On this episode weed Check trying to put a little pretty little bow on the NBA season, talking about our biggest surprises, the least surprising moments and things that ended up coming to fruition, biggest disappointments, things we saw coming, and of course our favorite moments from the past. NBA season always one of my favorite shows to look forward to, just recapping kind of getting the overarching sort of bow
on it. That makes sense, all right, Brock, do me a favor and get me out of this word vomits and drop that beat. Welcome to the busy season of the NBA. There is no busier time where more shoe is constantly popping than right now. Nothing nothing more popping than the week of the draft. Free agency kicks off on June thirtieth. We rolled directly into Summer League where we get to see all of those rookies and has been trying to show themselves to the world. Also betting
the Summer League second year gonna be electric. Let's just say that me up in Thomas and Mack Center on my little bet mgm app Degeneracy. All games of the Summer League are televised this year, every single one. I don't even know how that's possible. But TNT and ESPN made that, or NBA TV and t N ESPN made that shit happen. TNT would have been wild. I will be on the ground from Summer League the entire time. We'll be doing some live shows.
So let's talk about it.
Let's talk about first and foremost, the biggest surprise for me this NBA season. Boston got good out of nowhere. Addition, by subtraction, they got rid of Fournier, they got rid of Kemba, and we said, yeah, that makes sense. Those pieces didn't really work there. They didn't really add anyone of note until you know the trade deadline, but it
was Derek White. So they did everything that they did with the same core that they've had for many years, and they got to the finals and it looked like they could have had an opportunity to become NBA champs. Emay Udoka finally got his team to buy into defense after ditching the guys who didn't want to play defense, and Josh Richardson and Dennis Shrewder and Nnis cant time. Lord was a massive surprise with how good he ended
up being very important piece to this team. He was leading blocks, lead the leader in blocks in every location on the court this season, every single location, threes, every part.
Rob Williams held it down.
The two J's showed the world that they could play together. Marcus Smart found his way into the bedroom of an NBA reporter so that he could so that he could propagandize himself into a DPOY Defensive Player of the Year trophy. Good for Marcus Smart. So that's probably the biggest, one of the biggest surprises. Another one, the Nets went from I went back and listened to me and your first episode, Brock,
and I said something crazy. I said, if the Nets can be healthy, fully healthy, they will be stratospheres above everyone else. And I was like, yee. I listened back, and I go, yee, that's me. Three minutes into our Eastern Conference preview. We did also say that the Nets were in more turmoil than any other team in the NBA, and that ended up being the case. But scary hours never happened. Hard never ended up being in shape. Kyrie
never ended up being there full time. Blake Griffin regressed to Detroit Blake Griffin, LaMarcus regressed to San Antonio LaMarcus. All eyes were on the Nets and all eyes said, God, no, please let me get this off my television. Turns out we never really got to see the Nets fully healthy. Katie Hard and Kyrie only played sixteen games together. Sixteen games they were a seven seed, not a one seed
like we thought that they should be got swept. Now that there are rumors that the Nets and Kyrie are at an impasse with their contract negotiations and so he might be looking for another destination as well, which means, folks, if Kyrie goes, then you have to imagine that Kevin Durant will go, and then you have to imagine that Ben Simmons will go and we'll go fully into rebuild mode again. So you're talking about a team that had Kyrie, Kady, had Harden at one point, had Jared Allen before Harden
had Karris Lavert, had Joe Harris. This team is now it's like a radioactive nuclear warhead went off into this franchise because you look around and it's just it's just everything, all signs of life are gone. So that is that is wild because everyone thought that this team was going to be the leader in the clubhouse to win it off for the next three to five years with these
these three talents on the same squad. Crazy least surprising thing Philly not being a contender truthfully, and beide, I said, is going to have to show me he can play more than seventy five percent of the game. The bench is shaky. I do not think this team is contending. And yes, that all came to fruition. Except for that they ended up finding a way to get James Harden. Wild turn of events that did not help them in
any actually probably hurt them. Daryl Morey told the world he was gonna get multiple first rounders for Ben Simmons. It turns out he had to give up multiple first rounders to get rid of Ben Simmons and acquire James Harden. So there was that. Now there's a lot of speculation about James Harden, how long his extension would be for Some people are saying it's only going to be three year deal instead of a max five year deal. Philly,
as you know, is now looking to trade everyone. Two franchises with high hopes, two franchises that are now literally decimating their roster to do what I have no idea. Probably the Warriors winning a title is the most the most surprising thing for me, but that was that was wild biggest disappointment. Lakers and the Nets. Lakers we knew weren't gonna be much. The Lakers we knew were gonna have spacing issues with Russell Westbrook. The Nets were disappointment,
as I've said, but they're kind of tied. They're kind of tied, and the Lakers now have gotten rid of Frank Vogel. They've got a new head coach, Russell Westbrook, showing up to his press conferences standing in the room like a mob boss waiting to collect the money that you owe. And I'm not sure that they get any better moving forward. Worst prediction of the year two two of them Golden State being a seven seed and getting bounced out of the first round of the playoffs. They
are a champion. They are champions. Nothing that needs to be said. I watched all of the Warriors parade today and I ingested it all and I was like, they're talking about me. Draymond was like, shut the fuck up, shut up, shut up. We hate all y'all except for Warriors fans. It's like yo, yikes. Also Bucks versus Suns, I thought they would go to the finals again, I lost a smooth one hundred and fifty dollars on that prediction. So wild, not exactly something. They looked both good and
let's just be honest, the Suns all had COVID. They all had COVID for Game seven. That's now been widely reported. I've known this for months. I've been keeping it to myself like a little canary, wanting to share, wanting to share, wanting to share.
