The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Paolo Goes No. 1! Behind the Surprise Decision With Magic President Jeff Weltman, Plus More NBA Draft Observations

Episode Date: June 24, 2022

Russillo shares some observations from the 2022 NBA draft, including Chet Holmgren to the Thunder, the Knicks’ draft decisions, the Grizzlies trading up, and more (0:28). Then Ryen talks with Orlando Magic president of basketball ops Jeff Weltman about when and how the Magic decided to draft Paolo Banchero no. 1, how Paolo fits in with the young roster, a Jonathan Isaac update, Mo Bamba, the multiple ways cap space factors into free agency, and more (18:14). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (42:36). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Jeff Weltman Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The day after. Going to run through just draft observations because we had four hours of those on draft night. Jeff Weltman, president of basketball ops for the Orlando Magic. When did they know they were taking Powell? When did they tell him? Are they worried about not having him work out? And a really good life advice to close from the boys.

Good morning. I hope everybody enjoyed the NBA draft. It's only the single greatest day of the year. I did maybe four hours on it last night with Bill and KOC, who's terrific. We had a little Chris Ryan. We had a nice, I wouldn't call it a sprinkle of Cerruti. I call it just a good helping of Cerruti. We're going to hear from Steve

Cerruti a little bit later on, Magic fan. I just want to run through a few things. I'm not sure that I want to do the full, the grades deal because I feel like we just did it on the fly throughout the entire time. And I'll admit too, it's always the annual reminder that I like to give people after the draft that as much as

I love it, and I would admit I also I feel like as I get a little bit older I'm not in a hurry to just go this guy sucks you know but I'm also not afraid to just go I don't really like a pick or this is what the player is because we're still projecting people here and it's it's just very very hard i i for whatever reason i always feel like the draft people are the most disliked of the media members because i think so many fans like that guy sucks he got this guy wrong and i could do that actually if i you know wasn't in sales i think that's kind of what happens but i did i didn't watch a lot of the espn coverage because we were on throughout

so much of the draft but when i do catch it it's almost so positive that that can be a bit of a turnoff too, is just a viewer. But I also get what they're doing. They're on TV. They're on ESPN. I don't think Billis wants to start going, oh yeah, did three of this guy's games, can't play. I would love coverage to be like that.

So am I saying, hey, I want it to be nastier? No. And I'm admitting, I feel like I'm a bit of a fraud myself because i'm sitting there with so many picks i really like last night's draft and yet at the back of my head i'm like don't like aren't you the guy that reminds everybody every single year how many of these draft picks actually don't work out and that when a team picks up a pick like hey we gotta we gotta pick at 23 in 2024 and 202626, we have a top 20 protected. We have two firsts.

It's like, all right, if you get a rotation player out of one of those two picks, that's really great. I mean, all we have to do is what six years ago, eight of the top 10 picks. So the 16 draft,

the Simmons draft, eight of the top 10 picks are on different teams. All right. You know, thinking, all right, that's six years ago. That's not fair or slow.

All right. Two years ago, the 2020 draft, do we have four already probably not happening for him? I don't think that's unfair. I'll go back and look at it right now. I did have it up earlier. If you looked at Anthony Edwards,

it looks like that's working out. I'm not even including Wiseman in this because we just don't know yet. LaMelo's been terrific. Patrick Williams not even including Wiseman in this because we just don't know yet. Lamello's been terrific. Patrick Williams, TBD, but there's no... The fact that Okoro went fifth in a draft. Think about Okoro compared to who you would get fifth or maybe even 10th in this draft.

And he's not bad. It's just he's a lot like a lot of players. You're like, oh, if this happens, and if he does this, and if this happens here and you're like, all right, but that means that every time somebody is getting picked last night, you're kind of talking to yourself into it. Like Abaj is a perfect example. I can completely see the path to where he plays for a long time and he does these awesome

things as a non-primary player who's never asked to do more than defend and knock down an open shot. But if he does those well, you can be super valuable in this game. But I just like Brown from Ohio State more. I just do. Staying with the top 10 in 2020, I actually like a Congo for Atlanta a lot. Killian Hayes, Pistons, Obie Toppin, Knicks, young guys with Tibbs, not ever really that great.

I think Denny's got a chance with Washington, and then Suns didn't even pick up Jalen Smith's third year option. So just a little reminder that two years away, we're already halfway through the top 10. They're going like, what are we doing now? I saw Stan Van Gundy tweet last night about how dumb the media is.

Once again, Stan has a bit in his, in his bag where it's, he kind of points out shit. The rest of us have been talking about for a really long time. And then I'll be like, oh, these draft grades are so stupid. These media members are going to go ahead and do this. You're like, yeah, all of us actually know how dumb it is. I remember doing the show of Impel.

We get done with a draft weekend, right? NFL. And he'd be like, drafting and doing the grades is so dumb and I'd be like yep I agree because it just leads to a bunch of us being wrong about everything because none of us know for sure and the GMs kind of don't either do you want to do it to open the show or do you want to do it in the second segment because hey let's hold off on talking about it like what this is the job there's a draft and go, well,

we shouldn't say anything about any of these guys because we could be wrong because it's really hard. Here's one. When Van Gundy and the Pistons traded for 129 million remaining on Blake Griffin's deal. And then Stan lasted just that season. And Blake only played 25 games. The Pistons were stuck with the bill after that trade.

I'm going to give that one an F. I think we have enough time to go ahead and grade that one. Observations. Here's a Paolo stat for you. He's one of two freshmen ever in Division 1 college basketball with 600 points, 300 boards, 100 assists. Only one other guy's ever done it as a freshman D1 level in the last 30 years. That player is

Ben Simmons. Do I have your attention? Orlando had the second worst offense in the NBA last year. If they looked at it and said, yeah, Palo's just way more polished than the other guys are, maybe Chet. That's the whole point. If Chet ends up being the best, not going to be surprised. If Chet ends up being the best, not going to be

surprised. If Jabari ends up being the best, not going to be surprised. If Ivy were, maybe a little surprised, not a ridiculous thing to say out loud. If it's somebody else, if it were Dyson Daniels, that would seem to be a surprise, but there's just a lot of guys that I like at the top of this. But if you're watching Paolo

play basketball, and you're Orlando, and your offense is only better than Oklahoma City who didn't want to win any games, that's a problem. Other teams I liked, I really liked San Antonio with Sohan and Malachi as I mentioned. Blake Wesley, I wasn't a huge fan,

but when we're talking at the very end of the first round and his athleticism and how he could get his own stuff off the dribble, go ahead, take a swing at it. I didn't like necessarily all the basketball stuff, but when Notre Dame needed buckets sometimes, they actually just would clear out for him, which is saying something for a player that young.

The Wizards' Johnny Davis. I'm indifferent to it. I think he has a chance because of the way he plays. He's a football player out there. He has the football background, looking him, crashing for rebounds. But when I saw him described as a point guard to play along with Bradley Beal of Washington, I like to pick less just based on the description

having nothing to do with the player. Fair? No, not really. Just sharing with you. Memphis getting some criticism for moving up 22 and 29 for 19 and getting Jake Laravia from Wake. 6'8 kid. I've made some mistakes in looking at Laravia because I was like, man, this guy really likes those long

1990s post-ups. He's never going to do this. And what I shouldn't do is focus on those things because, yeah, I don't know that they're going to let him do that unless there's some weird switch, but I don't know that any NBA team, certainly not one as good as Memphis, is going to be like, what do you guys want to do? Jaw? Something to kick out

Jaron Jackson? Desmond Bain? No, let's run more post-ups for our rookie LaRavia, who started at Indiana State. So why would I focus on that part when there's other parts of his game that are really good? And by the way, a lot of teams really liked him, man, really liked him. So Memphis saw him.

