Cure. You're listening to The Hottest The Hottest.
It be a podcast out here. I said what I said, it's the.
Check. It's just.
On this episode of The Heat Check. Oh holy hell.
We got a loaded show today, had an entire episode done, and then you know what happened. Draymond Green decided he was gonna function it up, give somebody in the show calls, made it all about himself again, So we pushed it until today vain is popping in the middle of the head. Just wait, folks, until we get our social clips up. I also have things to say about a team that I think just might be destined for disaster, a team that's very similar to the star Players last team. We
gotta talk about the Phoenix Suns. I get also into who is hot and who is cold right now in the NBA. Can't, in terms of cold, an entire team minus one guy who's actually just in a pajamas sitting on the.
Sidelines currently living in a freezer.
I asked, sincerely, what's the fucking happening with the Washington Wizards.
Can we touched on some news from around the league. Let's get right into a Williams drop That motherfuck Okay, before we get into the real show.
Let's break down a little breaking news coming out of the alcohol speed. Yes, it's got an apronym. That's what Adam Silver wanted, so that's what we give him. The end season tournament, folks. For those who don't know, Steph Curry was ruled out of the Minnesota Timberwolves game, which meant that the Warriors would be playing their ist game without the guy who has led the team in literally every way this year. And shit hit the fan fact, oh boy, just after tip off, this is what happened.
Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels.
Got into a down the court scuffle, little little something something. It wasn't quite a fight, but it was not quite not a fight. And then Wolves center Rudy.
Gobert comes up and he's like yo yo, yo, yo yo.
So he tries to pull Klay Thompson off of Jaden McDaniels. And at this point, what would you do if you were Draymond Green, the most predictable thing on.
The planet right? Watch this?
By god, that Raymond Greens. Oh man, Yes, Draymond Green, like the WWE superstar that he is, Royal rumble. He decided he was going to put Rudy Gobert in a choke hold for many seconds.
That was the part he did not let up.
It wasn't like as soon as things got a little more cool down that he decided he would.
Let him go.
No, no, he did what he thought was right, which was to just drag him across the floor. All hell broke, loose, benches cleared, refs went crazy. Adam Silver cackled, knowing the intensity is additional for the ist.
That's what we want. A little passion, a little stuff never hurt nobody.
And eventually they got Draymond to relax, and then of course he gets booted from the game. Klay Thompson gets booted from the game, and then the Warriors went crazy as they do.
You know, it's one of those dead.
Cat bounced type of moments where you're like, oh god, this is the time where the Warriors actually beat Wolves, the third number one in defensive rating. And no, no, no, no, the Wolves that we have been knowing were wet paper tissues, they actually have turned into some hard rocks. Why because Anthony Edwards exists and the defense is really good. So the Wolves come from behind and they leave the Warriors at five hundred from the year nine to one.
You will not be after the game though. Rudy, Rudy, Rudy, Rudy.
He said the following He did two things, he said, which is why he has a reputation for being a little bit. He said, Draymond was grabbing me. He's grabbing me. Oh ma, Frey, he's grabbing me. The choke wasn't good enough. Yeah, it wasn't enough for me to really have to go to sleep. But he tried, He tried really hard, but it wasn't good enough where I felt like I was really in danger of falling asleep. It was a long time, and if he knew how to choke, it could have
been way worse. Rudy shut the fuck up, and I kept my hands up the entire time to show the officials I WI and trying to escalate the situation.
Why how does Rudy do this?
How does he make something so one sided feel like, actually, maybe you deserved it, Rudy. I don't know how it's possible, but there may be no more unlikable man on the planet than Rudy Gobert, which is why, when given the opportunity Draymond said, let's do it for everyone in the pandemic. Let's do it for everyone who had to sit in their house and not get access to a court because
Rudy Gobert gave the NBA COVID. But then Rudy Redeems himself says something that kind of made me sort of kind of like him again.
He said, it's.
Kind of funny because before the game, I was telling myself, well, Steph's not planned, and I know Draymond's gonna try and get himself ejected because every time Steph doesn't play, he doesn't want to play, Sir perfect, He called them an expensive backpack for thirty to his face, you should have just stuck with that, my guy, because that's along the same lines as Jordan Poole, who got him off Knock the fuck out for saying something quite similar. Rudy ended
it by saying it was clown behavior. Of course, it was clown behavior. I am sure that we.
All have opinions about Draymond Green again. He's getting suspended. Let's be honest, he really is.
He can't stay out of his own way. Joe Dumars came out, and Silver came out, there's gonna be an investigation, there's gonna be inarbows. What else do you need to interview anyone about?
We all saw it.
That's the end, Draymond Green, probably three game suspension, and once again the Warriors, who are struggling badly will have to play as many as ten games without a key piece Draymond and maybe Steph at a time when they.
Look fucking terrible.
Yet again, Draymond Green might just fuck up another year of Steph's prime with his Shenanigans.
Let's move forward. We all talked about these Phoenix Suns. I am fired up.
I don't even know what to make of them. Honestly, deep down in the recesses where I put those thoughts that maybe kind of shouldn't be said out loud. All I've been thinking is are the Phoenix Suns the Brooklyn Nets of the West? Are they Brooklyn Nets two point zero? Are they the Brooklyn Nets with better roads? Just three years ago, I was stumping for the Suns Sons in
for everybody remembers, everybody remembers, and I regret it. Look at this mess in Phoenix and I'm like, yeah, been there, done that.
This team's not a contender.
The Suns are currently four and six, but that is not telling the whole story. What we might be witnessing is the circle of history coming back like Ora Boris the snake that eats its own tail.
