The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Philly Is Different but the Same, the Red-Hot Suns, and Denver’s Fun Night Out With Raja Bell

Episode Date: December 30, 2020

Russillo introduces a new NBA segment with his thoughts on the 76ers-Raptors matchup, the Nuggets pummeling the Rockets, and the Suns' hot start to the season (4:00). Then Ryen talks with The Ringer��s Raja Bell about the Bucks' defensive struggles, the Lakers' load management, the time Raja spent in the Cavaliers' front office, the experience of working with LeBron James, the most notable surprises from the first week of the NBA season, and more (15:00). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (48:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

what is good a week into the nba season rajat bell and a new segment we're going to do coming up shortly today's episode of the rhyme with a little podcast on the ringer podcast network is brought to you by state farm getting great car and home insurance from state farm at a surprisingly great rate that's like drafting a player that becomes an all-pro. The real deal. State Farm agents provide personalized service so you can customize your insurance to fit your needs. Like a GM putting together their very own roster, you need a team to support you. And State Farm's got a great one.

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And then a new segment where I'm workshopping the title. I'll share those titles with you a little bit. But I did start my day on the Sneakers app, like a few of you may have. I was going to buy a pair of Jordans. I do feel a little old. That's okay. And the Sneakers app is like a girlfriend that you still like that has dumped you and then calls you mistakenly all the time or sends you a text says i love you and then you go oh my god you do i still

love you too and you're like oh that's for my new boyfriend some of you have no idea what i'm talking about but nike has a sneakers app that basically on the East coast, it's 10 AM West coast at 7 AM. And, you know, you hit a notification, Hey, you know, the, the, the auction, not auction, but the drawing will start in 15 minutes. And, you know, a lot of times they just sell the stuff out to get the buzz and then they're on the secondary market and, you know, whatever guys are buying them and flipping them like Kyle's younger brother, the flip master that we've talked about on last week's podcast. And it's just, you know, it's part of it, whatever, not a big deal. But I went to buy a pair this morning and it doesn't just say, Hey, it's sold out. It offers up your size sometimes. And then it says, you're good to go. And then it's like, no, you're not good to go. And then it'll

say it's sold out. And then you look at it again and then it's not sold out. And you're like, oh, my size is still there. Like, okay, you know what? I could go to, I could wear a size 11 and a half. I'm a 12, sometimes 11 and a half. Doesn't matter. I can do that size too. And it's like, it is in order. All right, you're good. And it's like, no, you're not. So it just, it doesn't like just the people behind sneakers. All you have to do is just reject us firmly, reject us with no uncertainty. That's all I'm asking. I'm not even asking for a pair of sneakers. I'm just asking to be told I have no chance. Not, oh my God, is that text for me? No. That text is for Doug. Doug and I are dating. He has a boat. Oh, okay. Yes. My bad. You know? So there you go.

Or just go to StockX. That's a company I wish I had invested in a long time ago. Just go to StockX. Figure it out. I know it's going to cost a little bit more, but at least they're nicer to you. This new segment's called, we were going to call it incidental content. I'm not sure I love that one as much as the flagrant three.

Couple thoughts. Sometimes it'll be three. Likely it'll be more. Alright, first thing, Philadelphia, Toronto last night. Toronto, couple games in. And let's also do this as well. We know it's only been a week. Let's relax. But just a couple things that I'm noticing here. Phillies 3-1.

Their loss, that Cavs loss, where Embiid sat. By the way, how about this number? With Embiid, since he's been with the Sixers, the Sixers won 61% of their games. Without him, they've won only 40% of their games. But when I wrote that note down from the broadcast, I thought, wait, are they including all the games when he didn't play, like the first two years? Is that what's going to happen here?

Because that might be a little misleading because those teams weren't really good and they were trying to tank anyway. So, I don't know. Whatever. Do whatever you want with that number. Maybe you don't make a shirt out of it, but it exists. So, there you go. So, Philly wins this one, again, against a Toronto team that defensively is not getting it done. It's a bad matchup for Toronto, even though they were leading the entire game.

And then Philly came on late. Tobias Harris actually had a decent game. There's just going to be nights where, you know, he reminds you why he gets paid, but then there's other nights where he's going to remind you of why he's been on a million different teams that didn't want to pay him. But there's one thing,

there's one specific thing from this game that I want to point out. And that is even with the new pieces, the Danny Green, Seth Curry, I'm trying to figure out this, this Ben Simmons deal, Dwight Howard, which I, I love seeing him get a couple of post touches that didn't work out. And I'm like, wait, does Dwight, is Dwight going to be a little more Dwight in Philly than he was in LA? Because there's not an older LeBron to be like, Hey, he was just not going to do that here. All right. Cause Dwight was really good for the Lakers. It wasn't an issue.

And he caught his lobs. He worked at times. But I could see a version of him in Philly where it was like, you know, like a few more touches. He'd be like, hey, Dwight, that's why your whole career went into a weird jazz odyssey in the first place

because you wanted to actually be a closing player getting all these closing possessions in the post and you're not that good at it. So the one point that i am trying to make here is that with the different pieces and the different actions and a different coach and all stuff the mb simmons thing still looks stupid it just does and you can see what they're doing like i was tracking the plays last night they'll run some action where simmons like is pretending the play where he'll bring the ball up and he'll get it to somebody.

And then that starts the real play. And then Simmons runs off to the corner. A lot of it was two-man stuff with Embiid. I saw this in the Washington game where it was some two-man stuff with Shaq Milton, some two-man stuff with Seth Curry. There was one play where it ended up with Simmons and Embiid, and it was a Curry three, but it really wasn't anything to do with anything that Simmons and Embiid did. And so unfortunately, Sixers fans, it can look different, but it isn't. It's trying to look different with the Simmons and Embiid thing, but on closing major possessions.

So I don't care about the regular season. I don't care about any of this stuff. For the expectations that the Sixers have on offense and watching to have Simmons run to the corner, it looks a lot like the other stuff. It just does, because you can't really run pick and roll with he and Embiid. You just can't. So it

worked. It worked. And Toronto not having it big. I mean, Alex Lennon's not very good. Baines is better than him, obviously. But, you know, Toronto, we'll see. But I think we all were kind of like, hey, what's Doc going to do? How is this going to look different? There's some things where Simmons is kind of in the play, but he isn't really.

And when it was really closing time, even though they got that Curry three off of it, it wasn't because of some amazing Simmons and Bede action. But look, they're still trying to figure this thing out. The other one that I want to get to Denver, they lost a Sacramento. They had no Jamal Murray Sacramento, by the way, shout out to them. Defensive effort.

