The Ryen Russillo Podcast - The Market for Kyrie, the Warriors-Grizzlies “Rent Free” Beef, Plus Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch

Episode Date: June 21, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on the news that Kyrie Irving and the Nets have stalled on contract negotiations (0:25), before talking about the Warriors-Grizzlies post-Finals beef and why it doesn't make a ton of sense to clap back at a team that just won a title (6:53). Then Ryen is joined by Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch to discuss joining the team midseason in 2021, the 2022 playoff series vs. the Grizzlies, team dynamics with Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell, and Patrick Beverley, Finch's time playing and coaching in Europe, and more (20:09). Finally, Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (48:58). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Chris Finch Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast is loaded with stuff the kairi news what does it really mean also receipts and living rent free uh chris finch head coach of the minister of timberwolves and life advice i want to start today's podcast before we get to all the other stuff we have for you, talking about Kyrie Irving. All right, let's get the news part out of the way. Earlier this week, Sean Schrenia of The Athletic said that there's an impasse between Kyrie and the Nets on a new contract for him, and that if it doesn't quite work out, the Lakers, the Clippers, and the Knicks

are all super interested. So I want to examine a bunch of these different things. Here's the important stuff. There's a $36.9 million player option that Kyrie has to make a decision on by June 29. Pretty simple. If Kyrie picks it up, he's under contract for at least one more year in the Nets and him can work out another deal. But it also makes him a lot easier to trade as opposed to a sign-in trade that has complications for these other teams. The Nets, as ridiculous as it sounds, because if you just ask me straight up, do you want to be in the Kyrie Irving business? In a vacuum, it's a no for me every single time.

And I think it should be a no for almost all of these teams. But for the Nets, as we've been over this before, it's like my Celtics buddies were like, well, cool. That means if we don't sign Gordon Hayward, we can just use the 30 plus million on somebody else. That's not the way it works. You want to actually sign players a lot of times that are really expensive that you don't really want because you at least want that asset slot. And a lot of you already know this stuff. The best example of this is

Kevin Durant and D'Angelo Russell. It's like, we know we're going to lose Durant. Is there any way we can actually trade him in a sign of trade for D'Angelo Russell back? You get Durant. Now we have this asset that we can use later on, which ended up being Wiggins and the lottery pick, right? So the Nets, even though the Kyrie experience hasn't been great, dude doesn't play in a ton of games. He's played in 103 of the available 226 games. The Nets would like to keep him because it's better than just losing him for nothing.

Now, would they keep him and do a signing trade? Let's cover some of the teams that were talked about here, which we'll get to some of the motivation behind a piece of here, which I, you know, we'll get to kind of some of the motivation behind a piece of news a little bit later in this open, but any Lakers deal here, yeah, they would do it for Westbrook. No shit.

They would do that. They get off of Westbrook. They are convinced the LeBron-Kyrie thing would work. Everything's good. I went on with Cowherd yesterday. He said he'd do Anthony Davis or Kyrie yesterday. I disagreed.

Cowherd right now has got me on the AD position. His short position, I'm freaking out about it. I'm still long Anthony Davis. The reason I still wouldn't do it is because at least Anthony Davis wants to play basketball. And the reason he doesn't play is because he's hurt all the time. Although some would argue, hey, he hasn't picked up a basketball in two months. Does he really want to play basketball that much or so? Hey, I'll just end it this way.

Go ahead. You can have Kyrie. Enjoy. All right. The Knicks part of this seemed weird because the Knicks could get the cap space to go ahead and do this. They could also trade some pieces. But you would have to do a combination of moving off of Evan Fournier's $18 million and $18.9 million guarantee. There's a team option on

a third year from now, on the four years of the overall deal. Alec Burks, who I actually kind of like a little bit, but he's $10 million with a team option next year. New Orleans Noel's $9.2 million with a team option. Kemba's $9.1 million. So you could maybe attach some assets, but then you're thinking, okay, wait a minute, what are we doing again for the Knicks? We don't want to do a sign of trade. We want to clear enough cap space to just go ahead and take Kyrie. That'd be an awesome headline. We're taking him away from Brooklyn, but we have to probably throw an asset on maybe a first rounder with Fournier because everybody knows that we're trying to move it to do something else. Maybe we have to throw on some second rounders here with a combination of the remaining guys, but at least their contracts will be expiring after this season.

Do we really want to have to go through all these mechanisms to, again, sign somebody to a max deal that doesn't seem super interested in playing basketball? And this stuff has been going on for five years because it started at 25 years old. And I wonder who would actually think, hey, from 30 to 35 is when he's really going to lock in. Then there's the Clippers part of it where, know look it's a lot easier for them just go ahead if he were to opt in to trade for him because they have some pieces you know do you throw a reggie jackson out there do you throw a norman powell in there you know this i think their only draft pick that's remaining to trade

is 2028 um you know does any of that make sense it doesn it really make sense for a Clippers team that, yeah, best case scenario, Kawhi, Paul, George, Kyrie, but you're talking about guys that just are almost never at their best case scenario. So it keeps getting back to like, all right, so this piece of news was what? Was this piece of news somehow presented as, well, if the Nets don't step up and offer the full max, here are these other options? Well, they're super complicated options. And I did think the article was very pro Kyrie,

which I always do with any of these newsy things. I'm like, where's the motivation behind this information? There was a line in there about how Kyrie had helped lead the Nets last year. It wasn't the second round. It was the Eastern Conference semifinals. You're like, also known as the second round. He played in four of those games. I don't feel like Kyrie's led much of any

group of dudes to do anything except to make a really bad decision for the rest of his career. You can never rule out the third team. Maybe they get involved to help move these things along. Many mistakes have been made when you're just looking at two teams trying to trade for people and you're like, ah, mysterious third team enters the chat.

That's always a factor in this. But then there's also wait a minute, if we get these good teams that would want to add Kyrie. Maybe there's bad teams that would want to add Kyrie. I actually think bad teams adding him would be even worse than good teams because good teams would have players that he'd actually have to sort of respect. But we thought we just had that with Durant and Harden, and that wasn't the case. Can you imagine Kyrie with a young developing team, him coming in, dropping philosophical bombs on dudes at halftime? So I'm not sure that's a great fit. So look, back to the beginning of this.

I know why the Nets are doing this. I know why they'd like to keep the asset. The leverage may actually be with them. What are they like? We don't think you want to opt out and just go to salary cap for one of these really bad teams. So we'll just hold off, wait until you opt in, and then we'll figure it out after that. And if it means you plan a one year deal, it means you plan a one year deal. And if it means you end up giving in to a version of

a contract structure that we feel like protects the team, because again, I don't know, teams get weird that way. They want the guys that they pay to play in games. Fucking mind-blowing, I know. Maybe hit pause and just let that marinate for a second. But I thought it was a really interesting piece, but I'm not sure how... You never rule out anything in this league, but it's just, these are very... Let's just say this.

It is very complicated. And by the way, Kyrie has not made basketball priority. So it's hard for me to think there's a ton of teams out there making Kyrie the priority. Double solo segments today. Had a lot going on. I think I had like seven segments I could have done. I think I could have taped for just straight 90 minutes after Golden State won this whole thing and then another Friday. So I do want to go back to something because I just think it's interesting. And I think it's the new normal and kind of those times you go like, is this where we are right now?

And the question I would ask is, does this mean that every time a team wins a championship, they start pulling receipts and taking their victory lap? Because that's exactly what Golden State did. Again, everybody knows I really like Golden State. So that was sort of a weird series for me. I think Sir Rudy kind of called me out a little bit where he was, he was basically like, yeah, but you still love Steph. So how pro Boston are you going to be in this one? It was, it was very weird, but I was really happy to see Steph get this victory lap despite,

you know, the team you grow up with and all that kind of stuff. Um, but clay started it up pretty quick. He called Jaron Jackson jr. A bum at the podium called straight up Jackson Jr. a bum at the podium. Straight up called him a bum. That doesn't happen a lot, folks. Because Jaron Jackson Jr. had tweeted out strength in numbers after they had beaten the Warriors in a playoff game.

The Memphis Golden State history now is new. It's new history, but there's some depth there. Memphis bounced him in the playoff game last year. The Eagle Dollar trade where he didn't want to go there. Dylan Brooks had some interesting comments about that. The Brooks foul on Gary Payton. It was a nasty play. Payton landed the wrong way.