But they all had COVID.
They did hard to play basketball when you can barely breathe and keep your head on straight. And the Bucks lost Chris Middleton, So I mean, what are you gonna do? One team has COVID, the other one loses their second option on offense. So that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes, folks. That's why it's a hard and arduous path to get to a championship. Things I could not see coming Eighten and the turmoil with the Suns. What this guy was a key piece. Chris Paul's been simping and standing for
DeAndre Ayton for since he got there. DA needs to get paid. It's only a matter of time. Be patient, DA, Your time will come. Everything's happening, No he's just gonna walk now. The writing is now on the wall. I never thought it would get to the point where the sons were like, we will take h We'll take Rudy Gobert and a first round pick for Adon. Like. I never thought it would get to the point where it's like, hmm,
what do we need? What do we need? Just give us a couple of Give us a random Jeff Green, Give us a Joe Harris. We just want to get rid of him for something. Give us a couple of first round picks. We'll use JaVale McGee. It's like what I thought. You guys loved DA number one overall pick good had Luca, but you didn't you have Da.
What's happening? And then the whole quitting on his.
Team thing, YadA, YadA, various. A shocker situation for me from a team that has said nothing but positives. If you look back at their finals run last year, all they talked about is how DA was the guy that did all the dirty work. DA doesn't want any credit. DA doesn't want any praise. He just goes out there and he does his job. He plays his role. He could have a bigger role other places. But he knows what it takes to win a championship. And now it's like, no,
he's lazy, he's lazy, he's not that good. Like WHOA, what a turn of events. He's now the number one free agent name in all the NBA teams like Utah, Toronto, Atlanta just frothing at the mouth, Portland frothing at the mouth to get da do it, Portland do it. Another thing, speaking of Portland, I did not see this happening is Dame having season ending surgery on his abdomen. The man couldn't even stand up without being in pain, couldn't sit
down without being in pain. Portland then actively tanking. Team's never done that in the history of the team. When you're sitting guys like Calgan Blevins, you're sitting on because he's too good. Trend in Watford, our guy, our cleaning lady at five point fifteen PM as as she normally does. And Drew and.
Drew not blood celt Drew U Banks.
That's it, Yes, Drew U Banks and this team with a new GM INTERIMGM just clearing the entire decks, getting.
Rid of you know, they're like, this is the house that Neil built.
It's like, no, let's take a bulldozer to everything that Neil ever did except for Damian Lillard. All things must go. Let's try to get the number one pick. That was a shocker to me New Orleans Pelicans. Was it a shocker they went one in thirteen? No? Was it a shocker that Zion set out in the full season? No, not to me. But after one in thirteen, they made the playoffs and they gave the Suns the business. They gave him hell and I did also not see this.
HEJ McCollum would be the centerpiece of that team. CJ and Brandon Ingram, so many Portland connections upon these surprises. But oh my god, another thing, Atlanta becoming a dumpster fire. I thought they build on their Eastern Conference finals run. I thought, listen, they got a lot of long guys that can defend and shoot threes. Trey Young is out there, you know, he's like a little baby Steph Curry out there.
Let me just say this really fast because it just came to my mind, so why not blurt it out. Trey Young's not even close to Steph Curry like this, not even at all the same thing. You can't get the ball out of Trey Young's hand, like you can't.
He's not passing the ball.
Steph Curry will pass the ball in one possession like ten fifteen times. He's really good passer and he's a willing passer. Trey Young.
No one's ever said he's a willing passer, No one that I just.
