On this episode of the Eat Check. It's a Friday, folks, Happy Friday. I am heading to Glendale, Arizona tomorrow for the Final Four to watch my Yukon Huskies. I don't actually have any real allegiance to them except for money, but to watch my Yukon Huskies go to the national title game. Julius Rando, by the way out for the season. That is fucking terrible. Doc Rivers continues on the blame train. We play the blame game. I love you bucks, obviously
are thinking. That's why that's happening. We introduce you to Evil Dante DiVincenzo aka Malachi Flint, and now we can judge whether the league's sixty five game mandate was a success or not. So come on, Anthony, do me a favorite, folks, Let's get right into it and drop that motherfucking beat. They should be.
Rihanna all right, as we have no cute stories.
At the end of the season, we got like the biggest probably development is that probably the Sacramento Kings are going to ride this thing out into a play and that's the only way they can get into the playoffs. They had a massive lead tonight or last night. I guess because you're listening to this tomorrow on the New York Knicks, And guess what they did. They let it all slip away, and I think they still lost by double digits and a game that they were three and
a half point dogs too, So terrible, terrible stuff. Kawi tweaked his back, he might miss in time. Clippers lose to the Nuggets. They are going to try to figure out how to get Harden to like be a good version of Harden, Like, oh, you don't say, Trista Harden is like not good at the end of the season or in the postseason. You don't really, you're shocked. Also, put the stake through the Rocket's heart and they locked
up a play in tournament spot. And ad finally says the quiet power aloud when he admits that he and Braun checked themselves back into a game that the Lakers needed to win without telling to Darvin Ham. Not a lot of huge stories, but pretty interesting. I tell you what. After two months out though, this is the big story. Julius Randall will have season ending shoulder surgery. Why didn't he just have surgery earlier? I guess he was hoping
that at some point he come back. This is just a very significant blow to a team that desperately needs additional wing help. Like Josh Hart is a fine player, right, Like he's fine, but when we're asking Josh Hart to play forty minutes and hey, Josh, give me a triple double. Josh Hart was like a random bench god off the Portland Trailblazers that they got a late first round pick for and we got to have Josh Hart be the main Dude, that's tough. They are now gonna miss Randall's
size as well as his offense, I'm sure. To his credit, Randall's devastated. We are devastated by the news. He tried to come back, but the decision was made by him and his team and probably the Knicks to undergo surgery. And that means that the Knicks hope this season falls squarely on the return of Ogn and Obi in that elbow, Oh the Mows. I talked about Og in the context of my question of a question to my co host Ryan Horvaught that we asked on the other show, but
I'm Jim tonight. He asked what players have the most to lose and to gain in the playoffs this year and for me, it's og and Andobi. Here's a snippet of our conversation.
So I was thinking about this last night, and I also kind of ripped it off of ESPN, which I usually don't even look at their website. I don't watch espno other than Scott van Pelt. Shout out Scott van Pelt at night, yep.
But they had the.
Topic and it was who has the most to gain in the end playoffs? And I was thinking who has the most the game? But I'm a negative guy, so I was thinking who has the most to lose? And I was thinking Jason Tatum, right, because I'm a big JT guy. A couple of years ago, I had the NBA finals futures when Boston started really slow, and then last year I had more Boston futures and they didn't even make it to the finals or the conference finals because they got beat by the Heat, which nobody expected
because they were a playing team. And the last couple of years, I know he's dealt with some injuries, but I don't know, man, Jason Tatum, if he wants to be the face of the I'm not even gonna say the face of the league because there's so many dudes now, Jokic, Yannis, But I mean he's the best player on the best team in the Eastern Conference, the best team in the league.
But if they don't get the job done, and if he doesn't show up and have the clutch stats, the clutch numbers, like I legitimately think he has to.
Average thirty plus the entire playoffs, right.
For Tatum, if he doesn't get the job done and they get bounced early, and he averages twenty two to twenty three points per game, shoots like forty percent, turns the ball over a bunch.
How's he viewed next year? Is he still considered like an MVP candidate, a top ten five player in this league because it's all about the playoffs, it really is.
Yeah, I don't think so.
I'd say he has the most to lose in the entire playoffs.
I think he's like a top nine or ten player right now. Maybe yeah, but definitely nowhere near the top five.
No, I don't think so either. I mean, it's so tough right now, though it changes like every year.
Jokic, Yannis, em Bead obviously, who else?
I mean, Steph is still Steph's.
