also like pre-game pressers aren't usually like this big, right? Especially in the preseason. So I thought I was just asking him a question. Sam gets it.

to the media room, but it's like, yo, are you, are you, are you an asshole, Logan? Are you, are you, are you, what's going on? And I was like, what did I do? And that's how I found out that this became a thing, Howard. That's how I found out because Sam was being mean. You got, I heard the pot the other day, and that's the verb, right? You got popped.

I heard Howard's perspective on, on his pop experiences, you know, it all, it happens to us, buddy. It happened to me in the playoffs and OKC one year. I remember got my feelings hurt. bit. I thought Pop and I were good. And then it was like, damn, okay, I guess not. You know, that's how he is. We need the greatest hits real. Has somebody put that together on YouTube, like Pop's greatest hits of destroying us? Well, then it needs to be updated. There's a compilation there, but it's like from like 2018 or something. We need to update that.

We need, I'm sure we'll get it because a lot more attention is going to be on there, but I think we need to, we need to update it. We'll see what happens. Last question for both you guys, at least on the subject. This is probably a young person asking this. So, you know, take it with a grain of salt. Is there, is there playing, potential on the Spurs team or are we just looking too deep? Because I see this team playing really, really hard. And if Wimby has like a stretch, there could be a thing. Or am I just, it's just wistful thinking to have all this happen so soon for him. I can see it. I got to cheat and look at the standings here just to kind of have a visual glance. You know,

there's just not a lot of teams that I'm ready to write off in the West. And the Spurs are in that group. You know what I mean? Like, okay, Portland looked not very good on the first night. You know, we'll see how competitive Portland is. Utah didn't put up much of a fight against Sacramento, but they had a lot of moments last year. Obviously, Markinen was an All-Star. The Rockets had a bad debut, losing pretty badly to Orlando,

but they've got talent, and I think Fred Van Vleet is going to find a way to win some games. So, you know, I think they're going to be in the mix. Around the league, I think people would, in a cynical manner, argue that at some point, organizationally, they'll probably do what they got to do to not be in the playing. The idea of continuing to build in terms of their draft assets would be helpful. But we'll see how they play it.

The fact is, like, the Spurs, they're too young guys. So like in a normal year, take a young Spurs team that had some promising players, throwing a generational talent like Victor Wembe and Yama, and we'd be going, hey, man, maybe they'll like knock on the door of the playoffs or in this case to play in. This is not a normal year. We've got 11 teams in the West that are clearly very, very good to great. And that does not include the spurs, the Rockets, the Blazers, or the Jazz. I just, if one of those teams somehow hops up and gets into the play-in, I'll be stunned.

Not because I don't have respect for what those teams are or the progress they're making. Because I think all four of those teams, maybe not the Blazers so much who are in a total rebuild. But like, there's reason for the to think the Rockets will be better this season. There's reason to think the Spurs, for sure, should be better this season. There's reason for the Jazz to be able to build on last season. But this is not a normal year. There are 11 teams in the West that are legit and are just ahead of those bottom four in terms of their build and their trajectory or the progress already made. So I just, I don't want to play.

I don't even want to play around with like, oh, are we going to see Wemby in a play and it'd be fun. It'd be great if they somehow managed to pull that off. I don't see it. But Howard, don't you think just to follow real quick, like to me, some of the projections for Wembe this season are such that if they, on the higher end, if they actually came to fruition,

that alone would be enough to make that a conversation, the idea of the Spurs being in the play in. And we don't know if he'll be that guy. But, I mean, you had people on a telecast yesterday talking about defensive player of the year, All-Star, and we'll see.

But if that does happen, then playing is part of the conversation. I think, yes, in the best case scenario where he's that rare rookie, especially in this era, right? I'm not talking about the era that Duncan came up in or other guys who, you know, when you went to college for two, three, four years and then came in fully formed and all that. Best case scenario where he's in the mix for defensive player of the year. I mean, All-Star, I don't even want to talk about because, like, it's a, you know, more popularity contest with the fan voting and everything else, even though they're only 50% of it now. if he's reaching those heights, does that elevate the spurs to the point of being in the playing mix?

Possibly. But I still don't see how they are now overnight going to be better than, you know, a Pelicans team that was already a few steps ahead or a Thunder team that has a lot of talent and that it's, you know, been building for the last couple of years, has had some time together with their core group, has an MVP candidate and Shay Gilges Alexander. or like the teams that we're trying to make moves. Now, there's the unknown, right?

Like every year we overestimate some teams. We may be overestimating, say, the Minnesota Timberwolves, right? People have them anywhere from like top four in the West to somewhere in the playing range. They could just fall apart. The pieces just may not fit. That's possible. The Mavericks had a nice opening night against Wemby, but I'm still not somebody who has a ton of confidence in what the Mavericks have. Like, there are teams that could fall out.

