Curry Hurt, Russ Off the Bench, and More!

narrative that they thought about him. We go into the Charlotte Hornets and head coach Steve Clifford blowing the team pretty much up, throwing them under the bus because I don't know they stink at defense. And then we remember one of the old school OG's Hall of Fame player coach Paul Silas rest in peace hold out to Covernick. So drop that beat before we start the podcast, just to quick alert and FYI a PSA if you will.

My dnnis says I'm not wearing my visilin enough tisk tisk, So I'm gonna wear it on the episode because when I take it off, I forget to put it back in. Then my teeth move. So if I say anything out of pocket, or if I sound like I've got a lisp like a fourteen year old boy, forgive me. So let's move forward. Things are going from bad to worse in Golden State. Our Dubs just keep taking blow after blow. Hate to see that. I'm not talking about their horrible

road record either. They are two and thirteen currently on the road this year, second worst in the NBA. Actually, if you can believe it, never fear our Dubs. They will come. Road defensive efficiency a shocking one eighteen point eight that is bottom three in the league as well. These Dubs, our Dubs can't seem to win outside of

the Chase Center. And now another blow. Steph Curry, the man who has been pulling this team together on his back MVP campaign level numbers out at least at least is the critical component three weeks according to THEO this is the bomb. This is the sound of the wosh bomb Golden State. Steph Curry is expected to miss a few weeks with his left shoulder injury. Sources tell that was one of those invisiline moments. Sources tell ESPN Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Let's just say he is out three weeks. That's the number that would put him on target for a Thursday Night TNT game against the Phoenix Suns on jail Anuary tenth. Between now and the earliest expected time, Let's go through their next ten games, shall we. The Warriors start with at Philadelphia, at Toronto, at New York, at Brooklyn, Memphis, Charlotte, Utah, Portland, Atlanta and Detroit. Boy, that is a tough slog without your primary score, and with Jordan Poole in a slump

and Andrew Wiggins facing his own set of injuries. Oh boy, that team could be three and seven in its next ten and that would not be a surprise. Three is seven. That is a tough spot. Golden State fourteen and fifteen right now at the moment, could be looking at a two and eight stretch without staff. That will put them squarely at sixteen and twenty three, which would be at that particular moment on life support. Not saying that's forever,

but that is at least three weeks. There could be more issues coming Labram issues if he needs to get surgery, for example, on a torn labrum. That would be bad. That would be one of those Steph breaks his hand, Put yourself in a suitcase and go home kind of moment. It's hard out here for us Dubs fans, just when we think we're back, just when we think the dominance continues and the dynasty just persists, sometimes it just happens like that. But we will persevere, will we not? Remember?

The only time we go blooded or out is when we're out, and when there is a cold, dead body. Last time I checked, the Dubs are still alive and kicking. Check back in in April. But if Steph is out any longer, even I lifelong Dubs fan will start to feel a little weary. People were slandering Russell Westbrook, weren't they. They were saying some mean things. They were saying he was gonna be waved. They were saying he was never gonna play basketball ever again. They were saying so many jokes,

angry comments, slander libel. People said he would never come off the bench. Everyone said, oh, if he does come off the bench, he's not gonna be happy. He's gonna fake an injury. Everyone said, oh, yeah, if he continues to be off the bench, comes off the bench and he's happy. He'll suck fair fair warning. What do they say like a just for full disclosure? That was me

as well. I said that as well. Those comments, those predictions, they were wrong, wrong and wrong, and I think that needs to be discussed the media, NBA fans, we have a narrative and no matter what happens, we stick to that narrative. Right, we have struck out on Russ, and honestly, like I liked Peak Russ, I did. I'm stoked that Russ is having this re emergence. I am as he

as someone who gets considered to be a hater. I like this version of Russ and it made me think, why do we treat Russ like he's been posting things that are anti Semitic on the internet. Why do we treat Russ like he coughed on a microphone, gave the entire NBA COVID and then started liking tweets from Elon Musk about prosecuting Fauci being his name designation. Russ has done nothing but ball. Even when he's stunk, all he

did was ball. He's coming off the bench for twenty three games now, averaging twenty eight, fifteen, six and eight twenty eight minutes, fifteen points, six rebounds, eight assists with one and a half steals and blocks per game. That's ridiculous. He had a seven game stretch where he shot fifty percent or better from three from three people. He was a brick layer, and all of a sudden, he's Steph

Curry when he comes off the bench. He's come back to Earth, of course, because he's not really a great three point shooter thirty one percent, but he's shooting better than Trey Yung. How about that? Way ahead of where he was as a starter. And guess what the best thing is. He's happy, he's smiling, he's living in his hometown. His family is in his hometown, his friends are there.

