On this episode of The Heat Check. Media day has come and gone, and let me tell you, a whole lot of shit is poppin'. We'll get into the highlights from Atlanta to Aya Warriors. We'll hear from everyone from Jimmy Butler, this step Curge, Nick Nurse, and of course Michael don't call me Mike Malone. We'll have a special guest interview as well with Fox Sports reporter your own Whitesman to spill the tea and get into the reporting that he just did on Darryl Morian James Harden's relationship
and why it was always doomed to fail. Really good ship from your own. He was awesome. Can't wait to get into it. William so drop that Jamericas beat as should be.
Rihonno was breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines.
Lord chilled in so the Heat Check.
The Heat Check was just crazy. It's the best podcast covering all the drama around the association.
All right. So media has come and gone, and now we're into the first days of camp. In other words, a new season Folks is upon us. Where did the summer go? Where did it go? I wish we had time to dig into every team. I really do, But unfortunately that would pretty much take the entire week. I would be recording from sun up to sundown. There was so much to go over, a lot of meat on
that bone. So they say, so, we're gonna highlight the teams that caught my interest on media Day based on either current storylines or just ridiculous things that they said, and we will drop some sound and of course react so many wild statements so little time. We will begin with the Atlanta Hawks, because well they are alphabetically first, and let's be honest, they're a fucking mess. So much has happened in the East with the big teams. I
kind of forgot the Atlantaics existed. I mean, didn't you that they made any moves that give you any confidence that they're going to be able to compete on any real level besides being the thirteenth team in the Eastern Conference. No, there's not. Of course, though Trey Young continues to be wildly confident in himself, wildly overstating his place in the NBA. The first clip is none other than from Trey Young.
He was asked, Hey, Trey Young, what are your thoughts about playing for the Feeble World Cup team or getting actually left off, And this is what he had to say. If you don't, if you don't think out disrespect to I mean, is he is not he's not telling the truth.
But I mean it's okay for me.
I just want to go out there and keep keep the main thing.
The main thing is winning, and I know when I win.
A championship, all that's gonna take care of itself. So I don't really care about anything else.
I just focus on.
My team and I'm ready to win.
So pause, I know when I win a championship, that's gonna be all worth it ways. I know when I went championship what it's gonna take care of itself. Do we think actually Trey Young is the most disrespected player in the entire NBA. I mean, I know a lot of people don't like him, but I know that I know that one player in particular didn't like him, who was John Collins. Hadn't have been just an absolute putting nails into your eyeballs kind of play style he has.
Salty Trey Young is straight salty about being overlooked. H Will he get a look for the twenty twenty four Olympics. The truth is no. Oh, undersized point guards can't play in international games. Magic eight ball says, better look next time, Trey. Second SoundBite comes from a guy with so much damn talent of the Atlanta Hawks that has largely gone unrealized, and his name is DeAndre Hunter, one of the most I would say, versatile players that random NBA teams could
trade for. When asked what he worked on this summer, here is what DeAndre Hunter had to say.
I didn't work on anything. It's ana.
Oh, okay, Jesus Christ. You just didn't pick up a ball. You didn't seek to improve. I spent a summer rehabbing an entire house, and I don't feel like I worked on anything either. Did I get abs? I did not. Did I improve my VO two Max No? I did not. Did I get on a nutritional regimen? I did not. What did we learn from the Hawks media day? It's still a mess. Yeah, it is still a mess. Click Capella was busy watching soccer workouts. Patty Mills very excited
to introduce his Golden Doodle to Piedmont Park. Quinn Snyder, head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, stated the obvious, Hey, Trey Young can't be a turnstock wow quote. Defense has to be a decision. At that point is when you can start to get better. I don't know if this team will make a decision to play defense, especially as long as Trey Young runs this ship. Let's move on to the Boston Celtics, shall we. They have had a ton of interest in media Day. By the way, Lauren Holiday,
is that her name. Drew Holiday's wife blew the Milwaukee Bucks up on social media. We will talk about that, I am sure at some point soon in the future, but it might have to do with Drew fucking Holiday, who published the sweetest Goodbye You'll ever see to Bucks fans, followed by his wife's very very very very very salty
Instagram post about the trade. Since Drew couldn't be there for Media Day, most of the Boston Celtics spent their time either saying goodbye it is so hoigh to say goodbye to our heart and soul, Marcus Grant, Williams, Rob Williams, Malcolm Brogden, and Welcoming Holiday. They lost eight ton of pieces, didn't they? Mostly Welcoming Holiday. Let's be honest, they're like
fuck everybody else. We got the best pointed in fact and pointed a tech defender in the week and we don't have to give the ball to Jalen Brown and crunch time, By the way, did you see Jalen Brown trying to drouble with his left hand to day? Should not have posted that Boston should not have posted it. Brad Stevens summed up everyone's thoughts best when he said.