I mean, I guess I'm not saying it's impossible. I just think it's unlikely and it's not an expectation I would want to put out there. They need to spend some more years getting rejuvenated. Let's take a quick break and we'll go to the Eastern Conference. Jump into the NBA action with Fandul, America's number one sports book. Right now, new customers can bet $500 and get $200 in bonus bets, guaranteed. Plus, all customers can get three months of NBA league pass courtesy of Fanduel when they place a $5 bet on the NBA. You know how I am.

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The Hardin saga continues, ladies and gentlemen. Philadelphia 76ers guard, James Hardin, rejoined his teammates for practice on Wednesday. And he will not be traveling in Milwaukee for Philadelphia season opening against the Bucks on Thursday. Nor will he be in Toronto to face the Raptors on Saturday. You guys haven't been checking it out. He's been gone for 10 days. So they want to ramp him up.

That's according to Nick Nurse. He was away from the team all last week. I'm really frustrated just every time I hear a new hardened thing in the saga, right? Because it's either do you want to be in the building or not? Howard, how long before this just, this turns into a thing, more of a thing that it already is, but where it actually affects performance on the court? Honestly, guys, I've already reached the point. And this is not me saying that anybody else should feel this.

I've already reached the point where it's like, let me know when he gets traded. I don't care what else happens. I don't care if he's on the team plane, if he's loading other people's suitcases on the team plane and then being left behind. I don't care if he's the guy with the glowing sticks actually directing the plane. I don't care. I don't care where James Hart is. What if he's in a private jet next to the team plane waving through the window? Flipping them off?

Yes. You mean what he did all last season? Look, if he's in an F-14 Tomcat, inverted flipping them off, then we got something. I honestly, there's nothing. I don't think there's anything for us to learn or feel or interpret differently about the James Harden situation until something actually fucking happens. He either gets traded, cool, he's on a new team, the Sixers have some other pieces, we'll see what they are after that happens. Or he doesn't get traded and he's probably not playing. I can tell you this much. NBA teams, NBA players, NBA coaches, they are really, really good at compartmentalizing and

moving the fuck on. I guarantee you, as much as his teammates would rather have him there and would rather not have this whole thing hanging over them. The moment they all came to terms of the fact that James Hardin was going to be a holdout, was going to make life difficult for the organization, I guarantee you every single one of those players and Nick Nurse and that coaching staff said, okay, what do we got? All right, Tyrese, Tobias Harris, at Joelle M.B. And just go through the roster, figure out a rotation. We're not planning on James Hardin. We're not. counting on James Hardin, and we certainly don't expect him to be here for the full season. We don't know when he'll actually get moved, but until the point where he gets moved,

we have to assume he's just not available. It's just like if a guy blew out his knee on the eve of training camp, you're like, all right, cool, what? You know, I'm not cool, but like, all right, we move on. Who do we got? Who's available? That's how NBA coaches are programmed, and that's how NBA players are, too. And there have been moments in the course of, like, my career where teams I was covering someone had like a devastating injury. I can remember specific instances where I was like, oh, man, that's brutal. And it happened at a certain time of the season where it really would hurt them. And you'd be shocked sometimes at how like, just like emotionless players and coaches would be.

They're like, yeah, you know, yeah, it sucks. Like, what are we going to do? We got to move on. There's more games to play. That's just, that's the NBA, man. It waits for no one. And so to the extent that I understand that about the way teams work around these things, I kind of feel the same way

which is just like, whatever, wake me up when he gets traded or if they're going to just banish him for the rest of the season to start fighting him because he's not showing up. Whatever it is. But I just,

I don't think there's anything new to learn or feel about the James Harden situation at this stage. I mean, what's the latest on him getting the hell about the paint? Like, because it's,

everything we know is that the Clippers are the only team that are negotiating now. We know this is the league. We know if everything, anything, anything taught us from the dame to Miami thing. There is always a team that is out there or maybe a mystery team or something. So I don't want to discount that. But where are we?

Is the Clippers just, are the Clippers just dead set at some point going to be the team that Hardin goes to? Or is it going to just be, okay, we're going to sit him out until a mystery team comes? Where are we at in the negotiations right now for James Hardin's basketball service? it feels like it's going in the wrong direction the gap is i think only going to widen james not playing is just not helpful i don't think honestly for either party uh we know how personal this beef is and i think james is you know just my two cents letting it get the best of him when it comes to the history between he and darrow morey you know none of which is to say he doesn't deserve to be pissed that's fine that's his prerogative but the road he's going down now

maybe there's a strategy in place that I'll understand later that I'm not currently seeing. Right now I don't see it because, you know, the idea when I was with the Sixers a couple weeks ago at their camp in Ford Collins was that he was going to play ball, you know, so to speak with the Sixers, actually play ball on the court for a while while Daryl tried to get a deal done. But there was like this chatter at the time and this definitely bared out that, all right, now if the Sixers, get a better offer from the Clippers at any point in the future that James believed was something that they should say yes to and that met the threshold

of his perception of what Philly indicated they wanted and if they said no then he was going to be pissed no that's exactly what happened the Clippers came with some new stuff Philly didn't want it and James since then

has been mostly MIA but the idea now of kind of like trying to to play this game where you put your foot back in the paint for a game or a couple days to avoid getting fined and be part of the team and then you're back out of town again.