And that coincides, folks, with the Lakers actually being five hundred with the real shot to make the play in tournament. And who saw that coming? Who did you see it coming? Because I didn't see that coming. And now Sam Ammick is saying, but because of this very good play off the bench, he's the leader in the clubhouse plus one ninety to win six Man of the Year. Wait, excuse me. The John Havlicek Award which quickly. They already gave the MVP with Michael Jordan's face and body on it to

Jokic today. They made it, created it, shoved it down our throats, and then gave it to him. Amazing. Darvin Haam, of course, deserves credit for this Russell Westbrook adjustment. But what's interesting is the Amex article sort of says, the insiders believe that Russ is going to improve from here moving forward, and we all love a redemption story unless it's somebody that we already hated. Let's face facts, that's what it is, right Like, you can't redeem yourself if

we've always hated you. And that's what's happening to Rust right now. I don't understand it because I was never a Russ hater, and then I was like, yeah, he stinks right now he's making forty seven million dollars a year, but like we treat him like villain, We treat him like one of the worst humans on earth. We won't

give Russ any credit. Have you seen NBA today or for take or NBA radio be like, hey, by the way, Russ is on an absolute heater right now, responsible for the Lakers winning No No because why we're treating him like he went one hundred and fifty five miles per hour in a thirty in a school zone on Mollie. That's how we treat him. All he was doing was playing hoops and wasn't in making bricking a lot of shots hitting the side of the backboard. That's all he's

been doing. Damn. It's like the narratives. Once. Once those narratives are over, we just pretend that they never existed, and then we wait in the shadows and we hide in the weeds until Russ starts playing bad again, and then we're like, yop, we said it. Russ stinks. You see it. Four games in a row, Oh for seventeen fifteen turnovers like yo yo yo, yo yo. Twenty five games now Russ has been balling. You wait to talk about Russ for those five games. Media is fucked up, man,

The media is fucked up. I am happy for us. He went from one of the biggest names MVP in the NBA on a team that was sixth in the West, first time ever that he wins the MVP. He's getting triple double after triple double, just every damn night, he's getting one and people are saying he's unemployable. Unemployable. We've got people out here that you don't even know their name with jobs in the NBA. We got Drew U Banks out here getting minutes, no shade, Drew U Banks

ten day God, But like, are you serious? And now he's a lock for the sixth Man of the year. It's a cold game out here. It's a cold game. It's a redemption arc. I am getting behind and if you don't get behind it, it's because you never liked Russ in the first place. I've been stunned by this development. As a lifelong basketball fan, I think I'm in love with soccer. I am never like soccer in my life except for during World Cup time. But I think it has stuck. I think the soccer bug is in my system,

and I think it's I think it's terminal. I do because why it reminds me of hoops. It reminds me of hoops. I've been watching the World Cup right like a lot of people, and I'm not gonna pretend I'm some kind of soccer guru, because I'm not. I like, no, almost nothing. I don't know. I don't know what words mean. I don't know what player positions are. All I know is what my two basketball minded eyeball see, and I

love it. And I have loved this knockout stage. There's just something about the passion and the pageantry that has sucked me in. Never mind all the human rights abuses and probably killing a journalist for making a statement about you know, love is love. Who knows? We're gonna just put that to us to the side for a second. Rest in peace to Grant Wall in all seriousness, he was not absolute awesome dude. But if you watch hoops carefully, you can understand soccer pretty well as well. Right, It's

