Full Transcript for Cooper Eats, Wemby’s Shot Diet & Expectations For Jaylen Brown vs. Jayson Tatum

beautiful to see. And wow, just Cooper flag four career wedgies in 80 career games. That's got to be like the fastest rate ever. I would love to see a stat on the bottom of a Mavericks broadcast that says, first teenager with four wedgies before turning 20 years old or something like that. 00:03:13 Speaker 1: He's got to be. Got to be. One every 20 games? Yeah, that's kind of like what our wedgie rate is right now. Excellent. Speaking of excellent things, because you said the word excellent, and I'm segwaying from that. The Lakers-Hawks game was pretty excellent, and you were there too. yesterday in attendance Luka Doncic doing his thing as always 32 points 8 rebounds 10 assists the Lakers have won six in a row Trey where do you want to start with this game. 00:03:36 Speaker 2: This was an excellent game and it wasn't necessarily looking like that early on Lakers get out to a 20 point lead in the first half Hawks are bricking away from three turning the ball over but Atlanta kept with it finally started making some shots shot pretty well actually quarters two three and four made it a game And it's pretty weird that Luka Doncic can go for 32 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, 5 steals, 2 blocks, shoot 50% from the field and be like, well, down game. Down game for Luka Doncic. 00:04:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, felt kind of quiet. 00:04:05 Speaker 2: Kind of what it is right now. No Reeves last night for the Lakers. No Quentin Grimes either. Those are two guys who are going to handle the ball alongside Luka when they're all healthy. But it didn't really matter because Luka can still just dial up a wide open shot for himself or for his teammates basically whenever. There was a lot of times the Hawks are putting two on the ball or going to double him when he like picks up his dribble or starts to turn his back. They'll send somebody rushing at him. But Luka got off the ball pretty early, trusted his teammates, turned into those 10 assists. According to the NBA.com tracking data, he had 23 potential assists. They only credit him with two secondary assists, but it felt like more when he would get off the ball to maybe a Mamu and he would kick it to somebody else. It was just impressive offense from Luka Doncic on a night when he didn't totally have it the way he's had it so far this season, specifically with his jump shot, only three of 11 from three. And I got to say, I knew it in pregame. He didn't have his touch. He was shooting his 60 foot high corner threes. Couldn't make a single one of them. He missed a few half court shots before finally knocking one down. This is like the level Luka has risen to. is when he's having games like this, you're like, ooh, down. Oh no, his scoring average is under 40 points per game right now, but the way he was playing last night really empowered the secondary creators, I thought, on the Lakers. Mamou, 23 points, five threes, just shooting the ball very confidently, making really good drive versus shoot decisions, a good ball

mover as well. I think this guy is going to be the next Kelly Olenek in our lives, where we're going to be talking about him For years and years, even when he's a little bit past his prime, we're like, oh, he could help a team. Some team could pick him up for a couple of second round picks. I'm excited for that. Kessler, 21 points and 10 rebounds in his homecoming to Atlanta. And another local product, Colin Sexton, 18 points and six assists. I thought Mamu and Sexton in particular, Sexton in the first half, Mamu more so in the second half. They just took turns being the second guy for the Lakers on a night when they didn't have their normal second guy in Austin Reeves. Really, really impressive. 00:06:08 Speaker 1: Yeah, the Lakers supporting staff. Very, very good. The ones you mentioned there. Mamou and Colin Sexton really, really stood out in this one, especially because Austin Reeves is that engine to get the bench going quite often. And with him out with an illness, you really relied on Colin Sexton. And in that second quarter, he was so, so good. It wasn't just, hey, I'm getting the bench going. He was also getting Walker Kessler going, the connection there. Yeah, two local guys there. as it was talked about plenty on the broadcast. Did you see Chad Kessler? Um, Walker Kessler's dad, because he is a local guy. And we've talked about Chad Kessler. He's a local basketballer, played at UGA. No Chad in the house? 00:06:49 Speaker 2: Well, I mean, Chad had to be there. I had to imagine he was there. I did see some guys taller than me. Any of them could have been Chad Kessler. I don't know him that well. I don't have it locked out exactly what he looks like. But Yacht Rock Review was there. 00:07:01 Speaker 1: They played at halftime. 00:07:03 Speaker 2: And I saw him coming down. I saw a cool guy from Yacht Rock Review coming down the escalator. 00:07:08 Speaker 1: Like an aviator guy? 00:07:10 Speaker 2: What's that? 00:07:10 Speaker 1: Aviator guy. 00:07:11 Speaker 2: Exactly. I was like, that looks like the guy from Yacht Rock Review. He came a little further down, and it was him. Yeah, they still got it, man. 00:07:16 Speaker 1: They still got it. They still got it. He even did an in-game interview. What, really? 00:07:20 Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow. 00:07:20 Speaker 1: He's got mad jokes. 00:07:21 Speaker 2: Sounds like it was great on the broadcast. 00:07:22 Speaker 1: It was a solid broadcast, and the Lakers were absolutely solid. Just Mamou... You mentioned him as a guy who's going to be around for a long time. This was his best game as a Laker. Oh, yeah. There's trailing threes where you're in transition and just give it to him. Also, Luka generating so much gravity around him. Find the Mamu, who is so, so good. 23 points, eight boards. I mean, it doesn't get better than that. Colin Sexton really was the Austin Reeves in this game. He was just, you are the guy. And the question coming into this season, are they deep enough? And those guys came through, and they obviously were on this one. Other side, I want to ask you about the Hawks' depth. What do you think about their bench unit now that CJ McCollum has been inserted there? I felt like everybody was kind of taking their turns, and it wasn't really McCollum setting guys up. But in your eyes, is it a good move? What do you think about the Hawks' support bench now? I think. 00:08:20 Speaker 2: I think it's actually good for CJ McCollum to come off the bench. He had a slow start in this one. He could barely catch the ball, was butterfingers for the first quarter, but that's just kind of excuse me how it was for the hawks to begin uh the first quarter as the game went on he got untracked finished with 21 points four assists hit three threes eight of 15 from the field i think aaron wiggins has been incredible for the hawks he ended up with 15 points he's got to be a candidate for seventh man of the year so far he ain't quite their sixth man but he showed up in the clutch in fourth quarters for them time after time and he was good again last night so i think uh I just think the balance of having somebody reliable shot creator wise for CJ McCollum has been good for the Hawks. But what ended up doing them in last night was just a lack of execution. It was rough in the first quarter and then in the fourth quarter as well. 20 turnovers for the Hawks and so many of them were silly ones. Three times they had the ball stolen on an inbounds pass. And the key sequence, Lakers are up four with two minutes, 30 seconds left. Luka puts an incredible move on Dyson Daniels, a step through from almost the free throw line finishes. with the righty layup, Lakers are up six. And then Zaire Williams steals a pass from Jalen Johnson, turns into an instant dunk LA now up eight with all the momentum in the world. And that's when fans started heading for the stands while leaving the stands, they were already in. 00:09:43 Speaker 1: Yeah. Too many turnovers, no doubt for the Atlanta Hawks. I don't know if you felt this being in the arena, but it felt like the Hawks kind of had Luca fever in that they were a little bit too fast with the ball or a little bit trying to do things on their own at some point, like Lou Dort, is such a veteran guy. You don't need to get in your dribble package and turn the ball over. Just way too many. 19 for them. When it's a pretty good team at conserving the ball and not turning it over, Nikhil Alexander-Walker is good at that. They don't usually do that, and so I don't know if it was Luka fever. But it kind of just felt like, well, the story of the NBA is here in the arena, and maybe I'm just making a little too much out of it. But there was just too many of those possessions. And then they were behind, and they had to come back, and they did. But they just couldn't execute, as you said, in the last couple minutes. 00:10:37 Speaker 2: Yeah, Hawks were basically playing from behind from the first quarter on. But the Lakers are