That's not going to work. And I think what the Sixers established with the way they handled this thing yesterday was that they're not going to be shy about putting their foot down and doing what they think is best for the team. Nick Nurse didn't want the distraction of James being on the bench.

You know, some interesting detail from Chris Haynes over at BR on the situation. about how James, you know, he thought he was going to come to Milwaukee, thought he was going to be part of the group and actually got stopped by a security official headed towards the plane. It was like, you're not invited, basically. And there wasn't

an incident. He didn't, you know, kind of go crazy or anything, but that was it. So he was told to go home. I don't see where this does, it doesn't accomplish two things. One, the Clippers now have to re-evaluate how badly they want James Harden.

I think ESPN indicated that they have backed off a bit in their pursuit. I haven't connected on that side the last couple days, but that would make sense. It also, you know, the rest of the market that Logan, you kind of alluded to there, like nobody's coming forward unless they see James Harden on the court looking like James Hardin.

That's the only way that another team is going to step forward. That's what Philly thought would happen, that if he plays and if he looks like the dude who led the league in assist last year, and it looks like the dude who, if he's being honest, when he goes to bed at night, he thinks that Joel Embed's MVP,

trophy should have like a little engraving that says thank you to James Harden because he helped Joel get that MVP trophy with the way he played. If he's that guy on the court, then maybe somebody other than the Clippers says, you know what, let's roll the dice. But, you know, teams coming forward for the guy who nobody knows where he is on a daily basis is just not going to happen. I think the league knows who he is, though, Sam. Like, I think to me that the requirement for another team to get aware. I think the only requirement for another team getting into the chase here is a team finding out two, three, four weeks from now, shit, we're not as good as we thought we were or crap. One of our guys just went down and we're in a bind and we really need to win this season.

Like if another team is going to emerge from the woodwork, it's going to be because something has happened. Desperation. Yeah. And I think that's what the Sixers are counting on. to put the pressure back on the clippers. I've said this. And Sam, tell me if you disagree. I think Logan's already heard my spiel on this.

But, like, I honestly think the Sixers have a decent negotiating position or leverage in the sense that, like, they've weathered this before. They played without Ben Simmons. And it was like, there's no way they can survive without Ben Simmons. They survived without Ben Simmons for a while. They can survive without James Hard. And if Tyrese is the player that everybody seems to think he's becoming, he may well be. they can survive short term. So the idea that, well, like, they have to sacrifice whatever it is that they think they need in a return. I think they can just sit tight. And I think the clippers kind of low-key have more pressure almost on them because they're the team that has two guys who in tandem were supposed to get them to the finals or deliver championships.

We're four years in. They haven't. They haven't stayed healthy. James Hardin, I don't think, is a player that puts you over the top anymore necessarily for me. most teams, but a team that already has two all-MBA caliber forwards, James Hardens, the guy who helps get them through a season and who also can, obviously, he play makes at a high level, led the league and assist last year. The Clippers need to deliver before they move into their new building and before this whole era expires or before people start, you know, finding themselves in trouble with the multi-billionaire owner. Like, this plan has not worked. And again, like I've said this before. I don't blame them for doing it. It was the right move, but it hasn't worked. And everything has an expiration date. And the closer they get to that, the more I think the

pressure is on the clippers to make a deal. And the idea that Terrence Mann, Terence Mann's the one holding this up, come on. Like, this is silly. I'm not taking sides here. I just think, like, objectively looking at the situation, like, yes, the Sixers have some urgency because you don't want to piss off Joelle and B. too many times and risk losing him. But as of right now, things seem pretty calm there. And yeah, I think the Clippers, if not hard, and then somebody. I don't think they have enough. No, I agree with

all of that, to be honest with you, Philly just to pound that point a little bit, guys, Philly's incentive to lower its bar in terms of what they want in this trade is pretty minimal to me. And specifically, here's why. It's one

thing if you're dealing with the Clippers, let's say the Clippers' conversation centered on Paul George, which, by the way, and I reported this last week, on a lighter note, when Daryl got frustrated in the latest round of negotiations with the Clippers, he and, you know, kind of true snarky form indicated to them, well, if you love all of these other assets so much that you won't give me, then let's just have you give me Paul George. How about that? And of course, they basically laughed out loud. But if Paul George was the piece coming back to Philly, then it would be a one-to-one transaction where

Phillies, you know, could have a vision of Joe Al M. B. Plan with Paul George. Let's go. Let's go win a title. Here's the problem. Philly's plan, and this is just the best they can do, it has two phases. You know, okay, fine, give me an unprotected first, a pick swap, matching salaries, and Terrence, man. And then I'm going to take all that stuff. Then I'm going to have to go shop for the next guy. They do have people in mind, not clear exactly who. I've got a few ideas, but, you know, a little early to speculate, but they also have to wait for those teams to get closer to the deadline, to struggle, the stuff that Howard talked about.