Rashawn Holmes, trying to make Yoke, it's guard there towards the end. Really good stuff. Trying to switch Porter into this, the spot. Obviously we're using a screen there to get Porter on you. Really good stuff. Trying to switch Porter into the spot. Obviously, we're using a screen there to get Porter on you defensively.

There was a play by Fox where he attacked Jokic, Holmes, floater, that kind of stuff. Really good from Sacramento. Impressed. Halliburton's impressive. Really smooth.

Totally. The things you thought you saw from him in college, like, hey, this guy is seeing the game at a different level than the other nine college kids out there.

He's aware of stuff that he can do that other college kids are like, oh, you could actually do that kind of stuff. And that part is definitely translating. So that's been really good for Sacramento. I also don't want to get too carried away with some of the teams and a win-loss based on roster because we're already at a point where Kawhi's missed a couple games. That's because of the mouth thing.

Anthony Davis missed one game with the calf and then missed another game that he actually played in against Portland. LeBron's missed a game. KD sat. So Kyrie was like, well, I have to sit too because KD sat because we're best friends. So there's just weird stuff happening along the way where you can't get too freaked out about any of it because of some of the schedule stuff. But there's one specific Denver thing that I want to get to, and that was watching them against the Houston Rockets. It was brutal for the Rockets. Brutal for them defensively.

They are without a bunch of guys, so we're not going to freak out about the fact that Nwaba's playing 30 minutes that game. Bruno Caboclo's 20 minutes. Jason Tate is 25 minutes. Sterling Brown's actually alright. Who else? Broderick Thomas is another guy playing 8 minutes. This is not a beat up on

Houston thing because it's just not fair to at all. Although, you know what I would love? To see a little less complaining out of guys that would probably be in the G League if it weren't for COVID. Joker had 18 assists in this game, and there was a stretch from about eight minutes left in the fourth quarter

to about four minutes when finally Denver took him out because they were like, all right, enough of this. Joker could have had 30 assists if he decided, hey, this game I'm playing the whole game, and I'm only going for 30 assists. I think he would have gotten it, but at that point it was a little too late. They would run any kind of cut,

and the Denver player would be wide open because Houston players had no clue what they were doing defensively they just didn't know and I would watch Steven Silas on the sideline he was basically throwing down stuff like throwing his he wasn't throwing like assistants just head and hands papers flying every time they got smoked on something. Jokic touches. I looked at some of the advanced stuff. He's now averaging 113 touches per game.

Like, is that a lot? Yeah, that's a lot. That's number one in the NBA. He led the league last year with 97 touches per game. So 113 is a lot. One, two, one, lot. The last one here. Phoenix Suns, three and one, blow out against the Pelicans

who cannot figure it out defensively. And some of it, I mean, you guys can get mad at Stan Van Gundy, and I think whatever system it is that he's trying to implement there will take a little time, but there's just too many. There's some Brandon Ingram possessions defensively.

And he's terrific, but not on defense. They had a play where they ran it to the left side. He was in the corner with Bridges. And Bridges just ran past him and caught it and dunked. It was just a bad. I mean, it's a really bad NBA play where defensively you just let a guy run from the corner past you catch and dunk and there was you could sit there and complain about help but it wasn't it wasn't that kind of play like you still have to impede the offensive player

at some at some point you can't just let him run past you and Ingram did that but the best part about this for Phoenix fans is it four minutes to go in the second quarter. So we're talking first half. 4.33, second quarter. Only one field goal attempt total by the backcourt of Paul and Booker. Paul hadn't taken a shot. Booker had one from one from the floor.

And they're up 11. That's a huge sign. Cameron Johnson's been good. I didn't think it made a ton of sense. I didn't understand their draft a couple years ago. I don't like older draft picks. It just, you know,

for all the things we debate, there's not much debate on older draft picks. Usually doesn't really work out, especially when you're talking lottery. But Bridges is playing well. Paul doesn't need to score. Aiton actually isn't even doing

that much right now from scoring. He needs to do a better job in his catches. He needs to do a better job of helping the entry pass where you can't just expect because you're huge and it's Chris Paul passing it to you. You got to work with him a little bit on getting that entry and setting up your own possession. Jay Crowder makes a ton of sense. Sarich, this is a deep team. And I love the fact that Cameron Payne, somebody who I actually liked out of college, and then it ended up becoming this disastrous run. He has a nice bubble and he's providing him something too. And we're not even talking about Javon Carter,

who plays for him in the past, Lynx and Galloway. This is a deep team. And there's no way this team isn't making the playoffs unless, say, Paul got hurt. So there you go. Flagrant three. Hey, Roger Bell.

Really psyched to have him with us here at the Ringer. Real Ones with Logan Murdoch. Comes out on Monday, Thursday. Yeah, no doubt. It's been great, man. Yeah, it is. Look, we've talked with Roger in the past. So let's just get to it.

We're a week into the season. You know, it depends on the night, really. When you're watching teams, you look at Milwaukee a couple days ago, and you're like, what's wrong with them? And then they score more from three than anyone we've ever seen. They were insane, setting all sorts of NBA records. So is there anything from a new-look version of Milwaukee you feel comfortable on? Or is there anything with the top teams you're like, wait, this is a real thing,

as opposed to, you know, just a couple games and we're still not sure yeah look milwaukee doesn't concern me about what they you know ultimately wind up being i don't think ryan i think you know through a couple games early the only red flag i had with them was like their defensive identity which i think it's an organic thing because the first thing you're trying to figure out when you're meshing pieces like Drew and Chris and Giannis is the glaring hole that they've had the last few years in the playoffs. And it is their ability offensively to kind of make it work, right? And so you've spent so much time in this limited preseason working offense that I felt like they lost who they were defensively. And that was my red flag with them. Ultimately, big picture, I don't think I worry, but defensively they can't lose

that identity because that's who they are is a defensive, you know, juggernaut type of team. And, and as long as they can get back to that, once they figure out the offense, I'm cool with them. Um, you know, as far as other good teams, you know, like Atlanta has been surprising to me. I think it's really interesting. Trey Young's been phenomenal. I'm one of those guys. I might be an old-school dude. I think it's hard to win with a relatively small guard

that's going to do that much of your scoring in the playoffs, but could be good in the regular season. And then I didn't expect Washington to be this bad. I didn't know that they'd be off to an 0-4 start. Yeah, that Philly game was close. So you thought, okay, this will happen. Bradley Beal, four games in, already left without speaking to the media,

which either is just a sign of a guy who's been around being frustrated, who had expectations, or it's a bad sign from the jump. The rest of the piece is around. But just Russ and Beal alone, I'm sorry. In the East, you should at least compete. I don't want to hear about the rest of the pieces around. But just Russ and Beal alone, I'm sorry. In the East, you should at least compete him. I don't want to hear about the rest of the roster. If those two dudes are as good as everybody says they are,

and I have my thoughts on Russ, I've always really liked Beal, but I'm sorry. I can't get mad because Thomas Bryan is at center trying and feel like it's all his fault. I can't do that. I can't do that if you're going to be a borderline 500 team. Yeah, no, that's fair. Look, this league, you get two guys who, I don't know where you put Russ,

but in terms of what they've done over the last five years, you're talking about two top 20 guys in the league probably, right? You have those two guys in the Eastern Conference. I'm with you. The 0-4 is unacceptable, even if I, at 44 years old, was running around out there as your wing. You know what I mean? We've got to get something done.