pretty good at forcing turnovers. I don't think they're necessarily a good defense. I think they're 18th right now. in defensive rating, but they are a disruptive defense. They're second in the league in forcing turnovers, turnover rate for their opponents. This is the fourth time in 12 games that LA has forced 20 or more turnovers. And it's the second time this season that Luka has had five steals, which ties his career high. Also had a couple of blocks. 00:11:05 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:11:06 Speaker 2: I guess like if a guy's going up for a shot and you strip it low, I guess that's a block. It's the Carmelo Anthony style block. That style defense doesn't necessarily work as well in the playoffs when teams are more conservative with the ball, more concerned about ball security. But that's a long time from now. So I think that's a smart way for the Lakers to play defense, be active, get in the passing lanes. I think Luka contributing on that end, at least taking some assignments like you're seeing him in the defensive stance more and more than you ever did. 00:11:35 Speaker 1: And he's definitely good. 00:11:36 Speaker 2: Able to be a playmaker, sort of like Larry Bird. I remember my dad always telling me, he's like, Larry Bird was very slow, but he's got a very fast brain. So he'd be able to get in the passing lanes, and that's what you're seeing from Luka. He's given an effort on that side. They're getting defense turned to offense, and that only makes their offense even better. 00:11:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, very solid throughout their lineup. Their other deficiency can be size, and that isn't a problem against the Atlanta Hawks in general. Although on Yakon Kong, he was doing his thing. He was decent. But the size issue wasn't an issue yesterday. Overall, got off to a great start again with Luka. It felt like a quiet game. It did. But were people in the stands yearning for more Luka? Were they looking for him to get those shots off that you know he can get? But I agree. He didn't feel like he had the flow. Maybe it's because I watched your Instagram video that you took. From the floor where he's trying to shoot the 60-foot-in-the-air shots from the corner. He was also getting doubled, as we said. But people in the audience or in the crowd thinking, let's go, Luka. I mean, that's what I'm here for in a way. 00:12:43 Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I'll give a credit to all the Lakers fans who were in attendance. They've converted their LeBron James jerseys to Luka Doncic jerseys like that. Like last year, you go see the Lakers play in Atlanta, 23 everywhere. This time it's 77. everywhere, and you can see exactly why. I mean, Lucas still had, like, highlight plays. Like, he's hitting ridiculous one-foot, 20-footer plays. step back leaners, you know, he's still facing down a guy and just pulling a three right in your face. At one point he shot a logo three, probably 40 feet in the air for no reason. So, I mean, he's still doing silly stuff out there, but yeah,

I don't know. It felt like a slow game for Luca. And then you look up in the fourth quarter, he's got 32. You're like, oh, there's still an outside shot that he gets the 40 if things would have transpired in a slightly different way. 00:13:29 Speaker 1: But I thought the Hawks did a good job. 00:13:30 Speaker 2: To mitigate what he's been doing as much as they could, and he still ends up with basically a 30-point triple-double on 50% shooting. The guy's just silly. 00:13:38 Speaker 1: He is. Dyson Daniels getting the number one responsibility for guarding him and doing a decent job. One other thing that stands out to me, just as a last note for me, Dyson Daniels and the way or where he shoots his threes from, it's always several feet from behind the line for a guy who's I don't know, it's 10%, 12% from three-point land this season. It's just remarkable to me that he isn't at the line, but he literally lined it up and hit it yesterday. It's literally just, it doesn't matter the possession or if he's got plenty of space, he's always lining up from behind the line, like four feet. So I'm always watching that because it's always interesting. Yesterday, I lined up and hit it and doing a bunch of things to help out the Atlanta Hawks, but No W there. All right, let's move on to Pacers-Mavs, where Cooper Flagg was. Cooper Flagg, man, dropped 43 to lift the Mavs past the Pacers by three. It's the fifth 40-point game of Cooper Flagg's career. Trey, what did you take away from this game? He's good. 00:14:44 Speaker 2: Cooper Flagg is awesome. He is in such great control of his body and of... the way that he wants to attack. He was getting to his middie down the stretch, which has become so reliable when Dallas needs a bucket. He made two jumpers, uh, in the final two minutes here, finished five of six from the mid range and just buried Indiana down the stretch. Went three of six from three point line as well. Back to back games with three, three pointers. Like he's still under 30% for the season, but if this guy ever Extends his range out to the three-point line the way he's mastered the in-between game this season. 00:15:20 Speaker 1: Watch out. 00:15:20 Speaker 2: His free throw rates are way up. The rate that he's going to the line is way up. I like to see the stat that he's the second teenager ever with a 40.10 rebound, five assist game. And I love to see that it wasn't LeBron James, who was the other team that did it. Kevin Durant, don't forget, he was a great teenager once upon a time. Apparently he's fueled by peanut butter and jellies. We're seeing him eating sandwiches on the sideline, which is just hilarious to see a guy chowing down on a sandwich and then going on, lighting things up on the court. They traded a guy for health concerns in Luka Dacic, but now they're feeding this man down the stretch. My main concern, though, with Cooper was he just kept losing Aaron Neesmith in the fourth quarter. In the last two minutes, I was getting flashbacks

to watching Nick's Pacers game one of the conference finals when we were in New York at the time. He had six threes in those last three minutes. Last night, it was a three-point foul by Cooper, then a couple of threes in the last minute and a half for Neesmith. As the Pacers just kept the game going, kept the game going. He also had a good look down three with six seconds left. Finally missed it, but it was like Cooper lost him. Najee Marshall lost him. PJ Washington lost him. I'm like, this is the only guy out here who's hitting threes. How is he getting so wide open? Didn't matter though. Cooper flag. He makes plays defensively. He makes plays offensively. He's become one of the best players in the league. 00:16:42 Speaker 1: Yeah. The mid range for Cooper flag is his go-to. That's his, move at any point. The stats are so good. You threw some out there. He's 59.2% on attempts from 10 to 19 feet, cornambia.com. So that's, you know, when you're near 60% from that far away, that's, it's your go-to, you're just too good and you're too big. Um, cause he's yet totally in control of his body. Um, that's just, that's just a great stat because if you watch him He literally can get there any time, and he's really good in the clutch, too. 11 of 13 shooting in clutch situations. Wow. That is a very, very good number. And I love how, even though he has a bad first half at times, he turns it on in the second half. That seems to be a thing going on with Cooper recently at 30 in the second half of this one because he started kind of slow, just 13 for him to start. He played with Kyrie Irving, who was playing in his first back-to-back, in both ends of a back-to-back for over two years because of surgery. Do you find Cooper being good with this Kyrie elevation of back to who he was? Does that mean it's more likely that Kyrie Irving isn't traded, do you think? Is that something, or is that just... totally up to Masai Ujiri and where they're deciding to go like does this Kyrie's play factor into it at all because he is healthy of course. 00:18:16 Speaker 2: It does uh and his play and the Maverick success is all part and parcel together and that's something that Masai is going to have to weigh in the next three months as we get to the trade deadline there's no rush to do it now obviously they're playing so well Kyrie is healthy the guy is just an all-time great running mate he's been the number two to LeBron, KD, Luka, and now Cooper. And every time you're like, oh, perfect compliment to that guy because he really is. He can play off the ball. He can play on the ball. When the number one goes to the bench, he becomes the number one and lights it up. His game is going to age perfectly. It's almost like I want the Mavericks to try and add to their team. You see Cooper playing the way he is. You see the pairing with Kyrie Irving. You see the defensive potential of this team, all their big guys playing The problem is that they've traded so much to build the team around Luka Doncic that they don't have a lot to use to add to this version of the team right now because, look, we kind of thought the Thunder would maybe struggle when all their guys went down. 00:19:13 Speaker 1: They haven't. 00:19:14 Speaker 2: The Spurs are obviously rolling here. The Lakers are rolling as well. The Warriors look better than expected. The West in general is better, Mavericks included. I don't know where that leaves them necessarily, but I think the pairing of Cooper and Kyrie at least has to pause trade considerations for Kyrie Irving, and we'll revisit it, you know, as we get closer and closer to February. We'll see how injuries stack up on other teams, and we'll see how the Mavericks continue to fare in the Western Conference. But right now, they got to keep these two rolling together. 00:19:44 Speaker 1: But they didn't give up that much for Luka in that it was just a pick. And Anthony Davis, I'm not. 00:19:49 Speaker 2: Looking right now at that. picks for like P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford. Those are the ones that they already spent picks on. Kyrie Irving included. Right. 00:19:56 Speaker 1: I can't wait for the talk to be around Kyrie come January and February. I just can't wait because it's like you can go both ways on it in how you feel about it because Kyrie there for the rest of his career definitely makes sense to see how they grow, as you said. I mean, they're so deep. You add in a Walter Clayton off waivers. 00:20:19 Speaker 2: Hey, he's playing good. 00:20:20 Speaker 1: He's playing good. He's so good. And he's playing over Marcus Sasser, who I thought would be their backup point guard that they grabbed from Detroit. Now they're sort of deep. It is an interesting team going up to the trade deadline. To the Pacers side and talking about their depth. Now, they are 3-8. It feels terrible. But you bring up Aaron Neesmith. Looking like that guy who splashed three after three in game one against the New York Knicks in that playoffs. Four threes, the most of his season so far in this game. Vita Zubat's looking all right. Seven guys in double digits. Their point guard situation getting a tiny bit better, not incredibly better. They're still missing Tyrese Halliburton, but TJ McConnell back for his second game so far this season. Not playing a lot as they slow play his hamstring injury. Ben Shepard also out. I say all that to ask... they're now three and eight. You super locked them in for an over at 43 and a half. I know it sounds way far off, but are you more optimistic now about the Pacers? Just how they look? No, not at all. 00:21:19 Speaker 2: They're only, they need Halliburton back. We saw, we saw this team last year. I know Halliburton team led by Pascal Siakam and they won 19 games. That's, They ran back to the exact same team, adding Kelly Oubre, and now you got Zubats. 00:21:32 Speaker 1: Zubats. 00:21:32 Speaker 2: Was out for a little bit, but now he's back. That's not enough to get to 44 wins or