You know, you got to remember too, whatever we think the mocks are, the deviation from the teams is so different. Like when I'll ask a team after the fact, like, Hey, where'd you have him? And you'll be like, Oh, I can't believe that. But I'm only judging it based on the consensus discussions and the mocks that we see. So there's teams that will have somebody, you know, if they have the 20th pick and this guy's still hanging around 16, 17, 18, and they go, he's the 10th guy on our board. We can't believe he's still there.

That happens way more often than we realize. It's just we don't get to hear about everybody's board. So the Roddy part of it, I do not focus on anyone that's criticizing David Roddy for his combine work. I was there. I watched it. It wasn't very good. I spent a lot of time because I was like, I want to see what this guy's all about.

The combine is very difficult for a lot of really good players. It's just difficult because you have to be really selfish, but pretend you're not being selfish. And if you're not remotely selfish, then it looks like you stink. And he also missed a ton of shots, but I wouldn't worry about that. The Knicks conversation last night. So they trade Usman Jang for three firsts that are all protected. But because it took forever to figure out what was

going on and that in the Kemba salary dump, that was the Jalen Duren trade that ended up getting Kemba to Detroit to take on the salary in their cap space. And then they get Duren, but then there was a Charlotte element to it where they were giving them picks, which was a first and fourth second rounders. It took so long for everyone to figure out on social media what the Knicks actually got that then it became, well, I don't know what's going on. Seems a little rather incomplete, but let's crush the Knicks. So the Knicks from just a little PR moment for about 30 minutes took some major L's left and right until we finally figured out what the deal is.

I don't know if I'm doing a zag here, but this is TBD. It isn't fun when your team has a pick in the lottery and you don't take somebody. That's not fun. Whoever says, hey, do you want to do something fun tonight? No, but I'd really like to do something fun in three weeks. Okay, cool. Three weeks from now is going to be awesome. Nobody does that. Nobody talks that way unless you're old and you just don't like going out that much. So really what the Knicks ended up doing is they grabbed a few picks, they cleared some cap space, and they didn't do the fun thing. But I'm telling you right now, Knicks fans,

Usman Jang, you may regret it, and you also may laugh and go, remember Ursula when he really liked that tall Australian kid that kind of just wasn't that good? Also a possibility. Do you want that guy with Tibbs? Here's your answer. No, you don't. Little Rosillo, the book Table for One.

I think I'm one of the very few people that isn't huge on Tarry Eason, LSU, who went to Houston. It could very well be that I feel burned by really lanky, super athletic LSU basketball players. That could be a me problem. And I'm not going to get upset about anybody like, oh, I can't believe they took this guy at 31.

Because, you know, ultimately, kind of who cares? My favorite picks are probably Matherin to the Pacers and Dyson Daniels to New Orleans beyond all the obvious stuff that I really like and Gabrielle Procida who was on the move to Detroit and we'll see how that goes. Alright, here's where I

want to finish with this. So Rudy, last night there was some angst from you. I don't know if I'd call it anger. You're not really an angry dude. Well, a good ying to my yang. Where are you now after just consuming everything you possibly can on Palo the Magic? Yeah, so I think during Bill's pod last night,

it was like sheer terror kind of at first because I hadn't considered the fact that Paolo would even be in a Magic uniform. When that happened, you basically tipped me off, what, like 10 minutes before the draft and then it happened and it was just this whirlwind of like, I don't really know. It was weird because I go, it's Paolo

Chet 1-2. I go, it's going to be Paolo, it's going to be Chet. It sounds like I found out about Paolo before Paolo based on the interview that we did with Jeff Weltman. Yeah, which again here's here's the thing do i want not that i'm cool it's just how weird this got so that's why i think you were disappointed so anyway go ahead everything about it though is weird i mean i don't want to i don't think it's a big deal long term but the no workout thing like i i just let's not pretend that that's normal i just don't think that that's normal and it's it's fine like i don't think it's going to be a long

term problem if Apollo's there. Like, obviously, other teams probably checked it off the list. And I was saying this to you last night. You know, if I said, you know, if Chet wanted to go to OKC and didn't want to share some stuff with the Magic, and I said I would still take Chet even if they didn't have the full medical on him, I have to apply the same logic to Apollo. So I'm OK with that there. I think at the end of the day, Ryan this just comes down to the magic needed dude. I talked about it last night. I actually think this roster is not that bad.

They have a lot of B level players. I think Franz is kind of like, you know, was the hope before this, that he could be like, maybe, you know, they're their number one guy,

but I don't know that he's ever going to be like this transcendent number one player on a really good team in the league. And I kind of just think the magic looked at it and said, who's the guy in this, in this draft. And it kind of just think the Magic looked at it and said, who's the guy in this draft? And it's Paulo. Because, you know, we were talking about Jabari, you know, as a Rashard Lewis light type.

But there are a lot of concerns about whether or not he could be the one, whether or not he could play make for others, whether he could make other people around him better. Chet, I understand the wild card. I would have went with Chet, but Chet, I understand, like, the wild card that is his entire game, whether it's his body or who he even projects to be. Like, I understand that. And I think the magic and weltman and he'll talk about a little bit later like their best chance at getting a guy who's going to be an

all-nba guy and the potential best guy on a really good team is taking paulo banqueira and that's what they did and at the end of the day i can live with that i will live with the fact that they did all the evaluations they you know didn't work everybody out but at least saw the stuff at the combine talked to Paulo, and they think that he's their best hope at being a franchise savior. And who am I to say that, like, that's wrong?

Like, you know, I would have probably still leaned Chet just because I think he's insane and the talent is there. But if they want to take Paulo, then I'm comfortable

with that at this point. So I've come full circle. Like, I'm okay with the pick. I had a good hour-long conversation the last night with Kevin Clark, and he's a little bit more, I think, pessimistic than I am about it. All right.

Well, maybe we'll table that. We'll bring him in for a going abroad check-in. Verstappen, by the way. Another win. Montreal. No big deal. Piling him up. I don't know if Daniel Ricciardo's

new nickname is Mr. 12th Place. Yikes. Frustrating. Good interview, though. Frustrating. Well, that's what we hear. Everybody loves him. I don't know. Alright. Wow. Okay. I think that's kind of...

I wanted to ask Kyle something real quick. It kind of dawned on me this morning. I was prepping for the show. Kyle, do you even like the NBA? Yeah, it's fine, dude. I don't know about that.

It's great. I like football and also have a life. So if you're going to have a life and you're going to like a sport, just pick one. I get all the analysis I need from you guys anyway. So no, Kyle, he's secretly like pumped that this is over although we still have free agency so sorry about that Kyle but I think there's there's a part of you that's like man I just can't wait to get through the summer to get to vacation and by the time I get back it's football season it's

been a long year guys football's been gone for a long time so yeah it just was kind of funny when I was thinking like Kyle's has to listen to four hours of stuff and then edit it. So you're actually listening way more than just the time that we spent taping it. And then it's right into me in the morning. And I just was going, I don't know that he's ever shared an NBA opinion with us and he's assigned to the bill Simmons and Ryan Rosillo podcast, which I don't know.