This is a two-phase plan, and there is no guarantee that they can pull it off and ultimately have a player in James Hardin's old spot who is as good as he was, or even in the same ballpark. So all of which is to say, Howard, that, yeah, like, Philly, they can look at it and say, maxi takes a jump, we weather the storm. like what are we missing out on right now? We're missing out on draft capital that might get us the next guy.

And the Clippers, meanwhile, you know, game number one, if it keeps going like that, then the pressure stays off. Russell Westbrooks of plus 30. They looked really good. It worked,

you know, and so we'll see how they play it. But, you know, we know the history with load management. We know everything you highlighted. So, you know, I do see where, man,

it's just stuck. the negotiation is stuck and I don't know that it's going to bust through anytime soon. Sam, building on that question though, I mean, James Hardin has showed his ass for the last year plus, right? And not just in Philly, but also in Brooklyn where, you know, we saw what happened during that situation. And then Houston getting his way to Brooklyn, there is sense of a pattern here. So whoever gets him, whether it is the Clippers or another team or however he goes, what are the long-term commitments that these teams are willing to give him considering his track record, especially since we saw what happened over the summer

where he opts in to acts to be traded. How do you, if you trade from it, I know this is the league, and I know GMs talk themselves into a lot of things, but what are the long-term commitments that a team would give him? Is it a Kyrie type deal, right, where it's maybe not as much money? But, you know, we do give you the years and maybe not the guarantees. What are we looking at for the new team that gets James Hardin? Yeah, I like that comp. I actually do think that potentially, let's say he gets traded to the Clippers, which, by the way, it's important, he gets traded there.

They need his bird rights in order to make it happen in the offseason. I could see a Kyrie type of extension. And at some point, you know, at that point, if it did happen, you would have to be realistic about the market, about the Clippers situation, and about, you know, what's the cap on what? what they could possibly give him. You know, you don't have the personal history that he has in Philly. He can't sit there and act.

Like with Daryl, it's just like, wait a minute, you told the world that was better than Michael Jordan and now you won't pay me. Like, you know, it's so the feelings are such a big part of the Philly dynamic. But if he's in with the Clippers, I do think that it is a Kyrie type of, you know, deal come summertime. Again, I would love to be a fly on the wall of their front office space right now because you know, first of all, they've got a pretty robust front office, a lot of talented executives. So I guarantee you that not everybody's always on the same page.

You're going to have differing viewpoints. I would love to know, you know, how they are breaking this thing down. Because, you know, James, the history you highlighted, Logan, it's bad, man. I mean, it's, you know, take away the nuance, take away, whatever side of the fence you're on with James Hardin. We have not seen a player have a stretch of three, four years like this in my entire time, in the league. I mean, trade requests and acrimony between player and franchise, that's an annual thing. We are not used to seeing the same name attached to that annual thing, you know, for this many years running. As he's getting older, right, Howard, like, I don't, that's

another thing, right? Because he's, he's not a guy that's going to get any younger. And it's not like he's the hardest worker in the league, right, with the most committed person in the offseason. So, like, how, I don't know how you talk yourself into that either with his age. Sorry with the Aids. I know that is a theme of this episode. I apologize. But in the context of this, how do teams even approach that when you're negotiating with them? And also, if you're over here mad at Darryor Mory for sliding you, what do you think these other teams are going to do? Like, they see the same thing. They're trying to get the best deal for their team as well. If we're going to go on the assumption that the reason James Harden, though he won't say it out loud, the real reason he's pissed off and is saying that Darry is a liar and all this is because he was promised a contract.

that was never, that never actually materialized. That contract, to your point, Logan, is not materializing anywhere. Again, it's not. Not at his age, not with his track record, not with where he is physically. And I mean track record both on the court where he's slowing down a little bit. And yeah, spotty record of being in shape. And not with his track record of constantly souring on situations. Like no team in the league is going to trust him, even if they believe still in his talent

and his ability to help push them forward. and I'm sure the Clippers and some other teams do believe in that last part. But everyone's going to be wary of him because he's made them wary of him. And I think the saddest and strangest part of this whole thing, and it just, he is hurting his own cause. He's hurting his own cause in terms of the way that he's viewed around the league. He's hurting his own cause, even in getting out. If you want to say whatever you said over the summer, fine. But be a professional.

They are still paying you to do a job. I don't care who your beef is with. GM, coach, teammates, the trainer, the janitor, the contract is there. You are being paid for your services. You can't withhold the services. And show up and show up and do your job, do it at a high level. And yeah, that might actually hasten a deal. But the longer you hold out, create more drama, keep this cloud over the franchise, it's a cloud over you too. He seems to think he can do all this and have it have no impact on him. That's crazy.