whatever it needs to be. I think they'll play at a 44-plus win pace when Halliburton's healthy, but he's the engine for this team. He's the reason they ever look special. 00:21:45 Speaker 1: All right, moving on to a team people have been questioning recently and a team that people will always question, the Hornets and the Cavs. Hornets took care of business in Cleveland. The Cleveland Cavaliers are now Five and six, or not in Cleveland, I shouldn't say, in Charlotte. Cavs are five and six. Grayson Allen, 27. Nasri, 25. The Hornets snapped their sixth game losing streak. What do you get from this one, Trey? 00:22:09 Speaker 2: Yeah, this was my favorite result of the night. It's a little Tass, a little Trey, a little scotch, a little soda. On yesterday's show, I said the way the Hornets are going to score is if they get crazy hot from three-point land. They went 23 of 46 last night. Seven players hit threes for the Hornets, and all seven of them hit at least two Six for Grayson Allen, four for Nasri. The guy was unstoppable, making plays and scoring. And then three other players with three, two other players with two. They were 28.8% coming into last night's game, 38.8% after the win. They raised their three-point shooting percentage by two whole percentage points just from going 50% last night. On the other side of things, the task side of things, oh, I love a dispiriting Cavaliers loss tonight. You know, the 12 point win doesn't look so bad. 124, 112 is the final score, but the Hornets led by 33. And it was like the end of the bench guys that brought Cleveland back in this one. So I saw 124, 112 on my phone. I said, I can't wait to hear the disappointed dad's take. 00:23:12 Speaker 1: Let me be optimistic about the Charlotte Hornets for a second, because I'm also tired of the Charlotte Hornets hate out there. I don't like it at all. The Cavs hate is cool. But I like what the Charlotte Horns have done in that they've picked a direction. They were 3-1 to start the season. There was no hate out there at all. It took a six-game losing streak, and now everybody raining down on them. Yeah, we knew their wide-open threes would start falling. They have incredible injuries that they've dealt with this season. Even when they were 3-1, Amidst that six-game losing streak, back comes Kobe White, and he looks absolutely terrible to start his season. He has this entire season. Konka Nippel basically hasn't played a minute. Then they lose Moussa Diabate. They essentially have four starters out because Kobe White doesn't look like a starter out there, even though he is playing with Konka Nippel. Brandon Miller not playing. And Moussa Diabate out. 00:24:12 Speaker 2: I mean, they had the best— lineup in the league last year, right? Like their starters last year rampaged through the second half of the season. And like you're saying, literally all those guys are gone now. 00:24:22 Speaker 1: Yeah. But the way they played and the way Nas Reed is part of this spirit

and locker room, I'm all for it. I have no problem with them. I hate the Nas Reed hate. It doesn't make any sense to me. I hate the hate. I hate the hate that they say, well, Nas Reed just doesn't want to be there. I don't buy it. I'm always going to back a guy who's undrafted. and who is his own motor. And yeah, on this night, it's never going to look this great with Nas Reed. He destroyed anybody. He destroyed Evan Mobley. He'll destroy Mario Hazonia going at both of them. And then the James Harden in the post scenario, which is one of my favorite things to watch in the NBA, James Harden guarding somebody in a post. There used to be the common thing to say, James Harden can guard people in the post because he's really strong. He literally will not move his feet. in the post. Anybody can spin past him. And in this situation, it was Nas Reed. I just don't get the Nas Reed hate. He said post-game in his post-game interview, how is the relationship with you and Charles Lee, your head coach, which reportedly there was some hate because Charles Lee sat him for one second half. Apparently they're cool. And I totally buy that. I totally buy everything. I don't like this Chris Finch stuff from Minnesota saying that there was Julius Randle and Nas Reed were in bad moods last season. I thought that whole scenario was good in that they got to two conference finals. I'm just with the Charlotte Hornets' attitude to trading both Ball and Miles Bridges for picks and going an entirely different direction that, yes, last year was their peak, but they have just been banging their head against the wall. for several seasons that there just wasn't any success. So I'm all for it. 00:26:09 Speaker 2: Yeah, but I mean, they're not going to make the playoffs this year, Tess. They're going to be worse. But they didn't make the playoffs. Also true. Also true. But they would be better if they had Lomelo. There's no other way around it. And I mean, the age difference between him and Brandon Miller is one year. 00:26:26 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:26:27 Speaker 2: The Hornets, like you're saying, have been bashing their heads. They have had not much go right for them since they came back to Charlotte. 00:26:32 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:26:33 Speaker 2: Last year was the most exciting time in Hornets history. And they packed them up. They shipped them out and took a step back. And then everybody got hurt to start the season. So they look bad. They hit 50% of three last night. 23 threes. You're going to beat every team that way. 00:26:49 Speaker 1: With the whole ball thing, he's there for six seasons. You don't make the playoffs. You get picked. a pick in return, and you get a pick for Miles Bridges, I think that's a better direction. You just don't want to keep on doing the exact same thing over and over and over again. I know it kind of hurts for Charlotte fans, but you're going in a different direction. And again, they did start 3-1. I do believe in this team and the way they fight and