Is that hell for you or you just, does it glaze over and you're fine? No, I mean, I got a college basketball tattoo on my arm. Like I, you know. Is that hell for you or you just does it glaze over and you're fine? No, I mean, I got a college basketball tattoo on my arm. Like, you know, you learn you learn how to adapt. Very adaptable. Best abilities, availability. I'm always around. And I think you guys are smart.

So like I know after I leave feeling like I know a lot more than the guys at the bar who I talk to about it. So I end up I leave here coming out an expert in the eyes of other people. And you kind of just the jig is up now. So I guess if you guys are listening. Do you have a team? I don't think I've ever had this conversation with you. Yeah, it was the Knicks. It was the Knicks.

And since like 2012, I was like, well, I can just take a giant hop step back from this. And I don't have to care. So yeah, it was like the Knicks. But I remember being proud, I think 2012, 2013. Yeah, I remember because it was during the time when I was not in college for that one year and I just was like, wow, Knicks are great. I was like holding on to newspapers with like

headlines of them doing well and Carmelo on the front. So the rare Knicks. It's fine. Well, it's like Pats and everything else in New York. But like I said, I don't care about anything. Mets too. I don't care. You're a Mets fan. I got jerseys but whatever. Am I a fan? Would I go to the games? Yes. I just, you know, life's important, guys. I can't care. I got jerseys, but whatever. Am I a fan when I go to the games? Yes. Life's important,

guys. I can't be sports around the clock. Although sometimes it is when you have this job. I just can't imagine somebody running in that likes the pods, likes Bill's pod, or likes my pod and were to run into Kyle and be like, hey, I want to talk NBA. Can you believe Ty Ty went that late? What did you think? Kyle would be like, dude,

I'm off you know it's so funny i get i get uh dms from like up and coming podcasts or like college like we just want to we'd love we'd love to have you come on we you know we're we're nba focused humor gambling all that stuff we just love for you to come on and give your takes i'm like all right so you do you don't listen or what is it? What happened here? But I just never answer. You don't answer? So have you ever been tempted to just go on? A little bit, but then it's like,

I don't know. What's the win-win here? It's probably a lose-lose. So I don't know. And I'd have to get approved. I think you have to. We're Spotify, so I have to get approved and be like, hey, can I go on this podcast you've never heard of to talk about NBA takes? And I feel like everyone involved would be like, hey, can I go on this podcast you've never heard of to talk about NBA takes? And I feel like everyone involved be like, wait, what are you doing?

Why? So the jig is up. All right. Well, does the does the does Paulo get the seal of approval then from you, Kyle, of the number one pick? I don't know. What are we thinking? Yeah, dude. It's fine.

Seems like you're kind of guy. Sounds great. Sounds like he's a good hang from everything I've heard from you guys and everyone else. If Kyle's in, then I'm in. So we're good. That's all you need. We're going to talk to Jeff Weltman the man that made the pick for the Magic coming up next As you know by today the Orlando Magic

with the number one overall pick take Paolo Bancaro from Duke and there was some mystery along the way so joining us now he is the president of basketball operations for the Orlando Magic. It's Jeff Weltman. Good morning. I imagine you didn't get a ton of sleep.

How are you feeling today? Feeling great. Don't need that much sleep these days. We'll catch up later. It's funny because everyone you talk to nowadays is sleep deprived. You just kind of know that. The other end of the phone, the guy is dealing with the same thing you are. Feeling great about last night. feeling great about our, our team and, uh, you know,

looking forward to the day when our guys are, uh, arriving shortly. There's a bunch that I want to cover, but I think the timeline of events is really interesting. You win the lottery on May 17th. Was there any lean whatsoever among the top players? Did you have any idea after you'd won the lottery? No. Um, I don't think that's the best way to operate. I mean, obviously, like we work really hard at trying to, you know, install the best process and incorporate as many perspectives as we can. And within those perspectives, those guys work hard to improve every year. So if we were to not apply all that to the pick, then I think

we wouldn't be doing our jobs well. So over the course of those weeks, can you share with us the process of the decision-making, all the different evaluation, all the perspectives that you're talking about and how that conversation evolved to Paolo going number one last night. Well, I mean, you know, the devil's in the details. So, you know, from analytics to medical to performance to psychological, obviously scouting and just meeting with different groups, larger groups, smaller groups, watching video together, just trying to understand who each guy is

as a player and as a person and trying to peel away the layers and hoping that the true person emerges after all of your background gathering and everything. So it's just a series of meetings, of data gathering, of data gathering, of data filtering, and how that all kind of converges. And, you know, I could speak for months on, you know, blow by blow, but, you know, that's the process that we try to go through.

And each one of those perspectives, like I said, you know, they spend time all year on improving their process. So when we get to this time, you know, they're better than they were last year. And we talk about how each of those roles tells us, here's how I think we're better this year. And so, you know, we're trying to build something that gets better every year, that our process gets better. And we spend a lot of time on that. It's important to us. And it's important that we give ourselves the space and the listening ability to one another that every voice is heard. Along the way, I mean, it did seem a little weird. And I'd read the article this morning

that there was communication with Paolo, but not having him brought in. Was there ever any level of concern about that part of the process? Uh, not checking a box there. No. And, and, you know, Ryan, I don't want to dig too deep here. Um, obviously, you know, there's so much stuff that goes into the draft, you know, there's so much stuff and there's going to be another draft next year. And so, um, uh, I really don't like to kind of, um, scratch too much below the surface on that stuff, but I'll just say that, you know, Paolo's crew was forthcoming. We had good dialogue with them. He gave us every information, jumped through every hoop that we asked him to. So we had a good wealth of information and all of the kind of protocols that we asked the other guys to do, he did. And so that was really never a concern for us. When did you actually tell him?

I think probably within a minute of the pick. Did you call him? One of our guys did. Okay. All right. Let's talk about Paolo the basketball player. Yeah. Why is he, you know, look, you took him once.