There is a cumulative impact of everything that James Hardin has done and said over the last several years through all these forced trades and all the drama that he's created. And it may well shorten his career to boot. It certainly is going to hurt his ability to get another Max deal next summer. I can't imagine him getting what he wants at all these things. And it's just, if there was a way to play it, he broke all the rules of playing that guy.

Right? When he turned down a max extension in Brooklyn and talked out of a max deal and we're into this crescendo where we're at now. We'll see what happens. It's going to be something interesting to look at. Reminder slash disclaimer. You mentioned Kyrie earlier. And I just, it always blows me away. Like I had a story when Kyrie and his off court stuff was at its lowest low, had interviewed a bunch of executives anonymously about his market and had. at a GM, not an assistant GM, a head of a front office telling me, I'm not sure he's going to play in the NBA again. And so you see the attitude go from that to him getting the Mavs deal. I'll just say, like, this league, to quote our buddy Mark Stein,

it always gives you something crazy and who the hell knows where this is going. We'll see what happens, man. Before we get out of here, I want to talk real quick about the new All-Star, since I have two hard hitters right here. I want to talk about the All-Star changes. they're going Adam Silver basically leaked this himself in an interview with Stephen A. Smith last week, but basically there, no more drafts, no more,

no more teams that are going to be picked like it's on the program. We're back to East and West. But it's interesting for me, and I want to start with Howard when I'm asking this question, when it seems like the league is finding itself in a transitional phase and trying to figure out what is going. They're moving like a team that is trying to appease the new TV partners or existing TV partners and trying to make them probably a more attractive thing for a new TV deal.

This is how I feel. And the changes that they are making when you talk about load management and now the end-season tournament and all these new things. What is the league trying to do with these new changes? They're just trying to figure things out right now, Howard. What are they trying to accomplish? Because I feel like there's only so many changes you can make on a year and year out basis. So many announcements, so many things where people think now they're like, well, now I've got to educate myself now on a new in season tournament. Now I have to, oh, now the All Star game is going to be like this.

What are, that that leads to confusion. So what are the league trying to do? And when are they going to find like a, this is this is the thing that we are going, this is the rhythm that we're just going to have. expect from an NBA season. When are we going to get to that point? So the thing I've admired about the NBA under Adam Silver, and I think this was the case for David Stern, too, but especially with Adam Silver, you know, he loves that phrase, fresh look. We're going to give this a fresh look. He has said that about literally everything under the sun in his 10 years as commissioner. I appreciate their willingness to experiment and to try new things, especially when something has kind of

flatlined as the All-Star game had. And so they came up with all of this. They, they They instituted the player draft where the two leading vote getters in East and West draft players. They did it on TV first, and they did it at the All-Star game itself this past year. They instituted the Elam ending, where you have a target score in the fourth quarter so that the game doesn't drag on. They instituted the playing for charity and certain other features within the game to try to get guys to play harder. And it kind of worked initially, and then it didn't work at all. And the last couple of All-Star games have been absolute duds. And so again, I will, I'm not going to mock the league for experimenting and then abandoning the experiment, but I do think there's a risk here in like, we tried this thing. We did it for a few years. Yeah, it didn't work as well as we thought it would. Now we're abandoning it. Now we're doing something different again. I don't know if they gave it enough time, to be honest, guys. I thought the ELAM ending was absolutely effective, even though the game has, you know, the game's a dud again, but that's still mostly about the players. I don't know how you get the players to care again. And that's the thing. Like,

They instituted all these things to try to infuse some energy into the All-Star game. It just hasn't paid off. But if you're going to reverse the changes you made but not introduce any new changes, then where are we? We're just back to where we were four or five years ago when you were looking for answers to make the All-Star game fun again. I don't understand this move exactly. And the player draft, I know like not everybody at the least.

league necessarily were fans of it. I think most fans in media, I mean, you guys tell me if you think otherwise, but I thought people really enjoyed the player draft. They loved. Well, I had a lot of great moments because it starts like it's during during around the trade deadline, like the moment where we have when Hardin gets traded out of, out of Brooklyn. And then you have, you have, you have LeBron and Kevin laughing about it. That's a great moment, right? Right after it happens. The little subtle snubs. Yeah, the little subtle snubs that keeping, like, Janus not pick, Yon is picking Dame over Drew Like did the league just decide

Did they low key get like Feedback through channels that the players actually Felt awkward about those kinds of The things that we enjoyed did they not And now they don't want to be put on the spot for that The league needs to stop like they need to figure out That I'll get to Sam one They need to figure out if they really fully want to be messy or not

Because if they they they always go It's like double debts with the league Either they're going to say we're going to go all in on free agency And player trades and then speak out of both sides of they mouth. That's what I don't like. And then they're going to do this where, oh, yeah, we want to make the game great and we want to be messy. We want to do all these things. But we're going to take away the most entertaining part of the all-star experience, at least a pre-all-star game experience. Yo, you get to see inside guys talk shit to the two leading boat getters. And then, like, I just want the league to

just find a North Star, Sam. I think that's where I'm at right now. Figure out what you want And that's what we need. The calculus for the league between entertainment and then their own politics internally within the association drives me crazy in terms of, all right, players making more money than ever, everybody making more money than ever. You would think, and this is me as a consumer saying this,

the degree to which they're being rewarded for their work would mean that you prioritize the entertainment above all else. What in fact ends up happening a lot of times is it empowers the people, the players, to a degree that ends up hurting the entertainment. That's a very macro look at it. But like, okay, the draft is fun. A few feelings get hurt along the way.