scrap and will turn this thing around. And yeah, they're not going to be 500, but I do think they can beat sub-500 teams and be a little bit of the Phoenix Suns of last year. So we'll see. But they could have been. 00:27:26 Speaker 2: The Charlotte Hornets of last year. The Charlotte Hornets of last year were fun to watch and good. And on the Ascension, they had a three-headed monster of Lomelo, Khan, and Brandon Miller together. Those are like three good young players that they could have had under control for years and years and years. 00:27:44 Speaker 1: I suppose there's a chance that they would have made the playoffs under them. I'm But Lonzo Ball, as your number one guy, never worked. 00:27:51 Speaker 2: LaMelo Ball. 00:27:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, excuse me. 00:27:53 Speaker 2: It worked last year. It did work last year. They were bad to start the season, but then they were on fire to end the season. 00:27:59 Speaker 1: Yeah, and they made it all the way into the play and got hammered. So what is the answer? We're just going to try it again and see what happens? Yeah. It's building. 00:28:08 Speaker 2: It's building. It's getting better. It's adding pieces. It's like growing your team. 00:28:12 Speaker 1: They added pieces by trading not Lonzo Ball, LaMelo Ball for pick. And they traded Miles Bridges for a pick. Yes, it is. That's not a piece. Those aren't players. It is a piece. It is a piece. It is increasing who they are for these next several years. Again, they didn't do good these last six years. And I know last year was the peak. And everybody liked them as they went into the play-in. And they had a fight against the Detroit Pistons and the Orlando Magic. 00:28:40 Speaker 2: Or. 00:28:41 Speaker 1: Who did they beat in the first play-in game? Magic? 00:28:45 Speaker 2: It was the Magic. 00:28:46 Speaker 1: It was the Magic, and then they won their eighth seed game. Yeah. So, yeah. Cool story. Anyway, moving on. 00:28:52 Speaker 2: You didn't tell me anything about the Cavs. 00:28:54 Speaker 1: Yeah, let's get to the Cavs. 00:28:55 Speaker 2: This is the reason every jumper was open for the Hornets last night. It was because the Cavs played zero defense. These were wide-open looks. These were batting practice threes for the majority of the night. Yeah, it's a classic Cavs thing. They get up early, and then they just literally... It's like they go to the bench and sit down. Because you're right. All these threes are open. I've been disappointed in Evan Mobley, who is such a good defensive player in and of himself most of the time. But even now, one-on-one situation, as I said, Nas Reed beating him or as a help guy. 00:29:27 Speaker 1: And it all trickles down. I know we made fun of James Harden, but I think it's... He was brutal. Yeah. Harden has been brutal and everybody talking, okay, you sign an extension, but maybe... literally he has to run the second unit. I think that's a fair conversation to have. But yeah, it's not a horrendous team. It's still going to be an okay team. But that's who they are. Yeah, I've been disappointed. 00:29:55 Speaker 2: That's crazy. What a swerve here. I thought you were going to come in and kill the Cavs. They were getting beat by 30 by a Hornets team that can barely score 90 points in a game. And now you're telling me the Hornets are fine for the future. What a curveball. 00:30:06 Speaker 1: Well, what do you mean? I'm not happy about the Cleveland Cavaliers. I'm tired after two weeks of talking about the Cleveland Cavaliers. I super locked them as an over, thinking that this was their backs against the wall. They'd be a little bit like. 00:30:22 Speaker 1: Like me having to write my paper the next day. Like, I'm going to get it done overnight. And this was sort of going to be their last effort with a Donovan Mitchell, James Harden backcourt, and a Jared Allen, Evan Mobley frontcourt. And that they would have the fight to want to play defense more regularly. But as I said, they're a three-quarter team. So when they go up double digits in the first quarter, they can say, okay, I'm done. Um, they, they don't, they don't have that scrap, uh, and maybe it was watching Kenny Atkinson do pushups in the preseason that also got me amped. I'm like, okay, everybody's going to be riled up, but they're literally trying so many different guys to get them that spirit, uh, on the bench. Um, they're, they're literally trying, you know, Malik Thomas to, to get them some effort out there. Riley Minix. I had to look up that name last night. I saw a Riley Minix getting minutes because they're all sort of lacking and there's no excuse that Jared Allen was out of not playing in this one. He was there, but the spirit is not there. So yeah, I'm sorry. I don't have the spirit to make you excited about my Cavs day. Cause I, I'm, I'm just kind of, I'm kind of out on the Cleveland Cavaliers. I've had, I've had plenty. Tijon Salam was good for the Hornets though. Just wanted to note that. Yeah, that's true. Hey, they won 44 games last year. Bad season. You've got to go in the other direction. I agree. 00:31:52 Speaker 2: When you win 44, when you hit your high point, you've got to go back down. You've got to say, hey, when are we ever going to get back to 44 wins? I mean, we've got to trade the 25-year-old guy. He's too old. 00:32:02 Speaker 1: LaMelo had a good run of not making the playoffs. It was a great run. It's time to move on. 00:32:07 Speaker 2: I haven't seen Brandon Miller in the playoffs either. I'm just saying, LaMelo is very good, and they had him, and he was beloved, and he was box office. Now they don't, and they stink, and everybody's hurt. 00:32:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I do like the Charles Lee-led team and their direction, and we shall see what happens with that team. Moving on, Spurs Suns. No problems with this guy. Wemby scoring 40 points in 25 minutes. That's not a lot of minutes, but it's a lot of points. Spurs have won nine straight. 40 points,

11 boards, nine blocks in those 25 minutes, Trey. 00:32:42 Speaker 2: We had Rob Mahoney on the show. last Wednesday, and he said, Wemby will be heard from in the MVP conversation, and that night, Wemby went for 52-24 against Dallas, followed that up with 30-14 in 26 minutes against the Kings, 29-24 minutes against the Blazers, and then last night, 40-11-9 in 25 minutes against the Suns. All of these are blowout wins, not the craziest competition. Blazers have been playing really well when he hung 29 on them, but You know, the guy's just dominating right now. He's averaging 30 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, four and a half blocks. The last player to average four or more blocks in a season, Dikembe Mutombo, back in 95, 96 with the Nuggets. This was an incredible performance from Wemby. 00:33:28 Speaker 1: Maybe, I don't know. 00:33:29 Speaker 2: He did just have 52 and 24. Is this the most dominant performance he's had? I don't know. We talked about Common Malawach, like frustrating Wemby during a preseason game. 00:33:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, that was great. 00:33:40 Speaker 2: And Wemby must have heard because he just took it to this guy. Incredible highlights from Wemby in this one. A finger roll from the free throw line. He blocks Ryan Dunn at the rim one time and just shrugs at him like, what do you think you're doing here? 00:33:53 Speaker 1: Yeah, that was great. 00:33:54 Speaker 2: The footwork was impressive. He had like a baseline shimmy shake jumper that kind of looked like a Kevin Durant mixed with Hakeem Olajuwon move. He had the crazy step through in the lane as well. You also throw in, he had nine dunks last night. He's up to 58 dunks in 11 games. 00:34:12 Speaker 1: That's unreal. 00:34:13 Speaker 2: He's taken his most ever shots at the rim with his lowest three point attempt rate of his career. He had a terrible game one. And since then he's completely figured out offense. 00:34:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Kamon Malawach coming off the bench instead of starting against Wemby was the move to continue what they're doing in Phoenix, but also to save him from having to battle Wemby. And then in that first quarter when he got onto the floor, Wemby's still there and Wemby was destroying him. And he turned it into the second quarter. He's still destroying everybody. He got out of hand. And I'm not sure if Victor Wemby has a go-to move. It's not a dunk. That's not a go-to move. That's not allowed. But right now he's simply, you know, adding to that variety of what he does out there. And then we will see if he needs that go-to move in the postseason when we get there. But right now it looks absolutely spectacular. And the Suns team is a little too small for him in general. Oh, yeah. And that's why the Wemby vs. um, Malawach in the preseason was kind of excited because Malawach is a big guy. Um, and you should be able to battle him, but he's not ready, uh, for Victor Wemby and Yama. No real other notes from this one. 00:35:30 Speaker 2: I just hope 30 and 25 minutes for Wemby and worth every 30 of those points. 00:35:36 Speaker 1: It felt like, yeah, yeah. The way he, he, he looked at the guy who, uh, takes a shot at him. What are you doing, dude? Uh, I'm blocking everything. Nine blocks near, nearly, nearly got that, uh, Like, is he, when's his five by five coming this season? It's got to happen sometime. He's done it before. He's got to do it again at some point. All right, let's get to one more quick one here. Pelicans and the Warriors, who won by 50 points. The Warriors won by 50 and they have won eight straight. Similarly. Very efficient stuff from their superstar. Curry, 25 points in 20 minutes. Pajemski added 25. Yaxa Lindenberg added 23 on an efficient shooting night. What do you get from this one, Trey? 00:36:19 Speaker 2: I didn't spend much time with this one, Tess. 00:36:22 Speaker 1: I hear you. 00:36:22 Speaker 2: A 51-point game. Not that interesting to me, but I will say Charles Bassey has given the Warriors really, really good minutes. He had 12 points, 10 rebounds, and a block last night. He's only playing like 12 minutes a game this season, but 7 points, 6 boards, average and a block. A good energy guy for them. A good rotation find since they had to scramble with Kristaps Porzingis not playing this season. He's played 112 minutes for the Warriors this season so far. They're a plus 55. He's definitely helpful on that team. Al Horford was making plays. Pelicans are a hilarious team. Lost four. Won four straight. Now they lost three straight. Maybe they'll go the whole season. 00:37:00 Speaker 1: Just streak, streak, streak, streak, streak, streak, streak. You end up 41 and 41. Yeah, I think the most interesting thing from this game was Derek Queen of the New Orleans Pelicans taking some time out to literally walk around the arena. You don't really see this too often. We're going to show you here on YouTube where this was shot by a fan just getting a video of Derek Queen literally taking a lap because he felt whatever he was feeling. He felt the best way. to come to terms with what was going on, to just walk around, just a quick walk. I mean, slow walk, I should say. The game is going on. Yeah, so he's being walked around by a couple of the staffers there just to, I don't know, come to terms with what's going on, just to calm down. That's his therapy, I suppose. That was the note that I took from this game. There really wasn't a lot. The Golden State Warriors are getting ready for A road trip, a five-game road trip, which starts tomorrow in Houston. So exciting stuff. Coming up here for the Golden State Warriors, we will see where they are in relation to the teams at the top of the Western Conference. I mean, they are one of those teams, but I know we would all take and think about the Houston Rockets who have the same record as the Golden State Warriors as more of a championship contender than the Warriors, although... Jimmy's coming back one day, and he was