It happens. It's not the end of the world. The whoop that trick game, though, I felt like was actually a real moment. Because I, who likes Memphis,, Memphis reminds me a little bit like that Thunder team where Durant and Westbrook just were not even remotely afraid of Kobe and the Lakers. Like just, it was, it was one of those great moments where you're watching basketball and you go, oh wow, this is like a real thing. Like they're not remotely intimidated by these dudes whatsoever. And I think Memphis certainly has that in their DNA. I wouldn't say they're

ever intimidated by it. Jod gets hurt. Who knows? Maybe the series could have gone a little different. I don't necessarily think the Warriors were going to lose any version of that series. But there was a real in-your-face-ness, which is what Memphis is about.

The reason we like the rise and grind shit, we like the city and all that kind of stuff. But I remember doing the podcast the next day going, I kind of want the Warriors to trash this team now. Because, again, the Warriors ended up being a team that won an NBA championship at one point being down 55 points in a playoff game. I don't know that that's happened a lot. It was like, ah, they're down 55.

I still like that team to win the whole thing, though. And maybe that's just been the case where we see some of these blowouts, and we had a ton of blowouts in the playoffs. Teams are just like, all right, we're out of this. But the whoop-that- that trick game felt like something. It didn't make me dislike Memphis. It just made me want them to be kind of reminded about the gap. And I remember Chris Vernon texted me the next day.

He was like, you broke my heart today. You broke my heart saying you want to see the Grizzlies get destroyed. But I said it and I felt it because of all of that stuff that I saw. And it just kept going. I mean, Steph did the zero over the eye thing because that was what dudes, I think on first take had done at one point where they were like,

how many more titles the Warriors going to win? And they were all like zero, Perkett in the action as well. And then Draymond just basically let everybody have it. And here's what's funny about it is these are guys that are very important. These are players that are the best in the world

at what they do. And they've already had success. So this isn't like new money, man. Their first title was seven years ago, and they were telling everybody how they felt about all the disrespect, which is very similar to what a lot of us do. As soon as a team wins a title, I can think of specific ones where if Clemson had beat LSU in the title game a couple years ago, Clemson fans, the drafts that you probably had ready to go at me were endless. Here's another one. If the Tennessee Titans had come out of the AFC after I said they were one of the worst

one seeds that I think we've seen historically in a really long time, and there were numbers and results to back that up, whatever. It's football. They lost to Cincinnati. I didn't come on the show the next day going like, look at me. I was amazing doubting the Titans. I also realized there was another version of it that could have gone the other way. But it had the Titans made

a run. I would have gotten all sorts of Titan fans tweets because it isn't just enough that your team wins. It's that, hey, my team won. I'm a Braves fan, right? All right, Braves win the World Series 90 seconds later. I'm going to fire one off here on that. Fuck Ken Rosenthal.

Guy didn't think we had enough bullpen depth. Fuck him. That's what happens. It's like, wait, it isn't that my team, and in some cases in these cities who haven't won for decades, have finally won a championship in this thing that I care so much about. Let me, within minutes, let the doubter know. And so there is a weird correlation there.

Because if I were a player and I were really good with the first thing, and again, maybe I shouldn't say it's the first thing because it's the stuff that also made its way out. And I didn't watch every single press conference from the first minute to the last minute. But this felt a little different, but it also didn't feel that different because I think this is kind of the new normal. I don't know that I'll ever accomplish anything in life

that'll be, like, if I were to do something really special, right, I don't know what that would be, right? I have some thoughts. Maybe I'm not going to share them anymore. But would I start doing a victory lap about all the people that doubted me? Now, if you listen to me, you're like, dude, you are the number one draft picker people that doubted me. Now, if you listen to me, you're like, dude,

you are the number one draft pick of people that would do that. I would 100% think it, right? Like, what if, say, I ended up being the number one sports podcast? Like, would I rip other podcasts? I don't know. I mean, if there was another podcast out there that cut their podcast into a million pieces, then made me look bad at work, and then did some victory lap about how they were the best the whole time when they weren't, would I ever call that out? I don't know

that I would do that, right? Because I also don't know that I'll do anything as cool as winning an NBA championship. And if I were winning an NBA championship, would I actually want to take the time to let everybody know? And here's the thing is maybe I should stop asking any of this stuff, right? Because this is what it is now. And is what it is because, as I've said for years now, the access to hate has never been greater, right? Some of the LeBron stuff is still silly to me, like the washed king thing. Who's actually calling him washed king, right? He screwed up by having have that same energy.

And like, yeah, a lot of people did have that same energy that doubted you and they ended up being right. Does it mean that you're going to go, hey, that previous have that same energy tweet? I you and they ended up being right does it mean that you're going to go hey that previous have that same energy tweet i actually missed on that one the same energy tweet opinions also seem to always be off the mark a little bit but the funny thing if you take it back to the memphis part of the golden state part is that john morant who again got eliminated didn't play in the rest of the series, and then the team they were calling out wins another NBA championship, and Ja goes to the default rent-free line as a comeback to the Warriors. And I'm thinking like, wait, you just get to say rent-free when you got kind of owned

for a season? Because that's exactly what happened. Golden State beat you guys. You didn't play in the games. They won a championship. So like it or not, they get to say all this shit now because the winners write history. And what I always think is kind of funny about like, hey, I'm wrong. I got called out. So what do I do here? Oh, this guy said something about me.

Let me just go to the default rent-free. Rent-free and have that same energy seem to be in that same neighborhood of like tweets that you go everything that follows this usually isn't that great of an observation i mean we talked about some of the hate and the criticism fucking drake is one of what the five biggest artists in the world that guy's been bummed out about his friend group for years all right so as i've always said if you want to find the hate you can find it right if if you want to find the hate, you can find it. Right. If you're doing anything that people care about, you can find someone taking a dump on the thing that it is that you do. Right. But to see a team win and spend so much time talking about another team, I don't know if that's a warrior specific thing.

Maybe it is with their personality. Maybe it is with Draymond. I wouldn't say it bothers me. I would just say, hey, I think this is what it is now. And it's going to happen more and more as these younger players get older because they grew up with it. Keeping track of everything. And I'll tell you, I'm here for it. Chances are, though, you're going to be able to find an opinion on any take. Like even if you're universe like maybe like yeah the anti-janus takes are the one that you won't find but pretty much every other take is going to

be available for you so if you think that you're being hated on you're being disrespected there's a good chance you can just search something on twitter you're gonna you're gonna be able to find what you want right but here's why i do think that the uh the warriors thing is different it's because you had guys going on morning shows for a couple years talking about you know andrew wiggins like this team they'll step will never make the finals again with this squad they're done the dynasty's done blah blah blah blah and the emotion for them to get back to this point i think is different than than in most instances you know like the amount of doubt that people threw at them because they wanted this thing to be done they wanted the warriors dynasty to be over

and the fact that they got to the top again I think adds that much more like validity to their angst, if that makes sense. The Warriors stuff. And let's be honest about the Grizzlies too. And I don't want to bum Chris Vernon out anymore. But this is a team that I could very easily see us turning on quickly in a couple years if they

don't start winning some stuff. Because they have a lot of guys that like to talk. Jaws been very vocal on Twitter. Obviously, the Jaron Jackson tweet was bad. I think this was like a perfect storm of two teams. And it doesn't mean that that Memphis was living rent free and in Golden State's head. It just means that you said a stupid thing and you got called out for it after that team won the title.

So usually I'm very anti like, you know, hey, we just won something when we talk about my haters. But I actually thought it was kind of validated in this instance. Okay, so I like what you did there because I think it is, I think it's two things.

I think it's the new normal, but I also think it's a heavy Warriors thing too. So you're right. I, the only part of the jaw thing, the rent free, I feel like everybody

does that now. Like, oh, whatever. Like if I responded to one guy who I'll never meet or think about the rest of my life, just because I'll say hey maybe that day i want to respond to somebody and the guy gets to say oh rent free bro rent free and you're like well what you know now the worries

did talk about them a lot um but whenever and that's why i kind of made fun of some of the i'm here for it keep that same. Louder for the people in the back. Just the rotating three to four things that everyone uses all the time. Good morning to Usman Jang and Usman Jang only. Just whatever I see, keep that same energy or rent free.