That means you like him better than everybody else. What is it? What is it about his game? You know, I've listened to you guys and you guys, uh, you guys know your stuff, you know, you, you, you guys, uh, do really in-depth analysis on the players games and, and, and the teams that are selecting. So I'm probably not going to say a whole lot that you haven't discussed on your podcast. And, uh, you know, I mean, when you look at the intersection of size skill IQ shot creation ability to create for himself and for others you don't see these guys very often and when you do

they're pretty good players in the NBA so I don't think it's too hard to see why you wouldn't be a fan of Paolo. And what I will add to that is every layer that we kind of uncovered as we went through the process, you know, intel gathering and on all our testing and measuring, he just kept getting better and better and better, even beyond what we all see with our naked eye on the court. So, um, you know, we just, uh, started out with a lot of confidence in him and it only grew as we went through the process. Jeff, you have a poker face, but I'm noticing just a hint of like, there's a joy on your face and talking about his game, you know, like there's, there's, you should be excited. He's his number one pick and all that stuff. I agree with you. I thought he was the best player. I totally get that that's not necessarily the job as you're

projecting other players, which I know you're not going to spend a ton of time on saying, here's why we didn't take those other guys, so I'm not going to go there. But what I loved, and I don't know if you saw it this way, that Paolo probably could have been more selfish because of his talent, but it was a Duke team that was loaded with talent. It was a Duke team that had a lot of ball handlers. So even though he doesn't fit in that traditional guard thing, and I don't project that Mose would be like, all right, we're running high pick and roll with Paolo all the time. That it's not something that gets in the way of your other players that need the basketball. That he already showed in one season at Duke that he's, I don't know if an accommodating

teammate is the right term, but I love players that have those abilities, but are still aware that they've got four other guys out there. And for his talent to still have that mental approach to it is something I just don't see very often. Oh, and he's 6'10". Exactly. Did I just ask you that question well i i look i just i i wanted you to sort of you know like kind of no no no 100 ryan i mean we see it the same way and and you know i can tell you that in all of our metrics like he's in 90th percentile shot creation for himself and also 90th percentile shot creation for others and you just don't see that i mean you just don't see that. I mean, you just don't see that. And I think what you're saying, if I can put it in our terms, is he just makes it easier for the other four guys to play because all of his skills and talents and everything that he

brings to bear, all the stuff that we've talked about is for others you know you're right i mean like if you could say like what's his lead trait maybe you might say passing you know and the ability at 610 250 to put it on the floor to get to spots to see to see plays um and we think he's going to end up being a really good shooter and we think he's going to get to a whole nother level of conditioning. And there's just so much growth in front of him. But if you start with the fact that his game, like by definition, lends itself to lifting the tide for others. I mean, it's such an exciting place to start. And it's what the NBA is about, right? We talk about like multi-position defenders. We talk about guys that are switch switch nightmares. I

mean, you can put him in either end of the pick and roll and that guy gets off screens quickly. He's a crazy short roll passer or playmaker. And by the way, you can put them in a pick and roll and, and, and, you know, deal with that defensively, you know, so there's really no limit to his, you know, versatility, you know, and, and, and I'm just thinking that, you know, coach Mose and I talked about him a lot before. And I just think the coaches are going to enjoy having a guy like him to be able to just do so many different things. And hey, in the age, are take fouls going to be eliminated this year? There's like five more grab and go opportunities per game right there. You know, I mean, it's just that his game lends itself to

where this league is going, you know? So I guess I'm kind of reiterating what you're saying, but the fact that he is a passer, is a connector, is a guy whose skill level allows him to get to the paint, to kick out, to make plays for himself, to, to get to, to, to, to get to the rim. Those are all things that, you know, are so highly coveted in this league. And if you have the IQ and the kind of pass first mentality, you know, you lift everybody with you. So look, he's got a lot, a lot that he needs to work on. He knows that. I think he's going to be an exceptionally hard worker and exceptionally committed to the team

and to his own improvement for the team. But these things that you are bringing up that I'm kind of reiterating are really good places to start. You mentioned the shooting. I think for Paolo, because you're being compared to Jabari and Chet as shooters,

then clearly he was going to be third in that group. I never hear, though, front offices or staff say, we think he'll probably get worse at shooting. It doesn't really happen. I'm not saying he's a bad shooter. I think there's different shots where I go, oh, wait, when he's quick into a pull-up and he's not even thinking about anything,

I'm like, if the shot actually looks tighter, it's a little better on those than some of the you know hey kick out and do i want to take a three i guess i'll take a three shots and that happens with a lot of players but what is it about a player when you look at their shooting what do you guys see the professionals here where you go oh okay this is something else to build on beyond just say free throw percentage i mean the the first basic is just shot mechanics and his mechanics are sound, you know, um, um, he gets the ball to the rim softly. He's already a good mid range shooter. And importantly, he's a good mid range shooter off the dribble. Um, so when you have

that foundation, um, you know, look, man, we track everything to the types of misses, you know, Um, you know, look, man, we track everything to the types of misses, you know, I mean, you know, our guys do a deep dive and, and, and we feel that he, uh, he projects to be a very good shooter. And when you start with a good mid range game at age 19, um, you know, uh, we're, we're confident that he's going to be more than just a good shooter, but a very good shooter. And he will have, he will have three point range. And you're right. I mean, guys get better in this league. You know, they get better if they work because, you know, for the first time,

he's going to have all basketball in front of him. He's going to have, you know, an army of coaches and performance staff. And we were about to move into a brand new practice facility, which we think will be best in the league. And we're going to give him, you know, every, everything that he needs to, to become great. And we're excited because we think he's a real worker and he's excited to get into that. So, you know, there are a lot of positive indicators in his shooting and you know, time will tell, but we're confident about it. Let's talk about the team then in the bigger picture part of it, because you do have a collection of guards.

You know, we all know how this works, how many are around years from now, but you know, Cole, I think surprised some people. Fultz closes the season, I think really strong.

You've got the investment in Suggs, you know, it's one year, you know, he can probably do some, you know, I don't look at him as a traditional, which is kind of nice where you think like,

man, if Suggs long-term playing off of some of these other things how do you see that group um now with an asset like paulo well i mean the first thing is um you know you think about the front line with like wendell 610 260 who was one of the best rim and paint protectors in the NBA at age 24. Think about Franz at 6'10", what's he going to be? 240, you know? And now Paolo is 6'10", 250 at age 19, you know? So you think about that front line with size, IQ, all of them have really good feet. They're really aware. And then you think about, you think about those guys that you just mentioned. And one thing I'll say about Jalen, he had about a half a season of a rookie season. He was in and out with injuries, but he already has become a top 90th percentile defender. And that's very,

very uncommon for rookies. So it's uncommon for rookies to be plus defenders, let alone numbers like that. So, you know, and Markel, as you said, you know, played the last, you know, dozen or so games and played well. You know, our team played significantly better when he got back. So I think it all bodes well. You know, we're talking about age 24, 20, 20, 19, 24, you know, Cole, 21. So, you know, all those guys you mentioned, we have other young guys that we're excited about as well. So, you know, that's what we're doing now. And I think that the positional versatility

at both ends of the floor, the IQ, the size, you know, that's the way we kind of see our team growing. And that's why we think Paolo is one of those guys. I was asked that question before, you know, how does Paolo fit in? And Paolo is one of those guys that he can fit in anywhere with anyone. And we want a bunch of those guys. And I think we're developing that profile. You could do all the work. You can like the guy, feel good about the Franz pick, but what was it like to get him in and go,

Oh wow. Like we, we nailed this one. I'm sorry. You're talking about Franz. Yeah. Yeah. Like just the difference between the evaluation, feeling comfortable with the pick. I just, I always feel like whenever we're, you know, doing hypothetical trades and stuff i'm like yeah but the actually like getting to see somebody be this good is totally different than hey this is the number four pick because there's still as we know the history with this stuff there's still a bunch of

the guys that we heard the name last night three years from now we're gonna be like what happened to that guy and knowing that franz is actually like a real block and I thought was just terrific as a rookie and had some incredible stretches um I mean look I'm sure you like it that's a simple answer but the difference between expectations and the reality of who he became as a player um I don't think we can say became yet because he's way in the becoming stages you, he's 20. So, um, he's, he's, he's downstairs right now. Um, so, uh, you know, Franz is a, is a really talented guy and as talented he is, he's, he's that much of a, of a high character person, worker, winner, and, um, exceptionally competitive, you know, and exceptionally smart on and off the court. So, yeah, I mean, we saw, we, we, we saw that on the court when we scouted them. Um, all of our kind of layers of process last year through the draft,

again, kind of excited us more and more as we kind of uncovered all these layers and started to dig deeper. And then when we brought him in for his visit, um, you know, that I will say this about that visit was, um, I remember, um, you know, uh, taking him to dinner and, um, you know, had, had sat down with him, but when he got up to go and I was walking, um, with John, our GM and, uh, just looking at him walking, I'm like, man, this guy's, he's all of six 10, you know? And so, uh, you know, I guess like, you know, you see that and, you know, when you get to be in the same room with someone and I guess, you know, that it's always, you know, you can always uncover something. But, you know, we all the indicators and especially, you know, his competitiveness and the way again, like Paolo, the way that his game makes other players better.