Coach Jimmy in this one, writing on the whiteboard, pass it to Steph. 00:38:32 Speaker 2: Kind of a funny story, too, that Steve Kerr was joking with one of his staffers, like, we got to get Jimmy dressed like an assistant coach out here at some point. And then Jimmy apparently just decided to dress like an assistant coach without telling anybody. Just shows me the vibes are pretty good. 00:38:45 Speaker 1: Vibes are great. 00:38:46 Speaker 2: For the Golden State Warriors, and they're a team that kind of like, over the course of Steph Curry's career there, They look their best when they're playing with joy. That was like a big buzzword for them early on in their run. There's a lot of joy in Golden State right now. 00:38:59 Speaker 1: Flying through the other three games, the Raptors, without four of their starters, looking like they're the Charlotte Hornets out there, got beat by the Grizzlies. Ty Jerome is just incredible with that floater. They have improved to 5-0 on the road. John Collins put up 24 points and 10 rebounds as the Pistons beat Anthony Davis and the Wizards, despite Anthony Davis' 44-13, and the Rockets beat the Nuggets 110-100 to snap a two-game skid. Anything from those three? 00:39:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I thought that was a good way for Detroit. They're still without Jalen Duren, so Anthony Davis was dominating inside, but it meant the flip side of things is that with John Collins as the starting five for Detroit, Pistons looked really, really fast. 21-4 fast break points for Detroit. They had 31 assists on 41 makes. Only 11 turnovers. Very little defensive pressure, I would say, from the Wizards. 00:39:53 Speaker 1: Though A.J. 00:39:54 Speaker 2: DeBonsa had some really fun baskets in this one. He had like a fake Euro step on a fast break that looked ridiculously quick and confusing the way he got the ball to the rim. Had a big dunk. Top five dunk score, if I'm not mistaken, so far this season. But, you know, the Wizards were at. 500. 00:40:12 Speaker 1: Anthony Davis went out. He came back. 00:40:14 Speaker 2: Most of their wins were against lower-ranked teams. And now that they're going against some of the better teams in the league, like the Pistons, you can see where the levels are, I think, in the Eastern Conference. So Detroit was playing with desperation. They'd lost two straight. They came out and played great team basketball for the win. 00:40:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, now there's serious questions going around about Trey Young's contract and how much they're paying him and his inefficiency thus far this season. Because it is odd just to see Trey not being able to hit shots and That would help this team. And we all questioned not only the max money he was getting, but just the length of it. Maybe it would make sense if it was a short-term contract and then the young guys started to get paid. But it is unfortunate here so far this season in that the shots just ain't going down for Trey, which is... which is oddball.

Not really. 00:41:08 Speaker 2: I mean, he's been struggling as a shooter for the past few seasons. He hasn't been over league average since the 2024 season. He doesn't necessarily have the same quickness and speed to get to his floaters, and those are tricky shots anyways. So he's definitely taken a step back scoring efficiency-wise, which is why he's more of a playmaker. There's a lot of miles to feed on the Wizards, so at least he can get other players involved. But He's 28 years old right now. They got him signed for a lot more years. We'll see if he's able to regain some of the shooting prowess he had early in his career, but the past couple of seasons he's been down. I thought Denver played pretty well last night considering their travel concerns. They played hard enough, but only Murray and Jokic were any good. 63 points on 44 shots for them. The rest of the Nuggets had 37 points on 39 shots. 00:42:00 Speaker 1: Woof. 00:42:00 Speaker 2: Shangoon had an awesome fourth quarter. We were just talking about the struggles the Rockets have had in the clutch, but he went for nine points and five assists in the fourth. And he was like part of a two man game with basically everybody on the Rockets. He was the role man with Kevin Durant or Jabari Smith. And then they ran a lot of Shen Goon handling the ball, Fred Van Vliet coming up and being the screener for Shen Goon. And that was really throwing off the Nuggets defense. A good plan of attack. I love seeing Shen Goon and Jokic go like post move for post move with each other. 00:42:31 Speaker 1: Like it was 1996. Great stuff. Yeah, and I just couldn't pull it off other than those two guys you mentioned. They're top two. Not a lot of support from Cam, Cam, Cam, Cam, Cam, and Christian. No, no. I messed up. I messed up. 00:42:46 Speaker 2: That's what you said. 00:42:47 Speaker 1: Did I say that? The original one? Anyways, Cam, Christian, and Aaron didn't come through, and Christian Brown missing those two free throws. That really hurt. They're late in the game. Either way, yeah, good match, and we'll see the Rockets visit or play the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. Let's get to. 00:43:07 Speaker 2: Whoa, boy. 00:43:07 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:43:08 Speaker 2: Whoa. 00:43:09 Speaker 1: Biggity boy. 00:43:11 Speaker 2: Actually, some good candidates last night, like Cooper Flagg could have got it. Luca could have got it. Seven stocks for this guy. But yeah, it's going to Wemby. 40 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, nine blocks. A couple of threes went 15 of 19 from the field to a three from three, eight of 10 at the free throw line. Great percentages as well. You can shoot a high percentage when you're shooting from above the basket almost every single time. He's dominating right now. 00:43:37 Speaker 1: Should we include dunks on woe boys one day? Yeah. It's not a stat per se, but I suppose it is. Basketball references tracking them. 00:43:47 Speaker 2: They got them. 00:43:48 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:43:48 Speaker 2: Nine of them. 00:43:49 Speaker 1: Nine of them. Nine of his 15 baskets. Just dunks. 00:43:53 Speaker 2: Nine dunks. And the finger roll was probably the highlight. Of his game, if not the highlight of the night for the entire league, basically taking off from the free throw line, a step behind the free throw line. Like he picks the ball up at the three-point line and gets to the free throw line and somehow finishes it. 00:44:10 Speaker 1: They called it Iceman. 00:44:11 Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, okay. 00:44:12 Speaker 1: Yeah. That's cool. That was cool. Yeah, the George Girvin shout-out was cool. He's good. All right, getting to our pick-em tonight, because there's a big game. The Boston Celtics are visiting the Philadelphia 76ers. Who is going to win? Nobody knows. Everybody is sort of even on Kelshi. Jalen Brown versus Jason Tatum. I know our debate was, how many will Jalen Brown score in his first game against the Boston Celtics? What's your take on that, dude? How are you feeling on the number? I know we had an over-under of a 35, right? That was 35. That sounds high now. 00:44:52 Speaker 2: That does sound high. You know, he's gotten it going here. Had a couple of 25-plus point games last week. He's motivated, for sure. I think he'll definitely be over 40 when they play in Boston, but this one is in Philadelphia, so maybe it's more of a team approach. We shall see. Should be awesome, though, to see these two going against each other, Tatum and Brown. I'm going with Philadelphia. They get points. Like, I think Philadelphia can win this game. So I'll take the points, and they're at home. Yeah, they get a one and a half point. I mean, it's basically a pick-em. You and Skeets have 76ers. 00:45:27 Speaker 1: We'll take the Celtics, even though the Celtics have a back-to-back coming up with Toronto the next day. Are they going to save their guys for the Toronto Raptors instead of the Philadelphia 76ers? I'm just kidding. I don't know. The thing is with Paul George, he does now sit one game of back-to-backs. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. I suppose he will be playing in this one to try and help out Jason Tatum against his old bud, who is full of lots of drama alongside his teammate. 00:45:58 Speaker 2: Do you think Paul George considers this his revenge game against the 76ers? Yeah. 00:46:05 Speaker 1: That he never suited up for. 00:46:07 Speaker 2: No. Paul George played for the 76ers last year. 00:46:09 Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I had a brain fart. Yeah, no. 00:46:13 Speaker 2: No? No. You think he's just trying to forget those years of his life? 00:46:17 Speaker 1: I think he's more anti-Clippers, I think, than anti-Sixers. That's my take. Let's get to the Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown in Is This News? Oh, baby. 00:46:34 Speaker 2: Big game tonight in the stream team. They're calling it the Lamb Chops and Gravy Bowl. Celtics and the Sixers face off for the first time since the Jalen Brown trade.