like the NBA. It's like spacing and flow and star players star studs, just like the association. One of the more astounding stats in the NBA. We've talked about this before is that no team, no team has won a championship without since the late nineteen seventies without a current or former starting All Star on the team. Think about that. That's crazy. If you don't have an All Star who started in an All Star Game, either either last year or in previous years, you are cooked. And that's pretty

much the same with soccer as well. Without a world class goal scorer, bucket getter, striker. US men's national team absolutely cooked. They have talent. But I could tell very quickly, oh boy, this team with Christian policit they're not the one. He's not the one. He's no cold blooded killer. He doesn't want no smoke. He doesn't have it like that. He doesn't even me, the rube that I am about soccer, could tell, oh, no, we don't have what's this kid's name,

Memphis de Pay. We don't have a Memphis Depay. I just learned about him and I was like, he's much better than our best guy. Like you could just tell that when we lost to Hall and it was very clear he's very good. He's pretty good. No shade to Christian Polisic, the darling of US men's soccer. Our standards are much lower than the rest of the world in terms of what we need in order to extend and improve our game. But we don't have a Christian all Ronaldo.

We don't. We don't have a messy. We do not we don't have a Harry Kane. Holland striker. Memphis to Pay is probably my new favorite player, Like I loved him and the US Hall went home obviously round of sixteen, because that the jig was up when Polisic had the opportunity to score five minutes into the game, pretty much one on one and all of a sudden couldn't get it out. There's no shade, no shade, but it was. It was not something that a cold boy killer would

have done. And the US has never really had a true killer since Landon Donovan. So they say, I don't know a lot about land and Donovan, but I hear he was a stone cold killer. And just like the NBA contender needs a bucke getter, soccer team that wants to move on needs a relentless finisher as well. So all of this is a large setup to say I've been thinking about star players in soccer and the expectations put on them, and then the star players in basketball

and the expectations put on them. Right, So I was thinking about Messi and all the expectations on him, Rinaldo doing a little googling. Then that led me to the rabbit hole that is Lebron James and all the expectations put on him that he's surpassed time after Tom, which got me thinking about Victor Wamanyama. I know it's a reach. Let me explain. Probably like only a few players in

history have had as much expectations as Christiano Ronaldo. Right since he burst on the scene as a teenager, people were tabbing him as the next best thing, just like Lebron the kid from Akron twenty years ago. This week, as you know, Lebron burst on the scene on the national stage with his first ESPN television game, leading Saint Mary's to a win over the number one high school

team in the nation. As an aside, which is crazy, think about this years ago to the day that was Lebron's first high school game that was televised, and this week as well, the same anniversary, Lebron James's kid played against Carmelo's kid on ESPN in a high school game. It's fucking nuts. That's fucking nuts. Anyway, moving on back

to Renaldo and Lebron. At aged eighteen, they were on every magazine cover with the highest expectations that you could put on any individual in the world, more famous than anyone in sports. They became internationally famous before they could legitimately drink in America. As an aside, Lebron James has like almost a half a billion followers on Instagram. Ronaldo I think has like three hundred million. Just crazy stuff, right, And they both went out and did the incredible despite

the insane hype. They didn't just meet them. They didn't just meet the expectations, they exceeded them soundly. Right, that's insane. We had expectations that Lebron was going to be the next Michael Jordan, right, the kid from Akron maybe was gonna at seventeen enter the Draft before high school was even over. That was what he was trying to do. When I was in high school, I remember that he was trying to break the rules and go his senior year and we're like, oh my god, how good could

he be in order to do that? Blah blah blah, And all of a sudden, from year one, it was instantaneously, Yes, he's that guy. He is him. You can make the Hall of Fame and still be a disappointment, and he is obviously he's what thirty seven years old, almost thirty eight, and he has continued continued to deliver when he should be in an NBA old folks home, he should be getting his NBA Aari peep card his NBA pension fund right now, and he is continuing to be transcendent. Bron

is transcendent. Rinaldo transcendent, so is Messi, so is neymar so is Imbape. Kobe Jordan rare enough to be known by one name, right, which is what brings me to Victor. We're already calling it brick for Vic right, tank for Wambanyama eighteen years old, seven to four, already been called the best NBA prospect in NBA history, better than Braun Right now, the hype on Victor Wembaniana is higher than Lebron James. Maybe it's social media, maybe it's the time

that we're in. Maybe it's the fact that Lebron James delivered on that. But talk about insane expectations. No one in Hoop since Lebron James, Ronaldo and Messi and soccer have had that kind of weight on them. None before playing a pro game. Victor Womaniana is playing pro in France. But you know what I'm talking about this game right. Tony Parker has seen this up close and personal. Parker was born in Belgium, grew up in France, became an