And the question that I have is, how did anyone not see this coming? How did they not see it?
Big three comes together in spectacular unlikely fashion, and guess what, and guess what and guess what. They can't stay healthy, they can't play games together. Let's take a look at how the first ten.
Games of the season have gone.
In the preseason preview, I talked about with the Suns what I liked about them, which is, despite the fact that they traded away pretty much all their assets, you know, they got some depth, They did add some They ended up getting Utah Watt Nabe, Eric Gordon. They were in the lynchpin of the Damian Lillard trade. They landed them miss your little use of Nurkic and Grayson Allen. But I said it and I meant it. This whole thing only works if Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Kevin Durant
are all healthy playing basketball games at critical moment. And here we are, like clockwork, they are banged up again. We are not even ten games through this thing. Bradley Beal has missed seven of the ten games. Devin Booker surprisingly has missed eight of the ten games, which leaves thirty six year old, injury prone Kevin Durant to shoulder the burden thirty six minutes per game, oftentimes single handedly carrying the offense against double and triple teams.
Folks, we should be concerned.
Also, we should also pause and just give a little moment for Kevin Durant, at thirty six years old, still balling, and people are slandering.
His name saying he's washed. He is not.
Everyone has talked about Steph, everyone has talked about Lebron, how they are defying their age and how amazing it is and impressive it is. But neither are facing what Kevin Durant, a thirty six year old, thirty five year.
Old is doing on a ninth to night basis.
And all he's done so far is average thirty seven and five on fifty percent from the field and forty three percent from three and not a goddamn person wants to talk about Kevin Durant. The problem, though, of course, is he just can't put that much load on his little legs. Eventually, sat is not a matter of if. It's a matter of when his body breaks down. Ankle issues, foot issues, achilles issues issues, kneat issues. All of those are injuries Kevin Durant has.
Already at Here's what else is going wrong with the Suns if you wanted more.
The defense not good, not consistently good enough whatsoever. They rank fourteenth in defensive rating and that sounds probably better than it actually is. It doesn't tell the whole story either. While they do block a bunch of shots, that's a testament really to how unafraid teams are of going to the rim against them. You know why, because use of Nurkic fucking sucks. He is terrible, absolutely horrible in the paint.
I know this as a Blazer fan. Enjoy them, enjoy them great, big, great culture guy can't protect the room for shit. Offsetting that is that only three teams get more shots blocked than the Suns do.
Yikes.
Another important stat is that the Suns are twentieth and steals per game, which means not a lot of opportunities for free baskets for our guys. Secondly, they turn the ball over way too much, allowing a lot of steals sixteen point eight turnovers per game that is third worst in the NBA. Killing them in transition, so many easy buckets.
Eric Gordon, Grayson, Allen kd Nurkic. None of them are fast.
Let's be real, none of them are getting back into transition, and they.
Lack a true point guard. I would be happy with campaign if I was them. And now you know what's happening.
We've got Kevin Durant being like, hey, Alex Cruise is one hell of a talent.
He's not just a role player. He'd fit on any team.
You know. That's how it's going. Also, they should probably get like a Tias Shones. They are twenty seventh in the league at assist to turnover ratio, which is where they probably miss Chris Paul the most. Finally, there's so many things wrong. It's like a laundry list. It's a CBS receipt list of how many things are wrong with the Phoenix Suns. They are so bad on the fourth quarter. They are fucking terrible. How bad they're worse.
In the NBA. They are worse than the Knicks.
They are worse than the Warriors. They are worse. They are worse in the They're worse than the Blazers. They are worse than the Pistons. They are near the bottom. Phoenix has been outscored by an average of six point one points in the fourth quarter this season, and they rank at or near the bottom in nearly every way that you can measure it. Defensively, offensively, It's just bad. They have no one that they can reliably go to in the fourth quarter to set the offense up and
get a buckhead. Here's what Kevin Hicks from Sports Illustrated said, hit the nail on the head. The new look Suns are way too undisciplined with the basketball. For the relative amount of talent and basketball IQ, the roster possesses far too many lazy reads, possessions with little off ball movement, and far too many good.
Opportunities that do not get converted.
In their last game against the OKC Thunder, they entered the fourth quarter up eighty six eighty What do you think, heaven? The only Sons to score a bucket in the entire fourth quarter were Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, and the Sons got outscored thirty one thirteen and lost by twelve to the OKC thunder. This is not a bug, this is a feature. This is not an anomaly.
It's a pattern.
On October twenty six, the Lakers outscored the Suns twenty eight to eleven in the last twelve minutes.
The Lakers aren't so great in fourth quarters either, baby.
And then on October thirty first, Wemby and the Spurs outscored them in the fourth quarter thirty three to nineteen. Their fourth quarter scoring is abysmal. Boy, both games, the Sun's lost. Frank Vogel, Oh man, I've got things to say about Frank Vogel.
Just not today. He's preaching patients. When isn't he? When isn't he? He's got a five year deal?
And I get it, But didn't we hear this for nearly two goddamn years in Brooklyn?
Just wait, it's gotta gel. Everything's God come together. I go wanna wait.
We waited and we waited, and we waited in Brooklyn and guess what, Guess what, guess what? It never fucking happened. And then we have one star. Ask out, we have another star, ask out? We have another Star, Star, ask out, and now it's bad times in Brooklyn. Brooklyn got exactly sixteen games where Harden, Kyrie, and Katie played.
At the same time.
I hope history is not repeating itself in Phoenix, but I suspect it's just my way.