I'm like, yeah, actually, I'm not going to agree with you. I'm not going to agree with you. Here's the thing too. Even if Clay was thinking about that tweet for months they won the title if he used that as motivation then it fucking worked so good for you yeah like it doesn't like even if you are rent free and clay's head guess what he just proved you wrong because he won the chip like that's all that matters so the fact that he used

that as motivation and then actually did win a title to me that you're not pwning him by saying living rent free. You just gave him motivation and he did it. So I don't think we should be criticizing that at all. coach is giving you the signs and then it's the belt grab is the indicator that a real sign is coming yeah so like whenever i see whenever i see rent free or keep that same i'm like oh this will be a terrible this will be a terrible part of the argument yeah or or in jaw's case like you know like they won man they won they won the argument they won won. They won the argument. They won the series. They won the title. And so you can say rent free, but you don't really have like, nope, not, not so many people would be like, you know, Jack, great point, dude. Great point. Are you with me on the, on the, uh, the Grizzlies thing though? Like, I think if they don't take another step or if they don't get to where we, where like they're projected to go, which is probably finals in the next couple of years,

based on how much they talk and how, you how much we like the team to watch but we do this with every team as soon as you don't reach a goal or achieve or keep that linear progress going we kind of turn on you i can see two to three years like them being the most hated team in the league easily most hated they just have a lot of young guys that i mean dylan brooks i dylan brooks jaron jackson jr and joel alone that's a tough trio if you're not winning you know if you're Dylan Brooks, Jaron Jackson Jr., and Ja alone, that's a tough trio if you're not winning titles. At least Draymond, yeah, okay, it's tough, but he's a winner.

He's won four championships. There's not much you can say about him. You can still not like him, but you've got to respect him. If this Grizzlies team doesn't start winning, and I know they're still really young, we've got time, but this is what we do. We just turn on teams like this. We love them when they're young,

and as soon as they don't win after a couple years and they don't kind of keep that linear progress going we're like who the fuck are these guys talking so much back they haven't won anything look at zero titles and then you know that's kind of how it works i would rather them be them the way they are now though than a young team that thinks they're young you know i would rather this uh even if there was that moment in the playoffs where I was like, I kind of wanted the old school Warriors to put it on them. And look, they ended up, they didn't destroy them, but they beat them, they moved on in the series. But I would still rather Memphis maintain who they are in this group.

But you're absolutely right. Because, you know, if you're quiet and not good, no one cares when you're loud and not good enough. That's when you bring that attention to yourself. And I'm here for it. Excited to talk to this head coach in the NBA. It's Chris Finch of the Minnesota Timberwolves. And the reason I wanted to do this, and I've wanted to do this for a while here,

is when I ran into you in Chicago, too, I go, look, we get plenty of stuff wrong. But it was the Timberwolves team. You come in in February of last year. They were 13-40. They finished 10-9. The end of the year can be a little misleading, but I just felt like something clicked, and then you make the playoffs this year. Can you talk about the

beginning of you starting the head coach, you get your first one in the NBA, and then losing games, maybe some things changing, and whatever it was, having it carry over to a playoff season for you. Yeah, so obviously kind of unique circumstances, parachuting in in the middle of a season. And what I really tried to focus on,

like break things out into things I could change in the short term, things that I could maybe impact over the medium term and things that I couldn't change until we got to the off season. And I just thought the first thing I would, I said about was just figuring out how to get the team to compete more, like helping them understand like what that means, you know, compete when they're fighting through a screen.

Compete when they're getting back in transition. All the little pieces, break it down for them and just try to be way more competitive. While at the same time building up their confidence because the team just really had struggled with its confidence as you can imagine any team going through that type of losing would. Then we looked at changing our defense and that over a little bit over the medium term,

we were able to kind of, you know, we weren't anywhere good, but we were still a little bit more resistant. We moved from playing into a very conservative, drop-oriented defense to an extremely aggressive, fly-around, attack, attack the ball style, which I felt suited just, you know, younger athletes trying to figure it out in the NBA. Like, just take the thinking out of it, be more attack-minded. And then that little body of work, we were able to take into the summer and kind of really use it as a,

you know, we had a proper, a proper body of work to evaluate what we thought we could and couldn't do. And last summer was a lot about reconstructing our defense, keeping that same attack mindset, but, but putting a little bit more structure, a little more rules with it,

and then figuring out pick and roll coverages, et cetera, that best suited our guys. And that's where we had the biggest jump. I mean, we still have a lot of holes in our defense. Some of the things that you want to do better, need to do better such as transition and rebounding. Those are two huge drivers, but we were able to generate a lot of turnovers and that was probably the key to our defense. Just also kind of, you know,

continuing to fly around and use our length and athleticism. Offensively, you know, I felt looking at the roster coming in that we had all the skills we needed, you know, just how do you like blend them together? I think our three guys at D'Angelo, Carl, and Anthony, they all have complementary skill sets. It's not like they're all trying to compete in the same space, do the same thing with the ball.

So I thought that gave us a great chance right there. And then I had the benefit of those guys being able to play together longer. Ryan Saunders, my predecessor here, they had so many injuries and they really didn't have a chance to kind of gel and figure it out. So I think as important as the start of this season and the offseason was, the last 20 games for us last year when we had all three guys being able to play, that gave us the best insight on how good we felt we could be coming into this season.

I imagine all the years, we're talking a couple decades here as an assistant, different stops, and you're thinking about your philosophy. Like, hey, I want everybody to move off the ball. I want guys rescreening. I want early transition, kind of semi-transition threes. I want to fight over it. I don't want to give up switches all the time.

And then you get the players, you're like, hey, some of these guys just don't want to do that. How hard is that realizing that your magic application of basketball philosophy is not always a realistic application? Yeah, great question. I think as you prepare for jobs, you always do so pretty much in idyllic conditions or in a vacuum. Fortunately, I've been in a lot of scenarios wherever I've coached where there's been so much change and so much stuff out of your control. I kind of just learned to roll with it a little bit. Coaching in the G League was a master class in that. Your roster is changing all the time.

So you have to still maintain the high-level principles, the philosophy, and the things that you believe in. But you have to pick a different route to get there. You can still value the same shots, but some of the concepts that you use to get to them might change because your best player one day was your point guard. He leaves. Now your best player happens to be a skilled four.

You're not going to keep doing the same things you did for the point guard with a lesser talented player in that role now. So I think key for us was we built a real diverse staff here. I brought in to help run the defense Elston Turner. Elston's been in the league a long, long time. He's been with Mike D'Antoni, done volume switching.

He's been with Rick Adleman, where they didn't switch a ton at all. He's been with Dave Yeager, who's highly touted defensive tactician. A lot about, you know, game planning. He's been with a lot of really good offensive minded coaches, too, which I think was important because, you know, you don't get into that turf war where the things we choose to do offensively are going to obviously impact some of your defense, too.

And vice versa, which I've been around some staffs that you had this flashpoint where it caused a little bit of friction. I was asking around prior to this interview, some guys that have worked with Diego, give me a Finch scouting report. And they were like, one of the coolest things that he had said, and I'm not going to name the person, but it's a compliment, so don't worry about it.

They were like, you felt as an assistant, you had to be the opposite of the head coach's personality, right? So like a little good cop or a bad cop, depending on how that works. How does that change once it becomes, now do you no longer have to pretend? Yeah. You know, I think as coaches, we have to be whatever our team isn't. You know, whether it your maybe your head coach you need to compliment him and whatever whatever i mean i have blind spots and what i'm able to do as a coach and my personality and i need assistance that helped me um you know as a team if you have a

team who doesn't have a lot of leadership we talk about this like you know every coach will be we don't have enough leaders we don't have. Isn't it our job to provide that leadership for them in some capacity? Aren't we supposed to fill these deficiencies? If we're not tough, we can be tough-minded as a staff and hopefully our team figures out how to be a little tougher.

But yeah, so I was always very lucky to work for coaches who gave me a big platform on the offensive side of the ball. Kevin McHale, Alvin Gentry, Nick Nurse, these guys, Mike Malone. I mean, all the guys I worked for gave me a big platform. Alvin and Mac in particular, they were player coaches. They spent most of their time with player relationships. In a lot of those roles, I ended up having to be the bag top too just because when you're running the offense or you're running the defense, accountability

in the film room begins and ends with you. The coach has your back, which is hugely important. So moving into the head coaching realm, I just wanted to empower my assistants and have their back and also set the tone and set the environment, what our behaviors are expected to be. Let's talk about your players. I don't know when it was, but there was just a

moment with Anthony Edwards where this year I went, okay, this feels like the start of something really special. There's a lot of great young players that are sick athletes that can score 20 a game and take over games. But I just ask you, you're around him every day. How special can he be? Yeah, very. I mean, we think he can be certainly a high-level franchise player, perennial all-star. Some of the things that he's done at an early age are things that only those types of players do do. He needs to obviously become more consistent in a lot of things.

He's still trying to figure out a lot. The great thing about Anthony is he knows who he is and who he isn't. He has very, very mature and very self-aware. And through that process, like he understands the value of playing with a guy like Carl Anthony Towns, who can space the floor so he can live in the paint.