All Star and an NBA champion in San Antonio. He's known Victor since he burst on the scene, right, so he said in a recent INNA this My advice to Victor is to make sure he has his own expectations, because it's impossible to please everyone. Everyone's gonna think, oh yeah, you should play like this, Oh yeah, you should play like Kevin Durant. Just be you, though, have your own expectations. Very yoda, very yoda of Tony Parker. Don't you agree?

I do tremendous advice because while I just watched Messy dribble through traffic hit his teammate with an absolute nasty dime to give Argentina a goal against Croatias Croatia, And I asked myself, how great does Victor Wanbayama have to be in order to exceed those more than Lebron James expectations? And the answer is, I think he has to be the best player of all time. I think he has to be the best player of our generation, at least of his generation. The hype, I believe is that big.

And you could say like, oh yeah, yeah, Victor didn't ask for this, just like Zions I didn't ask for he was on the SI cover, he was supposed to be the next Lebron James. He's not saying he's going to be the greatest. He's not, but enough people as a groundswell are saying it. Enough. People are filming his pro games in France on ESPN. Who does that? They're only filming his right, it's already fucking up the way that we see him. Think pieces are dropping every single

week about him. They're following his every move. They're saying he's going to change the game as we know it, transcendent. They call him the unicorn because there's never been anyone like them, except for maybe Ralph Sampson. Right, who can live up? Can anyone live up to this hype that Victor Wamanyama is having right now. Lebron did rinaldo? Did un mess? He did? So? Parker had these final words to say about Victor. I'm just always worried because people

are putting him so high. I know, he says he's ready and he's ready to take on anything. But people, when they put you up so high like this and compare him to Lebron and Michael Jordan, it's almost unfair. He should have just been hiding in obscurity, just entered the draft. No one knows. I mean, we haven't seen these seven footers come out of nowhere before. But it was like someone discovered him and now he's it. Now he is him, and that is the world that we

live in. It's very unfair. Fair or not, he's going to be judged on whether or not he's better than what Lebron James became with the expectations, better than Rudy Gobert, better than Christabs porzingis, and is he some new variation of the greatest player we've ever seen. He'll never be compared to a guard, but he will be compared to Kevin Durant because he's seven foot tall and he's skinny as hell and he shoots threes. Think about Chet Holmgren,

same thing. Whether he ends up the next Lebron or the next Ronaldo remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure. Victor Wamanyama cannot be a bust. That would be a very very bad thing for the NBA. Nobody wants to be dark. Oh, nobody wants to be Freddie Adou and God forbid he's like Greg Odin or Sam Bouie. That would just be a goddamn shame. Charlotte

Hornets have slid under the radar. When you're a bad team and everyone knows you're gonna be bad, and then you are bad, it's like your inadequacies, your mediocrity even worse, like the train wreck that is your team, it just goes completely unnoticed, doesn't it. They have slid under the radar. I think for too long. No one in the NBA right now is playing worse defense than the Charlotte Hornets,

No one. They just they're giving up like one hundred and seventeen points per game, one hundred and seventeen point seven per game, that is twenty seventh in the NBA. They are twenty eighth in the NBA in rebounds allowed, twenty fourth in the NBA and assists allowed, twenty fourth in the NBA. In opponent field goal percentage, I mean, there's not a defensive metric that they do well. If you could find one, uh and tell me, let me know.