You know, if you can get a team full of those guys, probably in pretty good shape. Where are you with Jonathan Isaac? So Jonathan had a surgery on his right leg. I can't recall the date off the top of my head, but, you know, fairly recently. And he's working to kind of get back to where he was prior to that injury so you know he's going to take the rest of the summer to keep ramping up and um you know

we'll we'll kind of obviously track that closely and uh you know that that's where he is you know he hasn't played in a long time but he's working really hard he's doing um some half court iso stuff right now and uh you know like i always say there's there's no one who's going to work harder at it and and and stay as focused as jonathan uh i guess i two more things here to just to you know we'll check all the boxes here for magic fans uh what do you think will will go into impacting the mobama decision for the group um well you know obviously now that the draft is over we turn our uh we direct our attention to free agency and you know we'll probably be in here this weekend starting on that we've obviously already discussed it somewhat um but uh a lot goes into it. I mean, Mo got better this year and he started to become the

shooter that we had always thought he would become. I think his consistency has started to mature. I think that he's starting to fill out and he's made good strides and he's a great person. Mo Bamba is a great person. So, you know, we'll discuss those things internally and see how the roster fits. You know, I always say the thing about free agency is when you ask about a player, you know, free agency is not like a siloed thing. You know, free agency is, you know, all of the kind of various, you know, elements of a team coming together from roster spots to age composition, to position, to, you know, like personality in the locker room.

So it's all of these things. And so, you know, it's not a simple discussion, but obviously we know Mo, we like Mo, we liked him enough to draft him high. And we, you know, have, you know, seen him grow and develop over the years. So we'll have that discussion now. And obviously the other part, of course, of free agency is what's going on around you. What are you looking at? Because we're going to be potentially a significant cap room team. So we have to figure all that stuff and we'll take next week to we'll, we'll, we'll take next week to do that. Yeah.

That's kind of where I wanted to land on this. Cause in some projections you could have the most cap space. Um, again, there's, there's factors in there. And I do think the, the media part of this, I don't know if, if, if teams do, I think the media gets really obsessed with like everybody being along the same timeline. Like if you have a 22 year old and you're in two, year two or three of the rebuild and you got a 20 year old, like you can't possibly have a 28 year old, right? Like everybody wants everybody to be

within like two or three years of each other. Knowing that the cap space, unfortunately, you know, just sharing this listeners, I know you know this, like the oddity of it sort of just disappears just because the escalators and then signing your own rookies, all that kind of stuff.

How do you look at where you're at feeling like all right we're another step closer here we got maybe a chance to have some real pieces but we also have this cap space like how do you discuss and weigh the using the asset but also not wanting to disrupt something with the wrong veteran or a guy that maybe can mess up the perceived chemistry you think you will have with this group? Yeah. I mean, Ryan, that is a great question because that kind of gets to the multi-layered aspect of having cap space and dealing with free agency. And by the way, it's not just this year, it's next year. Because if you sign a contract, we can be exceptionally well positioned next year also. So, you know, when you say there's nothing wrong, you know, why would you not have

a 28 year old? It's not really about, you know, the concept of that, because, you know, you need to mix to move your team forward. And hopefully it's the right person in the locker room. And it's the right guy that understands what the team is trying to do right now. And, you know, we had good, you know, veteran help with that last year. So those things are important, you know, regardless of your timeline. But, you know, contractually, you want to try to, you know, measure yourself out where, you know, you kind of, you know, it's hard to get flexibility. It takes discipline. And obviously, you know what we did to our team, you know team a year and a half ago. And it's no fun going through what we went through last year. So we're excited to be sitting here talking about

Paolo. But also with that comes the responsibility of not letting cap space burn a hole in your pocket, of putting our young guys in the best position to grow and succeed. And I don't think there's a preconceived formula for that we have to see we don't know what it is that's going to come along but you know the one thing i will say is when you say um hey why not have a 28 year old yeah but not at the expense of of keeping our our flexibility keeping our timeline intact and what we want to do is we want to play better basketball, make fewer mistakes, develop a high IQ, develop a team that understands what it takes to win, but not at the expense of going right back to where we were, which, you know, as, as a lot of,

you know, fans and media noted, we're kind of, you know, if you want to call it stuck in the middle, we, we, we, we want, when middle. When we kind of get back to the middle, we want to go past that. We want to keep our growth and our ceiling high. So that doesn't mean that you don't have veterans on your team. And that doesn't mean that you don't want to get better this year. We do on both counts. But we have to bake that into the overall projection of but we have to bake that into the overall projection of, of, of allowing ourselves to, um, you know, continue to build on what we're doing here. You know, we're going to have two first round picks next year.

We have two first round picks in 2025, you know, depending on what we do this year, we could conceivably have, you know, as much cap room as any, or as anyone in the league again next year. And, you know, but we want to move our team forward. We want to get better. We want to develop our young players and we want to do both. So, you know, that's, that's what we'll be discussing. And then, you know, what opportunities present themselves, you know, remains to be seen. Sometimes you're, you're surprised a little bit, you know,

but I wouldn't expect us to really deviate from, from our plan, you know, which was to come in and assemble a roster of high character, high talent, versatile players who will grow up together and make this a sustainable winning team. And along the way, stuff is going to happen when you have cap space, when you have extra picks. You know, you'll get some interesting ideas coming across your doorstep. But, you know, we'll see. We'll take that stuff as it comes. And we'll talk about free agency this week. But I'm very pleased with where we are now.

And, you know, our players are really excited. Our staff is really excited. And, you know, from last night, our players are really excited. Our staff is really excited. And, you know, from last night, our fans are really excited. And that's, that's to me, the most important thing right now is that we have the spirit of a team that's growing and that's going to get better and better and better. And it's, it's, it's our responsibility to keep that intact and protect that. A lot of excited Magic fans once they've processed it all. So hopefully this will help as well. Jeff, thanks so much for the time.

Looking forward to the summer, all right? Ryan, thanks so much, man. I greatly appreciate it. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork fork i have every toy you can possibly imagine and best of all kids i am liquid so now you know what's possible let me tell you what's

required life advice the email is life advice rr at gmail.com okay guy checking in 31 61 185 haven't hit the gym in forever so nothing nothing to report, unfortunately. It's fine, man. Huge fan of the show. Not to drag on, but hearing others, and specifically people in sports media occasionally say, I don't know, is so refreshing in today's day and age. All right. Appreciate it. I wouldn't trust

anyone that never says, I don't know, although that's not really the TV job. Producers aren't people don't really like that. It's kind of like the Van Gundy thing that I said in the beginning. Like, oh, no shit. Don't grade them because people are going to be wrong. Like, no kidding. All right.