Yeah, and when you lose to Chicago, who looked like maybe the worst team in the league to start the season, that's another part of it where I'm trying to figure out Chicago here with the whole deal, but that loss was the one. You lose to Orlando twice. Okay, it was a close game against Philly, but to lose to Chicago that way. Lakers, Davis missed a game.

He missed another game, I think, mentally against Portland, where it didn't seem like he necessarily wanted to be out there. I felt all along, even though they're the best team on paper, that they were going to coast a little bit more, and maybe we're already seeing that week one. Yeah, I think you're going to see a lot of teams. Well, for them, it is going to be a bit of a coast. There is something to be said for that hangover.

LeBron is at a stage in his career, and even when I was in the front office in Cleveland when he was there, he was already at a point where he understood the regular season doesn't really mean much as long as he could get in there. Like you don't want to be an eight seed, but as long as you can get in there in one through five, like he's going to be fine.

So there's going to be some of that with them. But I do think the quick turnaround, like we haven't really talked about it on our show either. The quick, the quick turnaround do, you know, kind of due to the bubble and just generally the schedule being all off is going to affect some teams. Like you're going to see some weird stuff happening. And I think you've seen it in the 50 point drubbings that a couple of teams have had. And it's just going to

be all over the place for a while until guys get their footing. When you were in the front office, what did you do? What was your role? I was director of player administration. So basically what I did was I scouted, but I was David Griffin's proxy on road trips. David didn't travel very much with us. So I spent my time with the team scouting because they kind of wanted somebody to have a finger on the pulse from a player's perspective of what was going on there, the dynamics in the locker room with the coaches, so on and so forth. So were you scouting more your own team or were you, what doesn't sound like you were doing any advanced stuff. You were about your team then. Well, yeah, I was mostly about our team, but I would get, you know, assignments like I, you know, D'Angelo Russell, I'd go down to, to, uh, Ohio state and watch, watch them play and get a quick scout on them. And, you know, I go over to Michigan and see Sam Decker and big Frank Kaminsky play, get a scout. Um, I did big 12 tournament, ACC tournament. I did RJ, uh, what was RJ's last name? He was

playing at Georgia state at the time drafted by the Celtics. Yeah. Hunter. Um, you know, Seti Oseman, I'm trying to think of names that were in that draft that i scouted so they were kind of asking you to do a bunch of different stuff i did a bunch of shit man it was great experience did you like it i did i did but my kids were really young at the time man like kindergarten and below and so it was tough being away from them as much as i was okay so when you are working on a staff with lebron is there any ever a moment where you go hey man have you ever thought of trying this like i assume that it's actually a good it's a good question because i i would sit there with like griff and we had a great staff by was griff kobe altman who's who's yeah i love yeah yeah trent redden with the clippers. We have a really great staff.

Everyone knows my playing career was what it was. We're talking about, at best, pretty average. And so I find myself sitting there with those guys being like, damn, if LeBron could just get a post game, imagine how good he'd be. And people are looking at me like, and I'm like, oh, if he would just stop fading on his jump shot and get some consistency with his feet um so there was a lot of that never did i approach lebron with it um wait were you serious or were you just kidding around as i was dead listen i was you were serious oh this is even better this is i was dead serious no because look when you look at it um and you watch him close, or at least when I was with him,

there is room for, even with greats, there's room for improvement. And this was not me saying that I knew better than LeBron or was better than LeBron. But when you watch him shoot, LeBron was off balance a lot. Even in a shooting drill, great shooters like Steph Curry, he's coming down on two feet vertical every time, given the opportunity to do so right now in a game shit changes and you're off balance. You gotta, you gotta come up with something, but you know, LeBron would land on two land on one land on one falling back or land on the other one falling back. And I'm like, you know, that is variance. That's inconsistency in something that you're looking like a golf swing to be the same repetitive motion over and over. So it wasn't,

it wasn't a joke, but it oftentimes was received as one. Okay, but you're right. Because I remember the first thing with LeBron coming out of high school was that his feet were always loose. It was just always a little, and sometimes guys get in the habit of it. Sometimes guys do it

because they want their shot to look kind of cool. And the funny thing is, is I wonder if all of those awkward landings has made him a better fadeaway shooter because these fadeaways the last couple years, the way he's loading up on these threes and kind of like drifting to the side a little bit, he's hitting shots now that, you know,

it's not like Jordan necessarily who completely transitioned to this post-turnaround thing because LeBron's doing more, but he's so good with these fadeaways falling left to right that, again, this is just a theory. It's probably not even right, but it's almost like he's practiced

having off-balance shot attempts, and now it's worked. No, I 100% think there's something to that, and I don't know, like the old saying, what came first, the chicken or the egg? I don't know if it's because he practiced that that he became better at it or, or maybe that's the wrong analogy,

but for some reason he shoots off platform, landing on one foot shots better than he shoots two foot, like stationary shots. Like, and, and that's a fact, like you can watch his games. He prefers to shoot something off balance than he does just a regular catch and shoot. Let me get my feet planted type of shot. Yeah, that was always my thing with Dirk, and it took me a little while to figure it

out, but his foundation could be twisted around. His hips could be facing the sideline, and his elbows through his hands were the same. Everything at the top was always the same. Even everything at the bottom was different. Whereas you're right, Steph, unless he's trying to get a foul or Harden trying to get a foul, that's why it's always anytime a fan argues, no, you landed in the zone. We're like, no, man. Like, look, you notice when he was wide open, his feet didn't go forward.