They're basically in the bottom quarter in every single category. And this is coming off of a season where their head coach was fired because they finished twenty seventh in the NBA in points given up With you guessed it same exact amount, one hundred and seventeen point one points per game. So actually are worse this year. They fired my man, James Brago Broad and Steve Clifford, and they

are statistically worse defensively than they were last year. So I took a lot of flak because I said that the Charlotte Hornets could be the worst team in sports. Maybe that's not true, Okay, James Dolan exists, no shade to James Dolan. Loved James Dolan, love your work, love your music, want to be at MSG. So we're good on that. You might say that Dan Snyder is worse, totally fair. You might say that Homie from the Suns, Robert Sarver, was worse. Okay, but all we know is

that they're in the dregs, all of them. Michael Jordan is in the dregs. But Steve Clifford, new coach Steve Clifford, but actually old coach Steve Clifford, because he was a head coach there once before, has had enough of the Charlotte Hornets bullshit. What did he do? He just destroyed him, not just destroyed him on the internet, not just destroyed him in private. He decided he was going to do a full dress down on video. Yes he did. Last

night is what happened. Charlotte Hornets went to OT against the Pistons, a team without Kid Cunningham. And let me remind you he's out for the year now. We should probably mention that because last episode we didn't know. In fifteen minutes after the episode got recorded, it was announced. I hate to see it. That's just life in the NBA circles, right, And this was Lamello's return after a

month on the aisle. Lamo ball fouls out with twenty nine point six seconds remaining in regulation and the Hornets crater. They lost one forty one thirty four in OT and Steve Clifford, I tell you what, he was big mad. This is what he did in his postgame presser, pretty much blowing up the bridge.

outscore people in the NBA. You can't. You can't, and you can't decide that you're not going to do the things that take effort, like rebounding or getting loose balls or putting your body in front of the ball. You can't. It just doesn't work that way. And that's what we're trying to do right now.

This is this is how they are. This is their entire moo. We put up buckets, we show fifty one to threes per game. We don't get back on defense. We yell at the ref. LaMelo is, legit the only player that has any interest in playing defense at all. LaMelo says, Oh, yeah, we gotta lock in on defense and figure that out. As soon as we do, we will turn this thing around. LaMelo ball defensive rating, I'm pretty sure is not commensurate with his desire to play defense.

One hundred and fourteen point three defensive rating for LaMelo Ball. So I want to be a supermodel, but you know what, I'm five to five. So it's just not happening for your girl. And that's what's happening for the Charlotte Hornets. You don't have the personnel to play defense. You have what we call chuckleheads on your roster, and many of them, and you don't have a ton of length and athleticism to make up for it on the back end. This is like, this is what we've been saying about Charlotte

for three years. I don't even know why Steve Clifford is ranting about this. This is something we just kind of all know. The Hornets now seven and twenty one worse than the Pistons, meaning currently the Charlotte Hornets have the worst record in the NBA, and the Charlotte Observer noted that the main reason that they are this bad is this. Staying in front of the guy with the ball, one of the most basic defensive principles, seems foreign to Charlotte.

Running back on defense to prevent the easy layup another concept seemingly hasn't been introduced. Folks, this is crazy. This is so insane, but like absolutely bonker stuff that we have to talk about. This the issue. There's no way to fix this, Like how do you get a guy or a team to buy into defense and just all of a sudden start strapping players, Like how do you get Terry Rozier to stop being like, yeah, I'm gonna cook. How do you stop Kelly Ubre from being like, yeah,

I cook, I'm a chucker. What I'm gonna play defense. Portland's probably the best example, and let's be honest, they're not like some juggernaut. For many years, the Portland Trailblazers worth thirtieth in defensive rating. They had to blow up their fucking roster to do it, too. They had to get new guys. Jeremy Grant, Josh Hart, Gary Payton the second he's not back yet, but he will be there. Niciir little had to get more time. You had to move CJ. McCollum. That was an absolute sieve on defense.