This, I mean, you know, there's a there's a list of guys in the league that you always think you'll never have a real chance to get, that you think are like perfect fits and that you'd love to be a Celtic. And Drew was, you know, one of those guys. And the reasons are, I mean, everybody can see what he does on the court, and he's a really good player, multiple time All Star, the defense has been well documented,
et cetera. But I think it's the you know, just the he's an elite teammate, elite competitive character, you know all of those things. So you know, like you said, it's not one that you predict will necessarily have a chance to get. You knew the price was going to be, you know, really high, and but he's a guy that we think is a great fit for us, and you know, does so many good things on and off the court for us.
God Brad Steves, I'm glad he's not a coach anymore. He is so fucking boring anyway. Blah blah blah. We love Drew, we love Drew, We love Drew. Can't go wrong bringing in Drew Holliday. He's that type of player, he really is. He's this type of player that everybody wants on their team, not just because of what he brings on the court, but because of what he brings off the court as well. Jason Tatum agreed, we brought in good guys. Good guys, were great people, great teammates.
I think they've done a really good job of that. I'm excited about the team we have. Another interesting SoundBite came from Christaps Porzingis. I guess we don't have the bite of that. I couldn't find that. But he was asked about how comfortable he was that he's been moved from the four to the five now that Toime Lord has been traded, and he said, oh, I didn't know I was going to be doing that, but I do think it's a tough job for other fives to guard me.
The funniest moment was when Jalen Brown discussed going to the Colorado football game with Derek White. They hit the tailgate early and according to Jalen Brown, d White was drunk at ten am. Campus legend, Buffalo legend. Safe to say, though, that we got all kinds of stuff going on with the Boston Celtics, where the vibes are as high as they've been in forever despite losing four of their top
seven players. I wonder, though, does Peyton Pitcher still want to be traded because because I feel like he's losing even more spots down the rotation. We moved down to the Brooklyn Nets. Very quiet offseason hillacious past few years, the James Harden trade, the Kevin Durant trade, the Guyrie Irving trade, lots of trades, Jared Allen trade, the Steve Nash experiment. Things have been bleak, but they are looking
on the up and up. We begin with Nick Claxton, who had some fascinating thoughts many many months later after not winning Defensive Player of the Year.
So I went from being top three in the Defensive Player of the Year voting to at the end of the season nothing at all. When Katie and Curry when they left. It's like my name just fell off the map.
It makes my blood boy sad again.
It makes my boy I was robbed of the defensive team. My numbers, my numbers were amazing. I passed every ad sense.
He said, it's like my name fell off the map. No, sir, it wasn't just your name, Nick, it was the entire Brooklyn Nets name as a whole. He does have a point. Lalla, eyeballs turned off when it wasn't Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving in Nets uniforms. After the trade deadline, of course, Nick Claxton, one of my favorite players in the league, continued to ball out. But more interesting to me was the standard
yearly Ben Simmons's back. It's scary hours ready to play his natural position, which is what it was a little up and.
Down option from the dark. I mean, it's hard for a coach to really trust him believe in you when he's not seeing it right and I'm not if he's been doing you can't see it, and you know the coach, I'll do this anything. Well, I'm not going to play you, you know, not even to compete and do the things you know, I know you can do right, So I think just this time, I've taken the time to get healthy. Obviously he's come. He came down the mind of many few times and saw me. I think that's what was
that was, That's what it was. You know, he's able to see me get healthy, put the work into the time and and focus on myself and and shown that I want to, you know, play this level and be be the point guard and do these things.