What do you think TV shows are doing today? Hey, it's too early. Let's not do that. All right. I like this one. This one's different. All right. Prefer to not use my name and

company okay so here's the deal our guy works for a top top golf manufacturer uh clubs balls the whole deal and that was not a top flight hint, by the way, the way I was saying that out loud. So basically he says, literally everyone he meets asks for goddamn discounts and free golf equipment and related items. For reference, I've been working for them for eight years and I get asked at least three to four times a week for balls, hats, gloves, an entire set of clubs, all caps. I can't believe it's taken me this long to figure out a solution either. So some backstory. I'm a people pleaser and I always want to help where I can for the right person. However, the keywords are right person. I have no problem using this privilege, the discount to hook up my close friends, family for the occasional nice gesture,

AK in exchange for free golf beers for a month, or even if it's a genuinely nice person, but it's the people that barely know me or legitimately just met me that ask for a deal that sends me over the edge. I have no problem telling someone that they push the boundaries and typically not always in the nice way. But at the same time, I'm getting older at 31. I know you'll love that. And sometimes even a mild confrontation or possible awkwardness with someone like a friend of my dad's just isn't worth it. I've tried to maneuver around this by underselling my job at the company or to others when I'm constantly in my work attire. It makes it tough to play that off for too long. I've considered even just blatantly lying about what I do when I meet new people,

but at the end of the day, I'll just end up getting caught in that lie. It'll just make the situation even more awkward than it probably needs to be in the first place. I've even tried the I have an allotment excuse, but that just leads to the vultures waiting around for the allotment to reset. To make it worse, the unintended side effect of all of this is that my friends who are aware of what I go through tend to be more passive about asking for this benefit when I'd be more than happy to help them out. I'm proud of my job. And honestly, it's a career company that most people find exciting and eager to talk to me about,

which I think is pretty cool. But I also know the conversation ends with a, so can you get me X, which makes it painfully obvious. They're just waiting to ask the question. I know I've rambled, but how the hell do I toe the line between being a dick and just shutting the question down and being a pushover? People pleaser balancing being a dick with being a people pleaser, essentially here,

just because I'm sick of the damn conversation in cave. So he caves. Maybe that's the scattering report. I didn't feel like that. He caves. Okay. Just keep the word. The word gets around visors and irons go fucking cave eventually look people love free shit and when

it's golf it's a whole nother level i mean reading that email out loud i remember a time i think i was in junior high and one of my best friends his dad had uh a discount thing at a sneaker place and like new sneakers are coming out and i think i asked the dad and then my dad didn't jump in he should have known better i was a kid and then i didn't like the shoes and the poor dad had to return them um sorry mr tilden it was the worst i cringe thinking about that story 30 plus years later oh shit way more than that i mean so it was awful but people lose their minds about this stuff um because people really like the free stuff i mean like the simple thing would just be you have to be stern you have to be stern and like they don't care about your feelings when they're asking for free shit so can you get to that point where you don't care about their feelings? Like when it is just from the jump, stern.

Okay? Like when you mentioned, as I was reading that, I started thinking about the allotment. Say, hey, here's how it works. I have four approved people every year, and it's always very close friends and family members who are on a rotation. And I have to give them the code. And then when their order goes through, they double check it with who I've pre-approved. So I can't really do it. Now, I know they're going to say, oh, well, I need to be... Just think about the guy that's like, well, can you pre-approve me in three years so I can save 20% on some clubs? Get me on a list.

Why do you care about that person's feelings? That would actually be that selfish and single-minded that like, hey, it's 2025. Have you given away your four allotments? Now, people ask me for shit a lot, usually when I used to interact with people more. People ask me for tickets. I don't have them because I don't like asking favors necessarily. I like doing favors for people that I care about. I like doing favors for people that I'm building.

Maybe if it's a relationship, I don't want to make it feel like I'm only doing this because it's something that I want back. But that's kind of the way life works at times. Do favors for people, you know, build these relationships. Maybe it's a business opportunity, something like that a little bit later. But the tickets thing for me was pretty quick. Like people, if anybody was like, Hey, is there any way you can get to Abilic? How do you, I remember one guy asked your tickets to the Stanley cup final, not the

comedian who came on and immediately hit me up after the fact we had him on and then was like hey can stanley cup two tonight i was like yeah we don't have hockey rights man like are you fucking serious like thanks for the seven minute phoner but you know uh there was another buddy that was just like hey hockey tickets i'm like all right look this is how it works i have to call someone at espn who has to connect we don't have hockey rights i have to then figure out this is before I think even apps and all the tickets and stuff like I'm not near you. We're not in the same city. You want to go to a Bruins playoff game. There's like five calls that I have to make for this to even happen. And I haven't seen you in three fucking years. Guess who doesn't ask for

tickets anymore? That guy. So when you have this, you can just see the people's eyes light up a little bit. You know what? Full call out here. I was playing probably one of the most recent rounds of golf. I played in a long, and again, it was a while ago. And the guy I was playing with was like, hey, hit these PXG irons. And I was like, well, what's the deal? He's like, trust me, just hit them. And it was amazing. Did I follow the company on Twitter? Yeah. And then I got a DM from somebody saying, hey, everybody's pumped. You follow us. The bunch of the guys here are huge fans. And I was like, that's amazing.

Played with your clubs. They were great. And she's like, that's awesome. That's been the extent of the... Wait, I might be guilty of doing it right now. The point is that all of us probably have a little bit of that in us now the point is is that the point is is that all of us probably have a little bit of that in us when you're like oh what's going on here but this is really hard the point is you didn't ask you didn't say hey guys can i get i stopped yeah

i stopped you didn't you didn't there's a line and you had the self-awareness to realize that it wasn't going to happen and not be a dick about it exactly exactly um you know canal is not afraid of getting mattresses you know i think i think it'd be nice if we all but this isn't about everybody else okay this is about our guy emailing in right now and i you know you could come up with some super elaborate allotment thing where there's an approval deal. I do think that some places have this where there's a friends and family, but you actually have to full-on check out as an immediate family member.

That rules everybody else out. When it comes to the tickets, I got a few requests on Celtics finals tickets. I would just go, hey, you want to know what happens if I get a couple Celtics tickets to the NBA finals? It's me or it's my dad. And that's it. That's it. There's no one outside of that window that's getting them. And that's exactly

what happened. So it's up to you, man. You've been doing it a long time. You're almost a decade at this company. Again, why would you care about... I guess, I don't know. Maybe he's just nicer than I am. But there's just something so rudy it looks like you wanted to go no i mean you're right about the espn thing i mean back then it would be like you know they they just assume that like tickets to games are given out like halloween candy you just stick your hand in a basket and pull one out and you just give them out to people and it's like it's it's just not like that you know if i have a ticket i'm probably going so i'll be like hey i'm going to the next game tonight like can you get me a hookup i'm

like what am i gonna do am i gonna get you in a suite? I don't know anybody. By the way, the radio, off-air radio guy, where you are on the hierarchy of getting good tickets, I mean, you're better off fucking being outside. Yeah. Well, the Disney tickets thing, too, was another issue at ESPN. Remember, because you would get passes to Disney, and everybody kind of knew that,

but you only got a certain amount, and everybody would constantly bug you. Like, hey, how many tickets you got left? Tickets you got left? I'm like, I was, I would always be like, I have zero guys. I gave them out. I gave them out to, you know, friends, family every year. I have none.