You had to figure out a way to get guys to protect Dame Lillard, who's an absolute sieve on defense. No shade Dame Lillard, Love you, Dame Lillard. That's prett much Charlott's teacher, is it not? Blow it all up? Get rid of everyone, get rid of everyone but Lamello Ball and protect him with guys who are wings who can defend. Figure it out. You're a team that's gonna be in the lottery. I don't know. Maybe they'll get

Victor Wambiniama, which would be a goddamn shame. Clifford ended his presser by saying all we want to be is let's outscore the other team. That doesn't work in the NBA never works. A more true, true statement never been said. He might have explained why he's going to be out of a job sooner than later. Because if you're allowing what like eleven uncontested layups per game to be made, I think that's what it is. I mean, you, sir,

are not doing the very basics of your job. Paul Silas an absolute bucket, Hall of Famer father of Rockets coach Stephen Silas has passed away. He's passed away this week, the age of seventy nine, a little too young. There's been a bunch of great restrospectives out there, think pieces google him because Silas was an absolute bucket as a player, definitely deserving of the Hall of Fame. But for me, the thing that's the most interesting about mister Silas is

he was a cold ass motherfucker. He was stone cold. He took shit from absolutely nobody, no one, and I could not love it more of old people that don't take shit like I love them, like hard rock old folks that's like yo, I will I will beat the shit out of you. If you wreck on me, that's him.

There are endless anecdotes about Silas's warm nature, but underneath him stone col killer Maurice Lucas said the first time he played against Silas as a player, He's like, yeah, I line up beside Silas at the start of the game. He barely speaks to me. The ref tosses the ball up and Silas elbows me in the face, knocks me out. That established how I would eventually play. Woo ooh, that's like hockey out there. The demeanor also carries over to

the coaching career, which I think is amazing. According to reports, Silas once benched Eric Snow when he didn't come off the court fast enough, which is an amazing reason to bench a player, and then he banishes him to the locker room. Here's another good one. While coaching the Calves, Silas gets in to it with forward Ira Nuby, a former Hawk he wanted to play against his old team in Atlanta, but did not see the court at all.

Paul Sillis was like, absolutely not so Newby comes after Silas right, and the altercation ends with Silas chasing Newby down the hall while screaming at nuby that he was a hip hop motherfucker finally the best one. Talking about Charlotte. He was coaching Charlotte in twenty twelve, so he gets into it with Bobcats player there the Bobcats at the time, Ty Thomas pins this dude up against a locker. Why what did he do? It was sogregeous, you might ask.

He was too friendly to the opposing team after a loss. Did I mention Silas was sixty eight at the time. Do you know how cold and mean and ruthless to be to pin a young man up that you are coaching up against a locker at sixty eight years old for something just kind of normal about the NBA? Insane. Another time, while coaching in Charlotte, seven foot center Disagona d'op dropped the N word in practice, Silas immediately stopped practice. And remember Diop is from West Senegal or Senegal in

West Africa. Excuse me, so English was like his second language, and he says, I used the N word when I was at school at Oak Hill Academy, but I didn't really know the meaning behind it. And Coach Silence went on to tell me the history the ugliness of the word and how it affected him while growing up. Big shout out to Paul Silas. What a what an interesting collection of anecdotes. And what I loved about all the anecdotes, Nubie Thomas d'opp They all loved him. They weren't wrecking

his name when they told these stories. They were friendly with him, They were tight with him. They said he Knubi said, he's one of the coaches I treasure and I appreciate playing for the most. The guy who called him the hip hop motherfucker and chased him down the hall. That's like one of his favorite coaches. Like, imagine being chased by an irate coach and it's like, yeah, that's the best coach I've ever played for. He must have

been awesome and other ways. His legacy lives on. Following the Rocket's recent victory over the Suns, Manni Williams embraced Steven Silas, which, by the way, you had to know that the Rockets were gonna win that game. He had just come back from a one game bereavement leave and on the verge of breaking down. MANI held his embrace and Silas just melted into his arms. Nothing would have made Paul Silas more proud of Mani and Steven than that,

So rip to an NBA legend. That is all the time that we have for The Heat Check will be back Monday night, so Tuesday morning with an all new episodes. Check out the feed for past episodes and past many episodes for pretty much dropping every day follow the Heat Check. We are full swing right now. The NBA is hot, hot, hot, Do not forget to download, please subscribe, Please tell your friends,

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