Those guys are just straight up and down. It's unbelievable how repetitive it is. I actually want to stay on the post thing with LeBron because when they lost to the Mavs, then it turns into all of us like okay what can you get for Bosh and then it also it's also what can LeBron do and it's like okay he needs to post and and I know this sounds like blasphemy but he was never a good post player like he doesn't have any finishing moves in the post but he would catch in a post and defenses would still freak out like it was a problem and I I would think like, wait, Oh, Hey,

he's catching into the post. Remember? It was like, Oh, he came back. He's catching into the, he knows what he's doing. I'd be like,

yeah, but he actually doesn't have any of those finishing moves with his back to the basket close in. Now he has the turnaround, but back then he would just catch. And then the argument was the post catches was altering the defense enough to change the offense. And I'd be like,

this is then why are you, why are you doubling them when he actually doesn't have any post moves? Which is weird because he's arguably the greatest player ever. Yeah, that's kind of like the same thing about when you're playing a zone and somebody puts a stiff in the middle of the zone, and every time it hits the stiff in the middle of the zone offensively, everyone collapses and it springs a bunch of shooters.

Just let the stiff catch it and see what he can do in there. There's no reason to come collapsing your D. But that's kind of what... So for LeBron, and I mentioned the observation I was making to our staff was, he's phenomenal. I'm a fan. But there isn't a real, real, real skill set

down there on the block by by post player standards right like when but when you're like 6 8 245 if you just had two go-to moves down there in terms of footwork and a counter i mean that's probably 10 to 12 points a game for a guy and including free throws that's a great little like ace in the hole to have riding off into the sunset like when your first step isn't getting you by guys anymore and you could see that right like he doesn't generate the same type of like downhill explosion off of his first step it happens to everyone man it'd be dope to be able to just go on the block and say hey look man i'm gonna like i'm gonna two dribble like drop step and hit you with a little baby hook. And then when you take that away, I'm going to up and under.

Anything, any little combination of two moves a la Hakeem Olajuwon I thought could be really, really valuable for him. But I just had to wrap my mind around that's just not the way he sees the game. And that's okay, too. You know what I mean? He attacks the paint. It's the way he gets teams to collapse. And so I had to kind of just reshape the way I saw that right we're gonna we're gonna title this podcast the problems with lebron's

offensive game from raja raja bell uh okay i'm gonna ask one more front office question because those of us on the outside i'm always and from the very beginning was always really interested in just okay what do you see that the normal person doesn't see? So when you're sitting there with this staff that has a life in the league, you've played, what are the things that you would look for? Whether it was your own guys or just something you might see in a younger player, there's going to be a draft pick. Like what's something that you would go to your kind of default thing of like a yes or no on a player? Yeah, that's an, that's an interesting question. I'm a, I'm a big believer in like, you know, kind of character and having some grit and some toughness to you.

Like when everything else is equal, give me that guy. Right. So I'll just, I'll tell a quick one. Like I was at the ACC tournament. I was there to see JP Tokudo who was a good player for North Carolina. And so, you know, I'm there and I'm going through and I'm watching kind of the layup lines and, you know, I'm watching them. They're playing Virginia. And so, you know, I can't help

but kind of be drawn to Virginia's layup lines because there's like, and this is corny, like it's corny, right? Some guys are gamers. They ain't going hard in the layup line, but I'm watching Virginia and I'm like, okay, this is like a no-nonsense approach by a couple of these kids.

And so lo and behold, the game starts and I'm taking my notes on Tokido and, you know, like, you know, there's a no-nonsense approach by a couple of these kids. And so, lo and behold, the game starts. And I'm taking my notes on Tokido. And, you know, like, there's a skill. There's some athleticism. But it's hot and cold. It's not all the time. And then… He wasn't really like a complete basketball player by any means either.

He wasn't. And Malcolm Brogdon ate him alive. And I didn't know who Malcolm Brogdon was. But just physically, he was in his space. He was taking the ball from him. He challenged him for everything he got. And then there was a skill level to go with it. And I remember writing like, hey, Tokido's all right.

But like the other kid, this kid Brogdon, and there was another kid named Shayok, I think. And he wound up making the league too. He transferred out of Virginia. And I don't know where he went. Wound up. He's in the NBA now or was last year. Those two kids stuck out to me, but specifically

Brogdon because, Ryan, he just had a he could play, but he wasn't taking shit from anyone. He was there for the battle. It wasn't a show to him. It was real life. That's what I was looking for in a lot of scenarios, provided we're comparing apples

to apples. I remember with D'Angelo talking to a scout who was like, this was somebody who, was it the Louisville game? I think he played against Louisville early and he was really good, but it wasn't just, I can pull up the numbers, so I don't know if it was a game log thing

where it was just blew you away, but it was that everybody was giving him shit because people thought he was going to go there, ends of Ohio State, and it was that everybody was giving him shit because people thought he was going to go there, ends of Ohio State, and he was controlling the game. And I loved his vision and I loved some of the stuff about him. I knew he wasn't this super quick, twitchy, dynamic, you know, perimeter player. We'd all love every perimeter player to have all those physical gifts, but there was just another element to it. so when he was immature and it wasn't really working out in the beginning i kind of i didn't want to give up hope and then he goes to the nets

and i'm like look here we go like this is kind of the guy that i thought and then it took another turn where i go oh my god this is actually kind of bad and i watched him again last night with minnesota and you know it's it's weird how you can go hey like I liked Evan Turner when I'd watch him and then it was like wait he's gonna go two right right right I'm like maybe I don't like him as much anymore but it's like no no there was something there that I really liked about his game when I thought he was going 15 and Russell I think is a really good example of somebody that you would watch and go hey there's a lot of stuff I kind of like in here and then you go oh wait he's making every major decision on an NBA team for 35 minutes right well now we might have a problem and

i could see it even last night in the in the t-wolves loss uh getting blown out by the clippers why um i used to say this about like you know a general fan um and you know their fascination with numbers and and people on different teams teams. So it usually shaked out. I was on a good team, and I'd average 10 or 11. And someone would be on a really bad team, and they'd average 17. And the indictment was like, I'm not as good as that player. This is my personal story because I only averaged 10 or 11. And my point would be like, listen, there are NBA games.