It's beef, it's lamb chops, it's gravy. And we got a big piece by Jay King over at The Athletic about how the Brown-Tatum relationship cratered due to outside influences. Tass, is this news to you? 00:46:55 Speaker 1: Nope. I don't. I think Jalen Brown is an open guy, and that can... elevate or have the comments explode on any platform out there. But I don't think he dislikes, absolutely hates Jason Tatum. I don't think that's the actual reality of it at all. I mean, were there incidents that they fought? No. In J. King's piece, there isn't any incident at all. I mean, he just talks a lot. I think this is more like LeBron and Kyrie in Cleveland, where Yeah, Jalen Brown wanted to be the equal to LeBron James, or excuse me, to Jason Tatum. Like, Kyrie wanted to be with LeBron. I think it happens. We were just talking about Paul George. I think he wanted that in Los Angeles with Kawhi. He wanted to be paid the same, as he said, in a podcast recently. It's the same sort of thing to me. Did they dislike each other? I don't think so. Did they have problems with each other? I don't think so. Were they best of friends? No, they weren't. But I think that's the extent of it, because... After months of these things erupting on any platform, when Jalen Brown says, I want to be the guy when he's on Twitch, I mean, it explodes. But where's the evidence? Where's the actual factual situation or anything? 00:48:15 Speaker 2: Anything. 00:48:15 Speaker 1: There really wasn't. So this isn't any news to me. I don't think it's anything different over the last couple months. Yeah, I kind of agree with you. 00:48:21 Speaker 2: Reading through Jay's piece, basically everybody's like, no, there actually wasn't any beef and there was nothing specific that happened. But obviously the relationship shifted. 00:48:30 Speaker 1: Soured. 00:48:31 Speaker 2: And I think mentioned in there referring to like Tracy McGrady's comments, it feels like Jalen Brown has as many problems with the entirety of the Celtics organization as he does with Jason Tatum specifically. Right. Like he was in Boston before Jason Tatum was. They played those next nine years together, but a decade later. For Jalen Brown, he wins the finals MVP. He finishes sixth in MVP voting last season. And basically he's advocating for Jalen Brown to get a little bit more shine as one of the faces of the franchise. When in reality, it is Tatum as the face of the franchise. And I do think it's a little bit interesting the way they're saying it feels like the media divided them a little bit because it was always comparing who's better, Brown or Tatum. Can these guys fit? Can they actually coexist together? They won a championship together. 00:49:19 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:49:20 Speaker 2: It was still like, who's the number one guy there? And then last year with Tatum missing the majority of the season after his Achilles injury, it really threw a wrench into their plan. So it feels like the Celtics were trying to get ahead

of things and maybe try to just put things in order and like, reassure Jason Tatum that he is indeed the face of the franchise. So I'm looking forward to it tonight. Yeah. I'm looking forward to their interactions together because like you're saying, it doesn't feel like they're the best of friends. It doesn't feel like they really want to have any interaction together. They say basically they haven't spoken yet. Yeah. That's kind of interesting. I think the LeBron Kyrie comparison is pretty good actually though. 00:49:59 Speaker 1: Yeah. More so than like a Shaq Kobe. 00:50:01 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Oh gosh. 00:50:02 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:50:03 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:50:04 Speaker 1: It is funny. I would just think that writers would be good enough to unsurface any little tiny kibble of information that something happened, but they haven't been able to do that. As you brought up, Tracy McGrady said that a few months ago, he is friends with Jalen Brown. And he basically said, yeah, he kind of has a divide with the Boston Celtics front office and organization. And to me, that's, that's Kyrie and Cleveland where, he didn't get the same flight treatment and have as many friends on the flights as was reported by ESPN way back when. That feels a little bit more equal to me. But we're looking for anything here. As you said, maybe they haven't talked. Like in the preseason, they were on the same floor. That was the piece, right? Like Philadelphia was playing Boston. They were on the same floor, but they never went and shook hands. 00:50:57 Speaker 2: I mean, somewhat juicy, I guess. 00:51:00 Speaker 1: But, you know, it's fun for us to talk about. But, yeah, there isn't really any despise between each other. Yeah, Jalen Brown, he wasn't the guy, as you talked about. And that's what Jason Tatum is. And so that's probably probably irksome. It's just like. Exactly. It's just like Luca here in Atlanta yesterday talking trash like you wanted me. You wanted me over Trey Young kind of thing. And Jalen Brown just, you know, yeah, I say that because, of course, he wants something like that to motivate him. And that's what competitors do. And yeah, yeah, there's a little beef, but it ain't lamb chops either. It's like, I don't know, something even lesser. Like a prosciutto? A prosciutto. A little tasty? 00:51:42 Speaker 2: A little tasty. 00:51:44 Speaker 1: A little tasty, that's a good way to put it. 00:51:45 Speaker 2: But it's still an appetizer for the most part, you know? 00:51:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to go non-meat, if that makes any sense. 00:51:51 Speaker 2: It's a non-meat? This is a chickpea stew? 00:51:53 Speaker 1: Yeah. Chickpea stew? Tofu for you, tofu for me, chickpea stew for you too. 00:51:59 Speaker 2: Well, sticking with the beef, we are in the butcher shop. Because Giannis Antetokounmpo said he was speechless over Doc Rivers' comments on a recent Bill Simmons podcast. Giannis said he will continue to focus on the heat and that athletes should not be dismayed by bitterness or pettiness. You buying this beef, Tass? Is this news? 00:52:19 Speaker 1: It is not news. No, this is just Doc talking. He loves to talk and he's deflecting. That's what it comes down to. If I... wanted to hear something that was a little substantial, had some actual meat to it, some actual facts, I would have wanted Doc to at least say, okay, I was in Milwaukee two years. We had Dame and Giannis together for one year. And say something about that. Whether it's, yeah, Dame got hurt in the playoffs, and I would have loved to see him and Giannis work in the playoffs together, but Giannis... didn't love doing the pick and roll enough. I mean, something factual or contextual, like something. To me, this is just Doc being old Doc. 00:53:04 Speaker 2: No, totally. 00:53:05 Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's the unfortunate part. There wasn't much to that. And now Mark Spears of ESPN reporting that Doc called Giannis afterwards and apologized and had a discussion about it. Okay. 00:53:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's not much to me at all. Yeah, it just feels like classic Doc Rivers to me. He will go on a podcast and gladly speak his mind. He's said similar things in the past about Harden, Embiid, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and now it's Giannis. He's going to say what's on his mind, and then he's going to backtrack a little bit eventually and be like, actually, these guys are great players, and he does back them. I will say Giannis seemed legitimately hurt. 00:53:47 Speaker 1: He did. 00:53:47 Speaker 2: It looked like when he got asked about it, it looked like he was in a locker room. 00:53:51 Speaker 1: He's like, what? 00:53:51 Speaker 2: I can't believe he said that. I'm speechless. And then he's like, yeah, I'm putting the pass behind me. But, you know, Doc Rivers was basically coach of the Bucs because Giannis wanted it there. Kept him longer as well. And look, Doc was speaking some truth about some stuff about how Giannis can be a little hardheaded with the way he wants to play. You know, he doesn't want to be a role man despite not being a great shooter. He wants to handle the ball. I've seen similar things from Giannis where it's like he doesn't adjust his game necessarily to the rest of the players around the team. So when the Bucks had their team built perfectly with Giroux and Chris Middleton, it worked. When it became Dame Lillard, a guy who should have the ball in his hands running pick and rolls as well, it didn't work quite as well. And there was always that... tension between the two of them and the way they wanted to play that you heard from Doc even back in the day, even before he took the Bucs job, he was on Simmons podcast being like, I'd like to see Dame Lillard handling the ball more. 00:54:44 Speaker 1: In pick and roll. 00:54:44 Speaker 2: And eventually he did and blah, blah, blah. It didn't work out. And then Doc gets back into the media and goes Doc mode. 00:54:52 Speaker 1: Yeah. I would have