And my advice to this guy, why do you even have to make up an excuse? Just say no. Like I don't have, I say, I'm sorry, I don't have a discount. Can't do it for you. That's my bad, man. It's as simple as that. But that's how we are. That's how fuck people are.

It's like, hello, random person who I just met. You met you're the son of you know this guy i just randomly met oh looks like you're you're not as uh not as like loose with the discounts to perfect strangers what an asshole this guy is and that's what this guy this is where his frustration is coming in is that people aren't actually going through the self-check process of thinking hey i just met this guy maybe i don't ask him for 20 off and people by the way love people that can afford it love the idea of oh i got a guy because it just sounds good makes you feel better so that's what this that's what this dude is dealing with it's up to you to be like you know i wouldn't lie about where you work. Just, you know, you're gonna have to take, you're gonna have to take on the challenge of this one of just being more stern. Yeah, I agree. I haven't been in many positions

where I've had like a lot of stuff that people wanted. I mean, people, my friends nowadays, like kind of jokingly ask like, well, what's up with the free Spotify account? I was like, yeah, there's one and it's mine. So no, I can't just, there's not just like a list. It's like, hey, who do you want that we should give our product away for free for? So like that doesn't happen. But I mean, even today it happens with cigarettes. Like it's so, it could be uncomfortable,

but I'm just like, no, I'm not like, no, why would you ask me that? Just like a simple no. So he's like, hey, and they always like have this way of putting on like puppy dog eyes. Like, do you think I could have a cigarette? Like I just, like they're like, they lost their wallet or something. And it's just like, no, how about no, how about no. When I used to work at Models, it was like, there was a time

a year where a 30% off would roll around, but you know, you kind of had to keep track of that coupon and it had to be accounted for on the desk, but I could probably always do 20%. Um, and it got to the point where I was just like, no, it's just, it's freeing. It's liberating. I kind of like it. I don't think it makes me an asshole because the, for the, one of the first things you said was like, Hey, you're kind of an asshole to just like be putting someone in a position where most people would be uncomfortable. Lucky for me, I'm not. So no. And I think it's nice to say no nicely too. I like saying no nicely, short, sweet. Maybe even my voice goes up an octave. I'm just like, no.

You know what else is a good one? It's like, no, I'm good. That's a little meaner. That's a little more meaner. Oh, you're good? You'll be like, wait, I wasn't asking how you were doing. Like, no, I'm good, man. No, I like that.

Yeah. It's because it's not even like it's I'm good with your request like that. No, I'm good with that. Yeah, we're good. Don't like that. I love the no, I'm good. Yeah, I think that's the point that's the play that's definitely well also though to get back because this guy because the other person's always so confused they're like what what so i don't know this guy though does want to help his actual friends out i don't think it's weird just just tell you i mean if they're not asking you maybe they're not you know into golf or whatever but

i think like hey i don't think they want the hookup because i know you want to do good things you want to feel good about yourself i understand that but like you want to do it for people that matter not randos just say no be comfortable i tell i tell crazy guys holding like sticks that are asking me for cigarettes i tell them no you could say no to a guy who's just like you just barely know i would love to have access to danny cannell's like instagram dms just specifically to brands just specifically to brands like I don't want to yeah I'm not talking anything weird I'm just saying specifically for brands

that I would I would guess there are dozens in there of him just being like hey what's up big fan and then then just see what happens yeah man I don't know I figured what the mattress number was at but it was I was like how many how many pets do you have in your house? Anyway. Okay, this is a quicker one. Let's do it. Am I catfishing girls on Tinder? college soccer player but the last few years of not being an athlete uh and eating and drinking has me in a spot where he's put on some serious poundage being a single guy i use tinder uh

regularly and recently met a girl that i completely hit it off with the problem came after sleeping together for the second time when she casually mentioned, how long ago were your Tinder pictures taken? This is not something I had thought about before, but looking at many of my photos, I realized I was probably 30 to 40 pounds lighter in the pictures as I was still playing soccer at the time. After this admittedly awkward conversation, the relationship abruptly ended when she stopped responding

to text. I've given up on this potential relationship, but now I'm left wondering if I need to completely renovate my Tinder profile or if I can still leave some Apex photos in my profile. Well, there's a lot to...

First of all, before we answer this, what a wild thing to say to a dude after you slept with him yeah twice my only thought would be was it a realization you know was maybe like the first one like kind of a trunk hookup and the second one was like wait a second i think everybody thought that i think everybody you're not selling me the bill of goods i thought we were getting here and then she kind of realized that she made she bucked up and then just ghosted him it happens was she so was she such a low like i don't want to bum out the emailer here but were you her new low that she was like okay i gotta change my life i gotta and she was just that

comfortable saying like hey so now that we slept together twice and I'm going to ghost you here soon. Like what's up with your picks? So, uh, I will say, I don't know. I don't know how that would go over. If you said it to a woman,

it'd probably go way worse. Uh, but that's a wild thing to say, even if, cause I remember one time there was a boy band guy, I'm not going to name which one. And we'd heard this story about how he'd spent just a weekend raging with this girl we all knew. And then I think Monday he was checking into rehab and we were like, whoa. She was, whatever it was,

that weekend that he spent with the person that we knew, he was like, I got to change my life. He's like, that's it. And I think the person was sort of he was like i gotta change my life he's like that's it and i think the person was sort of bragging about it a little bit yeah and then it was like nope nope so um i think there's also a couple positives that i want to get to here too it's for the guys that are out there not getting as many nibbles you could meet somebody like this who's like, whatever, just trying to get it in. And, you know, I just worry about the lines up later. I'll worry about how I feel about myself after, you know, so girls and boys out there, you never know who could just be in a real slump and their standards are lowered and we all have a better chance. So anyway, go ahead, Sar saruti you want to jump in yeah i just i actually think it's totally okay for her after

sleeping with you twice to ask this question i i like if you don't think that's crazy she slept with you twice dude like well why is she sleeping with you why is she going oh my god this guy's 40 pounds bigger all right maybe it's back to the standards thing she's like whatever i've been on a massive slump and then she was like i'm gonna get through this for a couple weeks oh my god he's still bigger than i thought he was well i'm kind of pissed off about it i'm gonna ghost him what's the etiquette then is what she's supposed to say on the first date or first hookup like she can't say it you know and i don't know just ghost him you

don't i don't know that that applied i don't think that there's etiquette it's just a wild thing to say yes it's harsh but you know it's true imagine imagine if you met somebody you were single all of us are single say and then you you meet somebody on a dating app you sleep together and then you roll over and you're like you know you're way older in person but if it's true but all right all right here's hold on hold on no no the email is literally asked the question was is he catfishing girls on tinder the answer is yes the answer is yes so why did why did that what does that person not have the right to call you out on it if you are actually catfishing people like i'm not mad about it but the answer to your question is yes yes the answer to the question is yes i'm talking about how