You know, like he's not trying to fight to be the number one guy at any point in time. He just believes it's going to come as he gets older and better. I was a little worried about going into the playoffs about how he might try to do too much. And sometimes that stage might swallow you up. But I mean, he took to it easy and he was he was comfortable he was confident he was

loving it you know he's like he never really played in a basketball game of that magnitude anywhere you know certainly not in college and certainly not before that so um and it's when he when when I watch him go through these things whether it it be scoring 40 or playing well in the playoffs or dominating a quarter or finishing out how to close games. That's I, I, you know, I realize I'm watching somebody who has incredibly high ceiling.

So it's fun to, fun to be able to work with him. What I love about him is he's really, really coachable. And that's what gives us the best hope that he's going to be this high end talent that can drive winning for a long time for this franchise. Is there any similarity, a lesson learned from a previous stop in the NBA where you had somebody that was really special and you're thinking about that timeline and applying that to Anthony?

Yeah. So maybe a little less about the timeline, but more about the experiences that, the evolution of it, I guess, is that, you know, when I worked with James Harden, when he came to Houston, you know, James would see so many different looks, particularly in the playoffs. You know, we'd get a lot of different looks in the playoffs that maybe he hadn't seen in a regular season and then he would

we'd have to figure out how to solve them or he'd have to figure out how to solve them work on it next year he'd come back and i think anthony like we're seeing these looks coming at him like in this in the regular season now you know a lot more game, a lot more different looks that he's having to process. And I think partly because teams in the league now are just way more flexible defensively than they've ever been, so they're able to shift game to game.

Whereas five, six, seven, eight years ago, you did less of that. You set out your stall. This is what we are. This is who we are. And then the playoffs will change. Now we see so many different looks. So helping Anthony work through those certainly drawn upon our experiences with James.

Is Carl Anthony Towns like does the who's team is it stuff? Does that matter? I mean, I'm sure some guys it matters. Does it matter with you? I don't get a sense that it matters at all i think cat has um well i know cat has embraced anthony that uh anthony as i said understands the value of playing with a guy like cat he also knows that cat is the best player on our team. Cat understands that he needs help. All players need to have great players around them.

I think it's one of the signs of maturity for young players. They come in the league looking to prove themselves, particularly these high picks. Prove themselves, make their mark, grow their brand, get paid, all the things that they want to do. And they always think they can do it alone or damn near alone. But the reality is none of them can. Nobody can.

And so then they start to realize that, how hard it is to be the only guy out there. And so adding talent. I once heard when I got into the league, like, it always resonates with me is that what superstar players need most is hope. They need hope.

They need hope coming that they have good enough teammates, good enough coaches, good enough organization, and a good enough environment to be able to maximize their potential. And I think Cat understands, you know, how good and special Ant can be. in a good enough environment to be able to maximize their potential. And I think Kat understands how good and special Ant can be.

I'll just admit it. D'Angelo Russell has been a tough watch for me over the years. And I know you're not dumb enough to sit there and be like, no, I totally get it. No, like you said, coach. I thought he made some real strides this year, you know, and kind of understanding how he fit in everything. I think a lot of it, it's not the talent. I think sometimes with him, it's the decision-making kind of what do we need and when do we need it? Uh, and then

the playoffs, it wasn't great again. When you're, when you're going through film, when you're, when you're looking at things that everybody needs to approve, How has the D'Angelo Russell relationship grown with you in just a year and a half? Yeah. So, I mean, first of all, I agree. For me, I can only judge my experience with a player. And D'Angelo's been great. He's been super receptive, very coachable, very bought in.

I think his impact on our success sometimes was overlooked this year, particularly in the first half of the season. Defensively, he was very impactful off the ball as a help defender, very smart player. You know, I think trying to figure out those three guys offensively, we thought it would be a little easier

out of the chute, but I think everybody started this season with so much ambition that they're all trying to put their mark on things. That had to play out a little bit. We had to figure out some kinks there, but we got it sorted. You know, he had some really big games, and the play-in game was probably a signature game

for us this year. And he certainly had a really big games. The play-in game was probably a signature game for us this year. And he certainly had a few of those. But he's been locked in and committed. And work ethic's been great. No problems at all. He's a basketball junkie. He loves to watch hoop, talk hoop, everything. He's probably our biggest basketball you know student of the game

if you will like he's really really into watching games so and last year when I first got here we watched more film together this year I didn't have enough time to sit down and watch enough film with him but yeah he's I think for him

his skill set fits perfectly between Ant and Cat. One of the best passers I've ever been around. I keep pushing him to just keep leaning into that. Really good shot maker, particularly in the clutch. And for sure, a lot of these guys, shooting sometimes comes so easily to them that they think they'll make any shot. He plays with great confidence. You mentioned the leadership part before.

And I had Jim Peterson on earlier this season. And I just went like, hey, give me the Pat Bev experience because it's not for everybody. But I feel like any team that has real aspirations needs somebody who's on edge all the time. And it may drive even his own team crazy at times. But how important is he for a guy that's been around and seen a lot to kind of counteract the youth and talent you have on the team? Yeah. Very, very, very instrumental to our environment this year was Pat. Not just what you see.

And that's, you know, real. And like you said, it's might not be for everybody. Doesn't bother me. I've known Pat since we got came in the league, came in the league with us in Houston. One of the things I love about him is that he still maintains that chip on his shoulder to prove to himself that he belongs, even though he clearly does and how that drives him. The most important things for what he does for our environment or did coming in this year are things that you don't see. He's an extremely good professional in terms of how he does his work every day, looking after his body, keeping his game sharp, teaching a young team what professional habits look like,

Keeping his game sharp. Teaching a young team what professional habits look like. Making sure that even though it's an optional off day or get what you need day, that everyone's still coming in and they're still doing their work. That they're locked into the game plan. He'll send them texts the night before with some insight on guys that he knows from playing against these guys in the league for so long. In the film room, not afraid to get on guys or clean up a message that may be a little bit blurry or something like this.

So it's a lot of the stuff you just really don't see. And the stuff that you do see is stuff that gives a young team confidence that they're willing, that they, you know, and it also ups the ante. Like, if that guy's going to play that hard, then I got to go out there and play that that they you know and it also ups the ante like that guy's gonna play that hard then i gotta go out there and play that hard you know so um i'm a big pb fan um you know maybe not such a fan of his uh media tour at the moment but uh i was gonna ask like you don't i don't i would be worried that he'd be on first take and they do a timberwolves blame pie and pat bev would be like well 51 on coach on first take and they do a Timberwolves blame pie and Pat Bev would be like, well, 51% on Coach Finch. Let's start there.

That's fine. I'll take it. I'd rather be blaming me and get me mad than some of our opponents out there. Do you guys actually care about the media tour? Or is it just like... I mean, I joke with him about it a little bit. I mean, you know, it doesn't bother me. Like, you know, do you think because he says something, some team wants to beat us more than they wanted to beat us before? I mean, come on. Yeah, no, that's a good point. I always kind of think that stuff's kind of funny.

It's like, wait, so you needed me to get you to try harder? Like, what? Exactly. Then you should be paying me. You mentioned it at the top, and it is something I wanted to kind of round out the interview because there's still a little background stuff that i wanted to do when you got this gig everybody was mad at you and i don't know how many people knew you and i

remember like i'm telling you i got a few texts from people that had worked with you and they were like look i know this is non-traditional and for those who forget you were on the toronto staff and you come over you get that coaching gig uh after saunders is out you know usually somebody on the assistant side is bumped up interim and Minnesota is like, we don't want to do this. We want to go ahead and grab Chris Finch. And it's worked out. It was the right call, which I don't think too many people have come back around on and admitted they didn't like the way you got the job. What was that like for you realizing a lifelong dream? And then so many in the media that didn't even know who you were dumping on the decision. Yeah, well, you know, it didn't really change what it meant for me internally. My moment was

always going to be my moment. It wasn't the moment that I really needed to have validated by the rest of the world. And, you know, the circumstances were certainly unusual. I didn't really see some of the backlash coming. To be fair, I didn't really see some of the, some of the backlash coming. Um, to be fair, I didn't necessarily think it was, I didn't take it personal. You know, my fellow coaches reached out to me, uh, when the coaching association put out the statement that they did, they made sure to reach out to me that it wasn't personal against me. It was more reflective of the processes, which I understood. Um, and you, which I understood.