Not better five? Yes, He's not better than Steph. He's not better than Lebron.
He's say I still got Lebron in my top five. I don't care how old.
He's not better than Kawhi.
I mean, he's not better than a lot of people. I would rather have Dame Lollard than Jason Tatum. Really yeah, I mean Dame Lillard has shown to be very clutch in many, many situations, more than Jason Tatum.
Player do you think has the most to gain? I'm gonna go with Aunt Edwards.
I think like if Minnesota makes a run, he's so good, and I still.
Feel like him and Shay.
I feel like there's still people and now Shay's at least on some commercials and if you're watching March Madness, like he can't get enough Shay and chat. But I'm gonna go with Aunt because I still feel like there's people that don't know about him. And he could go off for thirty forty any night. He could put anybody out poster and he's still a baby, like he's still a kid.
He's still got baby fat on him.
He's like the closest thing to Kobe Michael Jordan I could remember, and he's a killer.
Is obviously a big one. Carl Anthony Towns is a big one. If he can play well, come back in the playoffs, end up, I'll say him, but I'll tell you why, and then I have one other as well. But if he can come in and stay out of foul trouble, not be the baby cry baby that we've known him to be when there's adversity, If him and Rudy can play together and keep that defense really solid in the half court game, I think the Timberwolves as
a whole have a lot to gain. But another player that has a ton to gain and also a lot to lose is og Anobi. Og Anobi is a free agent this offseason, and he wants four years, one hundred and seventy million dollars. If he's not healthy and he can't play in that first round, or if he's not effective, the Knicks are going to have a hard time giving
him that money. And I think there are other teams that probably are less palatable or less savory that will be suitors of his and may even offer him less money. So if he wants to be a Nick and he wills his bread, he better show out. And that's maybe why he's sitting out right now is to just get that inflammation down until it's absolutely critical that he plays, because he can play right now. I'm telling you he could play right now. It would be slightly painful, but
he would do it and he would be effective. We saw in the game against the Kings and then the Warriors, he basically had like a dead shooting arm. Yeah, he couldn't even lift it. He wants to play through pain, but that's not a good idea. So for him, I think he has a lot to gain and lose.
Yeah, I was gonna say.
That's the other thing I was gonna do right before we got to the playoffs, and I do it every single year. Is I'm gonna look at upcoming free agents, not gonna I'm not gonna like blindly bet their props like people do with the NFL incentives. Odell Beckham Junior needs thirteen grabs and he's gonna make an extra seventy five k.
Oh.
Yeah, I'm sure Odell Beckham Junior is gonna go out there and catch fourteen passes for seventy five K.
But I am gonna look at guys like Jalen Brunson, a couple of years ago for the Dallas Mavericks that are dirt. It's a contract here because you know they're gonna ball out in the playoffs to get the big money deal. So that's a really good point about OG. I was looking at Pascal siakam, but then they extended Indiana because I think I don't think the Pacers could win a playoff series, but if they get the right matchup, like we talked about last night, I would love to
see them against Milwaukee. I know Milwaukee fans don't want to see that, but I really want to see that matchup.
I don't think that they've extended up.
They didn't.
I thought that they when they made the trade that they signed him up for or signed him up, that they extended them for three years.
No, certainly.
Yeah, I see he's a UFA right now, but I thought that that was wrong.
Uhh No, Well, then I might be looking at some Pascal Siaka props when we get there.
Yeah. I think OG needs to play as well as humanly possible in order to get his GWOP. Like I think he's trying to get four years, one hundred and twenty million dollars, trying to get thirty mili a year. He could play his way like he's trying to get his gwop, or he could play his way out of it.
And as for the Knicks, I like their chances of winning a first round matchup, especially if they catch the Cavaliers, but with doubt, Julius Randall and a banged up og Anobi, it's gonna be tough sledding in New York for them to be the contender that we were hoping for them to be, someone that maybe could make some noise and shake things up. Give the Boston Celtics or the Milwaukee Bucks a little scared, and now nobody's scared. Moving forward. In other news, Ah, Doc, Doc, Doc, Why why does
he do it? Like? What is the deal? You know? This is great content, right, we love that. We love it when Doc, like an AI generated human being walking the earth, blesses us with gold quotes of ignorant gold. But I just do not understand why he says these things out loud. I say a lot of things out loud I should not say. But it would take me getting aggregated about two times for me to be like, I should be more careful with the words that I choose.