There's a certain amount of stuff that's going to be in a stat sheet. There are a certain amount of points that got to get scored. There are going to be a certain amount of rebounds on the floor. Those things are going to be filled. So someone's going to do it. So I say that to say, Ryan,

there are plenty of guys, and I'm not saying that he's bad, but there are players that are on bad teams that are going to get numbers because their numbers have to be met. Someone's got to score the ball on that bad team. That doesn't mean you can necessarily plug them into a great situation and have them be the mail carrier. And I'll take it a step further, not that you asked me, but a lot of times what I saw coming up in the NBA,

why I feel like I was able to kind of carve out a niche was I just, I was just not good enough to ever believe that I could carry the mail for a team. So it put me in a space where I was comfortable playing my role. Some guys get just good enough on bad teams where they're disillusioned about whether they can do that on a good team. And then you take them to a good team and they don't want to accept the role or they're not willing to do it. You know? Well, it's, it's something I've been on now for a few years. So I hate to sound repetitive, but sometimes with these theories, I'll just bring them up again. But there's just more empty stats than ever before is still sort of new. I know it's not brand new, but it's new in the sense that more and more of these games that I watch, you go, okay,

what happened? What do they run? It's like, dude, it has nothing to do with that shit. They hit 17 threes. They hit 11 game. You know,

that's it. And you're kind of like, I kind of miss sometimes trying to figure out what it was that people were trying to do to each other and counter and what's your identity. And now the identity for 60% of the teams is just, if we make more threes than them we're just going to win the game and it almost doesn't it doesn't matter i mean it matters in the playoffs and that's why i still believe there's a bigger gap between regular season and playoff basketball than we've ever seen before and that's played out by some of these dominant regular season teams that have done

really poorly in the playoffs so adding that all together by the way russell he didn't shoot it well in that louisville game and ohio actually lost, but I'll just never forget the front office guy saying, I love the way he carried himself. Like he had some edge to him and you love that confidence. And now there are times where I would put D'Angelo in that group, really talented guy. Yes, he got paid. I don't think Minnesota has a fucking chance with him running their offense. And I'm sorry. Like, I just, I just don't. I feel you, man. And look, I coach high school basketball now, right? Like, my kids are getting to high school age.

I like being around and involved in it. So, no, to your point, we played a team the other day. They shall remain nameless. They were really, really bad. But they might have shot 45 terrible threes. It's all they did. They ran no offense. They just made a complete shit show of the game because of the way they played. And I picked this bone before on old

shows that I was on. I really hate the effect that the new NBA analytics is having on basketball at the grassroots level. I have kids in it. I see the kids being taught to just do this, and no one understands nuances of offense. I get kids at 15 years old, don't know how to use screens off the ball, don't know how to set screens off the ball. Any nuance of offense other than toe the line or straight pick and roll is gone, and it's not being taught, and there's no stock being put in and i think it's a i think it's a bad it's a bad thing

for basketball overall i just don't love it yeah i'm i'm afraid that so many people are gonna be like yeah you guys sound like old guys but i don't know i i don't think it's i enjoy sometimes being challenged and trying to figure things out and And when I look at Miami, Milwaukee again, Miami didn't have Butler. But if you're going to hit that many threes, there's not really much to break down. There just there just isn't. So whatever. No, no, look like we can be old dudes. And but that it can it can also be, you know, where we appreciate.

Look, I appreciate the fact that they're shooting the ball from, you know, ranges that we didn't even like their think about shooting and, and their efficiency is off the charts with like, I think that's great. They're shooting. The ball is, is, is,

you know, the shot making is insane. How quickly that's evolved. And it's so impressive. It's incredible, but we've just, we've lost a lot of the stuff that, that,

that we used to think were nuts and bolts of the game. And for me, I think you start to, as generations play out playing like that, you'll lose the game a little bit. That's just my opinion on it. Did you have, as we look at the Harden thing, where, I mean, he was incredible in the Portland game, the Denver game, which I touched on a little bit in the open,

just because, look, Houston screwed. They've got all these pieces that probably wouldn't be playing real minutes because the covid restrictions do you have a time for when you can remember like a big time guy asking out or wanting out maybe not as public as we've seen the last few years but was there somebody you were a teammate with that was like i want out of here yeah that's a that's a yeah i think i was pretty blessed i didn't really have a situation like that that i can remember guy a guy won and out um i'm trying to think i no man i had some i had some good teams and i mean the iverson stuff was was still in the infancy of like you guys are

in the finals but i mean i remember the larry battles after the fact but that wasn't then no they had some they had some beefs but that wasn't it wasn't you know that was just like coaching ai are gonna have their beef right like you know what i mean it wasn't like chuck never said hey man i gotta get the hell out of here it wasn't it wasn't anything like that i don't really know how i would have handled that it's got to be a huge distraction i feel bad um for everyone involved like i you know it's to some degree houston you brought it on yourself if you gave gave that much control of your franchise to him. Um, so I can't feel bad for you,

but I feel terrible for Steven Silas. Um, who's trying to navigate like the coaching job he's always wanted. And, and, and now you're left with the guy you probably prepared all off season to have him. And now this takes place.

And people love Steven Silas. If anybody's ever had the chance to meet him, he's just so likable. It's a great dude. It sucks. This sucks for him because you're right. This is a guy who's been putting together decades of trying to get this gig and he finally gets a really good team on paper and this is the way and my favorite part of all of this harden timeline is when he and russ when silas was hired they were pissed about it but

then said i read a houston piece that said both russ and harden have been tremendously respectful of silas though despite all of this. And then it was like the next day was like, Silas, have you talked to either of them? He was like, no. So somebody reported how respectful the two guys were while both were asking out. And then the next day it was reported that no one had,

like he hadn't been able to talk to either of his stars. Anyway, go ahead. That's just not, it's dysfunctional. I feel bad for everybody. I think it's got to be be a huge huge distraction for them i mean look i'd love to be able to roll out of like a i don't know like a 3 a.m uh deal and hang 40 and 4 and 17 on you like i would love to be able to do that i'm not saying you know he's clearly a gifted dude but it's got to be a huge distraction for them in houston I feel bad.

Yeah. After that 27-year-old stretch, being able to stay out until three and then get 40 into 17, did you have a moment in your career where you're like, I can't go out anymore? Yeah. I don't remember exactly when it was, but our son's team, we had a good time. We'd go out and we'd come back and hang 125, which was a lot of points at the time and you know we were able to do it and then somewhere it just was like whoa whoa this is so game night like no no question you would go out the night before game night because you guys could sleep it off right or would how would how would Dan Tony deal with

shoot arounds because some people think that shoot arounds early are just to try to get you guys not go out and so take me through the timeline of what's real about going out the night before a game with a team shoot around all that stuff sleeping it off no yeah you go you go out and i mean depending on the city would depend on when it's shut down but you know you go out you come back you get whatever sleep you can get before shoot around because there is a shoot around um but you start hydrating like before you go to bed you go to shoot around i used to like to come back and like get in the sauna like and it's not after

being out it's not scientifically proven to work but i'd like to go try to sweat it out for a few minutes right or your steam room like at the hotel and then i'd be knocked out for like the rest of the mid-morning to afternoon i'd be on that second bus and then just you'd be knocked out for like the rest of the mid morning to afternoon. I'd be on that second bus. And then just, you'd be praying that like you were ready to go. What's the worst you felt in the game? We were out. I love that you immediately knew. Just looking at your face.