And, you know, I understood the sensitivities around it. You know, when I came in, I talked, one of the first things I did, I sat down with David Vanderpool. I just said, Hey man, I know this, this sucks for you. I really, it really does. And let's just try to work through it. And, you know, he was awesome. He was really, really good for us. It's good for me for the remainder work through it. And, you know, he was awesome. He was really, really good for us. Good for me for the remainder of the season. So and he's an outstanding coach and, you know, he deserves his chance.

And hopefully at some point he'll get his chance. That's just the thing. There's only 30 of these jobs. They're really, really hard. You know, I take zero credit for what, you know, happened after. But there was then, you know, basically like we all look every team in the hiring process looked at the way they were doing business. And there was a rush of hiring minorities last summer, African-Americans into head coaching roles, which is great, great for the game. So, you know, I guess you can say that it all worked out better because of the way the hiring process has been evaluated. And again, I take no credit for that.

But if that's what happened after it, then I think we can all feel a little bit better. Let's go back to your playing career. You're coming out of Franklin and Marshall. You end up in England. I know they were the Sheffield Forgers based on the steel industry, and then you got moved up. It sounded like you had a lot to do with going up in the division. And I also talked to Nick Nurse about this, but I'm always kind of, because I'm still somewhat mindful of where I was at as a guy leaving college and knowing how incredibly

disappointed my family was for a little while. Were they like, hey, what's the plan, man? You're just playing in England for five years? Do you actually think you're going to play in the NBA at some point? Take us through these years, which could be great years looking back. In the moment, we don't realize how great the delaying of real life is for those of us that delayed it, but those around us usually aren't as supportive.

Yeah. I will say, I mean, when I knew I wanted to become a coach and I was leaving college like my parents were they were pretty they were pretty supportive they didn't really give me too much grief um ironically one of those moments in life where i was offered a graduate assistant job at the same day at the same time or very much very much the next day i believe it was to go over and play uh professionally in england which I knew nothing about.

And I thought, you know what? I'm just going to try this. If nothing else, it's a life experience for a year. And then one year became 17, just how it all unfolded. I always wanted to coach, but I never thought I'd coach in the NBA. I think if you talk to Nick, Nick was...

We coached over there at the same time. We went through an extremely similar path. But he was probably always a little bit more ambitious in that. He knew where he wanted to go. I was just trying to be really good where I was. And I didn't think I'd ever get back to America. I didn't have any kind of contacts back here in the NBA game, being from a small college.

So my sights were far more set on just being in the European game, trying to get to Spain, get to Russia, get to some of these, Turkey, get to Greece, some of these bigger leagues. What was your favorite place that you lived overseas? I mean, London. I have to say London. We would live in London for the summers during the national team. Yeah.

Because I know Germany probably wasn't a great experience, right? Maybe you just weren't there long enough. What's it like to get fired after 17 games in Germany? Yeah. Not a lot of fun. But, I mean, that's the European basketball, it is the Wild West. Like, if you lose to the wrong team, you're out.

You lose two games in a row, you're out. Sometimes it's extremely emotional. I mean, we think right now in America, there's no patience. You know, owners have no patience. But over there, they might not no patience, but over there, they might not have patients, but like they have this, this, this, this burning desire to do something. Um, club, those are club structures. So you have a lot of like outside money,

almost like a college influencing what the club does. You know, like people are saying, we got to do something. Coach got to go, or we got to do something. Nick will tell you, he went to practice one day and they changed it as Americans. It didn't tell him, you know, like this is the type of environment that you're coaching in. But I was always lucky and fortunate to be in pretty sane situations over there. I was able to like kind of establish roots and grow a career. But yeah, so I went to a club that I guess at the time in Germany, there were 16 teams. We probably had the 14th biggest budget, but they had won championships in the 80s and they still thought they were that team, which is the type of team

you never want to coach for. You never want to coach for this team that's still living in the glory days. I remember my boss telling me, well, we don't tell the board members that we have the 14th largest budget. I said, well, don't you think that would help around here? Like they set expectations. He said, no, no, no. It would, it would be an insult if we told him that. I was like, well, tell him to put more money in, you know? How do you take all of your experiences, right? And as you said, you're almost two decades over there and then you know you get to houston and you've been on some really good staffs and now you're finally head coach you know what i mean like this this took a while you even just said like this

isn't necessarily what you envisioned and you have this team with these really good young players and you get a real taste of what the playoffs are about you lose to Memphis how do you turn that into like let's not be happy to be here because we took that first step of many because that first step is really hard like how much work is put into and again it's not like kids you don't want to keep telling them over and over again to be focused for next year but the concern is just the delicate nature of sports and that it's like, let's not be content here. Let's be motivated by what kind of improvement we've made as an organization. Yeah, it's a great question.

And that basically strikes at the heart of what our offseason is about. You know, I keep preaching to the guys that this has to be the foundation for us to move forward from. It can't be the finish line. You know, we got to make sure that we learn from... We were the more immature team. Memphis was the more mature team.

We have to find that maturity. They're a great team. They're on the verge of becoming an even better team. And they've kind of been through the fire a little bit if you look at their previous seasons. But more importantly, when we come back to work, we have to go all the way back to the beginning and build it all the way back up. We're not going to just resume where the season finished for us. That's not how it works. You got to go back and lay the right foundation with the right habits and the right standards, right expectations. And quite honestly, that has me a little bit concerned at times because we have a very

young team and they've not experienced a lot of success uh in anywhere in their careers um you know these guys oftentimes are in college for one year um there's not even a year that they can go back and build off in college like everything is a new start for them um so yeah so it's really important that we understand that it's not going to happen just because it happened before and we got to get better and the west is going to be you know tougher if everybody gets healthy out here in the west it was a fun team to watch this year i know that's not the ultimate goal but you know from the previous seasons of like all right minnesota's on i don't know who else is on minnesota became one of my go-tos this season.

And, uh, you know, I know what's the players, but you had, you did have something to do with it as well. So thanks a lot for the time. All right.

I appreciate it. Thanks so much. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari three 55 cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could 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, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. We have a bunch of follow-ups on previous topics. There was a couple that I actually really liked. So let's do this one. Regarding giving away stuff as a bartender, I think we kind of, after spending way too long on that,

which is almost the case for all these answers, let's not kid ourselves. I was kind of like, if you have a good relationship with the owners or the managers or whatever, and you do it within reason, where you're discounting a few guys, it's not the end of the world. Some people are completely philosophically opposed. And again, if you're doing some of the more updated point of sale registers and all that kind of stuff, and, um, you know, you're working for a chain or whatever, you know, I don't, I don't know. I don't know

if it's going to work out. So anyway, uh, there's a story about a bartender down in New Orleans, pre Katrina. Um, there was a bar around the corner from the newspaper that I worked at. Oh, excuse me. I don't think they're in New Orleans, but they're in Mississippi. Okay. So around the corner from the newspaper I worked at, we hang out after we put out the paper. So putting the paper to bed, newspaper term. Some of you journalists get it. Obviously, we got to know the bartenders, managers, and owners pretty well. There was this one bartender named Dave, and you could drink and drink and drink when he was working, and you get an $8 tab. He knew we'd take care of him with a tip. So this one manager, Dan, who was my best friend at that place, knew what Dave was doing,

and he'd tell the owners, hey, Dave is robbing you guys blind here. The owners would respond what are you talking about everybody loves dave and dan would say of course they do he's robbing you blind after about a year of this he finally got them to install some cameras around the bar to keep tabs dave lasted about a week after that so they just wanted to send a shout out to old eight dollar dave uh where no matter what kyle yeah took him down i love the what are you talking about everybody loves this guy eight dollar dave man wait so one of the patrons went to the owner right that's what he said that sounds like hey kyle that sounds like somebody in school going hey you forgot to give us homework huh yeah do your own work pal all that you're looking for a job too geez it's weird yeah um i don't know if this is people are asking me to run the print the shirts part two segment that we cut after marcus smart fucking rolled on steph's ankles and it was

my open and ready to go the next morning full of passion and confidence where i was like i'm gonna get in front of this uh i don't know. I think I have enough of an ego and confidence that I don't need to run a segment we didn't run a week after the Warriors won the title proving, hey, look at me. Is that technically receipts at that point? Do you have receipts on that technically? Because I mean, I've got it somewhere

in the bowels of my Dropbox. Yeah, I don't think we're going to run that. I think it just sounds like i just need that i'm that's a self-check where i was like yeah maybe i should run that i'm like why just so i feel cool i mean a lot of other dudes would definitely run that a lot of other a lot of other people would definitely run that that's for the patreon again i'll mention the morning shows again that would be in heavy rotation on a couple more shows this morning. Look, I didn't run it.