preferred at least him to say, I wanted Dame and Yannis to be more in the pick and roll, et cetera. we didn't get to see it in the playoffs. He could have pulled the card that he used when he was post Boston Celtics. When unfortunately they didn't have Kendrick Perkins in their starting lineup when they played in the playoffs. And he said, yeah, we didn't have our five guys healthy. Like you should have said, should have brought that up. Dame wasn't healthy. And in the one year that they had him and Giannis together, they didn't play in the playoffs together. Essentially. 00:55:22 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:55:22 Speaker 1: And this was, or excuse me, Dame was just, he played a little bit, but he was banged up. He wasn't himself. So, you know, it's just, let's elaborate. I mean, Give us the stuff. This, to me, just wasn't anything specific. And I will say about Giannis, maybe he is somewhat hard-headed. We did the Kobe Shaq talk earlier. He always said he modeled his game and his mannerisms around Kobe. And I could see that in that maybe it takes time for the relationship to grow. Like Chris Middleton said, did have a lot of pick and rolls where Giannis was the role man. And they had a relationship and maybe that's why they got to where they were and they won that championship together. And maybe Dames was too short. And I mean, they pulled it out in games at times as they went to their first playoffs together, but they didn't excel. 00:56:13 Speaker 2: No, they never were more than the sum of their parts. Like they didn't enhance each other's games. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. 00:56:19 Speaker 1: My last question about this, Bill Simmons having Doc Rivers on, And Giannis being asked about it by Eric Name in the locker room. We're like three days apart. My question is, Giannis' people, he has some people. Why don't they tell him this? He didn't know this until Eric Name said it to him. I'm surprised by that. 00:56:43 Speaker 2: He didn't? 00:56:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think he did. I don't know. I don't know. 00:56:47 Speaker 2: I'm just hearing this for the first time. It's kind of what it reminded me of. Really? Yeah. 00:56:51 Speaker 1: He's a podcaster, Tess. 00:56:54 Speaker 2: He's on Thanalysis regularly. 00:56:56 Speaker 1: Oh, come on. You got to do some thanalytics on that. He hasn't been on Yanis' podcast in months. 00:57:02 Speaker 2: I'm not up to date on the guest rundowns. 00:57:05 Speaker 1: It's been months. No, he's got to be in Milwaukee for that one. No, I thought he was legitimately hurt because he literally hurt him. 00:57:11 Speaker 2: I agree. 00:57:13 Speaker 1: I think if he had hurt it, he wouldn't have been hurt. If he knew, he wouldn't just act like I'm hurt. And he got mad. He said to Eric Name, oh, why don't you call him? You have his phone number. I know you do. I know you do. I know you do. That was funny. Yeah, that was great. So I literally don't think that his staff or whatever you call these people now, these business people, would have just said to him, hey, dude, did you see this thing by Doc just preparing you for when you're eventually asked about it? And I'm kind of surprised that it did take this long. Giannis didn't do a post-game interview after a previous game because of, them losing, and there was this talk that, oh, Giannis is mad and doesn't want to be in Miami or whatever, and then they end up winning on their road trip after that. So he wasn't at every single microphone that's possible, but I'm surprised. I'm surprised that he wasn't asked about it, and I'm surprised his people didn't deal with it. Giannis, I'll be one of your PR people, and I will never let that happen again. 00:58:11 Speaker 2: You would tell them about the podcast immediately? 00:58:13 Speaker 1: Hey, bud. Listen to this. Doc Rivers said you don't have a basketball IQ. I mean, that is... some substantial stuff. And then, and then the explanation as Mark Spears, uh, reported that doc basically kind of said that he didn't really want to talk about IQ. He basically did a roundabout saying that the, the IQ thing wasn't what he wanted to talk about, but you did, man. I mean, you're basically saying you're not one of the smartest basketball players. I know, you know, like in a, in a roundabout way, which is insulting. And I think Janice was really hurt. Anyway. Exactly. 00:58:49 Speaker 2: Giannis was hurt. 00:58:50 Speaker 1: I agree. 00:58:50 Speaker 2: Kristaps Porzingis announced over the weekend that he has, quote, made the decision to prioritize my health and step away from the game I love. And, quote, as Porzingis continues to deal with health issues, it's unclear if he will return to the NBA, if he'll return to basketball. Tass, is this news? 00:59:07 Speaker 1: Yeah, this is news in that. it feels like it's over. The fact that he is not around the team and the fact that the Players Association isn't advocating for the lack of paychecks coming to Chris Epps Porzingis is wrong in any way. They're not fighting it at all. So it just feels like here we are with Chris Epps Porzingis' career. And, you know, to back him and what he's going through, the disorder that he's going through and dealing with, Potts, as he's described it in the past, like he literally has just got extremely tired and fatigued before he called himself a house cat at times, like he just needed to lay down. And I think there will be some sort of, documentary or feature on him and his whole career and what he's gone through at some point not now but you know the whole drafted by phil jackson at number four and he looked like he was on the up and up in msg the injury happened after making that all-star team he goes to dallas to play with luco that doesn't work out and he bounces around but he gets to boston wins the championship and here they are so i like i just talking about the story because i like the story far more than potts has a disorder and i think that's what it comes out i think it It