Thought of that. Demartin Rosen two weeks to Martin Rosen was like maybe the best player on planet Earth. He was a forty. He's hitting game winners from three. It was just amazing moment after amazing moment when everybody slandered him and said he was the worst free agent signing in all of the NBA, And oh my god, was that a terrible take. I'm glad I never wrote that. I'm glad I never said that. Another thing, Cavaliers, Cavaliers making the playoffs, ish Cavaliers making the play in at
least Ricky Rubio injury definitely helped or hurt them. But like no telling, they were a one seed at one point. What nobody saw that? A one seed? They were atop the East for most of the year. Another thing, this draft class was deep. I don't think anyone really realized how good some of these guys like Herb Jones would have been. A lot of people thought this drop wasn't even gonna be very good at all, and it may go down as one of the better draft classes in
a decade. Things that we saw coming. Like I said, Sixers being a disappointment, no brainer, not a roster bill for a title run. But we knew that last year they had hardened at the deadline. Like we said, it lasted, all the fanfare lasted about a week. Ben Simmons not playing a single game of basketball, we saw that no way. Like his talk last summer about never playing for the Sixers again, What are we talking about If he says that I'm never playing for this team again, he doesn't
ever get to another team until the trade deadline. Do you think he's just gonna snap back into action. No, all of those grueling practices he had with Kyle Korver, you didn't think those were gonna get him ready for an NBA season. Like all those corner threes he was hitting uncontested, taking videos of probably the only makes. He only took fun videos of the makes. So yeah, like you gotta listen to these people when They're like, listen, I'm willing to I'm willing to risk whatever. I don't
need to get paid. Come find me, garnish my game. I'll see you for mental health in fractions like it is what it is. The only question really now is if he'll play a game next year and where, because, like we said, if the Nets are a dumpster fire, do we think they're keeping Ben Ben see a therapist? Simmons like no, I don't think so. Maybe he'll end up in Sacramento, like where he belongs. That would be
a great place for Ben Simmons. If you could trade Ben Simmons for the number four overall pick, would you do it? Would you do it like Ben Simmons for the number four pick and maybe Rashaun Holmes and Harrison Barnes. Would you do it? That's a good trade for both sides. The Knicks returning to Earth, we had to have seen coming. I know, Brock, you're a Knicks fan. You knew, you knew while it was Nicks Mania, was it real? We knew I was slandering the Knicks two seasons ago, like
you guys are fake fake. People were so mad then when they had the four seed, I had to eat crow and it was like, no, it was that was the case. You weren't real. You are shopping, Julius Randall, you are shopping, Mitchell Robinson, you are shopping. Tom Tibodeau, you are shopping Obie Tompin. Like all of these things. They were an awesome story. Tims had him whipped into shape. They were running like they were the National Guard and getting ready for battle. Trey cut their throats and it
was like the Red Wedding all over again. No one has ever been seen or heard from again. Then they decided to sign Kemba and Fourgnier like that was a good idea. That was like an arranged marriage and it made no damn sense. Now Rose was out for most of the year. No point guard. Pretty inevitable that the Knicks and Tom Tibdau wouldn't want to play any of the young guys to get him some juice. Now Tims is probably on the shore leash. We don't know how
this ends. They're gonna say he's not gonna be fired, and we know most likely he's gonna be fired. Kenny Atkinson, backing out of the Hornets shop, did not see that coming. I don't know why. I don't know why. I still need to know why. I know it's Michael Jordan related. I'm pretty sure there's some whispers that Steve Kerr is gonna retire, that Kenny Atkinson's gonna take over the Warriors. I don't see that happening. This is a team I
know they don't have ego, but they're established stars. So Kenny Atkinson's windsprint method, I don't think it's gonna work out for me. Dog.
That's a sidebar though.
Grizzlies. We saw the Grizzlies making a deepish run right. We saw them being probably a top three team in the West even in the offseason. Just how well they played against Utah, how they bounced Golden stayed out in the playing game. Barring bad injuries, they could have gone to the finals if it wasn't for Jaw going down with a knee injury. They came very close even without Jaw. They've got a bunch of guys with Sharon Jackson and Desmond Baine and Tias Jones. Like this team should be
good next year. They should be good for a lot of time. Utah not hard to see them being a disappointment. Was it not rock and science. When you get smoked by the Clippers, and before that's the year before smoked by the Nuggets, when you were up three to one in both of those series, and you've done nothing to add to your defensive wing presence, to your three point shooting.
What else is gonna have?
Other teams get better, you regress, teams figure you out thenevitability as you get bounced. That's it. Like you didn't even weren't even able to be a number one seed like you were last year to get your home court. So yeah, now you got Quinn Snyder quitting for what we don't even know, just to step away get some sleep.