I'm oozing with confidence the last couple weeks. I don't need it. I don't need it anymore. I'm good. There was somebody else asking about the old Adam Sandler producer story. This guy's checking in 6-5, 2-20.

I could dunk it 2-0-5, but not since then. Wait, so you can't dunk it 226, five men. Don't let this go. Don't let this go. There's a couple of beasts behind your lower, behind your kneecap. They're just waiting to be unleashed. I'm telling you, man, once I figured out some of the working out stuff, I was hanging on the rim again at 40, 46. I'm 46 now. I always forget my age now. That's great. All right great all right so uh this isn't much a question is asking advice but just out of general curiosity i'd listen to you and stp back in the day i

remember a segment you did around 215 or 2015 where you told a story but you blasted adam sandler and his quality of movies in front of one of his main producers um i can't recall all the details so please fill in any gaps here i remember remember being a funny story, but not one the producer was able to easily bounce back from. Anyway, I watched Netflix movie Hustle, which stars Sandler, which was produced by LeBron and Maverick Carter. By the way, it's pretty good. I was like, you know what? This is good. This is really good.

They did a good job with it. Sandler's fucking. When Sandler's really good, he's fucking awesome. I went into that movie kind of thinking I wasn't going to like it. And afterwards, I was like, that was kind of dope. That was kind of dope. So yeah, shout out to Mo Wagner. A good chunk of the movie centers are on a Spanish basketball player that Sandler's character finds and trains in preparation for the NBA Combine.

Given your tenured experience with the Combine, as well as your Hollywood aspirations, I was half expecting to see you in the movie until I remembered your potential beef with Sandler. Did that prevent me from getting in? Again, to back it all up here, I was at the Greenwich Film Festival on a panel, and they were asking us why they thought so many sports movies got made. And I said, because honestly, there's a formula where if there's an early buy-in with an audience, as I've experienced too, like almost everything you do. Like I wrote a true story about something that really happened for a movie. And one of the first meetings I took on it, the guy's like, where's the IP? Like what happened with this? I'm like, well, I researched it and I know the family and this is what happened. And it's super fucked up. And the guy's like, great script, great idea, great execution, but there's no IP. I'm like, other than the fact that it exists and I'm telling

you who the people we can, we can meet them meet them I can show you court documents I can show you pictures of all this stuff but since there wasn't like a book about it or there wasn't something else there was no IP so what happens a lot of times uh and I'm not saying it's impossible but if there isn't some sort of existing thing that there's already a buy-in from the audience because audiences are tough that's why we get so many of these remakes all the time so i had said not only a shorter version of this on the panel i would say hey look like the sandler movies i'm like it doesn't really matter what they do there's just this automatic buy-in because it's sandler and there's a formula i was like i guess they crush overseas i was like but pixels i said something like that and his producer like his main dude jack was in the

audience and so the woman who I've known since I was a teenager that set up the Greenwich film festival pulled me aside. She was like, Hey, you're awesome. And she's, she's great. Lifelong friend. Although I'm kind of, I don't think I've talked to her in five years. So let's probably not call her a tier one person. Um, as I'm saying lifelong friend, I'm like, you actually haven't fucking talked to her in like five years. So who are you kidding yourself? But she is great. And she was like, hey, great job. Real quick, though. She's like the after party.

And the after party was at some six sports car dealership in Greenwich. And I just remember because I've told this story before to share. And I went downstairs and started looking at cars together. And I was like, yeah, I to share. I can take like two of these right now if you wanted to. And she goes, hey, we're going to the after party thing she's like sandler's producers in the audience so she's like the comment's not gonna be great and i was like yeah fuck i was like that's not great and so then i just went over to him

and i was like hey man he's like hey you know like he just immediately had this look on his face like this dick and then though he gets a funnier because he was like oh then he was kind of nice by the way pixels wasn't good so i wasn't necessarily wrong about the some of the premise on on some of the other movies even though everybody loves sandler and sandler by the way is considered the number one draft pick of anybody that's ever done the celebrity car wash at espn of anyone who the thousands of people that have gone through that place if you'd ask the talent department who's the best single guy they've ever had to deal with, it's always Adam Sandler. So I was like, Hey, yeah, I'm actually probably leaving ESPN soon.

And I'm, I'm headed out to LA to, you know, work on some scripted stuff. And he looked at me like, if you think I'm going to be any kind of contact for you after what just happened, like you're, any kind of contact for you after what just happened. Like you're, you're the dumbest guy here. And I just was like, I wasn't doing it thinking like, Hey, that's a great idea.

I love that idea. Let's connect once we're out there. And so, yeah, I felt, I felt like a dick. I didn't feel wrong. Um,

and that, that I think that has nothing to do with me not being involved in hustle because they had plenty of other higher profile people that were already involved in Hustle. And they did a good job of the sports movie, which I think the hit rate on sports movies is probably like less than less than 10 percent seems harsh. Let's just say less than 25 percent. So good job on size out there. I will say, though, if you look at the timeline of events, one, you're not wrong. And I think Sandler, if he and his producer can't admit that that that they have a formula and that's kind of their deal and they they can't

think that they're making like oscar level movies they're just making netflix movies it's fine but if you look at the timeline of events after that what happened uncut gems hustle so maybe you got in his head and they kind of you know they changed course they altered plans like you you you you planted the seed for the like this the pivot in sandler's movie making life and now it's been for the better so i'll give you so i i am the jaron jackson jr to correct you were the motivation exactly exactly rent free bro rent free what's up okay um we had a million of these kind of follow-upy things so i figured we touched on a couple of those there but i've told that so rudy you are now on

alert. I can never tell that story again because I've heard it's sold a couple of different times. Shout out to Hustle because it's good. Check it out on Netflix. So look at this. We're doing... Here's why I wanted to stay on this because Matt checked in and says it's a Canadian Grand...

Excuse me. It's a Canadian Grand Prix this weekend. Shout out to Verstappen and Red Bull. God, Verstappen's the best. Can you see how the woman with the creepy old man dad is doing? Remember that? The girl brought her dad to the Montreal

Grand Prix and she was like, he won't stop checking out women the whole time. Who may have overreacted about that. I mean, we don't know exactly what was going on. She may have overreacted about that i mean we don't know exactly what was going on she may have overreacted who knows was that your advice was that your position at the time kyle no i think my position at the time was stupid but like it could have worked it was like so crazy it just might work was sort of my thing was like i think you said be her be the wingman right no not the wingman but i was just sort of like you know you see all those videos of like old men partying with like college age girls and like the girls think it's hilarious.

The guy's having the best time. I was like, why can't we do that instead of just having him lurking in the corner somewhere or waiting in the beer line? I was like, what if you just go sit down at one of those cafeterias and see what happens? That's what I said. There was a lot of let him live feedback. Yeah. Sounds like she was like ruining her own time time and his time so it's like you might as well just enjoy the race guys all right so that segues in perfectly into two that we'll

do here uh do i tell my friend about his creepy dad 5 10 185 445 squat 315 clean hey guys checking in with the dilemma about my friend's creepy dad i have a buddy let's call him everybody's saying chad now all the time um but we're going to call him Chad in this one too, I guess. He transferred to our public high school from the local private school halfway through our freshman year. Hey, take it easy on dudes that switched into high school a little later than everybody else and nobody knew.

Chad and I became really close, but he never made it to the core group because he's a bit socially awkward. We all went off to college and did our own things and he stayed home. Never had much interest in drinking or doing dumb 20-year-old guy things. Nothing wrong with that. Just trying to paint a picture here. We're all 25 now and moved out of our hometown. Chad still lives at home with his parents and works at our local gym. I went back home for a weekend about three weeks ago and was at the gym with Chad when my sister, 19 years old, called in a panic. She asked if Chad lived at whatever the address was. I said, yeah, why? And she said, apparently her and a friend

were on a walk in the friend's neighborhood and a car had been driving around slowly and following them. They got scared and went back to the friend's house. As they got to the driveway, the car pulled up and a guy said, hey, this is going to sound weird, but I have a son who lives at the address we're talking about and he's looking for some friends if you two want to come over. To which she replied, quote, yeah, that is really weird. And she kept walking. She didn't know that it was Chad's dad at the time. My dilemma is this. Do I tell Chad about his dad? On one hand, I don't want to cause

any tension between Chad and me or Chad and his dad. If he was a core guy, I'd have no problem being like, hey, man, what the fuck is this all about? You're going to keep your old man on a leash? But since he's a bit socially awkward, that's pretty aggressive. I feel like it would be a really uncomfortable conversation that is easily avoidable. At the same time, if my dad was prowling around the neighborhood following young girls and asking if they wanted to come to my house, I'd probably want to know about it. Okay.