It suddenly disappears. Whether it's, it wasn't it, Yokic, like thought he got drafted and he started walking and then he didn't get picked. You know, little moments where, you know, maybe it's a bad look. Guess what? Fans enjoyed it.

As an aside, this relates, I had a chat the other day with George, Jordi Fernandez, the King's assistant coach who was Team Canada's coach during Feeba World Cup. And I was joking with Jordy saying, man, first of all, enjoyed seeing you do your thing with Team Canada. But also, I said, Fiba, they had a feature during their coverage where they had open mics on the coaches. And it was wild to watch. So you got to see Jordy telling his players at one point. He literally says, pardon the French, but he's like, listen, I know we're getting fucked, but don't worry about the rest.

da-da-da-da, and you hear that. And that was dope. Like, it was cool. And I said that to Jordy. And I don't think he'd mind me sharing the story. He was like, I hear you, but he's like, I got kids. I got family. He wasn't real happy about it.

Like, and so you got a sense of that dynamic. So the consumer is going, yes, give me more. Give me more. This is the real stuff. And then you have Jason Kidd last night who was trying so hard not to say anything on, on the television broadcast, right? Where he's just like, let's go, guys. It was, by the way, while they were doing that,

that and they decided to do split screen. And there was like three minutes of split screen with Jason King just sitting there watching the game going. He's not saying anything. Dude, stop it with the fucking split screen. I want to watch the game. I get it. You've miked up Jason Kidd.

We don't need him taking up half of my TV. Sorry. That's fine. I just need to get that off my chest. You got to get the real stuff, you know. And so, and I guess to quickly weigh in on the All-Stars, yeah, it's weird. It's like they're at the dartboard and they're just throwing it. Things change a lot.

You know, Howard and I were on a call. last week with Joe Dumars and Evan Wash, two top executives with the league who play a big part in these types of decisions. And Joe's spirit and Joe's message regarding the All-Star game, like if he's able to follow through on that, that would be great because he talked about messaging to the players about why they need to be competitive. And he was pretty fired up in wanting the All-Star game to be competitive again. But, you know, okay, so you go back to the old format.

I don't really know incentive-wise. how else they have motivated the players. I don't necessarily see a change coming other than maybe telling everybody, hey, TV rights deals coming up, put on your best foot forward. That's kind of what we're doing right now. But it is a little scattershot.

The NBA is moving like it's in a contract year right now. That's how they're moving. Well, they are. 100%. As I say, if the problem that everyone recognized and everyone recognized it is that the All-Star game has become kind of a dud, and we instituted these changes to try to make it fun and interesting and competitive again.

And now those things have been deemed a failure, which is what this change back is an admission of. It failed. But you don't have anything new. So where are we at? I don't think it failed. I think the only failure was on the players. It's not the thing around it. The common denominator is they don't play hard.

It's on the players, no matter what. It's a failure, Logan, in the sense that they changed some structures to try to juice it up. And then it incentivized the players or motivate the players to treat the game a little bit more seriously. And it didn't. So, yeah, they failed to get the players to play harder in the All-Star game. By the way, I went to my first All-Star weekend as like a media member last year. I see why the players are, it's tough for them to get up for like an All-Star game. I get it in theory.

There's so much going on during those things. It's been such a corporate-ass environment. and there's these parties, there's all these things that are going on. Like, I honestly, by the time the game gets there, I mean, I'm dipping. I'm going back home, right? Like, the players by that time don't want to be there. I just don't know what you can, I don't, like, to your point, I'm really just trying to figure out what a player can do or what they can do to get the energy

enough to play in an All-Star setting. Oh, that's true. All-Star weekend is a freaking circus, as Sam will attest. And the players have a ton of demands on them. There's a ton of stuff they got. got to do, plus a lot of stuff that they want to do. And by Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening, they're probably ready to just say, all right, I'm done.

But guys, one of the first things that Adam Silver did as commissioner was make All-Star weekend or the All-Star break from a three, four-day break into a full week because they wanted the players who played in the All-Star game to be able to come back and rest up and be fresh again for the last part of the season. So that's already built into this. They've already accounted for it. And the guys are still basically like, eh, check it out. I'll go back to what I've said for years on this.

This will never happen. This is one of my many DOA proposals. This is my drunk with power pitch that I used to do on my podcast back in the day. Ten minute quarters, running clock. Problem solved. Because it won't drag on anymore. The thing's too damn long. And the urgency of the clock ticking all the time and shorter quarters might actually

amp up the competition a little bit. So there you go, MBA. You get that one for free and you're never going to embrace it. But oh, well. I love Howard. Before we get out of here, before we get to ruin of the week, because it is Thursday, I went real quick to both of you guys. Is this in-season tournament a one or two-year experiment, or is this going to be something that sticks?