This means this right, and he, no matter what's going on, won't say hand up, I'm struggling. Hand up, I got some things to clean up on my end. So who is Doc Rivers blaming? Now? At first, he blamed his own team, the players, their heads are not into the game. He blamed when he came on to the team, and like how late in the season it was, and how coming in around the All Star Game is just no one would know. Let me say, like, this is not a job that I would wish on anyone to coach.
Damian Lillard and Jannis On Dedakupo the latest man, I would not want to be an intern in this office right now. The latest is the Doc Rivers and the Bucks have lost four of the five games last five, including losses to the Wizards and the Memphis Grizzlies by double digits on the road, like the Memphis Grizzlies have.
I didn't even know we're on the team. Did you know Scottie Pippen Junior was on the Memphis Grizzlies or did you think maybe he was still on the LA Lakers because I did, No, No, he's getting buckets right now. They've lost eight of the last fourteen games. The Bucks are now fifteen and fifteen in his tenure as the head coach. Remember, Adrian Griffin got fired for being thirty and thirteen, So what could it have been? How could he be blaming someone so obscure that he becomes a
segment on this show. Let's take againder shall we?
It's funny. I've actually been sitting back and watching everything, not just our players, but our travel crew, everything, and I've made a lot of notes. I will say that I won't share that, but we don't bring the necessary professionalism seriousness on the road, and that's something that we can fix. Uh, that's something we're gonna have to fix.
I have a co worker who went to Vegas with me and he was out every night till three, four am, and the boss kept seeing them out. For whatever reason, they just kept running into each other. The boss was just waking up for the day, getting his steps in, and my co host was just coming back for the night. Nothing wrong with that. Like poker doesn't start until midnight, you get on a heater. Who knows that's fine? Right? But like when I hear that, I'm like, man, more
people trying to hold our guys down. Doc Rivers knows the players go out on the road. I don't know what the fuck the travel crew though, Like you're blaming what does that even mean? The travel crew? Is there a part of this NBA ecosystem that I don't quite fully comprehend, cause like, the travel crew in my mind, and I must be ignorant, I must be. The travel crew in my mind, is like booking the flights, getting the hotels that are preordained destined for you because it's
the same team hotel in every fucking NBA city. It's the same one every time. It's like the Rits or the Four Seasons every time, so they get near your hotels. But you got a flight, but it's a chartered flight, so that's taken care of. You got the equipment managers, you got the guys giving out per diem. What is the travel crew? I don't under like, can someone explain to me what that is? And he's like, I'm making notes and a lot of them, but I'm not gonna
share what those notes are to you. It feels I'm gonna say it and it's not gonna sound good, but it feels very Trumpian. And I've been making a lot of notes, but I will not share what they are. Like lots of notes. I've got the greatest notes. I've got so many notes, books and books and notes. So then I'm like, Okay, this clip could not get worse, and it does. Let's check that out.
As a coaching staff, we have to figure out what we need to do different as far as practices and training as a travel staff, not talking players. We may have to do something different there too, because something's missing. And everybody seems happy, you know, but except for me after a game.
Except for me, everybody seems happy except for me. Oh man, who's happy?
You think Dame's happy, he's getting DMPs, he's literally like injured. You think Chris Middleton with his inflamed ankles and knees, You think he's fucking happy. You think Johannis right now is happy with you at fifteen and fifteen.
You think that John Horst is happy that he has three guys, three different men a on the payroll for the exact same job, and none of them are doing it well. Two guys are at home and they're doing it better than the current guy. No one's happy right now. No Bucks fan is happy right now, doc more like nurse Rivers. Holy shit, this man, how does he do? How does he find new ways to plat past the blame baton? I swear to God, when Milwaukee flames out in the first round, I would not want to be
the cowboy. I promise you that, because you're getting thrown under the bus. You better watch out now. Put in your resignation in game six when the Bucks are up, cause it's coming.
That melt folks is coming.
All right, let's move forward. So I did a video about this on social but it's just so improbable that I needed to dig into this deeper. I'm talking about Malachi Flyn. What's up with Malachi Flynn? Oh? You know, just just a role player who made NBA history by putting up fifty six and five off the bench, which no one in NBA history has ever done ever in life. Ever, all the NBA players that have come in come out ones that have just been the sixth Man of the Year,
the Jamal Crawfords of the world. Nope, it's Malachi Flynn alone on the rock by himself. So we got to break it down. In the season of incredible scoring feats, no more shocking stat line than that if you missed it, no one blames you. Guess who's putting up fifty points? The Evil Dante DiVincenzo aka Malachai Flynn. He's a throw in, So who is he? He was a throw win in two trays this season. This season came off the bench for the Pistons. He became the third non starting player
in NBA history with fifty. The thing that's crazy is like he shot eighteen for twenty five. He went five for nine from three, meaning he was shooting every seventy five seconds and like in not like game time, in real time, and like like set your clock to a time. So where is he from? He spent three and a half years with the Raptors, had a decent rookie year, but of course when you play for Nick Nurse and you're not over twenty seven, you're probably not getting any minutes.