He's got severe sleep deficit.
We already know that. You can see it in his under his eyes. And now it's like don Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, are they gonna split up? Are? The best thing is like, will they still force him to play together? Because that's gonna be a nightmare if that happens. So everybody's gonna be asking about it all season long. Hey, what's up with you and Rudy? Hey at that, Rudy,
I thought you wanted a trade out of Utah. Hey, Donovan did you know that you were going to Did you know that we counted how many New York Sports games you went to this summer. It's up to thirty seven. It's not thirty seven. Do you know that Donovan Mitchell's dad works for the Mets. That's an interesting, interesting little nugget to file away. Another one that we saw coming is Zion Zion being so injury prone he couldn't even play a game, not one, not one NBA game. I
told the world. It's one of the very first things I shared with you, Brock in Octoberion is it's a rap for Zion. Sorry Richard Jefferson, but like he hasn't played eighty two full games.
He did not play overweight. We knew that was the case.
We knew the whole emotional eating through injury was the case. And like that has become a stain on his reputation. But not only that it people killed me for it and turned out to be one hundred percent true. Turned out to be one hundred percent true. People killed me. And all of this brings up the question, are the Pels actually better off trading Zion than playing him? Could be an interesting thing with him on the roster, but.
It also could be a disaster.
I remember brandon Ingram and his happiness level when Zion was on the court, and it was lower than it is right now. I remember brandon Ingram's efficacy on the court when Zion was there, and it was lower than it is right now. I'm not so sure that Zion and brandon Ingram.
Work well together.
I'm not so sure that Zion contributes to a good defensive team. Doesn't like to run back on defense because you know, he doesn't like to run. Russell Westbrook not working that. Speaking of guys who don't like to run when they don't have the ball, like this guy, this guy. We've known this for years now, but for some reason, they always try it. There's always one trade where they
try to finesse you. They try to make you feel they try to Martha Mitchell, you like they beat you up in the hotel room, they lock you back, and when you come out, they're like, yeah, that didn't happen. We always knew Russell Westbrook wouldn't work.
Wait hold on here, No, I.
Said he would, And you're like, yeah, no, we said that too, Yeah, yeah, no. It was a total experiment.
We also knew, So why'd you do the trade?
Why'd you get well, things were working with KPJ and Kyle Kuzma Casey p excuse me, No, they were working. What are you saying? So we knew a d Russ and Lebron weren't gonna be able to coexist. The truth of the matter is, why are they still trying to make it exist now? It's like it's like a mean girls. Stop trying to make fetch happen. It's not going to happen. Russell Westbrook will never move without the ball. Never. Lebron James needs the ball in his hands surrounded by shooters.
That's it. Those two things don't go together. Russell.
Oh yeah.
Thirdly, Russell Westbrook can't shoot threes. He's a horrible jump shot. He has a horrible, horrible jump shot. There's and lamps. Now, the montages that we've seen of Russell Westbrook hitting the ball on the side, it's a skill hitting the ball on the side of the backboard.
It's almost impossible.
It's like when you miss, like when you hit a golf shot and it goes through all of the branches of the tree and it through the air unscathed. It's like that, but the opposite, like there's air everywhere except for this little tiny sliver of the side of a backboard, and somehow he's hit it hundreds of times. I don't understand it. Frank Vogel fired. Now we have Darvin Ham. We'll see how this goes. Some of the favorite moments one my favorite number one moment. This is gonna be
chronological mostly. Do you guys remember when Ben Simmons reported back to the Sixers and he actually went to practice and they filmed it, and they filmed him looking at his cell phone while the practice was going on, stoic face in all Sixers gear and you're like, oh, and then Doc Rivers kicked him out of practice and he's never been seen or heard from him again. Yeah, that happened. That was an early one. That was an early great moment that was meant for comedy. Kyrie Irving. How about
another one, Kyrie Irving. You guys remember this one, Kyrie Irving showing up to Barclay Center as a spectator to a Nets game on the team that he plays for. Just the show. He could be inside of a building, unvaccinated and unmasked, and he showed up late just so
everyone would see him. That happened. That that happened. Remember when Steph was was breaking or on his way to breaking the three point record, but because he was about to break the record, it created a shooting slump the word shooting slump of Steph's career.
That was amazing. That was amazing Harden.
Do you guys remember when Harden was lying to the nets and he told the nets that he wanted to be there, And then Steve Nash told us that James Harden promised him that he wanted to be there and that he wasn't going to be traded. Meanwhile, James Harden was missing games, not traveling with the team, and when he was traveling with the team, was partying in the hotel all night long while he was still fat.