Howard is very bullish on this. So I'll go with Sam first and then go with Howard. Sam, what do you think? I think it'll stick, you know, just because of what inspired it, which is, you know, soccer overseas. and Adam Silver's perspective on their ability to have the games matter. I think it'll be tweaked. It's not going to remain in this form. They made it really clear at the jump that the way it looks right now

will not necessarily be the way it looks going forward. So I think they'll read the room, see what kind of things they can change to optimize it going forward, but I think it'll be a long-term thing. It's probably here for at least a few years, right? Like, they didn't invest all this time and energy into launching this with Adam Silver, pounding the drum fort for literally a decade just to then pull the plug after two or three years. I mean, it's not the All-Star game where you could just change it every three years.

Or a dunk contest, which also gets treated. Yeah. No, I mean, I think they are very serious about this. Now, if the players don't embrace it in the way that the league is expecting and hoping, if the fans don't embrace it in the way that the league is expecting and hoping, it could have a short shelf life for sure. Like that's on the table. That is in the realm of possibility.

But philosophically, I think they're very committed to this. And besides that, not for nothing, but as they are negotiating all these new broadcast rights deals, streaming rights, everything else, this is another thing they can sell to sponsors and to those new bidders for a piece of their broadcast rights. So they like having other tent poll events that can draw sponsorships

and that they can build a whole package around, that's at least a piece of this, which means that they're incentivized to keep it. I did like the commercial, their little Ocean's 11 commercial. Those are fun. Yeah, yeah, that was good. Germant as a cop was very,

it was hilarious to me. Yes. I think the biggest concern for the league should be if the Michael Imperiali Ocean's 11 style commercials end up being more entertaining than the in-season tournament itself, that's when they'll have a problem. But it's too soon for,

me to get into that kind of snark and I did it anyway. Hey, Howard, just to say on brand as the two OGs here. Like, I'm just, I'm going to get my YouTube tickets for middle of December in Vegas, you know. You know, that's the perk for me. Let's go. No? I'm trying to go to, hey, man, I'm trying to go to Usher

again. I'm not trying to. Is he at the sphere? I want to see the sphere. Is he at the sphere? So, maybe at some point, but I don't know. I think Usher show is better, though. So you need to tap into that. I'm still, I'm afraid of the sphere. The sphere freaks me out, man. Like you're going to disappear. Does it?

Is this a sphere to sphere? It's fear the sphere. It's really cool and really freaky. Like when you see it, when you're, because it's huge. And like when it turns into the moon and it looks like the moon crash landed in the middle of Las Vegas. It's freaky. Man, Howard, hold on. We got to contextualize this.

This is Howard Beck complimenting a James Dolan production. What is happening? There's the other problem. Facial recognition technology is going to keep me for me from. entering the sphere anyway. The whole entire thing is just facial recognition. It's going to be me, Sam and Howard pulling up to the sphere.

And then the face recognized Howard has to get left there. It's going to be like James Harder trying to get on the Sixers plane. There we go. And there we go. Let's, before we get out of here, Thursday, you know what that means? All my real ones know. Real one of the week. I will start off.

And then we will go to Howard. And there are esteemed guests, Mr. Amick. I'm going to go with Malik Monk. I saw him yesterday with the early dunk of the year. I don't even know what his stats were for that game. He's one of my favorite players in the league. Was he good?

Okay. I'm going to see the Kings for the first time tomorrow. But Malik Monk, one of my favorite players in the league, the way that he can, he's one of those guys. Sam knows it's been to a lot of Kings games, where his performance can galvanize the fan base in the moment. Right.

One three. He has such a special, and the crowd is going crazy. It's such a special relationship with that King's crowd and the energy that he brings. Big O2 Bobby Jackson vibes from our guy Malik Muck. So, ruin of the week is Malik Munk from me. What about you?

I like that one real quick, Logan. I got to follow. A shameless plug. I wrote a big piece today on the Kings with Anthony Slater. The lead to the story, which is well-ridden. Slater actually handled the lead. Good stuff.

but I'll say the video is even better Tony Harvey is a long-time media member in Sacramento Logan you know him Tony took a video October 13th the Kings have practice right they're scrimaging Malink Monk goes on the right side gets hit on the arm and he gets pissed

because he doesn't get the call they had officials as part of the pickup game stops playing turns to the ref and whines right complains Mike Brown comes from the left side top of his lungs Malik, I'm about to lose my

fucking top if you keep doing that shit. Malik kind of barks, didn't bark back, but he says something back Mike twice. I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. Just losing his mind into Malik's credit. So we got into this a little bit. Malik took it. Malik understands

what Mike is trying to do. But he bore a little bit of the Mike Brown brunt that day. And so to and then be able to turn a new leaf and be good in game one was impressive. Well, Malik took that advice and turned a motherfucking jet song. I'd like to be. Howard, who is your ruin of the week?