You're like, yeah, I got it. We were out one night in New York. We were at Chip Riani's. I think it was. We played the Mets the next day. And we just all, we were the next morning. I remember it was dark. Like where that arena was pre-Brooklyn,

there were no like really nice hotels, like by NBA standards. So we were in like an embassy suites, right? Right there by the Meadowlands type of. And we were all in the elevator. It was kind of dark in there. There was no good sunlight coming through. and we just all kind of looked up at each other angrily in the, in the, in the elevator on the way down to the bus.

And everybody knew we were going to get fucking smacked. We were just like, yeah, we, we, this one went a little too long. This one wasn't going to be a good outcome. I was hoping for a little more detail, but I know you don't want to sell anybody out. When the only time I ever traveled with an NBA team is I called the Celtics game. And we, well, I shouldn't say we, uh, but you know, they want you to feel like you're a part of the team when you're calling the games. Definitely now.

But back then, you know, I was, I knew I was free. That's why I was doing it and landed in New Jersey and doc had it in his contract that when they played the nets back when they were in Newark, the team stayed at the Ritz Carlton on, on central park. Oh yeah. No. So it took us longer to take the team buses from the airport to get to the hotel in Manhattan than it did to fly from Boston, New Jersey.

And so that was, that was the funniest thing ever. And it was, it was also like the first time when I was like, man, all of these guys are going to go out. Are they all going to go out? Cause it was a weird day game. I've told this story before. I'm not going to board a dip, but it was a weird Saturday day game, which is the craziest thing. And you know, a lot of the younger dudes just played video games and or they ordered McDonald's delivery. And this is before Postmates or anything like that. So a guy knocked on my door and was like, hey, Celtics? And I was like, yeah, probably not me, though.

And he just had bags of McDonald's. And I think Delaney West and Perk jumped out in the hallway. And they were like, yo, get that shit. That's our order. They were afraid they were going to give the order to somebody else i was like no man i'm i'm good so that's uh i can understand that you were upset in the newark part of it um all right i got a couple more things i'll i'll let you go is there a team right now that you look at a weekend and go hey you know what i'm kind of feeling this team a little bit um well for me it was it was ph. I thought Phoenix, I was really high on them. Logan and I both, I got to shout out to Logan

because usually he and I disagree, but we were both on Phoenix and high on them. And I think they've got a nice thing cooking there. But honestly, at the top of the Eastern Conference, I touched on Atlanta, but Orlando at 4-0 is an interesting team to me because they were, you know, they played hard.

They always play hard. They're defensively sound. But they got some better offensive pieces, I think, than people give them credit for. Like, it's not always one guy that's just cooking you. But, like, there are a bunch of guys

who probably feel like they've been slighted as far as the tier they've been slotted in. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. They've captured a little bit of chip on your shoulder type of mentality down there and i like them i think they're they're a good team i don't think they're winning a championship um but they're i think they're for real yeah people were down on them because i think atlanta and the improvement with atlanta feels real just because the piece i mean they have to be better

because the rosters but now all the atlanta pissed at Bill and I, because, you know, we did under, and I'm just like, that's like a 16, 17 game improvement on their over under from last year on a full season. So it's a pretty hefty number, but they should be in the mix at the end. But Orlando was kind of overlooked because of Washington's addition of Russ because of Atlanta's improvement. I don't know that people were all excited about Charlotte I don't think people thought the Bulls would be this bad even though they got um you know they got that win against the Wizards so who knows I mean you know I'm not going to get too carried away with any of this stuff all right last question yeah using your scouting background and teammate background this is a long-running position of

mine and it's since changed my way that I evaluate players, but I loved Strohmeyer Swift. He was your teammate, I think, for like a couple months. Phoenix 08, 09. No. No? No, I think I... He made a major impact on you is what you're telling me.

I was going to ask you why he wasn't better. What, what the problem was. All right. I better, I better make sure I'm right on this. I thought there was a stretch where he played. I think I might've got traded that year. Oh,

you know what? You could have been traded to Charlotte. Yep. And he may have been traded after you got there. Yeah. That's probably what happened okay let's double check here okay see you were there for 22 games in 0809 see now stroma was traded that because that was his last year i thought there was a chance you guys played um oh yep he

was in new jersey the beginning of the year damn it damn it you can never answer the question for me no what was it though why why he couldn't why he wasn't more impactful why wasn't he better you had to play it played against him you just don't have anything for me right i don't know i let you down anyway yeah i let you down on the on the trade part of this because i was going through the game logs this morning. I'm like, oh, they might have run into each other in November. But he was on the Nets. Yeah. He was on the Nets.

So, all right. Well, the mystery continues. There you go. All right. Roger Bell, Real Ones, Logan Murdoch. Monday, Thursday, Ringer Podcast Network. Thanks, as always. Hey, thanks for having me, brother.

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Let me tell you what's required. I don't normally do this with life advice. Again, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. I don't normally do this. I don't want to turn this into like some thread of dudes just talking. All right. It's a pretty dude heavy podcast already. But we had somebody chime in on the people being different about money. And I appreciate you people enjoying the Thanksgiving meal story.

People loved that. My friends are so excited that I shared it because dudes have been talking about it for a really long time. But a guy wrote in, and it's just a good story, and he's not even asking for advice, but I just want to share it because it's really good. This is a good story. So this isn't going to be the good story portion of the podcast because I don't trust everyone to be honest.

We're getting a lot of fake submissions, I think. Maybe not a lot, but enough. I can notice. I'm like, hey, wait. I may have read a fake one or now every now and then. Okay. Hey, guys. Spencer doesn't care.

He says, feel free to use my name. He heard the story. He goes, couldn't help but think of a story about a dispatch concert from a few years ago when I was 22 and living in the city for the first time. Okay. Just so everybody knows, and even as a mask guy, when you say you were living in the city, there's one city. It's New York City. And we made that mistake, but we were younger Boston guys. And you're like, nah, man, there's one city.

But that's cool. Because that to you was the city. It was Boston. That was your city. But there's one city. It's New York City. Long story short, myself and a couple friends all had tickets to Dispatch at the Blue Hills Pavilion in Boston. Shout out. We were looking forward to it.