That was that happened.
He do you know that he has someone that travel like that takes his hookah around everywhere with him.
That's crazy. Do you know how many parts.
A hookah is? It's like thousands of parts. You have to set up a hookah on a like a back to back. How much like hookahs are trash, It's just flavored cigarette smoke. And he has his own hookah and he travels with it. I need if I ever meet him, I have to know what's up with that, like I
need to know. So that happened. That was funny. Remember Remember another one after they traded Harden that was like two days later, was when the All Star Draft was and it was Lebron James and Kevin Durant, and Kevin Durant was sitting up there explaining why he wasn't drafting Harden and why he was gonna take Rudy Gobert over Harden, and his stoic face about needing a rim protector because Lebron James was playing five now and then and then
Lebron with the clipboard put the clipboard over his face and then Lebron was like, I don't even know if I can draft James, like is Dre James healthy? And then Kenny was like, obviously he's now on the sixers, he's healthy now. That happened. That happened. Man, do you remember when the Lakers became the the league wide punching bag for every other young and up and coming team and team in the league, like Sacramento clowning clowning the
Lakers on the court, Karl Anthony Towns. Do you remember when when Russell Westbrook hit the side of the backboard again, Actually I think he airballed, and Patrick Beverly and Carl Anthony Towns looked around to see if there was a bird in the arena, but it wasn't a bird. It was the airball. Yeah, that was amazing. Do you remember when Pat Beverly cried like he had won the title because they won a playing game to make the playoffs? He cried like he was Kevin Garnett, Anything's possible. Ugly
cry too, like the ugliest cry. And he stood up on the table like his name was Jalen Suggs because he took the Minnesota Timberwolves to the playoffs. That was amazing. Remember when Wiggins got captivated? This is backwards, but we're gonna get there. Remember when K pop made Andrew Wiggins an All Star because every retweet was worth like six votes and k pop is insane. So the K pop star had like millions of followers and he's like, please retweet this for Andrew Wiggins, Like I need to know
about how that went down. How is this K pop star connected to Andrew Wiggins?
But do you guys.
Also remember that since Andrew Wiggins has become an All Star because of this pop k pop star, he's actually like become good. Andrew Wiggins dunked on Luca. Dunked on Luca in the middle of a playoff game and stole his soul. I think Luca tried to get out of the way. And he went from being asked in the play in game last year to becoming an All Star to becoming the second best player on a championship team.
Those are not words I ever thought I would say Andrew Wiggins is the second best play on a championship team. Remember when Draymond started a podcast and then all of a sudden he couldn't play basketball anymore, and everyone, including his own mom, couldn't figure out what was going on with them, And his mom said, I don't know, I'm I don't ask me. This is not anything I'm used to seeing. I'm not sure if this is a clone of my son. Please stop asking me what's wrong with Draymond.
I've never seen this version of him either. Yep, that happened.
The NBA is the best.
Remember, Clay Thompson just recently decided to come after Jaron Jackson for a tweet that's three and a half months old, just because he wrote strengthen numbers, and Clay just decided he was gonna to go off and call Jaron Jackson Junior a clown and a bum. And then that turned into a full Twitter war between John Morant and Draymond Green, where like, I think Jaw's going to fight Draymond on Christmas Day. Now, I'm not sure they're promising to see
each other on Christmas Day. I don't think it's to open up presents. What a way to end the season. What a way Today he was running Clay running in front of the bus, carrying the Ilary O'Brien trophy in one hand and high fiving with the other. And then also one final thing, Steve Kerr said in his speech at the championship parade today, when we started trending camp, I thought we could be pretty good, but I didn't
know we could win the whole thing. Steve Kerr is the only one I like right now because all the other ones, all the other ones are like what like Draymond Greens?
Like what you want me to say? We're better than everybody else.
We already knew that it's like, yo, hold on, you missed the playoffs two straight years, dog, bless your heart. All I know is this, we had some moments. I'm gonna be chronicling them all throughout next year so that we have a better idea of where we've gone and where we will go. But this has been one hell of an NBA season, one hell of a ride. Thank you to my producer, Brock aka the Goat aka the King of Sound. And that's all the time that we have. That's all the time that we have the heat Check.
We will be back Wednesday. We're gonna be doing a live draft episode on Wednesday previewing the draft that is coming this Thursday, and then we will also be doing an episode Friday post draft recapping that. So make sure you follow us along as the journey, follow us at Summer League, and we will see you soon. Not forget this download subscribe, Please tell your friends, follow us on social ads, heat Check and at Tristan craiks TikTok