As long as Sam has already set me up as Nick's villain, Dolan villain on this pod, I might as well go with Chris Stap's Porzingis. You're so petty, Howard. You're so petty. I mean, listen, I am not the one who caused Chris Staps Porzingis to have 30 points, eight rebounds and four blocks on opening night to beat the team that traded him away for a bag of peanuts for a few years ago. Pretty spectacular debut.

The good folks at ESPN's social media team came up with one of like those, you know, first to, you know, do this on a Thursday, on the odd day of an even year. Most points in NBA history by a player making a franchise debut, meaning for the Celtics, against the team that drafted him, meaning the Knicks. Very, very obscure framing. But it was something. Trying to get that engagement. You know it.

But still, I mean, like big, big time performance. And I think, listen, you know, all jokes aside, like, Porzingis, like he was ultimately a disappointment with the Knicks partially because of the ACL, right? And then some other stuff that went on. They trade him to Dallas. He's supposed to be the one-two punch with Luca. That doesn't work out. They trade him for, you know, a couple of contracts, basically. They send him to the Wizards.

He's in purgatory. He has his best season statistically on a team that was going nowhere. So you really don't even know what to make of like was he really, you always wonder this, how good as a player when he's putting up big numbers on a going nowhere team with no pressure and no expectations. Now he's in a place where the expectations are absolutely through the roof. they gave up a franchise icon Marcus Smart to get him. And there's a lot on him, right?

Like, I think everybody agrees that the Celtics are going to get back to the finals or finally went a championship this season. Yeah, there's a little bit of like, is Tatum going to take on the step? Is Jaylon Brown going to take a, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. How good is Drew Holiday going to be for them? But the big question mark is really Chrisaps Porziggas. Can he stay healthy? And can he be a difference maker and opening night against his former team with the entire

garden chanting fuck Porzingis so loudly that you could hear. hear it through the TV. I missed that. Did that happen? Oh, yeah. It was booming. It was booming. And the dude delivered, it wasn't just the big numbers. He had some clutch shots down the stretch. Like, it's pretty impressive. Great game, by the way, too. It was a great game.

That's a good real one pick right there. Mine's not as spicy. I'm going to go with the one and only Serbian wizard, Nikola Yokic. This dude does not get MVP last year. I voted for Janus. now probably my early handicap pick for this year's MVP award but more specifically

they win the title he's got his summer of fun videos of him doing front flips off of rafts in the middle of the river watching horse races all the stuff that comes with the yoke's experience vibing but the lakers

decide that it'd be a really great idea in training camp to start chirping about how we heard what michael malone said about us and the championship parade, and it just acted like this was, you know, a real thing. And it was ridiculous. You got swept in the conference finals and you wasn't even close. You hijacked, LeBron hijacked the post-game four scene with his, I'm going to retire press conference, which, you know, he's a pretty deliberate guy.

I'd forgotten about that somehow. Yeah, and now they're the bad guys, you know. And so in AD in camp really openly talked about the fact that the Lakers were motivated to play the nuggets. They had been here in the chirping and they're fired up, ready to go. So Denver just goes and puts it on them in their debut, which by the way, is tough to do on Ring Night. So it's Ring Night.

We're going to show you the bling. We're going to smack you in the face. Yokic is going to have his first triple double of the year. What do we got? 29, 11, and 13 boards. Not too shabby. A.D., I believe scoreless in the second half.

Maybe took one shot, just fell apart. And it's just one game. But as far as being a real one, you know, all things, Nuggets, and their ability to get the best of a rival like that is powered by how great he is. And yet again, he's off to a great start.

I picked the Lakers to go to the finals this year. Immediately look terrible. Oh, speaking of a chance, I assume you all heard the Who's your Daddy chant? Yes. Oh, yeah, man. Hey, man. Nuggets got mind control over the Lakers right now.

It's tough. Jamal Murray, this was a rare good microphone moment because we were killing that feature earlier. Jamal Murray was miced and he's talking to Michael Malone, court side as the Who's your Daddy chant keeps going. And Jamal looks at Michael Malone and he smiles. He goes, this is your fault. This is all you. You did this because in the parade, of course, you know, Michael was talking about who's your daddy.

So, yeah, the nuggets are living rent free in the Lakers heads right now. get up off the mat, Lakers is looking it's looking bad right now. Get your shit together. We'll see what happens this week. No, they got Phoenix tonight. Yeah, let's see what you guys do in your home opener. That was not a good start of the season.

As we're winding down here about that game, it sounds like Booker and Beeler not playing. Oh, boy. There we go. Oh, my goodness. Wow. Player participation policy. What happened?

Wow. At least we get LeBron versus KD, not going on with. But, all right. We'll see you guys. next Monday, Sam, thanks so much for joining us. We will have you on again soon as the season progresses. Howard, you know what it is. See you guys on Monday for

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