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, he said to I want to be the point guard. I thought that experiment ended. Oh my god, no, Ben, please, It's worked so well before in Philly, didn't it. Jacques Vaughn had some skeptical quotes about Ben Simmons, especially as a point guard, a few weeks ago, so I am dubious of this. In some other Nets news, Cam Johnson is hurt says he expects to play sometime this year, which is that is
a big yikes. Michel Bridges thinks Ben is going to have a huge year. Because Michel Bridges is your resident optimist on the team, and Cam Thomas still has no idea how the Nets are going to use him, but he is ready to chuck whenever he gets the ball. So not much has changed in the Cam Thomas universe since the last time we saw him putting up forty
shots in a game. Brooklyn's not going to be good, but they they've got some spunk about him, you know, Like I kind of like their confidence, even though they're going nowhere. Might take a few years for them to get where they want to go. Nothing from Dorian Finney Smith, that's weird. Maybe it's like he's on the trade block. No one had as much to unveil during media day, though, though, as the Milwaukee Bucks can barely even say their name, I'm so mad that they have my guy, Dame Lillard.
After all, they of course pulled off the biggest trade of the season. More off, moreover, they did it in silence, like Lasagna real geez movings on. Everyone wants to know though, how Yiannis is dealing with the trade, and of course that was the first thing that Jannis talked about on media day.
Having a guy like Dame on the team, it's it's unbelievable. Knows how to play the game, plays the game in the high level We've built from the same cloth wants to win. It's extremely hungry, you know. But you know, I've been here for ten years and we've been doing things quietly. You know, we kind of be moving under the day that now. You know, with this kind of move, it brings a lot of you know, attention to the team,
and there's a lot of hype around the team. And obviously I believe and I think people believe that we are one of the best teams in the East. But at the end of the day, it's not about what we believe or what people believe. It's about what we what we do, you know, and we'll see.
If they don't do what Johannest thinks that they should do, maybe he won't sign that extension after all. Safe to Sayiannis very happy to have a sharpshooter on the floor for the first time since the twenty twenty one version of Chris Middleton, who, by the way, may or may not be healthy right now. Adrian Griffin. Adrian Griffin, you gotta see what he had to say, which he absolutely is gaslighting folks about where Chris Middleton is, what the game plan is to get him back, because he's not
practicing right now. All he knows is that Chris Middleton isn't on track to play at some point whenever that's supposed to be. Does he know wheen that's supposed to be. No, he doesn't love that guy. We do get to hear from Dame himself. What did he have to say about the new move?
I am who I'm gonna be. You know, it's just a matter of how well I can take care of myself. You know how sharp I can be, and you know, just whatever that situation was, just being able to get my feet on the ground and then start, you know, locking into it and understand what our purpose is, what's expected of me, what kind of basketball we play, what kind of personnel are we gonna have? And I think
coming into this situation is very very easy. You know, you look at somebody like Giannis, you look at Chris, you look at Brooke, you look you know, when I looked at the roster, it's very easy for me to make sense of you know what my job is gonna be.
Yeah, it's a perfect fit, Dame. We all know it's hand in glove. I don't even know why you need to rub it in about how easy it's going to be. For you and Janni is to succeed, but maybe you should be a little quieter about it, you know what I mean. Kind Of lost in the hullabaloo though over Dame was the fact that the Bucks made in another impactful signing, which was campaign. He averaged ten four and
three for the Suns. He was a player who when Chris Paul got hurt in the finals, was putting up buckets. Shoots thirty eight percent from three. You get them on a one year deal for three million dollars. That's a steal. The funniest thing that everybody was talking about for the Bucks actually took place in Miami, where Jimmy Butler was sulking, and he looks at Media Day as his Halloween declares that he has no ill will towards Dame or Yannis, but he hates Adrian Griffin and wants to stomp him
out in the playoffs. Everyone knows I don't like Adrian Griffin at all since my Chicago days. What the fuck did anybody know that? Of course Jimmy Butler was trolling again. Adrian was an assistant in Chicago Jimmy Butler was with the Bulls often picked him up to drive him to practice, so they're fun. Jimmy Butler, always being the clown. Dame is settling in. It looks like things are going to work out in Milwaukee. But there are only two big questions.
Can the Bucks stay healthy, because for two years they have not been healthy. Especially what is giving me great pause is that we don't know what's happening with Chris Middleton, and it doesn't seem like anyone really wants to tell us the truth. Kind of feels like water game over here, with just the deletion of tapes, nobody knows. You got to read the transcript about what Adrian Griffin said as it relates to Chris Middleton, because it's insane. I can't
even read the whole thing. I'll just get mad. And two, whether a rookie coach can handle the Big Three, especially when he's obviously a gaslighter. We'll talk about the Bucks a lot later this year, I promise you