Okay. It's pretty straightforward. It's so easy. You want to take it, Kyle? I'll keep it short. This is so easy. Even if he is socially awkward, he'd be like, hey, he's totally hurting your status in the neighborhood. If you really are hurting for friends, he's definitely telling everyone in a way that will

never, ever bring any friends to your door. And if not, it might even get you put on some sort of list. So I'd say, yeah, just get it out of the way. Like, hey, we're friends. I know it's been a while. Great to see you. You look great. You look well. Maybe I'll see you around the gym. But hey, your dad's harassing people. One of them happened to be my sister. And we just wanted to pass it along to you. That's all. Simple. Done. That's it. Yeah, I mean, the only thing that could maybe possibly make you feel better,

as weird as this is, is that if the dad is a little off, he's off because he's trying to have his son meet people because his son's still living at home and he's doing kind of like a weird thing of like is my son never going to move out of the house is he ever going to meet somebody is ever going to start a family and he's doing like a really weird i don't know if you've ever had aggressive parents trying to set you up with anybody my mother had like a little phase where she tried it she was like okay this is the worst idea ever i was like yeah don't even bother stop doing this um but she wasn't she wasn't crazy aggressive about it she would

meet somebody and then she would start talking me up yeah and then that's this whole yeah but then it would like be contact info and i'd be like you can't be doing that you can't just give myself a number out to people like i fucking i'm on tv you know wow people people were supposed to laugh people were supposed to laugh i thought this i thought this was earlier in life i didn't know this is when you were doing the show back in the day wow uh yeah there was a little there was a little phase there where she thought she had to get her her son back in the game um but because there's like i don't want to be dismissive of how weird this is so first of all the easiest thing as you said just you're gonna say something to him but you could also be saying something to him in a way where it's not my dad's asking 19 year old girls prowling

the neighborhood to come over to his house because he's fucked up it's that it's a concerned father who's socially awkward himself the kids you know maybe it's just one of those families that just you know the parents are sort of socially awkward and the next thing you know you get about three weird kids and it happens you know and then and then you know he's just thinking like hey younger women you know looked about the same age as my son like hey you know we got juice boxes and stuff and i'm not a weirdo and you know maybe looked about the same age as my son. Like, Hey, you know, we got juice boxes and stuff and I'm not a weirdo. And you know, maybe you guys could,

you know, we got, you know, fruit rollups, some streaming stuff. We got the free trial going on, you know, we'll throw on,

or maybe Netflix. And then he knows it'd be like, you know, don't say Netflix, don't say Netflix. So, uh, there's a way that you can confront them on this.

And it's actually the lesser of what the weirdest possible version of this is, which just, again, makes the whole execution of it a lot easier. So, uh, I would say something, I would say something to him. Um, I think his Chad probably knows his dad's already pretty weird if he's doing something like this. We just hope it isn't the, the, the, the weirdest the weirdest version of how weird this is yeah so okay um okay single guy problems last one that we have here uh this was a request through a request but that's okay we'll we'll uh we'll make these happen so he knows what's happening here uh 28 turning 29 any day now uh actually, today's his birthday. So happy birthday. Six feet, steady six feet from the East Coast, D.C. Closer to hefty, but not exactly big. When I say East Coast, I mean straight out of the Vineyard Vines Country Club catalog. Trying to chase a career in sports, which has led to five stints, or excuse me, led to stints in five cities.

So I guess it's the same thing. Including a year at the greatest equinox in the South Bay. Shout out to my home gym. Doing a little push-pull today myself. Just hoping to be part of the segment's predecessor gym corner. All right, don't get this confused with I'm an active gym goer, though. I have more late-night frozen pizzas than days spent at the gym, have always found it relatively easy to find a guy's crew as i am outgoing and always down for a good time obsessed

with chasing my career and it has paid dividends uh yet the one thing that's always missing is a long-term girlfriend friends set me up not limited to friends parents including my grandparents once i used dating apps friends of friends and went out at bars try the now old school small talk which has led to too many chasing the night situations man chasing the night thing is you can like hit on five percent of chasing the night and you will continue to chase the night because of the one time in the previous 20 that it worked chasing the night man craig kilbourne once said to me just don't chase the night brian don't chase the night let the night Don't chase the night. Let the night come to you. He can say that. I was like, okay, dude. Anyway, however seemingly nothing is clicked, photo attached.

My mom tried to set me up in a Macy's the other day over a phone halfway across the country. I wouldn't say the pressure is high, but it's heating up. That's aggressive. That's aggressive. As I continue to stay stay single it slowly become nights out with couples and me which is a lot of fun but not exactly single guy fun i really like my friends girlfriends uh their wives what the fuck man um but when we do have guys night part of me feels bad because i don't want my friends to get in trouble but i still want to have a good time and often they return home in rougher shape than they should, which sometimes reflects poorly on me, man. You're really beating yourself up here, dude, because your friends go home and there are

more hung over the next day. Cause they hung out with you on the guys nights. You guys aren't even 30 yet. There's something to that though. Yeah. Wait. Okay. Take it, take it from here, guys. Jump in. No, I'll keep it quick it's just when i come back a lot of guys have their own life um like i said have families not necessarily i had a wedding but have families so they got stuff to do and then you know i come home for two weeks at a time so you know three four nights out of those four weeks by like the third time i show up you know they're like all right where the fuck you guys going tonight like what what could you possibly be doing that you didn't get out of your system the last two times

in like a nicer way but I could tell by the by the end of my trip they're sort of like alright can't wait till this guy gets out of here so I could see it yeah it's like who you guys going out with tonight oh Mark's gonna be there you know what happens when Mark's around and then you get that kind of tag on you

and then it's like don't go out with Mark I think that's what he's kind of alluding to like he's kind of tag on you and that's not like don't go out with Mark. I think that's kind of alluding to like he's he's kind of the guy that is known not that he's like forcing them to get after it, but they feel like they can get after him because he's single guy and they're probably having more fun and then you become that guy to the wives and girlfriends.

I think everybody could just calm now. I agree. I agree. I'm not saying I'm only home for two weeks. I don't need to feel that way. But can you do you never do stuff all right so um on a recent life advice you talked about kids and i definitely want to get there but it hasn't happened yet so right now i just need advice on being the single guy still closer to college while also staying friends with everyone uh at the next stage Do I need more single friends, younger, especially when your career only allows small pockets for fun? Not sure I'm ready to throw that away.

All right, so here's the deal. What you have done career-wise is very impressive. We're not going to share everything about what you do because we're not going to do that. But looking at this and knowing who this guy is, you have been headfirst in your career. it's very very hard like when you go i also want this other thing to be really important right isn't it that book i think i read it where it was like the one thing or the one thing like just focus on the one thing at all times i'm not very good at that on the focusing on the one thing but it usually seems to like the default goes back

to the thing that i actually do care about even if i'm not saying it out loud what i'm prioritizing the thing i'm prioritizing is the thing that i end up doing the best with because i'm giving it my full attention even if i think i'm capable of doing three or four things at the same time and for um men or women who at a young age decide this above everything else the other stuff is just going to kind of suffer unless you've met somebody who's so else. The other stuff is just going to kind of suffer unless you've met somebody who's so on the same page with you, met you before you started this process. Like if I had met somebody who I totally clicked with in my mid-20s and then were saying, hey, look at this run that we've been on and you've been there for every twist and turn and all that stuff. Like, yeah, okay, then I could do this with somebody else. But having somebody jump into it

midway through your pursuits is a little bit more challenging. Doesn't mean it has to be that way, but that's sort of my experience. So I think there's some similarities here with this. I think you need to start giving yourself more credit for what you've accomplished professionally and worrying less about the other part of it. Because I know it sounds like super cliche to go,

hey, it's going to happen. But sometimes it completely surprises you. Sometimes it happens when you don't think it's going to happen, when it sneaks up. But maybe in the times where you have a little bit more downtime, you prioritize it. But the weird thing is that when you start prioritizing the relationship stuff, then you can just give off this weird, high energy, sort of desperate vibe that is a huge turnoff, which women, for however they're wired, and maybe one day science will share it with the men they can smell all of it on us all the time like they can tell when

you're kind of doubting yourself a little bit they can tell when you're like a little bit more desperate to be into something they just know man they just know i think we're terrible at picking that stuff up um so you're you sound like you kind of have a lot of the things figured out but you're starting to worry but like 28 29 is way too young to be worrying about this it just is it just is i know it doesn't feel that way to you because you've only been 28 29 and that's the whole point is like once guys get past these ages they can look back and have a different different feeling on it but um the business that you're in is very, very demanding. It's incredibly demanding.