must mean that it's over, right? 01:00:29 Speaker 2: I would say at least like mostly over who knows what sort of treatments will be available to him. And if he'll ever be able to overcome pots and like be a reliable player, but as he's getting older and older, it seems less and less likely 31 years old right now. So, yeah, I mean, it's, it's pseudo news, not totally because he hasn't been playing this season, but, It definitely becomes news if the Warriors are able to find any sort of a trade with this contract he's got because he's basically a $ 20 million trade chip that a team can use to save money for next season with only $ 3 million of his contract next year guaranteed. But the Warriors don't want to take on longer future money. And surely a team that's trading for a guy that they can release on a non-guaranteed or a partially guaranteed contract would want to be saving money. So I don't know how they're going to find... perfect partner for the Porzingis chip but a sad end if this is the end for Kristaps Porzingis like he's not a guy that we necessarily think of as an injury what if but he's been banged up a ton of times had so much promise and early in his career finished second rookie of the year voting made an all-star in his third season we saw the impact that he had with the Celtics and when he was healthy in like that one half, he had awesome, uh, in the finals way back when, but that's a guy that just hasn't been able to stay on the court has been super productive when he is. And yeah, I don't know if we'll ever see him again. 01:01:54 Speaker 1: Bummer. Yeah. Here's a little fairy tale story twist that could be applied to Chris Epps-Porzingis. There are teams that are bad, um, and essentially would be willing to take on a salary and have Chris Epps-Porzingis on their team if they get a pick or, or however it works. And because teams don't necessarily want to be bad at the bottom of the standings, Chris Absporzingas can come back and play a few games for a team because it's essentially a rental. You know, there's only a few million dollars guaranteed next year, or he could even cut that off, I suppose. But he'll come back, he'll hit some shots and call it a career. Eh, why don't we write it that way? I think that could be the extent of it. And there could be a piece coming back for the Golden State Warriors next for a guy, yeah, making $ 20 million this year or not making $ 20 million this year because they're not paying him. Yeah. 01:02:47 Speaker 2: Doesn't seem like something that would get taken care of very quickly to me because a team doesn't have a ton of incentive to trade for. 01:02:55 Speaker 1: Not now. 01:02:56 Speaker 2: Now, but maybe at the trade deadline. 01:02:57 Speaker 1: We'll see. 01:02:58 Speaker 2: Tyler Kolick got himself in some hot water when he called Taylor Swift's Knicks fandom a little performative. The Knicks issued a statement backing Taylor and Kolick is now saying that he misspoke in And that if people have been sending him a lot of pictures of Taylor Swift going to Knicks games, is this news, Taz? 01:03:18 Speaker 1: It ain't news. It is not news. The Knicks kind of made it some news because they come out with a statement basically saying Taylor Swift is a fan of ours. And so it's a story. And Tyler Kulik walks back what he said. The way he said it when he was asked on this live stream, you know, originally he was on a live stream with Deuce McBride. They're sitting there and somebody– writes in, hey, who's the fakest fan on Celebrity Row? And he says, maybe Taylor Swift, because I haven't seen her at a lot of games. I mean, he's just saying what's on his mind, and I think that's fine. But the fact that he walked it back, and now he's also said that he knows all the words to Taylor Swift's songs, and I sang them. 01:04:03 Speaker 2: Actually, I'm a huge fan. 01:04:05 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not news, unfortunately, but you activated... The Swifties. You unleashed them. 01:04:11 Speaker 2: You activated the Swifties. You didn't know that she's gone to Knicks games for a decade. 01:04:17 Speaker 1: But they do. 01:04:18 Speaker 2: They know. They've got the photos. They've got the performance of her playing a Knicks talent show at MSG in 2003. Yeah. She's been around. 01:04:28 Speaker 1: And they know. They won't forget. I didn't know that. Same. 01:04:30 Speaker 2: I didn't know that either. Tyler Kolek surely didn't know that. So whoever asked him the question, definitely setting him up, I think. Because anticipating that the answer would be Taylor Swift. 01:04:40 Speaker 1: And they got him. 01:04:40 Speaker 2: They got him just like that, Tess. Set a trap and he walked right into it. Boom, here's a photo of her wearing a Joakim Noah jersey or whatever it was. 01:04:48 Speaker 1: It was 13. 01:04:49 Speaker 2: I bet it was actually Junkyard Dog. I bet it was Jerome Williams looking at the cut of the jersey. 01:04:54 Speaker 1: I don't know. You examined the cut. 01:04:56 Speaker 2: Well, I remember Noah was like the current uniform style that the Knicks have. And the one she was wearing that was 13 had like the black trim on it as well. So I think that's JYD era. That would be amazing if she had a JYD. 01:05:10 Speaker 1: I mean, he could have covered himself up and said, I don't know, maybe she's a fake fan. She did just get married at Madison Square Garden. They literally shut down the arena and shut down the roads. And she was able to have all of her guests come and see Kelsey and her get married. So she likes it there. If she's going to have her wedding. Fair, if that's a thing. But that's the end of it. 01:05:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, this is PR from the Knicks. The right answer was Jimmy Fallon, of course, for the fakest celebrity fan. 01:05:40 Speaker 1: Good one. That's accurate. 01:05:41 Speaker 2: For the first time since 1990, All-Star Weekend is going to be in Miami. Benvenido a Miami. 2028 All-Star Game. Going to be on South

Beach, Tass. This one is literally news. 01:05:53 Speaker 1: It's literally news, and I consider it news selfishly. It's in a hot city, and it's kind of close. I mean, this is all about me. I haven't been to a warm city all-star game since. We went to Charlotte in 2019. That's a long time ago. 01:06:08 Speaker 2: That's the last warm weather one? 01:06:10 Speaker 1: For us. Because there has been the Golden State one. There has been an LA one. Okay. We just didn't go. And will we go to the Miami one? TBD. Will we go to the Phoenix one, which is the next one coming this February? It's a possibility. I think I'm just talking myself into it. being at another All-Star game because we did miss a couple. So Phoenix, number one. Number two on the list, Miami. I haven't been since. I literally don't think I've been since we all were together on the No Season Required Tour in 2011. Wow. To the actual city of Miami. Nice. So, yeah, I'm talking into existence. Nice. 01:06:49 Speaker 2: I was there 23 finals, Denver versus Miami. But, yeah, this is a long city. or a long layoff for a city that people like to go to. That's all warm weather city. When they play in February, you would think they would be back at almost 40 years, almost 40 years. Unbelievable. And the heat have obviously been a good team. And like, uh, at times one of the most famous teams in the league, kind of surprising. They never had it during the heatles era, but, uh, I looked up the award winners from the 1990 all-star game. 01:07:18 Speaker 1: Oh boy. 01:07:19 Speaker 2: You want to take a guess at MVP dunk contest winner and three point contest winner. 01:07:24 Speaker 1: Well, Michael? 01:07:27 Speaker 2: No, another great MJ from the era. 01:07:29 Speaker 1: Magic? 01:07:30 Speaker 2: Magic Johnson, MVP in 1990. 01:07:31 Speaker 1: Would you say dunk contest and three-point shooter? 01:07:35 Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. 01:07:37 Speaker 1: This was before the Craig Hodges era. Was it Craig Hodges? 01:07:40 Speaker 2: It was Craig Hodges. I think this was his first of three wins. 01:07:44 Speaker 1: Oh, okay. And dunk contest. Oh, this is hard. 01:07:51 Speaker 2: It is, but this guy won a lot of dunk contests but not dominique indeed it was oh i thought this was after dominique well i should have just said it instead of saying not craig hodges and not dominique. 01:08:04 Speaker 1: Confidence is everything yeah you're right it is everything. 01:08:07 Speaker 2: Magic johnson mvp dunk contest neek three-point contest craig hodges so. 01:08:13 Speaker 1: That was i guess lat dominique wilkins won a bunch of dunk contests and this was his final one. 01:08:17 Speaker 2: It must have been his final win yeah okay all right great stuff cool That's it for us today. 01:08:23 Speaker 1: We will be back tomorrow. Skeets will be back here. We've got games to go through. 10 a.m. tomorrow. 01:08:31 Speaker 2: 10 a.m. 01:08:31 Speaker 1: We'll be back at normal time. Regular times for everybody. Obviously, we're going to be talking about Jalen and Jason. The Jays. The Wise, some call them. I like to call them the Wise. We'll see what happens with the Knicks Bucks. And the Thunder Blazers also are. A headliner tonight. Looking forward to that one as well. 01:08:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, our national TV games look pretty good, and everything else appears to be winning team versus losing team. 01:09:00 Speaker 1: Right. 01:09:01 Speaker 2: A lot of one-win teams trying to get number two tomorrow. Yeah. 01:09:04 Speaker 1: Jazz could be one in ten after tonight against the Miami Heat because they're injured, unfortunately. Bunch of injuries. But we will talk about it all tomorrow. For now, Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. 01:09:16 Speaker 2: Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys. Awesome. 01:09:19 Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, and remember, if you're looking at the schedule, there's a game at 11 o'clock Eastern tonight. I just saw it, so I had to include that the Thunder Blazers game, which is on Peacock, is at 11 Eastern because they like to spread it out so it's in the prime time on both, or on one coast, I should say. 01:09:39 Speaker 2: Coast to coast. 01:09:40 Speaker 1: Coast to coast. That's what they do on the Peacocks. 8 and 11. 01:09:44 Speaker 2: 8 and 11. 01:09:46 Speaker 1: We're at 10 a.m. Eastern tomorrow. Embrace the day.