I mean, PBR, sunset over the Boston Harbor, the potential to hear the majority of the Silent Steeple's album. Win-win situation all around. I'm not as familiar with Dispatch. Some of you guys are digging this. Some of you guys are as cool as slime. Anyway, Dispatch was playing two nights in Boston. We had tickets the second night around two o'clock of the first night. So that's two in the afternoon, the first night of the concert. This girl I had previously hung out with, but had a super casual relationship, almost, dare I say, friendly relationship, text me out of nowhere. Hey, I have an extra ticket to the dispatch show tonight.

Want to go? Yes, obviously. So I told her I'd meet her at the seaport for dinner and drinks beforehand. I pay for both. Hey, thanks so much for inviting me.

Let me get dinner, drinks for this. Cool. She thanks me. We're getting ready to leave and she goes, oh, wait, I need to wait for my friend.

Okay. Eventually, this other dude shows up. Ha ha. Great, I think to myself no big deal i could just appreciate spatch and their tunes maybe i should get into this band uh end up buying her some more drinks that night and as they continued to wait and say thank you for these tickets as the night goes on it becomes more and more clear this other guy was not as carefree as i was about the whole two dudes and one chick situation he ends up throwing a fit that she invited me i mean yelling making a scene even punching a light post hey sometimes when you're young you do that he was a smaller guy oh so that

was the punching the light post connection there not the worst theory all right um i also think he had a drinking issue because he couldn't handle his booze all right maybe he was young but yeah you know punching really sturdy objects isn't a great sign she told me later uh that he's always had a crush on him so this girl sucks who knows uh this girl had her own issues uh whichever she was going through oh so he's being like hey who knows what her issues were at this point at the concert it's almost over i'm over the situation decided to let them know i'm going to uber home call it a night the girl who invited me decided to leave the other guy and come home with me. Whatever. Honestly, it wasn't my intention to hang out, but there you go. Okay. Anyway, the next morning, the girl has the audacity to Venmo request me 60 bucks for the

concert. This is after I spent around 200 on dinner drinks throughout the night in an Uber home. I ended up paying her immediately on Venmo and blocking her phone number i couldn't believe someone would do that um she knew i had tickets to the next night i was going as a favor to you because it was last minute you made it sound like you had no else to go with let alone another guy with an inferiority complex and an issue with light posts yeah i'm you know that girl i don't know why girls do stuff like that. Um, guys do it too. So I don't want to make this sound like, um, but I don't know. You know what? I knew this one guy I met when I first moved out to LA who had some fancy beach house and we were

talking and he was like, yeah, I just, I'll invite over multiple girls. And then one girl was showing the other girl where the towels were. And that girl was like, yeah just i'll invite over multiple girls and then one girl was showing the other girl where the towels were and that girl was like yeah no i know where the towels are and they were like haha we've both stayed here and i was like who are you i was like are you serious you do that so this i remember going on a date long long time ago and it was classic boston because it had to be i mean that's problem. Like, no offense to the girls listening from the 617, but that's a Boston girl move right there. Like, what, Jude? I didn't do nothing. I went on a date in Boston, you know, and all of a sudden there was this guy like eyeballing me the whole time.

And I was like, what's this guy's deal? What's going on? I was like, why did you pick this place? She's like, oh, that guy really likes me. He's always had a thing for me, but I've always shot him down. I was like, so you pick this place she's like oh that guy really likes me he's always had a thing for me but i've always shot him down i was like so you picked here to come because you knew he was here she's like well my friends are here too i go well this is you know like that's not a great move it's not a great move she was like well you know she's like what do you what do you care so uh yeah you didn't even ask for advice we all know this no one's listening

to this story going well the atlantic might the, the Atlantic might say the problem with young men and dispatch. Okay. Uh, quick one here, Ryan checking in. Not sure if this is exactly the life advice, but I'm now entering the age where a lot of the athletes, Mahomes, Lamar, countless young NBA players are now younger than me. I started to ask myself, is it silly I spend hours and hours watching athletes that are four years younger than me? I recently went to an NFL game where they allowed fans. It was a long drive, and I sat there wondering, should I be doing something bigger with my life at this moment? As I continue to age, this problem will only get worse. There are much bigger problems than this. I find myself cheering for older athletes, ones my age, because for some reason I can look up to them and respect them

or even played against some of these guys in high school football, whereas now I look at someone like Trevor Lawrence, my initial action is, F that guy. He's like 21. I'll add this doesn't ever seem to bother me, apply to me for the teams that I seriously root for big Chicago sports fan, but I'm asking your thoughts as someone who's now older than most all pro athletes. That's why that was Vinatieri.

I was like, keep hanging on. I think I am now technically for the first time ever older than every professional athlete in the four major sports. I think so. I don't know. Check out Zidane O'Chara. Nah,

he's definitely younger than me too. Let's do that real quick. Because I'm going to keep thinking about it. Ah, yeah. I got him by a year and a half, I think. Although, you never know. Slovakia, what kind of records are they really keeping? So I'll hold out hope that maybe somebody,

we could be talking about an international pitching prospect. Okay, So back to this email that doesn't really make a ton of sense. Sometimes I think, uh, I'm maybe jealous of younger guys in the field. I just feel plain stupid and invest so much of my time watching younger dudes play sport. I never thought I'd have this problem when I was younger. All I did was watch, talk about sports. Actually, no, I additionally get annoyed at music artists, rappers who are super young and killing it. Okay. So this is just a jealousy deal. Really? That's it's not about that. I mean, if I were going to sit here and go, Hey, I could do something bigger. Like I could, I could not spend my life attached to sports. I've had those moments on a Sunday night. It usually was back East cold. Nothing's open. Forget to buy food.

The giants are playing in prime time again. You know, get a little depressing. You go, you know, should I have done something bigger? Like, you know, everyone is not an astronaut. So, you know, we could, we could do that. I don't even think that way. You could do that. Almost everyone listening to this podcast is doing something where you could say, should I be doing something bigger and more important? I am reading this book about the cosmos. I'll let you know when I finish it, if I be doing something bigger and more important? I am reading this book about the cosmos. I'll let you know when I finish it, if I think I should have been doing something bigger and better. And the answer is I could, but I just, I'm not, this is what I do. And it's going pretty well. So I'm not going to complain about it as far as the younger, older thing. Yeah. Like it's

the same deal was you get older, everybody looks younger. And when you're younger, every guy from a composite from fraternity in the late seventies,, early 80s looks like he's fucking 40. Like those guys have kids, shoulder definition, mustaches like real ones, not clever Brooklyn ones, real old men mustaches. A few guys have a camp, like a deer camp. And you're like, how do you have a deer camp? And you're 20 and you're a junior and you're Sigma Nu. Like, how did this happen? I don't know, man.