And I don't know. Look, it doesn't mean you have to be single the rest of your life, but I think it's going to be hard for you to have a thing where you now completely prioritize these things above it because you're still kind of finding yourself in this career that can take like a couple of decades to accomplish. Anything there? I don't know. I don't know that that was all that unique so no i think um he seems like he wants more advice though like he seems pretty cool with the timeline of events he's just asking like how do i do i need new friends to to also sort of like satisfy this part of my life and i still want to be a young guy and go out and not feel guilty about it or not be like a fifth or a third wheel every time you're going out. His, his careers that is such that I'd imagine I'm, I'm interested.

Like, I wonder if his friends, like all these close friends he talks about, cause he's moved around a lot. He was in what he was in Boston. He was in LA. Now he's somewhere else. It seems like he's been in a bunch of different places and he's probably

made friends. So I wonder if all these people with wives and girlfriends are in his current state or if there are people that are out of state or in his past that he's like trying to keep up with. Because if you're in a new spot and, you know, you work in an industry where I think it's probably you're right, your time is pretty constricted. But, you know, you're around a lot of decently young people and you can kind of go out and you kind of have a cool job. You can kind of flex that, probably make some friends that way. That's the way I would do it. I don't don't be afraid of of, you know, I'm not saying chase tonight all the time but like don't be afraid to make some new friends in your new spot because i don't think your your old friends are going to

be mad at you for that and they're going to understand that you're in a different place in your life than them just still keeping tabs with them it's two different it's basically two different hangouts so if you're afraid of like finding new friends and not being able to hang out with the other ones because they you know have wives and kids um i don't think anyone should be offended by that. So just do your thing and see if you could find some new people. I hate how often being a responsible regular at a bar creeps into my life advice, but it sounds like it would, it would kind of, that's like a bullseye for you, I think if it was responsible. Plus I've been watching The Wire again and I just, how often they're at happy hour, just hanging out.

Good stuff happens to them. It's really bolstered my belief in this. But I really think that as long as you're done with work and you don't stay out all night, I think those happy hours are a great time to make guy friends around. If they see you at the same bar a couple times. So drink more. Drink more after work. I said responsibly, though. I did say responsibly. But yes, times. So drink more. Drink more after work. I said responsibly, though. I did say responsibly, but yes.

The essence is drink more, and I hate that. But it's just... It nails his problem right there. Drink more, buddy. I mean, I know you're going to take my nuance and just say, oh, crumpled up into a ball and say drink more, but fine. Fine. Drink more. I'm sensing some tension.

Yeah. The problem is because I know what the job is. That's not realistic. It's just not super realistic. Well, if you're off for the night, right? It's like he's a doctor and all of a sudden he's going to be like, oh, you got to get out of here. Right? I mean, what kind of stuff

do you have to do at the drop of a hat when you already are pretty sure you're off? That's what I mean. I'm not saying like, make sure you're there at five o'clock on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays because that's when the friends you've made go. I'm just saying when you've got time.

It's kind of a cool job, though, and you're around people who... I feel like this wouldn't be a problem. I don't know. Maybe you think I'm wrong, Ron, as we talk about a job that nobody else, none of the listeners know what it is. But I feel like this wouldn't be a problem. I don't know. Maybe you think I'm wrong, Ron, because as we talk about a job that nobody else, none of the listeners know what it is. But I feel like it's kind of cool to say what he does

and people are going to want to be friends with you because of that. So it actually won't be that hard for you to make friends. Yeah, I'll tell you right now, if I'm in a new city and I'm 28 and I have this kid's job, I'm fucking telling everybody. I'm making up shirts. It's my leading line.

So maybe I get it. Like, you don't want to like throw that in people's faces. But man, I feel like, you know, it sounds like it sounds like he's a lot of fun. Sounds like people like him. You know, the the nature of the job is he's not going to be in one place for for a long time. The job is very hard. It's very competitive. You kind of have to grind. You got to put in all the hours outside of the job all those kinds of things um so but it

sounds like he's a work hard play hard guy though like it doesn't i i'm not but it also sounds like he's too young to be really starting to be worried about this stuff i'm just telling you if i could do anything over and it's impossible to do it over i would worry less about this shit because you're going to look back on it and go, you know, it wasn't a great use of time was thinking about that for six straight months, or that was a great summer where you just shut it down. You know, like, I just wish I could do it, but I, you know, luckily I had to go through those things to understand in the current state of like, Hey, you know what, maybe I'm just going to kind of roll with things right now and not not worry about it as much but um i think just 28 29 is too young to be worrying about uh some of these things because a lot most people's stories when they get married and all

that kind of stuff it's more it's more than half of them way more than half of them where you'll be like oh i wasn't even doing this or i had just broken up or i just done this thing and i didn't even know man love is just right around the corner for some of you guys emailing in you don't even know it's a drink i don't even know everybody's so worried i i get it i get i was there too but and and to your point ryan did you care you didn't care i i don't know i got to a certain point where i was definitely looking somebody cared a little bit and maybe it was the whole like they smelt it on me but my my marriage now to my wife like i wasn't expecting that to happen and it did it was fucking awesome so i mean it's proof that your your theory is correct would you what would you be like a single saruti right now pretty

pretty miserable uh pretty pretty no i mean like i guess that's the right thing to say for a married guy no no no no like my life is better in a number of different ways. I never really have the itch to like, oh, man, I just like want to get out of the town one more night. Because I remember guys like especially like some of my older like family members like, yeah, you know, you're getting married too young. Like you missed the single life or whatever. And I'm like, I don't know, not really.

Like if you're in a good relationship and you like the person, like I don't really miss it that much. Like, sure, maybe like a one off night I would, but not like long term term my life is better out now and uh and i wasn't really pressing for it at the time so maybe that's the way to play it kyle um i think i was i was single for like six years and it just was at the point where i was like if i'll give it a shot i would give it a shot if it you know like boy band ass like what i don't know about a frolic room but wait what the hell's going on here you don't remember that from old school what he's like boy band ass i don't sorry okay all right all right all All right. So you're single for a while.

No, I just was. I think it was like the year before I ended up in a relationship where I was just like, I would give it a shot now because I was I mean, I was in L.A. for a couple of years already. So I was like, yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it. I won't do the thing where it's like the first person that comes up to me and that and that would tolerate me will will get into a relationship. So. I don't know. It seems like it seems like this guy, we're just saying how great it is to get into a relationship. So, I don't know. It seems like

this guy, we're just saying how great it is to be in a relationship for the guy who doesn't have one. So, I don't know how we ended up here. But singles are good too, man. Enjoy that. That's great. Drink more. Kyle just looked at me when he said that. It was pretty funny. I was going to say, two-thirds

of us are, but yeah, Ryan seems to be doing alright. He's fine, you know. He's fine. You know, he's got a boat now. So I think we're saying that out loud now. Huh? Well, I guess you put it on the, I mean, it was,

yeah, it was Instagram. What do you want me to do? So was that tender to the bigger boat or was that the whole boat? No, man. It's a little Zodiac. Yeah.

Great on fuel. How many people, 20 horsepower, three comfortably four if we had to. Oh, okay. So you were just stretching out in the picture. It looked like you covered a lot of the area of the boat yeah well that's probably just a mass volume ratio to wrap thing yeah yeah congrats on the boat though now that we can say

pretty excited yeah you know get to watch the swells you're gonna get the weather apps you're gonna make sure you can sailboats even a zodiac they get the right away so you just you're out there trying to for windy wednesdays you're coming out of the jetty. Windy Wednesdays. That's not about Windhorse. That's just about weather. Anyway. All right.

Yeah, I think that covers it. That was a lot of stuff in there. Yeah, I don't think that one helped at all. I don't know if anything helped today. The Chris Finch interview was good. We'll talk to you on Thursday. Bill and I and other, I'm sure, KOC and Kyle, I'm sure a bunch of people are in the mix.

We're doing some draft stuff. I guess we're going to tape a preview of the draft, and then we'll jump maybe right after the lottery and tape reaction to the lottery. And then I'm going to be ready to go Friday morning. And we're going to have somebody from the Orlando Magic on Friday morning. So we'll tape a Friday pod for you on top of the Thursday. So busy week. Everybody get ready, man. I'm excited. It's my favorite time of the year. And like I said, we'll talk to you Thursday and Friday. Outro Music you