how practical that is that it just you know i always think i'm the most pragmatic person ever i think sir rudy sometimes tops me with this well if she he is catfishing it's totally reasonable to ask and i'm i'm applying like the realistic standards of, of how that would actually be handled. And I just don't think a lot of people would do that. That's fine. Anyway, here's the point. Start working out, dude. You're 23. You were an athlete. You've got a great frame. Apparently. Um, I can promise you if you keep in this, I remember I had a skinny fat stage and it was when I should have been at my peak, you know,

it's great to have a later peaks, but I should have been at my peak in this spot. And you just admitted, like if you had the discipline to go through and be the athlete and all those things. So, um, maybe it's a wake up call for you,

or maybe it sounds like you don't give a shit about any of those things, which is also totally cool. And you don't want to shit about any of those things, which is also totally cool. And you don't want to work out. You're happy. But do you need to update the pictures? I would ask you very simply, if you saw a picture of a woman and she were 50 pounds heavier, if that's not what you're into, would you be like, oh, this is cool? Of course you would. What if she was 50 pounds lighter?

Because you're into the T-H-I-double-C. You know? would you be like oh this is cool of course you would what if she was 50 pounds lighter because it's you're into the th i double c you know maybe that is your scene not judging all equal and she's not like that nobody would ever nobody ever goes holy shit you look way different and always worse this is awesome so i want to see what the pictures are, too. Like, as you said, just work out. Or just mix in a couple B-minus pictures in there and you could probably cover your tracks.

But I'll also say, like, if it's like a shirtless abs picture and you clearly don't have that, then you're doing... I'm sorry, guy, but you kind of deserve this. Like, I'm sorry. But I don't know what the pictures are. Yeah, I don't think it's illegal what you're doing. I don't think it's illegal what you're doing.

I don't think it's illegal what you're doing, but I do think it might be immoral if we're talking a full 40. Yeah, and a couple years ago. I think that's wrong. You should definitely update your pictures or this is going to keep happening to you. Also, people just don't care about dude's feelings as much.

I'm not saying dude's feelings. I'm not saying dude's feelings have no consideration, but the harsh reality is people don't care about your feelings as much so you're going to be you're going to be set up for this sort of thing or you're just going to have a date maybe you're spending the money and then they're going to take one look at you and that'll be the

end of it so you could just you could spend you could spend money on hopeful dates that work out with this weird two two time meetup thing that end in you feeling so weird that you should write into your to this podcast or you could just change your change your stuff find the best pictures of you now i'm sure you still got good angles pal 220 62 it doesn't sound like you're you know doesn't sound like your new pictures would be there's gotta be

a couple good angles in there yeah 62220 like that's my call wait that's what i'm hoping for so i'm sure you've got some good sure you've got some good angles at 6-2-2-20 um and just make it so this won't happen at least like make sure everybody knows what's going on here and uh for any of the three girls that listen to this podcast maybe just facetime even guys maybe just do one facetime uh before you show up yeah i got facetimed by somebody because i convinced they thought that i said i was a pro athlete which i didn't say i wouldn't have to say that. I'm on TV. This happens all the time. Yeah. And then she FaceTimed me with a couple. And I think that guy was a pro athlete. And I was like,

hey, and I knew exactly what was going on. I was like, she FaceTimed me with the couple so the guy could be like, that guy doesn't fucking play pro sports. Although I don't know who put him in charge of every roster. Who's an athlete in the United States, but I was not, I never said I was, there was a massive confusion and I was like, I wouldn't need to do this.

But again, uh, I can tell you the text, the tone changed dramatically once it was realized that I was not a pro athlete, which again is sort of a compliment because I'm in my mid forties. The idea that you couldn't be a baseball player though. Like if you've seen Bartolo Colon,

it was a FaceTime, it was probably what? The confusion was that someone thought I said that I was a baseball player. Okay. Because I was with all baseball players. And I thought it was like, no. They looked at you from the chest up and said, this guy's not a baseball player. I just feel like that's insane.

I think the guy who was the boyfriend of the girl, like it was a good FaceTime of the girl. And then it was the couple. And he and I are just looking at each other in the FaceTime because I knew 100% what was going on. But he thought this fucking guy's lying about playing baseball. And I'm like, I'm not lying lying but i know what this is and because i never said it an assumption was made because i was with all these other guys that did play and i think i had said to the person like oh i'm here working out with these guys and not a lie could it be argued it was misleading yeah sure is ryan Is Ryan catfishing? Who knows? Right. Was I working out with those guys?

Facts. A couple things that came up. In your Tinder bio, works out with professional athletes. That's such a high note. I don't know if I want to add to anything else. But Cerruti's been on fire here today. I want to stay with Kyle.

You did say something, Kyle. I've been a guy a long time, longer than you guys, but people don't care about dudes' feelings. I would say there's been some massive dude blowback just in general for the last three years, and I think there will be some thought pieces written on this 10 years from now,

just being like, were we too hard on dudes during that phase? Just something to think about, a little thought piece. Hinky likes that phrase. But Sir Rudy's gold of mixing a couple B-minus pictures of yourself. What is that concept? Where do you? No, I mean, I'm just saying if he has all these pictures from three, four years ago when he's in tip top shape, you could at least cover your tracks by having a

couple of good ones from right now, which compared to your peak athletic self might not be great. But, you know, it's probably a B minus, but you now it's good. So I would say mix in a couple of somewhat current ones so that you're covering your tracks. And if somebody ever calls you on this again, you can say, hey, look, no, no, this was me from like two months ago. I'd say before you do that, put all new ones.

And if that, if you can't come up 6-2-2-20, if you can't come up with some good ones, maybe try to get a new haircut and then mix in the old ones again and then mix in the old ones again and then mix in the old ones it's amazing what a haircut will do for you so honestly you could ask this i'm sorry to come back around in the email here what if you're just simply presenting this is what i'm capable of not currently this isn't what i am now but this is what i could be some girls do love like a

reclamation project that's true i just love that the guy was like, so what do you think here? And I don't know. That was a tough email for him from the beginning. So hopefully he feels better about it. I think he knew the answer when he asked the question. Yeah. Hey, it's Friday, man. All right. Great work out of you guys today. Thanks to Kyle and Steve, as always. Joe Manganiello

is going to join us for just a regular spot and also life advice. You can get your relationship questions in for Joe. So just go to life advice, RR at Gmail and maybe put Joe on the topic. And I don't know. We'll ask him about super obtainable relationships or just what it's like to be kind of a Jack superhero type guy.

That'll be next week. I hope everybody enjoyed it. As a reminder, parts one, two, three, and four of the Bill Simmons podcast. If you want more in-depth draft stuff, Kyle just rolls his eyes in the background. Long day for him. And we got free agency. Just think, there's going to be three things that happen in this league,

at least, that none of us saw coming that are going to be super dramatic. We're going to talk about a ton and then we go into summer league. I'm trying to take a break in here somewhere. We'll figure it out. Thanks as always. Thanks for all the draft. I guess I'm not going to say goodbye here on the NBA season because it's not really over. Anyway, subscribe. Great review. We'll talk to you Sunday night.

Bill will be back at it probably with some free agency stuff. you