He went from twenty minutes a game to thirteen minutes a game, and then he was moved, got traded from Toronto to New York and then worse situation, right just been much like probably worse Nick Nurse, Tom Thibodeau. You're either playing thirty minutes for Nick nurse or you're playing three minutes for Tom Thibodau, which is exactly what he was doing. He was so deep on the bench we didn't even know he was there except for that he looked strangely like the other guy on the team getting
a lot of minutes. Donte Divinceenzo, and then he gets shipped off to Detroit in the Evan Fournier deal, which sent Quinton Grimes and Evan Fournier to Detroit in return. Boy On Bogdanovich and Alec Burks thought it was a good trade. In the hindsight, it was not the only problem. Monty Williams, third coach for Malachi Flynn, who also hates young guys, doesn't want to play him, does not want to play him. Dude cannot catch a break. So he decided on that night, on that fateful night, he was
gonna make his own breaks. Yeah, you put me in the game, coach, and I am lighting it up. Played about fifteen minutes a game until the past week that he comes off the bench in the first quarter against the Hawks and then proceeds to immediately go nuclear nuclear folks, twisting diving floaters, mid range jumpers off balance threes for three and one. He even had time made time for three steals as well, was everywhere all at once like the film that won the Oscar, And of course, of
course the Pistons lost. Still in his incredible game won eighteen win twelve. A lot of people, like Malkai Flynn, I believe outside of going to Wazoo, he went to Santio State, but I cannot be sure. And to be fair, he did average nineteen five and five the last five games of his rookie year. But I don't know that anybody saw this coming, except for maybe Dante DiVincenzo, who
probably shares a brain with him. Let's see how long it takes though, because Monty Williams, he's like, hey boy, hey man, hey sir, you're.
Going back to the bench.
Moving on, quick question, how do you think the Leeds load management rules have gone this year? New rule, new situation. How are we doing? What's up? It was? This major change impacts things like MVP, all NBA lots of money. Of course, so we're starting to get a clearer idea of how it's impacted the game. The results actually shockingly kind of like the playing tournament pooh poot hated, dismissed positive. This season, the following players have surpassed it's their previous
five year average for games played. Zion has played sixty five games compared to his thirty eight game average. Kawhi has played sixty eight games compared to his fifty two game average. Paul George sixty nine games nice compared to his fifty three game average. Lebron sixty seven games compared to his fifty three game average. Anthony data Day Davis seventy one games compared to a fifty game average. Kevin Durant has played sixty nine games nice compared to his
forty five game average. Others who should surpass sixty five games this year CJ.
McCollum.
He played sixty games opposed to forty nine in his five game average, five year game, five year average per each year. You know what I'm trying to say. You know what I'm saying, Brandon Ingram. He's played sixty three games before his injury compared to his fifty three game average for the year. Not easy to say, you know what I'm trying to say. Steph Curry played sixty nine games as well, opposed to his fifty one game five year average and the most games. By the way he's
played since twenty sixteen. Twenty seventeen, Luca will have played more games than at any time since his rookie year. You get the point. The list goes on and on. Safe to say, Adam Silver is fucking elated. Other than Joe el Embiid going down with a very substantial injury that kept him from being a true MVP candidate, the new rules have been pretty pretty pretty good, and what stan Van Gundy said about Zion might apply to the rest of the league as well. Run them, run them
like the horses that they are. Just run them, run them around the track, don't let them slow down the don't let them sit down, don't let him stand down. Yeah, I remember Sam and Gunny was like, Hey, all all Zion needs to do is just play as much as possible. That's the truth. That's the trick from Duke and until he busts through his shoes, keep that man, he's a run in. So these guys playing on days that they normally might have rested because the new league rules might
keep them playing all the court. That's all the time that we after this episode, the heat check come back Monday for an all new episode, and check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes which drop unexpectedly, like Doc Rivers blaming the travel team. Don't know what that means. Do not forget to follow the heat Check.
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