It's just all science and that's what happened. So I would not worry about this. I mean, if really what we're talking about here is jealousy, like I'll admit sometimes I see somebody kill it or get a production deal. I'll be like, oh, how old is that guy? And then if he's older than me, I'll go, oh, that's cool. I still have a couple of years,

but almost everybody now is younger than me. So, you know, you just worry about other stuff would be my advice because that's not a big deal. Last one. Big fan of the show, been listening over a year. All right, cool. Um, I need some advice. I'm a 23 year old living in Los Angeles, working in the cannabis industry. You hear that Kyle? It's weed. I moved here back in February of 2020 from South Carolina. I know the timing could not have been worse. I decided to make the move before I had any guarantees even having a job out here. Obviously a very expensive play. So I had to find a way to cut moving living expenses. I had a longtime friend who was looking for a change, decided he was willing to make the move with me. I got everything

planned out, got my sister to co-sign an apartment with us blindly, moved across the country together. We signed a year-long lease that is coming up to an end here pretty soon. So I'm needing to figure out my next living arrangements. My long-term girlfriend managed to get a job here in LA. So we decided to take that next step and move in with each other. You can probably see my predicament given I'm currently living with a friend who was just looking to re-sign the lease at our apartment. Anyway, since I've told him that I've been moving out, he has been avoiding and ignoring, deleted me on all social media and acts like I do not exist anymore. I thought we could still be friends without living with each other, but apparently not. I'm just looking to take

another step with someone who makes me happy, but he has a severe lack of empathy for those kinds of emotions. I guess my question is, should I even care? It's leaning towards no from my end. I obviously care, given I took the time to write this email, but should I even try to rekindle the relationship? I enjoy him as a friend, just would rather not live with him anymore. I told him it was nothing personal, and I would still like to be friends, but he took it personally, and I guess no longer wants to be friends.

Anyway, thought I would give it a shot and see what you might think about this. All right, okay. Yeah, bro breakup is what this is titled here. If you're telling me the truth on everything, like, yeah, I can kind of see his point, like, minimally that, hey, I want to make a lifestyle change. I'm going to do it.

But nothing is guaranteed. So when he packs up that car and decides to move across the country and experience LA, you didn't marry him. It sounds like you want to marry the girlfriend here. Okay. So, you know, he's got to grow up on that a little bit. And those of you that are roommates and very close friends, but then you decide, oh, I'm just going to block you on all my social media, grow up, grow the fuck up. And I know a lot of you do it. And it's just some sort of coping

mechanism through the whole thing. If you're telling me the truth, and this is in fact, like no promises, you live together for a year. Hey, I met a girl or she moved out here. I love her. I want to live with her. I'm thinking about marrying her. This guy's got to accept that. And so I understand he's about to be inconvenienced because he just wanted to re-sign a lease.

But if he likes LA and he, did he meet no people throughout the entire year? Maybe it was tough with the pandemic. I understand that, but your obligation is not to him. Your obligation, like think about the things you're weighing life, wife, kids, or keeping South Carolina buddy in a better lease situation. So I would sit him down one time. If you're cool, it sounds like he's not cool. And if he's not cool about it at all, then fuck him. It doesn't matter.

I mean, most of the time, this is that stage in your life where you think you're friends with guys. Because, you know, college is weird and that i mean it's weird for a bunch of different reasons but you can kind of reinvent yourself right you can think about things you don't like about yourself and it's it's new group of people they don't know all the dumb shit you did in high school or maybe you're a loser um and you just decide like hey i'm gonna i'm gonna be i'm gonna be the things that i want to be and then sometimes you kind of revert back to who you you were but people will reinvent themselves in college a little bit. And so sometimes those friendships can be really strained because you're pretending you're somebody you aren't. And then you start living with guys.

And it's not just the dorms because as soon as you live with somebody is when you really get to know somebody. It was just why I never understood people that get married that have never lived together, but you live with somebody and then it's like, okay, this is real. And sometimes friendships should come greater. But as I've pointed out, a lot of times the math on this is more often than not, the closer you get to know someone, the less you like them. So if you lived with 10 different people, how many people did you go from day one of, hey, we're friends to our friendship has never been better. And how many people has it been from day one? Hey, we're friends. Wow. I can't stand this fucking person. All right. That second group is a larger number. So you're going to lose

friends in these early years, whether it's college housing decisions where you're like, yeah, you're cool. No, you're awesome at last call. Oh my God. You like video games too. Let's be friends. And then all of a sudden you're like, I hate this person. Okay. It's happened to me. I'm sure I, at times as a roommate, the guys were dude we're good and this this is not like people are gonna move out but if he's gonna handle it this way then I wouldn't waste any time I would waste zero time like hey look do you want to be a

grown-up about this these are the things that I'm pursuing in my life I know this isn't super convenient for you but you really think that I'm supposed to not live with a girl that I sounds like you want to like start a life with her perhaps just because you now have to that I'm supposed to not live with a girl that sounds like you want to start a life with her, perhaps, just because you now have to find a new apartment? That's nuts. So do you want to be friends or not? Because if you don't want to be friends, let me know. And then when he says no,

because he's going to be emotional about it, which is what it sounds like from this, then you just move on. You just move on. I have a bunch of guys that I would love to still be friends with. It just, I'm not. It didn't work out for whatever reason. And it may not even be anything that happened. There may not be a significant thing. I have one friend who was one of my closest friends for a long time. And then he just sort of iced me out.

I don't know. He decided that like all of a sudden he was going to be this person. I reached out one more time. Didn't hear from him. I went, all right, okay, that's cool. Like it wasn't asking me for anything. I wasn't asking him for anything. It just was a guy that, and it was funny because recently we were on like a Christmas thread and I was like, I wonder, and it was kind of like a little bit of one of those. It was like, I wonder if he's going to text me on the side. And he didn't. And I was like, you know, maybe I should reach out one more time. You know what? I'm not

going to, I'm not going to. Sucks. I'm not friends with them. Guess what? It impacts my day 0%. It just doesn't. There's no part of it that my life or my day would be remotely different. It'll be the same for you. Once you're removed from this and you're living with your girl, you're not going to be thinking about this guy. It's going to be a story, a footnote, and you moved on. advice rr at gmail.com all right spread the word and as always subscribe and we're gonna do uh something fun on friday i'm excited about this but in case it gets canceled i'm not gonna tease it it's not barack obama though he was on another podcast so they didn't want to make that a quick turnaround that'd be amazing i wonder how the numbers would do if you just said you tease somebody that you weren't going to get we should do that it's an experiment thank you everyone talk to you Friday Thank you.